And there have been some projects in the meantime...

New York, Garment District, August 2009.

    I started this blog as a way to enjoy thinking about the projects I have made; I've still been making but have not been writing.  So here is a partial list of what I have made recently, and what is in progress.

• A new nightgown in blue and white striped knit with pink lace trim.  It's pretty cute, if I do say so myself.
• Three new sleeveless tops made out of cotton lawn that I bought at Darlene's.  I used the Simplicity Cynthia Rowley pattern which has this awesome twisted neck band, but I couldn't quite get it to work.  I tried for the first one and I wasn't sure of how to attach it and then it disconnected while being washed, so there you go...
• A knit top for Merlin to wear in New York, but there were some issues.  Ha!  The knit has a cute print that forms borders on each side running along the selvedge.  So far so good.  But two issues...one is that the print is a little off, so we realized after it was done that it looks a little odd.  Second, with the border print on the selvedge, I oriented the pattern piece to match the print and didn't realize that this meant the two way stretch would then go vertically instead of horizontally.  Meaning the first version didn't fit at all!  Come on people...four way stretch, right?!  The second (bigger) version fit, but see problem #1.  At least the transformation of a pair of her jeans into a skirt went okay.
• A bag for Merlin and her climbing gear from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.  The outside fabric is blue and light blue stripes made from hemp/linen.  The inside is the pink horses from Heather Ross' West Hill line.  It works for holding her climbing gear and then we used it yesterday at the farmer's market and it holds a lot of veggies!
• I started and almost finished a quilt made from the home-dec weight cheater cloth by Denyse Schmidt.  I love her style and have looked at all the quilts in her book many times and would love to get my act together and make one.  In the meantime, I just need to put the binding on and then I can have something finished for my bed!
• I made a floor mat for the kitchen that is okay.  Sadly, nothing special, though I hate to say it.
• I'm also at work on a baby shower present that will be done by the party next Saturday and that I am pretty pleased with how it is coming out.

I know that photos might be nice to accompany these descriptions, and I'm working on it.  We did figure out this summer that you can get your film developed and scanned onto discs in .jpeg format, which is awesome!  This now means that maybe I'll get back into taking pictures on film, which I enjoy very much.

In other sewing news, I bought a new machine at Thrift Town.  It's a beautiful Pfaff 130 from the early 1950's.  It has a traveling case that's a little beat up, and when I walked into Thrift Town to kill time before Fabric Outlet opened at 10, I saw it and went over and looked at it.  I'm not sure why I thought from the tag it would be a Singer, and I opened it thinking that I would like to see it but since I already bought a vintage Singer in the last 12 months (it's in Virginia), I was just window shopping.  Well, my heart almost skipped a beat when I saw this beautiful, black, vintage Pfaff under this little dinged up top!  I turned the wheel, it moved nicely, and I went to get the accessories from the front counter so I could see if it worked.  It worked great and this crazy man with a little dog followed me around the store while I tried it out and kept saying how nice it was and asking over and over if I was going to buy it.  Yes, motherfucker!  Back the fuck up!  Jesus!  Oh, and it was $49.99, nice...

Anyway, I'm ready to start sewing on it, but am having some issues with the bobbin case breaking threads.  I think I need to do some test runs trying out different weights of fabric with different needles and different stitch lengths and see if I can figure out what the problem is.  The bobbin case is also looks original to the machine, and it may be worth it to order a new one.

I'll take some pictures and put them up.  It also came with a full original Pfaff notions box, the instruction booklet and a warranty slip from the original owner.  It's all quite touching.

So for now, I'm still working away on the old Hallmark machine that belonged to Merlin's grandmother.  It's an old war horse and gets the job done, even though sometimes I feel like it has a mind of its own.

I also am trying to not buy more fabric, although that is difficult.  I got three nice fabrics in New York, all stripes, one cheap and two really not so cheap.  The garmet district is sort of crazy!  I ended up just going up and down the streets, popping into places that looked interesting.  Many of them are really full and it's a little scary if there are no other people in there because then they keep coming to talk with you and sell you stuff.  I was like, thanks for trying to talk me into buying your high-end silks, but as you can clearly see I'm wearing homemade clothes made out of cotton and vintage polyester, so thanks but no thanks...