Happiness Through Sewing
Darts are magical. They make a flat piece of fabric take shape. They can blend in to the garment or stand out as a design feature. I admire a well placed dart. I do not like a pointy dart, or one with a pucker and those boo – boos can easily happen to your darts […] Read more…
I’ve been working on a quilt the last two weeks. I’m not a quilter but I do love playing with color. I made this as a gift for a soon to be new mom. This quilt is larger than the suggested crib size. I know this new baby’s baby cousin will be spending time visiting […] Read more…
Recently a young friend of mine showed me a dress she bought second hand. This rayon floral dress featured two strong design elements. The first a corseted center front, purely decorative with a self fabric tie. The second feature was an exposed, silver toothed, zipper along the center back seam from top to hem. The […] Read more…
Summer to me means new skirts. I like wearing skirts in the warm weather as much as I love wearing cardigans in the cooler weather – a lot. Usually, I buy a new skirt from Boden at the beginning of spring. The prints are really fun, they’re well made and they’re lined, which wasn’t a […] Read more…
It’s a beautiful world after all. I recently went to visit my parents. At the last-minute, before leaving my home, I grabbed my wool coat just to show my mom. I knew she would be interested in seeing it even though I wasn’t happy with it. I had room in the car so why not […] Read more…
After sewing the coat that turned out to be unflattering, I wanted to sew something fun, kinda’ easy, and where success is a pretty sure thing. Ah, pot holders. I’ve made pot holders as gifts with themed fabric picked just for the recipient. I’ve made them as a class fund raiser using muslin the students potato […] Read more…
I “finished” the coat about two weeks ago. But it wasn’t what I hoped it would be so I wasn’t excited to share. However, I had put a lot of time, effort and money into the project, the sewing was flawless (flawless, I tell you) and it was cold outside so I was going to […] Read more…
I couldn’t believe the difficulty I had with these patch pockets. Patch pockets, right? Easiest pockets there are but not this time. Here are my four stumbling blocks; First, I lost motivation. I had to stop sewing completely for a week as we went away for the holiday. Second, placement of the pockets was difficult […] Read more…
Geez Louise! I’m so happy that I did not skip making this coat in muslin first. I did it to make sure the fit was right but it’s the opportunity to figure out the collar construction that makes me glad I’m sewing a muslin. Let me share my confusion; Read more…
I always say if I’m going to take the time to make a garment then I’m going to take the time to make it right. Trying my best to be efficient, by all means, but no short cuts. And now I sound like a complete hypocrite by challenging myself to get this coat done in […] Read more…