Well, It's been a lot longer since I last blogged than I meant for it to be. I have made a rule for myself, that I will not blog until I have replied to my comments.. unfortunately Blogger has not made this very easy. I would love to be able to reply by e-mail, but I sure can't figure out if there is a way to do that. If anyone knows.. please let me know.. I'd be oh-so-happy to learn!
So.. you may wonder what happened with the Leftovers vest? Did I finish it in time to wear for Easter?
Well.. no. I decided the week before easter, that instead of trying to rush to finish the vest, that I wanted to sew a new skirt instead. I had stumbled across some sites like Wardrobe Refashion and was feeling extra inspired. (.. and I wasn't going to let a little thing like the fact that I had never sewn clothing before discourage me... ).
A little back history... when I was very small, my Mammy (aka my grandmother on my maternal side) was always sewing clothes & things. She died when I was 6, but I do remember her, and her sewing. In the year (1985) before she died, she found out that she had cancer, and was doing things to live her life to the fullest. One of the things she did was get a state-of-the-art sewing machine with lots of bells in whistles. I remember sitting on her lap in the show room when she was trying it out. When she died, she left her sewing maching to me. Due to some conflicts of classes in school, I was never able to take sewing or home ec. .. so years go by, and although my dad tried to show me how to use the machine once, I never figured it out, and it has been most cherish, but most unused in the many years since. ..... fast forward to a year ago. I got the sudden desire to try quilting, and the stubborness to figure out how to use the sewing machine somehow- someway. I do not have the owners manual, so I got a sewing 101 manual, and muddled through. I even sewed a quilt (unfortunately I didn't learn the valuable lesson of how to lock stitches until AFTER that.. and the quilt is unused in a drawer in the hopes that I will one day go back and fix all the places it's come unravelled...) Then my husband & I moved, and all my sewing stuff got packed up until I decided to drag it back out again to make my skirt.
Here is the wonderful & much cherished 1985 New Home Memory Craft Sewing machine left to me by my Mammy:
Needless to say I haven't figured ALL of those fancy stitches and letters out yet, but I did figure out the strait & zig-zag stitches. I found a place on ebay that sells a version of the users manual, and I think I will get that to help me out further.
Here is the items I picked up to make my skirt (and stuff to make a shirt that I haven't tackled yet):
... and although this is far from the best picture, and prior to washing (which made the skirt a lot closer to a good fit...yay!).. here is my First ever made skirt & clothing sewing project! (From a side view)
I so wish I had a better picture, but I promise one the next time I wash it. Overall, it has some mistakes, but for a first project I'm very pleased! First time I wore it to work I had several compliments on it, and people were surprised to learn that I sewed it myself. =o)
Well, this is getting pretty long, so I will stop talking now. Knitting wise, I'm working on baby blanket squares. 2 babies in the family due to be born next month, and I don't have either blanket finished yet! Eek...
We have a LOT going on outside the world of craft, but I'll get to that anouther time. =o)
