The Imaginative Seamstress

Random post about a little alteration I did. I found this shirt, that was a woman's small petite. And as I keep an eye out for clothes for my little sister in law, I snag things when I find them. Even if its something that needs a little altering. This one came from a local clothing swap. I thought it was cute and just right for my purpose :-) Its fun to up-cycle clothes!  I took another shirt I found at the clothing swap (which said it was a women's small..but I didn't believe that. It looks like a girl's large to me) and used it as a cutting guide. I left it long and just took it in a bit. My sister in law is a tall, but tiny little thing, who wears a size 14 slim. The dress form that the shirt is on, is a girl's size 12.  I used the serger to sew the side seam and folded the seam over at the hem, (just like you see many times with store bought items) and sewed it down with the sewing machine. I took the outdoor photos at my parent's farm, and that'...

In November I had a lady order 3 maternity suits. I will post pictures of all, but of my favorite, I will post a bunch! :-) This, my favorite, was done in navy. A navy print with white stripes on it, at the very top of the bodice, but the rest was solid navy.   At the moment, on my screen it looks more royal blue, than navy blue.. but it was close to navy believe me!  This was all the customer's idea. She had me order the striped fabric and told me how she wanted the color blocking done. Cutest thing I've ever seen! At least, as far as maternity goes. She also had this orange fabric special ordered from the Stretch House and asked that this one be made up all out of the same print. No solid swim bottoms.  And she had me order this Zebra print for this top.  The suits were sent and all was well. Plenty of time to get there..and then the wrench was thrown in.... Keep in mind that this has never happend to me befo...

I've not really had the opportunity to take close up and detailed photos of the maternity bottoms. That is until now. Since I bought a maternity mannequin, and it doesn't mind being photographed, I've been able to take some close up shots! These are fun with this wild and wacky orange print!  These are a little longer than my norm, at the customer's request. These are my own design, and they are not based off of any pre-existing garment. These were designed with my first pregnancy. You could say I used a draping technique to get the desired effect. Back  Close up shot of the back waist. You can see some of the detail stitching around the top of the Maternity Band.  And that's pretty much it, for a detailed look at the maternity bottoms. Sometimes I have a more strait look to the skirt, sometimes its a little more full, or even slightly flared. My first set of bottoms was nicely fitted to me, but not knowing that my hips...

Yep, today has been my Birthday. My sweet sissy came by to watch my girlies while I did some errands. I'm totally tired because I stayed up too late last night. Hoping to get all the laundry and dishes in hand before the hubby comes home. Probably gonna play Ticket to Ride or Catan tonight. We had celebrated early and had dinner just the 2 of us, about a week ago, so no big date night tonight. Its been a good day. I caught a short nap with my youngest and wish I could still be sleeping :-)  And for my birthday I'll share a photo of me at a very young age. In this photo I'm wearing a dress-up 'bride' outfit that my Grandmother made from the leftovers of my Aunt's wedding gown. My Grandmother had also made my Aunt's wedding gown. You see folks, it was destiny that I be a seamstress. My Grandmother, my Mother, and now me. Love it!!! :-)  So this is me, as a little princess. Spoiled by my sewing Grandma, and my sewing Mother. Its so much fun ...

This was an order for Mother and Daughter suits.   In this photo, the black skirt is not actually the bottoms that were ordered with the suit...its just a skirt that makes a perfect photo prop, no matter which top I put with it :-)  And the top, just like the little girl's scrunch top, without ties... I've done it with a woman's size too...  The reason I came up with not having ties on a girl's suit was my imagining that children would play with the strings. That they might easily become untied, or pulled on, even become a hazard in the water. You never know with kids! Anyway, I've taken that same idea and applied it to an adult's top. Not for the same reasons though. The reasons I tried an adult's top is in theory it was going to be easier to construct than the original scrunch top, and in theory it would take less fabric, because I knew it took some less to do it this way. Well, the using less fabric thing didn't pan out like I thought ...

Each Christmas we draw names with my husband's family for Christmas. This year I got my Sister in love, Amy. She's the only girl in the family, and being a girl myself, I like it when I can draw either her, or my Mother in love. Its just more fun for me to get to think of something girly to give! I decided to make her a new swimsuit. I knew she had grown a lot (mostly in height) and would need a new suit for the coming Summer. Her mom made her last  suit and did a really good job! I knew a suit was going to be a good deal of work, but it would also make a great gift! I had 2 pieces of scrap fabric, where there was just enough to squeeze this out. And the best part was, that they went together pretty good!! I know it doesn't look quite right on my size 8 dress form. And there's a reason for that. Though Amy measured a perfect size 8, she was a perfect size 8 in everything but height. At a 60" tall, she hits the height for a size 14. I had to bunch the t...

Inspired again by questions from my customers :-) I love you guys! You keep me writing!!! A customer wrote today asking about what I could do for her as she's going to be having a water birth with her soon expected child. She asked about a skirt with panties that snapped at the crotch. I wondered how comfortable that would be. I gave her some pictures of what I'd done for my most recent birth, which was a water birth. I simply bought a maternity tank and panty off of ebay, for like $15. Yeah, lets do this as smart as possible! Am I right?    I knew I wanted a pair of panties and a skirt, but I wanted them separate, not together. So when it came time to push a baby out, I could still be wearing a skirt and not feel like I was naked. Brilliant right? I thought so! I got this cute brown suit off of ebay and paired some solid brown fabric with it, making a skirt with a comfortable belly band.    I didn't finish the top edge on ...