NPRINS

I managed to get a copy of the May Patrones Extra, #268, by asking a friend vacationing in Spain to look for it. Begging non-sewing friends to find something called 'Patrones' is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. But chocolate is chocolate, and in general I'm not picky. If I'm not careful this could lead to the sickness known as 'pattern magazine collecting', which I'm fairly certain Cidell suffers from. Admission is the first step, hun. There's a lot of great designer dresses in this one, plus a pretty good safari-inspired spread, and a maternity and large size selection. Linesheets Prada Lacroix Some of my other favorites.

So I did not even touch DH's shirt over the weekend, I ended up having to return my library copy of Shirtmaking and had no access to the seam allowance chart I started following.* I had a lovely time on Friday afternoon with the sewing ladies who invited me to the Haute Couture Societe show, we met up at one of their homes for a little show-and-tell, sewing chat, and iced tea. (Thank you for hosting Ann!) I was lamenting on my lack of sewing motivation and they wisely recommended a quick simple project to get me going. I've been meaning to make a muslin of this Simplicity pattern I just had to have after I saw Erica B.'s version , so I figured this was a good opportunity to dig it out. Simplicity 2938 It's a tank style top with 3 front pieces, the center panel has unsewn pleats at the neckline, and the seams are mostly vertical, falling over the bust line. There is a center back seam and it calls for a side zipper, however I prefer a back zipper and put it there ins

I'm not done sewing for other people yet, even though my stash is calling to me from its newly organized home. I snagged some of this Armani shirting from Michael's Fabrics last month with a shirt for DH in mind. I read a bunch of reviews on patternreview.com and settled on this Kwik Sew pattern, 2777. It's a standard dress shirt with double yoke, separate front band, short or long sleeve with placket, and collar and separate stand. I started tracing off the pattern last weekend and quickly got bogged down, I'm trying to follow David Page Coffin's methods in his Shirtmaking book. (This is an excellent book that I have checked out of the library more times than I can count, I need to purchase it.) First I flat-measured one of DH's shirts that fits him well and compared those to the Kwik Sew. I had to trace in between 2 and sometimes 3 sizes to get it close to fitting. Once I had all the pieces traced out, I turned my attention to the seam allowances. Kw

Christina at assorted notions tagged me with this literary meme: 1. Pick up the nearest book. 2. Open to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the next three sentences. 5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you. Okay prepared to be bored. I was in the lab at work when I read Christina's post, so now you can try to figure out what kind of lab work I do when I'm not sewing. This is from 'Introduction to Focused Ion Beams' Ed. Lucille Gianuzzi and Fred Stevie. "And this encapsulation will generally ruin the device by either floating the structures off the surface or crushing them. FIB tools can cross-section MEMS class devices without damaging the unsupported/released structures. Figure 19 shows a tilted view of one pixel of a DLP device, which is a MOEMS device." Now I will frantically try to choose 5 more people before everyone else does: Pirouette , Emily , narcissaqtpie , Loopylulu , and Erica B . Play along if you like!

Man I don't think I've ever wanted to be finished with something so bad. I started a knockoff of this Michael Kors dress back in January, it was for a friend who lives on the other side of the country so we mailed muslins back and forth getting the fit right. Then she spent another month looking for fabric. The past couple weeks have been spent desperately trying to finish it up, I ran into problem after problem with the collar and hems. I have come to the realization that ripping out and redoing handstitching is my least favorite sewing activity EVER. However, it is done, and we now have a magnificent wool dress in May. Details, details. Front Back Inside out, from the back. Bias-bound seams: neckline, waistline, and hem. Hong-kong finish: sleeve hems, armholes And here we have the source of most of my frustration, the collar. Isn't it pretty? Looks like it just went together all by itself, huh. Yeah *&^%$#@ right. I had practiced making it several times with

After reading Cidell's recent post on Patrones magazine, I sent a friend in NYC out in search of the new issues. I had heard Around the World magazines there carried it, not wanting to shell out the $30 it would cost on ebay to have it airmailed. She didn't find the recent issues, but she did find the August 2007 for $10! I was immediately drawn to these two coat patterns: Maybe I just have trenches on the brain since buying fabric from Michaels a month ago. The issue has 57 patters, including 4 formal dresses, maternity, and tall sizes. I don't even know where to start!