Tuesday's Tip: Organization

Store things in logical places—near where you will use them, for example.

Tuesday's Tip: Prioritize

Prioritize your goals or areas of study/preparation so that you don't always focus on what is easiest or the most fun.

Learning and Growing: Sewing

This post/re-post is a resource list designed to aid in the education of women in homemaking and womanhood lines, particularly in keeping with the purpose of The Hope Chest. You can always find all of my resource lists in the sidebar.

I don't necessarily endorse these sites in their entirety. In fact, some of them I may not endorse at all! They are here because I believe they are useful for educational purposes.

Threads Magazine ~ I've heard it's a good magazine but I've never read it. I do know that they have wonderful online resources, including short articles and videos for beginners.

PatternReview.com ~ reviews of sewing patterns, discussion board, reviews of sewing website and sewing notions, sewing information, and more. They even have classes, but those aren't free. Great resource!


Patterns and Using Patterns
Burdastyle ~ pattern downloads. Some are free. New!
Keeping Home ~ the retail store. My own store which features sensible and modest sewing patterns for clothing and the home. My goal is to help women outfit their homes and clothe their families with dignity. The styles for clothing are classic-modern ~ sometimes a bit trendy, sometimes a bit old-fashioned, but mostly in between (and never extreme!). I have some sewing patterns especially for beginners! I do completely endorse this one. ;-)

PatternReview.com ~ reviews of sewing patterns, discussion board, reviews of sewing websites (mostly stores) and sewing notions, sewing information, and more. They even have classes, but those aren't free. Great resource!

You Can Make This ~ pattern and tutorial downloads. New!

Fabric Sources

Fab Shop Hop and Fab Search ~ find fabrics and sewing stuff (a lot of quilting)  New!

Fabric.com ~ A wonderful place to visit! Sells discount quilting, apparel, and home dec fabrics. Some types of fabrics stick around consistently, some don't. Easy to navigate, so it's a great place to learn about fabrics and what's available. There's also a small fabric glossary that I have found helpful.

Denver Fabrics ~ sells discount fabrics. A bit difficult to navigate.

Joann.com ~ I generally buy my thread here (Gutermann). They have all kinds of sewing and craft supplies.

PatternReview.com ~ reviews of sewing patterns, discussion board, reviews of sewing websites (mostly stores) and sewing notions, sewing information, and more. They even have classes, but those aren't free. Great resource!

Sewing Forums

Sewing Forum ~ at GardenWeb

PatternReview.com ~ reviews of sewing patterns, discussion board, reviews of sewing website and sewing notions, sewing information, and more. They even have classes, but those aren't free. Great resource!

Sewing Mamas ~ has a forum. You have to join to read. Very active.

Everything Sewing Forum ~ Small but nice.   

My Treasuries on Etsy

Maybe you are like I used to be and don't know what a treasury is and don't know what Etsy is. Well, never mind. Just click on the links and find out!

Well, I'll give you a hint. Etsy is a place to buy handmade goods (as well as supplies for handmade goods and vintage items) from individual sellers. A treasury is a collection of items, usually with along a theme, put together by a member of Etsy (could be another seller or just a buyer) to share with other members.

I hope these will be a blessing to my readers!

The Gift of Life

Dreaming of a Wardrobe Makeover (part 1)

Well, maybe the ironing board cover is more urgent than I thought. . . .

See Challenge: Do Something Laundryish for the background to this post.

My ironing board cover does have a hole in it but I can live with that. Yesterday, though, I was cutting out a baby item on it and layed the fabric out over the hole (I usually try to avoid it if I can but sometimes I forget).

As I cut around that end of the pattern piece I knew I had to be careful around the hole. I thought I made it okay but then the fabric felt a little thicker than before. . . . Yep. When I lifted up the piece to check, there was a neat little cut!


I had better be extra careful from now on or I will need a new cover long before I am able to make one!

Sewing Tutorial

I just posted a tutorial on my other blog: Using Fabrics with Picks, Stains, and Other Flaws. If you have some less than perfect fabric you'd still like to use, check it out!

Fun Food Fabrics

For all you fabric lovers!

From Robert Kaufman 

Modern and fruity Metro Market

This collection isn't my style but I do like this one.  

Fruit Basket

I like this one and this one the best.


From Benartex

An Apple a Day

It's near the top of the list.

From Timeless Treasures

Farm Fresh

You will need to search for the collection.

From Red Rooster Fabrics

Harvest Town

From South Sea Imports

Apple Harvest

First Course

Enjoy! 

My First Regency Gown: Installment #5

I'm eager to sew (and get the final product) but I've got to get it right first! 

I've been making pattern alterations this week. I think the reason I kept avoiding working on this project was that I thought these alterations would be difficult. I was right!

Firstly, I'm using the neckline supplement because the regular neckline is too low for me (or at least seemed to be based on my muslin). I'm trying the high, ungathered neckline. The “instructions for modifying the original pattern” are, in my opinion, more like “a few comments on the subject,” not instructions.

The pattern pieces for the supplement are also confusing and not clearly marked. Detailed, step-by-step instructions are needed here. Be prepared to be confused at first, but if you pay close attention to “these guides are meant to be used as overlays” from the beginning that will help. I think I halfway missed that originally which only added to my confusion. You'll want to figure out what all those unlabeled lines on the supplements mean before you trace.

Second, I needed to lenghten the bodice. I thought I read somewhere for a more modern empire waist to lengthen the bodice 2” all around the bottom edge. The pattern doesn't have any instructions about how to do this and doesn't even have this note. I lengthened each of my bodice pieces at the bottom edge as best I could (it wasn't perfectly clear to me how to do that with curved pieces). That isn't the usual place to lengthen pattern pieces.

I was very concerned about this method of alteration so I looked on the pattern website's “Sewing Tips” page. No comments there about lowering the empire waist, this way or any other. So, I'm torn. Do I try it this way (I'll be making a muslin) or do I back up and lengthen the bodice pieces the usual way (by slashing them and inserting the extra length)? Or both ~ two inches at the bottom to extend the bodice and one inch in the bodice to accomodate my long torso. Hmmmm.

Psst . . .

I've added a section in the sidebar called "Specials at Keeping Home". Here you'll find any current specials at my online shop that relate to the month's theme in some way. And maybe some that don't.

You'll also find special deals just for readers of The Hope Chest. There's one there now. Shh. Don't tell anybody. *grin* Actually, go ahead and tell as many people as you want to, just send them here to get the coupon code, okay?

What I've Been Doing Instead of Working On . . .

. . . my first Regency Gown.

 

Fitted sheet and pillowcase 

  

Baby blanket and two scarves. 

 

Baby blanket, four scarves, and two bags.

 

Pillowcase 

  

Shower curtain. 

 

See? I have an excuse!

Recent Projects: GIft bags

A couple of little gift bags I made recently from Kwik Sew 3404 ~ not that you necessarily must have a commercial pattern to make a simple little gift bag, but I am working on making shop samples from this pattern. This was the easiest of all the projects so a good first!   

Romantic Fabric Collections

For your browsing pleasure!

I like to window shop fabrics, particularly full collections of coordinating fabrics (I'd like to do more than window shop, but . . . .). I used to do it before our dial-up connection slowed down to near-sloth speed. No more.

I did, however, put together a list of collections that those of you with reasonable speed can enjoy! I had to be content with the main page of each one ~ no looking at each fabric for me (that would take all day and all night!).

Cottage Romance (Maywood Studio)

Return to Romance (Maywood Studio)

Sweet Love (Maywood Studio)

Sent With Love (Moda)

With Love (In the Beginning)

Recent Projects: The Apron

This apron is Kwik Sew 3480. It's a Kwik Start pattern ~ especially designed for beginners.
 

More pictures and information in my sample gallery!

My First Regency Gown: Week Four

The late installment . . .  .

This week I worked on my first bodice muslin. The purposes of this muslin were to see where the bottom of the bodice fell on me and to see where the neckline would be.

First picture: trying to put together the back and side back pieces. I had trouble easing, as you can see.

These are the two pieces.

 

I'm not sure how the ends are supposed to fit together on the upper side of both pieces. Normally a pattern would have dots to match on corners like this. This pattern doesn't, and I think it should.

It's close, here, but not perfect. It could be a cutting or tracing error. I'll check those. I still have at least one more muslin to make, so I didn't try to fix this.

Here's the problem end. I don't think it's supposed to look like that.

You can see here how the pieces don't quite line up.

But, hey, it was close enough for this fitting!

Taking pictures of oneself in the mirror is more challenging than it looks. :-)

 

Conclusion? It's definitely too low and wide for my liking so I'll be trying the high neckline supplement next. The bodice is also too short. It doesn't completely cover me, even though my cup size is barely A! I am very tall, though, so that is probably why. Since I want a lower, more modern Empire waistline, I may need to lengthen the bodice as much as three inches. 

Regency Gown Installment Will Be Late!

I did work on it, and I even have pictures uploaded . . . but I'm not going to be able to write the commentary on the photos until next week.

~ Hopeful

Recent Projects: Short Sleeve Shirts

More pictures and information in my sample gallery!

Recent Projects: Baby Dress and Jumper

I drafted this jumper from the dress pattern I used for the dress below.

I'm sorry this is the best picture I have of the dress!

 

Want to know more about this project? Visit my sample gallery or just post your question here!

My First Regency Gown: Week Three

Ooops! Looks like I forgot to post this last week.

My muslin fabric ~ in curtain form!

After being taken apart.

I used some of this fabric for another project so I'm going to have to hunt up some more, I think, to do the rest of my Regency Gown muslins.  One I have already cut out.

My First Regency Gown: Week Two

I haven't done much since last week's entry (I've been sewing a lot of other things!) but I do have a few things to report.

#1 I cleaned out the library/guest room floor, where I cut out large pieces. However, since I think it will be awhile before I use it for this or any other pattern, I didn't clean the floor.

#2 I've been studying the pattern and coming to conclusions. I know I want to lengthen the bodice a bit ~ maybe two inches~ to give it a more modern Empire waist. I also may need to lengthen it because I am tall. Since I simply don't know how much I need to lengthen it, I'm going to make a very basic muslin (just the bodice, no sleeves) to check the fit. Later I will make muslins with sleeves and finished necklines because I want to know what they look like.

#3 I am preparing my muslin fabric (it's in my lap right now!). I'm using, as much as possible, some old, ugly brown (in my opinion, anyway) curtains. Preparing consists of removing the ruffles so I have more fabric to work with and the pieces are easier to manage. When I'm done, I'll press them. They are old, so on most seams I can just rip them apart since I get them started.

Maybe next time I'll have pictures, and possibly a report on a muslin or pattern alterations from the neckline supplement.

My First Regency Gown: Week 1 (sort of)

I'm ready to make my first Sense & Sensibility Regency Gown!

I'll be making weekly (I hope) posts about my experiences and progress, and now that I have a camera again, posting pictures of the process to.

So far (all of which happened in November and December, which is what the "sort of" in the post title is all about) I have:

Picked the fabric to use (from my stash, which is why I had to do it before I bought the pattern!).

Bought the pattern and the neckline supplement (I think the regular neckline will be too low for my comfort).

Previewed the pattern instructions and pieces.

Cut apart the pattern pieces.

Selected the view I intend to make.

Traced the pattern and trimmed out the pieces.