Blue J Custom Seat

Well I made my first mod to my Bike.  Her name is now "Blue J" and I made a custom seat.  I will merely link to the post I made on another blog, see what you think!

Custom Seat Post

I have since made a tank bib, but I haven't made a post yet, and plus it needs a mod to it.  I modified my fork bag to match/complement my seat.  Let me know what you think.

Cheers!

JDol

DH 6PAC

Well! with SWAP behind me, and photos in, the big reveal is on Monday the 20th.  DH (Dearest Husband) has been rooting me on the whole way, and said my collection was top notch. I think the word excellent has been used. :-) He's just grand.  So I was sort of energetic to jump into a Summer 6PAC which turned into a double....for an ambitious 12 pieces.  Then I noticed DH had a few items on the docket, that i wanted to tackle for him, and decided, i didn't want to merely "squeeze" them in, I wanted to "Take them on". SO............. we are placing the 2 summer 6's aside and we are going to do a DH 6PAC.  So let's see what we have:

"Shoulder Taps Gone Wild"

He recently purchased a really nice riding jacket, brown leather with fringe. Good for the spring chill in the mornings.  It is a "Bon Jovi" style. That aside, it is really nice........except for ........... well it has shoulder taps that practically loop up to his ears! LOL.  So that's project number one.

Native American Denim Jacket.

We were both inspired at the same time by Indian Village Mall.  He had come across this website and showed me their clothing items. I fell in love, too.  So he would like a denim jacket with embellishment on the shoulder yokes.

Native American Poncho.

He saw mine from SWAP and wanted one :-)

Civil War Period Shirt.

He likes history, and Gettysburg.  We are looking for the right pattern and then will shop for the fabric.  That one will be fun.

Beading Embellishments

He has two strips of beads to be installed onto a black leather pullover shirt/jacket.  He got some inexpensive black leather pants off EBay for me to cut up to make the strips for braiding that will frame the beads when I install them on the shoulders of the shirt.

Quilt.

He liked the quilt I made. My Butterfly Quilt.  I told him he could pick out fabric and I would make him one! He will pick out 8 complimentary fabrics and 1/2 yard each.  Let's see what he comes up with!  He's got a great sense of style.  He will have his own unique quilt.

So that's my DH 6PAC that I will be working on until they are complete.  There is *one* pair of pants that I have cut that will take two hours to sew that I will "squeeze" in for myself, but the rest is the DH 6PAC.

Cheers!

JDol

SWAP Entry 2013 Final Pix.

I have now finished my very first SWAP (Sewing With A Plan) 2013. I had a lot of fun joining in this adventure.  You have seen my posts along the way.  I am making this post merely of the collection as a whole all in one post.  Photo submissions start on May 10th and close on May 18th.  I'm not sure when voting occurs, how it is handled, or any of those logistics.  That info will be revealed as time draws nearer.  I am so excited to see everyone's collections!  We were all given some sneak peeks of some, and then there are some quiet members who will unveil at the end.  Everyone has so much talent this will be hard to vote - I'll want to vote for so many of them.  I'm glad I joined the Stitcher's Guild Forum when I did - Last Sept/Oct, because I jumped in on a winter 6PAC sew-along, which gave me a little boost of confidence to join the SWAP 2013.

So here is the Collections Photo:

Photo #1

#1A: Top #1.  Self Designed and Drafted Top.  Della Buckskin Faux Leather from Warehouse Fabrics Inc.  Side zip, fringe, self fabric lace, modesty panel.

#1B: Bottom #1.  Matching Faux Leather Pants Burda "Bella" #6011. Della Buckskin from Warehouse Fabrics.com.  Fringe added. (not in pattern)

Photo#2

#2: Top #2.  3rd piece of ensemble: Self Drafted Halter inspired by a photo of a Harley Davidson Halter top.  Matching Faux Leather.  Self designed and weaved beading accents,  Back has embroidery of wolf. (next photo)

Photo #3

#3: Back of Self Drafted Halter with wolf embroidery. Design is from Embroidery Library

It's called Autumn Wolf

Photo#4

#4: Bridging Poncho with this collection

Photo #5

#5A: Top #3.  Same Self-Drafted Halter pattern (inspired by a picture of a Harley Davidson halter).  Completely hand painted with self designed artwork. (butterflies) Piece 3 of my wine denim ensemble. (piece 2 was a Moto Jacket which is not included in this SWAP)

#5B: Bottom #2.  Wine Denim trousers: Burda "Bella" #6011.  Fabric is: Wine Denim from Fabric.Com

Photo #6

#6A: Top #1. Purchased Plain Denim Shirt and embellished with yoke accent fabric (Southwest Decoratives), fringe, and 3 embroidery designs: a Sun Dancer Kachina, Rain Dance Kachina and a Wolf Diamond on the back. Designs from Design Library and Embroidery Library.

#6B: Bottom #1.  Black Denim Tiered Skirt from a XOX Skirt Tutorial from Weekend Designer.  Pattern was modified to include waist band, and to match photo that came with the tutorial.

Photo #7

#7A&7B: Back of Shirt and Skirt

Photo #8

#8A: Top #2.  Red Denim Vest  Butterick B5402. 10 oz. Red Bull Denim from JoAnn's. Made Cut-Off Sleeves., Embroidered Front pockets and back.

#8B: Bottom #2.  Matching Red Denim Jeans McCall's Palmer Pletsch M5894 Boot cut. Outfit designed to match my motorcycle.

Photo # 9

#9: Top #3.  Showcase the Silver Spandex Turtleneck pattern for the cooler days, also matches my motorcycle. Fabric (Dancewear from JoAnn's) Pattern: Kwik Sew/Kwik Serge 2900 view A.

Photo #10

#10: Bridging Poncho with this collection

Photo #11

#11:  Denim Skirt detail.

Well, That's it...

My SWAP 2013.  See you next year.

PS.  I'm onto a Summer 6PAC along with a JDol 6PAC starting May-July.

Cheers!

JDol.

2 Summer 6 PACS

Well My friends, SWAP 2013 is over, my photos are submitted, I have a post drafted but not published yet, and we're onto summer 6PACs now. These are sew-alongs with my pals at Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum.  I did a purge of my closets/racks a couple weeks ago and gave 9 bags of clothes to Purple Heart (for Veterans) foundation.  So I found where the holes were in my wardrobe.  Definitely needed comfortable pants to wear to work. and I wanted summer dresses.  So when the Summer 6PAC finally rolled out, I was excited, and figured I'd do 2 pants and 4 dresses. However, when the ladies do 6PACs, they are usually capsules of certain pieces, with certain schematics involved.  This summer, the guidelines are to choose a neutral (white/khaki/olive/black, etc).... and a "color", and choose these pieces:

1 a jacket or cardigan that will set the tone for the whole collection - in neutral

2 a pair of trousers, shorts, or skirt in the same neutral (but not necessarily EXACTLY the same --can vary in shade or texture)

3 another bottom in the second colour

4 an underlayer top in the neutral

5 an underlayer top in the colour

6 an overlayer top in a linking print or in the colour

So you can see my 2 pants and 4 dresses were not in the spirit of this 6PAC, so I had to determine whether I was going to do my 6PAC, and sit this one out from the forum, or do both?  You got it - I decided to do both.  So, 12 pieces in another 3 months...I already have 2 done, so 10 really to do....

So, I needed some patterns to fit in the SG 6PAC, and JA's was having a 5 for $5 sale on Simplicity, so off I went.... and found some nice ones.  Then I had to go through stash to see what all I had.  Oh -- did I tell you that I had chosen my two colors to be cream/pale yellow & Lavender...

Stash audit yielded that I have a lot of "junk" in there of scraps... I have 4 tubs and probably 2 of them are scraps.  Hmmmm what do people do with these scraps???  I've gotta organize those tubs - but that's another day.

I found a good handful of good yardage to choose from for my 6PACs, and then I ordered about 30 swatches and samples from Fashion Fabrics, Fabric.Com, and Online Fabric Store. I basically stopped there because I wore myself out.  I still need to learn my fabrics, so I ordered quite an assortment and range so I could see what different fabrics are.  Then maybe one day I can say "Oh I can see that in a nice Chambray".  Right now I have no idea what a chambray is. :-)

So enough chatter - here are my two Summer 6PAC's

This one is for the Forum's Summer 6PAC:

So far I have two fabrics chosen. For the 4127 C top, it is a pale yellow stretch cotton with a hint of glitter.  For the Burda it is a lavender heather knit.

Here is my "JDol Summer-dress 6PAC"

2 of these are done already, (checked) and I have fabric for 3 of the others. It's Mother's Day today... Shall I sew something?  I would actually like to get that second pair of pants done.  I have a DH project on the board, too.

Here's me in the summer-dress M6115 above:

Of course with black knee boots, it was a wintery summer-dress I guess.

That's it for now.

Happy Mother's Day!

April Birthday Celebration

Follow-up

Okay, this is a follow-up to my post: Movie Star for a Month.  This month it was My Birthday, too.  at the time of the previous post, I didn't  have the cake yet, so here is the Magnificent cake from Brittany....

I had been so busy that it was the day before the party and I realized I didn't have a party dress... Oh My... So I had already purchased this great fabric a linen blend $3/yd on the JA 50% off clearance days, and of course washed and ready to go, as is all my fabric when I get it home... I like to be ready... I had a dress pattern picked out that I wanted to make with it, so I set out to go for it. No pix as I went, so all I have is a done picture the following day in my office.  McCall's M6115 pattern.

So, i am including some photos from the party. I embroider tags with Happy Birthday and their name on it and put it on the beanie birthday bears.

Here's the set up before the pot-luck lunch food comes...  I try to make it festive, but we don't over power the room, just this little section.  It is Pot-Luck, and we put more dollars into the food than into decorating the WHOLE kitchen :-)

The teams have to rotate in since part of the team is a call center, and need to cover the phones....

Then we had the return of the Angry Birds Toss Game that I created - Post here.  It made it's debut at our holiday party in 2012. One of my colleagues calls me the CFO: Chief Fun-times Officer.... LOL...

Here are the two celebrants Marlene and Tom Playing...  The door that is there is the door to my office :-)

That concludes this post.  LOL

Oh Yea... Happy Birthday to Me!

Cheers, 

JDol

Native American Shirt

Store Bought...Hand Embellished - for my SWAP...

Well, Ran into a standstill on my SWAP...as my fellow swapper Syndi put it, the race was fun, but I got burnt out...  I lost my SWAP mojo....Until... DH showed me this website: Indian Village Mall  They have an enormous collection of Native American items... I am very drawn to Native American art and culture, and love the clothing.  I had just completed a Red Motorcycle Outfit In this Previous Post that had a Dream Catcher and some Feather embroidery on it.  Once I saw that website and the denim shirts they show, It all of a sudden hit me...I could build my other half of SWAP into a southwestern/Native American collection - I already had two tops and two bottoms for that side. (Once I cleared that my vest was a top, too, since it is worn that way, with no indecency.) So I could make one of these shirts and have that as my third top, then make the bridging Native American Poncho which would also go with all my moto gear on the other side of my collection, and Poof! my SWAP is done.  So, I couldn't summon the courage/energy to find a pattern and fabric to make the shirt I wanted, so I purchased a denim shirt and will embellish that.  the SWAP rules allow for a purchased item, so it will be legal, and the embellishing is what makes it fit the collection. And I can't wait to make it!.

Bought the shirt - a burgundy - so it goes with my made jeans as well as my made skirt.

Now to choose the embroidery designs... OK, I love wolves, so there's been a Wolf Design that I've wanted to do for a long time. what better incentive than a SWAP piece to encourage me to put the time in....

The design is larger than my hoop size, so I will have to shrink it.  It is not suggested to shrink/enlarge designs at whim, because it alters stitches, etc.  I've never had disasters yet, so let's go for it.  This one is 51K stitches and 34 thread changes! Yikes!!! but I'll settle in and go for the long haul.

So let's import it into DRAWings software to shrink it.  Now it fits in my hoop...

It is too large for one file, so I'll need to save it as two.  One plus is that it is now approximately 45K stitches.

I decided I'd like to put fringe on the shirt, so part of the fringe is going along the back yoke, as such.  So I needed to measure so that my design would fall below the fringe.  First mark the bottom of the fringe line

And then mark the middle of the design for where the hoop center is going. 

Then to pick out all the threads - I write the colors out so I don't get confused as I go.. I use Sulky threads.  I only really use them by default, because when I got the machine she had a huge collection of threads and they were Sulky, so I just kept up the tradition.  If any machine embroiderers out there have any other opinions, I'll listen :-) ....

The first file... 93 minutes , but only 13 color changes, so that's easier than all those little changes that will come near the end in the second file...

Well I got hooped and set to press start at 7:30 last night, lasted about 1/2 hour before I was wiped out. Figured I'd pick it up this morning

All done with the first file... It took forever.  I was also very nervous, because do you see the border above? The white diamond? well it's closer on the right than on the left.  I was real nervous that it wasn't going to fit.  If you recall up in the photo of when I was re-sizing the file, the hoop in the software was horizontal, so I was a little less critical of centering the image left to right, than I was top to bottom. After all, I only shrunk it a minimal amount and pushed it to the edges as much as possible. So, when the design got saved, it saved it into a vertical hoop direction, and I didn't think anything of it, UNTIL it had already stitched quite a ways out and got to an outline and I noticed it was off center!  It was only a little bit, but I'm a worry-er... I couldn't stop now, I was too invested at that point. So I had no choice but to keep going and pray for the best.  Wouldn't you know that final border wouldn't be stitched until the very end of this file which turned out to be around the T minus 12 minute mark and 25K stitches.  BOY was I thankful that it made it!!!!!!  Lesson learned: Just make sure it is saved dead center, so it makes no matter how the file saves itself!

On to the 2nd file... this one's only 59 minutes, but 21 color changes....

I survived!!!!! And gee the result was worth it!!!! I'm so happy with this design.

So with the fringe it will look awesome...

So far so good on my shirt.

Now onto the front pockets... Still need to decide on the embroidery... I will look around at The Library, and at Designs  I already have some, but let's see what else is out there...

OK, I want Kachinas one for each pocket. Decided on a Rain Maker and a Sun Dancer.

So now to take off the pockets.. It seems that I can take them most off and leave the top on where it is reinforced. It seems to hoop okay.

I'm up for sewing out another one, what d'ya say? 71 minutes 14 changes. Let's go for it.

We survived another one!

Once the pocket gets sewn back on... I will also add fringe to the shoulders.

My other Kachina...

Well I started this one got a little into it, and couldn't go another stitch!  Total wipe out.  Been at it for 9 hours... Yikes!  That might be all I have in me for the day, or.. I might just need a rest for a few hours, and then pick it back up, just finish this design after dinner.  It's 4 pm now.  (been bloggin' for an hour)... Well, more later on....

Well after Dinner and a Movie (Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx) had some energy and finished up the Sun Dance Kachina.. Ahhh yes..

So When the pockets are sewn back together...

And the fringe is added...

All in all not a bad sewing day.. Got a lot accomplished...Tomorrow will have fresh eyes and pick up with designing sleeves and yoke, and that should do it.

Niters Gracie...

Okay All ready to power onward...

So I selected the print to go on the yoke, so let's line that up with the fringe and give it a stitch line...

Line up the sides, and the front of the yoke with the front fringe.  I basically did this all as I went - no measuring, cutting to a pattern, or anything like that...Just lining everything up and pinning... I sewed the cotton onto the the shirt, as opposed to replacing the yoke with the cotton piece; the denim was much stronger and heavier weight, so I wanted to keep that together.

Well there was really nothing much left to take pictures of as I finished it up... I double stitched the cotton yoke panel and that was set.  Then I opened up the arm seams to install the arm fringe, and sew it back up...That was so easy it was almost a crime. Then top-stitch the front pockets back in place, and that's it.  All Done...

SWAP Piece # 10! Two collections completed, now just the bridging poncho, which is also so easy it's also almost a crime.

Here are the pix of my Native American Shirt

From This to This:

And This to This:

And in Action:

 Hip Hip Hoo-Ray!!!

Cheers, 

Jo