In Praise of Pockets — and Generous Friends

I guess whining at great length about how you have no money for fabric is a good way to inspire a little charity in your virtual friends. Or maybe they just want to shut me up for a while? Either way, I scored this week!

Thanks Yvonne (aka NurseBennett)!! 

Don't think for a second though that I am just take, take, taking here: Yvonne told me she was drowning in fabric. So really, I saved a life. No need to alert the authorities in rural Alabama (but if we ever don't hear from her in a while, I will tell them to look in her sewing room — under the big pile of printed jerseys, if her selection for me is any indication).

My four-year-old has already claimed a number of the bright prints, and a big length of yellow jersey — her favorite color since she could speak. I'll be thinking long and hard about how to use the two pieces of black leather she included...Yvonne suggested another bag (like the Mommy Poppins bag I recently made). I'm thinking leather accents on a pair of pants...but that's a little wintry and may have to wait.

As for my work-in-progress no-pussy-bow Pussy Bow Blouse, I think the Singer Featherweight I've been sewing on has cut down my stitching time by half. Why? Because it's so steady I can topstitch like a boss — no need to unpick and redo like I had to repeatedly with my anemic, plastic contemporary Singer. Witness the sleeve placket on my taupe (?) chambray blouse I have been sewing this week: 

And the collar — probably my best ever:

I used a pocket pattern I drafted long ago to make pockets on the front:

I originally drafted the pocket for this shirt I made, which was a project for my patternmaking class. 

Say....that was a good pattern. Perhaps I should have used it instead of the Pussy Bow Blouse pattern? Only time (and a few buttonholes) will tell. And now I'm off to watch Project Runway, my friends!

Finished Object! Mommy Poppins Bag

One project done on the new-to-me Singer Featherweight, and I'm already thinking of all the garments I could attempt now that I would never have been able to do on my anemic contemporary Singer. Jeans? A leather jacket? 

I digress. The new machine, on loan from the Peter Lappin Singer Sewing Machine Museum, Chelsea Annex, came just in time; I don't think the Mommy Poppins Bag I made this weekend would have turned out half as great without it: 

I was so thrilled to test out Jodi Bonjour's newest bag pattern. It's actually a diaper bag, but I think it does just fine as an NYC-sized handbag.

Look What Came Home With Me This Weekend!

Yesterday I traveled down to the Garment District in Midtown Manhattan to buy a few remaining supplies for my Mommy Poppins Bag. I picked up fusible interfacing at the Fashion Institute of Technology bookstore and a magnetic closure at SIL Thread (plus muslin for Kenneth King's "Jeanius" Craftsy class, which I am finally going to get serious about soon I swear).

But I completely forgot to buy lining. I did, however, bring home something much, much better.