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Hello Lover, I mean Color!

31 Dec

I am a slooooow poke! Apparently, back in early December, Pantone said ‘mimosa’ was the color for 2009. I love yellow and fought the Black Friday crowds to buy yellow sweaters last month.

And, I love me a mimosa. Lest ye forget that West Indian blood courses through my American veins, my favorite is a Mango Mimosa. So, in that vein and in honor of New Years Eve, I share with you my mango mimosa recipe.

Photo from AccessAtlanta.com

  • One CD of steel drum music
  • One bottle of champagne / sparkling wine
  • 1/2 cup of OJ
  • Couple teaspoons of lime juice
  • 1 can of mango nectar (Goya is good and found in the ‘ethnic’ food aisle of grocery stores)You can also use mango puree, but unless you are in Australia these are not in season right now.

Pour in a pretty fancy pitcher, over ice and mix.
Pour yourself a glass, play CD, turn your heat up to 80 and chillax.

Later today or tomorrow I’ll try and post my last project for 2008!

Happy New Year!

A Year in Review

30 Dec

Well, I’m too disorganized to put together a year-long sewing retrospective. But, I thought I would share something restrospective related. Below are the garments and accesories I made this year.

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m31/cidell/2008%20Projects/?action=view&current=a57d3e0d.pbw

From my count:

  • Two Vests
  • Three woven blouses
  • Three knit tops
  • Five woven dresses
  • Three knit dresses
  • Four skirts
  • Three pants
  • One bag
  • Three UFOs: MTP dress, a knit skirt and a woven skirt.

That’s about 28 things. Somehow less and at the same time more than I thought. Less than half are NOT BWOF. What are you gonna do? They work for me.

(RSS readers, click through for slideshow)

Last Years Resolutions — Measuring Up
I swore I did a post about my sewing resolutions last year, but I can’t find it. So, I’m going to review the ‘goals’ along the sidebar of my blog:

Attempt a FBA on a Big 4 pattern
Umm. I made an FBA, but it was in a muslin for a dress for someone else that I ended up not making. So, I’m going to count this as a ‘yes’ since I essentially did make one.

Develop a sloper
Erg. No.

Draft something from said sloper
Again, I say ‘no’. And I’m in a mini-battle with the powers that be to let me work a flex schedule to take a drafting class in the spring.

Figure out my pants / crotch depth – length fitting issues
Well, no. But, I have found that it’s trousers I look good in and that’s sort of been my saving grace.

Flat fell seam a shirt
Nope. I know ‘serge’ and ‘fuse’ are the five and four letter words of fine garment sewing, but I’ve always had the vocab of a sailor.

Learn to make a blind hem
Lol. NO! I don’t care how easy you say it is, I just haven’t tried it.

Learn to use each of my serger feet
Almost there. This is detailed in my ‘I think I love my serger’ posts.

Make a double welt pocket (either jacket or pants)
Nope!

Make a Tailored jacket
No! 2010 is our year baby!

Make bound buttonholes
No!

Make jeans
No! But, I finally have the fabric.

Make shirts with collars and such that fit well
Well. I’m going to say YES! I made two awesome blouses this year.

Sew a wardrobe (mini or otherwise)
I’m working on it now.

Use French seams and construct a garment
No

So, I think my next post might be things to add to this list :)

I don’t want to toot my own horn here….

24 Dec

But, as of 22:15, these bloody ties are blessedly done!! Champagne, anyone? Anyone?


I’ve been pinch hitting in our media office this past week while we’re cripplingly short staffed. No time like an economic crisis to remind your bosses of your many talents, eh? So, I’ve had very little time to sew.

Which means I don’t think I’m going to get my MTP dress done. We’re supposed to go by his parents after work tomorrow and again on Thursday. Literally, no time. But, I saved a bundle in this gift.


It took me a long time to finesse these in to the box. Sooo, that’s where they are being photographed from. The ties are beautiful and I’m very proud of them. My friend Andy tried a few one over the weekend and told me they looked and felt as good as an expensive department store tie.

The one thing that is decidedly not RTW is my closing. I had neither the time nor patience to do the invisible slipstitch. In the DPC tie book he suggests using a felling stitch as a closing alternative to beginners — something I learned about at West Coast PR Weekend from Susan Khalje.


I called Marji from Joann Fabric on Sunday when I couldn’t find silk thread (umm, yeah. I saw that in New York City. NOT Parkville, Maryland). She suggested rayon as it would have the same sheen as the silk. Gutterman’s rayon thread was 50 percent off too!

I don’t love my handwork, but it’s barely noticeable and the only people looking at the back will be the ones who don’t believe I made them for him. I would definitely do these again. Just not five at once.

Good grief. I have to wrap this don’t I? CVS better have something fitting :)

Sewing Christmas Wish List

21 Dec

I’m at home right now waiting for the heating repair folks. My heat went out overnight and it is COLD. Here’s hoping my 30 year old furnace is fine :) ** ETA: Heat is back on and I’m off to work. It was an easy (free) fix!

In the meantime, I thought I’d post a couple of Christmas wish list items.

I love these pink Clover scissors. I know Fiskars and some other folks are making pink scissors, but I like the little holster these come with. Kinda shows that they are dangerous somehow!


I still want to quilt, but I can’t bite the bullet on the fabric. So, if I had a sewing Christmas wishlist, I would put some fat quarter packets on it.

This one is just about my vintage!

Having a large fat quarter set, I would get started on the Single Girl quilt.

There is also great crafty themed jewelry on Etsy. Lindsay T posted about a fun bracelet today too.

How much do we love this by chrysdesignsjewelry?

yarn balls by Maria Cavalerro

And this ruler bracelet by bronzegirl?


On a non-sewing note, I want a pair of uggs for Christmas (notice I write that lowercase because I think it was smart and sneaky to copyright ‘uggs’. That’s like copyrighting ‘sneakers’.) I really, really, really want a pair and have told anyone who will listen.

Either the super tall one of the ‘cove’ style below. Yes, I prefer them in cream and I know they would get filthy. But, they are so pretty.

Why I didn’t buy the non-copyrighted uggs when I was in New Zealand several years ago with my mom for $80, I’ll never know. I guess I didn’t think they would still be popular. Clearly, I am not a predictor of trends!

How to sew the point in the tie blade

18 Dec

Good grief! When did Christmas get to be a week away? The plan is to do all my sewing machine work on the ties before the weekend. Saturday will be spent folding and hand sewing. I started this process with my least favorite fabrics. That way, by the time I got to my top fabrics, I would have gotten it all down.

Here’s how I solved my tip problem in the tie blade.

When you go to match your lining up with your facing in the blade section, you want to nestle the fabrics like so

You want to have about a fingers width of distance between the lining and the fashion fabric to create the actual miter. Not right against each other in the fold.

Here’s what it will look like after you sew across the tip of the blade.


You’ll then blunt the edges just like sewing most corners.


When you sew the sides, you’ll stop right where the stitches across the top are. Then, when turned inside out, it will naturally pull the roll of the fashion fabric on to the lining. Below is how it rolled before I even pressed it.

It’s the same process for the skinny part of the tie

Turn it inside out, and you’ll have a perfect point.


And, I solved the thickness issue. Several of you pointed out that I should use a lighter weight fabric for lining. So, I raided the stash for some fun combos.

I’ve got about three of these to this point with two more to go. By Saturday, I should be folding and closing them up at the back with my hand stitches.

** These are abbreviated directions just to show how I made my blade tip

From the Onion: New Portable Sewing Machine Lets Sweatshop Employees Work On The Go

16 Dec

I know it’s kind of hipster of me to say that ‘I love the Onion’. But, this one is particularly funny. And not at all politically correct and possibly offensive. So, um, please view at your own risk.

New Portable Sewing Machine Lets Sweatshop Employees Work On The Go

And the winner is:

15 Dec

I didn’t take pictures of the Patrones on Friday because that day went down the toilet. I went out for an afternoon meeting and proceeded to RUN OUT OF GAS. I am not a total and complete flake. Just a busy working woman. I waited in my car for over two hours in 30 degree weather for the gas people to get to me. By the time they arrived it was the end of day and I was too cold, tired and irritable to go back to the office. So, I just went home, self medicated with a riesling and went to bed.

Today, I forgot my camera, so here are my outstanding cell phone pictures:

Gosh. My desk is a mess! That can of sardines is brilliant. The patterns seem to be for ages 2-6, 6-10, 8-12, 10 – 14, and 12 – 24 months.
At anyrate, Anna is my office picked numbers 5 and 7. So the 5 (Gwen) and 7 (Jeannie) win the Patrones. Please send me an email with your mailing address. My email is miss celies pants at g mail dot com. I honestly wish I had more to give away! Just promise to post / email photos!

Breakthrough

15 Dec

After posting yesterday, I met up with some girlfriends to see Caroline or Change at our local theater. Following the show, I took some of the advice from the comments and went to a friends to borrow some of her husband’s $150 ties.


I know they are $150 because three still had price tags on them, including some Zegnas I wasn’t allowed to borrow. I wanted to feel them for stiffness so I could figure out if mine was just too stiff (they are). I then destroyed a tie from a ghost of boyfriends past (I found four ties in my house. I’m not sure what that says).

And, this morning before work, I managed to do this (mine is on the right):

Yep. That’s a pretty proper point, eh?

Ok Mom. I know you may recognize this fabric as material you brought for me from Korea like five years ago to make a slipcover for my old sofa. But, it wasn’t really my style and then you gave me your much nicer old sofa. But, lookit! It’s still going to a good cause.)


This generally solves my first problem of a bad tip (I’ll show how I did it later). But, the material I have is still too thick for the six-fold tie pattern I ordered. I have emailed the tie pattern guy and he said he would send me the seven-fold tie pattern that I meant to order for the cost of shipping.

My last problem is the width. I ordered the 4.25 width vs. 3.75 and it’s looking pretty wide to me. I chose it because I figure he’s got a broad chest and I’ve noticed ties are getting thinner or wider. I’m going to try and figure out how to scale down this pattern a 1/4 inch. I should bring it to work and hold it up against someone.
Or, honestly, I might suck it up and draft a pattern for myself using the DPC directions. Which are excellent and saved my butt on this.
Thanks for the words of wisdom and support!

It’s been a long time

14 Dec

So, it’s been like a year since I had a project that was tough / let me stumped / I wanted to pitch. This freaking tie is it.

Ok. Let me first start by saying that I haven’t used DPC’s directions which are naturally different than what came with the tie pattern I ordered. Color me screwed.

The tip isn’t pointed and the tie is super stiff (without any interfacing)

I’m leaving the house before I give up entirely. When I get back, me thinks I’ll try muslin #3.

Patrones Ninos Giveaway

11 Dec

A coworker is back from Spain and she did her darndest to get me Patrones. And she did. One #274, Especial Fiesta and three Disfraces (#275). Disfraces was totally new to me. And that’s because they are children’s costumes!

I think that ‘PREMIOS CONCURSO’ in the pink circle on the bottom right might mean something like, ‘Hey Cidell! Thought you were getting fabulous clothes for grown women didn’t you? Well NO! This year, we’re trying something new. So you’ll have to beg someone else to get you another Patrones sister!”

There are some SUPER cute costumes in here including Strawberry Shortcake, Peter Pan, a Puss in Boots, Captain Jack, Little Bo Peep, a princess, a can of sardines and a barrel of wine with little grapes.

The directions look WAY longer than they normally are for Patrones and they seem rather elaborate costumes. Remember, Patrones is published in Spanish only.

So, I’m going to keep one just in case I want to make a kids costume for friend (snort). But, the other two, I’m happy to give away for the cost of postage. If you want to be considered for the Disfraces, please leave a comment below.

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