I'm Back, Well Not Really

I got back from the mountains of West Virginia on Wednesday night all ready to get my skirt done. I worked on it for a little while on Thursday since my little guy goes to preschool this day. I got up this morning at 6 am to knock it out and guess what I find in my sewing area - water, water, everywhere. Yep, my area in the basement flooded. So I moved stuff around and this afternoon my hubby will bring a shop-vac from his office to clean up the water. My sewing area is in disarray and I'm not very happy. Looks like I will not finish my garment this month. Blimey! I may have to set up a whole new area which could takes weeks. Arrggghhh!So I am back but not back to sewing anytime soon.

On a happy note we did have a good time in WV snowboarding and skiing. Here are some pics of the trip.

What's Going On?

I mentioned in my previous post that I experienced some creep when sewing my back seam. This occurred again when sewing together one of the back panels. See picture below - the bottom of the skirt is at the top of the photo. The first 2 panels do not line up but the last 2 panels line up. My material is a stretch corduroy. When I pin my pieces together they line up just fine but as I am sewing the material starts to creep. Does anyone know what's going on? I don't think I cut my pieces that off, but who knows.

The Zipper is In

I finally got the invisible zipper into my skirt and it wasn't too bad. I used a variation of the tutorials I posted previously. I used my standard zipper foot but I think I will purchase an invisible zipper foot in the future to see if it makes a difference. I do have an issue though. When sewing the seam under the zipper, I experienced some serious creep - as in my hem line between the two pieces joined is not matched (off by almost 1/2"). I ripped out the seam and tried it again, but the same thing happened. I think the skirt will be a tad too long as is so it will work out but that was strange.

I am going to attach the facings to the skirt using a method I stumbled across while reading Dawn's blog. She has a link to a tutorial on RTW style zipper facings. I have never completed a facing - yep I've got 2 skirts that are UFO's because I stopped at the facings. I told you guys I am scary when it comes to sewing new things. I guess I get a bonus goal to accomplish since I decided to take on zippers using a skirt pattern. Here's my zipper. Oh yeah I'm up in the mountains so this was done last week but I was packing for this trip.

It's GLAMOUR-ous to Sew

I was reading the February Glamour magazine with Eva Longoria Parker on the cover and guess what? She loves to sew.

The author mentioned that she would not have believed this but saw a sewing machine in the corner of her trailer. They didn't go into detail about what she likes to sew though I wish they would have. I am very curious about what type of sewing she does. We often hear about celebs that knit but I wonder what other celebs enjoy sewing. Well my sewing sisters - I feel a little more glamorous don't you?
And yes, I am getting around to that zipper. Hopefully the weekend will allow me to do a little sewing.

Okay Butterick

My mission was to not buy any patterns for a few months because I would like to get a 6 month Burda World of Fashion subscription by midyear. I am really interested in seeing what all the hype is around BWOF. But...when I saw these Butterick patterns I said, "Okay Butterick - you're not helping my cause, here."

I love these dresses. I have a wedding to go to in August and either one of these would be perfect.

Like Adrienne, I love this pattern. I think it fits my lifestyle as a SAHM of two little ones that still wants to look cute.

I don't necessary like this pattern but I love the fabrics they selected. For some reason they just speak to me.

Invisible Zipper Research

I decided to do a little on-line "research" on installing invisible zippers. Here are a few tutorials that stood out to me:

Otis Fashion Sophomore Studio: Invisible Zipper
Sew I Knit Blog - Invisible Zipper Tutorial
Craftstylish How to: Zippers (Part 3)
Sewing Divas Blog - Sewing Invisible Zipper

I am a highly visual learning so words without picture don't do if for me. I'll be digging through some of my books later.

February's Goal - Installing an Invisible Zipper

So here is the pattern I chose to learn how to install an invisible zipper. Now I must admit that I have put one in before but that was like 2 years ago. I have totally forgotten how to do this.

I am making View A in a cranberry stretch cord.

I will be sure to blog my progress as well as any resources I use. I can't wait to get this under my belt.