Zebra Jeans!

The "Zebra Jeans" ! I actually finished these last weekend. I am just now getting around to posting them.

Anyways... I used a 8 oz. stretch denim from fabric.com.

I'm not thrilled with the quality and think the denim will loose shape... which we all know happens with poor quality stretch denim... and honestly some higher stuff too.

I took some extra care in making these stretch jeans, and hopefully it will safe guard against... saggy butt jeans... saggy crotch and stretched out waist jeans.

After getting the crotch and back fitted the way I want I took hem tape and sewed it down to the front and back seams... I think I remember getting the tip from the Zapp Method book.

Then I sewed the hem tape down around the waist band too.

Here's to hoping they stay in shape... cause they're really cute and took along time to make!

Check out my side detail... cute, cute!!! The pattern from these jeans were copied from a pair of my RTW.

On the rtw pair there is a leather strip down the side.

No yoke and they have patch pockets... which I've said many times I love!!

The back pockets were copied from a different pair of rtw.

And I trimmed one pocket and appliqued the other.. and used my new sergers chain stitch with a 2 thread overlock narrow using a thick white rayon thread for trimming the pockets.

I wore this out Saturday night... I actually made this outfit last Oct. before I was blogging.

The bolero was from a Mccalls pattern... the pants were BWOF. The shirt is rtw... and I love it and plan to copy it before I completely wear it out!

Here is my little couch needle punch/knitting corner... my dogs like to hang out with me while I work on stuff . You see the routine has been disturbed though... Prada has decided she is tired of staying upstairs... poodles or not!

So here she is stalking the poodles, determined to show them who's boss and that she also rules the down stairs...

And now she does... the poodles what no part of the hissing, arching Prada... once they realized she is in charge.. they get along fairly well now.

Side Tracked!

I got really side tracked from my jeans Friday. This cute knitting machine I won from ebay came in the mail.



Its much like the Barbie Knit Magic knitting machine from Mattel made in 1974. This is like the knock-off version I think.



It quickly knits little tubes... to make Barbie clothes. How cute is that!



I don't want to make Barbie clothes... but I have found a number of projects using this for 'grown folk'!





I was on ebay looking at knitting machines when I found it. You see, I love yarn!!! I love knit and crochet items!! But I don't like to knit or crochet. I have learned the basics and can knit and crochet some ... but it takes FOREVER!!! Its not a process I enjoy. I know, I know... many knitters think knitting machines are cheating... but I don't care! I want soft yarn clothing items made by me that don't take SO long!

See how the little tube comes out... I can't get over how nice and tight the stitches are! Not one skipped stitch!












In less than an hour I had a cute soft pair of ankle socks!!

Stop laughing at me hand knitters!!!

I plan to make some fuzzy arm warmers, lots of scarves, belts and more socks!!!

I also found a projects to make something called Granny Circles with the machine.. endless possibilities there!!

The Babylock Evolve is mine!

Yes!! The Bald Man got me my new serger Tuesday!!! Look at how BIG it is. The 8-thread really does freak me out and I can't wait to try it. I've been using it but just in a standard way. I am going to made some little vests and boleros to practice the awesome decorative stitches and coverstitches this thing can do.

You see before I really get into putting the Evolves special skills to use I have to finish up these jeans!! Imagine that... I'm making jeans!

But check these out.. I am making them using a pattern I copied from a pair of my rtw... which I have used before. They have patch pockets on the front... which I really do favor. I think they are very slimming and eliminate the bulk of traditional jeans pockets. These jeans also have another unique detail. They have no yoke. So I call them trouser jeans. I have added another detail of the black and white zebra trim and yes, it sparkles! Its from the fabric my Mom got at that yard sale a few weeks ago.

The denim is 98% cotton and 2% Lycra from fabric.com. I swear its got way more Lycra that 2% though! Its super stretchy, which I don't like! Mainly because such stretchy denims lose there shape so fast and give the "saggy butt" syndrome.

Hopefully I have found the answer to this problem. More on that in the finished product post!!

I am thinking they will be done Saturday.

Ahhhh, yet another fabulous meal. Crab cakes with chipolte dressing....

This was a team effort. Bald Man did the crab cakes I did the dressing.

The crab cake recipe is in this months Cooking Light and its low fat!

The dressing is 2 Tofu Chipolte dressing recipes I found on the internet and morphed together.

Thats right... no mayo.. silken tofu! If you've not tried silken tofu in some recipes, give it a try. Its really amazing stuff... it saves tons of fat and adds proteins. Just make sure to buy organic!!

There have been some issues raised over the years about eating soy. Here's an article I found that seems to cover every issue that has been raised!http://www.foodrevolution.org/what_about_soy.htm

I will never understand why scientists test on mice and rats and then determine that humans will have the same results. I really don't see the resemblance between humans and mice!

But I may have seen the resemblance between a few humans and rats in my life.

Finished Projects! Great Mothers Day!

Finished jeans!!! I love'em! The pic on the left is a little blurred but you can see my off to the side button and loop! And how I distressed them. Below is a pic of my total Friday night outfit! I made the top I'm wearing last year. I made the shrug too. I made it about a month ago.

Back pocket details! Spade back pocket with a flap and hot fix rhinestones!

My mothers day breakfast!! Eggs Benedict!!! On a whole wheat english muffin, claw crab meat, asparagus and a great sauce!

The Bald Man can sure cook!!!!

And here is the shirt I made Bald Man a few weeks ago! With all his good cooking , keeping me in fabric and machines he deserves some shirts that fit him and are actually comfortable!!

Ofcourse the embroidery designs were done by my Pfaff 2034... I figure if I not only make my Bald Man clothes that make him happy and help justify the serger and sewing machine... by adding embroidery that helps justifies the embroidery machine... and will help in my pursuit for an upgraded embroidery machine next year!!!

Here is a punchneedle project I finished a few weeks ago... I can't decide what to do with it...

Thats the problem with punchneedle... I love doing it but often can't decide what to do with the finished project...

Its pretty though!! I am almost finished with a cute martini glass picture and a turtle! Don't know what I'll do with them either but its addictive!

New Machine???? Should I???

Ok! I want the BabyLock Evolve serger... which to me is the 'king' of all sergers!!! I love my BabyLock Imagine serger. Its been so awesome!!! But it doesn't do ALL the extra stitches the Evolve does... When I took the class with Margaret Tully back in Feb. I got to sew on one. It looks pretty intimidating... its bigger that a regular serger and it has up to 8 threads! Talk about some decorative stitching!

It does that cool cover stitch that would look amazing on jeans... hmmmm.... and that Triple stitch.. also, would look hot on jeans and so much other stuff!. ... Yeah, I need this machine.

All About Sewing is where I have bought my Imagine... my Pfaff embroidery machine, Pfaff sewing machine and my Pfaff felting machine and its where I will be buying the Evolve....I guess you could say, I really like dealing with them!!! If you're in the Knoxville area you are crazy not to deal with this sewing shop!!! Top of the line machines, super friendly and they are SOOO helpful. These are the reasons I am not afraid to buy such a complicated looking machine!

Bald Man told me I could go ahead and do the deal!!! YAY!!!!

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My "hot kiss copy" jeans are done!! And they yeah... they rock! I'll be wearing them out tonight!!!

Today I have been working on Mom's Mother's Day present. I would like to post a pic of what I have done so far but she checks my blog and it'll ruin the surprise!! Its very... different.... and I know she doesn't have anything like it! and ofcourse its made by me!

Everyone knows handmade presents are the best.

Unless, ofcourse, the Bald Man is buying me more and/or better sewing equipment... or plastic surgery. These things are not handmade but they are "top presents" in my book!!

**I'm just saying!!!! Right Bald Man???** ;)

Here to the right are my poor poodle babies after a stressful day at the groomers. I had to get them shaved. I am terrible at remembering to brush them so after awhile they start getting 'dreads'

Oh well... its summer now and all that hair was making them pretty miserable when we go outside.... they're still cute!!! They're just extra tiny looking without their long hair!

Its all in the Details!

These are my Hot Kiss rtw jeans... I copied a pattern from them last week. I really like these and have wanted more jeans without a waist band like this but haven't been able to find any...

so I'll make my own... ahhh!

The joys of copying RTW!

I started work on them this morning and this is what I have done so far.... Aren't the pockets cute??? I got the ideal for doing the pockets like this from a pair of Japanese jeans that were for sale on ebay... (the buy it now price was $49,000 for those jeans!!! Crazy!!!!)

I still have to do the rivets.

For a design change I double top stitched down each side seam instead of the inseam. I also put the coin pocket on the left instead of the right.

Thats the beautiful thing about making jeans... there are so many design changes you can make very easily to give them a unique designer look.

I haven't put my jeans button on yet either... Check the Allen B's on the right...

I am going to do it like this...with a loop closure...

different and cute!

The back pockets will be a medium spade shape pocket. I also plan to put a flap over the top of the pocket. Because we all know a flap on top of your jeans back pockets will make the booty look higher and more shapely!

The flap will be made from the stripe fabric I used on the front pockets and will have jean buttons on them.

For some reason I don't get in a hurry to make jeans like I do tops, purses or anything else! I really enjoy the process of creating the jeans.... picking out the details.... design changes.

Hopefully I'll finish these up tomorrow... then I can decide if I will distress them any, put embroidery on them or maybe use felted embellishments ... oh! the possibilities!

****************Also from the sewing room****************

The vintage Retro shirt is done! Pics will be posted soon!

I also have to take up the Bald Mans shirt! And add stuff to the costumes Rachel bought from me last week.... I know I should have done these things first... but the jeans were calling to me!!!

*come make me fabulous Angie.. you know you don't have any jeans to wear this weekend!!!!*

Now how could I resist? lol!

Old and New Books

The last few days I've gotten some pretty good things in the mail and from my mom...

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First we have on the left...

The Art of Fashion Draping... which honestly, just flipping through it looks scary!! I mean scary like way over my head!!

In the center:

Easy Needle Felting is awesome!!! Lots of great techniques for hats and purses... embellishing!

Clear and easy instructions... with lots of pictures! Love this book!

Denim by Design is also awesome! Its giving me great ideals for purses, boleros (yes!!) some really awesome belts and more. It includes patterns too!!

On the right is some vintage books on sewing jeans... theres some pretty great info in these if your into sewing jeans!!! Some shortcuts... very neat pocket ideals... copying RTW jeans, fitting...

I consider these a really good find for me!

The Weekend... going out and hoops

We had a fabulous weekend... even though I am bruised up a bit! I'll get to that later...


First we started Friday night off with going out to dinner and then stopping by Mirage... It was nice to see our friends. I've not really been in the mood to go there since I got SO burnt out on dancing there... But... I wanted to see 2 things at Mirage! First... here on the right is Sonja doing her Bellydance/Hoop fusion number... It was SO cute!! I loved it! (I don't know why I can't make this pic bigger!!!)

Here below is me n' my Bald Man. I am wearing a pair of copied Jeans I made a couple of months ago...




Next thing I wanted to see at Mirage was a costume I made a few years ago that Sonja bought last week from me.
It looks great on her and I'm very happy to see it "dance on"!

Now lets talk hoops! I went to a hooping workshop Saturday and Sunday taught by the amazing Jewels !!! Make sure to check out her site and her videos.. she's an awesome hoop dancer! Her workshop was so fun, informative... and a workout!!!! Each day was two hours... hooping is a great workout!! But after 4 hours of hooping I am left very sore and a little bruised!!!!

Here's Sonja getting her 'hoopbliss' going...

Here's Kim... me and Kim had a little trouble getting our 'hoopbliss' going! lol!!

But we'll get there!!!

I can honestly say I have never had so much fun doing something that I am not good at!!!

Sewing!!!! I plan to finish up my shirt today!! I have to work tomorrow... but for the rest of the week I have a pair of jeans all cut out and ready to sew! They are copied from a pair of my RTW jeans. They have a very unique detail.... no waist band.. they have facings instead. I can't wait to start them! More later....

I need help!

Ok.... I'm making this top from a vintage simplicity pattern (could the collar BE any bigger? I love it!) I'm using the vintage fabric Mom got me at the flea market last week... I can't decide if I should leave it like it is or add this ribbon down the front???

I can usually decide things pretty easy when it comes to design and embellishment...

But I'm lost on this!

I like it the way it is.... but then ... oh I don't know!!

Please help! What do y'all think???

In The Animal Kingdom and stuff...

I am a slacker! There... I've admitted to having this problem lately!

No real sewing for 3 days now!!! Not even anything cut out...

I've been reading up on new techniques and planning.. organizing .. does that count for anything?

The Bald Man was off work today. I can't get any real sewing done when he's home! Sunday was hoop making and I worked at the spa Mon.

I did embroidery these cute dish towels though..... I wanted to give something to my friend who invited me over to her house for lunch tomorrow.

I've also been distracted by my new mini obsession... and there's tons of Hoola Hoop Trick 'how to's' on youtube.com

I'm not afraid to say this... hoola hooping with the fancy tricks and dance stuff is HARD! and I am terrible at it! My waist is sore! my hand is sore from trying to 'lasso' it up, AND I've even hit myself in the head a few times.. whacked my calves! Pathetic!

Prada is doing very well here in her new home. She's been with us a week now. She likes her arch enemies, the poodles, no better.

In fact she never comes down stairs and avoids them all together. The aren't allowed up stairs...

and they know it!

Although a few times today 2-Pac ran upstairs a couple of times and barked at her... then run back down... quickly!!! Knowing he's going to get in trouble by us and he knows she'll whoop his little poodle butt if he hangs around!

Here she is all lounged out on my cutting table.

Here below is a short video of my toy poodles acting absolutely insane over a toy motorcycle!

My sweet toy poodles are forever entertaining... no matter what Prada thinks....

Getting ready for Hoola Hooping!

First let me say I'm wearing BWOF top 105 7-07 that I made it Saturday morning. Easy top... cute... casual....

On to the hooping! Yesterday Sonja (on the left) invited me and Rach (in the middle) over for some hoola hoop making!
You see we are taking a Hooping workshop next weekend... Have you seen how people are hoola hooping these days???
Check out my favorite hooper
Awesome!

We made our hoops from some kind of plastic pipe.. male to male connector... I don't know...

Sonja got all the stuff . I just brought the champagne and Chocolate Cheesecake... which is very important to have when making a hoola hoop!! The we decorated in with different tapes! I sent Bald Man out to get us more tapes and he found some awesome cheetah and zebra print tapes!! Our hoops are so pretty!!!

Now after we learn to do this good (which Sonja, ex-hippy that she is can already hoop good!) I'm going to have to make us outfits to match our hoops... It will be SO cute!!!

And if we don't get good we'll still need those outfits I'm sure!

I "practiced" (played) last night... I can see how this is a great core workout! I am SO excited about the workshop!

For our next 'creative' get together I told Sonja and Rach I would do a Bellydance Costume in a Day for them... oh yes... it can be done!!!

Here's the back of my BWOF T-shirt....

I have to work today so no sewing... but I'm going to take some of my new mags and make some notes... planning the next project.

And I still have BWOF bustier to make!

SO much sewing STUFF!!!!

I'll start with what I got in the mail from ebay... 6 back issue Threads magazines and the Kwik Sew pattern for a mans jean jacket... cause of course the Bald Man wants a distressed jean jacket!!

Then... my Grand Mother sent me this shoe box full of vintage patterns that was from her pattern stash! And... yep they are my size!

Now, let me say thanks to my Mom for being on the lookout for fabulous sewing goodies for me when she hits the flea markets.

She hit the jackpot this weekend!!!

She got me these 2 Magic fit "kits" to the right. I have no ideal how to use them! They have french curves in them.. dart templates, pattern paper and instruction books...
They are so neat!!

To the left is a huge amount of back issue Machine Embroidery, Sews News and many other sewing magazines.

Now the magazines came for her stash... but she got all those cool vintage patterns you see at the flea market!! There are a few my size.. the others I would have to size up 1 or 2 sizes.

These 2 old sewing books to the left.... The Better Homes and Gardens Sewing Book and this cool Patternless Fashions book.

It has little patterns all through it with instructions on how to draft full scale patterns from them. Much like Mrs. Stylebook and other Japanese pattern magazines.

It was originally printed in 1966 in China... then revised and translated later in the U.S.

I'm hoping with this I can learn how to draft pattern like this so I can use pattern books from Japan that don't have full scale patterns... this is the hope I have anyways :)

Also... wonderful Mom got me about 12-14yrds of heavy duty denim!!!! Can you believe it!!!

And this awesome stretch poly fabric to the left... how retro is this??? I have no ideal what I'm going to do with it yet... its in really great shape... no dry rot or anything! I only have about a yd and half of it...

And this piece! You can't tell from the pic, but its sparkly! 4yds of this awesome sparkle zebra print,, and here and there throughout the piece you can make out a zebra face and red eyes!

What the heck am I going to do with this??? I'll think of something.. if anyone has any ideals let me know!

So I have a ton of sewing stuff to play with and learn from!!! I love it!