Link Up Your Oh Spit! Diaper Bags Now

Link ups are open for this month's prize the Paparazzi Bag pattern by Sara Lawson.  The pattern is being provided by the wonderful Pattern Crush! 

 (Photo used with permission of Martingale Publishing.  Photograph by Brent Kane.)

 Link up below for your chance to win!

Oh Spit! Diaper Bag

My scatterbrainedness (a new word?) led to a little mix up with last month's prizes so Becky will be getting something other than what was promised...but she seems okay with the change :).  I have to thank Cluck Cluck Sew once again for donating not one but TWO wonderful prizes!  Be on the lookout for my Pow Wow Quilt soon.

Now on to this month's prize...Pattern Crush has offered up a great pattern by Ms. Sara Lawson! The pattern up for grabs is the Paparazzi Bag.  Perfect for the photographer on the go or it could be converted for an everyday bag!

I was prepping for a big craft show last month and didn't have a chance to make the bag :(.  I have fabric a certain fabric in mind for my Oh Spit! Diaper Bag.  

 

 (Photo used with permission of Martingale Publishing.  Photograph by Brent Kane.)

The name alone is enough for me to love it, lol!!  I'm thinking of deviating from my bird theme to try elephants this month.  I found the most wonderful fabric at JoAnn's this weekend and may go back for more.

A little reminder of the rules:

• We will be sewing the books in the order they are in the book.  Only the bag for that specific month will be eligible for the link up.
• The bag must be complete to qualify for prizes.
• On the first of every month I will announce a new project and prize. 
• You will have from June 25, 2014 until midnight on June 30, 2014 CST to link up your project for a chance to win that month's prize.
• Join the Flickr group to see all the projects that have been made.

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And a special offer from zipit:  15% off of all orders for those sewing along

Use code sewingwithsqueak at checkout to apply the discount

May's Winner Is...

BECKY!!!

I'll be e-mailing you shortly so you can claim your prize :).

Sugar Pop Top

Sugar Pop Top...That's just fun to say!  Lucky for me it was also fun to make :)  I have already ordered more fabric with this top in mind. 

It is the newest pattern from Sew Caroline and I bought the pdf and even taped it all together a couple of weeks ago but only found time to stitch it up this weekend.  I hit up the local JoAnn's during their extra 50% off red tag apparel sale and grabbed yardage of quite a few fabrics (thankfully Hubby has stopped reading the blog or I'd be in trouble!).  This was one of them.  I couldn't resist the bling. lol.

This was my first time using the rolled hem foot that came with my machine.  Maybe not the best fabric for a first attempt but it came out acceptable and definitely cut down on the time I needed to complete the top.  No more tediously ironing the hem before sewing it!  And since the sensor on my iron is broken and it won't stay hot for more than 3 minutes this was definitely the time to give it a try.  New iron coming soon!!

 

I am once again having trouble with my neckline facing!!!!  I have tried it all:  top stitching, understitching, hem tape...  I was afraid to try interfacing because of the sheer nature of the fabric.  I can't clip the curve because of how badly this fabric frays.  Or maybe I should clip it and use fray check?  If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!!! I am actually having this problem on several tops that I've yet to blog about : /

 

 A decent shot of the back--where the facing is behaving (and so is my hair for once!!)

 (sorry for the scary, pre-make up shot!)

 

Be sure and check out Sew Caroline's pattern shop.  I'm a huge fan!  I have all of her patterns and eagerly await the release of the next one.

One thing I did notice just as I was finishing up the post was that there is a bit of a fit issue with my darts.  On future tops I will definitely need to elongate the darts.  Their position is good but the tip of the dart is hitting nowhere near where it should on me.  I knew that I was taking a risk by not doing an FBA so this is in no way a problem with the pattern.  It should be an easy fix now that I'm aware of the problem :)

May Link Up

It's late as always but there is still plenty of time to submit your entry to win another great pattern by Ms. Sara Lawson.  This month's pattern is provided by Pattern Crush.  Tons of great fabrics including preorders for some of the gorgeous fabrics that were at Market!  Can't wait to see what you all have been up to!!

 

 (Photo used with permission of Martingale Publishing.  Photograph by Brent Kane.)

Introducing Adelaide!

This is the second of the three new See Kate Sew patterns that I was lucky enough to test.  It is also, coincidentally, my second favorite (right behind my Emmaline Top).  

The fabrics for this project were purchased specifically for this top.  The main fabric is made by Cloud 9 Fabrics.  I believe it is a line carried only at JoAnn Stores.  The yoke print is another one of their designer prints although I am unsure of who to give credit to.  

I did sew the yoke on slightly different than instructed.  The pattern actually calls for a ruffle around the yoke but as previously discussed on this blog I try to avoid anything that adds bulk to my chest.  Enter the gold scalloped trim.  It was something I picked up quite awhile back at the Target $1 Spot.  At the time I thought it would be good for embellished pouches but when I opened the PDF from Kate I immediately knew that I would be picking my fabrics based on that trim.  But I digress...due to the trim that I picked I felt I needed to applique it onto the edge of the neckline as opposed to actually sewing it together with wrong sides together.  I used a trick I learned from Sara while testing her bag patterns:  I sewed a line of stitches right where the seam should be and used it as a guide to iron the "hem" under.  Next I attached the trim.  The trim didn't have a vary wide base for the seam allowance so I just carefully lined up the yoke and the trim and topstitched them together.  I then matched up the trim lined "hem" up with the edge of the neckline and appliqued it on using another topstitch.  (Hopefully that made some sort of sense).  Not the conventional way to do it, but it worked and I love the results!!

This top has lots of great details that make it feminine and fun:  little cap sleeves, keyhole back, yoke, trim...the works :)

As an added bonus I didn't even have to do an FBA!  I started to, got frustrated, and gave up.   Turns out I was just fine without it though.

There's still time to take advantage of the coupon codes so head on over and get yourself a few new patterns ;)

Flirting the Issue Skirt

It took a little tweaking but I think I like it!  I came across the Flirting the Issue Skirt Sew Along hosted by Stitched in Color while finally catching up on my over 750 unread blog posts.  I bought this fabric nearly a year ago with a skirt in mind but never got around to it (just like numerous other things that I never actually get done).  Soooooo....when I saw the sew along I knew it was finally time to pull this out and put it to use!

I took my measurements as instructed, cut my pieces, and started sewing.  The construction was super simple.  It was a bit time consuming to mark all of the lines for my elastic casing and my fingers cramped while threading the elastic through (4 yards of it total!) but it was worth it.  My finished skirt was okay but it was a little big.  I ended up taking off nearly 10 inches of elastic and fabric to achieve the look I wanted.  If I make this skirt again I will definitely add a couple more inches in length since this one is a little out of my comfort zone :).

Random question:  Is there such a thing as a Full Butt Adjustment?  When making a skirt how do you make sure that the back isn't significantly shorter than the front?  I just pulled mine up a little in the front to make up for the difference but I would love input for future projects.

Looks like I just missed the deadline to link up my skirt with the sew along :( but I can't be upset since I got a great skirt out of the deal.  Go ahead and go check out all of the entries here.