I need to be honest: I get pretty jealous of some of you guys. I read your blogs and see pictures of all the fun sewing/blogger meet ups that you go on and it makes me wish I was there! I don't know anyone that sews clothing in the San Luis Obispo area (and if you do, speak up so we can hang out), so when I found out that the Colette Patterns Fall 2012 Launch Party was going to be a few hours away in Oakland, I knew I had to go.

My friend Qui and I talked for weeks about how excited we were for the party and decided to make a day of it. On Saturday morning I drove up to Santa Cruz to go to her house and from there we went to Hart's Fabric for a little shopping. We were probably in the store for about five minutes before I decided that I wanted everything. There is a good selection of garment fabrics, fun quilting cottons, BOOKS, and an impressive amount of sewing patterns from independent designers. It was love at first sight.


 This quilting cotton is from the designer Dear Stella. I had never heard of the company, but I am now a fan. I want a quilt out of their fabric soooo bad!



I bought this Jamie Christina pattern from Hart's.

Our next stop was Oakland. Qui was sweet enough to drive (which was probably safer for the both of us haha) and we made it just in time for the pre-party meet up. Between 15 and 20 awesome ladies showed up to hang out at Actual Cafe.

Soup is my favorite. Actual Cafe makes a good tomato coconut with grilled cheese, yum!

I invited Sarai and Ken to the meet up and I was sooo happy that they came! Based on what I could see on the world wide web, I knew Sarai to be so sweet, intelligent, and encouraging. When I met her in person she did not disappoint, she is truly one of the nicest people I have met. Both she and Ken were friendly and fun to be around.


The meet up was a success and I got to talk about sewing with so many other ladies that share the same interest. One of first people I met was Meg, a girl with a bubbly personality in an amazing green dress. Meg is one of those people that you feel like you have known a lot longer than you have, she's great!


When Michelle walked in the door I got super excited because I just featured her in the Macaron Parade and loved her dress! After chatting for a bit we realized that we were raised in the same town, Paso Robles, and knew some of the same people. Small world!

Amy was another person that I was excited to talk to. I have seen her beautiful garments from time to time on the Sew Weekly and her clothes are just as pretty in person. Her skirt was to die for!

A couple of weeks ago Sarai from Colette Patterns e-mailed me and asked if I wanted a sneak peek of the upcoming patterns. Umm, would I?!?!?!? YES! As soon as she e-mailed me the photos of the new patterns I couldn't think about much else except that I wanted to sew them up, stat.

Have you guys forgotten about me? I feel like I haven't updated in a long time! As I mentioned in my last post, things have been pretty rough in my personal life, but on the bright side I think things are starting to look up. THANK YOU so much for all the sweet comments, text messages, and e-mails. It really warmed my heart to hear from you. xo.

I finished my Hazel dress a little over a week ago and took photos this weekend. Tomorrow I plan on wearing the dress out and about, I'm excited!

I LOVE the pockets!!

Just holding up the fence in my yard. Sorry for the terrible scenery, it was hard to find a place with decent light. Should have planned better!

 Back.

 Close up of the front.

This is the first zipper I have done that I am really happy with. I always have trouble with the bottom piece sticking out and being really obvious, but on this one it's not noticeable at all. Yes!

Is anyone else still working on their dress? We pushed back the date for the Hazel Parade a bit, so hopefully that will give some of you time to finish up. I needed the extra time, so I can't complain :) Now, I'm off to the Flickr group to post photos and check out the other Hazels. Happy Monday!

I finished my Hazel muslin a few days ago and I can't wait to wear the dress this weekend to a birthday party! I am pleased with the outcome and am so happy this was the first project for Sew Colette 2.0, as this is truly the perfect summer dress.

A few weeks ago I bought a tripod to take photos and I got to use it for the fist time when I took these pictures. Luke is very happy to no longer be the photographer. He said it was the best $15 I have ever spent haha.

I can't get enough of those pockets, I am obsessed! Oh, if you follow me on Instagram (misscrayolacreepy) then you may notice a difference in the photos I posted. Using Instagram's filters I look way more tan than I actually am. Haha I'm a tanning cheater. Can you blame me though? My legs are practically see through.

We were running late for dinner, but I made Luke take a photo with me because now that I have a tripod for my camera we can be in the same photo. Doesn't he look like a ray of sunshine? Haha.

On the form the dress looks a little loose in the chest area, but on me it fits fine.

The dress was very quick to sew up, I split the sewing time over three days and just sewed a little here and there. The directions were very straight forward (Colette Patterns instructions are always straight forward, so I am not surprised) and easy to follow, but somehow I managed to mess things up because that's what I do! When I first tried on the muslin it was baggy and I took it in a bit by using a larger seam allowance on the zipper. I don't know if this is proper sewing etiquette, but it worked. For the next time around I'm not sure if I should stick with sewing it the way I did because I am happy with the fit or if I should try and do things properly and go with a smaller size/more adjustments. Decisions...

I wore my Truffle muslin this weekend. I figured that it was appropriate since the fabric is from the 1960s (I think) and it was the premiere of the new season of Mad Men.



Frankie came out to run around while Luke was taking photos of me.


 Kind of a close up. It's still hard to see the flounce, but it's there. After wearing the dress all day on Saturday I decided that I love it. It's comfortable, can be dressed up or down, and doesn't get too wrinkly. This is definitely going to be a summer wardrobe staple, I can't wait to finish my next dress, so I will have two from this pattern.


The next two projects I made over the weekend are not Mad Men related, but I wanted to post about them anyways. I made a little flannel blanket for my dog Frankie, but Stella the cat decided that she liked it.


The blanket was so quick and easy to complete, it took around fifteen minutes. It was fun using a decorative machine stitch for the edges. Those cool stitches don't get used enough.


My friend Shawntel came over on Saturday night and I embroidered this for her. It was my first time embroidering lettering and it was hard! I need to practice more.


My friend Ariana came over on Sunday night to watch Mad Men with me. She supplied the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and I supplied old fashioned drinks. I made them kind of strong, Ari kept joking that we were growing hair on our chest :) The episode was amazing, by the way. I am so happy that I added AMC to our Dish plan. Plus, it comes on at 6:00 because we have satellite!

I had a wonderful wonderful weekend! On Friday night I decided that I wanted a new shirt to wear the next day, so I made one. Knowing how to sew is definitely a perk for those new clothing impulses :)


I made my second Sorbetto and once again added sleeves. The fabric is a quilting cotton with a print that I adore. The Sorbetto is such an easy pattern to sew up, so I bought some pretty purple fabric to make another one, but without sleeves this time. Pretty soon I will have a closet full of them!



Can you tell that I love leopard print stuff? When my friend Pari and I went fabric shopping on Saturday I bought this fun knit for a shirt. I've never sewn with knit, so wish me luck!



When I come home after shopping my husband Luke always jokingly asks me, "did you buy me any presents?" This time I had something! This huge panel of canvas will be perfect to hang in our garage.



In my past few projects I have made muslins just to test the fit of the most important pieces and have not made a wearable muslin. For the Truffle dress I decided to change it up with my muslin and completely make the garment from the fabric above. It is a wild print, but it is most similar to the fabric I am going to use when it comes to feel. When I wear it I will look like I have time traveled to the 1960s! haha



To celebrate the eighty degree weather yesterday Luke and I went with some friends to Avila Beach and had a blast. The weather was definitely warm, but the water was the opposite. I got in, but even after five minutes it was so cold that it hurt! Yesterday was so much fun, I can't wait for summer!



Last night I worked on the crib sized quilt top. The top will be completely finished once I add a border. I keep going back and forth with this quilt. Should I give it to Luke's little sister or to my goddaughter? Little Dailey (goddaughter) has already gotten a blanket from me and Ariana (sister in law) has not gotten one and she LOVES the one I made for her mom. The size might make it more appropriate for a baby, but Ariana loves the color pink. I need to think on this.

I finished my Meringue skirt! I sewed the whole thing up on Saturday night because I wanted to wear it to my friends baby shower on Sunday morning. It's definitely not the most flattering picture of me, but it's the only whole body shot I took.


I learned a lot from this skirt. Going into it I was nervous about the invisible zipper which I built up to be much worse than it was. Having an invisible zipper foot definitely made things easier. I was literally finished with the skirt (other than the bottom facings) and zipping up the zipper when it BROKE!! So upsetting! There was no way to repair it, so I had to put in a new one and ruined all my hard work that I had done on the top facings. It looks ok, but not as good as it did before :(

Overall I am pleased with the skirt. I like that it sits higher and I love the fabric I chose. The pivot points  on the scallops were slightly puckered (any tips on this?), so I was feeling a little self conscious about wearing it. At the baby shower a lot of people said nice things about it and made me feel so much better. Plus, no one even noticed the tiny puckers that seemed to stick out like neon flashing lights to me. Why are sewists so hard on themselves?

Did you learn anything or wish you had done something differently with the Meringue? Please share, your input is helpful to those that haven't yet finished their skirts.

I can't wait to see all of your photos! Please upload them to the Flickr group so we can all take a look. I will be posting pictures of some of my favorites later today or tomorrow.

Cheers from Shell Beach, California! The weather has been beautiful the last few days, so I have been out and about enjoying it. I met up with Kirsten yesterday morning and then went to The Cliffs  with some girlfriends for cocktails.

I finished my Sorbetto and I just love it. I used the fabric I bought from Mood last weekend, added a few inches to the shirt length, and added sleeves. It's such a simple pattern to sew up and depending on the fabrics used it can be dressed up or down. The shirt is one that I can wear to work, as well as on the weekends. There will be more shirts to come!

My only issue with the shirt was making the bias tape. I used a bias tape maker and an iron, but had trouble pressing down the fabric where the seams were joined when it was coming out the bias tape maker. Does that make sense? The seams just seemed to flop open. Does anyone have any tips for this?