Snowed In!

Pretty sure no one is going to park here.

Side street near Ft. Reno park- treacherous indeed!

By now I'm sure you've heard about DC's little snowmageddon. The inclement weather led to an early dismissal from work on Friday as well as a day off today. Despite the city's attempt to dig out, the driving situation is still not the best. While these conditions have left many DC residents with a case of cabin fever, I can't help but think that I have fared much better. After all, what could be better for a sewer/knitter than three whole days inside? Nestled in my little apartment-cave, I have been on a steady diet of coffee, tea, fabric and yarn.

Life has been stressful the last few months. While I nearly lost the will to sew, I did not stop buying fabric. So while home owners have spent the weekend digging out from under the snow, I have spent the weekend digging out from under my ever-expanding fabric stash. I am proud to say that I can almost see my ironing board again.

Aside from the fact that my sewing "room" takes up half of our living room, the other reason I am taking pains to clean up my stash is that I have plans to visit my Aunt in LA again this spring. Visiting LA means I will have to stop by the fashion district. Which means I will most certainly be coming home with more fabric and will need someplace to put it. Last year I purchased 1 yd of silk georgette, 2 1/2 yds of lime green voile, 1 1/2 yds of printed silk habotai, 1 1/2 yds of white cotton/seacell shirting and 3 yds of border print cotton voile (made into a tank dress, last seen here). My goal is to use each of these fabrics before heading back to LA. I will keep you updated on my progress- look for some finished pieces later today!

End of Summer Mini Wardrobe

August did its best, and all it took was a couple major stressful events to derail my best-laid sewing plans. Thankfully, I made it through, and even completed a mini wardrobe while I was at it!

I stayed up all night before a 6am flight to make these high-waist trousers from Burda 3/2009 in bright cherry red:

And I patterned this skirt after a much loved vintage wool plaid skirt (it needed a summer counterpart) The top is from Burda 2/2009, in rayon jersey:

Summer seems to be coming very quickly to an end this year. It is already getting chilly in the evenings, and I am already planning which cozy sweaters I want to knit, and which yummy yarns I need to buy to make them. I've been looking at Rowan's Swaddle for quite some time, but am not convinced that there is an affordable substitute for their Kid Silk Classic yarn. I have been eyeing some angora blends over at Colourmart for awhile--hopefully my favorite colors won't be gone by the time I make up my mind to purchase! In terms of autumn sewing, I am imagining slim sweater dresses, and elegant blouse and high-waist skirt combos. Especially inspiring was this feminine blouse in the September issue of Burda.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look! I hope to be posting more than just once a month from here on out, so please stay tuned. Happy sewing!

Weekend Project Progress

I was really busy this weekend! My list of current projects keeps getting longer, though I haven't been finishing much. This past weekend I cut out:

1. Jacket from Burda 5/2006
   
   
2. Strapless swimsuit
   
   
3. Top 118 from Burda 2/2009
   
4. Franzi vest from Burdastyle

I don't have pics yet for the last two, but I will soon-promise! For the jacket I am using a silk/cotton blend from fabricmart fabrics, and a great vintage button that I found at Exquisite Fabrics. For the strapless swimsuit I'm using poly/spandex jersey from fabric.com. The photo on the left is Norma Kamali's Walter MIO suit, which inspired this creation. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely check out http://normakamalicollection.com.

I've also been combing through my stash to identify possible projects. There is so much fabric that I really love, but am not sure how to use. My sewing space is quite small (about 5ftx7ft, including sewing machine, ironing board and storage) so it can get a bit chaotic when i bring out too many projects at once.

Yesterday I found this post by Katharine, in which she mentioned how she deals her small workspace. I know I need to be better organized, but of course I'm not sure where to start! How do you keep your sewing space tidy? If you have any suggestions I would love to hear from you.

Now I'm off to find some fabric to go with this:

But more about upcoming projects later! Good luck on all your current projects and fabric hunting :)

July Burda Excitement

Last month I finally treated myself once more to a Burda World of Fashion subscription. Although I have subscribed to the magazine in the past, $80 a year became too much as I made the transition from high school to college, and then college to life in the "real world". This spring, however, I really have gotten back into sewing in a major way, and have thus been chasing down back issues from February and March. After ordering the original German version of the March issue from Burda Direct and trying to figure out how I would pay the publisher using my non-existent German bank account, I decided it was high time I reinstated my subscription. (One other justification I gave myself was that even if I only like 4 of the 12 issues each year, procurring them as back issues at $15 a pop adds up very quickly.)

Well, all that drama aside, I peeked at the Burda web site last night and was very excited to see that Burda WOF already has their July preview slideshow online! [Please be forewarned: There are spoilers in this post.] It seems like I just received my June issue in the mail, though I am of course very excited to see hints of the next issue. I do admittedly feel as though I have indulgently cast aside that last issue. The fashion stories were lovely, and they did inspire me. The problem is that they inspired me to purchase more fabric over anything else! After flipping through some of the photos of next month's Burda I think that some of those patterns will be more conducive to stash busting.

I definitely have some cotton/lycra poplin that may work well for this one:

Dress from upcoming Burda WOF July 2009

And I'm not sure what fabric I would use for this skirt, but it would be lovely made up in a cheerful color (think lemon yellow or a vivid green) with some vintage buttons. This is definitely going on the project list!

Skirt from upcoming Burda WOF July 2009

Aside from my giddy joy at the prospect of new patterns, I thought that I would share one of my recently completed projects:

This was one of the patterns that made me purchase the August 2008 issue of Burda WOF. The feminine details of the peplum, puff sleeves and rounded yoke really appealed to me. Although the fashion story featured the top in a silk charmeuse, I thought that a crisp cotton would do just as well (and be MUCH more affordable!). Once I found this lovely piece of sapphire cotton sateen at Gstreet on the discount table, I just had to make it. It is also very satisfying to me when I can pull these projects off for such a reasonable price:

2 yards of blue fabric =$5.94
2 cards of tiny shank buttons =$1.60

In total, the blouse materials cost only $7.54 !

Here is the technical drawing of the blouse, which shows all the little details more clearly then my photos:

Burda Blouse 103 08/2008

Introductions

Hello, world! My name is Megan and I am an avid seamstress and knitter. I created Hanging by a Thread so that I have a place to share my thoughts on sewing, knitting and other pearls of wisdom. I have been sewing for about 14 years, and knitting for five. While sewing is my first true passion, I find knitting to be a great stress-reducing activity. My first sewing projects included dresses for my dolls and historical costumes for myself. These days I make many of my own clothes, drawing inspiration from Anthropologie, Burda World of Fashion, Japanese pattern books, and designers like Anna Sui and Norma Kamali.

You can find me on craftster, burdastyle, and ravelry--my handle is littleweasel. I really enjoy participating in these online communities, and have recently enjoyed reading individual sewing and crafting blogs even more, and so I thought I would give this a shot. Here I hope to be able to share not only photos and and descriptions of my creations, but the inspirations behind them. I also have plans to share some patterns on burdastyle, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, you should definitely check out some interesting posts from these crafty blogs:

Blue Sky sewing, from Melissa Fehr (of nytimes fame) -shows off her new super cheery top

Stashaholism Confessional, from The Slapdash Sewist -detailing her latest fabric purchases and plans for sewing projects.

Hom Spun, from Anna Allen -she shares some inspiration from one of her most recent Japanese pattern book acquisitions

Whew-time for me to get sewing! Hopefully this weekend I'll have a chance to take some photos of my most recent projects to share with you.