Roll the credits, please ...!

It is DONE!
My first adventure into the world of quilting and getting stabbed with an itty bitty needle while hand-quilting is officially OVER. Mission Accomplished!

I'll post pics as soon as I can find that thingie which connect the camera to the computer (it has gone walkabout, the slacker).

The binding was a dream to sew on and I'm so pleased to have learnt the "secret" to good mitred corners (patience and some simple precision sewing).The little monkey, however, isn't as enamoured of her new quilt as mommy is. She says it's "not soft"!!!!!! She has promised to like it "tomorrow," though, so we'll see. LOL!Oh, and I've begun the Japanese cranes quilt for the in-laws. (She's NUTS, I hear you say ... hahahhaha!)

Adventures in drafting

Sorry for the delay in updates. I caught the sniffles, but am better now :)

So as mentioned in a previous post, I took Friday (20th August) off to attend a drafting/sewing class at Stitch & Craft Corner (Eastpoint Mall, Simei). It was FUN and I'm going back for more lessons.
The first thing I learnt was how to take proper measurements, a vital first step, said the teacher, and of course that makes perfect sense. Having used paper patterns all my sewing life, it was an eye-opener for me to learn about the many vital measurement points.

In addition to the usual bust, waist & hips, we also measured things such as shoulder, bust length (distance from shoulder to bust), hip length (distance from waist to fullest part of hip), front waist length, back waist length (my measurements for front waist and back waist are dramatically different, but for some people, it's the same), etc.

First, we measured the mannequin in the shop and then, I attempted to take some of my own measurements and that of the teacher's (in the pic below, the teacher is in the red top; wonderful Ati is the person in dark blue):After the measurements were taken, we began drafting a basic bodice and skirt. The drafting was first done in a sketchbook, using itty bitty rulers.

The drawings look mighty complicated, don't they!At first, it was a bit overwhelming, but the teacher was really patient and explained things logically ... eg. add xx inches to the waist measurement and then take xx off for the darts.

Then, after walking me through the first draft, she made me draft the basic bodice and basic skirt by myself in the book.

Then it was time to do the "proper" drafts on paper and cut out the fashion fabrics. First up, was the skirt. And I was so engrossed in the process that I forgot to take pics, sorry! But here's a pic of the bodice back and all the red lines are the teacher's corrections.
The interesting thing (to me) about drafting is that you don't add seam allowances to the draft. That is done directly on the fashion fabric before cutting it out. So you place the paper on the fabric, mark out the cutting lines (and there are different seam allowances for different parts of the garment) and then cut out the pieces. In the pic above, the "outline" is where I cut.

Then, after cutting out the pieces, you mark the sewing lines/seam lines. That makes for rather accurate sewing, I think! And it makes fitting easier too, in my opinion. In the pic below, you can see the skirt yoke cut out and the tracing wheel and carbon paper I'll use for tracing out the seam lines. Thank goodness for marking the seamlines because as you can see, I didn't do a good job cutting. Hahahhaha!

Then came the sewing. I've completed the skirt (simple yoked a-line with invisible zip in the centre back) and am currently working on the simple top.

Stay tuned as the adventure continues!!

The opposite of instant gratification

I've always been curious about quilting and as mentioned a few posts ago, decided to take some lessons to find out more. And boy do I have a new-found respect for people who quilt! These works of art take TIME and precision.

Here is where I'm at for the little monkey's fairy quilt:All the pieces have been sewn together (you can't really see the different pieces in the pic above as that shows mainly the central panel. I'm such an awesome photographer ... NOT! Hahahha!). The batting and backing are in place as well and what you see is everything basted together/

Here's a pic of the "quilt sandwich". I don't know what the actual name is, but it reminds me of a sandwich, with all the layers: top, batting, backing:
Here you can see the fabric I chose for the backing (along with the basting stitches). It's sooooo pink. It's a good thing the monkey loves pink, because there is a ton of pink in this quilt :-)
At the next lesson, I'm going to learn to actually quilt the quilt, which is a little like embroidery, I suppose, especially since I'll be doing hand-quilting and not machine quilting. You can quilt patterns, geometric shapes or outline details in the quilt.

Can't wait to complete this project! The monkey can't keep her grubby hands off it. Hahahahahaha!

Instant gratification project

So here it is at last, the little monkey's fairy skirt.

Every time we pass any area with lots of trees (and there are MANY such areas in Singapore), she tells me about the fairies in the forest and how when she was a baby, she saw fairies in the bathroom. Hahahhahaha! What an imagination.

But you know, when I was a little girl, I too thought I saw fairies and to this day can recall with great clarity the little people I saw one night in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. They were a colourful and noisy bunch.Ah, but I digress. This skirt was an instant gratification project which took just a few hours to complete. I didn't follow a pattern but just went with the flow. Sewing for children is so easy -- just cut up a few rectangles, gather, add lace, add elastic ... voila, you're done!

When it was first completed, the monkey feeling a bit of a grouch and said she didn't like the skirt. But when I asked her if she would like the skirt "tomorrow", she said "yes". Thankfully, she really did like the skirt the next day!

The fairy fabric is by Michael Miller, bought from Quilts & Calicoes at Tanglin Mall. Lace is from Spotlight.Now that the work crisis is over (knock on wood), I hope to get back into the sewing groove again!

At laaaaaaast

This Etta James song (click here to see a video) keeps playing in my head as I write up this post :-) And you know why -- some sewing-related activity actually took place this past weekend!

I know, it's about time, right?! LOL! It's just baby steps, but at last I'm sewing something for myself.

First up is this Pattern Review #5 Best Patterns of 2009, Burda Magazine 02-2009-108 "Knit Top with Bateau Neckline".I've read the reviews and know that I have to reduce the sleep cap ease and possibly cut a smaller size at the neck. So that's what I did, and hope that it works.

Here is the fabric I'm using:
It's a groovy black-and-white knit -- I think it's poly/lycra -- and it is soooooo slippery. I'm a bit of a fabric snob (ok, I'm the snobbiest fabric snob there is) and don't usually buy anything with polyester in it. But this print (from NicoleXavier) was too cute to pass up.

It was a real pain cutting the fabric though, as it wanted to slip and slide and run away from me. Why didn't I choose a nice stable knit?! Oh well ... this had better look darn good when it's all completed

Now I just need some sewing machine time to sew it up, and that means it probably won't get done till Saturday because I can't sew when my darling little monkey is around as she loves to "help".