Tracing & Cutting & Baking Day

While the bright sunlight was blazing in my sewing room, I spent most of today tracing and cutting out patterns. Of course, my BWOF 12-2008-113 took the longest time. Being my first BWOF attempt, I had to make sure I added the seam allowances to the pattern pieces I traced. I also figured out the roadmap to the pattern sheets. That will have to wait for a separate post on my first BWOF experience. Stay tuned.

I zipped through tracing and cutting out New Look 6735. Another knit top in the works.

In between tracing and cutting, I also spent time backing up all my photos and data onto two separate external drives. I've been taking about 500 photos a month...that's been the average. This coming week, I've been tasked to take some pictures at our church...rehearsals for the Christmas program. This should be fun.

Now, it's time to bake some cookies. I think the last time I baked cookies was over 15 years ago. I used to make wonderful desserts (e.g. cream puffs, cakes, pies, etc) and baking with chocolate was my specialty. I just hope I am not too rusty to bake oatmeal cookies.

** Update **

Well, my oatmeal & raisin cookies came out pretty good and I didn't burn them. I should have left them in the oven for another minute to get a bit more browner. But they are yummy and chewy. I used parchment paper on the cookie sheet before placing the dough on the sheet. I got the recipe from America's Test Kitchen site.

I was a little apprehensive to use their recipe as the directions included: using two cookie sheets with one sheet placed on the lower rack (oven) and the other sheet placed on the middle rack. Bake for 22-25 minutes. About half-way through the baking process, swap the sheets on the two different racks and then turn the cookie sheets halfway. Basically, the lower sheet moves up to the middle rack and the middle sheet moves down to the lower rack. Then take the cookie sheets and turn so that the back cookies are now in the front. You know what? It really worked. All the cookies were evenly baked. I won't doubt any of their recipes again. I do love watching their shows on PBS.

NL6856 Muslin...Not Too Crazy About It

It's been raining all morning and all day. Great opportunity to do some sewing. No running around or shopping today, just blissful peace in my sewing room and the hum of my SM. Oh, and of course Christmas tunes are playing in the background.




Here's my NL muslin knit top on SusieQ. This NL knit looks better on her than on me. I'm not too crazy about the neckline treatment as it appears to stand up along the edges and more noticeably around the shoulders and back areas. I still need to hem the sleeves and the bottom. Maybe it will look different once I finish the garment.

Maybe there's a reason why NL did not include a picture of a real live model wearing the clothes on the pattern envelope.


I'm off to finish two more t-shirts (morphing from Men's XL to KS size M).

I'll try to post more pictures later today.



** Update **



Here's a picture of the finished New Look knit top. What do you think?

Weekend Projects & Seeing Orange

I am getting some sewing time this weekend. First, I'm seeing orange as in orange thread and fabric. I'm working on a Xmas gift for my DB who is an alumni of VA Tech. Still can't say what I'm working on, but there's a lot of orange. I can't wait to switch to sewing with burgundy thread soon.

On my cutting board, is New Look 6856. I'm working on the v-neck knit top, view B in the following picture. I have an olive and black geometric knit print from Gorgeous Fabrics that I pulled from my stash. I plan on using a plain black knit, also from my stash, to use for the v-neck binding. I have traced off a size small with a 33" finished bust. The knit I'm using has a lot of stretch and should work fine for this top.



I will be splitting my time between cleaning up the house for the upcoming holiday, sewing, going through my closet to purge clothes & shoes that I no longer wear, and spending some time with my Mac.

On the sewing education front, my local Hancock is no longer offering sewing classes. What does that mean? I have more time for sewing. I hope to start teaching again early next year either through private lessons or submitting my resume to another local fabric store...G's. We'll see.

Upcoming Sewing Expo & Other Sewing Things

I am looking forward to attending the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo this coming week and weekend. I have signed up for 5 classes...all on pants and fitting: Win The Battle of the Butt, Fitting Accomplished: Pants, Pants Construction: The Basics, Comfy Tailored Pants and Skirts, and Pants Construction: Zippers and Pockets. Whew! I have to set a "budget" for this Expo as I expect to visit Vogue Fabrics and other vendors for fabrics and sewing supplies.

I also hope to get over this cold and my stubbed toe. Yes, I was half awake this morning and running up the wood stairs and ouch! I didn't bleed to death, but my big toe is now quite sore. I'm hoping for warm weather next week so I can wear flip flops to the Expo instead of squeezing my hurt toe into real shoes. I know it's Autumn and not Summer, but I have to be comfy. You know with all the vendors there...there will be a lot of walking around for me. Mingling and networking. I am so looking forward to being around fellow sewists for a couple of hours.

I believe my sewing mojo is slowly coming back.

I have had this New Look 6735 pattern in my stash for awhile. It's been on my sewing agenda and of course, moved up and down my sewing priority list. I love all the garments included in this pattern. So, this might be the first pattern that I hope to make at least 3 garments from it.




Since my last sewing project was a Butterick sweater cardigan, I thought I would continue and search for another one. The cardigan (view A) in this New Look pattern is much more of a classic style. I also like the knit top (view B) with the 3/4 sleeves. So, now I need to decide whether to make a skirt or the pants for the complete 3 piece ensemble.

Now, all I need is to collect the fabrics and see what goes together. Wish me luck as it will take me some time to select the fabrics, trace all the pattern pieces, and make whatever adjustments that needs to be made.

I hope you're having a great weekend!