Friday, November 7, 2014

Set It Off


Peeps, that's not bad for a rookie :-) That's machine-basted. Yeah, the basting threads are still there. This is on Ruby, who is now a few sizes smaller than me, but you get the point.

The front


The back


A tight shot of the shoulder, where my seam matching is not the greatest. I forgot to check how I did at the underarm.



Much love, again, to Craftsy! Linda Lee's Ultimate Guide to Sewing Knit Fabrics was on constantly. I must have have watch the part about setting in a sleeve a gazillion times. I guess I should write my review of the class soon.

I wish I had time to try it on me, but work got in the way (gotta keep the funding going for fabric). I'll probably wait until I get the other sleeve basted in. I'm still pleased because I set in a sleeve today :-)

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Don't Mess with Texas or a Woman Who Gave You Her Hard-Earned Money

Please excuse this departure from sewing. I have not had to lace up my clown shoes in a long time, but Ashley Stewart has me dusting them off. I also hate doing this on my sewing blog, but I am beyond upset right now. I am really sad about this because I just gave Ashley Stewart a shout out on this blog because I liked the Butterfly Bra so much.

I've been trying to return one of my Butterfly Bras since 10/18. After about a month's wear, the wire is poking through. Not cool. In my entire life, I've never had wire poke through on a bra.


You see that fraying on the strap? Never had that happen before either. The lace was poorly stitched on too. I bought five of these bras. I've only had an issue with this one.

After going back and forth with customer service on how long it was taking them to send me a return label, I received an $8.95 credit today. That was the shipping cost for the order. Really???!

When I called customer service, I was told $8.95 was the best they could do because there is a no-return policy on worn items. So you can sell me something that falls apart in an unreasonable amount of time (about a month) and I'm stuck with it? No way. All I wanted was a replacement bra. Now y'all are making me mad.

Credit Where Credit is Due

Y'all know I'm a gadget girl. I realized that I've been keeping some new favorites a secret. (At least I couldn't find any pictures of them on the blog yesterday.) How selfish of me.

I've gathered from the web that most people enjoy time at the machine rather than pressing. I'm the opposite. I LOVE pressing! Sitting in front of my sewing machine makes me anxious. I'm just not comfortable enough actually sewing yet.

Anyhoo. Here are my custom pressing tools in all of their pink glory! The French Poodle is the cotton side and the plaid is wool. 


These were made by Stitch Nerd. In addition to the awesome color combo, I love that the hams and seam roll are so much larger than the versions you see in the store. She makes them in the regular size too.
   
                         

I used the ham today to shape the sleeves for the dress. I didn't get much further than the shaping. Sleeves are scary!

Speaking of which, the sleeves have a pleat (see below) in them. I still needed to baste and gather in order to set them in, correct? I guess I was thinking that the pleat would make that unnecessary. Shows you just how much of a novice I am.

                              

Maybe I will sew one in tomorrow :-)