I am Obsessed with Stripes!

I have a little sneak peak of a project for you today!

I recently found this striped knit for $5yard.  I don't know what it is lately but I have been OBSESSED with stripes.  Ever since I made my striped dress I have been wanting more and more striped items.  

When I posted this picture I realized this fabric is almost the same as the striped dress I made.  I really think I am going to have to start stopping myself from buying anymore striped fabric.  As much as I love the clean look of grey and white stripes, I think it's time to start incorporating more variety to my summer closet.

I have started working at a fabric shop where we have an area I can sew while I am there during the day.  I have learned to not take anything that requires concentration.  So generally I don't take custom work, and I don't take anything I have to think too hard about.

This skirt was just the ticket.  I didn't even draft a pattern.  I just took inspiration from a simple skirt I repinned on pinterest.

It was quick and easy and I just need to hem it to the length I want and press out the pleats and I have a cute new summer skirt to wear!

  

Also I am excited to announce that I am now going to be teaching a beginning drafting class!  If you have always wondered how to draft up a skirt without a pattern I will be teaching a class on drafting a pencil skirt this coming April at a fabric shop in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The shop is "A Fashionable Stitch" and they sell all kinds of wonderful natural fiber apparel fabrics.  I am excited!

This also means I am going to have to cut back on my custom sewing.  I wish I had more time to do more custom work as it can be really fun!  However, sadly I will no longer be able to do custom work.  

*I do plan to still sew for anyone who has contacted me in the last little while.  However, I have really thought it over and I have come to the conclusion that custom sewing will have to be the thing I let go.  Between trying to come up with my own designs for myself (to start a fashion line), sewing for others, keeping up my blog, and now coming up with lesson plans and teaching sewing classes, I just need to let something go and I think it will have to be custom sewing.  Thanks for everyone who has asked me to sew up to this point though!

Any of my readers have any fun summer sewing projects going on?  I'd love to hear about all your projects!

Like and Follow me on Facebook!

Hey all!  I really do have some projects I'd like to share.  I really will be posting more often.  So please keep reading!



Have you seen this cute/funny video floating around Facebook of this couple singing a Frozen song that is NOT "Let it Go"?  It's pretty entertaining.









I have a really cute summer blouse planned, ooooohhh and a cute pencil dress, with a fun and flattering waistline.  AND another cute casual striped summer dress with a nice gathered skirt to wear when the weather warms up.



Also I am now on Facebook!  Like my Sewing Machines and Crafting Routines page on Facebook!



Also, have you ever tried Pioneer Woman's 16 minute meals?  Particularly her "Bowtie Chicken Alfredo"?  I thought since I didn't have a crafty post I would share one of my all time favorite and EASY pasta dishes.  It's quick, it's tasty, it's easy.



The ONLY change I would suggest is to thicken the sauce by whisking in some cornstarch to your chicken broth before cooking it to help thicken that delicious sauce so it can stick to your pasta noodles better.  MMMMMMMMM.  You can thank me later.



Until next time!



-Em

Sunday Will Come

Last Sunday as I sat in church I was struggling with something and needed to know the Lord knew and loved me.  I needed to know the Lord cared.

There was a testimony given that touched me so much that it left me in tears.

A young woman who is engaged to one of the young men in my ward shared her testimony and love for the Savior and the opportunity to partake of the Sacrament every week.  She shared that after a particularly trying childhood, she found the gospel, was baptized and looked forward each week to partaking of the Sacrament.

She shared how Sunday coming around brought her peace and was such an important day for her that when she is struggling her fiancé plays a song titled "Sunday Will Come".

She then shared that all her life when she felt she has needed or wanted something when she prayed she knew the Lord loved her, heard her prayers and would answer them.  She shared this pointing out that when she needs something and has been waiting that the Lord knows and "Sunday always comes".

She shared her conviction that our Heavenly Father knows us and that our "Sunday Will Come".

It was something I needed to hear in that very moment.  This was no coincidence.  As I sat in church last sunday with a trouble on my mind and a need in my heart, I had been in my own way looking for my own "Sunday".

Hearing her promise that the Lord knew what I needed and wanted was the answer to my own personal struggle.  I needed to know that my "Sunday" would come.  I think Heavenly Father knew that her message would be the one thing I would need to hear to realize that he knew me, he loved me, he cared and that my "Sunday" would come.

I really did need in that moment a reminder, something to know the Lord was aware of my needs that felt urgent.  I needed to feel it.

Her message made me cry.  I had tears spilling over, and I was unable to stop them for the rest of the meeting.

Her message talking about how the Lord always made sure that "sunday came" for her, was my very own "sunday" sent to me and reminded me that the Lord knows and loves me.  He knows the thoughts of my heart.  Just as he knew the things she wanted and prayed for, he knows the things I want and pray for.  He knows what is important to me.  He knows what my own struggles are.

He sent me my very own Sunday.

This might not seem like much to you.  Just a reminder that the Lord knows us may be simple, and may come more easily or through other ways for some.

For me that was however it was exactly what I needed at that point.

I came home that day and kept thinking of how grateful I was for this small moment.

The words "Sunday will come" were in my mind.

I looked up "Sunday Will Come" online.  I wondered what this song that had a phrase that suddenly felt so close to my heart meant.  I wondered what inspired it.  I wondered what the lyrics were.

Somehow my search led me to a talk given by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin.  The title of this talk was "Sunday Will Come" and he gave the talk in General Conference of October of 2006.

I was even more surprised to find out the talk spoke about separation from our loved ones after deaths being one day overcome by the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ.

After having lost my dad at a youngish age I knew this phrase would have more than one meaning for me throughout my life and would indeed become something I could think when I needed hopeful reminders that better days always come.

Elder Wirthlin in his talk spoke about the death of the Savior and how horrible it was for those that loved him.  How heartbreaking it is to lose loved ones.

Elder Wirthlin shares how dark the Friday the Lord was lifted up on the cross.  He shares

"I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest."

This Friday that the Savior of the world was sacrificed on the cross truly must have been the darkest day of all days.

A little farther in the talk he shares this message:

"Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

I even hesitate to share, however, on Sunday and for quite some time, I felt as if I had been walking through one of the darkest moments of my life, and I had reached a point where I needed to hear that Friday was not the end.   I needed to know eventually that Sunday would come.  

This testimony by the sweet girl who shared it was my answer.  

Even before reading the talk be Elder Wirthlin I knew the phrase "Sunday will come" would be one I would be able to recall to bring myself hope and peace.  

However, even more so now, this phrase will be so important to me.  

"Sunday will come".  

Sunday will come for all of us.  Please just remember that eventually time will pass, Friday will become part of the past and Sunday will come.

So if you are going through your own Friday.  Just remember that "No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come.  In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

And it will.  It did for me, just when I needed it most and I am sure it will come for everyone, in the Lord's timing, he will provide relief and "Sunday will come".  

*Click here for a link to the talk or listen to the video below:

Sewing for My Nieces

I started working at a fabric shop recently.

Last Friday we had a "Spring Preview Party" and invited our shoppers on our email list to come after hours to get first dibs on our new spring fabrics.

It was a ton of fun!  All the employees were invited to choose some of the new spring fabrics to make something to have at the party.

I took in my striped dress to share, and also took some beautiful coral pink linen to make something.  I knew I'd only have the morning/afternoon of the day of the party to make something.  So I decided to sew a couple of dresses for my nieces, as children's clothes was one of the comments a reader left in my last post.

Here is what I came up with.  I am pretty happy with it!

Front

Back

The night of the party we had a fabulous group of shoppers.  One of whom bought some linen for her baby girl, and who I promised I would post a tutorial here on my blog of how I made the dress since I didn't have a pattern I could refer her to.

Here is the tutorial on how I did it!

Taking a dress in my nieces size, I folded it exactly in half, lined up the folded side along the edge of my paper as best I could so that the folded side of the dress and the edge of the paper were lined up.  

I traced from the neckline to the hem of the dress and was left with this:

Then I took a t-shirt and got to work on a sleeve.

I ever so carefully took the sleeve on a new area of my paper and folded the seam at the shoulder back to trace the curved seam where the sleeve seam joins with the shirt.  

Then I laid it back down carefully and traced the outside edge from shoulder seam to armpit seam.  

You end up with this:

  

NOW here is the tricky part:

I knew since my dress and tshirt were different garments.  The armhole on the dress wouldn't necessarily match up with my sleeve.  So I knew I had to measure.

I took my measuring tape and carefully followed along the shoulder seam of my sleeve with my measuring tape.

The curve where my arm hole would meet with the armhole of the dress was 15.5 cm.

I then measured the armhole on my dress.  It HAS to be the SAME or SMALLER!  Or it doesn't work.  :)

My dress armhole was 14 cm.  :)  I had an armhole on my dress that was smaller so I was okay.

NOW if you want a GATHERED sleeve head, then having the measurement longer on the sleeve is what you want.  You just run some gathering stitches to gather the sleeve head to match up to your armhole and then ease in your sleeve to your dress like any other gathered sleeve you'd ever make from a store bought pattern.  

I didn't want gathers for the look on my dress so I just took off the difference from the top of the sleeve.  

I hope that makes sense.  Here I am moving the top of my sleeve down.

Next I added seam allowances to my dress and sleeve patterns.  

I put on a 1.5cm (the same as a 5/8inch) seam allowance.

I then copied my dress onto a scrap piece of paper tracing an exact copy.  

Then I erased the neckline, and traced a new one so I could have a "front" to my dress.

You can see here I put both pieces together and one is longer at the neckline than the other.  You want the one that is lower to be your "front" so the poor child you put in the dress doesn't feel like they are getting choked by their collar.  :)

Okay the last step is making a "yoke" (the white area at the top of the dress).  I measured down to about half of the armhole on my dress.

I used a ruler to measure a straight line.  (Please excuse me if you are confused why I have two pattern pieces above and one that is not cut out below…  The above pieces are the 2T size, the below I made a second pattern in a 3T size for another niece.)

***Cut the two pieces apart and MAKE SURE YOU ADD THE 1.5cm seam allowance to where you have just cut off the yoke from the body of the dress!!!!  (I was worried you wouldn't, and had I thought about it, and how confusing that might have been for the tutorial I would have fixed it beforehand.  So sorry!!!) 

Do this for both the FRONT and BACK of the dress.  

Now you can actually throw one of the "body" pieces of the dress away.  The body of the dress you just cut off the yoke from, the one you just added seam allowances to the cut line?  Yeah that one, it's the same on the bottom for front and back.  So you just need one!  :)

*One more thing.

You'll notice my dress I decided to add a white band and more grey trim to the bottom.  I like it this way.  If you want to do that you just cut off a band from your pattern and add seam allowanced to where you cut from.  and just cut the middle of the pattern in pink, and the yoke and bottom band in white.  Or whatever color scheme you've chosen. :)

Okay here is where I didn't get pictures.  The back yoke you need to add extra seam allowance to allow for a button placket.  So you have an area in the back you can add a button closure so you can slip the dress on and off the babies head, then button it closed.  I hope that makes sense.  

Here are your 4 pattern pieces!  

(I am sharing this because here is where I forgot that the top of the sleeve didn't need seam allowance.  You cut it on the fold.  Make sure you catch that if you didn't before.  Also mark the front yoke you cut on the fold, mark the dress body you cut on the fold.  mark the top of the sleeve you cut on the fold.)  

Like I said, the top of the sleeve you need to cut off any seam allowance you may have added.  (Ay yi yi, I learned a lot from making this tutorial.)

I added even more length for my button placket at the back.  I wanted lots of room.

Okay by this point I didn't have time to take pictures of sewing the items up.  

However, I did use some grey rayon seam binding as a decorative trim on my dress.  It looks black in the picture because I didn't have my amazing photographer here to take pics for me.  It's actually really trimmed in grey and I really like how it turned out!  

*Just a note: Don't use seam binding.  It was really hard.  It doesn't curve like biased binding does.  

Save yourself the trouble and if you want to trim the dress in a fun color, make or buy bias binding!  It will make your life much much easier.  

Or use the seam binding for something decorative that doesn't require curving it around the neckline.  For reals though.  

I felt like the dress needed just a little something more, so I also added the three tiny buttons down the front of the dress.  

I thought it turned out really cute!  

Okay so now that I have written that first tutorial, if you were the sweet lady who came in and bought the linen, feel free to contact me with any questions.  You can just come into the shop and I can help you.  :)  Or you are always welcome to leave comments for me or whatnot.  

With this being my first tutorial ever, and you may just want to bring your fabric and a dress or tshirt in the size you need in and I will help you draft the pattern.  

Whew!  I think making the pattern and dress was quicker than writing the blog post!  

I think I need some ice cream and a nap.  

Until later!  

-Emily