Procrastinator!

I finished these last week, but my little brother came into town to surprise my parents with a visit over Memorial Day weekend so the weekend was instead stuffed with spending as much time with our soldier man as possible. I thought that was the perfect way to celebrate Memorial Day and HOO BOY was it fun to see the surprise on Mom and Dad's faces when they came over!

So here's what I've finished lately. I decided to turn my beloved Jalie 2562 into a T-shirt as well. Being clever, I call it my TNT-Shirt. I've made two so far, here's one out of the same fabric my polo is out of.

From 2009-05-24 Jason's Here!

I love it! The knit is super comfy and the fit is of course perfect. I think it takes me under an hour start to finish on one of these. I did a pink one Saturday morning before Hubby or Brother woke up, start to finish!

Last week I had gotten started on the vest BWOF 05-2009-109. For some reason the May issue isn't in the archives yet on the website, so you'll just have to go off of my finished one. The instructions were of course fabulous because it is the sewing course for May. I left out the piping and side thingies (tabs?) and made some shoulder and waist adjustments for fit- the neckline was gaping really badly. I LOOOOVE it now though! I probably over fit it just a tad on the waist, it fits absolutely perfectly standing, but sitting it's a little bit tight. I think I'd rather just lose a few pounds though than rip apart all that hand stitching holding the lining in place!

From 2009-05-24 Jason's Here!

From 2009-05-24 Jason's Here!

Speaking of lining, there it is! Isn't that cool? This vest/top combo is probably my favorite outfit right now with my white jeans and black loafers (not in the picture because Brudda helped me and isn't well schooled in blog photography...). I think I should put some edge stitching around the armholes to keep the lining from popping out because it doesn't really match anything. We'll see if I get that patient any time soon.

Last night I traced Jacket 107B from this same issue which will be my next project. I'm using black corduroy so I'm keeping the grain lines they recommend. This jacket was from the Madras section and has the two front panels cut on the bias to show off the contrast, I like that. Hopefully it will still look cool in baby wale corduroy!

Progress?

I'm making progress on my MIL's polos, good thing since I really need to get them shipped by Monday or so to make the Mother's Day deadline. What a slacker I am! Here are the photos- the collar is now pinned in place and ready to be put on for the solid pink one. I've yet to cut out the other one, but I plan on locking myself in my sewing room all day Saturday to get this done.

From Grillo Originals

I'm really happy with how well the placket came out. It's still not 100% lined up on the inside, but the outside is perfect (in my opinion anyway). I suppose eventually I'll have to resign myself to fact that I should likely be hand basting in place before really stitching this down to get it to look just how I want it.

From Grillo Originals

In other news- I've started teaching very beginning sewing classes as another side hobby. I have a student ("Sewing Protege") in particular that I'm really enjoying working with. T had never been near a sewing machine and was interested in learning a bit about sewing to see if she liked it enough to invest in a machine. For the first lesson she came over and we made a simple dog bed for her pups. She was THRILLED with the outcome and for her second project we made BWOF 04-2009-121. It's the short tunic- which has two dots- and we made it completely underlined. I've got to tell you, T the sewing protege is one smart cookie! We finished the tunic last night in time for her beach vacation and it looked awesome. She is picking things up with lightning speed. She's planning on buying a machine now- I'll go ahead and take that as a testament to my amazing ability to spread the love of sewing (don't burst my bubble here). Anyway, I'm happy that I've been able to introduce her to something that is obviously bringing her a lot of joy and pride and I'm looking forward to showing her everything I know.

Finished!

I finished my Jalie top. I LOVE IT! It is absolutely fabulous. I had fun putting it together and I wore it yesterday only to discover that it is the most comfy top I have in my clost. Here's the review I put up on PR.

I am definitely planning several more versions of this top. The first two of course being for my MIL for Mother's Day. I think I've decided I'll put a white collar and placket on the pink striped one because I can't find a solid to match. What do you think? Here are the fabrics again.

From Grillo Originals

The solid pink one will just be plain and solid. The stripey one is the one I'm going back and forth on. I don't think a striped collar would look good. But maybe?

Here is a photo of the prototype on me. I really love this pattern. I think I'll be making several more of these and then I'll modify it into a t-shirt pattern too, I need more of those and this fits SO WELL when it's on!

From Grillo Originals

So... for the rest of today I've got to go take the pup to get her staples out and then I need to finish my Easter top! All it needs is darts and a hem, so I think it should be a quick fix. Hopefully I'll post on that this afternoon.

My First Jalie

I broke down and bought Jalie 2562 to make my MIL's Mother's Day polos. I had drafted a polo but it didn't really turn out quite how I wanted it to. More on that some other day (if I ever get around to tweaking it, otherwise it's frustratingly close to what I wanted, just not quite there.) I read such good things about this Jalie on patternreview.com that I'm really excited to be making it. Here's the fabric I picked out for the prototype (I'm making her the same size I wear, but with a bigger FBA for her- so I'm getting the prototype.)

From Grillo Originals

Isn't this fabric cool? I love it! I was so excited when I found it. Here's my only Jalie beef so far though, the pattern in size V (size I'm making) calls for 1 yard in view A and another 5/8 in contrasting fabric. It wasn't really clear whether the 5/8 needed to be added to the 1 yard for an all matching shirt or what, so I got 2 yards because while too little fabric is never good, too much fabric can sometimes bring happy surprises. Just for the record though, this laid out in EXACTLY a yard. So perfectly exact it was crazy. So it looks like I'm getting another shirt out of this print too- sweet!



So far I've only cut out the shirt and made the placket. I saw some reviews that made it sound like the placket was a real PIA, but I've got to say I didn't have any problems with it at all. Maybe it's all those dress shirts I've been making, but it's going together like a dream so far. The fabric is a little tricky because it's SO stretchy, but it's super soft and pretty so I've got no complaints. My plan is to wear this to work on casual Friday, so hopefully you'll get to see finished photos then!