Bateau neck African dress with dashiki print bottom.

African Dashiki Dress

This is a wide neck dashiki dress in this awesome print.  Another favorite of mine. 

African Themed Fashion

Here is another dress from my fashion show.  This is probably one of my favorite pieces. 

Mama Africa

I recently did a fashion show in Barbados.  There were two segments: A vintage segment and an African themed segment. This was the first dress in my collection. It opened the show to my portrayal of Africa. 

Birthday Flare

I don't even know what to call this fabric but I know that I love it. It's a square neck flare dress made for my niece on her 18th birthday. I don't usually make her short clothing I just got a little happy with the scissors. I can't say I was too unhappy though because it turned out quite cute. 

What do you guys think?

SewHappy

Bajan Inspired Flare Dress

This is probably one of my favorite dresses. It's a fitted top with a flare bottom styled dress with pockets and a wide waistband. She's beautiful in this outfit. 

#SewGreat #SewHappy #SewLovely

2014 Christmas Outfit

Even though this is a super late post I've decided that I'm going to add them anyway for its better late than never. Here's a top I made for myself for Christmas last year. With the right color for Christmas and as I would have it a little sparkle this top was the perfect Christmas sewing venture.  You can see the detail in the black part of the top in the first picture. What do you think?

Back at my first love again. Sewing!

New dress made for a sweet sixteen event. All white lace dress, deep V back with a hint of ruffles to add a classy touch. 

Two for one...

Here's some more of the metallic silver and black theme dresses I made for the anniversary concert. 

Chiffon Swirl

No posts in 2013 for me but I sure did lots of work. Here's another anniversary metallic silver themed dress. 

It includes a satin metallic top with hi-low chiffon bottom and a sparkly piece of detail in the waist. This pic is not the greatest so you can't see the hi-low effect in the bottom but beautiful nevertheless. 

SewHappy...

Fit and Flare

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I’ve posted on here and while it would appear that I have abandoned my blog, I really haven’t.  I just have not had the chance to sit and write up a blog and we all know that time waits for no one so 2013 flew by. 

 

So what did I do last year? I certainly bought lots of fabric that’s for sure but I also made some pieces I really loved.  Some of them I did not get to take pics of and others the pics were not so great but nevertheless I can still show something.

 

Last year, my church choir had an anniversary concert so I made a couple dresses.  The colors were black and silver.  I call this dress Slim Fit Flare because it is a regular sheath dress with a flare attached.  I love this dress a lot.  The back of the dress is a silver pattern like the waistband.  Tell me what you think.

 

SewHappy...

Sequins and Pockets...

So we are still keeping up with the metallic silver theme and I have another great number for you. I love making dresses for young ladies; If I have the ability to assist young ladies in dressing like young ladies I'm all for it.  What the world offers as clothing for them is simply short and tight.  Young ladies ought not to bare themselves to the world. 

Now onto the dress.   This is a pocket flared dress with sequined shoulders.  I love this number.

SewHappy. 

Mittens Anyone...

Here is my final post for the day....

This winter has been a bit much to handle.  As recent as last week we had weather the lowest I heard was 7 degrees.  That is what I call biting cold weather.  And interestingly enough, I was caught outside in the cold several times without gloves.  That did not make me happy at all because I cannot begin to feel warm unless my hands are warm.  So I decided even though I have gloves I will make some mittens.

So I went ino my stash of fabric again.  I found some animal print fur and some jersey fabric and got to work.  In my last couple of posts, I have been talking about going into my stash....well, I told myself that I will try my best to use all of the fabric I have at home instead of purchasing any more.  I have lots of fabric at home and really need to bring the amount way way down.... so everything I make for maybe the next month (yes that is about all I can take.  lol) will be from my stash of fabric.

In any case, here are my mittens.  What do you think?

Gotta go now/

SewHappy.

Maroon Flare

Well, when I am back, I am definitely back.  I have been digging into my stash of fabric and I found this cute maroon somewhat striped sparkle number. 

I like sparkles, I like sequins, I like glitter, I like diamonds but not to be over the top..... I think they add a spectacular aspect to any garment.  So look out for me making some clothes with added sparkle soon. 

Anyway, back on track, so I found this fabric and immediately I knew that I wanted to make a dress with a close fitting bottom and an oversized top with slits in the sleeves.  I like when I know exactly what I want to make because all things come together so easily.   

So here is the end result of my fabric and thought ideas. 

Regrettably, I took the pic myself with my computer so I was not able to get the bottom of the dress.  However, the dress ends at my knees and it is close fitting.

Hope you enjoyed this...

SewHappy.

SuperHeroes, Fleece and extras

Hello blog world, oh how I have missed blogging.  I am not even sure what had me so busy that I could not add a post.  I do know that I spent some time as you all know vacationing for the holidays, I did some alterations, and even sewn a couple dresses.  The problem is I took very little pics with the dresses I made.  Here's some that I did snap.

A sparkly number for the new year and a vacation dress for my niece.  In that pic we are in Barbados and my niece is attempting to get some golden apples from the tree.
     The next thing I had to deal with was my nephew bugging me to teach him to sew.  Well I decided to put some time into him and teach him to make something.  But first, he requested that I bring to life a superhero costume he drew.  I did my best; here's a pic.

 My nephew is pretty specific and detail oriented.  If you can see his drawing above he clearly wrote out what color he wanted the tights, the sleeves, designs on the sleeves and all...  The belt buckle has a huge S on it but it is not shown well in the pics.

Now we still had to think of something for him to sew.   I had some fleece material I thought would be great to use but didn't want to make the usual things with fleece like hats, scarves, etc......So, with the help of my google+ community I got some great ideas of things to make with fleece.  So we decided to make pajama pants.  Check them out.  As always I like a little extra jazz to my clothes so we included a zebra print.  He was able to cut out his fabric and bypass a regular sewing machine and go straight to the serger.  :)  So he serged his pants together.

Well that's all for now but I will try to add another post soon.

SewHappy.

Merry Christmas All.....

It's truly the most wonderful time of the year.  It's even more wonderful when you are on the island of Barbados.  Family, fun, sun, beaches, Christmas lights, and gifts......Ummm.....sums up a great Christmas to me.

 I pray that your holiday was enjoyable and if you were hoping for something special this Christmas that you received it.

DarcyRo.

Peplum Florals

Hello again everyone,

     It feels like it has been such a long long time that I have not added a post here.  Well, whenever there is a break there must be something going on. So, it began with my new serger.  I have been serging everything.  I am really enjoying the serger and the beautiful finished look it gives to a garment. In the midst of all that I got the flu and it simply kept me in bed.....On a side note, when did we start losing all of our major brands.  I went to Walgreens to get some cough medicine and other flu remedies but could not find anything but a walgreens brand.  Instead of Robitussin it was Waltussin, wal-tapp, wal-this and wal that....what is happening.....anyway, just my observations and whoever took all the theraflu off the shelves, something has got to be done.

Now back to the regularly scheduled activities....
So, in the midst of serging everything I also forgot to take pics of my work.  No bueno! But I have been working on a dress for the past week that I had to make sure I share with you guys.  I made a peplum dress for a friend of mine that I absolutely loved.  The fabric is remarkable.  She purchased it while on a trip to Ghana.  The fabric is a tiffany like blue color with florals and traces of gold.  It is a V neck dress as you will see. I do not have a pic of the back part of the peplum (bummer--I should have taken one) but instead of the peplum going all the way around and ending at the zipper it actually ends at the back darts and is creatively sewn into the darts........some kinda wonderful.

Here is a pic of her in the dress....Tell me what you think.....

I say cayute......

I'm Official............And Serger Problems :)

I'm official!!!!!!!! I am finally official and I am once again SewHappy.  I finally got myself a SERGER and can enter the land of official seamstresses.   Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!.....I have been looking to get a serger for quite some time but could not find one at a price I could afford.........So I recently saw a deal and I snatched it up.  Now I am OFFICIAL!!!!!!! Here's my beauty......

*singing* Isn't she lovely.........

I'm SewHappy......

And as you can see, I have already put her to good use but I ran into some problems quite early.  The Serger came already threaded and I was happy about that but I did so many happy trial stitches that the thread ran out and as much as I tried I could not rethread the machine to save my life.  I followed all of the directions, read the manual three times and was still missing something.  But thanks to a great video on youtube by artistkaesewing I was able to thread this beauty back up again.  There is something critical about threading the upper looper on a Brother and Artistkaesewing explains it well.  If you are having the same problem with your Brother Serger you definitely want to check out that video.

SERGER PROBLEM
The problem that I now have is keeping the machine consistent.  It seems as if the thread loosens the more I serge.  Does this happen to anyone else? Does anyone know how to fix this problem?   HELP ME......I know there must be some experts at this out there.  Email me, message me, call me, come over......lol.....whatever you have to do to help this sister whose serger excitement is dwindling.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.


DarcyRo-sews

Bags, Bags and more Bags.

I spent a good part of last week working on a specific project.  Bags!!!!!! Why? Because I told my friend ages ago that I would make her one -- I am now getting around to it.  So last week I decided to make it happen.....well, based on my friend's nudging.

This was such a challenge because I was not feeling very inspired so I had no clue where to start.  I did know that I wanted to incorporate some leather into the bag.  Woohoo......a starting place but I've never made a bag with leather before so it heightened the challenge.  Problem was:  Anytime I am not inspired oor havea clear plan it usually means that some fabric will be wasted.  So you know what happened next.......I threw away the first cut of fabric.  :(  Leather proved to be a little  difficult to work with so I put off the leather until I could figure it out and was drawn to clutches.

Here are the results:
Bag#1:  I purchased a square piece of fabric recently from one of my favorite craft stores.....Save a Thon.  I had no idea what to do with it and then the idea of a clutch came to me.  I cut the square in half, lined it with a snazzy oriental like fabric and ended up with this number. 

Bag#2:  Well I didnt just purchase one of those squares from Save a Thon.  I purchased a couple so I decided to make another clutch idea.  This one is lined with another square piece.  It is an off white suede piece.  It feels so great on the inside. 

Bag# 3:  So then I got a little happy and made another one.  This time I wanted to do something a little different to the clutch so I made one with a slanted closure.

Bag#4: So about now I decided that maybe I should go back and try out the leather thing again.  Now I was thinking I would use the leather and do something closely associated to vintage.  So, here is what I came up with.  It is made with a light blue leather material and lined with gold studs.  I plan to add a strap to it.

Bag#5:  Yeah, I started to get a little excited now.  But I left the leather alone again because sewing it was not easy and I had broken a needle....No Bueno! Plus those studs had my fingers hurting.  So, I went back to my fabric squares.  This time I had picked up a red one.  I won't even add a description because this is by far my favorite.  It's hot!

I love this!!!!!!!  It is a red clutch with a lace top.  By the way, all of these bags will be for sale on my etsy store or you can email me.

Bag#6 and #7:  I went back to the leather.  Leather was still misbehaving and between these two bags I broke another 4 needles. Ugh!!!!!! I was not happy one bit but it taught me that I have to find another approach for sewing leather. 
So here are the final two bag creations.

First one: Feathered Leather.  Tan leather with black feathers.  *Feathers only on front.  This bag is not one for sale because the leather was so thick I was not able to sew through it easily or as nicely as I would like.  When I come up with a plan to alter this bag a little nicer, I will add it to etsy.  I am not sure the picture actually does this bag justice because in person it is some kinda wonderful.  If you like to have a piece that's a little different this would be the bag for you.  Ooooohhhh Weeeee.......I love it!  Just wish the sewing was a little better. 

The final bag is also another one of my favorite ones.  I added bag handles to this one.  I enjoyed making this bag because I wanted to do something vintage with my leather and this bag reminds me of a bag my mom carried when she was younger.  I think the handles also take me to that era.  I added the studs to make it vintage yet contemporary. 

Well you can see how full and eventful my week was.  I enjoyed delving into this area and doing something I don't do very often.  Now my friend can have her pick of a bag.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  You might know how to sew leather and if so I would really love to hear from you.

DarcyRo.

1970s Vintage Mod Dress

Well Sandy has passed over but the after effects are enormous.  Gas seems to be the necessity of all NY residents and still there is none.  So people and cars line up waiting for hours on hours just to receive the limit mandated. 

But I am assured that my great city will get back on its feet.  So in the meantime I got myself busy again at the sewing machine.  I'm telling you there is never a reason for me to be bored because I have an outlet.  My sewing machine.  So this time I created a dress that I really really love.  It is a 1970s Mod look.  I love that era of dresses where the skirts were kinda flared the necks were high and the fabric was amazingly great quality.  I like to call it the demure era where women and their clothing portrayed confident yet sexy; Classy yet Sexy.  Sexy did not require revealing your genetic makeup.  Modesty was sexy and there is nothing wrong with bringing back an era of Modesty.

I have always wanted to make dresses that would speak to that era; the problem was getting the right fabric.   Well hooray! I finally found a piece that would qualify. 

This is what I call my 1970s Mod look.  It is a high neck collar, with a slightly flared skirt and some buttons in the middle to really bring it into the 70s era.  The design of the fabric is also quite Mod to me.  Check out this beauty.

I wish I could say check out my etsy channel; that, I will be selling them there but I can't because I have no more of this material but I can definitely create this look in a different fabric and might do just that and add to my etsy store.

Here is another view which shows the pattern a little clearer.

Thanks for looking.  Hope you like it.  Don't be afraid to leave a comment :)
I have a video of this dress on youtube.  Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZptB9Wvps