While studying the construction of this romper I bought, I noticed this covering over the embroidery. What type of stabilizer is it? It is fusible and looks like it will withstand several washings. I am unable to pick it off the fabric. It is also very lightweight. It adds no shape to the garment. It just covers the loose ends of the embroidery, making it softer against the skin. I want to find out what it is so I can buy some. I would like to use it on the baby things I am making, to keep them soft underneath and I also think it would stop some curling of the embroidery designs after washing. So, does anyone know what type of stabilizer is this?
Summer is coming, or at least I hope it is. For living in a state that has a town named Sun City this sure has been a cold and wet winter for the southland this year. With the hopes of warmer weather on my mind, I was looking at the summer clothes for kids at Sam’s Club when I found these cute rompers they had. I like the full legs of these rompers rather than the leg binding or onesies look of others. I decided that I wanted to make rompers like the ones at Sam’s but have not been able to find a pattern so I bought one of the rompers to take a pattern off of it. I have never really done this before but I figured I could start with the romper pattern I have and modify it from there. 
I have been giving this project a lot of thought and 
study in the hopes of success. It was easy to trace the leg and cut a pattern piece for it, but the crotch part is a little more tricky. It looks like it is just 2 half circles sewn between the legs to hold the snaps, but actually only the front is this way. On the back half the circle part is attached so it is a separate piece of the garment. I believe it is this way so there is actually a crotch to the romper or something to cover the diaper. This part though is making the whole construction a little more difficult. I have traced my pattern, cut out the pieces and started to sew the romper together, but I can already see that I am going to have to give the hem a little more thought. This first romper may not work out exactly like the one I purchased, but I have learned a lot so far on its construction and plan to learn even more as I finish it up. I am very excited that it is turning out as well as it is so far.
So, I thought I would give something new a try. In an attempt to add some variation to my sewing and my wardrobe, I decided to make me a shirt with a two piece collar like on a man’s dress shirt. After cutting out the shirt, I sewed the front and back of the top pieces of the collar together, turned, and ironed. Next I stitched the front and back of the bottom pieces of the collar together, with the top part sandwiched in and turned and ironed again. After sewing the plackets for the buttons, I sewed the back of the bottom piece of the collar to the shirt. And here is when the “fun” began. I then pressed the seam up, flipped the collar up and tried to “stitch in the ditch” to complete the collar. This worked great on the back of the collar, but when it came to the front points, I had a mess on my hands. I had no control trying to get the edge of the placket flush with the edge of the bottom collar pieces. There was just too much bulk in the seam allowances to keep it folded and flush. I sewed, unpicked, sewed, unpicked and so on until the fabric was starting to give up, so I called it good. I put it together the best I could and used plenty of fray check on the points. 
a second idea came to me. I noticed that most of the retail store shirts had top stitching on the collar. So on my next collar of this type I am going to sew and iron the top part of the collar as before, but only sew it to the top part of the bottom piece of the collar. Then I am going to sandwich the shirt between the bottom pieces of collar and sew not only the across the shirt and collar pieces but around the bottom pieces of collar to the where the top collar is attached if possible. I believe I can keep everything flush this way, and have more control too. I will then turn the collar right side out and attach the back bottom piece of the collar to the top of the collar in the top stitching. If it is off a little it will be ok because it will be hidden under the collar. I am very excited to give this idea a try and see if it works. Any other suggestions?
Sea World or even Gatorland, but with fabric. How could I pass it up? It seems that I get the best deals on Snoopy fabric in Florida. Sitting on the shelf in the Wal-Mart in Kissimmee Florida was 5 yards of Snoopy fabric for $2.00 a yard. My Wal-Mart at home had this print a couple of months ago for $4.44 a yard. Before I had a chance to purchase any, even at full price, it was gone. So, yes, I purchased every inch they had left. Besides that, for me, fabric is the best souvenir. When I see it in my stash or make something from it, I remember where I bought it and the good times I had buying it as well as the great memories of the vacation.
deciding what color of thread to use. I thought about sewing the yellow parts with yellow thread and the blue parts with blue thread or sew all yellow thread or all blue thread. I finally decided on all blue thread and white serger thread. I did not really like the blue fabric serged in white thread, but I figured that since the yellow fabric is on the thinner side, that serging in any other color would show through. I figured that would look worse then the white thread on the blue fabric. The blue thread that I used was a cheap spool I had in the closet that matched. I have since thrown away the rest of the spool. The cheap thread was hard to work with and never seem to cut clean. It seemed to fray rather than cut. My last challenge constructing this shirt was finding buttons. I finally settled on the blue ones because nothing I had seemed to match well. Of course, my selection of buttons is limited. I either have ones I like in my button box or it is off to Wal-Mart, which does not have the largest button selection either. Even with the matching thread and button issues, the shirt turned out well and it was fun to wear while at Disney World.
We just got back from a wonderful trip to Florida and Disney World. While packing the cameras, GPS, and other electronic devices in the carry on bag, my husband was concerned about how beat up they got on their last trip. I told him I would make him some pouches to hold these items, but he had a much better idea. He suggested that we use old socks. I save mismatched socks to use as sock monster parts so I have plenty in the sewing closet. I pulled out a few anklets, cut them off at the heel, and serged across the bottom to form a little pouch. The socks worked great. They protected the devices from scratching each other, and because of the stretch in the sock, they fit snugly around the devices, not letting them slip out. The socks also worked well at keeping the cameras clean especially at the beach where the sand always gets into EVERYTHING. The socks were also thin enough to leave on while carrying the devices around in your pocket. This was nice for added protection, especially on the park rides. All in all, a great idea.