The return of the Burlap Bag Dress..

Remember back there when I told you about making the cute burlap dress and how when we bought the pattern we didn't buy the right size. Teaching us to always check for sizes before walking out the store doors!

So we had some cute white material that felt like it would have a nice "fall" to it. the pattern was one that I couldn't screw up to much unless of course I ended up with a flower on each nipple but really what are the chances of that.

I was confident going into this project that I could create it without to many screw ups and it stood a really good chance that in the end it would fit Prey and all would be wonderful.

Off I went, cutting and ironing, recalling as I did these steps the first dress and its challenges.

I adjusted the pattern a bit as the biggest size was still a few sizes smaller then what we need. Finding a true plus size pattern is hard so adjusting them to our chunky monkey butts is my mission.

It was fun to tuddle along feeling confident of what I was doing and looking so forward to the outcome.

I get it all put together up to the point of sewing up the last side and installing the zipper.

It was time to have Prey try it on so if I needed to take it in anywhere I could do it.

Well.......  To continue with tradition the dress didn't fit. Even though I had added on the extra measurements to make the dress fit I did not take into account the BIG Boobs that my beautiful has!! lol

Now please don't think for a moment I believe said Boobs to be a nuisance. Yet as I watch the waistband pop halfway up her boob I might be a little put off~

I get right away the problem and realize how I have to fix it but I am not in any way happy about it or really feeling like removing 1000000000 stitches so I can pull it all apart and start again.

So we agreed that we were done with this dress. That it was simply to much work to yank it all apart.  It was now another project that we would come back to once I finish some of the necessary tasks I have on my list.

Then Jennie came over.. I was proudly showing off my latest projects and she grabbed the dress and put it on. It fit her .. pretty damn good to!

Turns out the dress has found itself a human!

If you note the placement of the flowers in the top.. .*Whistles*

Anyways.. I have a habit of not finishing anything.  This dress was included in that! Seems thanks to my friend I now have to spend a few hours finishing some of these projects so they can be added to her closet!

Its fun to know my friends want to wear what I create. Many of us are plus size girls. One of my inspirations is making us all clothing we can wear that is not the same as everyone elses. Giving us all options and clothes that fit us properly.

My friend adopting these items makes my heart sing.. Proving to me that accomplishing my goals will be possible.

I am grateful to everyone that is helping me make this happen.. everything from material donations, book gifting, helpful advice all so generous and so very appreciated.

I look forward to being able to create a little something for everyone.. :O)

This skirt has two mothers!!

So I have been plugging away at my machine the last month.

 I have accomplished quite a bit in regards to finishing some more scrub pants for Prey. A new pillowcase for my little squishy pillow.

A pair of sock poi and a whole lot of shopping for patterns.

I decided after all the scrub pants that it was time to try to make this cute skirt that we got a pattern for in hopes it would look good on Prey. 

I was starting with the blue one and had high hopes.

You see I LOVE this sewing gig. It is feeding my creative side incredibly well.  Between the instructions, my sewing encyclopedia and the internet I find I am learning a ton and not becoming to frustrated.  

I am not paying attention tho it seems. Prey and I worked together to cut out all the pattern pieces. It was fun to have her help and we spent the evening cutting, pinning and  cutting some more. Oh lets not forget ironing. 

I used the same material as I did for the ugly pants but this stuff is a different color and actually not so bad. 

I started to put it all together knowing this was going to be something I hoped Prey could wear if I could convince her the material wasn't as bad as the pants!

I am pinning and humming feeling very happy with myself for creating this cool skirt so fast and easily. 

Then it happened.  

I can feel it coming over me like the sunshine warms my head... the realization that something was very amiss.

I seemed to have an excess of waistband. I tossed the skirt around my waist and quickly realized that I didn't have enough skirt body to match the band. 

I looked again at the pattern and laughed as I realized that I had missed cutting the back piece. It seems this is a very important part of this skirt. 

Now this wasn't to much of an issue as it was really only one seam I had to pull out(with my new seam ripper!) all I had to do is cut out the back piece and pop it in and all would be well.

In someone else's land that might be how easy that could be accomplished but in the world of the Sewing CaMel this is NOT even close to my reality!!

It was almost instantly that I realized I did NOT have enough of the material to cut the back from. I did tho have enough material in the ugly pant color. After a sigh of defeat and a grunt, the piece was cut out.

Now the skirt is cute.. the material not so much. It wasn't bad in the brown and stood a chance of being worn but now that it had a red butt it was going to lead a lonely existence! 

If it wasn't a practice piece to see if the design looked good on prey I would have abandoned it then and re purposed the material. 

Due to its mission in life I knew I needed to buckle down and put it back together which is exactly what I did.  Ish..

I inserted the back and smirked as the waistband reached around perfectly from one end to the other. The skirt was kinda cute .. from the front! 

Prey came home before I had installed the backing of the waistband. Immediately I showed her my masterpiece, grinning like I was oblivious to the two toned aspect and asked her to try it on.

Sadly this skirt didn't fit. 

It was a few sizes off and the material needed to be two sided or one color due to the way the little pleat in the front falls.

Its a cute skirt and I did it right. Omitting the two toned part! I will make it again someday but it is not on my things to do soon list! 

 I have found the patterns to either be to big or small. I know i am doing things for practice but I would like them to fit us when they are complete as it feels like a lunch bag let down. I have resolved to start making my own adjustments in an attempt to get it right from the beginning. So I can feed my soul with a sense of accomplishment.

I want to dress my beautiful prey. I want her to be proud of what we can do together .. I want her to feel confident and pretty in her CaMel Creations! 

I will keep trying.. this is good clean fun!

The tale of the ugly pants!!

I found this pattern the other day while I was shopping and was terribly excited thinking these would be the pants I could wear everywhere.

(Note skinny chick is modeling the pants.. they DO NOT look like that on my chunky bottom!!)

I had some donated material that seemed to have the texture I was looking for.  lol texture!! Anyways.. I was looking for the "hang" factor and this material was somewhat stretchy and heavy.. ish

no matter.. It took a while to iron it all and then it took even longer to figure out the proper placement of the pattern.

I cut it all the pieces out and went about making these pants. The pattern was pretty straight forward, It had some gathers and waistbands.

I totally managed to sew the wrong sides together which I didn't realize until Prey asked how they were coming and then it dawned on me. She helped me take them apart.. just one seam. I think I am going to start sewing these practice garbs with a longer stitch to make removal easier.

I got to practice gathering and installing a hunk of elastic in the back.

In the end the pants came out like they looked on the cover but the style was not what I had anticipated and I now know it will not be one that I will wear outside my hallway!! lol.

Either way.. ugly pants for the WIN!!  lol  I believe I will deconstruct them and make em into a few pillowcases!!

Saved by the Book!!

I was looking for a recipe book the other day (I didn't find it!) and sitting on the shelf waiting patiently for me to rediscover it was this... 

Preys Oma was a seamstress who had her own Dress shop for many years. She has relocated in the last year to a smaller condo and in the process we were given some sewing things.

 At the time our friend Beaner was doing some sewing for us and we were taking books and things for her to look through. We kept this back because it had everything in it and tucked it away in the bookshelf with the cookbooks.

I am THRILLED to say the least. This book has EVERYTHING in it. 

I love the way the universe gives us what we need and if we pay attention we are able to utilize these gifts to their up most potential.

This is one of those gifts that will be a game changer for me as it will assist me in so many different ways. It has already brought me joy and a weird sense of security.

Thank you Oma... I am proud to be the guardian of this treasure!

Cute Summer Burlap Bag Dress!

The day this project began looked like this

We ended up getting what feels like 2 feet of snow in a 24 hour period. In fact most fell between 7am and 5pm.  Some kind of crazy day which was a perfect setting for the beginning of the...

Cute Summer Burlap Bag Dress !

The pattern was purchased on one of our first outings to Fabric Land after I got my machine for xmas. 

Prey picked it out as she figured it out cuz it was A: VERY EASY lol and B: cute as heck!!

She likes style A so that is what I set out to create out of the muslin. 

It was not long after starting to read the pages that I discovered that we had gotten the wrong size. I was sad at first then thought it was better as it would use less fabric to create my sample (trial) dress. 

Again I spend a good amount of time reading through and working to understand the steps involved in this recipe.

I referenced some terms on the You Tube which has become my very favorite tool these days. I learned a bunch of stuff watching but it really can be distracting when you get going so I am trying to keep my viewing honed into the project needs at the time.

The pattern instructions were pretty straight forward. I did make a few mistakes when I was putting it together.  I tend to put to much fabric as a fold under hem which made the space to small for the tie. 

I also seem to have a bit of difficulty with the cutting of the interfacing as every time I have used it I have cut one piece backwards.  I have also learned while ironing the interfacing on I need to have a top ad bottom protective piece of fabric. It is sticky stuff.. and when put on wrong.. well.. lol

I also tend to get a bit confused with my left and rights. I am guessing their left is as I look at the item but guessing has gotten me in trouble. 

Saying that means I spent a bit of time ripping out seams as I readjusted to what was actually required of me. 

Those two lines of thread at the bottom are the start of gatherings. This process makes the cute little puckers in the fabric. In theory this should be simple to accomplish and in the top aspect of the dress I was able to pull it off like butter. 

THEN...

I had to do it again for the skirt part. the first side of the skirt puckered like a baby eating lemons. Sadly that was all I was allowed to enjoy.

I started to work the second side and knew immediately that things were going south. 

The threads kept sticking. I am not sure if they were getting stuck in the fabric. As it was kinda knarley or if it was just a moment of sucky thread luck.

 Either way it broke.. then the bottom thread broke.. then I resewed the baste line and tried again. It worked for a moment bringing my spirits up and then it broke as well.

In the end I gathered and pinned the damn thing myself and attached it to the top. 

It took a little figuring things out to wrap my head around this waistband but once I understood what they were telling me it was easy. This was one of those moments that I got the interfacing right. Although I had forgotten to cut it out with the pattern so it was a realization and recovery that made me grin!!

 After the top was created the rest was really easy. Now I didn't finish it entirely. I did not stitch the waistband to the dress in the inside. It required hand sewing and I was lazy! I also didn't finish my seams or add in the zipper. 

Not because I am lazy but more so because this dress wont be worn so I don't want to put materials into it I don't need to. 

I will be doing this again in the right size with some fabric I was given. I will finish it as maybe someone will want to wear it. It will be one more practice so I use it to fit prey properly and create her pattern. 

I will post those pictures once it is done to show the differences!

Ball Bags

HA HA HA 

We have a little poi/flow art inspired business www.fyretoys.com FyreToys!

We sell poi and fire toys as well as other fun things that are associated with what is refered to as "flow arts" or "Poi" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poi_(performance_art)

We use some fabric socks and flags and up until now we have either purchased them for our site from our supplier or had our wonderful friend Beaner create some for us from material we rescued from fabric land. 

Last week Prey and I sat down to draft up a design to make some of the new style fabric poi that are referred to as "Cone" poi.  They are made from cotton and seemingly easy to create. 

With my new magic machine I was able to recreate what we feel will be an awesome addition to our site. 

These new poi are easier to learn wraps and loops as they don't have the same bounce as the socks do. 

Now I have used them and nothing takes away from the bounce that good socks provide. I believe in the end both styles will be something people want in their toy bags.

We found some AMAZING material for socks when we were in the city and I have the pattern ready for them. I have not cut any out yet but will work on that a bit over the next week. 

We made two pair of cone poi to take with us when we went to hang with the drummers on Tuesday  They worked awesome!! The ones for me are a bit to long so I will have to remove the stitching I put in them and redo them. I will also need to add Velcro to the hole where you put the ball .. and perhaps adjust where that hole is. 

We are very happy about our progress with these projects and are looking forward to spring and letting everyone see their options for more fun things!

She wears short shorts!

Muslin

This material is kinda cool.. I got a bunch when we were in the city the other day. Its cheap and easy to work with. It can also be dyed so really if I like what I make then I may be able to use it as more then a practice run.

I have a sewing mission. We are going away to Mexico in May and my mission is to make some of the clothes we will wear while away.

This means shorts and nice shirts as well as cute summer dresses for my lovely.

We have gone out and gotten a few patterns that are of the easy variety. Shorts, skirts and dresses

I decided my first muslin project would be to make some shorts and see how hard it was going to be. 

Its such a process doing this sewing gig. Cutting the patterns.. washing/ironing the fabric, laying it out and pinning it. I got new pins from Toronto but I don't think they are anything special and make me add pins to my next fabricland shopping list.

So after I finally get the pattern laid out. I have chosen to do the biggest size. It seems I didn't read the recipe fully before purchasing it and the largest size is still gonna be a smidge to small for me. BUT it will be close and I will still learn as I build the damn things. 

Pattern laid.. pattern cut. Games begin.

 I have decided to use black thread so I can see how wonky my lines are!  :O)  ~~~~~  wow!

In preparing my pockets I ironed in the edges so they look all pretty but when I sewed them on I did not catch that fold so either I need to fold in a bit more or sew closer to the edge. I have not decided which way is right!

I need better transfer paper stuff or to redraw the lines with the pencil crayon before I start shuffling the material around. Said shuffling seems to erase the marks and well.. 

When the marks are missing things go south super fast!

We have a surger and I am going to have to learn to use it. I have been finishing seams with the overcast stitch meaning I am doing double stitching on all my important seams. This is a pain in the HuMMpz. I will continue to do this for now until I feel comfortable enough with my seam creations!

This was pretty straight forward. There were a few spots where I need to work on. Making my seams go fully from one side to the other is important! Straight is important! Using the right seam allowance is also important. 

In the end... lol  The shorts didn't fit!

I was able to get into them...ish

I believe I know where I can alter the pattern to make more room!
BUT
I will most likely look for another pattern perhaps for pants that are already the right size and make both pants and shorts from it.

I had fun making these and look forward to wearing shorts from the "CaVe CreaTions" when we go away in May!