Fashion Sewing

26 Jul Sultry or Sunshine?

Posted at 08:11h in Mood Fabrics, sewing blogs, Sewing Skirts, silk, Yellow by goodbyevalentino 104 Comments

“Well if it isn’t Sultry and Sunshine!” blurted the drunk man upon seeing my friend and me. The year was 1984. My friend resembled Angelina Jolie and well, I just looked like myself, only 29 years younger. It’s not hard to know who was Sultry and who was Sunshine. I’m not sure what little Miss Sunshine was wearing that evening but I doubt it was yellow. There is no yellow in my home and I did not own any yellow clothes until two years ago after a Medium told me I needed more yellow in my life. (Blogged HERE and HERE) Now the color...

13 Jul Vogue 8904

Posted at 08:40h in Mood Fabrics, sewing blogs, Sewing Dresses, sewing patterns, Uncategorized, Vogue Sewing Patterns by goodbyevalentino 0 Comments

Recently on Facebook, Mood Fabrics posed the following question to its followers: When do you put aside summer sewing and move on to fall and winter apparel? Is July too soon to think about cool-weather clothes? I must admit I have actually begun to think about my Fall wardrobe in July for the first time ever. I have even begun to look at Fall Runway shows on Style.com and even started a Mood Fall board, but...

08 Jul Spoleto Ribbon Skirt Sew-a-Long Part 1

Posted at 00:15h in McCall's Sewing Pattern, Ribbon Skirt, sewing blogs, Uncategorized by goodbyevalentino 0 Comments

Greetings! At last the time has come to make the Spoleto Ribbon Skirt provided by Julie Starr and inspired by the J McLaughlin ribbon skirt. Many have asked how to sign up and the answer is you simply follow along on my blog. ________________________________ If you are just now joining in, you will need the following materials. 1. Your favorite straight skirt pattern 2. 1 yard good quality prewashed cotton fabric for your skirt base (Julie recommends Kona cotton) 3. Fusible interfacing for the skirt facings 4. 1 9” invisible zipper in a color to coordinate with your ribbon 5. 1 hook and eye 6. 1 package double fold seam...

25 Jun Vogue 2864 Revisited

Posted at 10:00h in Fashion Sewing by goodbyevalentino 0 Comments

Top Ten Reasons To Sew Another Summer Dress 10. The last one was too big. 9. I’m eager to make another muslin. 8. Too hot to wear anything else. 7 I’m on a quest to perfect the hand-picked zipper technique. 6. No buttons or buttonholes to sew. 5 Fabric requirement almost the same as a top. 4. Slim silhouette makes me look taller. 3. Cleaned out closet and the emptiness is disturbing. 2. Need something new to wear for my 30th wedding anniversary today. (You read that correctly.) And the number one reason to sew another dress ……………… I couldn’t pass up this beautiful Oscar de la Renta cotton from Mood...

20 Jun Spoleto Ribbon Skirt Sew-a-Long

Posted at 19:01h in McCall's Sewing Pattern, sewing blog, sewing blogs, Sewing Skirts, Uncategorized by goodbyevalentino 0 Comments

We all have our own favorite clothing stores. You know, the store that offers cute clothes which fit well and work for your lifestyle. In my case it’s These small retail stores selling their label of traditional silhouettes with a fresh twist are downright irresistible to me. I can justify buying any item in the store with the exception of one style; The Ribbon Skirts. As cute as they are, spending $200 on these skirts struck me as frivolous, but that didn’t keep me from wanting one……… as well as examining the skirt in detail until eyebrows were...

17 May Burda 7081

Posted at 07:52h in Fashion Sewing by goodbyevalentino 131 Comments

I’ve made friends with Burda and I’m all the better for it! I was trying to convince myself that Burda patterns weren’t for me, but had a problem doing so. I really liked the looks of so many patterns! Was it me or was it Burda? In the end, it all came down to learning a new way of doing something. Learning to read and follow the Burda pattern was nothing like learning a new software program! It was more like driving a different route to a destination. I simply had to read the instructions s l o w l y and carefully along...

09 May Simplicity 2497

Posted at 10:00h in clothing designers, Ruffles, Sewing Tops, silk, Simplicity Patterns, Uncategorized by goodbyevalentino 0 Comments

While sewing my casual knits the ruffles were calling my name, and I answered. The craving to sew ruffles was stronger than any craving I've ever had for chocolate, but I tried to be practical and made an all-purpose white shirt. Of course it's all-purpose! Mood Fabric's Ivory Solid Goes with Everything Silk really does go with everything in my closet! It's perfect with my re-fashioned floral pants...

01 May Merry, Merry Month of May

Posted at 17:18h in New Look Sewing Patterns, sewing blog, Sewing Tops by goodbyevalentino 0 Comments

Make that the Merry, Merry Well, Hello! After sewing almost non-stop for over a year and a half, I'm ready to take the Me-Made-May'13 challenge created by the cute, creative and energetic Zoe from SoZoWhatDoYouKnow. Her challenge now in its fourth year has gained strength and momentum with over 440 participants. In case you don't know, the challenge is a celebration of the efforts we pour into creating our clothes by pledging to wear our handmade garments. Participants design their own pledge based on their comfort level. I pledge to wear one handmade garment made by me everyday during the month of May. I...

27 Apr Twist and Shout

Posted at 09:19h in Fashion Sewing by goodbyevalentino 81 Comments

I planned on publishing a post with F O U R garments and here I am with O N E. …….. and it looks really easy doesn’t it? Well, it wasn’t. I'm determined to master sewing casual clothes, but mistakenly I’ve confused c a s u a l with e a s y . After thumbing through a J Crew catalogue, I ordered four fabulous knits from Mood Fabrics' enormous collection with the plan of making four garments for casual wear. This was originally to be my Farmer’s Market dress; my toss-on dress for weekend errands. I searched for a casual dress pattern, designed for knits which...

14 Apr The Oonaballoona Dress

Posted at 07:39h in McCall's Sewing Pattern, Mood Fabrics, sewing bloggers, Sewing Dresses, Uncategorized by goodbyevalentino 135 Comments

In the first week of December, Oonaballoona, that sassy woman from Kalkatroona sent me a piece of fabric I had admired just a few weeks earlier. For readers post November 14th……….. During my one and only meetup with Oonaballoona, my husband's camera broke while in her hands at Mood Fabrics. Oonaballoona erroneously blamed herself, and three weeks later this tropical banana leaf jersey arrived at my house along with a chocolate bar for hubby . Or is feathers? The woman does love her feathers………. Whatever it is I wanted to savor every inch of this fun print, and I’m celebrating the return of warm weather...