A Few Small Projects

It's been a cool and rainy month here in Albuquerque, so I haven't had much of an opportunity to take pictures of my most recent projects. Still, "happy for the rain," as you will hear almost every New Mexican say. Warmer and sunnier weather is inevitable, so hopefully I will be modeling some garments soon.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few smaller projects that I've been making. This weekend was the biannual Fiber Arts Fiesta, at which I volunteered, bought a few things from the vendors, and also made some items to sell to benefit the Fiesta's charitable cause. Enlace Communitario was this year's beneficiary. Its mission is to work to eliminate domestic violence in the Latino immigrant communities of Central New Mexico and promote healthy families through comprehensive domestic violence intervention services, preventative community education, policy advocacy and leadership development. I made some bibs that the booth could sell for this fundraiser.

They're made from scraps left over from some other projects, not particularly childlike prints, but I figured that they might appeal for that reason. Sure enough, none were left by the time I went to the Fiesta on Saturday. I'll be making some more of these for baby gifts in the future.

You may have seen these on Facebook or Instagram already, but I also made some more rolled-edge napkins for the house. These were made of leftovers from some of the pillow case projects I made in the past. What's different about this set is that they are double layers of fabric. DH likes them better than the original ones because they have more heft. We've had time to run them through the washer and dryer and they're holding their shape pretty well!

This weekend I made another nightgown from Simplicity 9505. You've seen these before (here and here). I needed another one and it's a fast sew that I was able to make in a couple of hours. The fabric is from Santa Fe Fabrics.

Yes, it's a dress form print!

I'll have another project to show you once the intended recipient has gotten it. But that's a post for another day.

And it's raining. Again.

Fiberly Train to Santa Fe, Part One

If you read Facebook, you probably already know that I was in Santa Fe last weekend with several wonderful women (and my DH, who joined us for some of our activities). Some I already knew in real life, others I felt like I knew from the world of blogging.

The first to arrive was Sharon (or shams as she is known on her blog, Communing with Fabric). She arrived on Wednesday due to a scheduling glitch and spent the night at Casa DaQ. What a delight to finally meet her in person! I took her to the airport on Thursday so she could meet her roommate (Margy of A Fool for Fabric) and arrange for their rental car. But of course, we had to fabric shop first! We stopped by Nob Hill Fabrics and found some wonderful fabrics.

I'll leave it to Sharon to post her finds, but here are mine:

On the left, devore silk chiffon. On the right, a colorful linen print.

The historical La Fonda on the Plaza was our hotel for the weekend. I'm happy to report that the recent renovations have not spoiled its charm. The rooms are are still lovely, but upgraded. The most obvious changes were the new bathrooms, closet space, and carpet. The concierge told me that the rooms were taken back to the studs during renovations; you would never know. My room was on the 5th floor with a view of the Loretto Chapel next door:

Loretto Chapel

Once we got settled in, we headed over to Santa Fe Fabrics (twice!) for more fabric shopping. It's a smallish store but has a wonderful selection of fabric. Here I am with Liana of the Sew Intriguing blog, working out one of the store's samples:

I picked out a couple more selections while there:

On the left, a soft cotton print. On the right, fleece

Our group arrived at various times. Sharon, Margy, Liana,  Jan (no blog), and I arrived on Thursday. Patti (no blog), Ann (owner of Gorgeous Fabrics and its blog), and DH arrived on Friday. We window shopped around the Plaza and had a late lunch at the Thunderbird Grill. It's located on the second floor of its building with a great view of the Plaza and the Cathedral:

A view of the Plaza from the Thunderbird's balcony

That evening, off to the Coyote Cafe. Very fancy!

Saturday, we were mostly on our own. More shopping and dining. Back to Santa Fe Fabrics, with a detour to the Outlet Mall with Liana and Jan.  And lunch at Osteria d'Assisi for a delicious Italian repast:

From left: Liana, Sharon, Ann, Margy, me, and Jan 

In the evening, we visited the Cantina at La Casa Sena for a delicious dinner and entertainment. The staff performs Broadway show tunes in between waiting tables. What fun! We headed back to the hotel to hang out at the La Fiesta Lounge, its venerable bar. We spent the rest of the evening chatting and enjoying each other's company.

Sisters from Different Mothers: me. Liana, Patti, Ann, Sharon, Margy, and Jan

Ann, Sharon, Margy, and Jan

Me and Liana

What a special time for all of us.

And that takes us through Saturday, but I'll post more on the rest of the weekend later.

Vogue 1292 View B, a Sandra Betzina Skirt

I bought this pattern when it first came out because I was fascinated by the origami flounce of View A. I'm still fascinated with it, but this time I made View B, the "other" skirt in the envelope, which you can see in the smaller picture below.

It seemed like it would work better with the fabric I wanted to use, a textured zig zag stripe that I bought at Santa Fe Fabrics last year (along with some black ponte and a couple of zippers).

It was just too busy for cutting out all those little geometric pieces (there are 12 of them!). It really needs a simple stripe, or even a solid.

I made full pattern pieces of the front and back panels. I didn't think such narrow pieces could be cut effectively on the fold, plus I wanted to be able to line up the stripes as well as I could. The pattern for the side panels is already a full piece, so why not print front and back the same way too?

I cut out the main fabric at Material Girls, where I had a huge cutting table and lots of space to work in. I'm so glad I did! The layout took some time to plan for the best effect, and that's easier to do when you have plenty of room. When I took the pieces home, I let them rest, flat, on my cutting table. While this isn't a particularly wiggly knit, I knew that having the pieces folded up in a tote bag didn't help. I did end up "trueing up" the edges after the fabric had relaxed for a few days.

The guide sheet recommends basting the pieces together first to test the fit because the construction is atypical. No changes needed for me, but if you are making this skirt according to the pattern, don't skip this step. The lining is sewn to the skirt at the waist and the hem so it would be hard to adjust later on. 

I was initially unsure how long too make the skirt. I realized when testing the fit that the 33" finished measurement of the pattern was going to be too much for me. I left the striped pieces alone, but made the lining pieces shorter. I came up with this solution because I had I smallish remnant I wanted to use for the lining and the amount was too small if I cut the lining per the pattern pieces. In addition, the lining doesn't exactly "go" with the stripe so I wanted a deeper hem to hide that. Here's a photo to explain what I mean.

The lining is a poly knit that I think came from Emma One Sock several years ago. I believe I originally made a t-shirt out of it. The price was right (free), and it has the slippery texture I wanted. As a bonus, it's a fun print, and I like having that little surprise for myself. I cut the lining on the lengthwise grain, again due to having short yardage to work with.

I like the hem technique although it took a while for me to wrap my head around how to adjust the length. But it worked out fine, with a finished length of 26". It's below the knee, so long enough to wear with boots, but not too long.

The skirt has an elastic waistband, and Sandra provides two options. I picked the simpler one, which is similar to the technique Loes Hinse uses. I always feel like I need three hands when I do this because the elastic is being stretched while being attached, but it does result in a nice waistband.

I hope to get a picture of this on me soon, but today was not the day, since it's a dreary and windy weekend again. That's been the pattern although it's nice during the week. I think I'm going to like this skirt. The pattern will be versatile too, since it's a basic shape that could be used with many knit fabrics. 

First Day of School Project--Butterick 5776

I'm all done with the First Day of School Project and have two outfits to show for it! The first one I'm sharing with you is the girl's outfit, which was made using Butterick 5776:

The top is made from a remnant I left from a peasant top I made for me (and apparently never blogged!). It's organic cotton that I picked up at Santa Fe Fabrics on my way to a church vestry retreat last year. Really nice and a pleasure to work with. The pants are a cotton that I purchased at Stitchology  during one of the project sew-a-longs that Melisa hosted.

I didn't end up adding all the embellishments I intended but it's just as well. The top got some lace trimming around the hem, courtesy of the ASG Trading Post:

And here's a shot of the capri-length pants:

Another UFO Finished: TSW Ann's Cardigan

I'm not exactly sure how long I've had this one cut out; probably shortly after the first one I made last year. This version has a few variations from the pattern due to the nature of the fabric--a lacy mystery knit in white, green, lavender and navy that I acquired from Walmart some years ago.

I didn't have very much of it and the pattern is pretty busy, so the first thing I did was to eliminate the waist seam by overlapping the upper torso pieces and lower torso pieces at the seamline. Voila, that eliminated some matching. There is no shaping in the waist seam, so doing this didn't affect the fit of the garment at all.

Next, I realized I didn't have much in the way of fabric for the band, so I narrowed it and cut it lengthwise, and instead of folding at center back, I added a seam. And as a result of narrowing the band, I added 1" of  "fit insurance" in the side seams. If you take away from one place, you need to add it somewhere else, right?

I lucked out and found some matching T's at Kohl's this week so I'm good to go.

I already have the next project cut and ready to be sewn-the Vogue 8795 jacket by Marcy Tilton.

I'm using a sweater knit from Gorgeous Fabrics (yes! there's a glint of metallic),

and one of the separating zippers I bought recently at Santa Fe Fabrics.

*****

I've been playing with the blog's layout again. I think I like this one better than the last, although I have lost the "reply" feature on the comments. Stay tuned for more changes as I tweak. Hopefully Google will leave Blogger alone, because I don't want to migrate the blog and its contents. As to Reader, I am annoyed with Google but I guess I'll figure something out. Stupid Google--so much for "not being evil."

Santa Fe Weekend

We had another opportunity for a getaway for Presidents' Day weekend, so we went an hour north to Santa Fe to soak in some Northern New Mexico atmosphere. We had gorgeous weather, sunny but not too cold.

As we often do, we stayed at the LaFonda Hotel right on the Plaza, which meant we could park the car and walk to whatever we wanted to do. The hotel is undergoing a renovation right now, so prices were much lower than usual. Delicious food and drink were still available though!

Except for Bill Maher in concert, we didn't do much scheduling. He was hilarious, by the way. We had a lot of time to just hang out and explore. Of course, that's an opportunity for window shopping. Lots of jewelry! I liked the necklace below, with its heart motifs:

One of my sewing goals is to eventually make a Pendleton coat, so I always like to see examples:

Santa Fe has many arty clothing boutiques. I was quite taken by this ensemble, especially the scarf:

I also liked the top featured in this ensemble. Fortunately, it's pretty similar to this Vogue pattern, so I will be making one.

Sandra Betzina and Marcy Tilton favorite, Babette, has established a Santa Fe outpost. Interesting clothes, but I couldn't look much further since I walked by before the store opened on Sunday:

In the end, I did do some actual (sale) shopping. I purchased a slate blue cardigan, a skirt, and these shoes by a new-to-me brand called Fly London. Oh so comfortable, but with an edge!

On the way out of town on Monday, we also stopped by Santa Fe Fabrics where I picked up several items while DH relaxed at the bakery next door. I bought some basic black ponte for separates, a textured knit, and a couple of separating zippers.

This weekend has been at home, and I spent all day yesterday in the Sewing Cave working on a couple of items. Stay tuned for that! I'm not sure I will have them posted today but hopefully soon.