Square Knots are Top Knotch; Project of the Week: Butterick 5929

Today I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Texas EMIG Colloquium hosted by Baylor College of Medicine (across the street from my school). The day's events included a couple of lectures, skills sessions, a resident panel, and sim sessions. I finally learned how to suture! And intubate! The sim sessions covered how to respond to the call for a doctor on an airplane, working up a patient with an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), working up a patient with a neck trauma, and working up a patient in diabetic ketoacidosis.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics because I was so busy having fun... and realizing how much I have left to learn! All in all, an exciting venture that has definitely lit a fire under my butt... summer is definitely over and MS2 has begun.

I've got a long way to go until I'm a real doctor, but the prospect is so exciting.


Project of the Week: Butterick 5929

After trying my hand at a form-fitting skirt with Butterick 5466, I decided I wanted a fuller skirt that was a little more congruent with my personal style - hence Butterick 5929, view B!

This skirt was an easy-peasy project, despite my revisions and mistakes.

Because I've had so many problems with sizing, I wanted to make sure that the skirt fit before I sewed down the box pleats that make up the majority of the difficulty in this pattern. I'm glad I tried the skirt on, because boy did those box pleats look ridiculous on my behind. (Bad pic because I'm all twisty, but suffice it to say, it looked like I had four butts)

Undeterred, I cut out my basting stitches and set to work ignoring the pleats as designed and made my own pleats. The looked much better, IMO.

Unlike the view pictured with the model, my view has no pockets (yesssss) and adds a waistband rather than a facing (double yesssss). Unfortunately, I forgot this when I was sewing, looked at the instructions for view A, and, as a result, sewed my waistband on like a facing. Oops. It didn't look bad, I just really, really wanted a waistband. So I kinda jerry-rigged the skirt and instead of folding the waistband in like a facing, I sewed it over and attempted to sew over my understitching line. The result? A waistband... but a couple extra lines of stitching are visible. Whatever. If anyone gets that close that they can see my extra stitches.... I dunno. But it'd be pretty weird.

The final product:


I'm looking forward to wearing this skirt to my practice physical exam on Tuesday. Should be fun!

Raw Materials Cost	$   18.20
Sewing Time Cost	$   23.86
Total Cost	$   42.06

Project of the Week - Butterick 5466 and McCall's 7125 or: Check your measurements regularly if you're going to insist on gaining weight

The last four weeks of my summer have been such a whirlwind, but they've been so fun. In the midst of all this, I decided to take on an aggressive course of projects for those four weeks:

• Simplicity 1347
• Butterick 5466
• McCall's 7125
• Butterick 5929
• McCall's 7098 x2

Unfortunately, I didn't quite finish all of these quite yet. And I bought more fabric... :D 

Butterick 5466

I read the reviews for this skirt and was pretty excited to make it. I got a super cute, reversible, sportswear fabric in a flower print. I chose view E with the extra high waist. The pattern flew together. I was going to add a lining, but after trying on the skirt, I realized it was a little too small for the lining. In fact, it was a little too small period. Oh well. It's done and hanging out in the back of my closet. 

The skirt. With a bonus Darwin!

Look at dat price!

Raw Materials Cost	$   15.88
Sewing Time Cost	$     9.95
Total Cost	$   25.83

McCall's 7125 - Incomplete

I should have known something was amiss when the back of the pattern envelope told me I needed 3 yards of fabric to make a size small (8-10) blouse. I chose view D because I liked the little sleeves and the blouse looked so flowy and cute on the model. Second mistake? I didn't read the pattern reviews until after I'd cut my fabric... only to discover a lot of complaints about the ridiculous amounts of ease in this pattern. Like ridiculous ease. I realized this was NOT going to look like the pattern envelope. 

End of the day, I put the damn thing together and tried it on. I think here a picture says a thousand words:

\

The pic on the right doesn't look too awful, but I seriously looked like I was 9 months pregnant. I've gained weight... but not that much!

I've decided all hope is not lost though, because someday I'm going to rip these seams apart and turn this bad boy into a cute tank. Lord knows I've got enough fabric...

Project of the Week - Simplicity 1347

Whew. What a whirlwind last four weeks. Between finishing up my summer research, putting the last minute finishing touches on retreat skits, dropping the sister off at college, and executing retreat, I've been busy! I haven't been blogging, but I have been sewing! (Not quite up to par with a project a week, but I got pretty close!)

As I'm writing this post, I just found out that this pattern has been discontinued, so I got in just under the wire! Simplicity 1347 is a pattern for Game of Thrones/Lord of the Rings inspired costumes. I chose view C - a dress reminiscent of the wedding gown worn by Daenerys Targaryen in the first GOT season.


I wanted to stay as true to the actual gown, so my challenge at the fabric store was finding material that matched the look of the gown. Nothing really jumped out at me, so I added a layer of challenge to this relatively simple pattern: I would sew with chiffon (cue horror music) over a layer of linen (which is my fave).

I looked up some helpful hints (here and here and the bobby pin trick for turning tubes here) and set to work. For the most part, the chiffon was a lot easier to work with than I expected, and the dress flew together. I finally got to put it on... and it was HUGE. And retreat was the next day! Plus, I hadn't hemmed it yet...

Lots of snips, elastic shortening, and french seams later, I was finally done. I fudged the hem by using my overlock stitch foot on the bottom to just prevent fraying. If I decide to reuse the costume for Halloween, I'll readdress the hem then.

The dress was so fun to wear and wasn't too hot at the party. Here's Khaleesi and her friends, Jorah and Cersei Lannister.

Raw Materials Cost	$   51.09
Sewing Time Cost	$   67.26
Total Cost	$ 118.35