NPRINS

I managed to make a pretty good start on my friend's Vogue skirt before my husband and I took off for camping last week. It's made of a black stretch wool from Michael's fabrics, and lined/underlined with charcoal grey stretch silk charmeuse. Here are a few pics of the progress: Front, belt loops were attached to the outer waistband only Inside waistband, the rigeline boning was stitched through along the seam allowances Inside of waistband, I only interfaced the front panel as I want to take advantage of the stretchy fabric. Closeup Inside out, still needs the bottom edge of the waistband finishing, zipper, and hem. Back I am still sort of dreading attaching the lining to the hem vent and back seam, I think it will all have to be done by hand due to the underlining method of attaching the lining. Does anyone have a good method for doing this? My RTW clothing all looks so neat on the inside, there must be a way to do it.

I've made vented cuffs on knits a few times now, following the directions for the infamous Vogue 8379 wrap dress. They work fine, but leave an unfinished seam allowance on the inside that always seems to fold the wrong way when I put my garments on. I recently made a copy of a Diane von Furstenberg dress that a friend lent me, and spent some time studying the cuff. I think I figured out the method used there, and took lots of pictures when making mine so I could put together this tutorial. I hope someone finds this helpful!! I know I was really confused by the Vogue instructions at first but it does work. DVF Cuff Tutorial

Well a new hard drive later and I'm still having computer problems at home, so sorry for the lack of updates. I have been sewing, shopping, and brainstorming so I have lots to tell you about but my laptop decided it hates blogger and ditches my internet connection every time I tried to get in. First of all, thank you to Lindsay T and Sigrid for nominating me for a blog award, thank you so much! Lindsay I am so flattered that you want me to blog more, and Sigrid I am amazed that I actually inspire YOU. The debt is certainly on my end. In other news, I have again accepted a 'sewing for hire' project, if all goes well I may actually let my friend take me out to dinner upon completion. However this time said friend is somewhat local, and she happens to live within 10 minutes of Stonemountain fabric store in Berkeley. No of course that didn't influence my decision. :-) Last weekend I went over her house to fit the muslin for this Vogue skirt, she has a dress by bla

Well I was going to wait to announce the news that I finally purchased my very own clothing labels for loohoo originals, but they just sent me an email about a 20% off sale. Of course I ordered a few days too early to take advantage, but for anyone else who's interested here it is! Namemaker.com Code: "halloween" for 20% off the entire website until Monday September 15. This site is one of the few that makes custom woven labels with very small quantity requirements, I ordered these which take about a month to get according to the site, but the cost is very reasonable, 50 for $22 with the code. And I know Christina at assorted notions has ordered from them before and was happy with her purchase. If you've been thinking about it now's a good time to do it!

Remember this linen shell from months ago? The one I said I had several colors of silk charmeuse ready to go for? Well I finally dug out this pattern again, made some final tweaks, and sewed it up over the weekend. Only it didn't turn out the way I planned. Do you see anything different here? Original Silk Version Yes the pleats are backwards. That's because I decided I wanted the dull side of the charmeuse on the outside, but forgot when I was doing the french seams and sewed it inside out. Of course I didn't notice after only one seam, I think I had the entire front section together. So instead of ripping it all out I decided to just go with the flow, and make it up shiny side out with inside out pleats. I meant to do that, right? On the upside, I did draft an all in one facing for this version, following the instructions in Claire Schaeffer's High Fashion Sewing Secrets .* I interfaced the facing only, finishing the raw edge with pinking shears. And I made