I asked my kids to give me some alone time for Mother’s Day so I could head into the sewing area and get some things done.  I have been trying some new patterns and had several things cut out and ready to go.

First up is this Lekala Shirt #5809.

Lekala is a international sewing company.  They have specifically designed patterns that you download (after putting in your measurements), print, and then cut out.  I had cut this out probably about a month ago but hadn’t started it because it was different than what I have done before and, quite honestly, the directions didn’t make any sense to me so I was avoiding.  But today was the day.  I can say that this was an easy blouse to put together – of course it took me hours to interpret the directions into something that I could understand.  So, after 3 hours and several seams that I had to rip out and re-do, I had a shirt that was put together.

Unfortunately, when I cut this out a month ago, I accidentally cut the front as two and the back on the fold.  This places a big seam down the middle of the front.  You can’t see it on the hanger but it is definitely can be seen when I am wearing it.  I might wear it anyway but we’ll see.

Next up was a pair of Style Arc Linda Pants.  Style Arc is an Australian company.  They send you a single size pattern (unlike the multisized ones sold in stores).  The paper they are printed on is nice and thick and I have made another pair of these and they fit with very minimal adjustments.  For this pair I decided to make the hips and thighs a little more fitted and make the bottom into a boot cut instead of straight legs.  This fabric has a plaid like pattern and so I had to be careful cutting out to match the lines.  I was able to match the horizontal lines well on the outer leg seams.

Finally, Amalia asked me to make a maxi skirt for her.  A couple of weeks ago I had bought 2 big boxes of fabric off of Craig’s List.  There were about 40 yards and many different patterns/weights of fabric.  She picked out this really colorful silk-feeling material.

I took her measurements and we just had enough to make a skirt that lands at her ankles.  I just sewed it together and put an elastic in the waistband and Voila!  she is thrilled and I got experience using this “sport elastic” that I had gotten last month.

So, overall, it was a very productive Mother’s Day.  I also was awakened to some presents the kids made at school (including a song sung by the 2nd grade class which was very cute), a picture with Amalia holding a “World’s Best Mom” sign.  We went out to an early dinner with Wendy, Pat and Mike and while the adults were eating, the kids went out to play – including the boys pulling their baseball gloves out and throwing the ball in the empty parking lot.

Categories: Family, Sewing, Thankfulness