Bathing Suit Bottom Redo

August 13, 2014 kimberlee 6 Comments

One of my recent sewing projects has been to replace the worn out elastic in some bathing suit bottoms. To be honest with you they were wore out last year but I neglected to fix them then. I decided I needed to get them done this year as I really like the bathing suit and the top was still in good shape – so are the bottoms except for the elastic.

The above photo is of the bottoms with 2/3 of the elastic removed. Let me tell you that removing the topstitching and then the serged edge that attaches the elastic is a lot of work! I think it probably took me 3 or 4 hours total time (I didn’t do it all at once, it was too boring) to rip all of it out.

Once I had the elastic all removed the process was a lot faster and only took about 20 or 30 minutes to put in the new elastic. I used a Kwik Sew pattern, pattern 3238 which is a bathing suit pattern I have made before, for the elastic length for the waistband and the legs. I knew that those bottoms fit me well and the elastic measurements would be right.

After cutting the elastic to the measurements I used my serger to attach it to the edges of the waistband and leg openings. I first divided the elastic in half and then divided the bottoms fabric in half and marked it so I would know where and how much to stretch the elastic as I sewed. I also used wooly nylon thread in the lower looper as that part will be next to my skin and the wooly nylon is a lot softer and provides a lot more coverage and stretch than a regular polyester or cotton thread.

After attaching the elastic with the serger I then took it to my regular sewing machine and turned the elastic over and stitched it down using a narrow zigzag stitch of a 2 width and a 2 length to topstitch the elastic in place. I also used a ballpoint needle as it sews knits and over elastic better than a universal needle.

The photo above is of the front and back of the bottoms after replacing the elastic. I even remembered to sew the tag back in the back – not that I couldn’t figure out which was the back but I was glad I remembered.

Well, here is my new-old bathing suit. I tried the bottoms on and they fit much better now and are not all loose. It took a while (like a few weeks) for me to complete this project as it was a real pain to rip out that old disintegrating elastic. It was so bad it would just crumble in some spots but I still had to rip out all of the old serging holding it in so I could replace it and not have all of the bulk. The top for some reason does not, and I hope won’t any time soon, have this same problem and as you can see the bathing suit is still in pretty good shape for being several years old. I am glad I was able to recycle it and not have to just get rid of it.

The weather here is still hot and will be for at least another month or more so I will be able to wear my “new” bathing suit when we swim in our pool. My advice to anyone attempting to do an elastic replacement in a bathing suit is to be patient and just keep at the ripping of the stitches and eventually when you get to the sewing part it is super fast and easy.

Have a great day!

Kimberlee

Categories: Sewing

Tags: bathing suit sewing, elastic replacement, sewing elastic in bathing suit, sewing project, sewing swimwear

Working Out Week 32 of 2014

August 10, 2014 kimberlee 4 Comments

This past week just flew by. I am a day late in getting this post in because of my dining room painting project that I worked on yesterday for about 7 hours. I painted the lower half of the room, from chair rail down to the floor, with two coats of paint. It took a while and I did have to do some laundry and eat lunch in between the two coats I applied. I had intended to do my workout post last night but I was too tired. After cleaning up I did some knitting while watching an hour or two of television with my husband. I just needed to relax and not worry about anything else the rest of the evening.

The past week I decided to concentrate on using weights and doing high reps and then alternating with my bike riding and yoga workouts. What a noticeable difference -doing three days of weight training- in muscle definition! My workouts this week were:

Monday – Jari Love Ripped 1000 Weights only workout – 40 min
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 33 min
Wednesday – Amy Bento Slo Mo Strength NRG mix 1 Total Body Challenge – 47 min
Thursday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 40 min
Friday – Jari Love Ripped to the Core – 40 min
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 30 min

The Jari Love workouts I have had for many years. I like the results I see from using them. They are very high reps but she does vary the counts and some of the moves so you don’t get too bored. These workouts will definitely define your muscles in a short amount of time. Also, muscle burns fat and increases your metabolism while at rest. Another good reason to do some weight training.

The Jari Love Ripped to the Core workout is a lot of compound exercises – meaning you work the legs and the upper body at the same time. The cat seems to like to be around for most of this workout. I have certain equipment he loves like the long step and he will sit by my dumbbells that are not being used.

The weight workout I did in the middle of the week was Amy Bento Slo Mo Strength dvd. This is also an older dvd that I have had for quite a few years. This workout is pretty long and I chose to do one of the premixes that are a little shorter. The moves are all done with a pretty slow count and with heavier weights. The hammy rocker move in the photo above is a real leg burner. It is sort of a three part move and two of the three parts are shown in my photos.

Another move in the Slo Mo Strength dvd was for the arms called Bicep Bonfire. Your biceps are literally hot to the touch when you get done with 3 rounds of this move. It is also a kind of three part move – it is done with 8 pound dumbbells on the video but I had to go down to 5. It is really an arm burner.

Biking in the early mornings is still on my weekly rotation every other day. It is getting hotter each week though in the mornings. I like to come home and do my yoga outside but it is too hot to do that lately – especially on some of these humid days. I have had to start doing my yoga inside lately. I did manage a few minutes outside yesterday morning, though.

Last Sunday after church I went to Barnes and Noble because I had a coupon to use. I found this book on the clearance section about smoothies to boost your immune system and it looked interesting so I bought it. I have tried a couple of the recipes (with some little adjustments of my own) in the book and they are good. The one I tried is made with blueberries and grapefruit and the other was with blueberries and mango. A lot of the recipes use bee pollen in the smoothies but I didn’t have any so I left that out. I was going to get some but forgot when I went to my local health food and vitamin store the other day. I will have to add that to my list for the next time I go there.

Below is my weekly fitness tip. These tips are just some things I feel are helpful to ensure your success with working out and becoming a more healthy person.

Weekly Fitness Tip: Find a family member or friend to workout with you

-Having someone to workout with keeps you accountable and motivates you to stick with a schedule

-If you don’t have a family member or friend then find an online fitness group on facebook or even a motivating blog or fitness website with helpful advice to keep you focused. I have belonged to a small fitness group on facebook that is a “closed” group, (meaning anything you post is just in that group and not all over facebook for all your friends to see) for a little over a year and I love that group. It is only about 150 people and I think only about 25 of us are regularly on there and posting but I feel I have a lot in common with the others on there and we are all positive and motivating for each other even when one of us falls off the workout wagon or off their clean eating. I also found out that one of the members lives in a city right next to me – others are from all over the US and even Canada.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend – what is left of it. School starts here in a couple of weeks but I feel like we have already started since my oldest son is in the marching band and they have already been back at it for a week – all day long – and I have been to a band meeting one night and volunteered for the uniform fittings one day last week.

Take care and keep working out!

Kimberlee

Categories: Books Exercise Health

Tags: exercise, fitness, fitness tips, smoothie book, weight workout, workout routine, workout schedule

Knitting Pattern For Lace Scarf

August 6, 2014 kimberlee 5 Comments

A couple of months ago I came across this Paton’s Glam Stripes yarn at Michaels on clearance and I purchased quite a few of the colors. I figured I would be able to design some pretty new accessory patterns with it.

I am sharing a couple of the projects I made with the yarn and a free diagonal lace scarf knitting pattern. If you click on the red highlighted text it will take you to the pdf pattern that I designed. Below is a photo of the scarf pattern.

This scarf is a great lightweight accessory. The pattern is fairly simple – a 2 row repeat and features bias (diagonal) ends.

This scarf is super quick and easy to knit, too. It is knit on size US 8 knitting needles. You can use other yarns, not just the Paton’s Glam Stripes, but I like how it turned out with the coral Glam yarn and the glitter parts on the bias.

I also knitted a shrug in the navy blue Glam Stripes yarn. The shrug pattern is available in my etsy shop. It features an openwork knitting stitch and is also pretty simple to knit.

I like how it turned out with the Glam yarn and I am looking forward to knitting more with this pattern and other yarns. I love to take a pattern and experiment with different yarns or even different needle sizes and see what I can create. Sometimes it can look totally different than the original I designed.

I am still working on my crochet project that I started a couple of months ago with the Glam Stripes yarn in black. I seem to be knitting or sewing more lately than crocheting so it is coming along slowly.

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of August and are getting some crocheting or knitting done. I currently have a few projects going and I will be sharing more of those in the coming weeks.

Have a great day!

Kimberlee

Categories: Crochet Knitting

Tags: accessory pattern, glam stripes yarn, knitting, knitting pattern, knitting projects, scarf pattern

Working Out Week 31 of 2014

August 2, 2014 kimberlee 4 Comments

This week was a shorter workout week for me. We went on a three day trip down to San Antonio, Texas to see the Alamo and stay in the Riverwalk area and do a few things with the kids before school starts back. It was a nice trip and a beautiful area but I am also thankful and glad to be back and home and in a routine.

My workouts this week were:

Monday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 38 min.
Tuesday – off – driving to San Antonio – walking once got there to Alamo and 1 mile to eat dinner
Wednesday – a lot of walking around San Antonio
Thursday – off – driving back from trip
Friday – Jari Love – Ripped and Chiseled workout – 40 min
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 33 min.

The middle of the week I didn’t do any set or scheduled workouts but I did a lot of walking on Tuesday and Wednesday around the Riverwalk in San Antonio. We stayed right down on the Riverwalk so everything was close by and in walking distance. The first day there we walked down to The Alamo which was about two or three blocks away and I think we had to walk almost a mile one way to eat dinner that night. Lots of complaints from the kids on that one but I told them this way we could walk off our dinner on the way back to the hotel.

The photo above is of the mug I got from the Alamo gift shop and the beads I got in the clearance bin for $2.00 a strand at a little shop in the other direction from our hotel. The shops were called the Shops of LaVillita and they were these cute small little boutiques and art galleries that you don’t see in the mall or just on any street corner. I thought I would make some knitting stitch markers with the beads or maybe a bracelet. I really like the mug as it is a nice shape and I like the art work and wording on it – it says Remember the Alamo on the bottom and the year 1836 on the mug and the handle.

The two photos above are of me and my oldest son – this was our little shopping trip to the Shops at LaVillita on Wednesday. He found this hat in one of the shops and wanted it. I told him he could get it if he intended to wear it more than twice. He says he will. He is driving now so I told him it could be his driving hat. The other photo is of me in front of this pretty little fountain in front of a quaint cafe. I wanted to take my sons photo in front of the fountain but getting him to have his picture taken is difficult. I barely got the one in the hat. He will probably be mortified when I tell him I put it on my blog…

The above photos are of the Riverwalk area. It is really neat how all of these hotels, restaurants and shops are on either side of the river. You can take a river boat tour which takes you on a 30 or 40 minute ride with a guide but we didn’t end up going on that. My one son observed that it might be costly for the five of us and also the boats don’t go very fast and you could probably walk along side one and hear what the guide says, is what one of my 13 year old son’s told me. He is kind of right. I really enjoyed just walking the area and seeing the ducks and other birds and all of the green foliage that borders the sides of the river. It is pretty open and easy to get around during the day but it gets pretty crowded in the evening with everyone going to eat at the restaurants.

So back to the regular routine of workouts on Friday. I decided to do an older Jari Love workout that is called Ripped and Chiseled. It is a weight training workout and it is very high reps. I had forgotten how hard this one is and the results you feel later on in the day and the next day, too. The whole dvd is about 60 minutes and I choose to do about 40 minutes of it. The reps are high but you don’t get too bored with the exercises because she varies the count and does single, 2 -2 count, 3 and 1 count and 4 and 1 count. My legs, arms and upper back are feeling this today.

I have decided that with my weekly workout post I am going to start including some tips for success in working out on your own, or anywhere really. These are tips from me, a real person and mother of three sons – I am not nor have I ever been a professional fitness trainer or belonged to a gym. I just choose to be healthy and workout and do my workouts at home – on my own – making my own schedule.

Fitness Tip for the Week – Commit to exercising starting now!

-Schedule you workouts for at least 4 days per week for 30 minutes or more per day and you will see results – maybe not overnight but within 3 to 4 weeks.

-Start out small in the beginning – just go out for a walk or ride your bike or do some stretches or yoga. There are lots of free videos on You Tube or you can go to your local library and check out dvd’s or books on working out – that is how I started out years ago – by utilizing what my library had to offer. There are also lots of great routines and information on workouts on pinterest.

Well, I hope everyone is having a good weekend. It looks like it is going to be a pretty nice day here today so I may be doing some swimming this afternoon for a little extra workout.

Have a great weekend!

Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Vacation

Tags: exercise, fitness, fitness tips, Riverwalk, trip to San Antonio, working out, workout with weights

Working Out Week 30 of 2014

July 26, 2014 kimberlee

The last full week of July has past – week 30 of the year. It has gotten really hot here in Texas in the past week or two. My workouts this week are below:

Monday – Cathe LIS – Total Body Trisets – Chest, Shoulders and Tri’s – 31 min.
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 40 min.
Wednesday – Cathe LIS – Turbo Barre – 40 min.
Thursday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 35 min.
Friday – Cathe LIS – Total Body Trisets – Back, Bi’s and Core – 34 min.
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 33 min.

This past week instead of doing cardio dvd’s I decided to do some weights for the upper body and also my Turbo Barre workout on Wednesday.

The weight training workout I used this week was the same one, from the Cathe Low Impact Series called Total Body Trisets. The workout is actually a total body workout but I chose to just do the upper body portion of this workout on Monday and again on Friday. This workout uses some heavier weights like 10 and 15 pound dumbbells and the exercise ball with some of the sets. The workout consists of 3 exercises per grouping that you repeat two times before moving on to the next set. It felt good to do some heavier weights this past week.

The cat joined me again on Wednesday for the Turbo Barre workout. (see him on the chair) This is our third Wednesday in a row of doing this workout. I did the muscle conditioning portion with the lighter 5 pound dumbbells and then on to the floorwork and then the ab work. I love the fun and challenging ab moves in this workout. You can see some of them in the photos above.

On the days I was not using my dvd’s I rode my bike through the neighborhood. I got bored with my old route so I changed it up a bit this week. I would then come back home and do my yoga outside on the patio – it feels good to do the yoga after a bike ride.

The ball exchange move is one of my favorite ab-core exercises and I did plenty of them on Friday with the Total Body Trisets dvd. This move is where you place the ball between your lower legs, lower them down while lowering your upper body with the arms stretched overhead, then raise both your legs (while holding the ball) and your arms back up and grab the ball with your hands and lower your legs and your hands (now holding the ball) back toward the floor – you don’t actually touch the floor with your legs and arms though. When you do about 25 or 30 of these for two rounds you really feel it.

What is one of your favorite exercise moves that you did this past week or recently – or maybe a favorite new workout? Click on Leave a Reply to tell me about it.

Have a great weekend!

Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise

Tags: barre workout, exercising, fitness, weight training workout, workout routine, workout schedule, yoga

Easy Sewing Pattern For Tops

July 23, 2014 kimberlee 9 Comments

One of my favorite sewing pattern brands are Kwik Sew patterns. I realize they are a bit more expensive than some other pattern companies but I don’t mind paying extra for a stylish pattern that fits well and has excellent directions.

The other nice thing about their patterns is they are often classic styles. They also come printed on nice heavy paper, not that thin tissue paper that tears easily. All sizes are included in the pattern and I have found that if you want to sew something for yourself and then use the same pattern for someone that is a different size you can easily use this thin, see through, pattern tracing fabric – its kind of like interfacing and is usually sold near the interfacing – to trace multiple sizes. I have also used quilters grid before to trace patterns since you can see through it.

One of my favorite Kwik Sew patterns that I bought years ago and have made many times in various fabrics and prints is pattern number 3632. This pattern is for a top or dress that has an elastic casing at the neckline and sleeve cap to gather those areas in and create and cute and flattering top.

This white knit top above is one I made in the past month. It was super quick and easy to sew. There are only 2 pattern pieces and then you have to sew the casing for your elastic at the neck and arm area, hem the bottom and its finished.

The blue, yellow and white chevron print top above is also made using the same pattern but with a cotton fabric. The pattern is very versatile and I have used various types of fabrics for it. I love how easy it is to make one of these tops – like in a couple hours or less. I have also used stitches other than a straight stitch to sew the topstitched area – on these two tops I used a narrow zigzag stitch for the casings and the hems.

This particular pattern would be a great project for someone learning to sew. The pattern is really easy to read and to sew. I also noticed that Hobby Lobby is now carrying some of the Kwik Sew patterns as well as Joann and Hancocks. In the past in my area I could only buy them at Hancocks.

What types of sewing projects do you like to do?

Have a great day!

Kimberlee

Categories: Sewing

Tags: cotton top, easy pattern to sew, knit top, Kwik Sew patterns, sewing, sewing projects, sewing tops

Working Out Week 29 of 2014

July 19, 2014 kimberlee 7 Comments

This past week seemed to go by so fast! I can not believe we are more than halfway through the month of July! It has also cooled down here in Texas quite a bit the last couple of days and we got some much needed rain all day on Thursday. July is normally really hot so it is strange to be in the low 80’s for the high temperature of the day.

This week my workouts were as follows:

Sunday – Walk + Swimming – 45 minutes
Monday – Cathe Xtrain; All Out Low Impact Hiit, Step & Disc Cardio – 25 minutes
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Yoga outdoors on patio – 32 minutes
Wednesday – Cathe LIS; Turbo Barre, Upper-Lower Muscle Endurance, Legs with Band, Planks & Abs segments – 50 minutes
Thursday – ~~Walking~~ + Yoga – 20 minutes
Friday – Cathe Xtrain; Supercuts – 46 minutes
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga outdoors on patio – 32 minutes

Normally I take Sunday’s off but this past Sunday I decided to go for a late morning walk and in the afternoon I swam some laps in our pool. It was really hot that day and a great day to go swimming.

I decided to do some Cathe Friedrich Xtrain dvd’s this week. This dvd series is a couple of years old. There are some great cardio and weight routines in this series.

All Out Low Impact Hiit workout

Monday I did All Out Low Impact Hiit. I only did a 25 minute premix of the step and disc cardio that day as I was having some issues with a pesky sinus headache that came on Sunday evening and carried over into Monday. I was determined not to let it interfere with my workout schedule though. My cat showed up at the end for the stretch – apparently he wasn’t into working out that day either.

Wednesday I did the Low Impact Series from Cathe Friedrich – the Turbo Barre workout again. I am going to try and keep including this in my schedule once a week as I really like this workout even though its kind of long. It really seems to lengthen your whole body and strengthen and tone everything. This week I did a couple of the segments of the workout that I didn’t do last week. As you see the cat really likes this workout – he began it by standing on the floor behind the chair and jumping up over the back to get to the seat. Then he continued to jump around and chase his tail for a while. I guess that was his workout for the day.

I am also continuing to enjoy the warmer weather and ride my bike or walk in the mornings. This past week on Thursday I was going to walk again but it rained – thankfully as we really needed it. So, I decided to get out an old workout that I bought years ago. It is the Caribbean Workout Yoga For the Core. The show used to be on Fit TV and they also put out dvd’s. I think I got this on sale at Walmart. The dvd has three 20 minute segments on it. Both of my cats joined me that day for some yoga.

The other Xtrain workout I did was called Supercuts. I did the entire dvd which is 46 minutes long. It is a fun, fast paced and challenging workout that has cardio, weights and lots of core exercises. There are also several exercise that use the band with handles that are really great for the upper body and the core.

I made more granola this week since my one son ate most of the first batch I made last week. You can look at my workout post from week 28 to get the link to the granola recipe.

I also read a post last week on another blog I follow called the 100lb Countdown. The post was on smoothies and it gave me an idea to create this smoothie with carrots, orange juice and a nectarine.

I guess this smoothie came out more like a drink but I thought it had an interesting and pleasant taste. To make this you will need the following ingredients:

handful baby carrots
1 nectarine, cut up, pit removed, skin left on
2 spoonfuls plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water – more if needed
1/2 cup crushed ice

Place all of the above ingredients in a high powered blender like a ninja blender and pulse a few times then blend for about 1 to 2 min. on speed 8. You could also add a little honey if you wanted it a bit sweeter.

I have found that I like nectarines in my smoothies and have used them in a couple of my green smoothies as well. I recently read in a book I got from the library called The Juicing Diet that nectarines are good for detoxing, heart and bone health and for your skin.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health Recipes

Tags: at home workouts, exercise, fit mom, fitness, health, smoothie, Smoothie Recipe, working out, workout routine, yoga

Garter Lace Knit Shawl

July 16, 2014 kimberlee 7 Comments

I have finally finished my Noro Garter Lace Shawl. I started this project last summer and had set it aside. I got it out a couple of months ago and decided I needed to finish it since I was already a fourth of the way done. The shawl is very pretty and I love how it turned out.

The shawl pattern was from the summer 2013 issue of Noro Knitting magazine. The pattern is available on Ravelry for $5.00. It was a fairly simple pattern to follow but in my magazine there was an error on the one row of the lace pattern. I had figured this out on my own around the third repeat row of the lace pattern and I now notice that there is a errata statement on the Ravelry page – I guess I should have looked there sooner. So, if you decide to knit this look at the end of the pattern page and the row correction is there – save yourself a headache.

The yarn I used for this was not the yarn the pattern recommended. I used Noro Sekku yarn because I had 3 skeins of it and knew it would be enough to make this shawl. The Sekku yarn is a blend of mainly cotton, wool, nylon and silk. The yarn was okay to work with – not one of my favorites in the Noro yarns. It is a really fine yarn that was like knitting with floss. I really like the colors of the yarn though and how they look with the lace pattern. The colorway I used was number 8 – and it only took 2 of my 3 skeins so now I will have to figure out something to make with that leftover skein.

The reason I think this shawl took me forever to finish was that it is knit on very small size 4 needles. That needle size combined with the thin yarn I just felt like I was not getting much done. The end part of the shawl took forever to complete a row too because you had over 300+ stitches on the needles. I think it was taking me about 10 or 15 minutes to complete a row.

This shawl is a great summer project though as the yarn is thin and mostly cotton so it is not hot or too heavy to work with when it is hot outside. I do not like to work with heavy wool type of yarns in the summer time.

Overall I am pleased with the way this shawl turned out and look forward to being able to wear it. It will be a great shawl to keep with me for those chilly air conditioned places. There are also a lot of great colors in this shawl that will go with many things in my wardrobe.

What projects have you recently finished? Click on Leave a Reply and tell me about them.

Have a great day!

Kimberlee

Categories: Knitting

Tags: knit shawl, knitting project, lace knit shawl, lace knitting, lace shawl, noro lace knit shawl, shawl

Working Out Week 28 of 2014

July 12, 2014 kimberlee 1 Comment

Another week has gone by and I was able to get back into my normal routine of working out each morning now that the ceiling renovations are done and I am feeling better.

Monday – Cathe – LIS (Low Impact Series) Cardio Supersets – 41 min
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 32 min
Wednesday – Cathe LIS Turbo Barre – 52 min
Thursday – ~~Ride Bike~~ Walk + Yoga – 35 min
Friday – Cathe LIS Afterburn – 54 min
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 35 min

I decided to do my Cathe Friedrich Low Impact Series workouts since I was still only about 70% better at the beginning of the week. The LIS workouts are still challenging but not as hard or intense as some of her other workouts.

After completion of Cardio Supersets

As you can see by the workout photos above and the post workout photo of all the sweat that the low impact workout does not mean easy. These workouts are still challenging but less intense and not so hard on the joints – a lot less jumping but it still gets your heart rate up.

On the days in between doing LIS I rode my bike and came home from riding to do a little outdoor yoga on the back patio. I went out on Tuesday to a very flat tire on my bike so I pumped it up, rode anyhow and kept checking behind me to make sure it was holding air. When I went out to ride on Thursday the tire was completely flat again so I decided to walk instead and not risk riding on the bad tire. I discovered we had another tube to replace it so my husband fixed it for me Friday night and I was able to ride again on Saturday. I did enjoy walking for a change though on Thursday. It is nice to have variety – keeps me from getting bored of exercising.

On Wednesday the LIS workout I chose to do was the Turbo Barre workout. I have not done this workout is quite a while and really like it. The workout is done in bare feet and uses minimal equipment – just a chair, or a barre if you have one, some light dumbbells and a loop band – and your cat on your chair! My cat loves to sit on the chair during this workout. It is over 50 minutes so I think he left for a few to go eat his food – then he was back. This workout offers total body conditioning with a primary focus on the legs, hips and butt. I have decided to try and incorporate this in my weekly routine at least once a week for the next month to see the results. I like how it lengthens and defines the lower body.

Afterburn was the other Cathe LIS workout I used this week. It is a total body cardio and conditioning workout that offers a lot of variety using the slide and glide discs (that my cat loves), some dumbbells and dixie cups as markers or props for the workout. Again it is low impact but not easy and you will sweat a lot.

I also made a new granola recipe this week. It is one I found on another blog a couple of months ago and had pinned it to one of my pinterest boards. It is a white chocolate cranberry granola. I changed the recipe a bit to have a little less brown sugar and used oil in place of the butter. One of my son’s loves it and he is usually kind of picky. He saw me putting in the coconut and didn’t think he would like it but he said it smelled really good so he tried it and had two small bowls when it was still warm from the oven.

The photo above of the granola is with some fresh blueberries added to it and some soy milk. That was my breakfast this morning. My son didn’t want the dried cranberries in his so I am just storing the granola and adding in what I want as I eat it. This is really good if you warm the granola a little bit and then add a few of the white chocolate chips and they sort of melt onto the granola. It would also be good with dark chocolate chips, I think. I will probably try that out next.

I hope everyone has had a great week. Tell me about your workouts or any new recipes you have tried by clicking on Leave a Reply. Also, for future post and updates you can follow my blog via bloglovin, email or RSS – all icon are in the right sidebar.

Have a great day!

Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Food Recipes

Sewing Simple Chevron Top

July 8, 2014 kimberlee 2 Comments

This simple blue chevron top is a sewing project I finished a couple of months ago. I had intended to share it sooner but things have gotten in the way of my plans which is I guess how life goes for everyone at times. I have wore the top several times already and love how simple it was to sew and how comfortable it is to wear. Also, it looks good with skirts, shorts or jeans.

The pattern I used for this top was from the Bernina My Label software – which is pattern drafting software I have that drafts patterns by your measurements. I have mentioned it before and use it quite a bit. This top is actually not one of the patterns in the software – I used the tunic pattern to design this simple cap sleeve top. It is only two pattern pieces – a front and back – and I make a bias neckband facing which I am going to share with you below on how to do this.

The fabric I used was a 100% cotton fabric that I think I ordered from fabric.com. The one thing about making clothing with the chevron prints is that you want to have a little extra fabric to match the chevron pattern as close a possible to look uniform. Also, you want to make a top that does not have a lot of complicated darts or seams that will make the print look strange.

The neckline of this top is sewn with a bias strip of fabric for the facing. A lot of patterns come with a facing that is curved but I often find they are kind of wide and do not always lay well. I have found that using the bias facing technique works much better – especially with this style of top. Below is a little tutorial on how to make a bias neckline facing.

Step 1 – cut a fabric strip on the bias that is 1 1/4 inch or 1 1/2 inch wide and a little longer than the length around your neckline. For this top I did 1 1/4 inch wide. Note: the bias is the 45 degree diagonal grain of the fabric – most quilting rulers have the angles marked and you can use that as a cutting guide.
Step 2 – after you have your strip cut finish off one of the long raw edges with a serger or a zigzag stitch
Step 3 – then pin the other raw edge with right sides together to your neckline starting at the center back of neck- overlap the ends a little (what I usually do is just have an extra long strip and after I am done pinning it to the neckline I cut it where I need to)
Step 4 – sew the strip to the neckline edge using a 1/2 in seam allowance

Step 5 – Clip the curved neckline edges close to stitching line, with a steam iron press bias strip out with seam pressed toward the bias strip

Step 6 – Understitch the facing just inside the neckline seam on the bias strip – you can use the inner toe of your presser foot as a guide
Step 7 – Press the facing to the inside of the top and topstitch the facing down from the right side of the top – I usually use a 3/8 inch seam or the outer edge of my presser foot as a guide while stitching around the neckline – press again after you complete your topstitching

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are getting lots of sewing projects done this summer. I would love to hear about what you are working on – click on Leave a Reply to tell me about your current projects and crafts. Also, to receive future blog updates and tutorials follow my blog via email subscription, RSS feed or bloglovin. All icons are in the right sidebar.

Have a great week!

Kimberlee

Categories: Sewing

Tags: bias neckline facing, bias neckline facing tutorial, chevron fabric, chevron top, cotton chevron top, sewing, sewing apparel, sewing projects, sewing tutorial