the importance of pressing

1 Feb

there are two types of sewers: those who press, and those who don’t.

i must confess, in my early days of garment sewing, i fell squarely into the latter. why would i want to press anything? i hated ironing and i didn’t see a point in spending nearly half my precious sewing time smooshing a bunch of seams that were on the inside of a garment, aka, no one was going to see them anyway.

sadly, i can’t pinpoint the exact moment that i had my “A-HA, PRESSING!” revelation, but suffice to say i have turned a complete 180 as far as my iron is concerned. i am a pressing fiend, y’all. i have developed a love affair with my iron and my finished projects have never looked better. properly pressing really is the key to having a gorgeous handmade garment – as opposed to “homeade” (and probably sewn up with quilter’s cotton, yeeech).

Photobucket
(image borrowed from vintagesewing.info :3)

Continue reading →

Tags: ,

my sewing room

24 Jan

y’all, i am a total, shameless lurker. show me a blog/website/picture album that allows me to peek into someone’s home and i will sit there for hours and investigate every nook and cranny. in that same note, i absolutely love sharing pictures of *my* home, for all the other lurkers on the internets. i spend a lot of time decorating – and redecorating, and redecorating – my house, especially my sewing room. i loving having a beautiful and clean room to keep all my sewing goodies in. it’s so inspiring!

i did a little reorganizing over the weekend and took a few pictures to share 🙂 sorry these aren’t the best – i took them at night, so i had to use the flash. y’all wouldn’t want to see out the windows in daylight, anyway. it’s so gross and wet and cold and there are straggly patches of snow hovering in the shadows. GROSS.

lots of pictures after the jump!
Continue reading →

Tags:

completed: vogue 9668 – the cranberry wool dress

19 Jan

i’m done with the cranberry wool dress! i would like to declare this dress responsible for both killing and reviving my sewing mojo. as i stated before, i am really really pleased with how this dress turned out. so pleased, in fact, that i already bought fabric to make a spring/summer verison 🙂

Photobucket

review, pictures & the fabric in question after the jump!

Continue reading →

Tags: , ,

sewing for spring 2011

18 Jan

it’s not spring yet here in nashville – quite the opposite, actually 😦 cold enough to make our gas bill $350 but i digress – but the spring fever bug has really hit me hard over the past couple weeks.

and then my favorite favorite fabric store, textile fabrics, decided to have a huge 40%-off-everything sale for the entire month of january.

and then i magically got my sewing mojo back!

yay sewing mojo!

want to see my fabric spoils & pattern choices? clicky clicky!
Continue reading →

completed: the lady grey!

17 Jan

well, it’s done and ready to wear! i actually finished this coat on thanksgiving day (really – i was sitting at the table, furiously tacking down the red lace hem while my mom was reheating the honeybaked ham :)), but wasn’t able to get any pictures until this past weekend. my pictures are terrible but they are better than not having any pictures!

a couple teasers to remind you of what we’re dealing with:
Photobucket
lady grey pattern

Photobucket
bound buttonhole & sparkly button
this is the true color of the coat – my other pictures are a bit off.

more after the cut!
Continue reading →

Tags: , ,

patterns: spring 2011

13 Jan

i’ve lost my sewing mojo. i can’t bring myself to bother – partially because i prefer to sew in my underwear (makes fitting easier), and my sewing room is freeeeezing. and our gas bill was over $300 this month! double bummer!

anyway, i’m already dreaming of my spring wardrobe – nice, because i’ve barely made a dent in my winter wardrobe EL OH EFFING EL – so wasn’t it nice of vouge & simplicity & mccalls (but not butterick, shame on you!) to release their spring 2011 lines?

at least they don’t suck as bad at the winter patterns did. i mean, honestly now.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , ,

boot fur cuffs & pom poms!

30 Dec

happy holidays (whichever you prefer, i’m not picky!) to everyone! i’ve been MIA for the past week or so, and about to disappear again for another week due to this:
Photobucket
my poor bb sewing machine + serger awaiting the sewing machine doctor!

nothing is wrong with them… they just need their yearly check-up (same as you’d do for your pet, or your car, or uhh yourself). turnaround time is about a week, so i took the opportunity to drop them off today since i will be spending my new year’s weekend in new orleans 🙂
but i miss them already!

in other happy fun-times news, i did get a new camera for christmas! so i can start taking pictures again, although this camera is much different than my previous one so it is taking some getting used to. my pictures are pretty sucky right now, hopefully i’ll figure it out sooner than later!

oh, and i got new sewing books!
Photobucket
kwik sew method for sewing lingerie

Photobucket
singer sewing for special occasions

my brother & sister-in-law bought me a couple sewing books for christmas – tailoring and boutique apparel. i couldn’t get a good picture of them, but here is the art of sewing flickr set. aren’t they gorgeous? there is a great cape pattern in the apparel book that i am dying to try!

i also made some little fur cuffs & pom poms for my boots over the weekend 🙂
Photobucket
Continue reading →

Tags: , , ,

drooling over vintage party dresses

23 Dec

i really don’t know why i put myself through this, but i just discovered couture allure vintage and i have spent the better part of an hour dying over the gorgeous dresses for sale/sold.

too bad for me her stuff is 1. expensive (within reason, but outside my budget!); 2. mostly too big for me (wtf @ all these 38″ busts); and 3. just complicated enough to be unobtainable for my own hands to recreate.

whatever, they are still gorg!

vintage dress pr0n under the cut.
Continue reading →

greatest christmas present ever y/y?

17 Dec

i’m going to go out on a limb here and say this is probably my favorite christmas present i’ve ever received – and i’ve received a LOT of REALLY AWESOME gifts in my day. my friend ned sent it to me because he has amazing-present-buying-skills TY NED, I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU YOUR OWN TAG NOW JSYK

i have been lurking on one of these tiny/adorable toy sewing machines for years and now i have one of my own! the tiniest little tiny sewing machine, in the prettiest shade of blue and ughhhh i want to go home and sew a doll dress or something on it idek
would you guys think i was weird if i retired my pfaff and started sewing on this? it is THAT pretty.

Photobucket
yes, those are christmas presents in the background. whoops.

more pictures under the cut!
Continue reading →

Tags: , ,

shoulder pads? why not!

10 Dec

i know what you’re thinking: “ew! shoulder pads! the one element that should stay in the 80s forever!” and i guess, for the most part, you’re probably right. there’s nothing like a giant shoulder pad to make you feel like an out-of-place linebacker. in my defense, though:
– i bought a really neat dress on a recent thrift day with lauren winter and it was clear that someone had removed the shoulder pads and that they needed to be put back in asap – the shoulders were too big and doing this horribly wrinkly/puffy thing that ruined the otherwise sleek lines of the dress. considering how many shoulder pad dresses i buy on a regular basis, you’d think i’d have a discarded shoulder pad or 8 laying around somewhere but noooo
anyway, that’s not as fun as what brings us to my second reason…

Photobucket
i have this pattern, and i wanted to try it.

hee!

Continue reading →

Tags: , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →