Straight hair?! and Simplicity 2154 this time in brown

Hello!
I liked Simplicity 2154 view D (the 60's retro pencil skirt) so much that I made it again, in the same corduroy, but in brown! (that shirt is purchased). This time I cut the 14 and wound up sewing the side seams down a bit more still..but otherwise it was the same alterations as last week's blue skirt.   I think the waistband could be tighter, but it is nice to be able to breathe while seated, I suppose.

And here it is styled with New Look 6735 leaf vest I made last week

I wish I could say that making this skirt the second time was easier and faster than the first, but I had an invisible zipper meltdown where I somehow twisted the zipper when installing it...twice.. It totally baffled me! Third time was the charm.

So what do you think of my hair?

Do you like it? Does it look weird? Does it look like Ozzy Osbourne hair?  That was the first person I thought of when I saw it...

For the first time in my life I had my hair straightened today. It will only last til it gets wet. I have always wondered how it would look!  My hair is pretty long straight...

Some more pix:


and another

I started working on Simplicity 3673, which is a 50's retro pattern.  Here's the back of the jumper so far, with darts on the left but not on the right, yet.  I don't know if I'm going to finish this one, sewing with this plaid is driving my eyes a bit bonkers.

So as my birthday is coming up, I made some cookies and cake for work for an afternoon celebration. (At my office, when it's your birthday YOU bring the celebratory item. And I must say, several officemates are in denial about having birthdays). So I made Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies with walnuts from scratch:

I had a total fridge cake meltdown as well with the whipping cream.  This has NEVER happened to me before.

So I started over and used a metal bowl and metal beaters that I put in the freezer first; used my mixer instead of the food processor; and finally had success with whipping the cream!

Ta-da!  MUCH better:

(Oh, and thanks last week for the comments about the soup; I didn't try to fix it and it tasted fine.)
Farmer's Mkt flowers for this week:

I did a lot of chores today too, and with that, poof, the weekend is gone!
Be well and good night!

Simplicity 2154 view D: 60's retro pencil skirt done

hello!
I was inspired by Elizabeth and her orange skirt over at Sewn, and decided to sew up a corduroy skirt of my own.  Joann's didn't have any orange corduroy, so I went with this blue number instead.  I can't wait to wear it to work tmw, albeit with a long sleeved shirt and maybe stockings.  (The shirt is from JCPenney 2 summers ago)

It's Simplicity 2154 view D, the pencil skirt from their 1960's retro collection.  I picked up the pattern at the ASE in the lower size range, then thought I'd need the 16 for the skirt, so I bought it at the 99cent pattern sale at Joann's on Columbus Day (a nice little post-work excursion).

I made it out of a beautiful blue corduroy from Joann's, which I also purchased Monday night.  This fabric never hit the stash closet!

I wanted to show you the skirt with my shoes, but the lighting here is bad...but you get the idea.  (I happened to go back to Sears today and buy the shoes in the other 2 colors):

This skirt is a simple pencil skirt but I love it because it actually is at waist level.  It also has 8 darts and while I'm not a dart-lover, I do like the shaping it provides....no swayback fitting problems here!

Bad back shot. I realized after taking this picture that the zipper was not zipped up all the way.

I moved the zipper to the center back seam.  I did this mainly because I wound up having to take in the side seams and it's easier for me to do that without the zipper in the fitting way.  So the skirt is more like a 14 now.   I also used an invisible zipper. I was so afraid of them before but now I love them.  This is my third garment with an invisible zip.

I also had this idea that back vents were hard to do?  This was actually pretty easy.  I cut three inches off the bottom of the skirt, so the vent isn't as long as it could have been.

 On my monitor, the picture above is the truest to the actual fabric color, a very pretty blue.

I did the hem twice, and as I used my surgical seam ripper to efficiently rip out the seam, it also efficiently ripped a hole in my skirt, which I think I salvaged with some fusible interfacing.  Otherwise this skirt will get shorter by another 5/8 or so....

I also cooked today.  Here's chicken cordon bleu with a honey mustard sauce from Cook This Not That, and cantelope chunks (my dinner).  The sauce is made with 1/2 a lemon, which I forgot....went back to the grocery store tonight for the lemon.  I love using the lemon squeezer:

I also made the summer vegetable soup.  All was looking ok-ish here:

But I guess the milk curdled!   That's the first time that's ever happened to me.  I think it's still edible? Any thoughts on that?

Farmer's Mkt flowers for this week:

I went to my favorite bakery yesterday for some treats. YUM.

I think I'm writing my 100th pattern review tonight, about Simplicity 2054, both the articulated and unarticulated versions.
(ETA:  My 100th pattern review is posted now!)

Be well and good night!

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!