Pattern

A few years ago my old old grandfather who is still old told me that he takes ballroom dancing classes. Then he told me not to tell anyone. Perhaps it was out of character and he didn't want people to know. I have the same kind of feeling...

So the other day I was at a Daffy's which is the closest to a thrift shop experience I can have in NYC. Stores that are actual "thrift shops" in NYC are overpriced and most things are cute, while Daffy's has 98% crap 2% good stuff. My daffy's finds make me feel like I'm in high school all over again back at home.

Anyways, this time around I found a great Jil Sander jacket that fit me perfectly. Grey leather is usually not my thing, but the cut was enough for me to drop $40 on it. That's right. $40 for a leather jacket, kinda, blazer I guess.

The reason why I had an eye out for jacket's is b/c I was at a conference this weekend and realize that it's so hard to have a great suit that is affordable. I suddenly got motivated to take pattern making classes so that I can copy this Jil Sander Jacket. I'd make like 10 and be set for life. I think that people at school or at work would think I was crazy. They'd say, for what, what for, are you changing your life? so - in order to avoid all this... don't tell anyone ok.

Where is my Joanne's fabric

So jealous that Assorted Notions was able to snag 10 patters for $10 at her local Joanne's

even though the patterns would probably sit in my room for months on end.

And Cynthia Rowley has patterns?
And project runway?
Where have I been?

SloperMoper blog

These days I have been looking at things, I just haven't had the time to post about them.

This summer I was thinking of taking a Jewelry Design class at the YMCA, but decided against it since I have many places I need to be everyday.

I've decided instead to do more sewing on my time off. I've dreamt about becoming proficient in pattern making... taking classes... the works, but I realize I've just got to CUT and SEW. For example, slopermoper is doing it. She has a great blog (so far it's super new) because she did this grey shirt project:

She turned this:

into this:

I found her via burdastyle.

Free Dress Pattern pdf

Something like a free dress pattern.

via Whip Up, which leads you to the actual poster Heather Ross.

btw i'm working on the tag...

Update on my shirt sewing project

shirt project, (inside out)

It may take me the rest of the year to do the finishing for this shirt. Lately I don't seem to have the time to clear my table/mind and sew. Also, I'm a bit perplexed about how to finish the bottom that is cut on the bias. It will take some research and some test runs on pieces of fabric. I can't wait!

sigerson morrison and shift dress

So here are boots that I hope will go with my soon to be made shift dresses.
I got these shoes at Loehmann's the other day (ok, like a month ago).
They're sigerson Morrison.
And as I've been writing, short boots are awesome.
However, they are difficult to pull off and cannot work with every outfit.
Like these, I can't tuck them under my boot cut pants because of all the leather above the actual shoe part of the boot.

I've decided that you've got to have ankle hugging pants - like leggings.

So... I want to make some (like a million in a million different colors) that look like this (yeah, if I post the picture enough, maybe I will finally make one):

shift dress patterns

Sometimes I wish I had a uniform.

These are days when I don't want to think about clothes and I just want to get on with my day.
I wish I had 5 colors of the same kind of outfit and I just wore them interchangeably.

In a way there are set outfits that I wear all the time that become somewhat like a uniform.
long cardigan, skinny jeans & flats or boots.

These days I want to introduce another type of uniform to my wardrobe:
Shift dress, tights and short boots.

I tried looking for simple shift dress patterns on burda, but I think that it's so simple that it's not there. Therefore, I bought some shift dress patterns that I like and will change the neckline for.
These are them:


Now all I have to do is post about the next step.... making them!

I got these at SelmaLee's store on etsy. I realized she has the best bang for the buck after searching for a pattern in my size. Some people charge $10 for when similar patterns go for $7 at other stores. I'm not gonna lie, it took me a while to find a pattern in my size that I liked.

work in-progress

I have been making some progress with my sewing project. I think that a shirt in-progress sometimes looks a lot nicer than the actual shirt. You've got contrasting basting stitches, the rough edges and the possibility of perfection in something not yet complete. It'll probably be a while before I finish this project because things will start to get busy for me. Perhaps if there is a cold weekend in the near future where I can't do anything but sew. Until then, above is my work in progress.


I cut the seam allowance 1/4" because that is how the shirt was sewn. It's the first time I'm working with such a small amount of wiggle room. I usually have 1/2" or even 1". The seams are raw so I put some finishing tape to hide my open seams. I hope it won't itch later. I guess we'll see.

Sew, you know?

They say they are going to revamp burda style so that you can post your projects that are in progress. I think they want to mimic Ravelry, which is a site for knitting. The burda people didn't say it outright, but one courageous commenter did.

Knitting takes a lot longer and people finish projects after months, so I can see why posting projects in progress through ravelry was a no brainer.

On the other hand the actual sewing part of sewing projects can be done in a day.

We don't intuitively think about the planning, fabric selection, cutting when we think about sewing. There is so much to prepare for the 2 hours of actual sewing. It took some time for burda to change, but I can't wait until I can post projects that are in progress.

No really, I can't wait, so in the mean time I am going to post some in-progress projects that I project I will make soon enough. My first project is a shirt that I used to wear all the time in the summer. It started to fall apart and a co-worker who knows how to make clothes told me to take the shirt apart and iron the pieces on to a stiff fusible interfacing. voila! pattern for my favorite shirt.


It's true, I had to make a hard decision about killing the shirt I loved for the prospect of creating others just like it. It made me wonder what love really is. haha.

ANYWAYS,

<---------here is my in progress shirt.
And here is the shirt I killed. -------->
This is the best picture I could find considering I didn't have this blog when I tore it apart and didn't know I'd need a before picture and an after one.

It looks simple, but in it, I didn't feel simple and what more can you ask for from a shirt.

wait, what are we talking about now?