sewing like mad and helpful tips

This weekend has been a chance for me to take a step back from my own sewing and dive in to a fabric that I have always had a dislike for... Lycra. my machine was never a fan in the past so I DREADED getting started and my machine decided to yell at me halfway through a pair a pants so I went to a wonderful woman's house, her name is Erin, and she fixed it in a matter of seconds, replaced the needle and told me to clean my machine and oil it. So today I gathered my compressed air and machine oil and VOILA! my machine sounds a heck of a lot healthier. 

BUT, last night I spent from 830pm - 130am sewing and surging my little butt off. Erin taught me all sort of little tricks that I'd never seen before. one of my favorites that I will now worship her for is when you're working with those really thin pattern pieces that when you touch them they wrinkle and fall apart and tear and then there goes a pattern down the drain. SO instead save the remnants from the cut outs and when you have a rip in the pattern piece take a little piece of scrap and run a regular craft glue stick over it and apply it to the tear and then iron it to patch it up! 

Another fun little tip is instead of spending $14 at your local fabric store for pattern weights, run to a local hardware store and grab the heaviest washers you can find and get a few of them and they work just the same (for less than HALF the price). And to jazz them up, take some scrap fabric and make them look all pretty!

she also taught me the importance of muslin trials. So when I get around to making pants she's gonna help me fit them so I can have perfectly tailored pants 

so basically doing a little manual labor to help make costumes for a dance company has given me some useful bits of advice that will save me so much time and money! 

Late night vintage crafting post

Alright, so recently I've gotten back into my old love that I've taken a break from, knitting. I've been knitting since I was little so it got boring for a while. This was until my mom presented me with the task of making baby clothes and other misc baby items for a coworker of hers.

About a year ago my nana, who is both a knitter and a collector of sorts, gave me her collection of knitting needles, patterns, and random assorted crafts. I didn't go through it. All I knew is that there was more there than I wanted to deal with at the time. So now I finally went through everything, and beside finding a pattern to make these adorable baby booties

I found these vintage patterns for sweaters/winter gear and other misc. items.

These pattern books are all from the 1960s

These lovely books are from the 1950s. They make me really want to knit a sweater. I do wish the book on the right still had its cover, but I love these. So who knows. Maybe by winter I'll have finally knitted a sweater.

And on top of the beautiful patterns I also now have a nice collection of needles.

In the mean time, I have my skirts cut out and ready to be sewn, a baby blanket to be crocheted and some dance shorts soon to be sent my way to sew for a show that's in about 2 weeks. Busy, busy, busy!

oh and by the way, if you get a chance, donate to this awesome new dance companies kickstarter! Their name is Texture Contemporary Ballet, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and they need help to pay for this show. And plus, SUPPORT THE ARTS <3

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2010407864/texture-contemporary-ballet-presents-perpetual-mot