Complete!

This is the completed polo for my MIL.

From Grillo Originals

I like it a lot. The one thing that I still find irritating is my inability to sew the inside of the placket and the inside of the collar stand neatly. I may just resign myself to hand sewing that in the future. I pinned it SO CAREFULLY I just can't think of anything I could do to make it neater in the future without sewing it meticulously by hand. Speak up if you have a suggestion on that one. You can see in these photos that the outside is really neat and pretty, but the inside is not so good.

From Grillo Originals

From Grillo Originals

And here's the other shirt. I decided that the other fabric would become a t-shirt for my MIL instead of another polo. The only real option I had for the collar is to make it out of stripes (which I think will look funny) or to do it in white- which does not match the feel of the fabric really as the fabric is pretty dark pink and the stripes are silver. So here it is as a tee. I'm glad I decided to do it that way. I still used my beloved Jalie pattern, I just scooped out the neck a tad more and made a band to finish it.

From Grillo Originals

Here's the neck band, I used two stripes width so I could get the band to be just one stripe color, I like how it worked out. The serger thread in there is actually pink, but such a light pink that against all of the pinks in the shirts it looks white- bummer.

From Grillo Originals

And here's the twin needle stitching. I think this is the best job I've done on twin needle stitching so far. There is still a tiny bit of tunneling, but not enough to fuss over! Do you like that my nail polish matches the thread? Ha! I guess I'm in a bit of a pink mood lately.

From Grillo Originals

Next up is my mom's shirt which will be made out of this bamboo fabric. I tried to photograph it, but I can't really do it justice. It's a bit more navy in real life but you can at least see how beautifully it will drape. The stuff is amazing, it's a 100% bamboo knit from the Bamboo Fabric Store and to really show you how great it is, I'd have to let you touch it.

From Grillo Originals

The fabric has a bit more of a story to it. I ordered a sample of it probably two months ago with this in mind and I loved the sample. Now if only I could be as organized and efficient as I want to be, I would've ordered the fabric shortly after getting the sample. That's not what happened. I went to order on Friday and realized that I wouldn't get the fabric in time based on the shipping time- oh no! So I e-mailed them (Friday morning here, lunchtime there) to find out if I could pay for expedited shipping or something to get it by Wednesday (today). Not only did they NOT CHARGE ME AN EXTRA PENNY to get it to me more quickly, I got the fabric on Monday! Woo hoo! I get really excited when I get service like that. I can guarantee I'll be shopping there more. The fabric is delicious and I really love to support businesses that go the extra mile even when they don't have to.

What's the best service you've ever gotten?

May BWOF

I picked up the May BWOF over the weekend- I couldn't wait for it to come out! I've been jonesing for some good dress patterns, and this was just the ticket. This week I need to finish my Mother's Day sewing in addition to my Mother's Day baking, but once all that is done, I barely even know where to start! Here are my immediate plans:

(I apologize for no photos- the Burda website and I are having a little tiff over file types)

Vest 109- this is a plain vest that I've already made a muslin for. I'll be making the real one out of some black twill cotton I have left over from a previous project.

Dress 114- I have some purple cotton with a flowery island feel design in white that's been in super deep stash, I think this is what it wants to be.

Dress 122- I think the photo they have in the magazine is lame. I didn't like this dress at all until I saw the line drawing! I have some blue linen-look cotton that will be the body of the dress, then some white crinkle cotton with little blue roses on it for the sleeves. Since the dress has belt loops I think I'll also do a sash kind of belt with a serged lettuce edge on the ends to go around the waist and tie it all together.

Dress 126- I love this one just how it is! I'm going to go the really imaginative route and make it up exactly how it is shown. I just love it. It will probably be a bit further down on the to-do list though because I'm not sure I have the patience required for all those details at the moment.

Jacket 107- Last but not least, I love this one too. I think I may wind up making it out of some black pinwale corduroy I have hanging around. I'm not sure if I have enough for it and I'm also not sure how much I'll be wearing black pinwale corduroy in the summer, but I tend to get chilly in the evenings since even in the summer the nighttime temps drop quite a bit here in lovely Colorado so I may wear it more than I think. If all else fails, I'll have it for fall.

One more detail. I've planned out my summer wardrobe (there's a first time for everything!) and it centers around having nice white, khaki and black pants. I have the fabric for the black ones and was getting ready to make the white and khaki pants, but I decided to go thrift hunting this weekend. I found two perfect pairs of pants! They were Ann Taylor pants (which fit me like they were made with me in mind), I got both khaki and white. Both pairs are fully lined and were a whopping $3.50 each. I love making my own clothes, but there's no way I could even touch that efficiency! They do need to be hemmed so it's a good thing I'm handy with a sewing machine- but what a find!

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.