Got a Bit of Sewing Done

Got a few things done.  I have 5 days in a row off, but they are filling up fast so I don't know how much more I'm going to get done, but I'm going to try!  I really want to make a new purse.  I bought some cool heavyweight fabrics at Hancock Fabrics and I'm itching to turn them into a purse or two-if I get really ambitious I might make a couple extra and put them in my Etsy shop.  I got some nice top and blouse fabrics at Hancock too:

The bottom one is woven polyester, the other three are knits.  Can't wait to turn them into tops, but I have other things ahead of them, too bad!

About 30 years ago, Stan's sis Irene bought some black polyester velveteen.  She stuck it in a drawer and didn't make anything out of it.  A few years ago her stepdaughter Lisa was visiting and volunteered to make her something out of it.  Lisa is an accomplished seamstress who specializes in wedding dresses.  She turned the velveteen into a lovely suit.  Irene loved the suit-has worn it to a couple of funerals and other functions, but she never liked the dress's short sleeves-they really made her arms feel bound up, what with all that velveteen in the dress and the jacket.  A few weeks ago she asked if I could take the sleeves off.  I said, "Sure!" and have done that. 

She wondered if I could make pockets for the jacket out of the dress sleeves.  That worked out pretty well.

I decided to hand-sew the pockets in, because I thought topstitching would make it look homemade and not well done.  I used a kind of back stitch to do it and I think it will be good and strong.  Now she has someplace for her hanky!

Lisa made gussets in the underarms so I'm anxious to see if the armholes are all right.  You need more fabric if you have sleeves than if you don't.  I'll make her try it on first-she said she's not going to wear it without the jacket anyway so it may be just fine.  If not I can take it in a bit.  I didn't realize how much fuzz and lint was on this thing until I took the photos.  Better get my lint roller out!

It was fun to look inside a garment just to see how another seamstress does things.  Lisa is very good at what she does.

Then a young man and wife from our church asked if I could shorten a dress for her.  She is a tiny person, but the dress is REALLY tiny!  Cute, though, and it will look darling on her.