Today's Sew Satuday is specifically for those interested in learning and/or improving their sewing skills.
Several years ago I recall coming across this site and found it extremely useful. The site is sewing.org. Their SEW-lutions Guidelines are easy to read PDF's that you can download and make your own guide book by storing them in a binder. The guides cover very basic sewing information including tools needed and progress to more complicated information such as installing invisible zippers.
Unfortunately I haven't done any personal sewing since my last Sew Saturday post in early December, but there's no reason I still can't post a "Sew Saturday".
Recently I started following a Youtuber that sews and her channel name is "withwendy". Today I'd like to spotlight two of her videos that I would like to try in the very near future.
First up is this tutorial on how to make a slouchy sweater.
I would like to try this in both medium and lightweight
knits. While I love to dress up and be a girly girl, I also really
enjoy being comfortable and carefree when I'm lounging around the house
or running errands on the weekend. I think this technique will work
nicely on a variety of fabrics so it could be super casual or more
"dressy" casual.
Next is her tutorial on how to make an infinity scarf.
These scarves "seam" to be all the rage right now and on top of
being trendy can really aid in keeping you warm if you use as a layer
coordinated with your outfit.
I love the concept of creating clothing items by using a current item you have and love the fit of as a pattern. With patterns I always have a hard time adjusting the pattern in the areas that don't quite coincide with the pattern measurements.
I'm still a newbie when it comes to sewing, but aiming to eventually be able to sew a good portion of my own clothing without the use of purchased patterns.
Earlier today I tweeted that I enjoyed teaching a friends daughter how to sew with the hashtag pay it forward. I took her shopping for fabric so that she could make a pillowcase for each of her siblings and herself. We had a blast and even videotaped a good portion of it so I could share it with her parents because they weren't aware that I was going to do this with her.
This made me think of a movie I saw many years ago titled "Pay It Forward" and I thought it would be a great idea to list some ways we can pay it forward in 2012. But first, take a look at this trailer for an explanation of what it means.
I've committed myself to sewing a little each Saturday. I'm thankful for a space to be able to do something I enjoy. No, I'm not a professional. I'm actually still learning by teaching myself. Today's project is a cardi-wrap by Simplicity.
I found some cream colored knit fabric in my stash that I could use to make this SewSimple project. I'm not really fond of the color, but at least it will be wearable ;-). For the average sewing this project would probably only take and hour and a half, but since I'm a newbie and a must read the instructions type girl it will take me about 3 hours to complete, not including cutting time. Today I decided to use my rotary cutter to cut my fabric and saved considerable time since I didn't have to pin the pattern to the fabric first. I used my home-made pattern weights.
Front sides (cut 2)
Back and sleeve
I started sewing about 7pm and stopped at 8:30pm. I have the back and front sides sewn together and serged and only need to sew the sleeves on and hem the edges. Hopefully I'll get that completed tomorrow. However before I hem I'll need to decide if I want to cut the front drapes down by several inches. They are really long compared to the pattern photo, but I think I'll leave the length so that I can wear it multiple ways like YouTuber Naptural85 in the video below.
A few weeks ago I purchased a couple hair ties from Tomoka's Twists. While purple is one of my favorite colors I didn't have too many clothing items in purple so I stopped by the fabric store to pick up some fabric to make an outfit to coordinate with them.
The solid purple knit to make a skirt similar to a black skirt I already had and wanted to duplicate. The purple & white blend knit would be the top. I grabbed the below pattern for the top.
McCalls 6400
A pretty easy pattern considering it was only two pattern pieces, but OHHH! the issues I had. Mainly because I have a bad habit of selecting a pattern size that is too large for me because I'm trying to compensate for my problem area, my "gut". The result was a top that was WAYYYYYYY too big so I had to fix it.
After much tweaking I was able to get it to a point where it was wearable. You may not be able to see it well in this picture, but I added some elastic to one side to create the ruching. This pulled the fabric up on the side and creates a gathered effect to help camouflage my gut :-) . Overall I'm pleased with this first attempt, but will recreate this top in the smaller size in hopes that it will fit better.
And now, here's a head shot to show off the wonderful hair tie that was my inspiration.
In October I completed the clean-up of my sewing room. It had been in a state of disarray for the past three years because I didn't have time to sew once I went back to school. Seriously, I could barely move around in there, but now it's functional again. While cleaning I came across fabric I purchased specifically to make some pillowcases 3-4 years ago from Fabric.com, but hadn't sat down long enough to read and thoroughly taken in how to do.
Recently I've become quite addicted to watching YouTube videos and decided I would get these pillowcases done a lot faster if I could just watch someone teach how to make them. I searched for "pillowcase tutorial" and found this great video and followed the instructions.
Having my MacBook Pro set-up in the room with me allowed me to pause and play as I went along. I was soooooo EXCITED, you couldn't tell me anything. :-) The tutorial talks about using contrasting fabric for the band and narrow trim detail, however, I hadn't planned on that when I purchased the fabric so I used what I had. I used the same fabric for the band and a plain black fabric as the narrow trim. I was really surprised by how easy it was and they came out beautifully. In fact, that same night I made a total of three pillowcases.
The fabric looks "orangy" in some pictures. (true color shows in below picture)
4-Sets of Pillowcases
My goal was to complete 4 sets by the next night. The next night came
and went without any sewing getting done. However, I did finally finish
them by the following week and have some lovely pillowcases for the
house now.
I don't know about you, but there just seems to never be enough
pillowcases to go around, especially when everyone enjoys multiple
pillows on their bed. Hubby and I actually have six on our bed, so the
two that come with sheet sets are certainly not going to cut it. This is
a sewing project that will be a staple project for me so I'll be on the
lookout for great fabric at a SUPER LOW price. Speaking of price, the
cost of fabric to make these was approximately $4.00 each pillowcase.
If you're a sewer, let me know what you are sewing and post links to tutorials if you have some.
