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Tuesday, August 4, 2020

July Wrap-Up and I Can't Believe It's August Already!

Totally forgot to post this on the 1st and am now fully blahhhhh. Avoiding the news and social media and I just need a breather. I have scheduled posts for the remainder of my PR Endless Combinations contest. Hopefully I'll snap out of it soon.

This year has been incredible. People generally use that word in a positive sense...but the year has truly been beyond belief, impossible to believe. 

But, sometime around 6 weeks from now, I'm going to have A BABY! I mean, a grandbaby...whatever.... :-D We are definitely watching things closely because I am NOT for getting on a plane right now and we may end up road tripping it. We'll see. 

This month I sewed 17.25 yards. I sewed:
  • McCall's 7925 dress - 4 yards (WIP)
    • rayon/cotton blend voile (stash)
    • buttons
  • McCall's 7061 top - 1.75 yards
    • sweatshirt fabric (stash)
    • eyelets/cording
  • Simplicity 8890 dress - 2.25 yards
    • rayon challis (stash)
    • cord stops
    • bra slider/rings
  • Simplicity 8389 shorts - 1.25 yards
    • crepe
    • elastic
    • cording
  • Burda 7/2019 top - 1 yard
    • jersey (stash)
For my daughter:
  • McCall's 6654 skirt - 1.25 yard 
    • ponte (stash)
    • elastic
  • Burda 11/2015 top (from a dress pattern) - 0.5 yard (wadder)
    • ponte and mesh (stash)
  • Jalie Clara leggings x3 - 5.25 yards total
    • black cotton knit, red & blue athletic knit (stash)
    • elastic
I was so excited to finally make M7925 and started cutting it out and for some reason, I started with the rectangles for the ruffles. I needed to cut the sleeves, one piece of the front skirt, and the button band and OUCH! I do not have enough fabric. Well, turns out Ginny's still had it in stock and I was able to have a yard sent to me. YAY! So I will get back to that, soon. 

Favorite: The hoodie was like...perfect and love and swooooooon...then I made the shorts! :) The fabric is pretty amazing and the shorts fit great. I'm going to follow them up with a linen pair.

FAIL: I was so close with my daughter's top but I made a critical error with order of sewing and didn't have enough time to correct course. 

Accomplishment: I was pretty proud of myself for the way that outfit was coming along for her for the shower! And the fit on my shorts are really fantastic! Also, except for the black crepe (purchased in March), everything sewn this month was from stash fabrics! 

But I did buy fabric. It started with the print challis on Fabric Mart and I got 6 yards of it. Plus two other things for a total of 9 yards. I then shopped the Mood sale (20% off the entire site, plus I had a coupon), and I got 2 yards of the cotton voile version of this fabric. I also ordered a few heavier jersey knits for a total of 11 yards. 

For the year, I'm at 88 yards in and 78 yards out (39 from stash!)

I've been spending all my money on machine knitting :-p What do you know...machine knitting supplies proliferate just like sewing supplies! With machine knitting, there's a gadget for EVERYTHING!

I'm almost done with my first completed garment! I have everything blocked and just need to seam it all (not my favorite part).


I tried to attach the sleeve to the armhole on the machine and THAT was a disaster! 
I ended up binding off the stitches and will just mattress stitch it. I was so traumatized :-p

Also, I finally got back to the baby sweater! I went with all one color and didn't add any tuck stitches to keep it simple. This sweater is knit all in one for the body. On the one hand, it's nice to have less to stitch up but on the other hand, the stakes are higher if something goes wrong! I dropped some stitches, spent a RIDICULOUS amount of time getting them picked back up (messily!). WHEW. After stitching it up I'll still need to knit the neckband so I'm not done yet.


I found some super affordable cone yarn from KnitKnack Shop and thankfully, I like all of them!

Plan to use #2, the light yellow, for a blanket.
The others, I can easily see as garments for myself. Score!

And lest we think it's all smooth sailing with the knitting machine, I got myself in a pickle trying to sample something I saw online!

Err, that's not how it's supposed to be! LOL!

August plans...I dunno. Fall is my absolute favorite season including my favorite to sew for. I can't see that I need to sew a bunch of stuff :(  I usually start my fall sewing in August. Like, the low today in Minneapolis was 57 degrees F. Summer isn't done, it'll get hot again, but cooler days will be here SOON. 

I can't believe my Vogue blazer is still sitting and waiting since September! I have made a pledge to finish it in August. And, as much as I love a hand sewn lining, I'm going to have to just bag them because it's so much hand sewing for my sad little hands that I don't know that a lining in future jackets will get done otherwise. I really want to make the Burda 2/2020 blazer and a corduroy blazer for my husband. 

With plans to be away for awhile for the baby, perhaps August and September will be focused primarily on knitting with plans for those jackets. And I NEED a black dress. 

Until later!