Sewing Limbo...

Dear Blogg,

Is there such a thing as sewing purgatory?? If you ask me I would say YES. I am standing in the middle of it. It is filled with fallen ideas, and lots of incomplete projects.

My current Limbo status is directly related to the struggle between ordering things online for a GREAT deal and having to give up the pleasure convenience of shopping in store.  I have been waiting for what seems like months only a few days LOL, but too long for my liking for my supplies to come in from Cali and the BIG APPLE. Without those supplies I can not get my Fearless February Challenge under way.

For the love of sewing get me out of here!!!!!!!!!! Time is of the essence!

In other news, I made an infinity scarf  w/ fringe (FANCY). It was my first time sewing with jersey fabric. I can almost cross that of my sewing To Do list (to be explained in a future post).

Mini Fringe Infinity Scarf

See yah later.

Yours truly,

LipStick Seamstress

Sewing RED In February

Dear Blogsters,

It is February, also known as Heart Health month, so make sure you wear red!! As a healthcare professional with a family history of not so healthy ticker's this cause to very dear to me!!

It also means I will diving head first into my first sew-along hosted by Victoria aka Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing. My plan for this fearless sew-along is to sew my first dress maybe fully lined.

…Because I am a FEARLESS WOMAN WITH A STRONG HEART I will be using the following pattern:

Vogue V8648 ( I will be doing either the yellow or brown and purple style in the colour RED)

I must admit that I am nervous, but I plan to use that energy to be more vigilant during this learning process. On that note I am off to conquer my personal Goliath. Good luck to everyone on your sewing endeavours! Yours truly, LipStick Seamstress

My first SKIRT!!!

Dear Bloggies,

How are you all?

I wanted to Show & Tell you all what I accomplished during the month January. I took a sewing class with Diana Rupp over at Craftsy and I made a skirt!!!! YAY ME!!

Some skills I acquired from sewing my first garment:

1. Using a commercial pattern 

2. Making a muslin and alterations

3. Assembling a Gored skirt (view E minus the yoke)

4. Invisible zipper

5. Blind Hem

Muslin/Toile

Invisible Zipper

The Back of Purple Royalty (Skirt named by me because the fabric reminds me of royal African Queen)

 The Front

Blind Hem (sewn by hand !!)

Troubleshooting 

The back panel ended up being 5/8 of an inch to big and I had no idea how it occurred or how it was to be fixed. I stayed up till the wee hours of the night trying to retrace my steps, but to no avail. I tried asking my Craftsy instructor for help but seeing that I was not using the same pattern and she is located far far away, in Internet land, she could not help. In her defense she did try to help. 

LOL Being the genius that I am in order to correct the problem I simply decided to split the difference Et voil

à it worked.

Alas, I learned the ERROR of my ways…

After purchasing The Sewing Book at JO-Ann's ($20 w/ 50% off coupon) I found the answer to all my questions.  I learned that my skirt is GORED (new term added to my sewing vocab.) and I should have made my alterations by dividing the amount to be decreased by the number of seamlines. So next time all I have to is a little more math which I hate love.

Hope all is well. Till next time.

Yours truly,

LipStick Seamstress

In the Beginning...

Dear Blogger Land,

I am writing this post as my first formal introduction to everyone out there in the Blogosphre (especially my fellow seamstress)...not sure if I can officially carry that title since I am a semi-self taught beginner who has only sewn a few items. Two of which are from paper patterns.

My first time with a sewing machine was very memorable. I was sixteen and very impressionable. It was a warm no wait cold...or was it hot?? Anyhoo, I do remember it was during eleventh grade home economics class where I set out to make my very own PILLOW PERSON....sigh. What is it you ask, well it is a pillow with a face, arms and legs. In my defense I did say that I was very impressionable, and I wanted to have one like Donna Joe Tanner (aka DJ from Full House). This pillow person seamed like a daunting task, but I did it!!! I cut out arms and legs that I had drawn and traced on fabric. The face was done by hand embroidery stitching along a tracing I did. She had long eyelashes, brown eyes and red lips (who does not like a girl/woman with red LipStick?). I was very proud of my work. So much so that she went off to college with me, we moved into our own apartment together. We only recently parted ways when Morgan, the puppy, had a little altercation with her...chicks! Sadly to say someone had to go. In Morgie's defense she claims she was provoked. 

sample Pillow Person (Not mine! This guy looks depressed lol)

Morgan The Great

As you can probably tell I was obsessed with my first piece. After she was created I did not sew from 2004-2010. I think its because she was so perfectly imperfect I believed I would never create any thing as enchanting ;-). My hiatus ended when all my friends stared having babies and I wanted to make something a little more personal that they would keep for a longtime. Something like my pillow person but not as awesome, sorry it cant be done. So I decided to make mini baby quilts. I had no idea where to begin. I did not even own a sewing machine. So I brought one, jumped on the internet and sewed four, perfectly imperfect, mini quilts  for the new mini people. Ps they were a hit with the mommies. My friends stopped having babies and my sewing stopped.

My first mini quilt with all its imperfections

In December 2012 the sewing flu hit me again!! This time the symptoms are garments and lots of them. Lets hope I do not recover to quickly and its a life long journey.

Yours Truly,

LipStick Seamstress