Community Service Blanket Project

Wow! It's getting to be that busy time of the year. My sewing machine misses me. I did get in a little sewing earlier this month for a very worthwhile cause. My American Sewing Guild group met to make blankets for Hotel, Inc, a local organization whose goal is to break the cycle of poverty. We made twin and full size blankets from fleece fabric. They were quick to hem either with the regular machine or a coverstitch machine.

Each year, the American Sewing Guild chooses a community service project for all the local chapters to participate in. This year, each guild was encouraged to donate the blankets locally.

With temperatures dropping, I hope our blankets help to keep someone warm this winter!

And the winner of the SA Curve ruler is......

I had a very scientific drawing by putting all the comments in a basket and asking my daughter to draw one out. Congratulations to Lisa Laree who made the following comment.

"Wow, I might actually start sewing from my 5 years accumulation of Burda Style. I've thought how useful such a thing would be; so glad someone had the resources to do it!"

Send me your address, Lisa Laree, and I'll get your SA Curve ruler in the mail to you so that you can have fun with all those Burda patterns!

 Thanks to Claire for designing this great ruler and making the giveaway possible!

Last Minute Halloween Costume

It's been a few years since I had a request for a Halloween costume. I got a very last minute request this year from my 21 year old for a Captain America costume, female version. She loves Marvel movies and especially Captain America. The Halloween Express tent that comes into town every year had a few poorly constructed, and very revealing costumes for $39.99 and up. We decided to challenge ourselves to come up with something more tasteful.

We found a royal blue dress at Forever 21 for $9.99, a shield in the toy department at WalMart for $9.99, and a mask for $2 at Target. I bought red sparkly lame type fabric at Hancock Fabrics from their costume selection for the belt and gauntlets. I used a heavy decor bond interfacing for both, lined them and fastened with Velcro. To add the stripes to the belt, I used a wide ribbon from my stash.

A little tip for sewing with the lame which ravels faster than you can sew it! I sprayed the heavy interfacing with my machine embroidery adhesive spray and then laid the red pieces on top. This lightly fused them together. I serged around the edges just to make sure there were no ravels when I stitched and turned the pieces.

 
My daughter really wanted a white star on the front bodice. I stitched out a star with my embroidery machine on the heavy decor bond interfacing, carefully trimmed around the edges, and hand sewed it to the front.  

With the black boots that she already had, it all came together and she had a great time at the party!

SA Curve Ruler Giveaway!

I've always wanted to host a giveaway and, thanks to Claire at SA Curve, it's happening this week! Claire designs these great rulers for adding seam allowances to patterns. They are perfect for tracing from multisized patterns and adding the seam allowance at the same time. Claire was kind enough to share a couple of her 5/8" rulers with me - one to keep and one to give away. Tracing from multisized, overlapping patterns is not my favorite part of sewing but this ruler should make the process so much easier! The ruler is also available in 3/8". Check out the video links on Claire's blog to learn more about how to use this seam allowance curved ruler.

The ruler is great for pattern drafting, tracing European patterns, making adjustments, adding seam allowances after altering patterns, pattern grading, etc. This is going to be one of those sewing notions that I wonder how I ever lived without! I've already traced a pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross that I had been putting off because I thought it would take forever. It didn't with this ruler!

Leave a comment below and tell me how you would use this ruler to speed up your sewing!  I will draw a name randomly at midnight CST on Sunday, October 28. This giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only.

Sorbetto Top #5

Guess what I made! I just can't help myself. Every time I run across a "blousy" type fabric, I think, "Oh, that would make a nice Sorbetto". I'll be able to wear this woven poly top through the fall and winter with a sweater over it. I found the fabric at Hancock Fabrics and got a great deal on the end of the bolt. Hancock's has a policy that if you buy the remainder of the bolt (less than a yard, I think) you get it at 1/2 price. I ended up with a generous 1 5/8 yards for $6.50, enough to make a Sorbetto for myself and my daughter if I cut carefully.

My first three Sorbettos were cotton and linen fabrics with darts added to the back and button fronts. For the polyester type fabrics, I really like the front tuck. The top is actually pretty easy to slip over the head even without a front opening or back slit.

Sorbetto #1 - Poly/cotton remnant from an underwear company
Sorbetto #2 - Linen with Venetian hemstitch
Sorbetto #3 - Double cloth reversible fabric from Wal-Mart
Sorbetto #4 - Poly woven fabric
Sorbetto #5 - Poly woven fabric

I never put this favorite pattern away.  It's pinned to the bulletin board behind my sewing machine waiting for Sorbetto #6!

Sew4Home Roll-up Case

If you haven't visited Sew4Home.com, you should check out all the great projects featured there. All projects include very clear, well-written tutorials. At my monthly American Sewing Guild meeting, we made the roll-up makeup brush case.

I forgot to bring along the clear vinyl which would make the inside of the case easy to wipe off so I adjusted the size of the pockets, making them about 1 inch. I filled my case with colored pencils, turning it into a storage case for art supplies. It's great to keep kids organized and also great for long trips.

I decided that I needed a little sketch pad to complete the art set. I made the cover for the sketch pad using the same construction method as the roll-up case, customizing the size to fit the sketch pad. This would make a great gift set for a little artist.

Here are a couple of the other fun projects that my ASG group has made this year from Sew4Home.

Fleece Neck Pillow

Fabric Basket

And this cute towel is on the schedule for December - a great last minute gift idea!

Kitchen towel with rick-rack

Don't forget that September is National Sewing Month! What have you sewn this month?

New Look 6901

I've had this New Look 6901 pattern for a while now and decided to try it out with a yard of rayon/lycra knit that I purchased at Joann Fabrics. I thought the pattern might be a little too fitted for my taste so I made the mistake of cutting a size larger. I almost threw it in the garbage after the first try-on. It was too low cut and too large in the neckline. I decided I would go ahead and sew it up and give it away. After fiddling with it a bit and cutting down to the size I should have used in the first place, it actually turned out okay. It's a very quick top to sew up. I made most of it with the serger and coverstitch machines.

It goes great with my $11 knit skirt that I bought off the WalMart clearance rack. I will definitely use this pattern again if I can remember what I did to make it fit!