Colorful and Cozy

Who says winter has to be gray? I'm a huge advocate of bringing green (and other beautiful, fun colors) into the middle of winter.

This gorgeous fabric is a soft, warm, medium-heavyweight cotton flannel that I found at Wal-mart. (Yes, I know... but in this part of the country you really can't avoid Walmart and they do sometimes have some pretty decent fabric and occasionally, as in this case, way more than merely decent.) I used New Look 6963 and the sleeves from New Look 6598 because I wanted straight sleeves.

And I love it! It's too warm to wear indoors except on those really cold, overcast days when our house never really warms up very well. But I can also wear it as a lightweight jacket.

The buttons are 1 inch Dill buttons from CreateForLess.com.

I am a big fan of Dill Buttons, not only for the quality and selection but also the best packaging. Easy open, no staples.

The black t-shirt (long sleeve) is from Duluth Trading Company and the jeans are made by me.

The Last Dress of Summer

I really hate that summer dress season is ending but here it is. Saturday is the official first day of fall so this will be the last dress I make in summer 2018.

I Frankenpatterned the heck out of this make and I absolutely freaking love it! The bodice is based on Simplicity 1803 but with no front seam and I laid pieces from Simplicity 1882 over it to get the neckline and I used the collar from that pattern and made it just a little bit wider. The skirt is a half circle. The pockets are from a very old skirt pattern. I traced and enlarged the pocket a long time ago and I haven't seen the original pattern in ages.

I love the colors in this fabric. It can work for fall too. There are several different color choices for cardigans to go with it, none of which I currently own. Yay, more shopping. The red shoes are Clark's Cloud Steppers.

I added this lovely vintagey looking button (new, not actually vintage) and darn it; it's not straight.

I love it but I think I might look for a round button to replace it.

Now take another look at that first picture. That open rectangle to my right, on the left side of the photo... that's the window of my future sewing room, looking out on our lovely front yard. (We are planning to move the old broken down glider chair to the back porch.)

More Online Shopping

I'll start with Etsy. I haven't been shopping at Etsy for very long but one time was all it took to get me hooked. Search options are convenient and ordering is super easy. Most recently, I have ordered fabric from HouseOfMamiWata and MoreLoveMama. Both of these sellers are located in Texas, practically right next door to me, geographically speaking, so I received my orders in just two days.

Shopping online for notions is even more of a necessity for me than online fabric shopping. The only place within 40 miles of me that has any notions at all is Walmart. They have very, very few and almost never what I need. You would think with such a small notions department they would at least have a few of the basics but that is exactly what is lacking. They have a few odd novelty buttons, but no standard shirt buttons, double fold bias tape but no single fold, and so forth. So online I go. Here are my three favorite sites for notions.

Create For Less - This site has all kinds of craft supplies but I mostly go there for buttons and trim. They have a lot of Dill buttons, which I love not only for the buttons themselves but for the packaging. They usually come in surprisingly easy to open blister packs. No staples!

Lots of Buttons - Like the name says, lots of buttons. Only ordered a couple of times but everything I received was high quality and in convenient packaging. My only complaint is that sizes are like 20L, 32L, and so forth and I always have to look up what those "L" sizes really mean. They do have a size chart but I wish they would just show the sizes in fractions of an inch like I'm used to in the first place.

WAWAK Sewing - Again, I have saved the best for last. This site has everything plus items you never thought of but my favorite thing is the zippers. OMG, the zippers! They have zippers from three inches to over 100 inches. They have brass jeans zippers in 27 different colors and sizes from 3 to 11 inches. Also jacket zippers and specialty zippers like ones that are closed on both ends, for example, and of course, standard nylon skirt and dress zippers. And the prices. Seriously, go look at the zipper prices. Some other items come in large quantities like, for example, a gross of shirt buttons and a 30 yard package of elastic if you ever need that much.

See my Online Fabric Shopping list, in case you missed it.

Been Sewing

It feels like forever since I posted anything new here but I have been sewing. I finally started quilting a quilt that I had planned to have finished by now. I have been working on the top off and on since this time last year but it wasn't going well so I got discouraged with it and procrastinated. But now I'm going to try to rush through it and just get it done.

I did make the teal, brown, and orange tunic and I love it but I don't know when I will get around to photographing it. Maybe today, maybe next week. I also made a pair of sweatpants which are now my favorite sweatpants ever - so comfy - but I probably won't be showing those. The part of me that wears pants is very camera shy, if you know what I mean.

Finally, I do have one little thing I can show you. This doesn't look very good just thrown down on the table but I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It's for my granddaughter. I put fancy, sparkly buttons on it because she likes sparkly things. And so do I, so I'm thinking I might do this for myself sometime. Flannel with sparkly buttons? Why not?

The Jellyfish Dress

It's not perfect but I love it anyway so I'm not going to point out its flaws this time.

This is the bodice of Butterick 5748 again and the skirt of Vogue 8811. I didn't get a picture of the back this time but I must say I think I'm addicted to these scoop backs. I have made several, using two different scoop back patterns, and now when I put on an ordinary dress it almost feels wrong to have fabric touching my upper back.

Of course I added pockets, as always, and you might notice the two sea green buttons at the neckline. I just happened to have those, only the two, and they're very close to the color of the sea weed in this print so I decided to use them for a little decoration. I'm not sure they're really noticeable enough to make a difference but I like them and I'm glad I used them.

You know, it's funny... I am not especially attracted to navy blue and I would never claim it as one of my favorite colors but I keep making and loving navy blue things. (Well, two so far this year) I think it's more the colors that go with it though. These ocean colors look so cool and summery and the jelly fish are great fun.

The First Summer Blouse

Finally, I have actual new photos of an actual new thing I sewed. Yay, me! First of all, I swear the two halves of the front are perfectly even. This happens every time I try to take pictures of a blouse. And, even aside from that, overall, it's not a great picture but... [Stop apologizing for the lousy pictures, Lynn.]

And here are the two patterns I used. I love a couple of the collars on the old McCall's pattern but that was several sizes ago so I used this Kwik Sew pattern and reshaped the neckline to fit the McCall's collar. I like the way it turned out and I'm going to do it again.

Both this fabric and the buttons I originally bought to go with something else. The buttons are from Create for Less, which is a great store for buttons and other notions but their close-up images could be better so when I wanted buttons for something specific I ordered several different styles of button that I thought might work. These are the ones I didn't use but I loved them and I'm so happy I finally got to use them. A similar thing happened with the fabric. I ordered this to go with another print and ended up deciding to use something else for that project. It's a smooth cotton; the "texture" is just printed.

I think it would actually go better with my black jeans. Anyway, I like it and I think I'm going to be wearing it often.

My Favorite Stores

This week's featured store is Wawak Sewing. They have all manner of sewing supplies, accessories, and notions including things I didn't even know exist but what really keeps me coming back is zippers! Just one example: they have brass jeans zippers as short as 3 inches, (and up to 11 inches) in 18 different colors! And the prices! (Yes, I know. I'm using too many !!!) All of their jeans zippers are less than one US dollar each. And small orders are no problem. I try to wait until I need several items at once because I hate when shipping costs more than the item I'm ordering but if you only need one zipper you can order just one zipper.

Their selection of buttons seems fairly limited - just standard shirt buttons, coat buttons, etc - but you can buy them by the dozen or by the gross. (some styles) And, as I said, a lot of other sewing supplies and notions, including a lot of stuff intended for commercial/professional sewing like huge, 6000 yard spools of thread. In addition to the things you would expect, like thread, buttons, zippers, elastic, tape measures, bobbins, scissors, sewing machines and parts, they also have things like steam irons, hangers, garment bags, lint brushes... I hardly know where to stop. Just go browse.

Rescue Work

I said in my last post that I need to sacrifice a few things from my closet but I am not willing to sacrifice these buttons.

I love them! They were on a blouse that hasn't fit me in more than 10 years. I can still get into it and button all the buttons so I had been using that as an excuse to keep it but, honestly, it doesn't fit. So I replaced these lovelies with plain buttons. I have one more set of pretty buttons to rescue from a never worn garment before the big sacrifice to Goodwill.