it's been a long while. happy new year again! things have been busy, in a good way. i finished my most recent client's shower and wedding invites. i'll post pictures up soon. here is the only pic i have so far:


i have two potential paper jobs coming up and i get the pleasure of designing a birthday invite for my mom's 55th! exciting....

on the sewing end of things, i finished jobs (dresses) for 2 clients. i need pictures! i'll try and see if i can get those and put them up soon. i also had the chance to work on a nursery for one of my former bride client (invitation). how cool? here are some pics.




i've been so out of touch i don't even know what's going on with my favorite bloggers anymore. hopefully, i can get to make the rounds soon!

later!

the invite:


in the meanwhile, i made 3 outfits for 2 clients. i'll put up pictures of the fabrics. beautiful. i don't have any pictures of them in their clothes. will work on that. personal sewing has been on hold as i have 2 more outfits to finish. slow and steady, i guess.

of note, there was a miscommunication between me and one of my client. she requested a two dresses with full skirts. really full. and you can't get any fuller than a gathered skirt which i sketched with lines coming down from the waist to the hem. she approved the sketch. so i sent her the clothes and she said she didn't think it would be gathered. so i said well, the original skirt of the pattern was a full a-line which she saw and wanted more fullness. so, i guess she really wanted the original skirt but didn't know that was what she wanted. so it got me thinking... how full can you make a skirt without doing gathers? will it just look heavy at the bottom if you did an a-line skirt with a ridiculously wide diameter? i smell experiments coming my way!

ps: client was cool about it though.

the wedding was great! she had been planning for about 2 years now. i'd know because we sorta started together and i got married last november. we were each other's bridesmaids and i was so happy for them.

it was for this event i sewed frantically away. if i am to work with clients, my time management skills should kick into overdrive. anyhoo, i got the fabric and gele and pondered for a while what to sew with it. i thought of sewing a skirt and blouse (ibo-style) and bought some nice pinkish-peach crepe back satin to sew as the top. the satin looks pinker in this picture.

but i was runing out of time. so i decided a dress will be it. so i scoured the catalogs for a nice dress that won't be so casual and not so stuffy. so i decided on vogue pattern 2720. crazy, huh? not quite. i envisioned it as a short dress with short sleeves. it was fully lined (i had to basically sew it twice) and i think it came out great! working with these kinds of lace fabric has it's challenges. first off, there are HUGE holes and what happens when your tailor's tack falls in line with a hole? the stones were ridiculously abundant too. all in all, for the fabric and the design, i think it came out good. it'll look even better is a slinkier fabric.


a tip i learned from the tailors back home is to try to make the edges of your lining from the selvages (if cotton). it's neater and you have one less step to do (hemming)

i said in one of my earlier posts that one of the things i liked to do was to alter clothing i already had to extend their use. so, my husband really wanted to wear "anko" to our friends wedding early in august. that's a term for couples wearing the same outfit/fabric. it is derived from "and Co." in business. we have lots of funny borrowed and modified english words in my language. anyhoo, i searched through my stash of traditional wear and came across some old iro and buba my mom-in-law passed on to us. it is basically a boxed shaped shirt with raglan sleeves worn with a single piece of cloth used as a wrapper (skirt). i figured if i messed it up it won't be that bad! it started out as a long version of v8229 without sleeves and with the flounce at the bottom. i was hung up on making the grey lace detail into the neckline. i didn't think to sew v-seams into it to make it curve but i have a feeling i may not have liked the fact that the lace was not continuous all around. anyhoo, the only thing that remained was the basic silhouette of the gown. i changed the neckline and made the lace into straps. (all freehand cutting by the way). i made the lining exactly the same way and included darts in both to give me a better fit. then i joined the fabric and lining right sides together along the top then turned it inside out and pressed it down. i inserted an invisible zipper at the back. interesting to do since the dress had stones and appliques! i found some moleskin fabric at joanns and displayed the reverse side as the belt. i really liked the end product. it took me longer to do than if i stuck to the pattern. i guess it's time to buy a dressform. i've been looking and i'll have a post on that in a bit.

my dear sister's birthday was in august and i decided to sew something for her. she's tall and has a slim physique and each time i saw the vogue 8241 pattern, i always think of how great she'll look in it. so, i secretly sewed and surprised her on our trip home. i'm so bad at keeping secrets. i think her birthday wasn't until the next week and i spilled the beans the next day we got home. in my defense, the dress had been in the works for a while before we travelled so i did good. a bit. i made the "slit" longer in the upper back of the dress. it actually goes all the way down to the belt but we had to improvise since i couldn't get the right bra "attachment" in time.

update: i did not include the elastic casing at the waist and drafted the pattern as one long piece (1 front + 2 back) instead of with a seam at the waist (2 front pieces + 4 back pieces). i bought black satin ribbon to use as the belt. it was hard getting the chain stitch for the button loop to the correct length. so i just cut up one of my thin elastic hairbands and used that as a loop. works perfectly because you can stretch it to accomodate the button. now, i'm hooked!!!

funny side story: some older lady ran up to my sister to tell her that her dress was open! lol. yeah. patches of skin showing in unexpected places is not the norm back home. you have to cover up when you wear a thin strapped dress. basically, over-revealing clothes are frowned upon. not to say that the kids don't wear them. it's a cultural, generational thing, i guess.

it's been a really hot minute. last month was so busy. went to nigeria for a friend's wedding and to see my parents and had a fabulous time. my married friend had a reception here in upstate ny and the one tailor i picked back home to sew an outfit screwed it up badly so i decided to sew the rest of the outfits for the ny reception for my sister and i. i had one day for mine so i made a last ditch effort and made a simple '60s shift. reminds me so much of my mom and her friends back when they were "sisi's" or young ladies. i also came back with a treasure. i'll write more about it later. and i got my first client! so here we go!!!





and this was what it was all for: friends of the bride =)

hi. i'm back =) just had a nice weekend and i'm here to give some updates.

no, i've not yet completed dh's jeans. it's not complicated, i just got sidetracked =) i mentioned i had paper stuff to do. i'll write more on it towards the end of this post. anyways, i told my mom to bring some native fabric for me whenever she comes to visit and last time she came she brought a whole bunch of them.




i really liked 3 out of 5 of them. you can always find uses for fabric. anyhoo, i really wanted to make something for myself since the last one did pan out so well and i wanted to give my upcoming side business some pr. my fave ankara was the black and red one. so i picked that and waded thru my pattern stash (yes, i do have one now =) and settled on mccall's 5094.


so, i didn't like any particular one of the views so i had to mix and match. loved the wide straps cause i don't do spaghetti straps. loved the sweetheart neckline and the triangle opening in the back. added the ties (my idea, the pattern's is sew on) at the back so i can enter into the garment with ease and moved the zipper from the back to the side. finally, i made the gown floor length and the skirt much narrower with little flare. i must say, i am very, very proud of the final result.


here's me wearing it in full force =) with dh and me. didn't get a sharp full length pic but this one with my sis will have to suffice. then i like the one picture of me doing the face powder dance. hehehheee.



my friend now wants me to make a whole bunch of stuff for her. here's to getting my first client =) i'm going home in august and the ladies in my sewing group want some fabric and headties. so i'll be doing a little intercontinental trading or just some intercontinental errand running! lol.

so, the event was the wedding of a couple who are friends of ours and also a client! yes, i was hired to make the place cards, church programs, menu and reception programs. i got great feedback and people apparently loved it so i may just be getting more business coming my way. yay!

sorry, it's been a while. things are busy on this end. orders for invitations, programs, place cards and menu cards!!!!!!! dh's burda jeans are coming along. i hit a hiccup (used embroidery thread that was not thick enough) and had to do some major undoing! i tried the new jeans topstitching thread with my twin needle and the stitch was skipping on one of the needles. i tried everything! adjusting all through 7 tension settings. i may have to try something to treat the thread to prevent skipping. i've read of this somewhere but i forget now. anyhoo, i bought my first sewing book.

vogue sewing
drawings are great and instructions are clear. used it to double check sewing a flat fell seam on the jeans i'm working on. (the pattern had regular seams no flat fell). i have a whole list of books to get on my amazon wishlist. here's to gift-giving at christmas =)

hmmm.
humpf!
one day. one day. i just can't wait till we finish the basement and i can have my own non-carpeted workroom. (we haven't even started work on it yet and i'm talking about finishing it. it's ok for a girl to dream). my husband asked me to clean up the sewing "mess" i made in the second bedroom. thread + carpet = not fun. in the meanwhile, i'll have to invest in the dyson slim.


nowadays, i am doing a lot of alterations. why throw away good stuff? why not renovate and innovate? i'll be posting a few of my alterations later. on the new clothes side of things, i'm working on burda pants for my husbad. i have the pieces all cut out and i'm ready to sew.

(he'll be wearing it with his shirt buttoned up! =)
fabric:
blue 7.5oz non-stretch denim fron joann

the dress is completed. it was a fairly easy project but the armhole piping was very tricky and the instructions weren't so helpful. each time i sew, i figure more and more that we sewists are a very smart and patient bunch because there are some things that are just beyond regular human comprehension. but the plus side is if you do something once, it'll stick with you. so, here's to that. this is what the completed dress looks like. if only i can get my sis to try it on! the joys of sewing for your siblings....


fabrics:
embroidered red cotton twill

my first sewing project: a vogue pattern... and 2 fabrics, all from joanns. v8278

it was my first time trying to figure out patterns and their measurements. i ended up with one too big and then tried to give it a bit of shape by adding darts in the front and back of the dress. it didn't end up as i expected but it was decent for the first try. i'll definately be repeating this pattern using fabric that is not so stretchy and a smaller pattern size. the picture shows me using a blue satin sash i borrowed from another dress. i was going to go for a sandy brown one but never got around to it. may be one day... after i get to correcting the darts.

fabrics:
burgundy roma ponte knit
grey stretch knit (for belt)