I am drowning in awesome knitting projects and have seriously neglected my sewing. More specifically, I've seriously neglected my sew-along. Although I never got around to putting mine together, it was great fun watching my sewing pals make their tops! Since everyone else is either finished or has changed their mind about the project, I'm retiring the sew-along. I'll update you if and when I finish mine.

a sew-along

the merry, merry month of may
and june too!

Continuing our look at my knit-issues, here's two more!

Next issue: I'm not knitting for the boys. I've always found it difficult to wear my favorite and lovliest things for fear that they'll get messed up. It's no different with my knitted things. And when it comes to the boys, there's no doubt that things will get messed up. All I have to do is look at the strings hanging off of their much-loved blankies to see what a toddler can do to knitwear. So the bug sweaters and the giraffe jackets haven't gotten as much wear as they should. And since the bulky fantasia vests that they didn't even like, I haven't really knit them anything. I've got to get over this! It's so much fun knitting for the kids. And they look so sweet in handknit things. I'm thinking of taking the plunge again for fall. Some ideas for more kid-friendly, less mess-stressy knits are a pair of vests (no sleeves to get all peanut-buttery) and maybe denim jackets (denim = washable!).

Last issue (for now): I'm not sewing! I'm such a knitter. I just can't bring myself to go upstairs (where there's no cable tv), set up the sewing machine and the ironing board and start pinning and pressing, seaming and cutting, when I can simply flop on the sofa with a ball of yarn and a circular needle and knit the night away. Here it is Sunday again, time for a sewing update, and I've done nothing but knit. No progress on my sew-along top. Everyone else has pretty much finished (did you see Melly's awesome top?) and I haven't touched mine since May. Don't give up on me yet, fellow seamstresses!

Just because you're not sewing doesn't mean you can't add to your sewing stash. Right?

Lynn generously sent me some old Burda mags, including the issue where they introduced their redesigned superpattern sheets.

Before.

After.

Okay, I will never again complain about the burda pattern sheets. That first one would stop me sewing forever!

And Sharon kindly sent me some kids' fabric that she didn't need anymore. This cord fabric is my favorite of the bunch. So sweet.

Thanks so much, ladies! I love looking through patterns and trying to decide what to do with the great fabrics I've got. It's so much fun. Now someone just needs to send me a swift kick in the pants to get me motivated to start sewing again.

Remember these groovy pajama bottoms I started over a year ago? I pulled them out of the sewing stash and was shocked to see how little there was left to do to finish them up. I'm feeling so much more comfortable with the sewing this year - with the pressing and pinning and stitching and such - that it didn't take me much time to get these back on track. I started out by doing a little fitting and resizing here and there. My big sewing accomplishment was adding the cuffs on the legs.

I had meant to spend my sewing time this week finishing off my summery top, but after sewing it all together and trying it on, it was clear that the facings were way too stiff and large. It felt like I had a light, little top on over some sort of football shoulder brace thing. So I decided to cut down the facings. Remember my pretty little facings? Here they are now.

I need to finish the edges on them again. But since I'm cutting and reworking the thing anyway, I'm thinking that the neck is a little too high for me. I may just open up the shoulders, cut a new neckline, piece together some scraps to make a new front neck facing and resew.

So much for the one-hour sewing project!

Hey ma, happy mother's day - your shrug is all done! Now you have to come visit us to get it.

And here's a picture of the back. Neat pattern, huh? Just a long rectangle sewn cleverly together to make this cool shape. I really like it. If I didn't already have a poncho of my own....

While I resign myself to having no nyc shrug of my own, I can enjoy my new big, slouchy, beachy Burda top.

I love it! The big sleeves are so fun to wear. I just want to hug myself the whole time I've got it on. The fabric was a gift from my mom and the pattern book a gift from my mother-in-law, so thanks moms!

Yes, you knew it had to happen, a sew-along for that little Butterick pattern that everyone seems to have.

I know that some of you will be done in no time, so we'll make this a brief one. How about the month of May? That gives me a goal to shoot for too.

To get warmed up, I'm trying out what looks like a pretty simple Burda pattern for a cozy, blousy top. Well, the pattern instructions look simple once I find the pattern pieces in this maze of lines.

Yikes!

We left our intrepid newbie seamstress last September, hands full of cotton prints and head full of fun summer patterns, but in a crisis over a skirt gone all wrong. Well, 'tis the season again for cotton prints and fun summer patterns! So when Carolyn reminded me that I had once planned to make this fabby little top, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get back into it. A dip into the fabric stash and I found the perfect fabric too - cotton dots that I picked up on my trip to Germany last year.

I can't help but think of this project as "pknitty", 'cause that's the name of the blog where I first saw the pattern and it reminds me of the Cleo pattern in last summer's Knitty. I loved those two tops! And Carolyn pointed out that one of the Sew Hip it Hurts gals made a cute little pink verison of this one too. Carolyn's planning on sewing-along with me, which is very good, since after a six month hiatus, I'll need a lot of hand holding.

Oh, and as for that skirt, I'll be calling in some reinforcements (in the form of super-seamstress and fellow Knitsmith, May) on that one!

The stores are closed here on Sunday of course, but we did get some vacation shopping in during the week. At the local grocery store the boys got to ride in fun kid shopping carts with "autos" on the front,

and I found all the great knitting and sewing catalogs. I bought the new Verena knitting and Burda sewing mags right away and plan to pick up the latest Ottobre, Rebecca Baby & Kids and Filati magazines next time we go out.

The best yarn selection I came across was in a toy and hobby store; still I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. But I did find some material remnants marked down to a reasonable price, which will do nicely for some summer tops once I get back in the mood to sew again.

And now it's Sunday, a day of rest, at least from shopping. Not from knitting, though! I've begun sewing up the boys' vests and the back of sooty mango is all done (no pictures, as it's hard to photograph dark knits in this sun-less weather pattern we've got going on here). The boys will definitely have finished vests before we leave, but I'm pretty sure I won't be finishing sooty mango here. After all, the stores do open again tomorrow! And this week the kiddies get to go to the family stationery store to pick out something fun for themselves.

As I cast on for a purple scarf for my scarf project, I kept thinking about my purple top for the Phildar knit-along and how sad it was that I'd stopped working on it. So I pulled it out of its project bag and took a good look at it. I had to look back at the old entry to recall why I put this aside in disgust. Looking at it a second time, it seemed fine. I'd been concerned about the size, but it seems okay to me now. So, I thought, what of that idea to reinvent it as a vest? Any way to do that without ripping out the 5 inches I'd already knit? Without having any real plan, I said yes, and started knitting from where I left off. Quick, before I change my mind again!

I'll probably cut off the bottom half inch or so and add a ribbed band to it, then work on doing something funky to the front.

And as for my purple skirt, I guess I haven't quite forgiven it yet for going all wrong on me. All my sewing is on hold until I work up the strength to rip a couple more seams and give it another try.

I did it. I took the lace off of the purple stripey skirt and opened up all but one of the seams to start over. I decided that it wasn't just the lace that was bothering me, bringing back those visions of 80's prairie skirts. It was also the fit. It was too long, too loose, and too poofy. So I took in the side seam about an inch and plan to shorten the whole thing another couple of inches. I wanted to have it done this weekend while the weather is warm again, but then I decided that it needed a lining. After an end-of-the-week run to the fabric store, I only managed to get the lining pieces cut out and ready to join to the skirt.

Any suggestions on the best way to attach a lining? The pattern doesn't call for one, so I'm just winging it here.

After I'm finished with the ex-prairie skirt, I'll be moving on to my fall projects. I've decided to put aside the summer projects - too much work for something I won't be able to wear for a while. So my flowery top, the Cleo pattern, and a couple of skirts go into the time capsule until next spring.

Next up on the list then will be a light, drapey jacket for me. I fell in love with this Burda pattern when I first saw it and then I found this pretty patchwork fabric on sale to use for it.

And for the boys, I'm planning some safari pants! I'm going to try this Burda kids pattern in these fun fabrics that grandma picked out.

I'm excited about a new season of sewing. And the ex-prairie skirt just might turn out okay after all. Change is good.

Spent a few hours this evening going through all my fabric (I don't have that much!) and patterns, in an attempt to re-energize myself about my sewing projects. I came up with a plan to change my summer stripe skirt and planned out a few more projects for me and the boys.

I'm not really a to-do list kind of gal, but I'd hate to have wasted the last few hours. So here's my sewing list.

To do while it's still warmish:

1. finish groovy pajamas
2. finish dressy - I think I'll like her actually
3. re-do summer stripe skirt
4. sew up summer flower top - pieces already cut out
5. make some fun little purses with leftover material

Early fall projects:

1. boys jungle pants
2. beige knit shirt
3. light jacket - buy fabric for this one!
4. blue skirt
5. green skirt

Can you tell that I'm trying to wear more skirts? It seems to me like in the last five years or so, I plum forgot all about them. Odd. Anyway, I'll try to get some pictures together of patterns and fabric for next week's update. Now I'm getting excited again!

No new sewing to report so far this week. I hope to get the drawstrings finished for my skirt this afternoon, though. I've become a bit discouraged as regards the skirt: A) because I don't have any shoes to wear with it; and B) because someone mentioned "prairie" in one of the comments last week and all I can think of are those god-awful puffy sleeves and poofy prairie skirts that I wore when I was 13. A) is pretty easy to solve, I think, but B) may require my cutting off the lace.

Cutting off the lace and rehemming would be pretty scary, but if it comes to that, I'll try to follow the brave example set by my boys, who got their first haircut today! They really needed it. Until April, they had almost no hair, but once it started growing in, it didn't take long for it to get a bit outta control. Here's B before and S, whose hair was even longer and curlier than his brother's.

There were only a few tears shed at the beginning of the cut. Animal crackers, cartoons, and the realization that nothing bad was happening helped to calm their fears.

And now, no more hair in our eyes! Fuzzy heads rule!

So, I took a little break last week from my sewing updates (and my sewing!), as I was completely focused on finishing up native for my mom's birthday (stay tuned, this week). Last week, I promised a picture of my stripey skirt and I wouldn't want it to get around that I don't keep my promises. So here it is, still without the drawstring ties.

Elsewhere in the land of project overload, I cast on for my holiday island sweater (aka, Chaise). I love the name of that Jo Sharp book and the soft, cool blue cotton that I'm using seems to fit the island theme so nicely. I'm most curious to see how I'll feel about the 3/4 length sleeves. I have two other 3/4 length sleeve projects planned for fall, so I hope I still love the idea when I'm done.

I think I've figured out what is keeping me from jumping into my sewing like I do with my knitting. It's the ironing. I absolutely love cutting out the pattern pieces, pinning them on the fabric and then cutting everything out - I really enjoy the pieces with their neat cutting lines and the pins all in a row (could you tell by the number of pattern piece photos I've posted?). And I like the actual sewing - a side seam, a hem, even a casing for elastic. But I hate all the "press down 1/4 in. here and then fold over and press again" sort of stuff. How annoying is that? Sew a little seam, stand up and do some tedious, intricate foldy-pressy thing, then sew another little seam. Just makes me want to get my knitting needles and do stockinette in front of the tv for an hour or two!

So this week, I tried to make friends with the iron. My first project wasn't sewing at all, but a bit of crafty, iron-on fun. Remember when I was dreaming of knitting Joe sweaters for the boys? Well, I still want to do that. I've got two more sweaters planned for the boys before I get to those, but I figure they'll still be watching Blue's Clues in two years! Anyway, the character they really love is Dora the Explorer and you cannot find any Dora clothes or accessories that are for boys. I'm not a huge stickler about boy colors and such, but everything Dora is pink AND ruffly AND covered in flowers. That's a little much for even the most open-minded mom. So I made up some little iron-ons and bought some cheap shirts at Old Navy, and voila: boys like Dora too!

And here's the back. The boys love them!

After doing the Dora shirts and making some headway on the native sweater (check it out!), I managed to almost finish sewing my stripey skirt. Step one on the skirt was iron on interfacing over buttonholes (now you can see why I waited so long!). I picked up the iron, since it was out, and got to work. Then sewed up the side seams, the hem and even added a bit of lace to the bottom. All that's left are the fiddly little drawstrings. I should have finished pics for next week's update. I really like how it came out and I'll probably start wearing it even though I still have to deal with the ties. Good thing the rest is finished, cause I'm done ironing for this week!

I've been so excited about my knitting projects this week, that I forgot to take time out to do some sewing. Thus, the summery projects haven't progressed that much since I pinned out the pattern pieces last week. All I've done is cut out the pieces and baste the side seams of the skirt together to check the fit.

I made it to the fabric store, though. I picked up this fun Butterick pattern, which I saw on pknitty's blog (love that name!). Originally I wanted to knit the Cleo top from the summer Knitty. I swatched a lot of yarns from my stash but couldn't find anything that really worked at that gauge, so when I saw the sewing pattern, I thought, heck, I should just sew one. Now I have to buy some fabric for it. I have cotton prints in my stash, but the pattern calles for georgette. Do you think I could try it with cotton??

Finally, my best find at the fabric store was this ribbon, which will perfectly top off my tiny tank.

New sewing project alert! I've cut out the pattern pieces and pinned them out for two summer projects from the new stash.

I realized I had enough of the purple striped fabric to make a skirt (one that will perfectly match my purple tank and the Phildar top when I make it). I still really liked the simple lines of the pattern I'd originally planned to use with the striped fabric, so I decided to use it with flowery fabric, which is my favorite from the new stash.

In old news I finished up the last of the curtains. I love the way the light glows when it comes through these curtains. The living room finally has that nice home-y feel that curtains always bring.

I'm used to this with my knitting, but now I've got an overload of sewing projects. One birthday and I suddenly have something you could call a fabric stash and a lot of exciting patterns to make. (Okay, I know I've still got two projects unfinished, but I'm beginning to think that I won't like dressy and it's too hot for me to get excited about long pajama bottoms, even if they are groovy.) And no more sewing for the boys - I'm talking fun summer patterns for me! Now the problem is deciding where to start. Should I make this little stripey top or maybe this lovely strappy top or perhaps this lacy flowery blouse?

I've still got to look through my new Burda magazines to see if there isn't a pattern in them that just has to get made. So many possibilites - how can I ever decide?

The boys had a great birthday, complete with balloons and a fire engine cake! I hate to say it, but the fire dogs were the yummiest part.

No new knitty gifts for the boys this birthday, but they did wear their lederhosen that I knit for them last year. And the mailman brought the yarn I need to make their pipsqueak sweaters. Yay!

In other birthday news, some belated but awesome presents arrived for me, including Vintage Knits, Burda and Ottobre magazines, and lots of fabric for sewing projects.

Birthdays are good.

Actual sewing content!

I've been busy working on the boys' kwikies and fast pants. I finally finished a second pair of grey kwikies so the boys can match. They went real fast this time. I think I'm getting the hang of this! And as the weather is getting warmer and the sun stronger, I figured another two more pairs of white fast pants were in order. They're just the thing for running around on the playground on a hot day, or eating ice cream on the 4th. Loose and fun, light and, most important, easy to wash!

Next, I fixed the fast shorts that I needed to make. Someone had sent us one pair of shorts for the boys (why?!), so I decided that I should sacrifice one more old t-shirt so that they could have an even number of shorts. I think they ended up so cute and B seems to like them too.

And the most exciting of all, remember this fun banana shirt that I wanted to salvage the material from? I removed the sleeves, leaving me with a rather odd muscle shirt and enough fabric for the first pair of banana pants. I've still got the waistband and hems to do on these, but they're going to be great!

I did no sewing last week, as the boys were having trouble sleeping and I didn't want noise from the sewing machine in the next room to add to the problem. Actual sewing content will have to be limited to this cute pic of B lounging in his fast pants. He's telling me to move out of the way so he can see Blue's Clues.

I spent my sewing time knitting, of course, and am almost done with my Smooch tank. I redid the shoulder shaping on the back. And I've even finished one shoulder on the front. One more shoulder and three needle bind off, here I come! Look at that, I'm even avoiding sewing in my knitting projects!

Not too much to report this week. Most of the sewing I've been doing recently is seaming on my wannabe sweater. I'm really excited about finishing it and so have put most of my machine sewing on hold for a bit. Another knitting project has also taken up a lot of my sewing time - the boys' knitted lederhosen from last year. The straps kept stretching, so I am finally getting around to sewing in some grosgrain ribbon to stabilize them. I've never done this before and am very thankful to fellow knitbloggers, Melissa and Claudia for sharing their tips!

Although my excitement about summer shorts and tops has waned with the return of the cold, wet weather here, I did make a start on converting an old t-shirt into a pair of shorts for the boys, but they didn't come out as well as the first pair of fast pants did and I've got to fiddle around with them a bit more. I am also working on trying to salvage the material from this funky old shirt of mine so I can turn it into some way cool shorts for the boys.

Check back next week for:

- the return of good weather, and
- finished fast shorts, lederhosen and perhaps banana bottoms

or

- the continuation of cold weather, and
- finished groovy (and warm) cotton pjs

My little sewing blog was lonely all on its own. And since it was displaced from the sidebar by the knit-alongs, I'm moving it back to the blue blog as a weekly update.

Current projects:

dressy
My first big sewing project and it's still awaiting armhole facings and a hem. I'm having trouble working up the courage to try the small curvy seams on the armhole facings. And I don't know how I'll get the hem right all by myself.

groovy
Why did I stop working on this? Ahh, the waistband. But now that I've conquered that fear/technique, I should be able to get these sewn up and hemmed pretty quick.

kwikies
Pants and more pants for the boys. I made one pair using the Kwik-Sew pattern and a couple of Kristi's fast pants. I've got more fabric and old t-shirts ready to be transformed into more pants and shorts for summer fun.

miscellany
I spent most of my sewing time in the last week and a half working on all the curtains that needed to be rehemmed for our new place. After running out of white thread and then (Carolyn, you'll like this!) sewing the pocket for the curtain rod closed on several panels, I finally managed to get them all done for the bedrooms. The kitchen and living room are still naked.

And remember this fabulous fabric that Kerrie sent me a while back? Well, I'm trying to turn it into something fun and summery. If I can't get it to work, I should still be able to turn it into a little shoulder bag.

Stop by next week for the chance to see:

- a finished pair of groovy pjs
- some fast shorts, and
- a fabulous little top (or the world's sexiest purse!)

I'm thinking that I'm not sewing or blogging about sewing enough to warrant keeping my separate little sewing blog, sew blue. I would like to keep posting about my projects and progress, though. Would you all still visit if I posted a weekly update on my sewing in my knitting blog?? Pretty please?

For those of you not reading my other blog, I'll explain why I haven't been sewing or blogging: we've been moving! Well, we started moving. I even schlepped my yarn stash over to its new home by my new sewing table. But then this happened. And I've got an emergency root canal this afternoon. When it rains, it pours, and nobody gets any sewing done!

First it was the vacation, then the blog crash and rebuild. I am so behind on my sewing projects! I should have that first pair of kwikies done by now and what's the hold up on groovy anyway? I thought about this (instead of just sewing) and realized that both of these projects are stuck at the waistband. So why am I hung up on the elastic casing? I don't really think that it's going to be that hard, but clearly I'm avoiding it.

Please just tell me it's a breeze and I should get over it. I need the kick in the behind!

I haven't done any sewing for several days. We're getting ready to go on a little vacation and I'm trying to bring all my knitting projects to a point where I can leave them for a week - or start new ones that I can bring along (tee hee). And although I've got several sewing projects going on right now (the kwiky prototype, the groovy pj's, and yes, still dressy!), I don't feel like I have to get them to a certain stage before I go. I seem to be approaching these sewing projects the way I do my knitting projects. I sort of go back and forth between different projects: work a bit on the kwikies, then sew a few seams on the pj's until I get to a new technique, and continue to avoid the last few difficult steps on dressy.

Is that atypical for sewing? I have to keep changing the needle and foot, and rethread each time I switch projects, but I like having the choice of what to work on tonight. Somehow, I think it keeps me a little more interested in and excited about all of my projects. So do hobby seamstresses also have multiple WIPs and UFOs?

(Due to issues with my server space, I lost the comments for this entry! Please feel free to post again with the same or new comments.)

Please welcome my little sewing blog, sew blue, to the blue room! I'll be blogging there (less frequently!!) about progress on my sewing projects from now on.

Now back to knitting: here is a sneak peek at what I'll be working on this weekend.