I’m hoping to have both of these (and possibly an extra) done by this weekend, so that I can have at least two garments done for the SWAP. I’m starting to think that I’m not going to be able to finish the SWAP, given all the excitement going on here, but I’m going to give it my best shot.

Speaking of excitement, most of our stuff is ordered for our bathroom remodel. There’s been a couple changes in the plan to make our budget happier, but that’s OK. I’ve gotten cold feet about it and worry that I’m making poor choices, but by the time the stuff gets here I should be over it and ready to rock. Do you ever do that? Start to have serious doubts about yourself when you get ready to take on a big project?

Until next time, may your days be filled with good fortune and humor!

Besides the fact that apparently I accidentally cut one pattern piece in the length for view B instead of view A and that this fabric doesn’t press….at all, there’s a lot of things that don’t really work. So, I’m going to try and snug up the back a bit to follow the contours of my back instead of just hanging straight from my shoulders. Hopefully I can do this without goofing up the midsection of the front which is probably the best fitting part of the whole thing. I may also try putting the side front curves back in. I took them out because that’s what I normally do to make stuff fit my more rectangular shape, but I may not have needed to on this particular blouse. I don’t want skintight, but I would like the blouse to look like it has some sort of feminine shape, and right now it doesn’t seem to have that. I may also take out my 3/4″ FBA–it made the front too wide I think, since the seams don’t run where they’re supposed to, they are too close to my armpits. After that, we’ll have to see what fabric I want to make the “real” version in…or if I want to make it at all.

What would you do? Scrap it and make something I’ve made before? Or work out the kinks and get it right? (Remember, this is for my SWAP which ends in April.)

In the meantime, I’m still following blogs, though I’ve had some trouble with Blogger accepting my comments. Something with the word verification is being messed up on some (not all) blogger blogs. I’ll probably figure it out soon, I hope.

Oh, and I guess I’ve been eyeing patterns. Most notably the Style Arc Linda pants for the SWAP (instead of the jeans/trousers). The idea of elastic waist pants makes me feel a bit older than I am, but I have to face the fact that keeping my pants where they belong is a bit tricky when my waist isn’t shrinking and my hips are. Somehow I suspect that elastic waist pants are going to be sexier than suspenders. And as far as elastic waist pants go, these can be made to look more like trousers or jeans than your average pair of elastic waist pants. The only reason they aren’t already on their way is the extraordinary cost of shipping from Australia. Holy criminy! It’s basically the same price for two patterns as it is for shipping those two patterns to me!

Anyway, I’ll hopefully have something more interesting to say next week. Right now my brain is frazzled and I’m dreaming about looking at flooring and faucets when I’m not having nightmares about plumbing horrors that might await. I just know one of these times I’m going to be standing in the bathroom asleep dreaming that I’m “testing” out our faucet or something and turning it off and on. I’ve been known to do stuff like that….

Note: We have a tub/shower, but I didn't know how to draw that.

Feeling claustrophobic yet? This is the bigger of the two bathrooms. In real life, there are walls around the perimeter and a westward-ish facing window between the tub and the toilet.

We know that the subfloor under the toilet and tub need to be completely replaced, and are planning to put a new subfloor in the whole thing. We’re also hoping that we can take the cabinets out carefully enough to reuse them. They are good hardwood cabinets, it seems ridiculous to throw them out if we can avoid it. We’ll also be replacing the drywall–it has those noxious plastic tiles on it (in a hideous shade of pinkish beige no less!) and also the tub surround is a leaky mess.

You can find my inspiration lighting and faucets on my pinterest board here. The shower itself will be a 4″ tall Onyx system, instead of a tub/shower. Our tub is too narrow to take a decent bath in, but I figure a 4″ curb should be enough to bathe a baby in, especially since there will be a hand shower. I think the colors we’re going to use are Winter (for the shower walls) and Constellation (for the shower base and soap holders). We’re thinking of making our bathroom vanity have an onyx top too, possibly with  Constellation as the vanity color and Winter as the sink color (or make it all in Winter with a halo of Constellation–we’re not completely decided yet). The vanity/sink would be all one piece, and therefore easier to clean! We’re undecided on the flooring, right now we’re torn between cork and those cute little hexagon tiles (which our neighbors just happen to know how to install!) I think we’ll have that stuff ironed out after this weekend, since hubby has a 3-day weekend for us to get things finalized.

So anyway, now that I’ve bored you to tears, I’ll wish you a great day!

I should have my jeans that I started in December(?) finished today and be able to start on my next project. I’m getting to be in dire need of shirt-like garments again. I tried on one of my KS 3593 blouses yesterday and hubby and I both realized that it’s too big. I think my next blouse though will be Vogue 1260 (instead of the Burda JJ for my SWAP):

This was probably one of the first ever patterns where I looked at the line drawing after seeing the uninspiring pattern photo and still said “self, I think you should do this one”. It has two of my favorite features. Princess seams and raglan sleeves. I don’t care for the gathering, but it looks like it should be easy enough to eliminate, so it sounds like a winner to me! Now if I could just figure out what size to make…….

Someone tell me this; how on Earth does one justify buying a new machine, especially a Bernina-flavored one? I know there are people out there with those outrageously overpriced hunks of technology that do the embroidery with a single needle and I just can’t wrap my brain around it. I think I need to lay down. In the meantime, I guess I’ll stick with my Pfaff for a while longer.

* And before you think it, no we’re not using subpar materials or taking shortcuts on the remodel–we plan to use it when it’s done, and we’re going to do it right. I’m actually planning to do a post on it soon.

Hope everyone had a great New Year’s celebration (we did!), and is having a great week so far.

• If you use a stiffer interfacing it’s IMPERATIVE that you clip the corners off of the collar interfacing before you iron it on or your collar points will be absolutely hideous.
• Probably would be a good idea to clip the bottom corners of the stand interfacing off too.
• My machine will start to stitch backwards at inopportune moments if it has a wad of lint in it…I think I resewed the collar topstitching about 4 times because the points of the collar kept making my machine stitch backwards at the turn.
• Square cuff plackets are easy to do, but they’re not nearly as pretty as their pointed counterparts.

Anyway, here it is:

Doesn't fit my dressform very well, LOL!

See? Not as pretty as the pointed ones.

Someday I'll get brave enough to cut the yoke stripes the other way.

Even though it’s not perfect, I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. It looks good on him, and fits him nicely, so I think it’ll get a fair amount of wear. Maybe not as much as it would if it were blue, but there’s only so many blue shirts a guy can have in his closet. I still can’t believe it went from uncut to finished in like 2 days. That’s really fast for me.

My other dilemma? Which of these to go with for a cute shirtdress:

Here’s the poll.

OK, now that he’s gone, I’m pretty excited. I’m working on another KS men’s shirt for him, this time in a very pale yellow with blue and white stripes. I started this on….oh….Tuesday, so it’s been a bit of a rush, but I think I’m going to make it. I am using the Pro-woven interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply, and wow! It’s kind of stiff, hopefully it will work out in the end though. One word of advice though–don’t use starch to make the shirting easier to cut–apparently even the miniscule amount of starch made the interfacing not want to stick very well. I have had to “reapply” it about 3 times. Hopefully a good press after it’s washed will make it stick once and for all. If nothing else, I guess it makes a good sew-in interfacing, right? I hope so.

We open presents tomorrow evening, so I’ll plan to take some finished pictures (fingers crossed!!) then–perhaps even modeled!! But mainly I wanted to share the two tutorials I used to make the sleeve plackets because 1) I wanted record of them for future reference, & 2) you guys need to use this method if you aren’t already. It worked like a charm, though I will confess that my first placket wasn’t nearly as pretty as my second one for some reason. No one but me would likely notice though, so I’m just going to go with it. Don’t let the good be the enemy of the perfect and all that.

Anyway, there’s the quickie pictorial version that you can find here, and the more elaborate variation of same here. I really liked the more elaborate version this time so that I knew a bit more about what I was doing, but the pictorial version will probably be sufficient in the future.

Well, I suppose that’s it for now, I should probably head back to my little sweatshop and put the collar and cuffs on. Then it’s just hem, snaps, and done! As of 10 p.m., I just need to do the collar and the snaps. I can see the end of the tunnel!