More Turtlenecks

I realized the other day that I wear my Cotton Baby Jersey Knit Orange turtleneck all the time. I love the looooong slouchy sleeves and the warm and cozy (but not constrictive) turtleneck. I decided to use my two other colors of this same knit and make two more. The only change this time is that I marked the CB well and I added about two inches to the length. I found that it’s not quite long enough to be tucked in.

I constructed these with my serger and from cutting to hemming (I had already traced it) it only took about 45 minutes to make both of these.  Talk about instant gratification. This is a great basic pattern and one that I really appreciate in the cold North.

Whoops. I just realized that my picture didn’t load yesterday so I’m re-posting this.

Hmmmm, fail or not?

What do guys think of this? I’m kind of liking bubble skirts right now but I’m not sure if they are for me. I love, love, love Cidell’s versions here and here. I chose to just make a skirt instead of the whole dress but I think I might try that dress next. This 08-2010-132 skirt was originally made from woven but I made a knit rib waistband that was a little bit smaller than the pattern and now it’s just a pull-on skirt. I made a long tube of fabric (the blue stuff) and folded it in half. Then I turned the inside layer so it matched up with a different seam. For example, the CF inside layer matched up with the right side and the right side seam matched up with CB. Clear as mud? Then I gathered the skirt and attached it to the waistband. I’m not sure I like it. What do you guys think? I would probably style it like this for winter use. It’s much fuller than I thought it would be. Can you tell it’s cold out?
 

I know that I will for sure not be spilling in this dress. I didn’t realize it but it’s just like a circle skirt and it really flies right up there when you spin. Yikes!

It’s that time again . . .

It was 8 degrees today at my house. Brrrrrrrrr . . . .

You guys know what that means. That means cold kids!!!

I’m not sure why Girl #2 must do these types of poses. She’s already a diva in training. I used a wind resistant Malden Mills Polartec. It’s very cozy and nice. I used my embroidery machine and the Font Engine to make the snowflakes. I used the Faux Snow font. For the flowers, I used this free design from  . . . well, hell, somewhere. I just searched my favorite haunts and have no idea where I got it. I also have the small version. My favorite free ones come from EmbroideryThis.com.
   

 

I have a skirt to show you guys. I’m not sure I like it but maybe it’s just my styling. I may need some styling help.

The Boy and Gawd

The Boy: Mom, what’s a warship??

Me (while driving three loud children up a very slick hill): Um, it’s a big ship that people use in war. It’s got guns and RADAR and stuff on it.

Boy: So it’s used to destroy, like submarines and, and, and, like planes, and stuff?

Twin Annoyances: BAM! BAM! TAKE THAT BAD GUYS!!! PPPZZZZTTTT!! BBBZZZZ!

Me (narrowly missing a car that’s stuck in the ditch): Yea, it’s used to shoot down planes and bad guys.

Twin Loud Things: Hey! Can a torpedo shoot things? MOM!! MOM!!! TORPEDO!!!!! LOOK LEFT!!!! TORPEDO!!!!! NO, SISTER!!! LEFT IS OVER THERE!!!! YOU MEAN RIGHT!!! NO, I MEAN LEFT!!!! MOM!!!! SHE’S BEING MEAN TO ME!!!!!!

Boy: Hmmmmmmmmm.

Boy: Mutter, mutter, mutter.

Me (straining to hear over Twin Megaphones): What?? What did you say?

Boy: Well, I’m confused. I thought they said that you had to warship God but I thought that you should be nice to people. If you warship God, then you are trying to destroy him and torpedo him, and smash heaven, and SHOOT THINGS, and zap THE BAD GUYS!

Me (sigggggggh): That’s WORSHIP, spelled W-O-R, not W-A-R. 

My New Pumas

For you long-time readers, you probably know about my love/hate relationship with Puma brand running shoes. I love the cushion, the spring, the width of the toe box, the heel cup, and many other aspects of the brand. One thing I have loathed about the shoes is the color scheme. My first pair was purple and glittery silver. When I went to get my second pair, I strapped on my big girl pants, inhaled a big cleansing breathe and bought the hot pink/glittery pair as their replacement. What can I say, I love the fit of the shoe and that's what really matters. I'm not what you would consider a girly girl. I own very little pink. Very. Little. In fact, I always have to come up with some lame excuse about not being able to wear pink on breast cancer awareness day ("Come on Dawn! Everyone has a pink shirt! Surely you can find one in your closet!").

Last year I wrote Puma an open letter on my blog asking/begging/pleading them to make some shoes that wouldn't make my cheeks pink from embarrassment. Did they hear me? Maybe. Or maybe they just moved away from their pink period. Anyway, I'm here to report that my new shoes are not pink. They are not girly at all. They are blue and yellow!! So. Much. Better. Thank you Puma!

My hot pink Puma's will not be my beat-up roam around shoes until they completely fall apart. They lived a long and full life and say lots of different landscapes. They were even a big hit in races on account of their vibrant color. I will actually kind of miss them when I'm running. Or maybe not much.

Jalie 3024 – Another Dress

Here’s another version of the dress. I didn’t remember to add anything to the bodice bottom or to the hem. Oops. I think it’s cute as it is but I’ll either have to do leggings or tights under this if I want to wear it to work. This is a matte jersey I bought from Fabric.com not too long ago. To tell you the truth, I’m not a big fan of the hand of this fabric. It feels very polyester-y and has very little stretch in any direction. I was expecting something more stretchy and less synthetic, I guess. I do love the print though. I used a black ribbing for the waistband. The black shirt under it is my Jalie boat neck wool jersey top. 


There doesn’t seem to be nearly as much butt wrinkling as there was in my other version. Maybe it’s just because there is so much print you can’t see any wrinkles??


Who doesn't love a pull-it-out-of-the-suitcase knit dress?

It’s that time of year again . . .

Most of you know or have figured out that I’ve moved to a new house. This house is huge, beautiful and on lovely acreage. I absolutely love the house. The only one negative is that it’s drafty and can be a bit on the cold side. I’m fine with that and I actually prefer my house temperature to be in the low 60s or high 50s when I sleep. My kids, on the other hand, would love to live in a 70 degree house. So, instead of turning up the thermostat, I’m going to make them warm flannel jammies for Christmas. I’ve started my preliminary shopping and have found some very cute stuff at Fabric.com. I already have some nice cotton knit for the shirts but I want to make them some cozy flannel pants for lounging and bed. Here are some of my top picks for my girls. Some of these are expensive and I’m cheap frugal so I’m not sure what I’ll actually buy. All of these are from Fabric.com. I’m totally in love with the pink elephants. Each of those is an active link so you can just click on them and go see them at Fabric.com.

Bliss Flannel Elephants – They have this in other color ways too.

Bliss Flannel Circle – They have this in other color ways too. 

Bliss Flannel Lions

Irving Street City Stripe

Irving Street Downtown Pink

I had to go back and add these to my post because they are so dang cute! They have it in thermal waffle knit (left) and a jersey knit (right).

Halloween

Here’s my final costume although you can’t really see it in all it’s glory. I painted my face and had some nice stripes on it. I wore a fun wig that had a very long braid, you can see it in the picture. All in all, it was a flippin’ riot. I kept my cell phone in my loin cloth and had fun at my friend’s house. That’s my friend K________, she’s a spelling bee.

The Costume (almost all of it)

How much fun is this costume?? I think the loin cloth actually kind of looks like leather. And having a tail is always so fun.



See? And you guys were totally right about the black heels. They do lengthen and extend my legs. And that Avatar girl is so long and lean, I need all the help I can get.


 
The next time you’ll see this will be once I’m all duded up and ready to rock. I'll also give you some details on how I put everything together (including attaching the tail you naughty girl, you!).

Wow! I love this Etsy store!!

One of my girlfriends at work sent me this link and I had to share it with y’all. In fact, it might just be one of you guys. Liza Rietz’s Etsy store has me drooling. I love, love, love her structural pieces. How pretty are these???

LOVE that subtle bias detail at the waist.

Both photos were “harvested” from her store. Permission is pending (I emailed and asked it it’s okay).

Halloween Progress . . . The shoes

You guys were right. You almost always are . . . .
Black heels make it look so much better! I bought mine at Famous Footwear.


Next up: The whole kit and caboodle sans make-up and wig.

Halloween Progress . . . Stripes, and lots of them

So I’ve been wracking my brain on how to make a template for my stripes. Tape? Way too time consuming. Paper? Maybe but it’ll get soggy. Cardstock? Maybe but how to get it around the corners smoothly. Then, mental head slap, why not use fabric??!? I only have 500 yards or so of it lying around. I dug out the rest of that ugly, cheap polyester felt and put that to the test. I knew I needed something beefier than a cotton. The felt was just perfect. So I cut out some larger and smaller stripes in my felt.



I stuffed my pants with newspaper and pinned on the felt templates. Notice the yard is snow free! Yea October in Alaska!!


Here’s a better picture.


Here’s the first run. I did one set down each side and then came back to each side a few times to get the holes and empty spots. I can tell you that I really, really like the Valspar spray paint from Lowe’s. No stupid wobbly spray knob and no mess.



I think the stripes look very nice. I didn’t want perfect moon-shaped arcs.


Look! A dismembered Na’vi on my lawn!!


Here’s the top. There aren’t many of the top because it started snowing on me. Damn Alaska in October! I had to hurry and get done!


Here’s the back of the finished shirt. I cut several inches off the bottom after I was done. I knew it was way too long so I didn’t really do much painting down there.


Next up: The Shoes!

Halloween Progress . . . Tail!!

I wasn’t sure how this spray painting shin-dig was going to go so I wanted to start with something easy and that I didn’t mind throwing away if it didn’t work. Therefore, the tail seemed like the easiest choice. I used blue painter’s tape and made some stripes. I put it on the lawn and sprayed the heck out of it. One thing I learned is that I do not want to be wearing this little outfit when I spray paint it. That paint goes right through.


When I removed the tape, I was pleasantly surprised. It looked good although it smelled like, what else, spray paint.


Then I used the “tail” method in my handy dandy Singer Halloween costume sewing book. I love that thing; bought it at a garage sale for a buck or something. This picture shows the set up right before I sew the fabric together right sides together. Click to make this bigger so you can read the text.


Here’s my tail in all it’s glory.
 

Here’s the “hair”. I used black twine and just untwisted it to make it more hair-like. I probably should have added more hair.


Next up? Makin’ stripes!!

Halloween Progress . . . Loin Cloth

I’m not sure what else to call it but a loin cloth. I used cheapy brown polyester felt and just made a rectangular pocket. I cut more of the felt into strips and braided them together to make the belt.


Here’s a close-up of the belt. I added beads to the last part just by braiding them in.

I added a casing on the back for the beads to go through. I made the belt super long so it can go around my hips a few times.


Next up?? The tail!

Jalie 3024 – Knit Dresses

Well, folks, Jalie made another winner. One of these days I’m sure they will mess up but they haven’t for me yet. I love this dress and it’s super easy and fast to make. I would highly recommend it for those scared of knits and for those who want to try a Jalie pattern but are scared of all the lines. One thing I did notice with this pattern is that they made the pattern lines a bit easier to find. They grouped the sizes together and made the lines slightly different. For example, the size R through V are dashed lines and others are solid lines.

This dress took me approximately 1 hour from trace to hem. This one needs a PatternReview.com rating of easy-peasy-chicken-squeasy. There is no difference between the front and back so there are few pattern pieces and the sleeves are cut on so there are no sleeves to set and nothing to bind on the sleeves. I can see a closet full of these in my future.

Next time I make it, I’ll see if I can fix the dress for the swayback-ed-ness of back and butt.
 

Here it is flat. Simple, neat, and easy.

 

What is your opinion on photo size? Personally, I like big photos because I hate clicking on a photo to enlarge it and then waiting while my slow connection brings up the photo. However, I can see the other side too where you want to read the text and have the option of clicking to make the photos bigger. I’ll let y’all decide and I’ll leave them small this time.

Halloween Progress . . .

If you don’t recall my plans, check here. I have the main pieces assembled. I used Jalie 2215 for both the top and the bottoms. I sort of feel like a blue marshmallow right now. I plan to add some stripes to my suit in the next few days. I’ll have to enlist the help of a friend so I can wear it while she paints me. I was thinking of making little paper/cardstock templates and having her spray paint the stripes on. What do you guys think of that idea? Anyone got a better idea?

And more importantly, I made a muslin of those Jalie 3022 pants. I really like the wide waistband and the back seam detail. I have Jalie 2215 and modified them to work.
 

 

Here you can barely see these back leg seams. I have no idea what shoes to wear with this outfit. I don’t have any blue shoes and I think the boots look okay.
 

 

Here’s a better view of the waistband. It’s an 8” band folded in half so it’s a little under 4” (I didn’t add any extra for SA). Hello, runner’s butt.
 

Here I am. Imagine it with a really long black braided wig, blue face paint and some sparkly decals.