Slip-Stitch

I have about 10 new patterns sitting here on my desk, and about 100 different fabric yardages on shelves, and I just can't seem to make any of them fit in my mind. Solution? Read a good book on the couch and the answer will wake me up in the middle of the night. It's always that way.

In the meantime, for those of you who don't know how (I just learned myself) here is how to do a slip-stitch. The Mary Jane slippers that I just finished required such a technique and while the instructions were very clearly written, I was feeling particularly thick and couldn't make sense of it. That's where my collection of sewing books came in handy. After looking up 'slip-stitch' in 3 different books, it clicked.

Mary Jane Pattern Review

Well another very long week is over and I'm back in the sewing room! Oh glorious sewing room how I missed you. So with Vincent in my lap, batting at my threads, I finished my Mary Jane slippers that I've been working on using I Think Sew's Pattern.

The final review? This is a great pattern and I would buy it all over again.
Here's what I liked: the instructions were really simple and they came with tons of images to guide you through construction. The finished project looks really great and the fit is quite accurate as well. I was first concerned that the toe was going to be too wide when looking at the pattern but it came out just fine.

I chose not to use the flower included in the pattern because it required me to cut out 36 of the same small flower pattern. I used bows instead and it looked great. I will definitely be making these again.

Another great thing about this pattern is, when you purchase it online you get 5 additional free patterns to download for small easy projects. Can you say hand-made Christmas gifts?

Image courtesy of ithinksew.com

The next I Think Sew pattern I'll be buying will be for the Retro Bag. But for now, I have some vintage patterns that I've been dying to get my hands on.

Jackpot!

The mail came yesterday and even though I'm working a ton and have almost no time to sew until the weekend, I'm excited! Take a look at my score:

You know you've somehow become too busy when you find yourself trying to chose between blogging and showering because you don't have the time to do both. Well, I just had to get up earlier to fit both in.
Who needs sleep anyways? That's why there's coffee. You can sleep when you're dead.
Here are my favorites.

Butterick 5978 from 1921

I'm in!

 

I did it! I made it into the top 50! Please please please go to burda and vote for me to win! Mine's # 39. http://www.burdastyle.com/albums/186/images?page=39

I have some incredibly talented competition, I love that there are so many insanely creative people out there making their own clothes to their own design and fitting needs (she says while strangling something cute and fluffy). With so many talented people, my chances aren't very huge for winning but the way I look at it, I got an amazing dress out of the deal anyways!

By the way, the project sponsors, Rowneta, are offering an incentive to voters. according to Burda "one lucky voter (USA residents only) will win their own DG5030 Pressure Iron and Steamer and IS9100 Precision Valet garment steamer!" So after you’ve voted on the slide-show, go back to this post, leave a comment telling them who you voted for and why, and you’ve entered to win this incredible prize! Voting is open until 5pm EST on October 11th, by the way. Hope you guys win something out of this too!

In the meantime, I'm going to let the chips fall where they may and get on to my next project! I'm in the middle of making these adorable mary jane house shoe!

Image and design courtesy of Ithinksew.com

You can purchase a pdf pattern for these here. I'll let you know how mine goes. In the meantime, could you go to burda and validate my somehow stunted sense of self worth by voting for me? Pretty please?

 

Some book love...

So in an effort to have a more organized sewing room, I'm attempting to create a swatch catalog of my massive fabric collection. Stitch Magazine has thoughtfully provided a free pdf download to a lovely little printout that has everything you need to create your own stash catalog!

Image courtesy of interweavestitch.com

Now I'm not sure about the rules of sharing a pdf that belongs to another web site and I had to create a free account with them to get access to the download so I'm going to leave that up to you guys. However, I signed up for their newsletter and, though most of it seems to be about quilting (not really my thing) there are some great sewing tips and other things that I've gotten out of it.

Old Plaid Robe Dress - Project Runway Remake Challenge

Here's the final cut, so to speak! This was my final submission for the Project Runway Remake Challenge Presented by Rowenta.

Stalling for time

So today, instead of spending an hour writing a new post, I'm just going to share a nifty video clip with you and I'm going to get back to sewing on the old man dress renovation project because I only have 2 days left! Gah, time crunch! I have to get that baby shortened and the sides taken in, holes mended, and God knows what else. Thanks so much to those who facebooked me with suggestions!