Friday, October 25, 2013

Sew-Along: LFJ Part I continued

"I hope that all of those who participate in the sew-along know the importance of a muslin. It's a replica of the future garment to which you'll be able to make all necessary adjustments and tweaks. Your muslin will help you modify and play around with your initial idea of the jacket you were dreaming of for so long!" Inna at Thewallinna.com

 

Muslin fitting. This has been fun.

 

First tracing the pattern on to the muslin without seam allowances......

then cutting between the pieces with an inch around each edge and stitching the lines......

then sewing together and the fitting.......

Sorry about the bad selfies

I bought a size 6 8 10 pattern even though my measurements suggested a size 14 16. Joann's was sold out. Sew lucky me, I bought the smaller size and the size 10 just about fit me perfect.

Only a few adjustments to do.

~ the shoulders were to wide.

~ add a little to the upper length. The old boobs aren't where they used to be. Lol.

Finely I traced the adjustments and cut out the new muslin pattern pieces.

I'm ready for, Sew Along Part 2-Seamless muslins, sleeves, fashions fabrics and linings.

I found this the other day, isn't it cute! Love the fur.

 

Announcement! Here I go!

My Blog, it's all about my adventures in sewing and crafting and a few other things thrown in here and there. Mainly, it's a journal so I can remember how I've done different projects, and a way to share with other bloggers. You'll have to read my profile to understand the title. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Sew-Along: Little French Jacket LFJ. Part I

You know the one...

 

This is sew exciting! I have joined a sew-along.

The Little French Jacket is a joint effort between Leisa from A Challenging Sew and Inna from The Wall Inna. Together they are giving step by step instructions on how to construct a classic couture Coco Chanel type jacket.

Schedule:

October 7: Muslin

October 14: Cut the fashion fabric and lining

October 21: Quilting

October 28: Machine baste the jacket together & pin the sleeves

November 4: "Real fitting", fixing problems before sewing the jacket together

November 11 - 18: Sewing the lining

November 25 - December 9: Sleeves

December 16: Adding trims, chain and hooks

December 23: Pockets

December 30: Skirt (optional)

Sew you can see I'm a little behind already. Overly enthusiastic, I rushed to my stash and found a nice piece of herringbone fabric. Then went to the fabric store and bought the pattern, muslin, lining and trim. All excited with new fabric in tow, I started reading instructions and EXACTLY what kind of fabric to buy. Oops, mistake #1 (of many I'm sure).

I should have bought a boucle or wool or silk tweed for the outer and a silk charmeuse or crape de chine for the lining. What I have is a cotton outer and poly/nylon brocade for the lining. However this is what I have and I'll work with it for now. I think the print fabric and the herringbone fabric from my stash go great together. Fun splash of color inside always makes me smile. The butterfly fabric might be pocket lining. And the trim, I already know will be exchanged for something completely different. Zippers, may be used. Not sure about that either. This will be good practice without spending a lot of money. On Saturday, while my hubby and son are at the OSU football game I am going into the big city to find the correct material.

Next, the muslin. I've never done a muslin fitting before sew this should be fun.

 

Friday, October 11, 2013

Serger Part Two: Threading

I'm not at my house, so I didn't have any thread cones. The only thing I had was a box of spools. I prepared the spindles for spools by taking off the cone holders and replacing them with spool caps with sponge, on the bottom of the thread and spool caps on top of the thread. Note: put the spool notch side down.

Actually using the spool thread gave me the ability to put a different color on each spindle.

Many serging machines sit unused because the owners don't know how to thread them or adjust the tension. When I unpacked my Ovation it had a sample sewing from the factory test run. Threads still in place. So pulling those threads out and starting new was scary. With my old (22 years) serger I would cut the old thread at the cone, tie a knot between the old tread and new and pull it through. So here we go.THREADING, starting on page 18 of the instruction guide was very helpful.

I followed the instructions step by step for loopers. Put the threads in the chain looper threading ports and pushed the button, it was sew easy. I can't believe it. I mean, really easy and really fast. No tweezers, no magnifying glass, just easy. All three loopers threaded.

Now for the chain/cover needles. Just as easy as the loopers.

Sew let's sew!

 

 

Awwww just like the manufactures test sample. First try!

 

 

Serger Part One: New OVATION Baby Lock serger

First post of my new blog. In searching for a new serger I decided that I would write a blog on my adventures with my new Baby Lock Ovation serger, and other sewing projects.

Last weekend I attended a Stitching Sisters embroidery event at Montavilla Sewing Center. While at the class I wondered in the showroom where they were featuring the new Baby Lock Ovation. I fell in love. I had seen the online ad and video, but in real life it was sew much better. Jason, one of their salesmen was very helpful.

The class with Eileen Roche and Marie Zinno was sew much fun. 2 eight hour classes, sewn on the new Baby Lock Ellisimo Gold II embroidery machine. Lots of wonderful information and tons of hands on projects. If you ever have a chance to take a class from these ladies, do it..

Delightful collection of projects

But I degress, lets get back my new serger. The box, so excited to open.


 
What's inside? Everything you need to get started, except thread.

Both the instruction reference guide and reference guide are very easy to read. Also included were Koala studios and Baby Lock brochures, and the reminder to register.

Look at all these goodies.
You might wonder what the white plastic piece in the upper right middle is. Well it's a sewing table for chain/cover stitching. Fits right next to the blade in front of the extra wide throat space (5 inches) Really cool.