Jalie 3025 skort and another tank in progress

I started this next gym outfit on Sunday....but I think this tank might be too good for the gym, ha ha.

The tank is my usual Simplicity 8779.

I ran out of the W-I-D-E 1" fold over elastic that I now like using for finishing the tank, but you can see where it's going!

Folded in half, it's a half inch binding, which makes a really nice looking strap and finishes the raw edge nicely.

And look, I eliminated the CB seam on the tank, so I wouldn't have to worry about lace matching.   The lace is super stretchy so I can get away with eliminating the CB seam.
The "hem" of the tank is the selvedge of the stretch lace--very awesome!

The skort is currently in two pieces and is from two different Jalie patterns.

The skirt is Jalie 3025, a figure skating skirt pattern.  I used view A (upper left and center skirts on the pattern photo) and lengthened it 5 inches.  It really makes that flouncy skirt look, especially in the back view.

Since the pattern comes with attached panties and I prefer attached shorts, I'm using the compression shorts from Jalie 2796.

Since I haven't sewn the skirt and shorts together yet, I could put the skirt on Izzy.

This time the skirt is made with a thinner-than-last time activewear fabric from Apple Annie's, specifically this one.
The stretch lace is also from Apple Annie's.
The fabric under the stretch lace is Nike Dri-Fit from SewSassy (scroll way down on that page to get to it).

I can't wait for the FOE to arrive so I can finish it off!!

In other news, voting is now open in the Activewear Contest on Pattern Review!
Take a gander at the entries.
If you've enjoyed all my silly poses, I'd appreciate your vote!  Thank you!

Be well!

Simplicity 9776 gym tank DONE + a new blog for you to follow!

This was actually the last garment of 2014.  When I wrote my 2014 recap, I had this down for "half a garment" but I've since decided that it is DONE.

The Fabric, Pattern and FOE Binding Method

The pattern is Simplicity 9776 (it's like 1776, but 8,000 years later), an oldie but goodie pattern that I've used for making gym tanks before....three of them in fact.

The outer layer is a burgundy stretch lace-type fabric that I bought at the FIDM scholarship store in Nov of 2013 with Rachel and Jeanette.

The stretch lace is underlined with black Nike Dri-Fit fabric that I recently bought on SewSassy.com.
I basted the lace to the dri-fit and then basted the tank together, tried it on and then serged it with my BabyLock Enlighten.  Seriously, if you can get someone to buy that machine for you (or save your $$$) it is an amazing machine.  My old serger enjoyed chewing up lace tanks for lunch, whereas the Enlighten serges through it like butter.




I did not hem the tank, just positioned it so that this wide stripe would be the "hem", and cut it with my rotary cutter.  I also didn't hem the dri-fit.  Neither the lace tank nor the Dri-Fit is curling nor unraveling, score!

The method for applying the FOE (purchased on Etsy as a 10 yard roll) was from the PR class "More Knits" by Sarah Veblen.  You can see that the fabric is just puckering slightly lying here on my cutting table because the FOE is stretched during application.  If you don't stretch the FOE, the binding will not lie flat against your body.  Sarah emphasized this point during the class, but as Jennifer Stern would say, "ask me how I know".

My other gym tanks had plain ol' knit fabric as underlining, which means that by the end of class, they are drenched with sweat.  This typically doesn't bother me as I take a shower right there at the gym, and my limp and sweaty tank is proof of my workout, ha ha.  So using the Dri-Fit fabric was a little experiment.

Front

Back.  I matched the stripes in the back

Side seams
This tank has a dart in it, so I matched the stripes under the dart.  I honestly don't remember whose blog I read where they said to make sure to match the stripes UNDER the dart while cutting out the fabric instead of OVER the dart (because if you match OVER the dart, they will not match UNDER the dart which is where everyone can see because who is looking under your armpit) but that  tip stuck with me.  Thank you, blogger I can't remember!

So the reason I felt it was not "done" was because the placement of the FOE is not symmetrical. I thought about ripping it out and trying again but I'm afraid to do damage to the lace.  The risk of total damage and destruction outweighs my perfectionism and I'm letting it go.  I know.  This is a big step for me.


So I've worn it twice to the gym now.  On New Year's Day (when I took these pix) I took balletone, which is a somewhat-sweaty but not overly-sweaty class.   The dri-fit fabric was great and wicked away the moisture.


I washed the tank yesterday (wash in the washing machine and line dried).

Tonight I wore the tank for boogietone, which is a high-sweat class.  The bra I wore the tank with is not an exercise bra so the bra itself retains moisture whereas the top releases it.  I would say that overall the tank was not as sweat filled as my cotton tanks and probably wouldn't be sweaty at all if I had worn a moisture wicking bra too.

The next tank I will make using a similar wicking fabric, but will be cut from a freebie conference t-shirt that happens to be "performance fabric".

You can see how my bra strap does not align with my tank strap on my left shoulder, but it does align on my right side.  I'm also going to try to let my perfectionist side let that one go too.....

You can see the sneak peek of the next garment I made....that's the Sewaholic Renfrew on my dressform.  At that point it was gigantic in the bust (because that fabric was waaay stretchier than others I have used for Renfrews) and not hemmed.  I have since made it fit!

New Blog Alert!!
In other news, if you are looking for a new style blog to follow, my friend Ellen has started a really fun one with her daughter Rachael, Style 25 to 55.  The concept is to take a fabric/look/style and show how to rock the same concept at ages 25 and 55 in a really fun, clean, concise and snappy way.  Check it out here!  They will be posting on Mondays and Fridays.

Be well!

Another tank for the gym: black and turquoise Simplicity 9776-ish

So this is the other gym tank I made last week on my vacation.

It's Simplicity 9776 again, modified to use FOE as I learned in the PR class "More Knits" last summer.

Both the stretch lace and the turquoise knit I used for underlining came from Michael Levine Loft in LA during my November trip with Rachel and Janette.  This lace only stretches crosswise.  The overall effect is the lace looks more refined somehow, but the top is less stretchy overall.  The FOE is from Pacific Trimming from MPB Day this year.

My serger really hacked up the inside of my black and white tank.  I was wondering, do I need to replace the blade?  Break down and buy a serger that threads itself and adjusts its own tension?  I wound up serging really slowly this time and I also, cough cough, read the manual.  It turns out my serger manual has a chart with the suggested settings for each tension disk as well as recommendations for the differential feed.  Ahem--a better place to start than what I had been doing--trial and error and getting massively frustrated.  For this tank, the right settings were: 5  5  4  3.5 with DF = N



I used this stretch lace trim to finish the bottom edge with a zig zag stitch.  That was because I couldn't use the selvedge because the stretchiness really was crosswise. On my black and white tank, the direction with the most stretchiness was lengthwise, so I could cut it using the selvege as the bottom edge.

I wore it at the gym to boogietone on Monday night, but I got to class just as it was starting, and my sewing cheerleader Sara wasn't there, so no comments were made.  Overall I think the lining inside the top should be a little smaller than the lace itself.


I made 2 and a half more things during my vacation....so still more to show you!  I am especially excited about the dress that is half finished.  I really want to finish it this weekend.

Here is a gratuitous cat picture of the stray my dad is feeding.  Due to the cat's coloring, I suspect this cat is a tortie female, but I don't know...the cat definitely has tortitude!  The cat is a bit skittish and only wants to be on the back porch for a short while.

Be well!

Black shirt + cat shirt = cat gym shirt refashion

Thanks for all your comments about my black and white stretch lace tank for the gym.  I like that I've inspired some readers to try making some gym tanks of their own.  Why not look good while working out--and in your own-sewn tanks?     (I won't make gym pants, it's too easy to buy the Everlast ones at Sears and they fit me well.  I have been having trouble finding gym skirts, though, so I might need to make one....or just see if Marshall's has any.)

Oh, and about my red Vogue dress--I wore it today for the third time and I definitely need to do something about the armholes/bust.  I left room so I could make the bust area wider, though this will require a bit of finesse with my bound armholes.  It feels a bit risky but I think I can redo what I undo if necessary.  Fixing it will make me feel more confident while wearing it.

Soooo...I bought myself this cat shirt (above)  for the gym, for Christmas in 2012, from an etsy seller.  It was one of those "unisex" shirts; i.e. boxy and shapeless, but I loved the graphic. (If the seller had women's fit, I would have bought it.)

I thought I'd "take it in a bit" to make it less boxy and more shapely.  I took it in too much by, ahem, cutting it first, and because I had cut it, there was no going back.  I reported it like this on my blog.  Here's the visual:

I was super frustrated.  It was supposed to be an easy refashion and I messed it up.
But I still loved the cat graphic.  Into the magic closet it went.

Soooo...18 months later I decided "I can do this".

I bought a t-shirt from JCP.
I cut out the cat face.


I pressed the cat face and the shirt with my Elna press.
I'm still loving my Elna press, btw.
And I still don't know who I am, doing all this pressing.  I press everything, even patterns, like you're supposed to, I know, but I was not much of a rules follower when it came to sewing.

Ok, back to the point.
I taped the cat face to the shirt.  I know I could have done this in a multitude of other ways but I was feeling confident.


I then sewed the face to the shirt with black thread.

I pressed again.  I know.  I also know the edges will curl with the first washing, but that's ok.  I wasn't going for applique here.  It will look fine with curled edges.  (I got that idea from a RTW gym shirt that has a frog on it, and frog's mouth is a piece of fabric stitched on, raw edges ablaze with wild unfinished abandon).

Now it looks like this:

And it looks like this on Izzy:

And it looks like this on me:

I went to the gym 4x last week during vacay (and made 2 tanks + this refashion) so I could have worn it before this post but I had not taken the pictures yet.  This means I have no classmate reactions, but I don't know if anyone will say anything about this. And I really wanted to take the pictures before wearing it--you know what I mean?  So I think this will be worn to balletone on Wednesday (on Monday I will wear a new lacey tank to boogietone--I plan to blog about it on Monday night).  Fingers crossed.

yes

Crazy shot of the day


The pink Whole Foods hibiscus is in bloom today.  Aloha!!!

Be well!

My pirate outfit, redesigned for the gym.

Can I say, what a couple of weeks it has been???  It's been a couple of weeks!!!!

The work project I'm on, which feels like a marathon most days, really really ramped up and I sacrified some sewing time and gym time to work on it.  I met my 10/31 deadline last night, and I felt like my reward was being able to do Halloween at the gym!!!  That meant I had a few hours last night to get my act together with the costume.

Thanks for all your suggestions about how to turn my 2007 pirate outfit into something more workout worthy.  LinB and Kathy's suggestion to just wear the vest over my regular gym outfit and Rose's suggestion to wear the shirt and vest with regular gym pants got me thinking about adding "ties" to my regular gym pants (just basted on strips of black fabric that I can easily remove).  And I took a store bought white t-shirt I've owned for years and sewed on layers and layers of white lace ruffles to it, and one layer of white lace ruffles to each sleeve, using a package of gathered lace I've had in stash for years.

Then I wore it with the vest (Simplicity 3677) I made in 2007, plus store bought hat, hook, sword, belt, and clip-on earrings all of which I had from then too.  I wore them with my black skechers.  So I used everything I already had and didn't have to buy anything.

There were a few pumpkin shirts and orange shirts in class but my instructor Rita--honestly the best gym instructor I have ever had--and I were the only ones to wear a full costume. She was a Ghostbuster--I ain't afraid of no ghost.  One of my classmates took a pic of us and when I get it (and if Rita approves) I'll post it.  Sadly Kathy and LinB, I didn't say "arrgggh" during class at all!

Here are pix my locker room buddy Sara took (Sara is my biggest sewing cheerleader at the gym!  She is so incredibly supportive of everything I make.)


Here's a closeup of the front of the outfit (keep in mind this was after working out)

Somehow the layers of ruffles are washed out but they are there covering the front of the shirt up to the top of the vest.
Here are some selfies from the night before, so you can see the ruffles


The oops shot



One of my classmates said the shirt and vest looked nice enough to wear for real.  :)

I have been so wound up lately that I am waiting to crash. It hasn't happened yet....I felt it starting to happen after lunch today but the gym perked me back up again.

Be well!

Friday evening

Thanks everyone--my rib is getting better (again) and it didn't hurt to breathe today. woo!

I had such a bizarre dream this morning. I went to urgent care and signed in. The receptionist asked, "would you like an MRI today?" and I said, "excuse me?" and she replied, "Would you like an MRI today? We have the MRI machine now so you can have an MRI today" and I was kind of incensed and said, "I wish you had this back in the spring!!!" And then I woke up thinking I would like an MRI of my knees.

Len and I had a good conversation tonight. I admitted that I went back to the gym, and he wasn't upset at all. He just told me to take it easy. (He seemed to already know that I went back to the gym, but I'm not sure how he knew...) He is still really enamored by my coat and asked me a lot about it. He had seen it last week already, but I told him how I added pockets last weekend and he seemed really amazed by that and was asking how I did it, like he was really interested in knowing how it all it put together. I'm not sure I've ever had a non-sewist ask in such detail about a garment I made. We also talked more about when he was hit by a car, how it changed his life, etc. It was really great little conversation. I then hit the gym and went to groove class. I took it really easy. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

Tomorrow I take my car in for service and they're letting me have a loaner car for the day. I'm guessing it's going to be $$ if I get a loaner car. I think it needs a brake job. I'll just be glad not to wait in that waiting room with CNN blaring on.

Are we all excited for the Tim-visits-everyone-at-home episode next week? It's my favorite epi of the season!! And just how many times did Tim use the word "staggering" last night??

Flashback: Simplicity 3833, a retro dress, visa news, etc

Day 4 of "wear a dress to work every day" week. Today's dress was also sewn in the summer of 2007. It's Simplicity 3833, a "retro" pattern. The fabric is brown with turquoise flowers. It's some kind of rayon. Here's what it looked like when I wore it today:


I neeeeeed a haircut!! I had also just come back from walking, and it's humid, so my hair was extra pouffy.



Back:


Here's when it had sleeves back in March 2007 (but they were too tight and the dress was also pulling across the upper back because the sleeves were too tight). I think this photo is also the best for seeing the pattern in the fabric:


I laugh; my caption says I would remove the sleeves "tomorrow". Which was actually May 2007:


I made this dress in red, also in 2007, and I wore that dress on Monday this week (though I did not take a picture of me wearing that dress on Monday). Here it is from 2007:



Pete received a letter from the American consulate in London, with instructions on applying for his part of the visa. Now our lawyer is making it sound like he could be denied entrance to the US when he visits on Aug 8 because they may think he will not return to the UK since we are mid-visa process. The reality is, anyone who comes to visit the US can be denied entrance for any reason at all. We are doing this the right way and I really don't see why he would be denied entrance just because we are in the middle of the visa process. I mean, we paid a lawyer to do this so why would we abandon the process now?

I had acupuncture tonight. Felt lots of fluttering in my legs and even some on my scalp (which was new to me). She put needles around my collarbone this time, which was brand new. They didn't hurt at all. I had some needles that hurt around my knees. And I learned that she's an occupational therapist during the mornings, not a PT like I previously thought. I felt a little lightheaded afterward, but then I went to Lucy's Kitchen to pick up some chow and I ran into a classmate of mine from the gym. She was asking if I moved to England or defected to a different gym. So we caught up a bit. I recognized her right away. Apparently she saw me before I saw her and thought to herself, that she knew me from somewhere, then had a flash of me in a pirate cupcake shirt and then she knew who I was. She said she always liked reading my gym shirts.



Andy sent me some great links about pain, pain management, a pain journal pdf, etc. I'll post that stuff with my next post.

I'm taking tomorrow off and meeting up with a friend for lunch. Then I hope to go to the boardwalk for a nice walk. I also hope to remember to bring my camera!!!