This is an actual image of me. It was taken with an infrared camera, not an optical one. I think it captures my essential geekiness very well.
I already have three Berninas, so I'm not going to bid. This is such a great deal. Because the seller is using an escrow service, I think it is legitimate. I have the Bernina 180E, and I love it.
posted by Neefer @ 1/31/2005 02:18:00 PM
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BABES had another get-together. This time, we met at Verosew's house. Attendees were moi, Lenore (not on PR yet ... how can this be?), Georgene, Verosews, Jennifer in SF, and Irene.
Verosews has a very nice house. Her husband and children were just leaving as Lenore and I arrived. She has a beautiful family. As he was running out the door, her little boy stopped, turned around to hug Verosews, and said, in the sweetest little voice, "I love you, Mommy." It was just precious.
We had a fun time, talking, sharing, eating chocolate, fruit, and brownies. The time went by too fast.
posted by Neefer @ 1/31/2005 01:46:00 PM
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I just bought another sewing machine. I really wanted the needle punch foot for one of my Berninas. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with either the 1001 or the 180E. So I bought an Activa 125 to go with my new foot. Am I sick or what?
posted by Neefer @ 1/27/2005 03:34:00 PM
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I successfully resisted. EOS has some really cool knits, and I didn't buy. I think my medication is working. I'm not so depressed now, and I don't compulsively shop for fabric.
posted by Neefer @ 1/20/2005 03:44:00 PM
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I'm not going to buy any more fabric.
posted by Neefer @ 1/19/2005 10:46:00 AM
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What's Napoleon Dynamite? I took the test, and I am:
Deb
posted by Neefer @ 1/18/2005 10:27:00 AM
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A few years ago, i was into buying 6 yards of fabric at a time if I thought the fabric had potential to be a long sleeved dress with a full skirt. So I have a few fabrics, usually rayons, in my stash with quite a bit of yardage. I've made 2 tops and one skirt with this stuff.
With the last little bit, I decided to make the shell from Neue Mode Avantgarde V23135. I bought the pattern for the jacket. I altered the shell sometime last November, and I finally got it cut out last night. Well, except for the bias tape that I'm going to use to bind the neck and armhomes.
posted by Neefer @ 1/18/2005 09:06:00 AM
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What's wrong with this picture?
When changing a pattern, it is always good to think thru what you are doing. Do I do that? Of course not. Worse, I didn't even read the instructions. In the pattern, the neck is supposed to be bound, so there is no seam allowance added there. I added 0.25 inches. On top of that, I added a neckband that is about 0.75 inches think. All that extra fabric produced a t-shirt with no neck hole. Well, it does have a neck hole, but the front covers the back part, and the back covers the front.
So if I want to add a neckband instead of binding, which I do, I will have to cut off the seam allowance and whatever width I decide to make the neckband. We shall see if I remember all this the next time I have 0.5 yards of knit fabric left over from one of my shirts.
posted by Neefer @ 1/17/2005 03:32:00 PM
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My husband likes to watch Fox News. I can't stand it, and this is why: family murder story. I walk into the family room, and the TV headline is "Muslin Terrorists Kill NJ Family". It makes me sick to my stomach. It's a headline on their webpage, too. It's not on any other site that I checked. It's sensational crap, designed to incite and inflame, devisive, and not even credible, but Fox News puts a focus on it.
I like NPR for news.
posted by Neefer @ 1/17/2005 08:34:00 AM
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On ebay, you can subscribe to searches, so I subscribed to a 1930s pattern search. It expired on December 28th!!! and I only just noticed today. Think of all the great patterns I missed.
posted by Neefer @ 1/14/2005 01:19:00 PM
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I went to Joann's this morning and picked up Burda 8260. The new Burdas and new New Looks weren't in. The Simplicity patterns were on sale for 99 cents, but I have all the ones that I want. This time, I wanted the McCalls to be 99 cents. It seems that the last few times I've gone, the McCalls/Butterick/Vogue ones are on sale, and I want a Simplicity.
posted by Neefer @ 1/14/2005 10:52:00 AM
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So I bought a new laptop, and now all I want to do is play with the new laptop. No sewing is getting done. I did try to transfer an embroidery design from the laptop to my embroidery machine, and that's when I discovered that it doesn't have a serial port. The embroidery design was a very simple label: Oaktree Originals. I'm making a baby shirt with scraps of cotton jersey, and I don't know what it's going to be for. It might be for Figment, my brother's baby, or it might be for something else. The pattern is from Ottombre. It has the overlapping shoulders, so that a tired parent doesn't have to fuss with snaps or other closure on a wiggly baby. Been there; done that! It's hard to tell the front from the back, and I figured a label would be the best thing for that. I serged the binding/neckband to the front and back and hemmed the front, back, and sleeves. I want to put the label in BEFORE assembling the shirt. I guess I'm going to have to go to Radio Shack to get a USB to serial converter.
posted by Neefer @ 1/12/2005 10:25:00 AM
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Last Friday, I spent the day with Georgene. She bought a really cool pattern (image to the left, right click for a larger image) from the 1930s on ebay, and we got together and traced the pattern on muslin and fitted it to me. I felt kinda bad that we didn't do any fitting on Georgene. We started by covering her really nice cutting table with muslin, laying the pattern pieces on top so we could draw around them. The picture to the left is of the skirt pattern pieces ready to be traced. We added 2 inches to the length the quick and dirty way (i.e. adding it at the bottom). I was concerned that it would be too short for me, and I like my skirts LONG.
I had never "traced" a pattern like this. I like patternease (like tear-away stablizer), and one of the reasons is that it is translucent. Another difference is that I use the OmniGrid type rulers, probably because I spent several years quilting, and Georgene has a big metal ruler and several small, flexible rulers, similar to what I used in college when I was learning drafting. Since we were at Georgene's and since her knowledge and experience with all things sewing are vastly greater than mine, we did things her way. Her very sturdy and wide table made copying the patterns pretty easy.
Georgene used the long metal ruler to draw reference grainlines on the muslin. We traced the full pattern instead of just the halves. I would have just done the halves.
I think it took us 3 hours to trace and cut 2 copies. We traced one copy, then lay 2 layers of muslin on the cutting table so we could cut the 2 copies at one time. Very clever; I'm sure I would have made each copy in series. This was much more efficient.
We broke for lunch and ate crab lasagne that my husband had made. He caught the crabs, too. He loves to be out on the ocean. I think he fishes to justify going out there. Ha! Like he could come any where near the $20,000 (US) that he's spend on that @#$% boat.
The afternoon was devoted to fitting my muslin. Since Georgene's methods were different from the ones that I knew, she was generous in teaching me her methods and doing it on my muslin, instead of hers. But it was kinda funny the effect some of the differences had. For example, I learned to sew the fitting pieces together with the seams out. Georgene likes them with the seams in, so that she can see the silhouette. The big seam allowances disrupt that image. And I had assumed we would make the pattern smaller by folding tucks in it, but Georgene just whacked the extra off the side, and she fit my armhole and sleeve manually. We didn't do a full bust alteration. I figured that the pattern was a size 50 (50 inch bust), so it should allow for a cup size of D or so.
posted by Neefer @ 1/11/2005 09:42:00 PM
2 comments
I like it. This t-shirt is the combination of 4 different patterns. KS 2565 was the starting point. I used the shape of the french darts from a burda magazine pattern. In order to cover buttus-sticks-outous*, I used a 2 piece back from NL 6977 OOP. And I morphed the neckline/neckband using another burda magazine pattern. It's taken me quite a while to get to this incarnation, and it's almost perfect. I altered the french dart, yet again, to lower it a bit, and I think I would like a lower neckline. Oh, and the back neckline may be too low. Tweak this, tweak that; will it ever be perfect? *Make that: in order to not get hung up on buttus-sticks-outous, since I don't want to cover my beautiful butt.
posted by Neefer @ 1/11/2005 08:09:00 PM
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It doesn't look much different from the last picture. I used a heavy weight striped denim to line the bag and construct the handles. Denim is so easy to sew!
To the left is a closeup of the tulle applique. I think it came out really neat. The tulle is blue with silver stars printed on it. I cut the moon shapes freehand with my rotary cutter. I had to use a lot of pins to secure them.
the other side by Neefer.
And here are the handles. I mailed it off more than a week ago, and I haven't heard if it arrived.
posted by Neefer @ 1/11/2005 04:54:00 PM
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So I have a Bernina Artista 180E, and I'm having a terrible time transfering my embroidery designs from my computer to the 180E. There are 2 options: serial cable or cards. I wanted to use a card system, so I bought the Amazing Mini Box. It worked fine for a while, then stopped working. I've tried everything they have suggested, and nothing has fixed it. Since I've been having problems, I've learned that a lot of people have problems with it. So I ordered a Bernina card reader/writer. They are on back order, and it's been several months.
I could use my desktop computer. That's were the vast majority my designs are, but that would mean moving the very, very heavy 180E from one end of the house to the other. I don't really have any place to put it near the computer, but the desktop does have a serial port.
I'm taking a class on the embroidery software, and you pretty much need a laptop. I've been borrowing one or looking over someone's shoulder, so after 3 months of this, I decided to buy a laptop. The laptop doesn't have a serial port. I didn't even think of specifying one. So I can't connect the laptop to the 180E. Radio Shack has USB to serial converters, so maybe someday, I'll be able to connect the laptop.
posted by Neefer @ 1/11/2005 01:19:00 PM
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Sewing stuff coming, but I thought you-all'd like to know that I'm:
I am Academic Girl
Click on the picture below to read more:
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posted by Neefer @ 1/04/2005 03:13:00 PM
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