Sewing for Others

I've been silent lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing.

I will be the first to say that I don't often sew for others.  Sometimes, though, it's a lot of fun.  Especially when you get new tools to try out.

After the initial top I made for my mom, she asked for another one, in black, for an upcoming trip.  She liked the cowl neckline, but asked for a couple of changes--namely, the armscye needed to be raised.  

Honestly, no one wants to flash bra band in the armhole.

So why isn't this shirt black, you're asking?  2 reasons: 

1.  Black is boring classic, but it doesn't photograph well.  

Read: I forgot to take a picture of it.  

2.  I talked her into this fabulous raspberry color, too.  

And, I added short sleeves to this one.

And the new tools?

Well, I bought myself a coverstitch machine.

It's AMAZING.

The hemming of the sleeves and body was lickety-split quick, and the neckline is just incredible.  My double needle never looked so nice, even with all the additional time spent adjusting the tension on the bobbin case.

After reading Andrea's review of her's, here, and Sunny's post about her's here, I hemmed and hawed, and hemmed and hawed, and talked myself into.  I justified it in every possible way, and it is a luxury purchase, but I'm really happy I finally did.  If you need justification, too, let me know, and I'll get you going, too.

Long story short, my husband said yes, my local sewing store worked with me, and I decided to go with the Janome Coverpro 1000cpx.  It has 3 needles vs the 900cpx, which has 2. 

But, before you think me too selfless, I did actually run-through the sleeve changes on this one first:

Details:

Pattern: Maria Denmark Day-to-Night Drape top + Renfrew sleeves (minus bands)

Fabric: black (not pictured) and raspberry modal; polka dot bamboo knit; 1 yard each, all from Hart's Fabric

Notions: clear elastic to stabilize the back neckline

Time to complete: an evening for each, a month to blog about it

And because I like the coverstitch so much, I've got a stack of knits waiting to be made into t-shirts.

Especially now that my Halloween sewing is done.  

(I may have a slight turqouise problem.)