Next projects

Well, my SWAP is over, and I'm surprised that my sewing motivation is still going strong.  I was afraid that all that planned sewing would burn me out, but not yet!  

Next in my plan are a few pretty quick (I hope) projects...

I cut out matching shorts (for my toddler) and bubble (for the baby still cooking) to make the kids good and dorky.  :-)  I think I'll start sewing up the shorts tonight.  They are a Burda magazine pattern.  The smallest size is still a bit big for him, so I'll have to alter as I go.  I hope the proportions aren't way off.  The back pockets are as big as his little butt cheeks!  I'm leaving off the side cargo pockets.  The pattern I'm using for the baby is also Burda (though not the magazine).  The fabric I'm using is cute navy/white seersucker striped with little red embroidered crabs.  I have a simple white polo for the big boy, and the romper will have white sleeves and collar.  

The other project I got started on today is drafting a knockoff of this sweater.  The fabric is a fairly thick pinky peach rayon jersey I picked up at a local fabric store when I got buttons for my pink jacket.  The fabric almost feels like a fine-gauge sweater knit.  I had it in mind for this dress, but I really want that sweater!  The only thing I'll have to change are to hem the bottom and sleeves instead of having ribbing.  I think I'll also add a hook and eye closure.  I was going to modify a tee shirt pattern I like, but I decided to try to draft it myself for the Pattern Review contest just for funsies!  I have plenty of fabric to screw it up once.  

SWAP photos

If you want to see all the SWAP contest entries, they are all posted here.  Check it out.  They are all really different and inspiring to me.  

I finished my SWAP!

Woohoo! I finished my SWAP.  Am I in love with every single piece?  No.  But I finished!  I'm proud of me!!  

I find it amusing that of all the contests I've planned to enter, this one, requiring 11 pieces, is the first one I completely followed through with, finished the requirements, and entered.  I guess I figured once I got through a few pieces that I really owed it to myself to finish.  

The one piece I really don't think I'll wear much is the jacket.  It fits ok, but it just doesn't seem flattering to me, and, quite frankly, it's not very well constructed.  I think I overestimated my skills to put it together without using the directions (in German, and still indeciferable with the help of online translations).

Here are the photos I submitted.  You may remember the first one is from February (wow, my hair grew!), when I first completed the skirt and top.  Um, yeah, I can't button that top anymore.  Everything else, I can wear reasonably well, although the white pants won't button, the skirts won't zip the whole way, and some tops are a bit snug.  All the other pictures were taken this week, though.

Next up, I really need to get to making coordinating shorts for my little man and a bubble for the baby.  He's supposed to pop out in 3-4 weeks (my due date seems to change with every doctor visit), and I'm having contractions like mad already, although they're not really painful, thank goodness!

New spring jacket

Here is McCall's 5525. It still needs a good pressing.

I am still a bit jet-lagged from a 2-week trip to the States, and I was laying awake last night and decided to put the buttons and buttonholes on this jacket and finish it up. Probably not the best idea at 1:30 am, but I don't think I screwed anything up!

Here it is on me, with my photography assistant. Naptime is usually my photography time, but today, I needed to partake in naptime as well. Please excuse the 8-month pregnant belly. I can't tie the tie at the moment. Hopefully in a month or so, I will be able to!


I love this new jacket and am actually a bit happy for our chilly weather so I can wear it this week (without the belt, of course!).

The fabric is a kind of roughly-woven cotton from Sawyer Brook.

What I've been working on

Here are two little sneak peeks.  

I made this purple top from soy jersey from Emma One Sock.  I got this fabric to go with another fabric for a summer skirt.  I'm not going to make the skirt until after baby comes, though.  :-)  I ended up making the top now so I can enter it in the Pattern Review knits contest this month.  I'm going to wait to do the review until I can have one of my non-pregnant sisters model it next week, though.  The pattern is McCalls 5752 from the waist up, and my own concoction from there down.  I also wanted a wide, obi-style belt, so I made that from Butterick 4976.  Although the fabric is nice and stretchy, it doesn't really work with my current body.  It's a real wrap (not a faux which is attached from the waist down), and there's not a whole lot of overlap, as you can see.  I probably won't really wear this for a few months.

My most recent project is this spring jacket.  The pattern is Butterick 5525 view A.  I really like the cute collar on this.  This photo is the shell, before shoulder pads or lining.  I've since put in both, and it just needs bottom and sleeve hems as well as buttons and buttonholes.  I also have to make the belt.  

I'm really torn here... I could finish this to wear to church on Easter.  Or, I could wait to make the buttonholes until I visit my mom (and her super sewing machine) next week.  Not sure...

By the way, my little machine really got a workout putting on these belt carriers.  I decided to underline the soft cotton fashion fabric with some more stable cotton, so that was a lot of layers of fabric.

Linen tunic

Here's my last top for the SWAP I joined a while ago.  Just have to fix a pair of pants and finish the jacket by the end of April.  I can't believe I'm actually going to finish!

The pattern is New Look 6849.  It's just your basic tunic top.  The only really interesting thing is I added gathering on the neckline and sleeve facings.  I did this by redrafting the facing pattern pieces, multiplying the lengths by 1.5 and keeping the width the same.  This got a little tricky on the curves, but it worked out as I envisioned it, so it's a success in my book.  :-)

Again, we have back wrinkles from the fabric having to pull around front to cover the belly!

Here's a better picture of the gathers.  I used a pretty large hand running stitch to do the gathering.  I wanted a big, uneven kind of gather.

Here's a look at the inside of the neckline.  I hand stitched the edges in place to avoid any stitching showing on the right side.  To finish all the seams, I zigzagged in the seam allowance and trimmed close to that stitching.

Off to do my pattern review!  I'll have another new top (not part of the SWAP) to share tomorrow or Tuesday.  

Maternity top #2

Here's my second (and final, I think!) maternity top.  The pattern is Burda 7800.  The only real change I made was to omit the placket and buttons on the sleeves.  Too much of a PITA for a maternity top I'm going to wear for two months.  I love how this turned out except for the fact that I look like a pumpkin!  Oh well, I like orange, and I think it's spring-y and a flattering color on me, and so there.