California Stitching

Brand new PJ's

The first project for 2017 is finished, two pair of PJ's for my granddaughter. These are the only photos, as my granddaughter took them home yesterday and wore the pink pair to bed. I put piping on the pink, but not the blue.

You can tell I forgot to bring the fabric with me when I picked out buttons. If I had remembered, they just might match the fabric. Oh well, she loves them.

This fabric is from Chadwick Heirlooms and is absolutely lovely to sew on. For her first two pair I used Joann's fabric and I can really see the difference. The Joann's fabric is thicker and ravels more easily but the Chadwick is softer and finer, and presses beautifully.

Next project: pants! I've lost enough weight (25 lbs now) that nothing I own fits me. I have a big pile for Goodwill and am literally down to one pair of jeans, one old pair of brown slacks, and some baggy sweats and yoga pants.

My new toy!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are having a Happy New Year. I'm recovering from last night's celebrations (ironing fabric while watching Twilight Zone) by watching the episode "Once Upon a Time" with Buster Keaton. It's hilarious.

I got a wonderful Christmas present this year, a Pfaff Coverlock 4.0. Actually, I got it during the Black Friday sales, so I've been using it for a month now, and already have had to empty the fabric catcher. Once I took the Jean-ius Craftsy class I realized that it would be a real help to my sewing efforts.

I know I haven't posted in quite a while and I do have a good reason. My daughter started a new job shortly before Thanksgiving and commutes to Denver each day. So we go to her house each morning, get the kids up and the older one off to school, then bring the toddler home, pick the older one up from school, monitor homework, feed them dinner and keep entertained. Her parents don't pick them up until after 6:30, so we are pretty exhausted by the end of the day. At least she can drive with her husband, who also works in Denver.

Great PJ pattern, I might make some for myself

I've done some sewing lately, and will post about it as I can. Right now, I'm working on two pair of PJ's for my granddaughter, as the ones I made in 2014 and 2013 are half way to her knees. I used the same pattern, Simplicity 2771, and even the same size. I just added 5 inches (13 cm) to the legs, and 2 inches (5 cm) to the bodice and sleeves.

Serged seam allowances

I've stitched the seams on the sewing machine, serged the edges, then topstitched the seams. I'm not ready to sew the entire garment on the serger.

Beautiful topstitched seam

My serger lessons begin on January 27, and run for three sessions. I was able to thread it on the third try, so I'm pretty happy about that. I was originally a bit nervous about the difficulty of threading it, but I finally realized that I've written more complicated procedures in past jobs. So I figured that I could handle it, and I have. Of course, I've only threaded it once, and only used the four thread overlock stitch. But I'm looking forward to trying the other stitches.

I'm trying to formulate plans for 2017, and will publish them later in the week. In the meantime, Happy Stitching in this New Year!