All posts by Salinda

Hey Y'all! I'm Salinda. Welcome to my little piece of the South. I'm a sewing instructor and the seamstress behind PersonaliTy Children's Clothes. I'm crazy in love with my hubby and Momma to 2 spunky swimmers! I'm addicted to Sonic Cokes, my New Orleans Saints, and Jesus!
Being Creative, Everything Else

My Pink Shirt with Eggs on It

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More sewing for Me!
Hooray!
This is the Lisette Market Blouse from Simpicity 2211.
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I used the same fabric pictured on the pattern envelope.  It’s a beautiful poplin in hot pink with white and orange dots.  (Or like one of my sweet 3-year-olds said this morning “I like your pink shirt with eggs on it.”)
I made the pattern without any size alterations and followed the sewing instructions.  This is another well-written Lisette pattern.
Next up, the Market skirt in a white canvas (already cut out) or maybe this Market as a white eylet tunic.  Got to figure out how I want it lined…
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Nuts and Bolts, 2: Finishing your seams

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***This is an installment in my series for beginners.  The information included is very basic, but quite helpful if you are learning to sew.***

Did you notice that your raw edges of your seam allowances are starting to ravel?  Wearing, using, washing and drying garments could make that ravel much, much worse.  To prevent a big tangled mess of ravels and strings, you need to finish your seam allowance.

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I teach beginners 3 different ways to finish seams.  There are several more, but unless you have a serger, a machine with with an overlock stitch, or a desire for Hong Kong finishes, these will get the job done.

The quickest and easiest way to take care of raw edges:  pinking shears.  Trimming your seam allowance with pinking shears won’t completely eliminate raveling, it will minimize it.

Look for a picture tutorial for zig-zaging your edges and French seams in the next few days.

Being Creative, Everything Else

Nuts and Bolts, 1: What is a seam?

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***This is the first installment in my series for beginners.  The information included is very basic, but quite helpful if you are learning to sew.***

What is a Seam?  A seam is the stitching holding 2 or more pieces of fabric together.  This is a seam:

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To start your seam, match your 2 pieces of fabric together.  Line the raw edges up with a marking on your foot plate.  How do you know which ruler to use?  That depends on what your pattern tells you to do.  Commercial patterns like McCalls, Simplicity, Butterick and Vogue usually call for a 5/8 inch seam allowance.  (A seam allowance is the space between your seam and your raw edges.  It allows for raveling, fitting changes, alterations, etc.)  That means that you need to line the raw edges of your fabric up to the 5/8-inch line on your foot plate.  Your needle will now stitch a seam 5/8-inch from the raw edge of the fabric.

You can secure a seam by backstitching.  In other words, you sew back on top of your seam to make it secure and keep it from coming “unstitched”.  Start your stitch by sewing two or three stitches.  Then, hold down the reverse (backstitch) lever or button on your machine and stitch backwards two or three stitches.  Let up on the button and sew forward.  You repeat these back stitches for two or three stitches at the end of your seam.  When do you need to backstitch?  Anytime you want a secure seam.

The question I hear most often from beginners is:  “How do you know which stitch to use?”  Basic seams require your needle in the center position and a stitch length of about 2.5 mm.  You can use your sewing machine manual to learn how to change your machine to these settings.

Being Creative, Everything Else

The Lisette Traveler Dress

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***Edited May 9, 2014:  Simplicity 2246.  The Lisette Traveler Dress.  This is still one of my most popular pattern reviews.  As of today, the pattern is still available on Simplicity.com.  If you’ve made up this dress, I’d love to see your version!  Post a link in my comments.  Thanks!***
Hooray!  I finally spent some time sewing for myself!
Here’s the whole story:
Waaaaaay back in April, I saw this blog post about some new patterns.
So, in the wonderful way that blog-hopping works, I followed Jenny’s links to this site.
And I fell in love with all the patterns.
All 4 of them.
So I took the occasion of a 99 cent sale to grab them.
All 4 of them.
First up, I tried Simplicity 2209, the Passport Dress.
This little dress is so cute.  I love the dart details on the front.  But, sadly, it didn’t flatter me.  At all.
You will not be seeing pictures of that dress.
Then I tried Simplicity 2246, the Traveler Dress.
We have a winner.
I used a canvas print from the Lisette collection at JoAnns Fabrics.
(Don’t flip out at that word canvas.  It’s actually quite soft and drapey.  You can more info about the fabrics here.)
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The pattern changes I made were all inspired by laziness!
  • I didn’t want to match the patterns on the pockets, so I left them off.
  • I didn’t want to match the patterns for the button plackets, so I choose to make them in a contrasting white instead.
  • I cut out the wrong sleeve pattern by mistake.  Rather than cut the right one, I just ran with what I had.  The biggest difference:  the sleeve for view C was designed to be gathered and a sleeve band added.  I didn’t want that, so I just did a little pleat to take out some of the extra instead.
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Inspired?  Possibly.
Lazy?  Yes.
Do I love it anyway?  Absolutely.My PR review is here.

Next, I think I’ll try Simplicity 2211, The Market Blouse and Skirt.
And then I’ll get to Simplicity 2245, the Portfolio Tunic.
Finally, I’ll try Simplicity 2209 one more time.
Why?  Because I love all 4 of them!

I’m linked up here:

Being Creative, Everything Else

Those Zig Zag Scissors

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These scissors are actually called “pinking shears”. 

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The sawtooth blade creates a “zig zag” cut. 

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Why would you want to add a pair of pinking shears to your sewing box?

Woven fabrics fray.  Many times, they fray A LOT.  Cutting raw edges with pinking shears won’t prevent all this fraying, but it will limit the length of the threads that fray.  So, having a pair of pinking shears is handy for trim seam allowances and preparing the edges of some fabrics before your wash them.