Wardrobe Plan for Sensitive Skin

The PR contest has inspired me to create a new wardrobe and since I'm experiencing a terrible case of ultra sensitive skin, I thought it would be a good idea to make some softer, more comfortable things. I have lots of fabrics that'll work in my stash, but I know I'll need a couple of loosely fitted patterns for bottoms. Click on the image below for a larger view of the plan.


I'll need to stick with natural fibers, preferably cotton, silk, viscose (otherwise known as rayon), some linens and hemp fabrics if they are not rough. Lyocell (alias Tencel) will also work. Of course, look for smooth, soft, silky fabrics (Yippee! A really good excuse for buying some wonderful quality new fabrics!)
Clothing should be loosely fitted, avoiding creases and folds in the material. Rigid seams, closures, pockets and accessories should be avoided in areas where there is more pressure... like at the hips, where my skin seems to be most irritated!

Most of my fabrics were stash fabrics. And much of it is either cotton or rayon. I found a nice silk twill and hope I have enough for a dress. The only iffy fabric is that orange mesh floral... it's soft, but isn't a natural fiber. I'll line it with cotton jersey. Those two dresses are extras that I wanted to make for comfort.
I only purchased 1.5 yards of a very soft cotton denim. But I will need to pick up 2 patterns for pants/skirts. No time to draft, this time of the year gets really busy.

Back to work!

The kids are finally settling into school so I can concentrate on my sewing. Work things first, so I finished up the curtains, made a few more, and made a simple shower curtain.

Now I can do my own stuff till more work comes in... So I went to Walmart, and found this really nice white stiff fabric which would be perfect for my bathroom curtains. It would also be perfect for making blinds. I want to use if for both the shower curtain and the curtain... here's whats there now.

Actually, my DH just took down the remnant for the window since it blocks too much light and is hard to open and shut. I don't blame him... we have no neighbors in the back.

I have tons of barkcloth scraps and am sewing a strip together for a nice decorative trim for both curtains. The cutting is the most tedious part, but I hope to have it done soon.

Squeezing in work during summer vacation

All my sewing time has been dedicated to work stuff lately and I'm feeling soo deprived. I've been squeezing in an hour or two at night, after the kids are in bed, but my poor old eyes don't last very long at that hour. The assignment for the week is 3 sets of tab top curtains lined with blackout. I'm almost done with the first set. Here's my workspace today...

My own bathroom still has NO curtains, so that will be the first thing I work on when I have more sewing time. Luckily, there are no neighbors in the back. Next job will have to be for me... A NICE shower curtain and some for the window too.

Maybe when the kids go back to school there will be more time so I'll be able to work and sew a few things for home as well.

Restoring granny's old Singer

Many years ago, I saved my granny's old Singer from certain death. She had two machines sitting in her house and I wish I had saved them both, but there was no room to keep them. So I brought home the one that was in better condition. It's been sitting for a long time, covered up with a plastic tarp in my mother's patio and I'm finally going to get to work on it. After a little bit of research, I think it's a Singer 15-30 treadle machine. It has a motor that looks like it was attached, but the cabinet still has the treadle base. Here's a picture of the motor we removed.

My son has taken it apart and cleaned most of the rusted parts, but left home to test the waters of independence when he finished school. I miss him. But anyway, the machine is in parts, not on it's treadle anymore, and NOW I want to restore it so it can be used. Here's what it looks like right now.

I know... the gold decal coloring is sadly no longer gold. But the machine was in really sad shape when we got it. It looks a whole lot better, though I will definitely do more cleaning.

These parts here were NOT silver.. they were covered with a light coating of rust. You couldn't see the designs. It took a lot of work, and there are spots in the plates where the rust has corroded the metal, but the designs are still visible. I wish we had a before picture of how badly damaged these were. Just imagine them brown with barely any designs... that was before.

I took pictures of the treadle part, but they didn't seem to look right... I'll try again later. Something was a bit odd about them. However, I'm pretty sure the treadle is in decent shape and can be restored. The cabinet top might need replacement. I'll post a pic when I get a good one.

My goal is to restore it as a working machine, not a display item. It was my granny's workhorse and she did a lot of sewing so I believe it wants to be useful again. It'll take me a long time to figure out how to get it cleaned up, hooked up, and working again since this is the first time I've done anything like this. But I'm excited and hoping it'll be working again soon.

Curtains

The lady I did the curtains for sent a picture. Everytime I see the finished product I think of getting to work on mine... then of course, something else comes up. Like more curtains.

Anyway, in a previous post, I showed how I did the pattern matching. Here's the finished curtains. You can also see the pillow shams I made. I'm glad she liked them.

Oh, if you're interested in purchasing this fabric, it's called Pauhana and can be found at Barkcloth Hawaii. That design is popular and one of my favorites too.