Burda 03-2011 #129 Tube Skirt

I’m embarrassed to admit I used a pattern for this skirt. There is no pattern pieces, it is just a rectangle with a CB seam, elastic waist, and hem. I made two of them. The first used up the remnants of this leopard print fabric. The second used up some of the embossed gray fabric from this dress.

Can you tell I’ve been having fun with my camera?

I didn’t even insert a grommet and drawstring. I just serged elastic to the band, folded it over, and coverstitched it. Voila, two skirts. I figured these would be fun on the cruise to slip on with a t-shirt. Together these two skirts took, ooooh, about an hour start to finish. As far as a review, well, you can’t get any simpler. I cut the rectangle for the size 34 and, what do you know, it works!

Random, fun photo(s) of the day (I couldn’t just pick one):

All the kids have the prettiest eyes

My workhorse.

Another Vogue 1250

Need I say more?

Well, of course, I have to say more. How many times am I going to make this dress? I love it. It fits perfectly and it’s sexy as hell. I made a black version and I wear it all the time. I needed another solid color because I have made a couple crazy print versions and you can’t wear them over and over again like you can a solid.

How about that new wall color and base trim? We’ve been changing some things up at the mansion and it’s a good thing.

And here’s your random nice photo of the day.

Bikinis Gone Wild–Jalie Top and Ottobre Bottoms

A long time ago made this very same swimsuit combination and wore the snot out of it. Since we are cruising very soon (less than a month, sqqqquuueeeeee!) I decided I needed another suit to go with it. This the Jalie pattern #2446 for the bikini top and Ottobre 05/2009 Bikini underwear pattern. This picture is taken in my basement since we had two worker guys putting up Sheetrock upstairs. I figured they didn’t really need to see any more of me than they do already. Anyway, I guess I wasn’t done with Jungle January. I’m hoping my pasty skin will go away after our week in the sun. 

 

The back is not very exciting. The top is a halter so it ties around the neck.

 

I again used my zig zag stitches for all the seams. After doing so research on previously-sewn swimsuits for my kids, I’ve made some conclusions. The serging threads always seems to die and it really doesn’t hold up to higher stress areas like where the back connects to the crotch piece. The zig zag stitches has never busted on any of the swimsuits my kids have worn. 

 

I used white zigzags on the tops and bottoms.

 

I love the coverage of these bottoms.

 

I still have a few hooks from Sew Sassy. I lined the front of the bikini top and the fronts of the bottoms. I bought the lining fabric from JoAnn’s and it’s actually pretty nice stuff.

 

Random Shot – Instead of boring you to pieces with a billion fun pictures with my new camera, I’ll just post one at the end. That will make me edit a bit so you aren’t looking at a ton of pictures. You can totally just skip it if you want. This is Little Person and I after a long day of cleaning, Sheetrocking, painting, and moving things around.

House Update

This is why you haven’t gotten a sewing post in a few days. We’ve been working our woo-has off on the upstairs of the house. We’ve been painting, trimming, and changing things up. Our walls were all white so we are changing them to a nice beige. I know that gray or greige is the new hot color but I live in Alaska and I can’t do gray. Can’t do it. It’s gray here all the time. I need a little warmth in my paint color. Here you can see the wall from one of my previous posts.

 

We are working on Sheetrocking a really high wall. One of the things I love about this house is the Wall of Windows.

 

Wall O’ Windows

 

Our beautiful brass lights. These will be changed in the next couple of days.

 

 

Here’s a sewing tidbit. I have something fun to show you people. See? Actually sewing! You’ll have to wait to see what it is.

 

 

And because I’m having so much fun with my new Canon, two fun photos.

 

Look at those eyes!

Who has the best husband ever?

No, not you.

Me.

Really.

After hearing me prattle on and on about cameras, he’s bit the bullet and bought a DSLR. Sqqqqqquuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. He told me that I have to keep the smaller one we just bought for Christmas because “they have their own purpose.” He said if I enjoyed photography this much, I should have a nice camera. Um, I think I may have scored in the husband department.

 

I swear I do have things to show you. I’ve been sewing actually. With parent conferences and the house painting, I’ve been behind schedule with my sewing. Life gets in the way sometimes. Now you guys will have to ignore even more of my photography posts. Sheesh, he’s created a monster!

For you photography nerds, it’s the Canon Rebel T3i. I am still loving on my other Canon point and shoot but this one will be so much fun!!! And with our cruise coming up, watch out!

Yet Another Set

Okay, guys I promise there aren’t too many more posts that are not sewing related. But I think I’m going to get Adobe Photoshop Elements. It’s easy to use, I get pretty good results, and I have a few people who really know it up here and can help me.

 

Here’s the original Alaskan-twilight-snow picture.

 

Here it is doctored up with Elements. Pretty good, I think. I changed the levels a bit and then changed the white balance because snow makes everything look so blue.

 

I even have some fun sewing to share with you. Hopefully, I’ll be done tonight.

Another Set of Photos

Here’s the original

 

Canon software autocorrect.

 

Lightroom Autocorrect.

 

Lightroom with my own tweaks. I changed the exposure, contrast, added a little vignette, and played with the smooth skin feature. That feature is pretty incredible actually, look at my face in the last photo compared to this one.

 

What’s the best bang for my buck people?

Experimenting with Photo Editing Software

So with my new fun camera, I’ve been experimenting a bit with photo editing software. I decided to have you people (you people!) help me out. I like simple and I like cheap inexpensive. What do you guys use?

 

Here’s a typical picture for me. It’s inside with no flash. I hate the flash but what do you do? Alaska has very little natural light most of the time so it’s hard to get decent pictures with natural light. Original picture taken inside with no flash.

 

 

Here’s the same picture using the autocorrect on my software that came with the camera. I think it’s actually pretty nice. It’s cumbersome software though making me save separately every time I crop, edit, etc.

 

Here’s Adobe Lightroom (I have the 30 day free trial) and the autocorrect. The skin tone may be more accurate in this photo than the one above.

 

Adobe Lightroom again with a few tweaks from me. I changed the exposure, contrast, and added a gradient filter to the bottom left of the photo to give the cards a little more detail. The problems with Lightroom? Well, it’s expensive (not too bad, about $200), has a pretty big learning curve, and I can’t easily add lines and text when I need to (or maybe I can and don’t know how).

 

 

Here’s Paint.net which is free and I’ve been using it for years. The autocorrect feature is bad though and I never use it. I can add lines, text, and adjust most things easily.

 

 

Original : Canon Software : Lightroom Auto : Lightroom with tweaks : Paint.net

 

Any suggestions? I don’t have time to learn Adobe Photoshop. I want something easy and fast and preferably inexpensive. What do you guys use?

Burda 8/2012 #121 Seamed Dress

I loved this dress in the magazine when I first saw it. I’m not sure what was holding me up; maybe all the pattern pieces? There really aren’t that many. I really love it in this red but I’m trying not to buy fabric and use what I have. I’m not on a silly fabric fast or anything, that would be silly.

 

Let me see, what changes did I make to it . . . I shortened it but left everything else alone. It’s pretty hard to photograph being that I was inside at about 3pm and the fabric is a darker color. 

 

It looks equally nice and fitted without the belt (in my opinion).

 

The back has an invisible zipper to my mid butt. I know it’s hard to see everything with the bad lighting. It’s Alaska, gah. It’s twilight most of the winter.

 

It has cute little darts in the sleeves that I love.

 

This is where all the seams in the front meet. This is a nubby wool that kind of more of a gray-navy than anything else.

 

How fun is this lining? I love that it’s so bright and vivid inside this relatively dull dress.

 

Here's my inside finishing of the invisible zipper.

 

I used a lace hem facing and handsewed the hem.

 

On the sleeves and hem, I just hemmed the lining up and out of the way. The sleeves flare quite a bit and I didn’t want to deal with trying to get everything to ease the right way with all that flare.

 

Other notes of interest: this is a tall pattern but seems to fit me fine with no adjustments, the neck is really high and almost claustrophobic, I love it!

February Burda Challenge - 02-2013 #109

I wanted to get my February Burda Challenge garment out of the way and I’ve been wanting to make this cute top from the February 2013 Burdastyle. Double score. I really like several of the garments out of the magazine this month. I also like the skirt pictured with the shirt.

 

My son was helping me and taking pictures. “Hey mom, look grouchy.”

 

“Mom, show me double thumbs up and look happy.”

 

“Hey mom, I think someone is falling down the stairs.”

 

Back. Boring. I do like how the sleeves are so different in the back.

 

Here’s a close-up of the front. I ended up putting on two rows of topstitches because the faced edge wanted to curl out away from the gathers.

Let’s see, overall, it’s very fitted. Um, very fitted. Luckily the material is very stretchy. I’m not sure I love it to tell you the truth. It makes me look very busty (score!) but also very hippy (anti-score). I’m also not loving the length. Oh well, you can’t love them all. Don’t get me wrong, I do like it though. I think it would make a cute dress in a different fabric and a bit more ease through the torso. I made my typical size 34. Maybe I’ve gained weight since yesterday? Maybe this one is just clingy. I do really, really like the gathered shoulder. I think it’s a neat look and it’s super easy to make. I think I have only an hour or so into this top and that includes the tracing and cutting.