Skirt # 4 in the PR Contest (Simplicity 2258)

And finally, I present Version 4 of Simplicity 2258 for the PR One Pattern, Many Looks contest. This is my "Date Night" version as I plan to wear it for an evening out my fiancé.

Fabric is a rayon challis from FabricMart. It is still available for only $2.50 a yard. I lined it to give it a little more substance.

I'll follow this post up with a composite post that shows the four looks together.

Skirt # 3 in the PR Contest (Simplicity 2258)

Here is Version 3 of Simplicity 2258 for the PR One Pattern, Many Looks contest. Version 3 is called "Client Ready" as this skirt is definitely suitable to wear to client meetings.

Fabric is a wool blend purchased from Hancock Fabrics. I added a lining to this one because I can wear it in the autumn with tights and lined skirts are much better over tights. Otherwise, the skirt sticks to the tights when you walk and eventually the skirt inches it's way up your thighs!

For this one, I only basted on the ties as I am contemplating making the ties detachable so I can wear it with tops that are either tucked in or left out. If I tried to leave a shirt untucked over the bow, it would look lumpy!

Here is what it would look like without the ties:

Skirt # 2 in the PR Contest (Simplicity 2258)

I finished Version 2 of Simplicity 2258 for the PR One Pattern, Many Looks contest. This is my "Saturday Morning Farmers Market" version. This will be a perfect outfit to wear on those hot mornings when I'm out running errands.

Only change between this one and my earlier "Business Casual" version is I did not shorten the ties on this one because I wanted a bow with the ties. Oh and I made it 1/2"-1" shorter. Fabric is a beefy cotton interlock that I bought from Gorgeous Fabrics (more here). Perfect weight for this skirt and I plan to make a pair of shorts out of the remaining fabric.

I can also wear it to my office although not with just a cami on top - we dress very casually in our office but not THAT casually! (Although honestly, I work with all guys and I swear I could show up in my pajamas and no one would notice.)



Versions 3 & 4 are both half done and I expect to finish them tonight.

Ho Ho Ho, Christmas in July!

My oldest daughter is getting married in November and I made this set of stockings for her and her fiancé. I plan to gift them at her wedding shower. The pattern is from a Knit Simple magazine (Holiday 2009). It's a simple pattern but I LOVE the finished look. Thinking ahead to when they have kids, a blue/white or pink/white stripe might be fun!

Knitting details can be found on my Ravelry page.

Bella Mittens - Finally finished!

I finally finished the second Bella mitten yesterday. I started these cute mittens back in December. Got one finished quickly but I moved on to something else before I could get the second one done (this is why I'm not a sock knitter!) This pattern was designed to replicate the mittens worn by Kristin Stewart as Bella in the first Twilight movie:




I used some yarn I've had in my stash forever. I think I purchased it at a Fiberge sale when they were still in Terrace Park. It's a super bulky called Blizzard, made by Reynolds (65% Alpaca,

35% Acrylic). The yarn was simply too fat to force into this pattern. In addition to being so bulky, the yarn splits quite a bit so when it came time to do a "knit 3 tog", it was a physical challenge! But the finished mittens are comfy and pretty so I'm glad I persevered. More details at Ravelry. Although the original Bellas have a long cuff, halfway up the arm, I decided to go with the shorter cuff after reading reviews in which people mentioned it was difficult to get the long cuff ones on with a coat.

Here's my artsy Twilight shot. Hee hee.

Skirt # 1 in the PR Contest (Simplicity 2258)

I finished the above skirt about a week ago for what (hopefully) will be one of the skirts included in my entry for the PR contest - One Pattern, Many Looks. To summarize the rules, you must use the same view of a pattern to create multiple looks. I'm using this CUTE skirt pattern from Simplicity (2258, View C).


The skirt above is made from a black on white, toile-ish looking twill with a touch of stretch. I purchased it in Chicago (I think from Rainbow Fabrics but not positive.) I really love how it turned out. The only change I made was to lengthen it by about 3" and I added a little corded piping (purchased from Rainbow) to the pockets. I shortened the ties by an inch or so because I don't intend to tie a bow on this one.

I wore the above outfit to a conference I attended earlier this week (casual dress code for this conference.) In fact, I'm going to call this one my "Business Casual" version.

I've been away for the last week at the conference and then to our home in Bonita Springs for a "working" vacation (so happy to be able to work from anywhere for my job). Since the contest closes in a week, I brought fabrics with me and cut the other versions out yesterday so I can hit the sewing machine as soon as I get home tomorrow night. I am not going to have much sewing time but the skirt didn't take much more than an hour to sew so I hope to eek out enough time this week to sew the other three.


From left to right, the fabrics are a heather gray beefy interlock, a black/fuschia rayon challis, and a wool blend with a subtle herringbone stripe. I plan to line the 2nd and 3rd options. In my mind, these four skirts will be appropriate for just about any occasion, from running errands to date night to work meeting.

Summer skirt - M4783

I just love red and black together. I was browsing Gorgeous Fabric a week or 2 ago and several red/black prints kept calling my name. How cute are the swatches below (linked to GF if you click on them):



There was one more that looked like the one below but it wasn't a burnout:


I decided I liked that last one best and put 2 yards in my shopping cart. While I was pulling together the rest of my order, I was also messaging with Eve on Facebook. And wouldn't ya know it... while I was chatting, some other sewer purchased the fabric I wanted, leaving only 1 yard left. Phooey!! I wanted to make a flowy skirt and knew a yard wasn't enough but I decided to purchase it anyway and figured I would just make a fitted, pencil skirt instead.

The next day, I was thinking about it some more and you know how the shopping psyche works... Even if you're not madly in love with something you're considering purchasing, once someone else tries to buy it, that item is YOURS and YOURS ALONE and you have to have it! So I emailed Ann at GF and said, if by chance there is more than 1 yard left, I'll take all you have. And when my order arrived a few days later, there was almost TWO yards of the fabric. Woo hoo! Thanks, Ann!

So I made this over the weekend (note the squinty eyes = rough Monday morning):


The pattern is McCalls 4783 (oop). I first made this pattern (shown below) back in 2006 when I first returned to sewing.


[Side note: Lori, I cracked up when I saw your version on PR this morning. Even before we "knew" each other, we were twin sewing!!]

Sundress - V8574

I started this dress a few weeks ago but put it aside to work on a few other things. I finished the hand sewing on the way in to work today and I'm really pleased with the results! I'm heading to Florida in a couple weeks and it will be a nice dress to wear out for dinner.

As I mentioned in this post, the fabric is a lightweight rayon and was purchased from Vogue Fabrics in Chicago during PR Weekend. Lee (Elaray) found it first and I bought some when she was done.

The pattern is Vogue 8574 and I highly recommend it! The fit was perfect. I didn't need to tweak anything which is unusual for me.


I snuck some photos in my office but I haven't pressed the hem nor cleaned up some of the loose threads. And forgive the bra straps. Obviously, I would wear a different bra but I was anxious to take a picture. LOL

More details as PR, if interested.

Halter Maxi - Simplicity 3503

Lots of chatter in sewing land recently about knit maxi dresses. Several of my FB friends have finished versions or are discussing versions but then I saw this beautiful version and decided I needed one for myself. Besides, I'm still in poison ivy-recovery mode and my legs look pretty disgusting (bruised and scabbed and full of welts) so I wanted a little more coverage. I purchased this black/hot pink border print from Fabric.com a few months ago and paired it with Simplicity 3503 (a Best Pattern of 2009 at PR). I only had 2 yards, which was not quite enough for the whole dress due to the positioning of the fabric but even if I had enough, I think I still would have incorporated the solid black to break up the busy print.

I have to agree with everyone that this is terrific pattern. Very nice details including the back elastic. Other reviewers commented that the pattern runs large. I found it ran just a teeny big larger than what I'm used to in knits.