November Round up Part 1

I originally named these posts  “Pattern remakes”, but what happens when you don’t remake anything?  LOL you just say, hey, this is what I did this month!  I’ve been very, very busy in November and I don’t think it’s going to slow down in December.  In November, I did a bunch of unselfish sewing that I didn’t blog about, so let’s talk about that today.  I didn’t make myself a lot, but I was very productive.

What happened in November…

• I became official ya’ll, I joined the American Sewing Guild!  I think that makes me official, right? The American sewing guild (ASG) is ” an organization of sewing enthusiasts who connect with each other
  at local, national and web-based levels for activities, communication
  and networking.
  At the grassroots level there are, what we call Neighborhood Groups
  (NGs) and Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which meet monthly or on a
  schedule established by the group members. Participants enjoy sewing
  programs presented by one of the members, or by an outside
  educator/speaker. Activities are organized by the group leader, or
  co-leaders.” ASG website. 

• I made both my mom and daughter dresses.  Mom and daughter fit in the misses pattern category and didn’t have a lot of unique fit issues.  This made for a super easy sewing experience.  I wont do a full review of the patterns, but I’ll tell you a bit about them, I’ll do a full pattern review when I make the patterns for myself as I feel it will add more value.
• Mom:  mom wanted a dress after seeing a pattern in the local fabric shop, we picked up the pattern, picked out the fabric and I went to work.  I made McCall’s 7622 view F in a size medium.  The fabric was a mid-weight poly spandex that had a faux leather look, it was a fantastic fabric to work with it, very much stable with body and a good drape.  She loved it and tried it on, but I don’t have photos of her wearing it.  I’ll include it in a roundup if she gets me pictures of her wearing it.  The instructions were good and I think this would be good for a beginner.  The waist and hip is forgiving as a result of the swing dress and it came together quickly.

• It was also an easy sew, no complicated instructions and only a few pieces.  There is a zipper so that was the most challenging of the steps for a beginner (one that isn’t familiar with zipper installation).  I made a few modifications for my daughter, she is a teen and petite.  I made a petite adjustment and the lengthen shorten line after I measured her finished back length from the base of her neck to her waist.  I also added five inches because even though she’s petite, this was too short for her.  This dress doesn’t have waist shaping so there was a lot of fabric around the waist in the front and back.  I basted the seams and pinned out the access fabric when she tried it on, I used my hip curve to give some shape to the dress at the waist.  It’s not quite a straight shift dress because of where the hip flounce hits on the body.  If I was more advanced, I may have added back darts to help with shaping.  I cut the flounce before I thought to lengthen it so I lengthened the bodice front and back to accommodate the extra length.  In the future, I would add half the length to the bodice pieces and half to the flounce to keep the design lines.  I like this younger style, I don’t have a lot of Burda young patterns and I need to get some in  the basics so I have things she would like.  I feel she would like the Burda young patterns better. 

I made my nephew a cute basic top and pants outfit from denim and cotton fabric remnants, it’s sooo cute!  I used a basic raglan t shirt pattern and pull on pants for this.  You can use a pattern similar to  McCalls 7379, kids are so easy to sew for, I find I usually have to add sleeve length (long sleeve only) and length to pants.  Shorts and short sleeve/tank tops may need some length at the hem.  Most kids get taller rather than bigger, but not always.
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And there was a new baby at work, I made this cute little self binding blanket (the lighting is horrible). She is such a cutie pie (the baby not the blanket).

This turned out to be a long post, so I’ll write part 2 outlining the two things I sewed for myself.  I didn’t get pictures of any of these yet, but I want to include them in my November makes.

Do you have plans for unselfish sewing this month?  Stay tuned…