Getting caught up

I'm finally getting around to blogging my most recent sewing projects. As you can tell from one of them it's been a while since I worked on these. Just didn't seem to get the time to get them into my blog.

The first two are turtlenecks that I made for M. She likes to layer so requested these. They are both from Simplicity Lizzie McGuire 4390 size 16. I changed the mock turtleneck to a regular turtleneck and lengthened it. I made some mistake on the heathered one and ended up having to lettuce the two layers of the turtleneck together and I like this one much better. I forgot to add as much length on the heathered one too so I lettuced the hems to keep as much length as possible. The sweater knit was hard to lettuce as the stitches wanted to come apart when I stretched it but it is passable. I got both of these fabrics at S.R. Harris.

For the next one K wanted to be a pop star for Halloween. You might want to look at the enlarged version to see it better but I just had to put in the modelled view. It is a cap from Ottobre 4/07 #25 in size 56. It is a little big but looks great on. On this one I forgot that I had plans for the day before she needed it and I ended up working on this from 11PM to 3AM. Boy was I tired that next day!

The next project is a favor I did for a friend. She ended up cleaning my carpet in exchange. I do think I got the better end of this deal. She had purchased some knit pants that were too short but oh so comfy and cheap. I added cuffs to them using an assortment of fabrics from my stash. I ripped the hems out and added about 2" length total to each pair. The project ended up being quite easy once I got the measurements figured out. She loves finding shirts to match the colors in her new pants.

The last project is actually something for *me*!! It is the gathered neck tee from Ottobre Woman 2/07 #4. I when I was going through fabric for something else I was wearing the pants in the picture and realized that this fabric would go perfectly with them. Finally something to give me the impetus to sew for myself. I had made a pj top (that I didn't photgraph) to check fit. From that I decided to add an 1" to the center folds to give a slight bit more width to gether into the neckline. I also added some width at the shoulder, about a half inch?, that I graduated into the existing armscye. I didn't want the armscye any lower. I still could use a smidge more ease through the bust because it kind of pulls in a line straight across the bust if it's not pulled down all the way. I might have to do an FBA to accomplish this. I've had trouble with that in the past so have avoided doing it. This has some gathers at the side bust and I moved those down about a inch too.

I changed the sleeve on this to use the sleeve from #6 in the same issue. Was going to make it long sleeves but forgot that when I cut the pattern out. Was wondering why I left so much room in between pieces on the tracing paper. LOL. Next one will be long sleeved, although I like the 3/4 length sleeves too.

I used my new coverstitch machine to hem and stitch down the binding on this shirt. It was SOOOO nice to use it. It took awhile to get the tension right since I used regular thread from a spool and bobbin for the outside threads. Don't have the right colors in big cones. I made a boo boo on one of the hems and decided not to fix it, I'll bet no one can even find it. Overall, I'm very happy with this shirt and want to make some more. Recently I was wishing I had a red shirt. Wonder if I have the right fabric for it....