Some people wanted to see what kind of stuff I've been
making. Well, I learned how to curse in very
inventive ways as I created a 3-in-1 jacket for my dad, who paid for the materials and the cost of the course. The course finished, but the jacket left my sewing/dining room table only in time for the Chinese New Year ushering in the Year of the Dragon. [wry GRIN] The frigging thing is all zippers! Ultrex is a bitch to work with if you don't have microtex needles or a teflon foot, or a walking foot for that matter. But there is a sense of grander achievement by pulling a warm coat from the sewing machine, a lot like finishing a queen-sized quilt. I'm getting into embellishments now. My latest sewing machine is a Janome ("The Janome" -- I just can't think of a nickname for it the way I had with the "Rumbler" and the "Juggernaut") with lots of stitches and a buttonhole foot. I took a twin-needle course, and finally made something for MYSELF: a grey fleece coat lined with a Coca-Cola print cotton. I'm piecing my own Ultrex coat together from scraps, and hopefully I'll be able to retire my much-mended old winter coat by next season. I'll at least have something to showcase.
I got the Janome because I needed to have that zig-zag capability to expand my skills, and I wanted something that would make buttonholes easily. I sold the Juggernaut to a neighbour (hopefully she'll complete that faux-fur vest she started as a first sewing project!) and gave the Rumbler away to a friend (who is still a friend in spite of it), and traded in the broken down old Singer. The Sweatshop is gone.
When my parents moved out of the province, I also inherited a few pieces of furniture, which means I now have a sewing area in the basement with my own cutting table, and a giant, mirrored armoire for storage. Very handy. Unfortunately, I lost my greatest asset when they moved: more TIME to sew!
This is the snowsuit that started it all: I took an
outerwear course to learn to make a 2-piece snowsuit
for my toddler Tiger. The ladies (almost invariably, the people offering and taking the courses are women) at Evelyn's
Sewing Centre in Newmarket, Ontario (plug! plug!) all say that their grandkids have been wearing their snowsuits for two and three winters each, through growth spurts and so on. Well, somehow I got a princess for a daughter. She likes PINK. At least Dragon Boy won't lack for winterwear next year!
Tiger's latest Ballet Dress, done in an irresistable pink ballerina print from Evelyn's Sewing Centre. Tiger's outgrown the toddler pattern, but I expect she'll outgrow this new pattern's style before she does its sizes. She's started turning up her nose at some of the things I suggest I can make for her. A discerning diva with inimitable style. I can't wait to see how that fashion sense matures. I can tell this right now: if she wants Old Navy and Gap labels for her clothes, I'm getting her a sewing machine and lessons instead!
The Bridesmaid dresses for Wendy's wedding. When the bride saw what nice dresses I could turn out with such a crappy machine, she gave me her mother's old Brother "Plastic? What's that?" Juggernaut straight-stitch machine. It ran like a dream, and quietly. However, it did ONLY a straight stitch, limiting what I could do.
Tiger's bathing suit was actually pretty easy to do on my Rumbler, although the motor wasn't strong enough to push the needle through an elastic band, and I ended up doing a lot of the elastic by hand. I had an easier time doing her next bathing suit with my serger.
Some more stuff I made with the Rumbler. It's an a-line T-shirt with little shorts. Shorts are so easy, I'm never buying them again, either. The fabric is unbelievably cheap, too. These days, though, I use my serger for everything that has to do with knits.
Here's a look at her hat. This was supposed to be
the smallest size on the newborn pattern. Instead, it
didn't fit any newborn I made one for until they were
at least 3 months old. :-) Now I know.
Here's my first quilt. (Picture will appear when I get around to scanning it eventually.) I took a course at Sewin' Love, a fabric shop in Aurora. Actually, it was more of a "shoppe" -- it had that nice comfy feel to it, until it closed. Dragon Boy's bedroom is decorated with bugs (we didn't know he was a HE until he came out, and Tiger already had the fish decor). I suspect he'll outgrow the ladybugs and cutesy stuff by the time he's potty-trained, but hey.
Here's the quilt I made for myself. It's not finished yet (of course), but it's a queen-sized do done up from the scraps left over from the maternity outfits I made when I had Dragon Boy on the way, as well as being the leftovers from the quilt I put together for my first niece Pound Cake. Quilt Update, September 10th, 2002: IT'S FINISHED! It took forever and a few chiropractic adjustments to shove that thing through my Janome sewing machine, and the walking foot seemed to plod more than anything else, and there are puckers everywhere, but IT'S FINISHED! And after only a year since I started it. Whew.
Here's Pound Cake's quilt. My brother turned down a similar quilt I had offered for Christmas. Since we have such different tastes in decor (he HAS taste), I'm not sure if he'll say "DOY!" or "Whew!"
A 3-in-1 jacket is really 2 coats: one of them is a fleece-lined reversible deal, and the other is a wind- and waterproof shell that zips onto the reversible to create a formidably warm winter coat. I love the fleeces, especially the microfibre chamois. That white stripe you see is the reflective tape my dad asked for. He lights up like a torch whenever you hold a
candle to that jacket! I had to draft the modifications (part of the class) and do unnatural things to the zippers.
Anyway, the price tag on the 3-in-1, if you bought one
in a store, would cost something along the lines of
$500 CDN, and chances are it wouldn't be made of
Ultrex.
Here's the hoodie I made from scraps. I used the honeycomb stitch to topstitch the hem and hood, and serged absolutely everything else. The only thing to match, when you're working with primary colours in a scrappy project, is the weight of the fabric. Oh, and make sure everything's colourfast. I learned that the hard way with one of my early Tiger dresses.
This is the snowsuit that started it all: I took an
outerwear course to learn to make a 2-piece snowsuit
for my toddler Tiger. The ladies (almost invariably, the people offering and taking the courses are women) at Evelyn's
Sewing Centre in Newmarket, Ontario (plug! plug!) all say that their grandkids have been wearing their snowsuits for two and three winters each, through growth spurts and so on. Well, somehow I got a princess for a daughter. She likes PINK. At least Dragon Boy won't lack for winterwear next year!
Here's my first quilt. (Picture will appear when I get around to scanning it eventually.) I took a course at Sewin' Love, a fabric shop in Aurora. Actually, it was more of a "shoppe" -- it had that nice comfy feel to it, until it closed. Dragon Boy's bedroom is decorated with bugs (we didn't know he was a HE until he came out, and Tiger already had the fish decor). I suspect he'll outgrow the ladybugs and cutesy stuff by the time he's potty-trained, but hey.
A 3-in-1 jacket is really 2 coats: one of them is a fleece-lined reversible deal, and the other is a wind- and waterproof shell that zips onto the reversible to create a formidably warm winter coat. I love the fleeces, especially the microfibre chamois. That white stripe you see is the reflective tape my dad asked for. He lights up like a torch whenever you hold a
candle to that jacket! I had to draft the modifications (part of the class) and do unnatural things to the zippers.
Here's the hoodie I made from scraps. I used the honeycomb stitch to topstitch the hem and hood, and serged absolutely everything else. The only thing to match, when you're working with primary colours in a scrappy project, is the weight of the fabric. Oh, and make sure everything's colourfast. I learned that the hard way with one of my early Tiger dresses.
