Dorky Hat - I'm gonna make another.

So my husband says this is an "old lady hat." Damn him. This one, unfortunately, is a dud. I used too light of an interfacing and it's really floppy. It may be okay as a beach reading book but that's about it. I can't really walk to well in it unless I just want to see my feet. This one is crooked too. It's really floppy on the left and wavy on the right. This is the free Burda download #150 from the February issue. You have to register in order to download the pattern.

I think I will make another with stiffer interfacing.

Burda 02-2009 #118 Puff Sleeve Top and Tutorial

Wow, I need to start doing something with my hair on Saturdays. I made two of these tops today. You will only get to see one on me. The other one got chucked in the bin. I like the overall shape of it but the arms were a bitch to sew. Below you'll find a picture tutorial of what I did. No, it's not pretty but it worked.


I love this fabric. It's a wool/blend jersey. It's apple green with white/grey stripes running through it.



Okay, here she goes. I skipped taking pictures of the steps leading up to this one because they are pretty straight forward. For sake of clarity, I will call the gathered part of the sleeve The Sleeve and the part that it's gathered onto The Inside Sleeve. BWOF uses the same lingo for those parts and it's important later. Trust me on this. Gather the sleeve onto the inside sleeve and sew those onto the bodice pieces. Make sure you match the shoulder notches and the front notch on piece #1.


Put the front yoke right sides together (RST) with the front bodice/sleeves. I would notch the middle of the bodice and the middle of the front piece. There is some stretching to be done and that makes it a lot easier. Only sew from notch #5 to notch #5 on the other side.


Sew your side seams. I note notch #5 on most of the pictures below just to give you a reference point. In the picture below, you don't really need it but I labelled it anyway.

Sew from notch #5 to the side seam line. You are attaching it to the sleeves only -- not the inside sleeve. Sew just to the side seam line and get as close as possible.

Now, this is were it gets confusing and hard (if someone knows a better way, let us know!). Start at the side seam and sew around the sleeves with them RST. You only ever sew two layers at once. First you start in the middle with the sleeves and as you work your way around, you cross over and begin sewing the inside sleeve. It gets harder and harder because you are sewing yourself into a hole. Try to make it to notch #10. Sewing this way makes your sleeve turn inside itself and now you have to carefully turn it back right sides out.

This is what mine looks like on the inside. Not pretty, I know.

But, the outside looks nice.


Here's the one that didn't make it. I tried for an hour to rip threads out of stretch velour. For-get-it. I may make another one in this fabric because it was/is beautiful but I was destroying the fabric trying to tear it out.

Burda 01-2009 #121 Pants

So I decided on the aluminum buttons. I really had a hard time deciding between the fabric-covered buttons that LindseyT suggested. This tab looks a bit crooked because I think I need to move that bottom button down a hair. Isn't that annoying? I always see something in the pictures that makes me want to go back and do one more thing. And, I'm not a huge fan of this fabric. It's a thin denim with a lot of stretch. I think it's too thin.

The original pattern calls for one loop to be sewn directly into the CB seam. Since I do a hefty swayback adjustment I didn't want to put it there in case I needed to snug up the pants one last time. So I added another loop and just made them to the side of CB.

What's going on under my butt? I don't usually have that kind of wrinkling with BWOF. It looks like I could take out a good inch out of that area. I may try to pinch out a little and see if that makes it better. I hemmed these a bit long too but they always shrink and then I have to let them out.

This is the third installment of the F-ing Cold SWAP. All I have left is the coat.

Button Help

Thanks guys for all the comments on my belly. :) You guys know how to make a gal's head swell like a balloon. And I never said thank you for the advice on the embroidery machine but I do really appreciate the lengthy responses. I know it takes time to comment like that and I appreciate it.

I am currently working on BWOF 01/2009 #121. I'm not sure about buttons. They are a dark blue denim with white topstitching. I plan on adding a deep jean hem to the bottom.

These are bright aluminum buttons. I inherited a bunch of them. They are super light and shiny. It's hard to take a picture of them. So far, I think these are my favorite.


Here are the last three brass jean buttons. I'm not sure that the yellow-y brass goes with the white topstitching.



These are just plain white buttons. They are semi-opaque.



Red would be fun but then I have to sort of be careful with what I wear it with and they are a little too 4th of July. But, I still kinda like it.

These are smaller dark blue buttons. I would probably use three on the waistband and one on each pocket.

These are a smokey grey. I don't like them at all in the picture. They almost have a lavender tone to them.

Here's the inside facing. This is what makes me want to go with red buttons.

What do you guys think?

Isn't Skin Amazing?

My mother-in-law and I were emailing about our trip to Hawaii and she asked about my swimsuits. I sent her some photos of the two I have finished. She said something like, "Wow, no one would ever guess you had twins two years ago." I realized that you guys had never seen the before pictures. These were my pre-sewing days. This is me at 33 weeks pregnant with the twins. I made it three more weeks but have no pictures to prove it. Wasn't I huge? They had me on a high fat, high protein diet. I was supposed to be eating 75 (!!!) grams of protein a day. Needless to say, I can't go near that protein shake stuff now.

I thought you guys would enjoy this. It really shows how elastic skin is and how your body reabsorbs things that it doesn't need. By the look on my pregnant face, you can tell I'm an uncomfortable camper.

Fun Blog Photos

These are totally fun. They are from Wordle.com and Shannon pointed them out on her blog. I wish I could make them larger. I'm not sure if it looks at your entire blog or just a few posts. The words, "need", "really", "think", "top", and "Jalie" are all big and bold which makes me think they are used over and over again. I'm not sure how it's generated.

Burda 05-2005 #125 Wrapover Dress

I started this dress last week when my mom was here. I stopped working on it while she was here because the sewing room is technically the guest room. This is from 05-2005. It's got a cute wrapover top section. I didn't make very many alterations to it. I shortened it quite a bit. The original version is calf length. I also added bra cups to this because I can't really wear a bra with it. I made two bodices and put the bra cups in between the two layers. I stitched the bra cups to the lining.


This is a rayon-lycra blend. It is probably too thin for this dress. It shows every body wrinkle, wobble, and imperfection. I think it's a bit too thin for this. Live and learn.




Here's the gathering details. Under the cross there is a small hole where you overlap the pieces. Because it is under the cross detailing you never see it.