Sewing things

Hello all!  I'm now interrupting my photo like to talk about sewing!  Yay!  

First off, I'm not a black Friday shopper.  I actually don't enjoy shopping nearly half as much as you all probably do.  However, when Cyber Monday came around (I didn’t know there was a such thing till this past Monday) I saw some good deals.  For example, Jenny Chancey of Sense and Sensibility Patterns was having a 25% off sale.  That is the biggest sale they have ever had that I can remember.  So...I picked up two patterns. :-)  The Regency Underthings Pattern 

and the Girls 1780s Portrait Dress Pattern.  I hope to make my little sister a dress for Christmas and I have the fabric for a regency gown, but I want to make period correct undergarments first.   I heard today that they shipped, so I’m super excited. :-)

And then I popped over to McCalls, quite by chance and saw that their $15.95 patterns were on $1.99...(That means butterick, and vogue too)so I got a couple.  :-)  I bought some to make costumes for my brothers/myself, a skirt pattern for me and a dress pattern for my little sister. :-)

Butterick 3072 - For my brothers.  I don't know when we'll need them, but hey, they sure are cool!

McCalls 4698- I've always wanted a cape...They work with all eras except our own. :-)

Butterick 5061-I was captivated by the nightgown in this one.  I don't know why exactly.

Vogue 8729- Ah yes.  Vintage. :-)  I'm in love with this full skirt and huge bow.  I'm not a fan of low backs, but the high neck on this one almost makes up for it.  

Butterick 3134-This pattern wouldn't probably have grabbed my attention, but one of my favorite bloggers, Olivia, over at Eager Hands can't say enough good things about it.  So I've got to try it out. :-)

Butterick 4967-This was just to cute.  I think the chiffon in the example won me over...:-)

Butterick 5371- And what is a dashing brother without his accessories?  Worst case, or perhaps best case they won't want them and I can dress up as maid marian, or snow white from Once Upon A Time, or turn that belt into and awesome Prince Caspianesque Narnian belt?  What think ye?  

More sewing posts to come...After I finish all my school work!  :-)  So..Next Wednesday?  Hehe.  Just kidding.  I'll post before then.  Pinky promise...it just won't be sewing probably.

Lesko Family

The Lesko Family!  These guys. are. fun.  I met them just slightly over 10 years ago.  Back when Shawn and I were the same height. :-)  Mr. Lesko works with my Dad and the family goes to church with us.  Shannen and I have grown close over the years and you'll probably be seeing her sewing projects on here at some time.  She has been learning so much, and her last dress is just gorgeous!  I'll have to have her model it for us. :-)  Shawn actually is my older brother Jamie's roommate at Mich Tech and brought him back to us for Thanksgiving, which was so nice.  We got some family pictures of our own while they were here.  There may be a blog post on that to follow...   

 Shawn and Shannen

Mr. and Mrs.

This is probably my favorite all day.  Such real smiles!

 Pretty much. ;-)

Thanks so much Leskos!  I had a blast! and thank you Shannen for coordinating the outfits, they worked out beautifully. :-)  It makes a big difference.

Do-It Yourself CD Cover Template

Hello All! I'm sure you guys have seen this on Pinterest.  It is a Do-It-Yourself CD Cover!  As a photographer who is working on branding I thought this was pretty cool.  You can customize it any way you want!

Source: google.co.uk via Joanna on Pinterest

Can you see one of these in that translucent almost wax like paper? Uh huh. Yeah. :-) I'm liking this.  You can use ANY color paper you want, ANY font you want, ANY image you want (providing you have the rights to it etc.)  Some of you may even like to add glitter, leaves, paper cut outs.  I can even see some of you modge-podging fabric or something to the back. :-)  Anywho, so I decided that I needed to make a template for it so I didn't have to think through it every time. :-)

So...do any of you have an Apple computer?  Or, I guess, more importantly, do any of you use Pages?  I've made a template and I want to make sure it works.  Follow the link to go to google docs and download it.  PLEASE comment and tell me if it worked. :-)

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2McKqF6m7QnMTJmZjgzNDktZGYzYi00MGU1LWJhMzUtYTQ5YmRiMWQ5Mzcz

Thanks so much!

The Liesl Dress

Yes!  I'm finally posting about my Liel Dress.  Some of you have been waiting since February I think, back when I bought the fabric for it. :-)  Well, in keeping with my old habits, I waited until the week before my party to make the dress.  I made a toile out of brown junk fabric just to make sure it fit.  You see, the pattern had different sizes and some comments about darts that I wanted to make sure fit.

Oops!  You don't even know what I used!

Pattern: Liesl's Dancing Dress by Katrina A. Casey @ Edelweiss Patterns

Fabric: Dusty Rose Chiffon Georgette from Hancock Fabrics on sale.  ¢27 a yard folks!, I bought the Antique Rose Taffeta Lining from fabric.com for $3.49 a yard.  1 spool of 1/4 inch pink silk ribbon and one pink zipper form Joann Fabrics.  I think we already had the elastic.

The whole pattern was pretty straight forward, but I do recommend making a toile first.  In the directions Katrina says to go by your measurements and not your sizes.  Do it.  Follow her advice, she knows. :-)

The skirt is basically a circle, but it is made with 6 (if I remember correctly) panels.  Because I wanted the insides to look really nice I used french seams wherever i could.  It uses a lot more thread and takes a longer amount of time, but I think it was worth it.  When I wash it I don't think I'll have anything to worry about.

I let the dress hang for 3 1/2 days after it was sewn up before I made the lettuce hem, but it has stretched a little since June. ;-)

I LOVE the sleeves.  They are the best part.  The hardest parts I think were making the casing for the elastic on the sleeves and stitching the gathers/ribbon.  Making everything look even is harder with chiffon. :-/

I'm still a little unsure about the bodice to skirt seam...I tends to sag in the middle creating the illusion of a rounder middle than I have, but oh well. :-)

As you can see in the picture above, one thread in my right sleeve snagged on something.  It will not even out now.

Sorry about the picture heavy post. :-)  Here are some from the day of the party.

Such precious girls. :-)

Sara, Emily, Moi, Shannen, Kara

 Sara and I taught ourselves the Laendler by watching the scene from the sound of music over and over again.  I took like 3 hours, but we got it in the end.  This was back in December '10.  The night before the party we taught it to everybody staying at our house.  Wow.  Yeah, that was a feat. :-)

During clean up Emily and I ran from bench to bench like Liesl and Ralph do in the movie. :-) 

Waltzing with my bro.

 Bunches of Awesomeness. :-D

Hudson, Jamie

Josiah, Nathanael, Emily, Joanna, Kara, Sam

Shannen, Emily, Sara

Does this picture remind YOU of yogurt and daises?  :-)  My older brother says it does for him.

Au Revoir!

Pretty Pears

A couple of days ago I popped in on my friends Natalie and Carolyn because I was in the area and we chatted for a couple minutes.  They asked if I had taken any pictures recently and I realized that I had not!  So, I trotted on home and took pictures of some pears for my mom.  

 It was lots of fun. :-)  I took them just after sunset, so the light was very diffused.

 I used the soft gold side of my reflector to lighten them and decrease the blue cast of shadows.

Though I did edit them, I didn't need to.  The colors were a very near perfect representation of real life.

Enjoy!