Sewing Update

The past few weeks haven't been the most productive in terms of sewing - first I had to relocate the machines, then holiday festivities were keeping my busy, and lastly I accidentally broke my serger blade on a pin, which has put quite a stopper in my productivity this past week since all of my cut out projects were destined for serging (yes, I know I did perfectly well without a serger for two years, but since the point of these projects were to see how the serged seams work in the skating costumes there doesn't seem to be much point in proceeding until the replacement blades show up...)

In any case, here is a look at my new sewing space:

Sewing machine and serger, with notions in the back
To the far right is a bookshelf - eventually I will be able to move
the sewing library there, after my mom moves her books.

Since my serger is out of commission, in the meantime, my sister has asked me to make her a sequined top to wear out with friends.  She won't really be needing it until this school year has ended, but I thought to try out some styles while I have her here for fitting.  I thought we would take a gamble and test out one of the Burda December patterns:

BS-12-2011-132

Well, as usual the Burda pattern is drafted very nicely, and the fit was actually pretty nice for my sister, but we have decided that while the photo looks great, having this top in a brighter sequined fabric is not flattering.  All I really need to do is add a hem binding and finish the collar, but it will remain an unfinished wadder since this was essentially a muslin in cheap crappy fabric (the sequin glue has seeped through the fabric), and hence I won't be doing a pattern review.  My sister has decided she would like a shirt like this in a plain or floral chiffon fabric at some point in the future, so I will do a review then, but for now this project is scrapped.

My prototype in green sequins

I tested out the seam binding as suggested in the instructions

Collar with opening in the front

So my sister isn't getting anything new to take back to England, but I am hemming more pants for her!  And we all know how much I love hemming... (cough cough).  However, I am sort of ok with this, because it will probably result in more pattern magazines, which I consider fair payment for dealing with the difficult and arduous task that is hemming jeans.

All in all, I am hoping to finish up these last projects of 2011 shortly so I can move on to getting my 2012 Challenge underway!  I have already been doing a lot of research and planning for some of my first projects, so I will post my plans soon!