A Successful and Uninterrupted Weekend of Sewing

After visiting and enjoying sewing blogs for over a year now, I am finally ready to start my own. I share the same passion for fiber construction as most of the bloggers I have been visiting. To get started and get a feel for how this is going to work, following is what I accomplished over the weekend. As you can see, I had a very successful weekend and a lot of uninterrupted time on my hands. Life Is Sewlovely!

The first thing I did was make two pillows for my parents. My Dad bought the fabric while my Mom was shopping for herself. I believe this was in the clearance bin.





They have done a little remodeling and wanted a couple of accent pillows.
He was very pleased when I took them to him today.

I also made Hot Patterns Metropolitan Tote. I love big bags and this one is BIG! I want to make this out of some ultra suede, but wanted to make a trial first out of a home dec fabric I had in my stash.
The bag went together without too much trouble. I should have paid attention to the instructions and not used such heavy interfacing, which made the straps extremely difficult to turn. My zippers did not go in quite as well as I would like, but you would have to look real close to see the flaws. That's okay for this bag, but I want perfection when I make it up in ultra suede!
Please forgive the mess in the background - I would rather be sewing than cleaning house!

I finished covering the buttons on a chair cover I made for a paying customer. My day job covers my living expenses, but I sew a little on the side to enable my addiction to sewing and my daughters' dance lessons.

The cover started out as a sheet, which my customer purchased for $1 at a flea market. I think she only paid $2 for the chair. I did not have a pattern, but she provided me with a picture of what she wanted.
The other thing I did was make a skirt from the BWOF 03/2008 issue. I made Skirt 105.
The fabric I used was a stretch bottomweight I purchased at Joann Fabrics at least a year ago. It turned out to be the perfect weight for this skirt. This is only my second BWOF pattern, and found that the tracing was really not that bad even if it was time consuming. I am experimenting on the best way to add seam allowances. I made a size 42 because of my hip measurement and added a little to the side seams as usual "just in case." I ended up taking out all of the extra and then some. I think I would have been fine with size 40. I am going to make it again in a similar weight/stretch fabric and will make the smaller size this time. I used an invisible zipper in CB seam. The skirt went together very nicely and was fun to make. It looks great on and wears well.
Until next time...