Ballooning

For those of you who are not familiar with October in New Mexico, every year the Balloon Fiesta comes to town and it is a massive celebration of all things hot air and balloon shaped. This year I decided to get into the mood by creating a little balloon themed window display at Stitchology.

For starters, I decided to make about a billion felt balloons and a few fluffy clouds as well. I hung them all from the window and it was a good thing, but I couldn’t help but feel that I needed to take the theme a little further, so I used the Hot Air Balloon fabric I had just received and made some little outfits.

Like this.

I used the Oliver + S Family Reunion Dress pattern and sure am glad I did. This pattern, like all Oliver + S patterns, sewed up well, had great directions and is totally adorable.

I mean how can you not LOVE the little neck facing detail?

Or the buttons down the back?

Or what about the hem facing and decorative stitching?

Sigh.

I was having so much fun with my balloon fabric that I decided to make a dress for the larger form as well.

For this gal I used the Oliver + S School Photo Dress and it also sewed up like a dream.

I used the scraps from the first dress to cut out a few balloons and appliquéd them around the hem.

It was the right thing to do and the dresses are stunning together in the window!

 

Happy Sewing

~Melisa & Cordelia

Colette Anise

I bet you thought I forgot I had a blog didn’t you? I didn’t, I’ve just been super busy doing other things like teaching kids summer camps, traveling, sewing up a storm and buying lots of new fabrics for Stitchology! Seriously, if you haven’t been in for a bit you need to stop by because we are bursting at the seams with new goodies!

I’ll dish about all that later, but first I have to share the new Colette patterns that are being released today!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Colette patterns. They have fresh, young, vintagey styles that sew up well. They also have the BEST directions I have ever seen in a pattern. Each one is a little booklet and they are packaged up all cutely too. I mean, she includes detailed instructions on how to sew welt pockets in the new Anise pattern. You can’t even find stuff like this in some sewing books anymore.

Because I was able to get my hands on the patterns a bit early, I decided to sew up a sample to help celebrate the release.

The weather’s still fairly warm here in NM so I opted for a home-dec cotton in fall-ish colors.

 

It is fully lined with a chartreuse cotton/silk fabric that is just heavenly against my skin and has a beautiful sheen to it. The best part about this fabric is that the cotton makes it REALLY easy to work with so it is my go to fabric for linings (we have several colors at Stitchology!).

This pattern is really awesome if you are interested in getting into tailoring as it gives directions on how to do some proper (but easy) tailoring techniques—for example it gives great directions for installing a welt pocket, has you put in an underlining (my inner sewing geek was doing handstands over this) and has you cut the under collar on the bias!

My only complaint is how she has you sew the collar in. If you fallow her directions, I believe you may find yourself in a swear-worthy, frustrating state. So do yourself a favor, and pay me a little visit before you get ready to sew any collars and you’ll be glad you did.

Here are a few more pictures to drool over.

 

That's right, we do have that polka dot fabric at Stitchology.  Thanks for noticing!

Overall I give these patterns an A++ and think you should hustle over to Stitchology to pick up your own coppy before they sell out.

Happy Sewing

~Melisa & Cordelia