Reversible Novelty Vest!

Here, is the finest example, yet, of my tailoring skills!

I'm actually so proud of this vest! I made is for a teacher friend of my mom's, who wears fun, kitschy vests when teaching his kindergarten class.  But the lady who used to make his vests for him retired. So he figured he'd ask me if I'd mind making this one. Of course, I said I would love to!

I had to draft the pattern from a vest he already had, which was a long process of tracing, and measuring, and marking. And taping together sheets of printer paper.

Then, when I cut out the pieces of green fabric,

I noticed that the colours on both right and wrong sides were equally as intense. So it was hard to tell the difference. Because of that, I accidentally sewed the back piece on backwards. The letters were backwards!  We can't have children learning backwards letters!  So I patched on new letters, the right way around.  I actually like the effect. Not all the letters have been patched over, and so it creates some really interesting, and subtle dimension.

Then I cut out the air plane fabric. The teacher originally gave me a lighter blue fabric with larger, more realistic planes on it. But, once again, I wasn't paying attention, and I cut out the front panels, with the planes upside down.  

So we bought new air plane fabric.

The planes go in all directions. So I can't mess it up. 

I sewed the two sides together, inside out, turned it right-way out, and then folded under the seam allowance at the opening, and top stitched it shut. I did the same to finish the arm holes. 

I even top stitched along the seams, to keep the allowances facing the right direction!

Again, like I said, REALLY proud of myself!

Starting Another Sampler

I'm seriously loving embroidery right now. I find it so relaxing, and at the same time I'm creating something. something pretty!  I finished my first sampler already, as you saw, and now I'm already experimenting. This next sampler with be one really big spiral. I'm going to use all different stitches, in different shades of blue on light blue cotton.

I started with a backstitch

Then I did a running stitch, then a long backstitch

Unfortunately, with exams coming up I haven't been able to work on it much, because the majority of my time is spent studying and finishing assignments. 

I can't wait for exams to be through so I can get back to my sewing.

The Insomniac Skirt

So, this is a skirt I made about a year ago, at 2:00 in the morning, after having too much coffee after dinner.

I just used scrap fabric, cut into strips ( each set longer than the next) and gathered slightly, with an elastic waistband.