Sunday, September 15, 2013

A New Take on the Hong Kong Finish

I've just finished the dress that is part of my Pattern Review Mini Wardrobe Contest entry. See here at Sew Passionista by DIANA. So now I'm hard at work on a brown denim suit for my sister Gloria.

In a way, it's a piece of cake because ,except for being smaller busted than me, the two of us are exactly the same size. My Sandrs Betzina jeans fit her perfectly!

The jacket is this OOP Burda pattern  8605,




that I love and have made many times before including here, and here, and here, etc.


I love a Hong Kong seam finish which I blogged about before  in this post. But up until now, I've always applied it after sewing the various seams together. Well, I got the bright idea ,this time, and many of you probably already do this, to apply the finish before I join most of the seams together and it's so much easier this way. Who knew?!

Here are the various parts of the jacket with the animal print charmeuse strips already applied.





I'm just so tickled about this!

If I were ever to sell garments made by me, this jacket would be the thing. I love making this. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this pattern.

Here are a couple of shots of more examples of  this great Burda pattern.




My most favorite is the white denim one. The oldest is the red mini whale corduroy one made 10 years ago and  that I still wear.still wear. the most recent one is the black/pink print which gets me compliments evry time i wear it. I'm planning a new version in early spring.



Do you have a special pattern in your collection that just won't stop producing ideas for new versions?
Let's talk!

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Sunday, September 1, 2013

Did You Catch the Sale at Moods?

I'm so excited! For the first time ever ,I've ordered fabrics from Mood this week when they had a 20% off sale sitewide!

Now I already have enough fabrics to last me a very long time and so I made sure to only order pieces I can't find here and for me that means an assortment of stripes! I only ordered five of the fabrics that I had pinned to my Mood board  plus a few swatches of some of the others.

     Lavender and Gray Striped Cotton Jersey     Red and Heathered Gray Striped Cotton Jersey 
   
                                 Nautical Double-Faced Cotton-Blend Jersey


     Navy and Black Striped Modal Jersey     Blue Polka Dots Knit

The only thing is , I don't have a plan for any of these fabrics. I've been trying very hard not to buy fabrics without knowing what I want to make out of them so they don't linger  long enough on my shelves to bother my conscience .Lol.

What is your strategy when buying fabric? Are you an impullse buyer ? Do you only buy a fabric when you know exactly what it will become? Do you stalk certain fabrics until you can resist them no longer? (That's pretty much what I do!!)  Or do you buy fabrics "just in case"? (I do that too).

Well, not exactly a post filled with useful sewing tips or information, is it! But I just wanted to share.

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