Moments and Blessings

I haven’t posted in a long time.  I’ve thought out postings, but haven’t been motivated to write them.  At first I felt a little guilty about it; now I don’t.  I haven’t lost my sewing mojo; I just haven’t felt the need to blog.  I’ve been sewing, doing other things and enjoying life.

• January – It’s a new year and my birthday month.  Reflection time.  What do I want to change and what do I want to remain the same in my life?
• February – An extended weekend with my girlfriends in Vegas.  Enough said.
• March – I make a black lightweight wool dress for myself.  I guide Kira through the construction of a prom dress for the daughter of a close friend of hers.  Can you believe it, she’s making prom dresses!  A long conference in Washington, DC brings many of my team members to my area and I enjoy the time.  One manager leaves, another is onboard, I reread “Who Moved My Cheese” and I am ready for the change. A business trip to Chicago to close out the month.
• April – Spending time with my girlfriends; either dinner or a party.  In the middle of the month, a business trip to Jacksonville.  Time to bake and decorate the annual birthday cake for the young daughter of one of my girlfriends.  This year she wanted Phineas and Ferb on her cake. WHAT?! WHO?!  Rounding out the month with Easter dinner at my house.  How did we wind up having a large dinner? A nephew calling looking for dinner, a niece in town for an alumni gathering, a cousin texting “Happy Easter” after learning from my niece that my husband and I are cooking, another niece get informed by the nephew, my sewing student looking for her favorite cookies.  I laughed at them all and enjoy the time. I closed out the month donating the gowns Kira and I made to a project called Operation Pretty and Polished, which gives away gowns and tuxedos to prom-goers.  I also did alterations on site during the giveaway.  There were a couple of gowns that I couldn’t alter that day because they were not quick alterations, so I did them in my studio after the giveaway.  One of the gowns was a strapless gown with a ruched bodice, draped skirt and beading.  When I opened the gown to alter it, I was fascinated by the construction.  This was not an off-the-rack, ready-to-wear gown.  I am in the Washington, DC metro area, so a lot of the donated clothing was first-rate!
• May – I finished the prom dress for D, the daughter of one of my girlfriends.  It’s amusing how a girl starts out wanting to be a Goth princess for prom, which we (mother, grandmother and I) temper through persuasion, and evolves to a full-fledge princess with a tiara and a girly-girly evening purse on prom night.  Prom night for D meant festivities for everyone else.  It was a party for us, food and drinks, while she got ready to make her grand entrance.  I am sure her date did not expect that many people when he arrived.  FUN!  My first Mother’s Day with two children away and one at home.  Very soon they will all be off on their own and Mother’s Day will be phone calls.  My daughter’s home from her freshman year in college. I make a yellow lightweight wool dress with a pleated skirt for myself. I take my daughter and one of her friends to New York with me to attend the first alumni fashion show at my high school, the High School of Fashion Industries.  I saw classmates I haven’t seen since we graduated.  I look forward to next year’s event, and I am thinking about showing a couple of pieces. We’ll see.  I close out the month with a business trip to Jacksonville.
• June – A week-long conference in San Diego, and I am one of the meeting planners, which means LONG days on top of a three-hour time difference for my body to deal with.  My sewing room gets a new paint color, light gray, and new lighting. I make the wedding gown for the future daughter-in-law of one of my friends.   I closed out the month with my huge annual BBQ.  I love it!  I have a large extended family and this year cousins from Atlanta and South Carolina came for the first time.  This was the first time a set of cousins that always come couldn’t make it due to a graduation, but it was also the first time other cousins from New York were able to come.  The first year the BBQ turns into a sleepover for my daughter and a few of her friends.  The first year my teenage son actually invites a few of his friends.  On top of that, a friend from work came with a surprise; another team member who I haven’t seen in years!  For me, the best picture of the day is a shot of my daughter, son, nieces and nephews on my husband’s side of the family.  I love that picture!
• July – I altered a skirt for a customer who learned about me from her daughter who helped at Operation Pretty and Polished.  Word of mouth in action.  My youngest son now has a driver’s license and his first job.  Car insurance rises.  I make a couple of two-piece knit dresses for myself.  A weekend get-away in Washington, DC with some girlfriends.  We stop for a dinner party at my nephew’s before a night on the town.  It’s nice to be in a location where you can have a fun and relaxing get-away that close to home. 

 Time passes quickly; made up of a million moments and a million blessings.  My silence doesn’t mean I am not sewing.  I am just embracing the moments and the blessings.

Creative Sewing – Chapter 6

I have a new battery charger. Yippee! 

I am working on the evening gown.  Today I applied the trim to the bodice, attached the bodice lining and the skirt.  I am very pleased with the look.  I will be finished soon since all that remains is installing the zipper and skirt lining and finishing the hem.  This project has been fun and I need to keep the fun going, so I need to start thinking about the next project. 

A quick note about attaching the trim, please take a few minutes to hand baste it in place.  It takes less time than picking out machine stitches.   I baste the trim in place and then do a row of machine basting using a long machine stitch. I remove the hand basting and continue with the garment construction without worrying about the trim shifting.  It may seem like extra work, but it’s worth the results.

In Search of Pineapple Coconut Cake

At the beginning of this year I received an email from WordPress with the subject line: Your 2010 year in blogging. It provided me with wonderful stats regarding my blog. Most of all it confirmed what I had suspected about the most popular search term bringing visitors to my sewing blog, which you can guess by the title of this posting. PINEAPPLE COCONUT CAKE! Okay, how funny is that. I know I laughed for a long time.

So for all my visitors searching for a recipe for pineapple coconut cake, here’s one of mine.

Click here for the recipe.

To my family, sorry, this is not Aunt Nora’s recipe. My mother made a fabulous pineapple coconut cake and I failed to write down the recipe while she was alive. I watched her making it once and I remember that she used cream cheese and sour cream in the frosting, and use pineapple juice in the cake batter. One day I’ll start experimenting and maybe I’ll be able to replicate that cake.

This recipe is a combination of things I have learned over the past 35 years from family, friends, cooking shows and cookbooks. This one has fluffy frosting, pineapple ginger filling and coconut pastry; but it’s not a difficult cake to make.

Let me know how your cake turned out. ENJOY!

Creative Sewing – Chapter 5

In a perfect world this post would have all the shots of creating the trim and attaching it.  But this is not a perfect world and I try not to sweat the small stuff.  The camera battery died in the midst of me taking pictures as I create the trim for the evening gown.  The battery charger has been missing in action for a couple of months.  My clutter-phobic husband placed it somewhere out of sight and since he’s never been known for having a strong memory, can’t remember where.  Yesterday, I broke down and ordered a replacement charger.  In the meantime I’ll post the pictures I do have. Once I have a fully charged camera battery, I’ll take the rest of the picture and post them.

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Creative Sewing – Chapter 4

Happy New Year!  Wishing everyone a great year of sewing!

I’ve spent the holidays enjoying family and friends and doing very little sewing.  One weekend I intended to sew the entire weekend. HA! That’s a joke.  Saturday afternoon a girlfriend called to say she was leaving work soon and invited a few other female friends over to just hangout.  Forget about sewing; I’m in my car, driving for an hour to spend a relaxing Saturday evening with friends, old and new, eating pizza and wings, drinking PD eggnog, dancing various slides and listening to some serious singing from gospel to rap, and sharing life stories.  Sunday a niece called to say she was at my sister-in-law’s house and they were about to go out to eat.  Did I want to join them?  Forget about sewing; I’m in my car, driving for 30 minutes to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon with them, eating out, sharing life stories, and doing a little shopping.  The following weekend was devoted to our annual dinner before Christmas.  Forget sewing; this meant baking and cooking on Saturday, and a Sunday of dining, drinking, talking and laughing until midnight.  I did not try to sew the reminder of the year and I did not care.  My holidays were relaxing!

Today, I fired up the sewing machine.  I added another shaped godet to the center of the skirt back.  I did not like the look of the one godet, so I added another.  I smile at the results, which means I like the look.  I also experimented with creating a trim for the dress.  After avoiding a disaster with my Brother machine, which is why I am not 100% enamored of electronic machines with drop-in bobbins, I stitched a sample of the trim.  I smile at the results; again I’m liking the look.

I didn’t feel like getting out the better camera, so I took quick pictures using my cell phone.  I will take better shots later, but I think for now you’ll have a general idea of the trim and the godets.

Here are directions for creating the trim:

• Cut bias strip the length needed (width = twice your seam allowance plus 1”).  Cut another strip same length and width.
• Fold one bias strip in half.
• Set machine to shell tuck stitch (or blindstitch or zigzag stitch).  Set tension of machine so that the bobbin  thread is pulling more than the upper thread. 
• Stitch along folded edge so that needle hits outside the fold when it zigzags.
• Place right side of stitched trim to right side of other bias strip, lining up cut edges.  Stitch just inside of straight stitch of shell tuck stitch or blindstitch.  When using a zigzag stitch, you’ll stitch where the needle enters the fabric away from the fold.
• Fold down bias strip for piping, wrong sides together.
• Trim two inner layers close to stitching.
• Stitch close to bulge of trimmed layers, encasing the trim edges, forming piping. 

Click on the diagram to see a full-size version of the trim construction.

I really like the look of the trim, which combined ideas from my sewing machine manual and some of my sewing books.  It’s meant to be inserted in a seam just as you would a piping.  I can envision it with contrasting piping.  I definitely want to use this technique again on another garment.  I hope it inspires you.

Creative Sewing – Chapter 3

Creative sewing also means creative patternmaking.  One of my favorite methods for making a flare skirt is using a paper rectangle to slash and spread on the fabric.  The width of the rectangle for the front skirt piece is 1/2 the width of the front waist plus side seam allowance.  The length of the rectangle is the skirt length plus waist seam allowance and hem allowance.  The fabric is folded in half.  The rectangle is slashed, but not all the way through, into four equal pieces.  I spread the strips at the hem to the width of the fabric.  You are looking at the front skirt piece in the picture with the center front on the fold of the fabric. The back skirt piece is made the same as the front piece except you use 1/2 the width of the back waist plus side and center back seam allowances.  The back skirt piece is cut with the center back at the selvage since there will be a seam at the center back.  The back for this dress will have a flared inset, which is pie shaped piece in the third picture. Needless to say, the “pattern” pieces are for use one time.

Creative Sewing – Chapter 2

bodice in progress

I selected the fabric for the bodice.  I’m using red brocade.  I used this fabric previously for the homecoming dress for my daughter Y.  It’s really a rich looking fabric.  So far I’ve cut and stitched the bodice pieces and machine basted the bodice to the inner foundation.

I decided to use a black fabric, which I can best describe as a medium-weight peau de soie or a delustered satin, for the skirt.  It has a great drape when handling it.  I am still trying to determine how I will embellish the dress.

In the meantime, I am trying a little creative baking.  I have a buttermilk pie in the oven.  This is the first time I’ve tried this recipe, so I hope my family likes it.  Buttermilk in a pie just sounded intriguing to me.

Creative Sewing – Chapter 1

inner dress foundation

rigilene boning

I don’t know what the finished dress will look like, but the inside workings look like this.  This is the foundation of the dress, which will be between the dress fabric and the lining.  Right now I think the dress will be strapless.   This foundation is made of interfacing, specifically a medium-weight woven non-fusible interfacing sandwiched between fusible weft interfacing.  I block fused the interfacings first, then cut the bodice pieces from the interfacing.  The seams are lapped seams, stitched using a zigzag stitch, and then trimmed.  However, I left the under layer at the side seams the full width of the seam allowance.  This will allow the dress to be altered to a larger size. The seam allowances at the foundation’s center back, upper edge and waist were cut away and the extensions that are cut from organza will be caught in the seams of the dress during constructions.  I used 1/2″ wide rigilene boning to support the bodice.

Time to decide on fabrics.

Real Dress

My cousin Tracy thought she would be able to find a gown that would meet her standards in taste, glamour and fit.  LOL!  She recapped her shopping experience after hitting the major department stores. ROTF! She is young and full of life.  So what’s out there for a shapely woman executive in her mid-forties?  You go take a look.

After assuring her that I was fine following my surgery, I made her an evening gown.  She brought her oldest son with her to pick up the gown.  He looked at the dress hanging up in my studio and said, “It looks like a real dress!”  That line is priceless.  What was even more priceless was the look on his face when his mother stepped out wearing the gown.  His big beautiful teenage smile said it all.

The Science of Me

Last week I purchased the buttons for my black linen outfit.  I wore the top and pants with pearl accessories.  I liked the look, but I wasn’t totally in love with the top.  Today I finished the dotted linen dress.  I tried it on and again, I liked the look, but I wasn’t totally in love with the dress.  I’ll post a picture of me in the dress when I can get my “photographer” to take some.  I now know why I am not in love with these last two outfits.  My body has changed!

Friday, I stopped at the library and while browsing the sewing section I came upon a book called “The Science of Sexy” and checked the book out along with books on making handbags.  Well I just finished looking through the book and now I know why I am not loving the outfits. 

Here’s the linen outfit with short sleeves.  I should have made the top with 3/4 sleeves.  See the difference.

As for the dress, I made it a shift and I should have made a fitted sheath with an a-line silhouette.   

Over the years my shoulder have become broader, my bust fuller and my waist less defined.  Over the years I have gone from

Such is life.  So I’ve written out a style plan for my current body that I will refer to as I make things for myself. 

My Body

• Shoulders slightly wider than hips
• Undefined waist
• Full bust
• Good legs
• Shapely butt
• On the shorter end of average height
• Medium-full size in weight
• Inverted triangle-rectangle

 I must remember to play down my shoulder and add curves to my hips and bottom to make my waist look smaller in comparison.

 Tops

• V-neck, U-neck and low scoop neck
• Tailored dress shirts
• Wrap tops
• Tunic tops at the hip
• Drop waist with band at the hip
• ¾ sleeves or long sleeves look best

Dresses

• Thick straps
• Corset waist
• Drop waist
• Fitted bodices
• A-line dresses
• Wrap dresses
• Empire dresses

Pants/Jeans

• Straight leg, slight flared or boot cut
• Cropped and capri pants hit at the knee

Skirts

• Semi-circle skirts
• Gored skirts
• Pleated skirts (pleats sewn to the hip)
• A-line skirts
• Medium sized prints and patterns
• Lighter colors
• Medium to thick textured fabrics
• Medium to heavy weight fabrics
• Hem just above, at or just below knee
• Limit pencil skirts to tapered shape, wear with a shapely jacket

 Jackets

• Princess seam
• Peplum jacket
• Jacket at hip
• Low  or high stance
• Chanel style worn open

Coats

• Trench coat belted to cinch waist and tapering outward to create hourglass
• Empire
• Princess seam
• Flared hem

Jewelry

• Sizeable pendant necklaces
• Large dangling earrings
• Cuffs or bangles
• Bags hit at the hip

Shoes

• Pointy toed heels
• Peep toe heels
• Cut away arches
• Sling back heels

Color blocking

• Light top with light bottom
• Dark top with dark bottom
• Dark top with light bottom
• Wear dark color in the middle to create illusion of waist

 This will be an interesting sewing season.