Saturday, June 27, 2009

Kwik Sew 3696




Pattern Review

Pattern: Kwik Sew 3696

Description: View A bikini has lined bra with ties in casings, gathering cups at
armhole edges and center front. Bra ties at center back and at
back neck. Panty has front lining, elastic at waist and leg openings,
and ties in casings at sides. View B tankini has lined cups, ties in
casings at armhole edges, gathering cups, and tie at center front.
Top ties at back neck. Panty has front lining, and elastic at waist
and leg openings. Skirt has elastic at waist and fits at high hip.

Sizing: Women’s XS to XL. I made this up in some older swimsuit fabric using a Small in the top and bottom. One twin needs this sizing and the other needs a XS top and small bottoms. I was so happy I used the older fabric the first time. Meredith would have been very disappointed if her cute red, white and blue fabric didn’t fit her!

Instructions: As always, the instructions in Kwik Sew patterns are excellent. They are easy to follow and the swimsuit is easy to sew.

Likes/Dislikes: A big like is several variations in this pattern. You can mix and match the bottoms and tops, plus the skirt is available for a coverup. The sizing is another plus, a nice range of sizes to make a custom fit swimsuit.

Changes: One change is I lined the front and the back of the bottoms. Also, Anne St. Clair is a dear friend and was a guest on Episode 5 of my podcast. This was all about swimsuits. If you click on the link, you will find a wide array of information for making swimsuits. My girls have a problem with the legs of the bottoms of a RTW suit being to big. Especially, the back not staying in place. Anne has a great tip for elastic:
ELASTICS—It is important to use an elastic that is designed for swimwear. 3/8” is the most common width. It is BASICALLY put on in a 1:1 ratio except for the back leg of the garment. The formula that I use for a basic one piece suit is: ARMHOLES—less 1”, NECKLINE—less 2”, LEGS - Front less 1” and Back less 3”. You should always measure your pattern pieces and not your garment. Be sure to deduct any seam allowances from your measurement and then deduct the appropriate amount for each area. The elastics are designed to keep your suit in place and not to pull the fabrics to the body to make it fit you.

The bottoms stay in place perfectly, Anne’s tip is a great one and I have always had success with it.

One thing I need to do to this suit, is stitch the strap in place at the top of the suit. The tie strap is inserted into a casing at the side of the bra top. When, swimming the bra top wants to go down a bit. A simple line of stitching will keep the top higher on the strap.

Fabric: Very cute fabric from Anne’s store, Needle Nook Fabrics I send Anne an email with the fabric I am looking for, she sends me a picture of a few bolts. The girls and I then pick the ones we like.

Conclusion: A very cute swimsuit. My daughters are thrilled and so am I. I am always amazed how quick it is to sew a swimsuit.


Front view:

Back View:



I have one more to make for Kaitlyn from some purple and blue plaid fabric. Then they want a couple of one-piece suits.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Last Wedding Post.... I Promise

Okay, last post on the wedding. Here are the new Mr. and Mrs. with their first dance. She is 5'4" and he is 6'6".

Father- Daughter dance. They have the same expression, trying not to cry. Yes, I did.


Meredith's hair:



Kaitlyn's hair






the bride arranging vases for the reception.





All the vases waiting for the big day. The flowers are dendrobium orchids, they still are beautiful
and took the heat well.



Off to work on bathing suits. Thought I was going to have all afternoon to sew but the twins got call to play a softball doubleheader. I need to pack lots of water- heat index over 100 today. One girl is a catcher, too, she will be very hot.
Thanks all for the wonderful comments on my blog, I appreciate each and everyone. It was such a wonderful and special day for my family. Still hard to believe how quickly time goes, it really seems like yesterday she was crawling around the house. The photographer took over 900 images, not sure how I am going to even look at all those, yet alone decide.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

BWOF 5/2008 #104

Pattern: BWOF 5/2008 #104

Description: Need an easy-care travel dress that can be worn day or night? Then pack this style in your suitcase! It has a sexy cinched waist, a plunging V-neckline and extravagant waist gathers that are accentuated by a buckle.





Sizing: 34 to 42, I made a 38 and took it in a bit on the sides.

Instructions: They were really easy and the way Burda has you line the dress is very ingenious. I am going to have to remember to use their method.

Likes/Dislikes: I needed a simple dress for my daughter’s wedding rehearsal and dinner. The dinner was held outside so the dress had to be cool. I was limited on fabric and time. After browsing through my old issues, this one was chosen.

Only dislike is the v-neck is deep, so adjust if you want.

Changes: I used a coordinating fabric for the drape, I liked how it broke up my floral fabric, plus I didn’t have enough of the floral to use.
I had a buckle I was planning to use but it was metal and a bit heavy for this fabric. I used some white rib knit from stash to make a loop to hold the drape in place. I like to wear it to the side instead of the middle as the line drawing.

If I made it again, I would lengthen the lining section.

Fabric: ITY knits from Needle Nook Fabric.

Conclusion: Cute dress, perfect for summer and great when you need a dress in a hurry.








Sewing for the Wedding

Two posts in one day, I know, sorry, but this one is about sewing! Teri commented about the sewing for the wedding. Well, not much at all but I made this dress for the rehearsal, it is a BWOF and I will get you the issue later. I really like it better with the white knot at the side. I will review it later.




Then I made these pew bows, 53 in all. I used my rotary cutter so it counts as some sewing, right? Here is the bride, making them pretty.



Oh, a note on the cooking. I did not cook the meat, we had that part done for us. They cooked it and sliced it for us and talk about delicious! Doing the meal this way, saved me tons of money!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Tent

We rented a tent for the event, just in case it rained, which it did at 2 p.m. See the side which is open? We left that up because of the tulle for the entrance. I guess when I decorated that on Saturday morning, it prevented the sides from coming down. At 2 during the downpour, rain and wind came in the opening. The results? Vases tipped over, about half of the 170 napkins were on the ground. Hubby and his 2 brothers ran out to get the side down. Hubby said, I just broke that tulle so I could get the side down. I said fine, thank you very much. Lucky for us 3 college girls were arriving to help with the meal. They took care of cleaning it up and did a tremendous job. In fact, many of these pictures are ones I asked them to take. I wanted some pictures of the inside of the tent when it was fully decorated and the girls took around 20 photos.


The gravel in front of the tent is our driveway for large trucks and cattle equipment (we are in the cattle business), the cars drove right up the the arbor. At this point, the guests would get out and three young men would there to valet park. It turned out to be a great plan, still a bit of drizzle at 5 p.m. when guest were arriving. The sun did come out and at the time of the meal, it was a bit warm, humid and close in the tent, fortunately, this lasted only 30 minutes. Friends brought by an industrial fan, this was located on one end, pulling air through the tent.

Belinda, the lighter green foilage is the summer phlox. You weren't too off on predicting their bloom date. Not quite the day after but they were starting to bloom yesterday (23rd).




From the garden side, this from my back deck. The long tents in front were 10 x 20 each. The tent on the left, held a drink station (tea, lemonade and water) on the far end. A bar was set up on the end closest to the garden. We found a business, which would come to the event and handle the bar business. The long tent on the left was the buffet. At the beginning of the reception, it held a few appetizers for guests. Paige did not want Jesse to see her before the wedding, so those pictures were taken after the ceremony.





Inside the tent, you can see the dance floor in the forefront. It was a well used dance floor, hubby joked with the businessman from the rental company and told him the dance floor would be sunk into the ground 6 inches from all the dancing.



Another view, the head table is on the right





A bit blurry picture, but here is the head table. The bridesmaids bouquets were put in vases and used for decorations on this table.






Main entrance into the tent.



A night picture. Rope lighting was strung around the perimeter of the tent. Also, uplights were used to light the top of the tent and the rental company uses a color to coordinate with the wedding colors. So blue was sent up to this area. It was so pretty. Not many guests inside the tent, many people were walking around looking at the flowers or had their chairs just on the outskirts of the tent. I think it was a bit cooler and easier to visit away from the music.




I left off from the last post, what Erin contributed to the wedding. She was our official runner and purchaser. I would call her and say I need a couple of large plastic bowls for the wedding, she would go get them and bring them home. She was a fantastic help and saved me many trips to the next largest town, this is where she lives and attends college.
Someone asked about the dinner, well here is that information:
The dinner, I did most of the cooking of this and we planned for 167, approximately 150 attended. The menu: roast beef, ham, red potatoes (cut into 1" chunks, seasoned with butter, parsley and garlic salt), green beans, rolls and a salad (romaine lettuce, spinach with strawberries, bacon, croutons, almond slivers and a bit of poppy seed dressing). The meal was delicious. Thanks to many friends, on Friday night we cut 100 pounds of potatoes into the 1" chunks.
A friend, who owns a restaurant, came over to supervise the finishing touches and help to get it in the buffet servers.
We did have quite a few leftovers, so on Sunday, many friends and family came over for leftovers, swimming and visiting. It was such a relaxed event, especially for me. I told the guests the leftover wedding cake was a Father's Day cake for the day! The cake was finished up that afternoon, yea, no leftovers for me to eat all week.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Wedding Preparations

I thought I would first begin with some photos of the wedding preparation. All three of Paige's sisters helped with this big event, each in their own way.



Paige and I saw this idea at a wedding show and we knew Kaitlyn the baker, would be just the person to help with this project.

So we began the process of baking 400+ cookies. With the help of several friends and family we iced these 1-1/2"cookies with white icing. Kaitlyn then iced half of the cookies with a J (groom's first initial) and the other half with a P (bride's first initial). I helped a bit with the yellow, but Kailtyn really had to help me do a good job.

Here is a few of the P cookies











The J cookies:





Last fall, I asked for help locating favor boxes and thanks to you, I was able to get 200 of these blue boxes from Michaels. So after folding and assembling the boxes. We wrapped 2 cookies, one J and one P, in saran wrap, added a bow and then inserted them into a favor box. Adding the blue bow and the special tag, which states"Our wedding day wouldn't have been the same without you here." These were purchased at the knot.




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Here are all the boxes assembled and waiting to be placed at each place setting.






Here they are on the tables:



Now Meredith, the scrapbooker, she was in charge of the table numbers and helped Paige with the place cards.
Here are the table numbers


One nephew at age 7, took charge of eating the cookies from the boxes not opened. Last count he ate 27 cookies and loved taking many pictures with the disposable cameras.
Tomorrow I will post on the flowers and the tent.
I hope you don't get sick of hearing about the wedding. I don't think I will be sewing for a few days, hubby and I were up very late on Saturday or should I say Sunday morning, cleaning up and getting ready for Sunday for our friends and family to eat wedding leftovers and visit. I am so happy I took today off work, too!!




Sunday, June 21, 2009

It was Amazing

Just a quick post, I will have more pictures and details later but here are a few pictures.
First a shot of our very happy family on this wonderful day.






The dress...



And since I don't like too many pictures of me, here is one that I do like



I am exhausted so more later.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Contact

Questions about a post?  Fabric?  Pattern?  Purse/bag construction?  Suggestion for a podcast?

Please email me and I will get back to you very soon. 

About Me

Hi, I am Lori from the Midwest, born and raised in the same small town.  Married to Mike and mom to 4 incredible, marvelous, wonderfully talented girls and now a "nana" to two cute little ones.   We have had the pleasure and joy of raising 4 these girls in this town.  Our oldest was married to a great guy in 2009 and we now have a son, too.  Then in August 2015, we welcomed another son, when our youngest daughter was married.  My husband always told people when they asked, "don't you want a son?"  he replied,  "the sons will come." and he was so right.

Sewing has been a part of my life since 7th grade home arts class.  I made an apron in class and that was the official start of my sewing passion.  The summer before my 8th grade year and home economics class, my mom would take me to the local department store to buy a pattern and fabric.  I would come home and she would patiently help me make that very first wrap sundress.  I sewed on her Singer machine in the utility room, just off the kitchen and mom would be right there to help every step of the way.  My jumper was blue with plaid straps, tie and pocket trim.  I thought it was beautiful.  

Now all those years later, my sewing is still very important in my life.  I tell people I can't draw or sing but I can take a piece of flat fabric and make it into a garment and I find that to be the most incredible hobby ever.  I have gone from sewing clothing to sewing quilts and back to clothing, with a bit of quilting here and there but my true passion is garment sewing.  When I returned to garment sewing, I was very fortunate to find a group of friends that shared this passion.  We would travel to bigger cities to buy fabric and see big-name sewing teachers.  Sandra Betzina, Louise Cutting, Nancy Cornwell, Peggy Sagers to name a few.  Learning from this group not only improved my sewing but fueled my passion to sew more.

I have sewn many garments for my girls through the years but now as they grow up that sewing has tapered off.  Now it is my turn to do sewing for me and my closet is very appreciative of this fact.  Thanks to the internet, I have found valuable information to improve my sewing, patterns to buy and fabric I can't live without. In 2007, I started a fashion sewing podcast titled, "Sew Forth Now".  Through this podcast, I have had the pleasure of interviewing many experts in the sewing world and making many new friends. 

I have other hobbies besides sewing, flowers being one.  Several years ago, I started planting many flowers, mostly perennials.  Each summer, Mike would help me expand the flower gardens and I would plant more types of flowers.  I have reached my limit of what I can take care of but I keep planting new plants, moving plants to better areas and buying magazines and books for gardening ideas.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Podcast

It all started in April 16, 2007, a fashion sewing podcast, Sew Forth Now.  After listening to many great podcasts, I thought I would try a podcast specific to fashion sewing.   Through the years, I have had the pleasure of interviewing many greats of the sewing community.  Please follow the link, to the podcast blog for information on each episode.  Also, you can download and/or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, just search "Sew Forth Now".

As you have noticed there hasn't been any new episodes for the podcast.  Life has just gotten too busy and the podcast had to be put on hold.  I will continue to pay Libsyn for the storage of the podcasts and they will be available for download.

A Garden Party

Kimba at A Soft Place to Land is having a Garden Party. I thought I would participate since we have been working so hard in the yard for the reception.

Here is the shaded part of the yard. It is more in my hubby's machine shed, cattle hauling area. We will be parking the cars in this area. Each year I add a few more hostas with the future plans to be a spot full of hostas of all shades and sizes.



Front of your home, might be using some of the yellow day lilies in the reception flowers.



View from my back door.






the flowers are starting to bloom. I really want the garden phlox to bloom. I keep telling it each time I pass, "bloom, phlox, bloom!" I don't think it is listening. This is the flower we were planning to use quite a bit in all the arrangements, it is so pretty and has a beautiful scent.


Another view - had to brighten it quite a bit.




Hollyhocks and bee balm, then that uncooperative phlox on the right.




View of the backyard, the tent will be to the right of the arbor.







Different angle









Sunday, June 14, 2009

Wore my Skirt to Church

Okay, here is my skirt on me. I need a new white blouse, this one is the shortest blouse ever, it will not stay tucked in for anything. I really like my skirt and it was fun to wear something new to church. My photographer took several photos but this is the only one I would put up on the blog. Half of my head is better than squinting eyes, goofy smile, etc.






Notice our cat is always around.



Today's wedding to-do list:


  • Powerwash concrete around pool


  • weed flowers


  • make a grocery list (I am cooking the meal for the sit-down dinner, with lots of help from friends, thank God for good friends)


  • Finish my rehearsel dress


  • Get Meredith to finish the table numbers. They will look a bit like this, with white cardstock, yellow flowers and aqua numbers, which are smaller, that is the size diecuts we have. Cute idea.

    • Saturday, June 13, 2009

      Meredith's Present

      Meredith made this bag - Lila Tueller fabric, Jelly Roll purse pattern. She is giving it as a gift. A wonderful young couple are youth leaders in our church and they are expecting their first child, a daughter. It is a beautiful bag and perfect for a baby girl.


      I worked on a dress for the rehearsal, needs to be hemmed and something is off with the neckline, so I need to work on that. Now Meredith and I are going to eat popcorn and watch TV.
      Where is Kaitlyn? At a tractor pull with her dad. Yes, we live in the country!

      Thursday, June 11, 2009

      Cookies for the Wedding

      We are making some cookies for the wedding, I will show the official pictures and what they are for after the wedding. Tonight we did a test run, to see how many cookies we could get out of roll of Pillsbury sugar cookie refrigerator dough (yes, taking the easy way out). Also, Kaitlyn wanted to try several different designs and decorating tips. I took pictures and emailed them to the bride.

      Now, here are some silly pictures:


      A cookie sandwich (I just ate that one!)




      The bride's first initial is P and the groom's is J, well, last weekend the 3 sisters decided the couple should name their firstborn with a name beginning with the letter B. Why? There was a show on Disney called PB & J. Oh, the sisters thought they were so funny.

      So cookies in honor of that little funny! Yes, I emailed that one to the bride.


      Sewing, well, I pulled out some fabric to make a dress for the rehersal. I hope I can get it made. Tomorrow, hair color and cut. Need to mow the yard, too.



      Tuesday, June 09, 2009

      Burda 6/2009 #104





      Description: Good morning, sunshine! This sporty, slim skirt with welt pockets in front and back and big white buttons is great for a walk on the beach – but it will also turn heads in town

      Sizing: 36 to 46.

      Instructions: Well, I used them for the cutting instructions and that was it. I was so confused with their instructions and I didn’t have the slightest clue what the instructions were saying. So I went to the internet(see previous post) and my sewing books to figure out the welt pockets. Okay, step one complete, three welt pockets finished and two of which I was very pleased.
      The back welt is one of these:



      Now, notice in the description is states nothing about a faux wrap. I think that is what this skirt is, notice it has an invisible zipper.

      Once I had this figured out, each panel
      Front wrap
      Front
      Back
      Has either a facing or a waistband, these I sewed on individually to the appropriate sections. Here is a picture of the front wrap:


      I then sewed the right side seam but stopped 1" from the waistband. The right seam consisted of the front wrap and the back.
      Next sew in the invisible zipper on the left side seam.

      Sew on the facings for the waistbands and the front. The final facing to be sewn was for the front, which is the under the wrap front. I then sewed up the side seam on the right and used the facing to cover the seam allowance. Here is the picture:





      I am sure this is confusing. That is exactly how I felt reading the instructions. It is one of those patterns, easier to just sew it. Take the pieces and put them together how you think it would work.

      The under front, I stitched onto the right side seam, stitching over my previous stitching line. I stopped a few inches from the hem. Here is a picture of this seam:





      Likes/Dislikes: I really like the fun summery look, the buttons and the stripe fabric. Dislike would be the instructions and description. Also, I cut the back waistband with the stripes running vertically. The straight of grain on the pattern piece is with the stripes horizontally. I like the vertically.
      Here is the back:








      Now I did cut the front waistband with the stripes running horizontally. This I don't like. When trying on this garment, the stripes add width to waistline, vertically would have elongated the body.


      Here is the waistband:





      Changes: Not really sure since I couldn't make any sense of the instructions!

      Fabric: A cute seersucker from my stash. I really like sewing with this fabric, it presses and sews so nicely.
      Conclusion: I do like the skirt, the buttons really add to the style. This pattern earns every bit of it 2.5 dots. If I made it again, I would probably eliminate the welt pockets. Too much going on at the hips with the pockets.






      To see this skirt without the wrap section and with an entirely different look, check out Lindsay T's blog for an amazing look.