The Wedding Quilt!

So it has been a while since I've worked on the wedding quilt. Work travel and life in general have had the quilt sitting for far too long. Since I had a long weekend to myself (Ed was visiting our daughter in the Bay area), I spent the majority of the weekend in front of a warm fire quilting away!

Now we have progressed to the border, and you can see from the pictures that it is a simple flowing wave border, although I have added some hearts in between. Very cute!

We are moving right along! I hope to get more quilting done this week as my travel schedule permits because we are fast approaching the holiday season (can you believe it?), also I want to have this done by the end of December because then I will be starting on the wedding gown!

Stay tuned!

After some of the quilting: I have added hearts to the wave border!

The border simply traced on to the fabric!

Navy work skirt!

So I have not been working on the wedding quilt this weekend. But my plan is work on it this evening while I get caught up on the stuff on the DVR. Until then, here is Sunday's project!

A new navy skirt for work. Something just quick and simple that I whipped up today (took about 3 hours, including cutting out the fabric). I have a fabulous tweed suit jacket from Ann Taylor that I wear with navy pants but I didn't have a navy skirt to go with it. I like being able to mix and match for work because it makes packing easier and allows me to get more use out a piece in my wardrobe. Enter Vogue 8835. I chose version #2, shown below.

Vogue 8835

Now I only used a navy crepe-type suiting fabric that I found at Joanne's fabrics, nothing special. I just wanted something simple that could coordinate with the jacket. The one difference to the pattern that I made is to line the entire skirt, the pattern only calls for just the yoke to be lined. I prefer to line the entire thing because it A) slips on and off easier and B) allows your fashion fabric to last longer, thus extending the life of your garment.

I have finished everything except the hem on the skirt. I normally like to let my garments "hang" for at least 24 hours before I hem them. (Normally this is only done on bias cut skirts, but I prefer to do it on just about all of my garments). So my plan is to hem the skirt next weekend when I am home from work travel!

The skirt is kind of a mock wrap skirt, the wrap part is stitched up about 1/2 way down the skirt on the left side. These are not the best pictures. Unfortunately, my dress form is the one that I have had for about 25 years. It is much smaller than I currently am so the clothes don't fit as well on it as they should. I don't understand why that dress form "shrunk" as much as it did. Maybe a manufacturer's defect?!

All in all a satisfying project. I will probably use the pattern again with other fabrics. It seems to coordinate well with suit jackets so it will extend the choices of my current suits to make additional outfits!

It's not hemmed yet, that's for next weekend!

Look, I'm lined!

The skirt with the Ann Taylor jacket I wanted to match up with it.

The Wedding Quilt

I have been trying to work on the quilt in between work travel and normal "house stuff". I am currently working on the part in between the medallions which is the "filler" part of the quilt. (Don't know the technical term, I say filler)  I was going back and forth as to what design to use and finally decided on just a straight line. The main reason is that I wanted the feathered wreath medallion to be shown off. I find that to be a beautiful part of the quilt and I wanted it front and center.

These pictures are a little hard to see because of the late afternoon lighting, but you can see the straight lines filling in the design. I think that it looks really nice because it doesn't take away from the central design but simply adds to it.

Working hard and coming right along! That's a good thing because before you know it I will be working on the wedding gown! My trip to San Francisco is booked for middle November to meet up with my daughter to try on wedding gowns! We are going to have her try on several styles that she likes (that she saw in magazines) and then decide on what type of style to design for her gown. We will also visit the ultra-fabulous Britex fabrics, located in San Francisco. It is the orgasmic version of a fabric shop and a must-see for anyone visiting the Bay area! 4 floors of fabric heaven!!

Stay tuned for updates on the quilt as well as wedding gown updates and my upcoming trip. Finally a trip that is not for work but simply for pleasure!!!

Straight lines fill in without taking away from the design.

Hard to tell it's navy colored but it is!

The Wedding Quilt!

So I have been rather MIA lately with work travel and the long weekend and all. But I wanted to share the really cool label that I ordered from someone on Etsey. I was wanting a label for the wedding quilt that was personalized and different. It turned out really nice albeit rather big. I don't mind because I did want something different! The woman I ordered it from did a wonderful job, exactly what I was looking for!

A little large but I really like it!

I have been working on the quilt somewhat this weekend but no new picture to share yet. But here is a picture of the great label that I will use. More quilt pictures to come as I progress on!!

The Red Dress: Completed!

So I have completed the red work dress. The pictures that I took don't really do it justice but it came out really nice. I am happy with the results, and glad that I worked on a less expensive fabric first, because there were some changes to the fitting as I went along.
All in all it took about a day and 1/2 to complete, total. I worked on it over 2 weekends so that it not too bad. I hope to make another version of the dress with the full skirt as well, but maybe in a silk that I have in my fabric stash that is just waiting for a "home".

The dress is already packed for the work week ahead so stay tuned as to how it "felt" while wearing it!

Not the best pic. My dress form is smaller than I am now! I don't know why it shrunk!!

A little better picture, showing the fit of the dress. Ignore the pasty white legs and the messy bedroom!

New Red Dress!

So I decided to take a break from the wedding quilt (and save my fingers!). I have started working on a new dress for work, made out of Vogue 8633. I decided on view A, made is all red instead of the contrast shown in the picture. The fabric is a solid red medium weight jersey. I found this pattern with a beautiful silk fabric in mind that I have in my stash. But I wanted to try it in a less expensive fabric first. And since I have some "fitting issues", I figured that an inexpensive fabric would be the best way to go! I am well, chubby. And I have a very long waist, short legs and huge man-sized shoulders. No wonder why I sew!

Vogue 8633

So after some cutting and making the bodice in muslin first, I started in on the jersey. View A has a lined bodice but the skirt was unlined. I decided to go ahead an line the skirt part of it as well. The reasoning behind it is twofold. First, lining protects the fashion fabric and that way your garment lasts longer. Another reason is for a clean line under the the knit.

Medium weight red jersey fabric

I kind of hate cutting out patterns!

Stay tuned for more posts as the dress progresses! My guess is that by next weekend it will be done!

New Pincushion

It's an armchair!!

I have been rather absent lately, sorry travel has taken up most of my time! Back and forth to Pittsburgh and trying to get back into the groove of a new project! So with that, I am posting a rather cute picture of a new pincushion that I bought recently. I know, it's just a pincushion, but I think it's super cute and wanted to share! I just got it at the local Joanne's Fabrics, but I thought it was way more adorable than the normal little "tomato" pincushion I had. Yay for fun, silly things we spend money on!!!