Parka Patterns

I have three of the four patterns gone (and no, sorry, I can’t ship overseas) but I need an address for BeccaA. Doesn’t she have a blog out there? I tried looking via Blogger but couldn’t find anything to access her blog or her address. Once you other ladies write me back, I’ll mail your parka patterns.

I’m currently doing a little more work in the sewing room. I’ve got some shelving to put in and a big pegboard that goes on the wall. I have a super cute pencil skirt all traced out. I just need the time to get it done!!!

Stretch Denim

Did you guys see that Fabric.com just got in some nice stretch denim? I like that it’s beefy like 9-11 oz. and has about 2% lycra. Perfect for Jalie jeans!! I would certainly get swatches for the ones you are interested in. It’s so hard to buy online without touching it!!!!! Good stretch denim is really hard to find so I snap it up when I find it. I love my Jalie jeans. I wear them all the time. I’ve lost quite a bit of weight in the last year so several pairs are way too big now. I may have to sample some of this denim myself. :)

 

In other exciting news:
I have a guest blogger coming who is going to enlighten us about kuspuks. She’s a native Alaskan, a kuspuk wearer, and awesome. I’ll email people this weekend and get addresses for the other patterns.

New patterns for me and freebies for you!

I was gifted some patterns the other day of the “we were going through old stuff and knew you sewed” variety. I am keeping some of the patterns but I will never sew a kuspuk.

 

I can always use hat, mitten, and cold weather gear patterns. That v-neck fleece top is pretty bad with the moose (maybe deer?) motif. I will make the sweatshirts for my kids. I have a really hard time looking past bad pattern illustrations.

 

 

I will never make these patterns. I have two that are exactly the same and all four of them look to be about the same size. If anyone wants them, leave a comment and an email and I’ll contact you. I’ll send them to you for free just because they were my aunt’s and I want them to go to a good home. I’ll even splurge for postage. If several people want them, I’ll divvy them up and randomly assign you one.

KS 3740 with modified neck

I first saw this twisted neckband treatment back in 2008 from Christina over at Assorted Notions. There has been ton of these on PatternReview.com and in blogland lately. I used KS3740 as my base t-shirt pattern and then just made my own neckband. I wanted a t-shirt that was nice and open in the front to show off the neckband. I used a stretchy Rayon/Lycra from JoAnn’s. It’s actually pretty nice. It’s a bit on the thin side but I love the color and the recovery is nice. I added an extra inch or so to the arms because I like extra long sleeves. I made the shirt a bit too long so I’ll shorten it although it’s perfect for tucking in right now.

 

Here’s a close-up of the neckline.

 

Here’s a sketch of how I did it. I marked it in 3/4” intervals and then matched the markings across and over one instead of just folding it in half.

 

I was looking at Fabric.com and now I want yummy solid knits. I maxed myself out with crazy, wild knit prints in my last order. These are also knit ITYs. Since I love the print ones, I figure I’ll love the solid ones too.
 

These are all rayon blends. Super yummy and soft I’m guessing. There are lots of colors too. I love that coffee-colored one.

 

 

For you anti-polyester folks, there is also some cotton/lycra solids that looks nice too. Although, there aren’t many colors.

Pussycat

Vulgar language warning. If you don’t like other words for girl bits, you should probably skip this post. It’s a conversation my son and I had on the way home the other day. The girls didn’t say much but were keen observers. I’m wondering if it wasn’t a bad idea to talk about this in front of them. I guess I’ll know when a really inappropriate word pops out of one of their mouths.

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

Son: Hey mom, is pussycat a bad word??

Me: No, it’s not a bad word.

Son: Well, D______ says it’s a bad word.

Me: Well, it’s not.

Son (sheepishly): What about the word “pussy” by itself????

Me: Okay kids, I’m going to do some cussing. Remember that some of these words are adult words. Okay?

Three VERY INTERESTED kids: Okay.

Me: You guys know the word “butt” right? You know that “ass” means the same thing, right?

Six giant eyes: Right.

Me: Well, pussy is kind of the same thing. By itself, it also means a body part and it’s a bad word.

Son: Well, mom, which body part????????

Me: It’s means a girl’s front butt* and it’s not a good word to say. Got it??

Three kids with giant squid eyes and open mouths: Got it.

Son: So it’s okay to say pussy when you say pussycat but not by itself??

Me: Yup. But you know it’s a very bad word, right? No more saying it okay?

Son: Got it. Is it kind of like how you can HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL-icopter? And HEELLLLLLLLLLLLL-o? And beaver-DAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM And ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS-k? And ASSSSSSSSSSSSSS-hole. No, wait, sorry mom. That one really is a bad word. *giggle, snort* Sorry. Really, mom. Sorry.

Me: siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

 

 

 

 

 

*My girls call their butt their “back butt” and the front the “front butt.” It made sense at the time but seems a little weird for my girls to be calling that part their “front butt,” but vagina, urethra, and vulva seem even more crass. The science teacher in me cringes when I hear “front butt.”

BurdaStyle May 2011

There are several things that I like in this new May BurdaStyle. I really haven’t used my subscription much in the last year after all the fun stuff that’s been happening in my life. Now that I have a dedicated sewing space again and things are starting to calm down, I feel my mojo coming back. Here are my top picks. Remember I live in Alaska but I’m always drawn to the sleeveless styles. What’s with that??

Love this in the dress version. Online, they show it in a fuchsia pink and I actually, *cough, cough* like it. I know! It’s kind of bright and hideous but I like that it’s bright like that. We’ve been having warm, balmy, melty weather for the past two weeks but the last two days have been below freezing again with inches of snow accumulation. Blech. I’m ready for some bright and hideous!


I like this one too. It’s a tall pattern but I could cut it down easily enough if I wanted. I’m not sure where I would ever wear it. But, I do like it.


This is a petite dress (perfect!) and I really like the seaming on it. I love boat necks like that and it would be perfect for color blocking. Can you see black wool crepe in the middle and a dark eggplant on the side panels?
 

I always like a pair of shirt shorts. These are cute. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this same pattern in Burda about five times now in the last year or so but I still like them.


I like this jacket although I will never make it. I’m not really a jacket kind of girl.

For this, I will not even post anything. I will just leave you with this picture as the reason I would never wear something like this.
  

Easy Skirt

I had a bit of this charcoal gray double knit left over from this Jalie dress. I used the bottom of the pattern to make a very easy knit skirt. I thought I’d show you guys how I got creative with my  elastic. I buy my elastic in bulk on a huge roll from ZipperStop.com. It’s good quality elastic but there is a lot of it so I try hard not to buy tons of different sizes. The stuff I use most commonly is the 3/4” elastic. This time, though, I wanted a skirt with a wider waistband. So I zigzagged two lengths of it together to make a 1.5” band. Here you can see the two pieces together. Once I have it put together, I sew it together to make a loop, quarter it, and serge the elastic to the skirt. This is the WS of the skirt.

 

This is the RS of the skirt before I fold the elastic down.

 

Here’s the finished skirt from the outside. This took me about 30 minutes from start to finish. I already had the pattern traced and it took about 5 minutes to cut the fabric. Now I have a cute just-above-the-knee skirt in a neutral color. I may have to look through my knits and see if there is anything else I can use up.

How fun is this??

I went to Toys’R’Us yesterday and look what I found for my girls??? This is a lot like this toy I used to have when I was a little girl. I loved that thing. There were different fashion plates and you put them together and rubbed a crayon over it and made **magic**. Look at Angie’s blog to see what I’m talking about. I loved those things. This new version has stencils that go over these pre-sketched figured and then you fill in the details. The other one is more like a sketch book for ideas.

Jalie 3024–Another Dress

I wanted something that would be easy and a success after making something that wasn’t very cute. This is one of those ITY knits. If you remember, the last time I made this dress, it was very high up on the bust and it was a bit snug. I went up a size and I think it’s much better.

I think I’m going to make another Jalie shirt too. Maybe the scarf collar top??