super Saturday

I had a very rare Saturday to myself, so I made the most of it by ignoring the housework and spending most of the day in my sewing room.  My new overlocker is such a joy to use - it takes no time at all to thread (in fact it is so quick it's a bit scary!) and the tension is perfect no matter what fabric or thread I use.  It seems to have inspired a new found enthusiasm in me because I managed to make a dress, a dressing gown, two pairs of pants, finish off some UFOs and repair two blouses that had been sitting in the two do pile for at least the last year.  And I also cleaned up my sewing room - phew, what a day!

First up I made this very cute little dress for Anna from a fine wale corduroy in soft grey with bright red flowers.  I used Simplicity 2320, which is a Project Runway pattern, but I had far more success with this pattern than the last PR pattern I tried to make for myself.  It's just a simple pleated front, yoked dress with puffy sleeves and is unlined so it didn't take too long to make at all.  I used a size two for the width but a size 3 length, but apart from that the sizing was pretty spot on surprisingly.  And best of all Anna seemed to like it, even if she does excel at pulling cranky faces in photos:

Then I tested the machine on some knit fabrics, because that has been sewing Achilles heel to date but I think my new BFF may have solved that for me.  I sewed two pairs of little tracksuit pants for Anna from some French terry in a daggy doggy print (that Anna loves) solely using the overlocker - no sewing machine at all.  This is the first time I've done that because my previous overlocker didn't produce stitches tight enough for seams but oh my! this is such a quick way to sew.  I don't usually bother with making things like tracksuit pants since they only cost $6 a pair to buy, but since I had the fabric in the stash and these two pairs of tracksuit pants only took about 45 minutes it wasn't a waste of time at all.

Next I made Anna a dressing gown from some super soft polar fleece I had bought this time last year to make her a sleeping bag.  Anna's favourite phrase at the moment seems to be "it's bery bery cold mummy", so I think this snuggly gown should do the trick.

I used Simplicity 5815 which is a vintage sewing pattern and it would have looked so cute in a quilted satin fabric with lace details around the pocket and collar just like the pattern illustration, but I didn't have anything like that in the stash and I went with function over form on this one.  I also sewed this entirely on my new overlocker and I used snaps instead of buttons so that was another short cut but overall I think I spent more time vacuuming the fluff that distributed everywhere in my sewing room when I was handling this cut fabric than actually sewing it.   

So by this stage it was getting late in the day and my sewing room was clean so I was a bit reluctant to start a new project.  But I still had an hour or so to myself, so I fixed some small tears in two blouses that have been sitting in my fixing pile for way too long, and then finished off this stack of bibs that I discovered I had cut out last year and never finished:

Not that Anna wears bibs all that often anymore (she needs to but refuses to do so), but I figure it's one less UFO to deal with and its baby steps in tackling my large box of UFOs....

So I have to say the new overlocker is totally fantastic and now I'm inspired to get on with making some new things for me.  The old saying goes that a good crafts(wo)man doesn't blame their tools, but I certainly think that good tools help alot in creating some great craft.

I hope you all had equally peaceful and productive weekends too!