PR in NYC and A New Sew -A-Long

My closures arrived last Tuesday and I was able to complete my jacket by the weekend in enough time to wear it for PR Day in NYC this past Saturday, but I'll talk about that in a minute.

Can I tell you, that I love the closures. Since I never worked with leather before, I had to figure out how to work the placement. I I was afraid to use pins because I didn't want a pin mark to show after I had sewn them. In the end, I remembered that a couple of weeks ago I had purchased this temporary sewing glue stick at JoAnns. I also did use a pin but I made sure that it was in a spot that would be covered by a stitch. In the end, the wearability factor was pretty good, but I need to make a few adjustments. I want to add a snap to the inside of the jacket to help the inside front flap piece not slide. I also will prick stitch the shawl collar(Thanks Sheila) and inside facing to help it lay flat a little better. Overall, I love the cardigan/jacket and it seems argyle is the in thing right now, or one of them anyway.

On Saturday, I ventured up to Manhattan for PR Day in NYC.


I had a blast. First and foremost, I finally got the chance to meet my buddy Sheila. Can I tell you that Sheila's jacket is Badddddddddddd!!!. The pictures don't do it justice. You have to see it in person to appreciate it. She embellished the front with 4 rows of top stitch down the fronts and around the collor. VERY NICE!!!

We had to get our day started at Starbucks before stomping over to Metro Textiles for some major damage. Kashi and Petricio are wonderful. If you haven't shopped in NY and you ever get a chance to go, please stop by and visit. They are not only helpful and informative, but very nice to.

Our next stop was Mood. This place is out of this world. I don't know how the designers of Project Runway shopped there. The place is huge(2 floors), and there is so much to pick from. After Mood we stopped at Greenberg and Hammer. Sorry I don't have more pictures of that store, but I got a little busy picking out notions and tools. They had a really nice spread awaiting us when we arrive. Juice, Soda, cookies, and Mimosas. Upon leaving, they gave us lovely gift bags to take home.

From there stopped to eat at Village 38. This is when we all had a chance to sit down and talk shop, get ideas and talk about different techniques. Let me tell you, we had a really nice group of interesting men and women. Thank you Tom P. and Cindy for organizing. It was very nice, and I definitelywould go again.

After lunch, we headed over to Rosen & Chaddick. They have the most beautiful shirting fabric, but man is it expensive. At that point Sheila and I broke off from the crowd and tried to hit a yarn shop or two. It was pretty late so we only had a chance to check out Habu Textiles.

It was a lovely day, and I got the chance to hangout with some very amazing people.If you ever get the chance to go to a PR Day, or Weekend, you MUST go, if you can.

On an ending note, I joined Faye, over at Faye's Sewing Adventures in her Month of Tops Sew- a-long. I have about 8 tops picked( I originally had 11) out that I would like to make, but for right now I only want to commit to making 4 of them. I'm showing you 5 because I saw the top that Nancy K wore over the weekend, so, I've added it to my list also. It's BWOF 12-2008-113B. The fabric is a jersey knit that I picked up at Walmart. By the way, Nancy's jacket was total Bling to me. I loved it. Next up is Butterick 5420. View D.I picked out a bamboo knit fabric at JoAnn's to try this one on. This fabric is like butter.

Next is BWOF 2-2009-108. I'm using a jersey knit that I purchased at JoAnn's.

This pattern is BWOF 5-2009-103 with a jersey knit I picked up at Fabric Warehouse. And finally, Simplicity 4112, with curtain fabric I picked out at Fabric Warehouse. I doing View B.

That's it for me today. I'll be going to visit my mom tonight and then I'll head home to start cutting.

New Toys and Work in Progress NL 6922

I hope that you all are doing well. I'm hanging in there, but I'm still trying to figure out where the time is going. My days seem to fly by. I'm still trying to figure out where last week went. Anymore, I barely have the energy to get up in the morning and go to work. Once I get home, I've pretty much been heading to bed. Anyway, first off, I need to give a very big THANK YOU to Robin. We had an awesome conversation a couple of weeks ago about feet for our sewing machine. Mine didn't come with an invisible zipper foot or a gathering/shirring foot so she guided me to Singer and Ebay. I hit the jackpot over at Ebay, and the new additions to my sewing family arrived last week.
I haven't tried them out yet, but they fit my machine, so we'll see.

Yesterday I cut out and started working on NL6922.

I wanted something new to wear for PR Day in NYC this Saturday. If you're going leave me a message so I can look out for you.

I was on Sheila's blog the other day and saw this picture, and thought, "I can make that.


Ms. Sheila had made a jacket similar to it back in September and I liked the pattern so much, I had to go out and get it. Since it was in my stash of patterns, it was even better. I had some knits at home but I wasn't crazy about what was in my stash and most of what I had had Lycra , or a sheen or more of a jersey knit and I wanted something a little thicker. Hence, I took a little trip to one of my favorite places, Fabric Warehouse on Saturday, and I picked up 2 yards of argyle sweater knit fabric.

This jacket came together so easily and in no time last night.

Pretty much everything is done on it. I'm just waiting on my leather goods to arrive. I ordered these two closures from M& J Trimmings in both black and brown on Friday. I'm leaning toward the one with the round silver buckle instead of the square one.

What do you think? I tried the jacket on, and it's covering my butt, but I might take off a couple of inches, so it looks like the picture, but I haven't decided yet. I figure I can make that final decision once I put the closures on. I plan on hemming the sleeves tonight if I'm not too tired.

Today I'll leave you with a picture of me from Friday night, of course, after the night was over.
Boy, did I dance my feet off. They were still killing me on Saturday.

Rhinebeck!!!

Last Saturday morning I got the chance to headed up to Rhinebeck, NY for the Sheep and Wool Festival with my yarn buddy Rachel. Driving up the weather was lousy due to the scheduled Nor'easter. When we hit exit 16 on the Jersey Turnpike it started to clear up a bit. The weather held out in Rhinebeck, so that alone was worth the drive. The scenery was beautiful.


I pretty much behaved myself when I got there. I needed to check out Brooks farms for some more Acero yarn. I needed one more hank of the green (Some lady told another lady that I knocked her down to get the green hank of yarn. That to me was pretty strange, as she was standing looking at the blue yarn next to it. I walked up, picked up the green yarn, and as I walked away she gave me a look. I didn't even touch her. I guess she decided she wanted the yarn when I picked it up. Too bad, I think I needed more than her.) for my Coraline sweater to be safe and I picked up 4 hanks in red to play with possibly for a future design.

I lucked out at Misty Mountain Farms. They are the folks that my then boyfriend, now husband purchased my spinning wheel from. I got 2 large hanks of black alpaca 665 yards a hank for $23.00 each. Sorry about the picture, because the color's off .


I'm saving it for either a skirt or a sweater. I'm not sure yet.

I found one new vendor(The Sheep Shed @ Mountain View Farm) I really like and I will be ordering from them in the future. I purchased 3 hanks of roving each 2 ozs for $6.00 a hank. It's wool and tencel. Ive never spun that combination before so I was eager to try it out. Which I did a little on Sunday. I LOVE IT. I'm hoping I have enough for a hat and either a mittens or hand warmers. We'll see.

At the festival they had wine and cheese tasting which I liked very much. I purchased goat cheese with a layer of burnt ash on the top and sheep cheese. They are both very tasty. Here's a picture of some of the sheep cheese which I had with some cranberry wine Sunday night. The wine was very good also.

One of the booths that caught my eye had 2 beautiful felted paintings in it by Leslie Samson of Brantford, Ontario. Each of these paintings took about 100 hours a piece to do. She told me that she felts her canvas first, washes it, then she needle felts on top of the canvas and washes it again. The second painting is of the Elora Gorge in Elora Ontario.

Overall I had a really nice day and great company. Rhinebeck is a beautiful place to visit. The festival is nice and it had a little bit of everything for everyone, even if you weren't a knitter/crocheter/weaver/spinner. The festival was more spread out than Maryland, and you could purchase more handmade items.

In knitting news I finished my project for Knit Picks. I only have to weave in the ends, so you know I'm happy. Yesterday I started on this blanket. Since it's a holiday gift and I'm afraid I won't finish it in time, I figure I'm going to crochet and knit this project. This is what I have so far.

On Sunday I spent the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning. I finally figured out how to transfer my downloaded audio books from my public library (they have a website with downloadable books) to my iPhone. Let's just say, I'm a very happy camper now. I'm reading the Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I also started to FINALLY cut out my trenchcoat pattern. I'm clicking my heels 3 times. Hopefully by this weekend, I'll have a muslin cut out and worked up.

Family Update and some sewing

First of all , I would like to thank all of you for the well wishes and prayers. The more prayers the better, they are helping and working. My mother is doing better every day but I know it's going to be a long road. My MIL is doing alright as well. I just wish we could get her to stop smoking as the doctors have told us that is one thing she can't do. But, she is not willing to stop.

In other news, my project for Knit Picks is coming along nicely. I should be done soon, since it's due back to them by the end of the month. Then hopefully I can get back to my knitting projects that are already in progress.

This past weekend I worked on New Look 6828.

No time like the present to get this one done since I've only had it cut out and sitting since late Spring. I did View A with sleeves. I love this dress. I purchased the fabric at one of my favorite places, Fabric Warehouse in Bensalem, PA. The construction was very simple and easy. The hardest part was doing the gathers.

After that, you pretty much fly through the rest of the it. I wore it to work today and got quite a number of compliments. Once they found out I made the dress, a few of the girls including my boss asked me if I could make them one. I have to think about that one, as I wouldn't know what to charge and if it's worth it.

I also reworked my mother's padded cushion for her travel wheelchair. I talked about it in my last post. Well, the staples weren't going into the boarding all the way, so I went to JoAnn's and found upholstery tacks and used those instead. I actually think it looks nicer.


Last week I got a chance to iron the pattern pieces for McCalls 5978 and Butterick 5030. This week hopefully I'll cut out the fabric and finally cut out the pieces for my trench coat. I am so behind on that.

Can It Get Any Worse

I've been trying to decide if I should talk about this because I usually don't talk about private things on my blog. But I figure the more prayers we get, the better.

On or about my last post, my husband and I found out that his mother had an aneurysm in her brain. She is doing okay right now. She went through one procedure that week and has to go back in 4 weeks. At that time they'll shoot coils into the aneurysm hopefully taking care of the problem. She did suffer some short term memory loss from the first procedure but she coming along.

A week after this took place (last week) I got really sick with a sinus infection. They also thought I had the flu, so per doctor's orders, I couldn't leave my house. Now to make matters worse, my mother didn't answer her phone on Monday so I drove over there, and thank god I did. Her blood sugar was through the roof(she's a diabetic) and she had also suffered a heart attack. It was a little crazy at first and they didn't know if she was going to make it. She is now doing much better and getting stronger every day. I know this of course by her attitude towards me.

Through all of this, I've gotten some knitting done, but I can't show it because it's a sample item for the December issue of Knit Picks. I can tell you that it's beautiful and I want a set for myself.

Last Saturday I made a window treatment for my bathroom window. Do you ever have that problem where you buy a shower curtain, and you want a matching window curtain, but they don't sell them? Here's an easy solution. Buy an extra curtain, and make one. The curtain looked like this and here's the end result. My second project last weekend dealt with my mother. When I travel with my mother, we usually bring her wheelchair. It just makes things go faster. We purchased a traveling wheelchair the other day but it didn't come with a cushion, so I made her one. I measured the chair dimensions, went to JoAnns and purchased some foam. I used an electric knife and cut the foam to the size I needed. I then went to Home Depot, I purchased some boarding for the base. Had that cut there to the size I needed. Last Saturday I put the foam on the boarding. Covered it in batting, and this morning I covered everything in black duck cloth and stapled away. I think it turned out okay.On Trench Coat Sew Along news, I found the lining for my Trench Coat last Sunday.

I thought I had found my buttons as well, but now that I've found the lining, I'm going back to the drawing board on that one as they do not match. These buttons were in my stash. Believe it or not I purchased them at The Dollar Store. Here are pictures of the front and back of the buttons. I'll probably go back to JoAnns or take a trip to 4th Street in Philadelphia to see what I can find in the near future. Between today and tomorrow, I want to make another attempt at cutting out the pattern pieces or at least start to cut them out. After that I want to start my muslin.

I did cut out the pattern pieces for Butterick 5030. I need to iron them and cut out my fabric. I also plan on cutting out McCalls 5978. I'll have to see how much I can get done this weekend. That's all that going on right now. I hope you all are doing well.

My First Sew Along

I've never tackled a coat before and when I saw the Trench Coat Sew Along,

I thought that might be the ticket to get me going. I emailed Elizabeth yesterday morning to see if it was too late to join and she gladly sent me my invite.

Since I already have it in my pattern stash I thought I'd go with McCall's 5525 for this one. View E.
I'm a little apprehensive about this because it is my first coat, but I will try to do my best. I found this fabric believe or not at Walmart.

I think it is a polyester blend of some sort. It was marked as fabric unknown. I haven't picked my lining or buttons out yet but I would like something colorful for the inside of the coat. I figure I can decide on the buttons as I move along.

The other decision I have to make is whether or not to treat the fabric so that it's waterproof. Do any of you have any suggestions in reference to that? I've never done that before.

In other sewing news, I'm also cutting out McCall's 5978

so that I can sew along with my buddy Sheila. I also plan on cutting out Butterick 5030.

I think that's all I can handle right now as I start back to work this week and I'm crazy with knitting projects right now. I'll tell you more about that later this week.

Sheer Madness!!!!

I knew this fabric was a little sheer, but I really can see it now in these pictures. I finally finished Simplicity 2584. I am very proud of this dress. It turned out really nice and I can't wait to wear it next week to work. That's right, I start back to work on Monday. I'm hoping things won't be to crazy, but hey, who knows. Anyway, back to this dress. So, you already know that I tried french seams on this dress. I was thinking about trying some piping around the neckline, so I decided to learn how to make that also. I think it turned out pretty well, but in the end, I decided not to use it. I followed the pattern directions, sewing in the facing and then did top stitching. To make sure I didn't mess up, I used carbon paper to trace the lines from the pattern and then went over the lines on the interfacing with marker.

My favorite part of this dress was the sleeve construction. I remember when I cut this pattern out that there was a piece for the sleeve lining. When I looked at it, I said to myself, what the heck is this for. Why would I need that? Well, it genius. The sleeve is made up of 3 parts. The actual sleeve, the ruffle and the sleeve liner. Each piece is sewn together separately. Then you connect the ruffle to the liner while gathering it on one side. Then you attach the ruffle to the sleeve and gather it on the other side. When you've completed that you attach the sleeve liner to the inside where the ruffle and the sleeve meet. In doing this, you pull the ruffle into the inside or wrong side of your garment, as you can see in this picture. And it looks like this on the right side of your garment. In conclusion, I love the dress and will definitely be making another one of these. Probably next Spring, as this pattern has various other sleeve options for the dress. I have to go for now, but I wanted to leave you with my clearance find from JoAnn's last week. They were clearing out for new stock and I just could not leave them at the store. Oh, the possibilities.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm going to try to.