The Knitinator

Haaaave you met Rosie?

“Hello Rosie,” says Cordelia.

“Hello Cordelia”, says Rosie.

Well, in case you haven’t met Rosie, you should probably fix that cause she is amazing.

“Why is Rosie amazing?” you may be asking yourself.

  I’ll tell ya why she is amazing.

 Rosie is amazing because, amongst other reasons, she knits.

And to be more specific she knitted me a super duper super beautiful super awesome sweater for my birthday.

That’s right, I have marvelously awesome friends with marvelously awesome knitting skills!

From now on, Rosie shall be known as,

Wait

For

It

The Knitinator!!!!!!

Lets take a closer look at my stellar sweater.

It has a zigzag pattern all around the center front, collar, hem and sleeve hems. Um beautiful!

But perhaps my most favorite part of the sweater?

These little bust darts.

How cute are they?

Super cute.

I love my sweater. As soon as I convince Cordelia to give it back I’m going to wear it every day. Every single day, for the rest of my life.  I don't care how stinky I may get, it'll be worth it! 

Thanks Rosie!!!!

Happy Birthdaying

~Melisa and Cordelia

Flower Girl Couture

As you may have heard, The Brother Hart is getting hitched and so I’ve been doing some sewing for the wedding.

Like for example, this weekend I made the flower girl dress.

 

Isn’t it cute?

I just know Lilly is going to have a ball twirling in this thing.

Especially once she puts her bright orange puffy petticoat on underneath.

Sister’s got some serious fashion sense.

I wanted a little detail in the bodice so I added a few pleats.

That’s why they call me the

Wait

For

 

It

The Pleatanator!!!!

I wanted to get a little more color into the dress so I used gray buttons down the back to match the sash.

And there you have it. A perfect little twirl dress for a perfect little flower girl! Yay!

Happy Twirling,

Melisa & Cordelia

March of the Tools.

Earlier today I was perusing my BFF Heather Bailey's blog and a few years back she started a blogging tradition she calls March of the Tools.
 What’s this you may ask?
Well, she spends the month of March sharing her favorite sewing, cooking, crafting, and playing tools, and she has asked fellow crafty bloggers to keep her company. I have decided to participate, so prepare yourself as I spend the month sharing some of my favorite tools!
Yay!


Today I'll kick off the month by sharing a Super Duper Top Secret Totally Confidential Sewing Tool.

I think.

I have given this much thought and have decided I can trust you with my secret.

I think.

I have decided that this sewing tool is so helpful and has saved me so much heartache that I should definitely share it with you, my wonderful readers.

I think.

So here we go.

Are you ready to see what the Super Duper Top Secret Totally Confidential Sewing Tool is?

Are you sure?

Can I trust you with my secret?

And can I be assured you will use this knowledge wisely?

You will?

Ok then, lets go!

Here it is:

That’s right, the Super Duper Top Secret Totally Confidential Sewing Tool is a glue stick.

Any old glue stick will do.

I use the cheep 10 for $1 ones I get at Pick n’Save.

You laugh.

Well check out some of the cool things you can do with your glue stick and see if you're still laughing.

It works well for basting ribbon and trim in place.

You just smear some glue on the trim,

Stick the trim where you want it,

Sew the trim in place and TaDa!

Everything is lined up where it should be.

I used my glue stick to make this card.

But they also work well on fabric too.

And, you don't have to worry about it gumming up your machine.
Trust me, I've asked the Bernia maintenance guys about this one.
If you still don't believe me, please call Ricardo at Ann Silva's. 
He'll tell ya.

If I’m going to use my machine to sew a button on I just smear a little glue onto the back of the button, place it where I want it and then sew away.

But you want to know my all time absolute favorite way to use the Super Duper Top Secret Totally Confidential Sewing Glue Stick?

It's fantastic for holding zippers in place as I sew them in.

Yep I use a glue stick every time.

True story.

 

So go get yourself some of these babies and see what other ways you can come up with to use them.

Happy Gluing,

~Melisa & Cordelia

My Lovely Levi's Skirt

Once upon a time in a town called Albuquerque, there was a Levi’s Jeans factory. One day this factory shut down so the Levi company could outsource all their work to third world countries where they would only have to pay their employees pennies a day. When this happened, the company had several bolts of fabric they wanted to sell so local seamstresses snatched them up.

This all happened long before I was sewing, or possibly even a twinkle in The Papa Hart’s eye, but somehow I ended up with a good 5 yards of the fabric. So I made myself a skirt.

I wanted my denim skirt to be a little different from all the other denim skirts you see walking down the street, so I made mine high wasted (meaning it comes up above my natural waist).

I also was especially smitten with the selvage of the fabric and decided I absolutely HAD to include it in the design. So, I split each of the gores in my skirt down the center and cut them so the selvage ran the length of the gore.

I then sewed the pieces together with the seam allowances to the outside and pressed the selvage edges back and top stitched them down, resulting in a beautiful seam finish and a clever design detail.

I was especially proud of myself because I figured out how to hide the zipper in my selvage seam finish!

And there you have it, a skirt made of old Levi fabric!

Happy Skirt Wearing

~Melisa & Cordelia

Girl Friday Blouse

In my never ending quest to find brilliant class ideas I have stumbled across Decades of Style, my favorite new (to me) independent pattern company. They reprint vintage patterns using modern sizing and directions, resulting in adorable vintage patterns that actually fit and that you can figure out how to make without a Masters in sewing.

I love these patterns so much I have picked a handful of their simpler patterns to offer as classes at Hip Stitch this spring and summer. I like to think I’m teaching these classes in order to spread the vintage charm, but really the whole class idea is just an excuse for me to sew myself some really fabulous garments.

Recently I just finished the Girl Friday Blouse.

This 1940’s blouse pattern features not one but 3 collars and is absolutely stunning.

I used some Liberty of London cotton I purchased from a local children’s clothing designer (why are we dressing our kinds in Liberty of London? Let’s save the delicious fabric for ourselves!!!).

I knew the collar would get a bit lost in the busy print, but, because I don’t usually love large collars on myself, I was perfectly ok with that.

Instead of darts, the blouse has cute tucks which make for a really stunning design detail.

I'm loving this blouse.  It's perfect for spring (can't wait for that warm weather!), it is adorable with Jeans and a cardigan, but also looks stunning tucked into my Levi's skirt.

Check back tomorrow and I'll show you the skirt in better detail!

Happy Sewing

~Melisa & Cordelia

The Story of a Chair.

Once upon a time there was a chair.

A sad and lonely chair.

Why was this chair sad and lonely you may ask?

She was sad and lonely because her owners had taken her to Goodwill and left her there all on her own.

They decided they no longer loved or needed her because she had a little tear in her seat.

 

A tinny, tiny little reparable tear.

So they dropped her off at Goodwill one day, and even though she waited for days and days they never came back for her.

Then one faithful day a girl found herself in Goodwill and saw the chair.

Even thought the chair had a tear in her seat and a slight discoloration, the girl saw some great potential.

Plus it was half price day, so the girl paid her $5 and brought the chair home with her.

Then the girl found some fabulous vintage inspired fabric and decided the chair would look lovely in it.

So the girl learned how to load a staple gun (not as easy as you would think) and, soon the chair had a brand new outfit.

The chair was thrilled! She looked so much younger, and she just loved how the green in her new seat made her eyes sparkle.

The girl was thrilled too. She thought the chair was beautiful and looked stunning in her studio. Plus it made a great step-stool for reaching the boxes on her top shelf.

And the girl had a dressform who was also thrilled because she was not asked to work the staple gun. Plus it meant the girl quit climbing on her to reach the boxes on her top shelf.

And the three of them lived happily ever after.

Happy furniture refurnishing

~Melisa & Cordelia & The Chair.

The Wrap.

This spring I have a new obsession.

Ok, I have two new obsessions.

The first, is the independent pattern company Decades of Style .

They have collected vintage patterns and reprint them using modern labeling, paper, sizing and directions.

The result?

Vintage style patterns that are easier to fallow than the ones you pick up at the garage sale, and come in your size.

My second new love?

Wrap dresses.

I have decided these things are beyond cute and am doing my best to fill my spring and summer wardrobe with as many as possible.

Well, as it turns out, Decades of Style has a wrap dress pattern so I decided I had to make it and offer it as a class this summer.

I picked out some large floral Amy Butler fabric, worked a little magic, and came up with this:

Tada!

I didn’t feel like hemming the ties, so I serged them, and am quite pleased with the result.

The ties wrap in the back, and can be wrapped and tied in a variety of combinations. I prefer to twist them in the back.

If you are in the ABQ aria you can head over to Hip Stitch to visit the dress and to sign up to take a class to make your very own wrap dress!

Now all we need is a little warm weather so we can wear our beautiful new sundresses!

Happy wrapping

~Melisa & Cordelia