Pleats and tucks

Another great day with lots of stuff completed. The best part? Last night, I went to my dressmaking class TOTALLY prepared. It felt great to go and not have to make excuses (to myself). I'm the only one who really cares, but it doesn't look great when you're always making excuses or don't have the homework completed. I was even prepared for making samples last night and took my own sewing machine. More on that tomorrow.

I had to play catchup on the samples that were due last week. Making pleats, tucks, and darts, I had purchased some tracing paper the same day that I purchased my skirt fabric. It was time to dig it out. And somewhere along the line, I stumbled across this tracing wheel so it got tucked into my dressmaking toolbox.

Marking the pleats and tucks

Here's my finished sample. Yikes - it was only two weeks ago since she showed us how, but my brain just seemed to be brain dead. Anyway, they got made, but I realized the tuck on the right has the seam pressed in the incorrect direction. I fixed that before I handed it in.

Sample of pleats and tucks

Then it was on to making the darts. We had to make two short darts and two long darts. And they had to be the same length. Oh yes - making darts is easy, but getting them to be the same length? That's a whole different story.

I got out my trusty tracing paper, marking wheel, and a ruler. Easy peasy to do the marking.

Marking the darts

And everything has to be sewn in a contrasting thread so she can see. I get that, but it sure shows up all the sins. Technically, that's the point!

These darts are NOT the same length

I think I restitched one of them several times before I was happy with it. On a real garment, no one is going to notice if one dart is one stitch longer than the one on the opposite side of the garment. I'm not worried, but for the sake of the exercise, it's good to practice.

My samples of a long dart

I think they look perfect. No bubble at the end. Straight, although in the picture one of them looks a bit curved. Oh well.

The front of the dart

The back of the dart

Gosh, there are so many little things to think about. The length must be the same, the seam must be straight, the width at the top should be the same, they must be pressed in opposite directions. So many time-consuming details!!!

Then it was onto making the muslin to check the size of my skirt. Rather than cut up my tissue pattern, I traced the pattern onto hmmm - I can't remember the name of the product. It's like interfacing with red dots on it. It has a name - pattern ease? Something like that.

Tracing the pattern onto pattern ease

Then I made the darts in the back of the skirt and the tucks in the front. Next up was to sew it together. I basted it in the event I had to make some changes. I was rather clever I thought as I stitched up the back seam. Only to realize that I needed to leave a space (for the zipper) so I could try it on. DUH!!!!

The skirt muslin

The bottom line, the muslin got finished. I tried it on and I like the fit. I showed Chris (our instructor) and she was good with that so I'm ready to start stitching my real skirt!!!

Last night we did zippers and I got my first samples back. More on that tomorrow but I sure had a good chuckle over both. This is a zipper sample that I found somewhere when I was cleaning up. It's how I put a zipper in the back of a pillow. I'll just throw that zipper sample in with the rest of my zipper samples when they're done (to my satisfaction).

Zipper sample for a pillow back

 I managed to get another customer quilt done! This one has a fleece back so extra care has to be taken to put that on the long arm to prevent stretching. I think the long arm isn't that fond of fleece as the thread tends to get caught in the bobbin when I'm tacking down the edges. I think it must be the extra fluff from the fleece? I'm going to keep an eye on when this catching thing happens. Anyway, I did have a moment with this quilt, but it's all good. Now to trim and put the binding on it.

Customer quilt - DONE

Then it was off for the walk. Our neighborhood looks like a bunch of kids were out playing with spray paint. There are orange markings (for phone), yellow for gas, and I also saw red, green, and blue. What are they doing??

Strange markings in the neighborhood

Notice how Murphy is sitting and waiting patiently while I take this photo and Lexi? Well, sitting is beneath her wild status in life.

My question is this -  a lot of those markings are on the snow. So what happens to the markings if we get more snow or the snow melts? We had more snow last night - not a lot, but enough to cover the markings. Hmm - I'm missing something I'm sure.

More markings in the snow

I had to go to the library and then took a bit of a detour home so I could pass the mall. I know - I'm now going to obsessed with watching the process. OH - I did find the previous pictures I was talking about. As I thought, the entire wall has been taken down. Sorry - the camera focused on the wire fence, not the building. Now, what's going to be next? This is the only side that is two stories. Remember, my vote is for a huge wall of glass. One side of the structure is attached to the mall - they can't do anything with that. And the other two sides are only one story. They have ripped open the walls where the doors used to be. I'll just have to keep an eye on it!! It sounds like a great excuse to get out for a walk every day to check on the progress. My FitBit is jumping up and down with glee.

The entire wall of the old Sears store is gone

Here's a picture of the clock tower at the Erin Mills Town Center mall. This was taken in March 2104.

The clock tower at Erin Mills Town Center

They gently took that tower down as it's in the middle of the mall. It was replaced with this giant glass ball. That photo was taken in January 2015.

The mall ball

Bear with me as we go through the construction process. It's supposed to be finished by the end of this year!!!

Remember last week, I chatted about Grammarly as a plug-in to check my spelling and grammar. Well, this is why grammar is so important. I saw this on the bulletin board in the classroom last night. Yep - grammar is important.

Grammar is important

If you are interested in machine embroidery or have an embroidery machine and are totally scared to death of it, I'm having a class this SUNDAY, February 16 from 1 to 4 PM. We're going to talk about the different kinds of machine embroidery, stabilizers, hooping and all kinds of other things. Let me know.

I'm also going to hold a serging class if anyone is interested. The date is not set yet, but e-mail me to say you're interested and we'll get a date going.

What I love about my days is that no two are alike. Oh sure - I'm pretty predictable in the morning and evening routines, but then what will I work on? Who knows! The list of things to get done this week is dwindling - not fast enough, but I should be able to get everything completed. There are still 16 things on the list. Oh  - I'd better work faster!  But I have three totally uninterrupted days ahead of me so I think I can accomplish lots.

On that happy note - have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!