I won!

I entered a contest on a blog that I read pretty faithfully. I have entered contests before and never won, so I kind of figured this would be the same. but Guess what! I won! and this really does have to do with sewing. the blog is run by Beccie and called sew retro rose, I came across it a while ago and thought oh wow this is a really cool blog. she makes the greatest clothes. and she seems to be able to make just about anything. one of my favorites being one she made from a blue rose fabric on valentines day Beccie ran a contest where the rules were to write something you love about yourself. it was make people stop and think about something positive rather then the negative thoughts we as humans especially women put ourselves through. the winner was chosen at random by her adorable puppy dog Stella. the prize being a pattern and fabric to make the pattern. so cool.


so here is what I wrote about myself, its kind of a pathetic little thing, but its what I could come with at the time. and all of its still true.

“I love that I still giddy over a snow storm. I seriously turn into a little kid when it comes to snow. I love the fact my hair never tangles. I love that I can sew and its something I am actually good at.”

another thing that makes this really cool is the pattern is a vintage pattern, and since I will have a plan and a goal for the both the pattern and the fabric I am going to go ahead and put this towards my decade project. which is something I did promise myself I would do this year. once I receive it though it might take me while, since there is going to be some math involved in making the pattern my size, and really I want this to turn out perfect, because what better way to enjoy a prize then to make it the best it can be.

hopefully she got the email I sent her yesterday, cause I’m really excited about winning. ☺

curtains

I needed some black out curtains for my room. the light pollution at night keeps me up, ad something other then tacking blankets to the windows needed to be done. my room is on the small side though so I didn’t want anything dark, it would make it too dark and gloomy. I found some yellow black out curtains that the package said blocks out 99% of light...... yeah it didn’t my room was still rather bright. even with the curtain doubled. so I came up with the brilliant idea of buying a dark curtain to line the yellow one. I Know how to do this I have done it before so why not do it again? I wish I had taken some pictures while I was doing this but I of course forgot . I am hoping this will work. it will certainly make better.

the front.the picture is dark, cause the curtain blocking out the light.

showing off the lining

the back, this is not the side that shows in my room lol.

so how I did it was I had to completely take the original curtain apart. both the yellow and the black, I was also making the curtains shorter since I am not fond of the curtain to the floor look in my room. one of the main reasons being my sewing machine sits under the window so there is no room for a curtain to fall there. so once I determined the length of the curtain, which I was able to cut the yellow one in half for the correct length. ( I purposefully bought the longer curtain so I could do this. I would have to hem anything I bought anyway, so why not buy the longer and only have to buy one?) then I did some measuring to determine the size of the black curtain next I took apart the black curtain, pressed it out real nice, and marked my hem. I knew I wanted it to have the same two inch hem allowance. I then proceeded to cut it out. then hemmed it. I also hemmed the yellow curtain. next I lay the black on the yellow, black facing in and pinned the black to the sides. next I hemmed up the sides. then back to the table to pin the top in. making sure to have the black underneath the yellow. I then sewed in the rod pocket. I thought about putting in a rod topper. like the original had, but got lazy. its not that important to me, I did leave enough it I just have to have one later there is room. next step. press and clip threads, and all done! two curtains that hopefully help me sleep better.

eyelet bolero

yea for actually making something on my list!


I was in desperate need for a cream or white bolero after I worn my other one out completely.

I used the bolero pattern from newlook 6675. (I want to make the dress from this pattern too, and may have fabric for it, maybe if there is enough of it. its in my stash so I need to measure it.) using fabric left over from the dress I made my niece last year for her birthday. it was an odd shape and not a very big piece maybe 1/2 a yard, but I saved it anyway thinking hey maybe I can make something out of it. I wish I had taken a picture of the way I laid out my pattern because I had to do it three times before I finally was able to manipulate it into cooperation. I nearly gave up it was so tight but in the end I made it fit, and miraculously it was all on grain. one of the ways I was able to save on fabric was to make smaller seam allowances so I was able to go a size smaller then I normally would making the pattern just fit. I did make an alteration to the pattern of omitting the cuffs on the sleeves as I didn’t have enough fabric, and I didn’t face the two front pieces. being an eyelet fabric I didn’t want to cover the holes as they are such a part of the design.

I ended up drafting my own facing piece for the neck as I saw no other way to finish it, but for the rest of the bolero I sewed a piece of bias strip around it to finish it off, then blind stitched it in place. for a bit of decoration I added two little bows on the sleeves.




definitely a piece that will get a lot of wear once the weather warms a bit.