Sewing Adventures and Mishaps

I really love to sew and I have really acquired quite a pattern collection that is always growing thanks to $.99 pattern sales.  I recently fell in love with Butterick 5329.

It is a really cute caftan style dress or top and I thought it would camouflage some of my middle “trouble spots”.  The pattern itself is very interesting and the pieces are all unusually shaped.  I was a little annoyed that the pattern pieces had to be cut one at a time, as opposed to folding the fabric in half and cutting two at a time.  It takes a large amount of concentration to keep from cutting two left sleeves, if you know what I mean. 

The instructions were great and it went together easily, I made view B, the knee length dress.  When I got to the point of trying it on I was a little disappointed, it is not as flattering as I had hoped and view B was a very bad choice.  I cut it down to tunic length and that helped a little.  Sadly it seems to make me even fuller through the middle.  It is very comfortable though. 

Surprisingly it looks better on me than it does on Boobzilla (my duct tape dummy).  I think it would be a super cute maternity top, but I don’t know how much wear I’ll get out of it, we’ll see, maybe it will grow on me.  I asked my husband, should I wear this or find something else and after a long pause he said I should find something else, so it’s not just me.  It is a nice pattern and the problem is my figure is not the meant for this design, so if you’re super skinny or need a cute maternity top this one’s for you!

I also had a bit of luck at a yard sale this Saturday, I bought a vintage sewing machine in a wood cabinet for $5.00, the sewing machine doesn’t work, but I was really interested in the cabinet.  Oh, and the cabinet was full of vintage sewing notions and wooden spools!

I have removed the machine from the cabinet and now my sewing machine has a new home, it’s too big to fit into the cabinet, but I don’t care, it can sit on top.  I also found the instruction manual and a box full of different feet for the machine, I think I’ll put it on Craig’s list.  I also have a good collection of vintage notions to make a shadow box with.  It was such a great find, I can’t stop talking about it!!!