Giraffe skirt!

I found a super cute skirt tutorial online. And then I found some pretty giraffe fabric. I combined this super cute skirt tutorial with the pretty giraffe fabric and ended up with this: (I decided to try to figure it out myself instead of following the instructions. Well, the pockets are too tight and the zipper wasn't exposed enough.)

I do like the back! My zipper was too short to go the entire length of the back, like the one online, so I added a gore insert and a cute tab.

The black w/ white is the cute skirt I found online. CHALK LINES SKIRT

CHALK SKIRT TUTORIAL

CHEATER! PANTS ON FIRE!

I wore pants Wednesday. I was working in the warehouse all day, so it was a necessity.

I have a small temporary job sewing on an amazing industrial sewing machine! a JUKI:

I am sewing a newly designed, upgraded harness radio strap for firemen for this company:
 S&S Medical Supplies
here is the strap I am sewing:

 (pic is a link)

Today I made 2 batches of almond butter. There isn't a fridge in the warehouse and I will be sewing there all day tomorrow. i wanted some almond butter roll-ups.
I made one creamy, salted batch...and one crunchy maple batch:

pictured is the crunchy batch with maple syrup!



YUM!

NO PANTS APRIL: Day 7

Another Rainy Day!

Is it Still Raining?

Maybe it will clear soon...

NO PANTS APRIL: day 7  features a skirt I bought in Hong Kong, about 10 years ago. I liked the fun, unique waist panel with the ribbon lacing!

 I should wear this skirt more often. It's high-waisted. I don't wear a lot of high-waisted things.

NO PANTS DAY 6!

I have not been documenting No Pants April very well this year.

here is my NoPants Outfit today: workout skirt.

 not very pretty skirt, but I gotta keep in shape at least one day a week.

 I was looking for posts from No Pants April last year...NONE! None, I tell you!  How am I to get the word out to everyone on the internet if I don't  bother posting about the No Pants April challenge?? I did find a few pictures on Instagram from last year, though....

I will do better this year.

my Friend, KRISTY @THE MAN CREW , is also joining the NO PANTS APRIL challenge (for the 2nd time!)- so go over to her page and tell her how pretty she is in her lovely skirts and dresses!

TAGS on Facebook and INSTAGRAM: #nopantsapril and  #nopantsapril2015

No Pants for me!

Welcome to No Pants April, episode 2!  Last year was so much fun, not only am I doing it again, but I made 3 new skirts for this years events! Links: skirt #1, skirt #2, skirt #3

Good news! It's not too late to join in the fun. And all the guys are invited to wear kilts for equality's sake. the rules are simple. Whenever you leave the house and have a choice of what to wear, don't choose pants. if your work requires pants then obviously does not fit the portion of when you have a choice of what to wear. Going to the park? Going for a jog? Going to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and a scone? Don't wear pants. feel free to take pictures and if you use Instagram you can take them with #NoPantsApril or #NoPantsApril2015.
Join the fun now! Stop wearing pants and start taking pictures!

Upcycled Denim Skirt.

I had to take a break from the green acetate blouse. So I decided to make another skirt for No Pants April.

I had found  a few jeans in my kids room that were outgrown or had rips.
And I have some black corduroy someone gave me.

I cut off the legs:

 Then I saved one of the pockets:

Then I cut my finger:

 Then I measured my waist (where I want the skirt to sit, which is a few inches below my actual waist). I divided that by 6, since I am using 6 panels, I measured my hips (at the fullest point & was a bit sad), and divided that by 6 (& added an inch).
 I added an inch to that number for seam allowance. Then I cut the jean legs into panels that were the waist measurement at the top and at least the hip measurement 8 inches below the waist (which is how far below my skirt waist that my hips are)

pictured  next is the panel from the non-ripped jeans. I folded the leg, so I would have the fancy stitched double seam showing.

WAIST:

HIPS:

Here, you see that the ANKLE HEM of the jeans will be the WAIST of the skirt.(see the fancy double stitched seam from the side of the keg, now down the middle of the skirt)

I wanted gores between the panels in the front and the back, so when I stiched the panels together I left 12" unstitched to insert the gores:

the pocket from the old jeans:

The zipper is placed on on of the seams in back, but is off center, as there is no center seam:

 I cut 4 triangles out of the black corduroy. 12" height and 8" base. I then sewed the gores to the panels:

HERE IS A LINK for how to sew gores.
I cut side seam pockets out of colorful fabric. (here is a LINK for POCKETS)

I used bias tape to finish the waist edge:

the colorful pocket:

EVERYTHING were items I already had, old jeans, free fabric, zipper & bias tape from my supply drawer.....

SAILRITE!

I saved all my pennies and finally bought that 2nd sewing machine this family needed! (between myself, my 2 sons, their friends they were teaching to sew, and my friends I am teaching to sew- the one sewing machine we own was costing more to maintain that it cost to buy new!) SAILRITE was recommended to me by a friend (who has a friend who has an industrial machine) I decided on the Sailrite LSZ-1. It has a walking foot.

It came with a spool of heavy nylon thread. I make quick work of setting it up and getting it threaded. Or at least that was the plan. I bumped the bobbin casing out of place and had to wait for Connor to get home and be my third hand. Then I decided to make a satchel to carry the power pedal/cord. So I found canvas & denim and cut out pieces that night,

 
 The zipper, D-rings and strap were purchased the next morning.

I sewed the zipper using what I learned making my 3 Zipper pouch from THIS tutorial.
I sewed the side strips to the zipper, ironed them open, and top stitched. When I sew zippers. I put the pull tab about 1/2 open, sew starting at the closed zipper end of the zipper, then when I get to the pull tab (Picture Left), I stop the machine, lift the presser foot, pull the tab behind the presser foot. (picture right)

HERE IS THE TOP STITCHING:

**SO FAR- This machine sews like a dream through thickness! (But the added fabric pull of the walking foot will take some getting used to)

Then I made end tabs for the zipper. Using the blue denim, I cut the tabs  twice as long as the finished width of the zipper with side fabric and made it about 3 inches wide. (for this one, the two fabric strips were 3" by 6")
I folded and ironed one long end of each tab and stitched the fold in place. The picture was from the first piece I cut out, TOO SMALL. iron over, the stitch along the folded fabric.

Then fold it in half, lengthwise, and pit these to either end of the zipper. (explained better at that zipper pouch tutorial LINKED HERE, too)
Here is what it looked like with end tabs sewn:

 

Then I made fabric loops to attach the D-Ring to the ends. Using smaller strips of fabric (3" x 4"_ I iornoned the long end over twice so the folded edged met in the middle.

Top stitched both sides. Then put through the D rings and attached to the zipper section ends:

**It should be noted here, that my zipper section was too long. I had to remove the Ring Tabs, cut an inch off each end, then re tack down the ring tabs)

I then made inner and outer pockets & attached to the front and back panels:

 
HERE IS A LINK for how to sew patch pockets. it is similar to how i did mine.

Them I placed front and back pieced right sides together (make sure both pockets are top edge the same direction). I sewed along the side, the bottom, and up the other side. Then I mitered my bottom corners to make more of a box shape and give my satchel depth.

See how it makes such a nice square!

it is pretty simple:

1: with the pouch turned inside out, pinch the corner together so it makes a triangle. Make sure the seams math up and the sides are even.

2: sew a straight line across "the bottom edge of the triangle" so it looks like:

THAT'S IT! when you turn it right side out it will be that nice boxed square.

NOW came the more difficult part. This satchel was a concept. I have never done D-rings and I knew the pieces wouldn't really match up. Mu zipper section was a very squared corner rectangle and my pouch was an oval. BUT is had SQUARED bottom edges, I wanted to make it work.

I got too wrapped up in making it work that I forgot to get good pictures. So I will try to explain.

After fitting the 2 sections (zipper section and pouch ) and trimming the zipper section to fit, I sewed both short ends of the zipper section to the side seam edges of the pouch, lining up the middle of the loop for the ring with the seam on the side. (The pouch was turned inside out)*KEEP RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER!

THEN I unzipped the zuipper section and sewed the long edges of the sipper to the pouch, folding the ends(blue denim tabs) to make them fit.

Here is the result: