Darn It!

It's been a terrible week, so I'm catching up on my hand sewing while I distract myself with TV. I really hate hand sewing, but any sewing at all is good right now. Plus, I feel empowered to save my socks. I will darn them to salvation!

Source: realphotography.com via Muriel on Pinterest

On the list of items to fix (aside from socks), sewing buttons back on jackets, darning some studded cashmere Michael Kors arm warmers I bought for a steal because of a hole, and picking apart a men's shirt for a later project.

Where Am I?

I haven't posted in a month because I've been busy covering Fashion Week (a misnomer as it's really four major fashion cities showing one after another) for Fashion Me Fabulous. Because of this, I haven't been able to spend time sewing. This season's been a little interesting since I've taken up sewing. I noticed the seams more than ever. I cared about the fabrics and draping more. Poorly cut pants made me more nervous to try them.

Book Review: The Sewing Bible

Details: The Sewing Bible by Ruth Singer, $23.10 on Amazon.

Pros: Stitch By Stitch assumes your fabric is cotton or some other easy material, but The Sewing Bible lists other options for neat hems and seams if you're using a more difficult fabric like tweed or silk. Likewise, if you want to make some nice clothes without linings, this book will teach you how to finish your seams and hems professionally.

Where The Sewing Bible excels is the middle section regarding embellishments. She gives a nice primer on everything from pleats, beading, smocking, frogs, applique, quilting, pintucks and more.

Cons: Singer thinks too highly of hand sewing. It's all fine and good to know these techniques, but telling the reader to slip stitch a hem that could be done on machine is silly.

Some of the tutorials really won't do anything to improve your sewing skills, and they aren't structured to build skills like those in Stitch By Stitch.

Summary: Stitch By Stitch will teach you how to sew, but The Sewing Bible can spin you off from there. I would not recommend it as a catch-all primer, however.

More Aprons and More!

I made two more aprons. One is pretty much exactly what I made my nephew, and the other is for a baby.

This was my first commissioned work, which brings me to the drumroll section of this post...

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Introducing, The Hare and The Pear! This is my Etsy shop. Bookmark it! Hopefully I'll have a few things in it each month.

A Place Of Her Own

Since April, I've been sewing on the dining table. Well, to be honest, most of those days my machine sat unloved on the dining table while I glared at it. As my sewing paraphernalia grew, it took up more and more space until we were eating dinner on the couch each night. My fabric was spread around the house, my tools were usually out of reach, and bunny fur was getting everywhere.

My mannequin lived by the bookcase, make a creepy silhouette in the window.

No more! For Christmas, dear darling hubby got me the Expedit desk from Ikea. It's a pretty sweet sewing station. It's wide enough for my sewing machine and ironing board. Like most Ikea goods, it's modular and you can add new cubbies or buy door and drawer units to change the functionality. He set it up in the basement in an area we'd painted and carpeted. It's very comfy and well-lit.

Yes, I hung tulle form the ceiling.

What looks like cardboard tubes under my mannequin is really postal paper for patterns.

I have all my tools and fabric organized and at hand. No more searching for my scissors or seam gauge. My sewing box, which doubles as my pin cushion, is both out of the way and easy to get to. I don't have to walk to another room to get a book to reference. I know exactly what fabric and threads I have. My bobbins and fasteners are tucked away in drawers. So tidy!

Books and pins at hand!

These wooden boxes can from my parent's business. It's special to me to be able to reuse them.

Cotton waiting to be transformed into clothing.

We had an ornate card table in that space, so now it's my cutting station. My mat's a little large for the table. If I don't get a new table, I'll paint this one white.

I need to make some curtains to add to the hominess and subtract from the basementness. I like the white and brown, but I want to add touches of pink to make it like a cute French chocolate shop. And if you happen to be someone who sleeps in this area when you visit, fear not. There's still plenty of room for an air mattress.

Appliqued Robots

Skills acquired: applique, using fusible and non-fusible interfacing, dull needle identification

Meet my first applique.This was done on a toddler's tee shirt. I tried a variety of stitches on scraps first, and liked the zig-zags best. I know that will mean a little fraying, but that's okay. The button belly is happy.

I had black fusible interfacing and white non-fusible, so I had to use the non-fusible. (I've since stocked up on fusible.) I'm not sure if it was the best thing to use. It felt stiff, but that is sort of the point.

This is what I was putting on a onesie when my machine punched a hole in it. I had one antennae and the face left to do. That's all! The repair shop said they should have my machine ready by Monday. I miss it so much!

Blast You, Machine!

I've learned a hard lesson about dull needles. Of course, I should have checked it before over six months had passed. I was on the last few stitches of a onesie I was appliqueing for Christmas when my machine ate it! It needed to go in for servicing anyway as tension settings no longer seem to matter. I knocked it up to eight at one point but it was still crazy loose.