The Models have Tea

My darling daughter has collected a few of her friends who are willing to serve as models for me.  So, today, most of them converged on our home for tea.  My ulterior motive was to get their measurements to make sure I was making things that would fit.  They were also able to look through patterns and tell me what kind of looks they would like to model.

 Of course, they also had some fun with things already here:

Above, S is wearing Vernon's smoking jacket and Karl's fez. Quite the combo.  But he definitely needs a different shirt underneath.
All in all, much shortbread, scones and apple tart was consumed along with several pots of tea.  A grand time was had by all.

Men's vest

Trying a new pattern.

Men's vest with collar and 3 pockets.

New vest coming soon

I've got a new menswear vest almost finished.  I've only got the buttons to put on so I'll be able to post photos soon.  Tomorrow I'll be cutting out a jacket that I'm pretty excited to try.  And Santa brought me a dress form for Christmas so the design fun can really begin.

I've now got 5-6 people interested in helping with a photo shoot in March so I'll need to have plenty of finished items ready for them.  I do hope to have an actual business up and running in a few more months.  Stay tuned... things are about to get much more busy and interesting around here.

Start to finish

Started and finished another sewing project today.  I love having days off my paying job! Today's project was a gift for my oldest son- the model of yesterday.  Nothing too artsy- but a soft fleece shirt in tie dyed blue.

Not the best photo but I don't have the best phone and the good camera is upstairs.
Still, not a bad piece of work for the day.  The partial zipper was interesting to put in. I modified the pattern instructions because the way they told you to do it was kind of bizarre.  My way worked quite well and eliminated lots of hand work.
Now the only holiday project I've still got is finishing the binding on a quilt.  And I've still got a couple of weeks to go!

Steampunk photo shoot

I finished a brocade vest for my youngest son for Christmas but I couldn't wait to share it.  So, I got his older brother to model for me and we had a bit of a Steampunk photo shoot.  I guess it he's going to be doing more modeling for me he'll have to get used to it!

 Nothing fancy for background, sadly.  We still have to keep the vest a secret and it is raining outside.

 I do believe this is his impression of a young Mr Lincoln!

 Obviously up to no good...

And lastly, with a companion, Mandy.

Awesome new fabric

Ok... I know I don't NEED any more fabric.  I need time to work on projects already at hand. But I couldn't resist this stuff.  It gives in to my inner Goth!  Plus I am a huge fan of Edgar Allen Poe.

From the Nevermore collection by Michael Miller.

Vernon says I need to make a quilt and call it "The Goth Cloth".  How awesome is that!?

Steampunk airship quilt- part 3?

Yeah, I know... it has been a while since I posted here.  Life and garden have gotten in the way of sewing and quilting.  But, yesterday was a rainy day and today it was pea-soup fog all morning, so I stayed inside and worked on Justine's quilt.

(thanks to I15 for holding it up for photos)

I got the top finished last weekend when V's Mom was here.  And this weekend I got it sandwiched together with it's batting and backing.  It's kind of hard to see, but in the outer border the pattern has lots of little clock faces in it. Justine picked it out.  It wasn't quite the color I wanted but it is what she chose.
Today I started quilting.

I'm really loving the quilting lines on the balloon.  I put extra batting in the balloon and the sail to give it a 3-D effect. Hopefully I'll have time to work on it again soon.  I was really hoping to be able to use my new, old treadle machine but I'm having trouble finding needles for it.  More about that another time.