Running With Scissors

Giveaway: Baby Girl Jeggings CLOSED

11:32 AM

Free Pattern and Tutorial: Baby Jeggings

2:09 AM

Where Did Fall Go?

3:12 AM

For the last 4 weeks we've been staying in Utah with my little sister Lynette and her husband Drew while my husband had to work a month in Salt Lake City.

We had so much fun, seeing family and spending time with Lynette who's the nicest sister and aunt to my kids. You can probably see in the majority of my recent clothing posts just how much she helped me sew while I was there, even making me a pair of pants.

I learned a lot of tricks and new sewing skills and just learned a lot about clothing construction I didn't know which was great, and Lynette was very helpful. I also gained a lot of confidence in sewing adult clothing these last few weeks.

I still have my 2 biggest/ proudest projects to post that I made under Lynette mentoring...just need to get some pictures taken of them. One project used wool I've been storing for 3 years now. I've been too nervous in the past to cut it into a coat...but I finally did and it actually ended up looking like a coat!

Anyway, after a month of being out of town, we came home to snow.

Not a ton, but fall is over and winter is here.

Also, this chubby girl started crawling during our month in Utah...so now we have to baby proof our house. She's getting so big!

Sorry for those that gag on people like us, but we put up our Christmas tree. 6 weeks before Christmas.

Rhett had Sunday off between rotations and I decided it would be the best time to get all the Christmas stuff out while he was here to enjoy and help with it.

I LOVE Christmas and listening to Christmas music early, where Rhett tolerates the early start on Christmas.

I'm used to it, we were always a little early in my family growing up -- his family got the tree up a week before Christmas.

We don't have that much as far as decor, so it was an afternoon's worth of family time.

a few people have asked about the nativity on the mantle, my mom made it and I posted all about her hard work last year. Check them out in more detail here.

I love fall, but we're ready for the holiday magic to begin around here.

I have a bunch of projects to post, mainly the photography aspect is holding me back, at the same time I've recently exploded with new project ideas and am holding myself back from jumping into them. So I do have some pretty exciting things to share this week...or at least I'm excited about them!

alterations

Mustard Cardigan Refashion

12:30 AM

Womens

Corduroy Khaki Blazer

12:57 AM

I've been trying to sew and dress out of my comfort zone.

A fitted jacket/ blazer seemed daunting--not only to sew but to figure out what I should wear it with.
I'm not the best with fashion/ styling/ outfits.
Anyway, it all started with my buying some really expensive fabric with hopes to make a feminine blazer.

But before I cut the expensive fabric, I wanted to make a mock or muslin first to make sure it would work out.

So this was my trial blazer.

I had some uncut corduroy in a dark khaki color.

I learned corduroy is woven, then the pile is cut into the different widths of lines to determine the wale.

But you can buy it before it's cut, so it has the corduroy texture without the lines cut into it.

I modified Simplicity 2703 for this jacket.

I knew I wanted the princess seams to give it a better fit, and as I was looking at patterns and blazers, I decided I would like the shawl collar rather than the standard lapels which seemed a little too business-like for what I was going for.

The pattern has a belt feature with gathers below, so I had to modify the pattern for the front center pieces and just create the line to continue down and slightly curve into the bottom hem.

This jacket has a slight gather in the top of the sleeves which add a little feminine touch, or that's just what I'm saying because the gathers shouldn't be there and it's just me being too lazy to carefully ease in the shoulder.

I kind of ran out of the corduroy actually, so the inside center front pieces should have been out of the coordinating corduroy, but I ended up using this periwinkle lining I had instead.

You can see the blazer isn't lined, which makes it a lot quicker and easier to create--not as fancy though.

I've just been getting into blazers, and chose to dress it down in a casual outfit today.

{plaid pull-over top, jeans altered to skinny}

The Saturday before Halloween I took my little sister Lynette to the ballet for her birthday (Dracula as a ballet--awesome) and wore the blazer a little more dressed up.

{trousers Lynette made me, infinity scarf}

So in the end, this practice blazer ended up being pretty great and gave me the courage to cut the expensive fabric for the "real thing".

PS Lynette just made the cutest silhouette of my baby girl if you like chubby baby cheeks in profile

mens clothing

Mens Negroni Shirt

10:43 AM

My first sewing project for men!

(or I guess my man)

A long sleeve button up shirt for my husband.

There is such a shortage of sewing ideas/ patterns for men. Boys too, but in the sewing pattern catalogs, there's usually less than five options for men, and most of the time a few are unisex fleece vests or something. So it was exciting for me to finally sew something for my husband.

A few months ago I was shocked to find I actually won a giveaway from Colette Patterns on their blog.

I won the Negroni pattern for a modern cut men's shirt. I was thrilled.

Their patterns come in a printed booklet format with an envelope pocket on the back cover to hold the pattern pieces. It's the fanciest pattern I've ever used.

The steps were clear and simple to follow.

I've been saving this charcoal yarn dyed shirting fabric for a while, I bought it last fall on clearance for $2/yd and finally made his shirt.

The biggest new technique for me was sewing on the button placket for the wrists of the shirt, then adding the cuffs.

Their website also has additional pocket patterns to add variety to the pattern.

I had a lot of fun making this shirt for my husband, and the finished garment means a lot more to me than other things I've sewn for my kids. Maybe because I never really sew for him, it meant a lot and it was a lot more challenging project than baby leggings or something. I think when you make things for people you love, the created objects can kind of symbolize your love for them. I guess that's how I feel about this shirt. I's not perfect, but I don't ever see it going to goodwill or anything. I don't know if you have a hard time getting rid of clothing you make for your family, but it's the same with things for my kids.

Quite often in comments or conversations people will ask if my husband just loves me for making so much, or I think especially that I tackle building furniture/ power tools.

I always laugh and think "sort of".

Rhett really supports my creative habits.

He's not one who really cares much or gets excited about my latest scheme, like helping me go over fabric swatches or giving an opinion on which color buttons I should use or anything.

He's not the slightest interested in all the crap I make most of the time.

But he does appreciate a lot of the DIY projects that improve our home like painting the kitchen cabinets or save us money like reupholstering the chairs or building all our patio furniture.

He lets me know he appreciates a lot of my projects.

But there's a downside to having me as a wife...well many, but the ones that are project related are really annoying I'm sure

Like his tool box.

Since my dive into the furniture making, I've overtaken his tools and use them 90% of the time, and I'm not as organized as he is. So the occasion he does need a tool, most of the time I didn't put it back where it "should" be. Most of the time I can tell him where it is, but you can imagine how annoying it would be for a chick to mess with your tools if you're a man.

There's also the aspect of living life amid 10+ projects in progress.

Like the fact neither car could park in our garage this summer when I was building all the patio furniture...for a few months.

Or the fact his winter coat/ parka has white oil based primer smeared on the front that won't come out from when I was priming a dresser in the garage in the freezing weather last winter and wasn't that careful obviously.

Or here's a picture of him eating dinner literally between Jack's legs last month.

I would have moved Jack, but Rhett just squeezed his plate in between the chaos to eat and said it was fine.

So there's aspects of having a wife that insists on making as much as she can that must be annoying at times, but Rhett just lets me go to town building/ crafting/ sewing and never complains or really even seems irritated.

I'm so grateful for his support in letting me attempt to make/ sew whatever I think I want to try.

He's patient with the messes that are created in the process and appreciates the results.

I never really have recognized his sacrifices and support to allow me to create whatever I want, which I'm so grateful for.

He just lets me fly.

{this is my favorite photo of Rhett--taken shortly after he became a dad}

Womens

Plaid Pull-over

11:45 PM

I love Pinterest, and love the polyvore outfits people put together.

Since thinking of a complete outfit with accessories is kind of foreign to me, I appreciate all the ready ideas floating around out there. It's helped me kind of think more about a whole outfit, rather than just jeans and a solid old navy/ target tee which is usually what I wear.

So this one in particular caught my eye for fall, and I really liked the plaid button up shirt.

I'm usually not a fan of plaid shirts, since I think of a lumber jack or something, but I thought in the whole ensemble it looked cute for fall.

{source}

I had a really great plaid yarn dyed shirting from Fabric.com I love.

It's a cool pallete of teal and brown, but the fabric is so smooth and has great drape. Compared to other shirting fabric I bought it seems so much softer and better, it doesn't need to be ironed after washing/ drying.

Anyway, I only had 1.5 yards and didn't have enough for a long sleeved button up shirt, so instead I made a collared tunic with half length sleeves.

I borrowed a sewing pattern from Lynette that she bought at a thrift store from the 1970s.

The pattern has a hidden darts that angle into the side seams at the waist and the front placket for a button I haven't sewn on yet.

The back just has two small darts at the shoulders, and the overall fit is loose like a tunic.

The sleeves ended up being a little more gathered in the shoulder than I had intended, but they didn't bother me enough to unpick and re-sew.

Overall it's a really easy, comfortable top to wear.

It's a looser fit, light, and I think it would be cute layered under a cardigan or something.

If I were brave enough it would look cute belted at the waist I think, but I've attempted that trend many times and always take off the belt at the last minute when I leave the house.

I just can't pull things off as well as other people.

Tonight we picked the last of the apples from my mom's mini orchard.

RJ loved climbing the trees and shaking the branches.

As always, if you have any outfit ideas of how you'd wear it, I'd appreciate all the tips I can get!

Giveaway: Baby Girl Jeggings CLOSED

Free Pattern and Tutorial: Baby Jeggings

Where Did Fall Go?

Mustard Cardigan Refashion

Corduroy Khaki Blazer

Mens Negroni Shirt

Plaid Pull-over

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