When is denim not really denim?

Life certainly has taken its toll on blogging. It's very hard to believe I haven't blogged about anything since February. Life in general has been very busy, in March I had a huge hat order, April brought some prom dress alterations, a couple of sports name tags, and sporadic work on my niece's baby quilt that was supposed to be done months ago (still not done!).

If you have read my two blog posts this year (oh what a paltry number of posts!), you know that I made a pair of Jalie jeans and loved, loved, loved them. A second pair was whipped up from the same denim with embroidered pockets and an improved waistband/yoke fit. On the second pair I lowered the crotch curve another half inch but removed it after making the second pair. I don't think it made much difference. The jeans are so close to perfect for my figure so I'm just doing some minor backside tweaking. Instead for my third pair, I decided to do a 1/2" fisheye dart just under the crotchline. It's exciting to see what this is going to do for my 3rd pair of jeans.

Which brings me to my next point. When is denim not really denim? I bought some periwinkle stretch denim (96/4) from Lura's Fabric Shop and was quite disappointed when my package arrived. I know part of it is a customer issue on my part. My monitor shows more of a royal blue-ish color. Requesting either a Pantone color chart number or ordering a swatch would have solved my issue. That wasn't my only beef though.

Here is the side-by-side "denim" color comparison (fabric.com denim on the left, Lura's denim on the right). Not exactly the "periwinkle" color that comes up on my monitor from the Lura's website either. I was hoping for a darker blue so in that respect, it was disappointing.



The fabric is advertised as, "Lady Wrangler's bull denim with stretch in a beautiful periwinkle color". Okay. So I don't buy Wrangler jeans. But I do buy jeans, and I'm quite familiar with denim fabric. Are Wrangler jeans made from a different type of denim that I usually use? It looked more like a denim twill. Is this typical of bull denim? Here are comparison pics to show you the fabric and color difference between my fabric.com 96/4 stretch denim purchased a couple of years ago and the Lura's 96/4 stretch denim purchased a few months ago.

Here's the denim from Lura's. When I think denim for jeans, this is not exactly what I think of as jeans denim. Someone correct me please. Is this a denim twill?

When I think of denim for jeans, it is supposed to look like the pic below. This was great stretch denim purchased from fabric.com a while back during a sale:

All is not lost, however. The color and fabric type certainly are not my favorite, but I'll get a good pair of around-the-house jeans. Maybe once they're made I'll actually like them. The important thing for me was to get the same 96/4 stretch for fitting purposes. That I did get.

So that is what is now occupying my time from a sewing standpoint--my 3rd pair of Jalie jeans. On the table. Ready for me to insert the fly-front zipper.

Happy Sewing!

Little Bit of This and That.

I've been working on a little bit of this and that lately. Below are two fleece tops I made, the blue and grey last Fall, and the red/black last month. I used the Textile Studio Santa Monica Tee modified to include armhole princess seams in the front and back. My goal was to make a more fitted fleece top. I get a lot of wear out of these because I love the feel of fleece on ultra-cold winter days. 'Ol Man Winter has been brutal this year! I used fleece purchased from Wazoodle, really wonderful stuff. Wazoodle is my go-to source from lightweight, good quality fleece. The color selection is fantastic and the superior fleece holds up well with no pilling like the cheapo stuff.

I'll do a review on the top with more specifics at a later date.


Here are some fleece sports headbands I made for my daughter and her friends. Same Wazoodle fleece using my self-drafted headband pattern.

Next up is DD#2's scarf. Here's the story on this funky print. We went to Target one night and she wanted to buy a scarf because her Varsity jacket is scratchy on her neck. She picks out a $12 scarf which looked flimsy to me, not a great print, but she liked it enough. Her money, so I kept mum about it.

Then we head to Walmart for a few odds and ends and to look at the quilting cottons for my niece's baby quilt. She sees this funky pink/black print and asks if I can make a scarf for her and return the Target one. Done deal. And more economical for her as well.

Last but not least, I was commissioned by DD#1 to make a hat for her at college. She goes to school in Philly and it is darn windy! It's brutal when it's really cold. So I made a plain prototype hat and sent it to her for a size opinion. I made the changes and whipped up the hat with the requested embroidery. Then I asked her if she wanted a matching scarf. I needed to know right away or my Wazoodle fleece will get used up for something else. She said yes, so now she has a cute set which will be shipped to her this week.

The last thing I did was make Version 2 of my Jalie Jeans. Don't have a pic of those yet, but will try soon. I also ordered cotton denim from Lura's for Version 3 with a fabric content of 96 cotton/4 lycra, but the was very disappointed with the color. I thought it would be darker blue. It's a lightish periwinkle. Oh well. I'll make the jeans and it will be good to work through a few more minor alterations tweaking each pair as I go. There is enough fabric to make two more pairs of jeans.

But it leaves me with this question. Why oh why is 96/4 denim so hard to come by in a great color? Is that asking too much? Where is 96/4 indigo or black stretch denim? If only we had access to the same suppliers as some of these apparel companies! Here's to wishful thinking...

44!

I'm 44 today. And I just celebrated my 24th wedding anniversary yesterday. A very nice weekend to boot.

I love my age. I love my husband. Life is good. Can't ask for anything more (except some time to sew)!

Happy Sewing...

Chunky Chick Designs

Thank you, Mary, Melissa, and Uta!!! I appreciate your comments VERY much. As I checked my blog this morning and my husband saw my outfit from my last post, he said, "Get rid of that pic FAST! It makes you look fat." He's not being mean, he's being honest. He has dubbed the last pic, "Chunky Chick Designs". The outfit is NOT working. I'm miffed, but not at him. It's putting work into a project that doesn't work for me.. I've actually lost at least 4 lbs. from doing a lot of extra mileage and workouts the past three months but you'd never know it from that outfit.

Mary and Melissa, I will follow your advice. Wear the top with sleek pants or skirt and pair the skirt with a tailored blouse in a nice gold or brown. I wore the top with jeans yesterday, but I still don't think it is very flattering. Maybe it's something to do with side gathers. Or like you said, Mary--the variation in the nap and the gathering. Or what Melissa said, gathers going one way on the top and the other on the skirt. Too visually distracting. Add the "frosty" nap of the top and the print of the skirt, well yeah, it's just not working. From the moment I put it on, I was taken aback and thought, "This makes me look wide." Very different from when I tried on my swimsuits and thought they looked good and flattering.

Chalk this one up to a Q&E mediocre project. And again, thank you, for the comments. I want brutal honesty--so refreshing. If it's not working for me, I want to know from other fashion oriented women. Good fashion sense and what works for me has always been hit or miss so your help is most appreciated :) !

Maybe I'll just save this top to wear under fitted blazers. That would work.

TNT for Quick Gratification.

I needed to sew something--FAST. A no thinking, no fuss kind of project. So I whipped up another CJ Wrap Top in a black, panne velvet fabric purchased from a PR Weekend a few years ago. I'll detail the construction in a future review, but here it is:

The skirt was a self-drafted one I whipped up in January. My feeling was that it needed a close-fitting top instead of the loose style black sweater knit top I was wearing with it. Also, after looking at the pics, perhaps the skirt could be a wee bit shorter. My Babylock serger is still on layaway, and my original hem was a rolled, serger hem. I'll continue to mull over the hemline length while paying off my machine.

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*ETA*, my husband doesn't like this outfit. He said it makes me look, well, "chunky". There is something that is off. I'm trying to follow fashion advice and not end the hemline at my widest point, just a little bit above. The problem is, I'm short waisted so there's not a lot of room to play around with above the hipline. Please do a critical analysis and let me know. Maybe the skirt should be shorter? That was my initial thought. Maybe the hemline of the top is simply too high. It appears my entire outfit is cut in half, but I'm not sure of the right fix for a good look. Opinions wanted, please.

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The top was supposed to be a dress, but I just didn't have enough fabric. It's just as well. I have a black velvet, Textile Studio Madison Avenue dress in my closet anyway that I forgot about.

On to my next projects...the skirt for my daughter which I temporarily shelved due to exasperation and a Simplicity pattern pulled out of my stash for alterations and sizing decisions.

Stay tuned on those and Happy Sewing!

A Good Mail Day.

Hey! Guess what came in the mail today!!! Yes, the new PR book below.



I did exactly as Deepika recommended: picked my drink of choice and sat down for a good read. I'm old school. No Kindle for me since a book in hand is my preference for book reading much like a photo album and flipping through pages. I'm up to page 19 and the rest will wait for later.

Also, today was my Google Reader day. So glad I remembered to export my blog subscriptions to a file a few days ago. Now I just have to catch up on much-neglected blog reading.

Mulled over my next sewing project too. I was going to open up a "new" (old) pattern in my stash but decided to sew up another garment from my CJ Wrap Top pattern instead. My most recent version is my black/green ITY print dress on my sidebar PR widget. I'm going to make a fall/winter dress out of a panne velvet type of knit. Instant gratification from a TNT is needed so pulling out a yet-unused pattern and doing pattern alterations will have to wait.

On the home front, good news! DD#1 made the club tennis team at her college (can't remember if I mentioned that before), and DD#2 won both of her tournament softball team games at their tournament today. DS#1 got "Most Improved" Cross Country Runner this season by his coach two weeks ago too. As for my youngest? He's playing football. Neither loving nor hating it, but he started going to the gym with me at the beginning of the summer, and I'm proud of him for that. Start 'em young and hopefully it will be a lifelong committment to fitness.

Happy Sewing and Good Night :) !

The Swimsuit's Done!

With Jake's "help", my floral swimsuit is done. I'm really liking this one, and it's thisclose to TNT. I lowered the front neckline a 1/4" on the pattern for the next version and will try B-cup sized swimsuit bra cups. I'm normally a C, but feel the C-cups could fit a little better. Very acceptable, but trying the B that's in my stash will provide me with a good comparison. When I ordered the cups, I just didn't know which size to get so I got both the B and the C.


Here is the swimsuit all done:


And here is a pic of a leg opening using my coverstitch machine:


I loved using the coverstitch machine because it will eliminate the tendency to "pop" because of the inherent stretch in the coverstitched hems. A conventional sewing machine is simply adequate for swimsuit contruction, but the coverstitch rules with topstitching.

I'll try to model it in a week or so.


Thank you, everyone, for the comments on Jake. I could blubber on about him all day but have to keep it under control :) . Kim, I always wanted a black cat too! My second choice was orange. We've had white, black and white bi-color, a seal point, and blue/grey Persians for many years until they all died of old age. This time it had to be black or orange.