McCall's 6078: this foot is made for walking

I was in need of some "instant gratification" sewing, and McCall's 6078 fit the bill.(Pictured here with my J Stern Designs jeans, and bathroom clutter.)

It was a PR "pattern of the year" in 2011, and I saw Bonnie wearing it at PR weekend last year and had to have it. I'm always in search of a good cowl.

There is some swayback pooling but in this fabric, it doesn't bother me.


With View C, you can move the contrast loops up or down to change the shape of the cowl.

It's still too deep for me. These pix are "carefully adjusted".


I'm thinking, there must be a way to change the pattern so the cowl isn't so deep.  Cowls always want to fall into a V naturally on me instead of an arc....Also, in its current state, if you bend over, the world can see down your shirt, easily.
  
I have an idea and will test it soon... it seems like it's better when I hike up the inside of the strap for about an inch above the loop.

 Anyhoo, I used a walking foot for the first time.

My friend Debbie showed me how to use one in January. This fabric needed it, it's an ITY that I bought with Vanessa in Atlanta last year, one that I was scared to death to work with. Turns out this scary looking contraption foot is easy, the hard part is the boatload of patience to sew sooo slowly (my instruction manual said to "sew at a speed between slow and medium". I bumped it up to medium. )

I even used it on my twin needle hem. 

A whole new world has been opened to me....I can see more ITY knits in my future.

Oh hey, look, here's a pic of the fabric I bought in Atlanta last year--I've actually sewn 2 of the 3 fabrics up, woo-hoo! (the clock fabric is an apron, sewn last summer...)

I made more cookies tonight. Last week I shared too many cookies and didn't keep enough for myself. This week, I'm holding on.

Hope you had a great holiday! Be well!

McCall's 4664 skull cap: done

So I am still working on the muslins for the Sewaholic Renfrew top and Thurlow trousers.  Jennifer Stern is helping me with the top via her "fit the tee to a t" class on PR, and Angela Wolf is helping me with the trousers via "Altering Pants" on PR.    I think I paid $27 each for these classes, and have definitely received more than $27 worth of help on each!   I will start muslin #3 of the Renfrew (determined not to have armpit wrinkles!) and here's muslin #5 of the Thurlows:



I had grand plans to start the third renfrew muslin this afternoon, but made this skull cap and took a gigantic nap instead:

Yes, the first day of spring was on Wednesday, but I still need another winter cap. I've made this before in brown, and then pink .  This time I wanted something more subdued....

It's supposed to be hemmed 2" but I like it to completely cover my ears, so I only hem with 1".
Also it was the first time I have ever, ahem, used the "stretch stitch", though I guess I should have been using this stitch all along on every knit garment.... There, confession is complete!
It looks like an italicized zig zag:

Here's a quick sample:


and because of it's italicized zig-zagginess, it allows the stitch to stretch with the fabric instead of breaking the thread.
So even on something really simple, I learned something new.

Oh,and I had to laugh, I had plans to make this cap before Christmas, and bought the fleece during one of Joann's big sales. I had guessed I'd just need a third of a yard.

Joke was on me:

That's the center strip. OOPS.  Totally forgot about that.
I folded the pattern piece in half and then cut two center pieces and sewed together.
It worked.
I braided my hair for this shot:

I didn't feel like cooking tonight, so I baked instead:

My specialty, Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, from scratch 

It's supposed to snow tmw, but here are some lovely daffodils from the supermarche:

I love spring! It's my favorite season!
Be well!!

How I wore McCall's 6518

Awwww...thank you for all your kind comments about McCall's 6518. Wow Jenny, is it really my best dress?  I think it might be!  Definitely my most elegant dress.

I have worn it to work on Monday *and* today (I got away with that because today I went to an off-site work event that none of my direct co-workers were at.  And I unexpectedly won an award at this event so I was photographed in my new dress, yay!).

I thought I'd show you how I styled it (though I actually wore it with my hair down).  Gray cardi, gray tights, black Mary Janes.  Kathy suggested black sheer stockings but those are currently out of my stock. of stockings.  So, gray tights it was!

Here I am channeling Marisa from New Dress A Day.  Can't quite get my hair into a top-knot like she does, but I felt the pose was vintage Marisa.

Here it is, without the cardi

And hee for your comments asking why I was vacuuming in the dress. It was because I had the dress on and then decided to quickly vacuum for the photo shoot.

It's a very comfy dress to wear.  No one said anything to me about the dress today, but on Monday I got a lot of nice comments from my co-workers.

If you missed the post with the detailed pix, it's in this post...

Be well!