fourth time is a charm

In my shirtmaking adventure, the first shirt was, um, icky.

The second was too small. I may go back to it after the husband loses some weight. Until then, it's a UFO (unfinished object) on the side of my sewing table.

The third was too big and I had to alter to twice. And there were flaws. Also the fabric was heavy.  However it may work for a winter shirt.

But the fourth one... the fourth one is AWESOME! It fits perfectly!

I think I have gotten the hang of it now. There are just a few more little tweaks, but overall I am pleased. Just in time for Father's Day!

I have several fabrics stacked up ready to make into beautiful shirts!

no more fear... of buttons!

Before the purchase of my 'new to me' sewing machine, the Elna Quilter's Dream 6003, I had avoided buttons and buttonholes like the plague. My old machine (as I understood, but never actually tried) took a four step process to make buttonholes. This scared me.

Then I got the new machine. It came with 3 automatic one-step buttonholes. This seemed fascinating and I wanted to give it a whirl. It took two things for me to take the first step. The first was for my friend Jacki to come over and show me how to use this interesting device called a buttonhole foot. The second step was to have a project to practice making buttonholes.

I watched in awe as she put a button in the back of the foot, pressed a couple of buttons on the front of the sewing machine and then pressed the foot control. Like magic, the machine make a prefect buttonhole! That was sooo cool! I think I could do that.

I made my first buttonholes on my first tester dress shirt. They were... not perfect, but looked good enough. As I write this post I now have put buttonholes and buttons on half a dozen projects. I love it! Now I even have a preference (other than the default) of settings for perfect buttonholes.

Even better... Jacki has a blog post on How To Machine-Sew a Button. I've taken this one step further after a conversation with my sister where she told me she puts a toothpick under the button as she sews it to give a little wiggle room. Of course, I couldn't get that to work, but found perfection when using a fondue fork under the button for the wiggle room. ;-) Sometimes you have to get a little creative.

Now, I have no fear of buttons!

sewing, but not posting

I know, I know... it's been crazy around here.

I made up a few snoodsnood™s before we left town for a week. As soon as I can locate my camera, I will show them. I also made a shirt for the husband from Kwik Sew 3422. Alas, it is a bit snug. I am not upset since he has started a weight loss program. I'll try it on him again in a few months.

As soon as we got back, unpacked, decompressed and relaxed a bit, I started on another shirt for the husband. This time it's a dress shirt using the pattern Kwik Sew 2777 (in a larger size). The fabric is a bit heavy, but overall I am pleased. I have to add buttonholes and buttons today. Of course he is out of town for a few days. When he returns, I'll have him model it for a photo.

Moving right along... I'm making another shirt from the same pattern with a few modifications. I'm finding the more I sew, the more likely I am to ignore the pattern instructions and wing it. For example, I didn't like the plackets from the pattern, so I made my own. Also, I prefer the cuffs from another pattern, so I'm switching those out as well.

Of course, time away from the sewing machine gave me plenty of opportunity to stack up new projects. One is a new cover for my Boppy pillow. The original cover had something spilled on it that will not come out, and since I had some cute fabric just sitting around, I used the original as a pattern and made a cute new cover. :-) I didn't like the way the flap was closing, so I added these cute little green flower buttons.

I probably should start on baby clothes as I only have eight weeks left of baking the little one!

One last thing... on a 'I really will do that this year' note, I am already planning my Christmas presents for the family!!! Of course, exactly what it is will remain a secret until the end of the year. ;-)