Thanks for the love, New Look! Plus your voting results

New Look featured my 6067 dress on their Facebook page on Tuesday--and it's not even finished yet!



KID, MD let me know about it--it turns out NL also commented on my blog posting to let me know, but yahoo mail filtered the comment.

Thanks for the love, New Look!  You know I love you!


In my last post I asked for opinions on if the dress should have the slit or the V-neckline.  Well, the votes are in and the race was tight:  11 for the slit and 9 for the folded over look.  Two votes were cast for cap sleeves.

Concerns were voiced about the height of the top of the neckline for the slit.  I didn't fold over the 5/8 SA so that is why it looks so high.

Trumbelina asked about doing bust adjustments.  I don't think I can help with that question, but you could post it on the pattern review boards and see what others think.

Anyhoo, I am taking your advice into consideration.  The plan is to finish 6067 while it snows tomorrow.  Then it's supposed to be 55F on Monday, so I can wear the dress to work with a cardi and tights.


I have about 500 dresses I want to make. That may be an exaggeration. I have a LOT of dresses I want to make.  And I dropped significant $$ at Joann's 40% off their ponte roma double knit fabric this week.

Be well and good night!

New Look 6067 in progress: to V or not to V?

No one voted for navy in my last post, and I was also thinking gray, so I went with gray for New Look 6067!  (To recap, I've seen this dress on a few blogs lately, and it has moved up in my sewing queue to today!)

It's still in progress.  It totally needs the belt on me.  Trust me (or dig around my twitter photos and you'll see what it looks like without the belt).  There is a pattern for an obi-type belt with piping but maybe I'll just use the purchased belt I have.  I mean, I love piping, but this belt works really well with this dress!

Ok, what do you think,  should it have a split sort of v-neck like below...


Or a floppy folded-over "collar" (one of the views actually has buttons sewn on to this folded-over neckline):

Here is a close-up view:

Here's the side view.

And if you enjoy construction photos, here are some truly in-progress shots:
The points of the V's matching:

the front:

the back:

Currently, the darts are not the same length, ha ha!  Not totally sure how that happened as  I was pretty careful with transferring the darts.

As you can see, there's a lot of matching going on--matching the points of the V's in the front then matching with the CF pleat, matching the darts in the back, even matching on the side seam at the horizontal waist line (no pic of that). I used Amanda's trick from her invisible zipper tutorial where she just sews the area where the match is to occur, checks it, then if it isn't lining up, just rips out the stitching in that area (as opposed to sewing the whole seam, finding out the seams aren't matching, and ripping out the whole seam). So smart, and such a time saver!

This dress is supposed to have a zipper but since I used a double knit, I didn't insert one and am able to get it over my head. (The pattern is meant for a woven...but saw that at least one other person used a double knit without serious consequences...)

So, I still need to :

• install facings and decide on V neck or folded over collar?
• sleeveless or cap sleeves?
• fix the uneven back dart length
• hem

 I've spent about 5 hours on it today.  I was having some anxiety over sizing which covers about an hour of those five, but went with 12 grading to 14 at the waist and hip and now I'm excited for where it's heading!    If you have an opinion on the neckline and cap sleeves vs sleeveless, just let me know in the comments.

Be well and good night!

Quick sewing and cooking

Thanks for your comments and suggestions for blind hemming.  Very much appreciated.  I will blog when I actually try it...and also thanks for your kind words about being the Member in Focus on PatternReview.com.  I was SO excited about it.

Here's my first sewing of the new year.  I haven't timed how long it takes me to make these now, but it's probably an hour and a half?  I'm much more careful with my sewing now, though I could have done a better job with the purple pair.  With the striped pair, I lined up the stripes on the side.

Boyshorts.
Fabric: TexStyles in Austin during PR Day Austin, Nov 2011. Left over scraps from the StyleArc shirt inset.
Elastic: Pacific Trimming in NYC, during the NYC shopping day in Sept 2011.

Kinda have a nautical or French style to them, no?


Purple UW.
Fabric: Metro Textiles, NYC, while shopping with Antoinette, June 2011. Left over scraps from the Burda crazy ruffle dress.
Elastic: TexStyles in Austin during PR Day Austin, Nov 2011.
Definitely could have done a better job with them.



This New Look pattern has been popping up in the blogosphere. I think I will sew it tmw, but the question is, in navy or gray?? Also there is a marvelous piping opportunity there and you know I don't like to pass up piping.



It is National Soup Month and ironically I'm getting a bit tired of soup. I've been making quesadillas lately, using the recipe in Now Eat This Diet by Rocco DiSpirtio as a guide. I make mine with spinach instead of mushrooms, and with full fat mozzarella instead of reduced fat cheddar.  Here I served it with cantaloupe which was actually decent, especially for this time of year.


Here are the books for this week. Just one library book, the cookbook.

I read Food Rules in January last year from the library but bought a copy this year. I highly recommend it; it's a fast read and nicely summarizes what I should be eating. It's beautifully illustrated.  I plan on reading it each January to renew my commitment to healthy eating.

In Austin I discovered the puzzle called KenKen. I just got my first KenKen book and am enjoying it!  I've also been doing the Daily Jumble online again.  I haven't been into a puzzle phase for years but right now I'm into it.

It's getting late.  I need to remind myself once again, sleep is a gift I can give myself.
Be well and good night!