Friday, January 6, 2012

A little sewing, and few pictures

During the week after Christmas, my lawyer daughter and I worked on a couple of projects for her.

When I went fabric shopping in Philadelphia with GMarie, my daughter and her roommate, an avid and very accomplished seamstress, went along. I bought my daughter a couple of pieces of wool, some lining, some buttons, and so forth. She brought some of those home for Christmas, and we worked on her projects during the "off" week.

The first was a brown suit. It was a very fluid chocolate brown wool, with a dark gold lining. I took pictures of her in this suit, but they mystically disappeared from my camera. So, here's the sketch from Simplicity pattern 4885, circa 2004. We didn't put the ruffles on the jacket sleeves, and we used a 3" deep flounce on the skirt, instead of 6" deep as illustrated. It looked quite nice.

The second was this black and white checked, high waisted skirt. It's lined in grey. It's Vogue 8425. The biggest problem we had is that the waistband is 6" high, and not tapered from top to bottom. So, after the skirt was done, it fit everywhere except at the top of the waist. Being her father's daughter, she took it off, tossed it in a corner and vowed never to revisit it. Being a stubborn old goat who never quits, I ripped out the top half of the zipper, tapered the waistband in, and reinstalled the zipper. I did, however, refuse to hand sew on the decorative buttons on the front, so those are just waiting for my daughter to finish them.
I have a white sweater knit sitting on the dining room table, waiting to be cut, maybe into a V1250 and matching cardigan, but I just haven't felt like sewing for myself. Maybe this weekend, after a nice, long soak in a hot tub tonight. Or maybe I'll just read. But not on the Kindle. I have a feeling that steaming your Kindle would not be the best idea in the world. That's OK, because there's a full length novel, Josephine Tey's The Franchise Affair, waiting for me in my mystery anthology.

11 comments:

Faye Lewis said...

I love both skirts and think making the ruffle 3" rather than 6" made the skirt much prettier and more business like. Nice choice!

pam said...

How silly not to make the waist taper in! Luckily you knew what to do!

SissySees said...

Sounds stunning, all the way around. I believe one friend reads with her Nook in a ziplock bag...

Sarah said...

Adorable suit. You are a great seamstress. I can only hope to get to some mending.

Diane said...

Love these patterns. I wonder when I will ever have space to get my sewing machine out again!! Diane

gMarie said...

Oh I wanted to see modeled photos! I told her she didn't need that much fabric for a pencil skirt! The high waisted skirt is lovely - I hope she adds buttons soon. g

Sue said...

Where is your daughter practicing? Send her here, we need a new lawyer.

Very nice choices in outfits.

No, steaming your Kindle is probably not the best idea and dunking it certainly would be bad.

Lapdog Creations said...

Happy Sewing!

Mary said...

You are truly a gifted seamstress. Those are fantastic outfits. I LOVE the first suit and that black and white skirt is gorgeous too. Your daughters are very lucky to have you!

Anonymous said...

Elegant, very elegant.

Pam said...

I love that skirt!