Jennifer Weiner and What I Wore: Simplicity 2633 and New Look 6843

For the past there years I have attended the Jennifer Weiner book readings at the Princeton Public Library. She is a hoot, never disappoints.

This year the deal was, if you wore a vest, you got your choice of a "I read Jennifer Weiner" tote or beach towel. (Why, you ask? Well, she explains why here and here.)

Due to traffic she arrived half an hour late, so I had to book it out of there midway through her visit to get back to a work meeting.  I tweeted that I was sad to miss the bag.  Well, through replies from Jennifer and from the Princeton Public Library, Jennifer's assistant mailed me the bag!  I am thrilled SO thrilled!!!

So here's a recreation of what I wore that day.

I sewed the vest (Simplicity 2633--one of the Project Runway patterns)  waaaay back in 2009, wore it once, never wore it again....Little did I know then, it was fated to be the Jennifer Weiner vest!!  So from now on it is known as the Vest.  It is another fun case study to look at something I sewed 3 years ago and think how I sew it differently today.  (i.e. closing it with a snap and sewing the button on the front...for starters).

I sewed the skirt, New Look 6843, 3 weeks ago.  The Vest and skirt go very well together.

Even my dressform loves the bag. I tweeted this to Jennifer and she retweeted and said my dressform has taste.   Awwww!  My brush with a celebrity!


The bag is really high quality too!    The interior edges are finished with a Hong Kong finish (have to look that up to verify that's the right term) and the bag is super sturdy.  I have used it a few times already.

I have finally read two Jennifer Weiner books I bought ages ago but never cracked open--her novel Little Earthquakes, and her collection of short stories The Guy Not Taken (one of the stories, Swim, is the basis for her new novel The Next Best Thing).  And I finally started the Next Vest, er, Best Thing this morning.  Yay!

In other news, I bought MORE black eyed susans this morning to plant.  My car was bursting with happiness, front and back!!

I decided that today would be a great day to get my hair trimmed and straightened. And then it started raining while I was at the salon. Let's see how long this lasts for!  I'm in New Look 6071, my favorite dress I've ever sewn.

My hair is getting long! I plan to keep growing it out for at least another year or two.
Side view


Tonight my straight hair and I will spend some quality time with my serger video.   I'm going to try rethreading it from scratch (not knotting it and pulling the knots through) with MaxiLock thread.  There's another online chat tmw night for the serger class so I need to keep on making progress.

And what are you up to this evening?
Be well!

New Look 6735: quick fall vest in leafy green

I've had this fabric from Joann's since last year.  In the winter I made a sleep shirt from this fabric using a Vogue pattern, but I wanted to make a pullover vest too, to wear over a shirt or under a jacket.

The leaves are 2 shades of green and white, but somehow I think of this as a fall vest.  Hrm.

I started this Monday night and finished it off tonight.


It's New Look 6735, view C without the sleeves, in size 14.  I tried making the shirt before (in 2008, in turquoise) and failed with the sleeves, wound up wearing it as a vest. 


In these pix I'm wearing the vest over a purchased shirt.

Do I look too much like a 5 year old in this fabric?  Maybe it would be better to wear it under a jacket or cardigan?


Side view.  I made the back from some leftover brown knit fabric.


There's a CB seam, so that wasn't very friendly for this fabric pattern.  Thus, I used the brown fabric for the back.


This pattern has the front side seam longer than the back.  You gather between the notches in the bust area. It's interesting I think.  Like a fake-out "dart".

To finish the neckline, I fused on some knit interfacing and then folded over and twin needle stitched down with a 2.5 stretch twin needle.

I interfaced because this fabric stretches if you look at it sideways, much less touch it.

I interfaced the hem too. At the ASE this year, I heard one instructor cringe talking about this method, but I learned this technique from another ASE instructor last year. I think it boils down to, what works for you best in a given situation. I found the interfacing method does NOT need to be used for all knits. But in a case of a Stretchy McStretcherton knit like this, it works for me.


For all you structural biology/chemistry types, go ahead and find the asymmetric unit in this fabric.  I dare you!  Knock yourself out!


Be well and good night!

Pix and Simplicity 2633

I took a walk around Princeton after work tonight.

I hate fall. But I like these leaves:


Oh, there's an idea brewing here:


Hello JoyCards:


I don't recall ever seeing this sculpture before:


I'm not sure which one I like better, this one:

or this one:


I finished Simplicity 2633 and wore it to work today. No one asked me if I made it! but no one said anything about it, either.






Here's a close up of the collar. I had to tack it down because it made me look like a clown otherwise. I used pink double fold bias tape to finish off the facing, but in this picture it looks white.

I love that button. It reminds me of buttons on my dad's jackets when I was little.
The collar was supposed to be piped with a zipper, but I piped it with regular piping and I love how that looks too.
I might write the SPR of it now.
My left back decided to flare up tonight and I don't know why. I have the heating pad on--it feels really nice.

Almost done with Simplicity 2633

So in the previous post I showed that the flounce for Simplicity 2633 is a bit big and it seems to stand up on its own like a clown collar. It's not even interfaced. So I'm tacking the flounce down. It's pretty much done in the front but now I need to tack it down in the back.

Sneak peek at Simplicity 2633

Sneak peek at Simplicity 2633:


It's a Project Run(a)way vest with a very jaunty flounce/ruffle/whatever. I'm working on fixing it and I think it's going from clown collar to greeeat!

Feels so good to be in the sewing machine saddle again!!