3 days of bliss

The Atlantic Sewing Guild  had a 3 day sewing weekend and I made good use of this luxury. It gave me the opportunity to stock up on little Christmas gifts. It took me two nights to cut, plan and pack for the retreat but then all I had to do was sew.

I made cup cozies. Go to Starbucks. Ask for a cardboard cup cozy and use that as a pattern. As I am more a large Tim's tea drinker myself, I added a bit of wide elastic to join the end seams together. It's good to be flexible.

Then I went on to Kleenex cozies for the well equipped purse. I'd be lost without mine.






New this year was the ear bud case. I used a package of 5" pre cuts for these. I got the tutorial from Dog Under My Desk but made some changes in the directions. I like to do the cutting after I sew, so I traced the circle onto the inside lining after the zipper was inserted and the layers stacked. Then I sewed and cut. Much faster and more accurate in the end.

I only made one dog. I will need more dogs. The pattern from Soho Purl works very well and the pieces fit together nicely. Always stuff things one bit at a time and push it in firmly. Wobbly dogs look half finished. This is a great dog!

I bought a fabulous quilted projects book and I got part of a bag completed. I'll be working on that again next week. It is an incredible book - well laid out, perfect instructions, patterns included and detailed. I also bought the new Anna Mazur purse book and it has yet to impress me. I will give it a chance but it's back shelf for now.

The most fun I had was completing the new Tilton skirt. I had seen a review at Communing With Fabric and was pre warned that it was long. At 4' 11 1/2" I need to know these things. I went to my stylist (DH) and he vetoed the waistband. It was a wide and turned down band. He also wondered why the skirt needed a bump out to one side. I decided to cut out th medium, eliminate the waistband and hope for the best.

I was using a gorgeous double faced wool knit. It had great body and softness at the same time. Perfect drape for the project! Thank heavens for a sister in Montreal! How else could I sew?

I wanted to do single layer tailoring and make the skirt reversible. First I basted the s=kirt together and got the fitting experts involved. A retreat brings out the opinion in everyone and these were MOST welcome! Skirt too big. Skirt too long.

I recut to the size small. After auditioning many decorative stitches we decided on one and I put that skirt together with overlapped, stitched and then trimmed seams. I added  a narrow waistband of faux, stretchy leather with 1" elastic inside to give it body. Perfect! I then cut off about 3" from the bottom, which was a bit risky. The skirt structure does not lend itself to cutting at all. No hem treatment.  The fabric does not fray or run.

I love the skirt, but I think we are all still wondering why it has a big bump out to one side. It makes my twirls all wonky. I do like to twirl. As you can see it has 2 colours to choose from.

Now, do I have enough left over for a vest? The girls also say I need boots. Hmmm....