I hope ya'll don't mind a picture of my ass all up in your face but I need some advice!  I've almost finished up my Sewaholic Thurlows and I've got some minor issues.

My first ever welt pockets look pretty good but let's talk about all this excess fabric hanging out under my butt cheeks.

The only pant alterations I've been able to find online that are anywhere remotely close to this area is a saggy butt or as I like to call it, poopie pants. I don't really have that problem as you can see the wrinkles all lie right below my butt cheeks and on my thighs.  I actually have the opposite problem of poopie pants, -hungry butt-, and I will be letting the back out just a smidge.  It's kind of hard to see in this picture and I'll spare you that close up (well if you follow me on flickr you've already seen it, sorry).

Here's a picture of the front after I fixed my saggy crotch issue. To fix that I simply brought in the inseam 3/4 inch on each side. You can also see in this picture the problem with the excess fabric I'm having on the behind. It's all kind of poking out at the sides and saying HI!! Maybe I just need to bring the seam in on the sides as well???

Well it's been a little over a year since I began sewing and close to a year since I started this blog.  When I started this blog is was kind of on a whim.  I've always liked writing and thought it would be fun to have a blog but I just didn't know what I would talk about.  I started sewing and started getting into sewing my own clothes and then the idea struck me that I could blog about my sewing.  I had absolutely no idea how many sewing blogs were already out there.  Once I started reading them I was hooked.  It was exactly what I needed to get my creative juices flowing.  I have found so many inspirational bloggers that keep me motivated to keep trucking along.  My blog roll continues to grow everyday as well as my own list of followers.  I'm so happy to have a place to share, be inspired and hopefully inspire others.  As a way to show my appreciation and to celebrate my 1 year blogging/sewing anniversary I wanted to do a giveaway! Yay!!  I love reading all your comments and encouraging words.  It truly gets me through every sewing project. 

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do for a giveaway and a Craftsy class it is!  I'm enrolled in several right now.  Craftsy is an awesome place to learn and create in the comfort of your own home.  You can take the class at your own pace and it's yours forever to view over and over again.  Cake decorating, sewing, weaving, knitting, you name it they have it all.  I pretty much taught myself to sew with the help of the internet and you tube videos (plus I was already born with some mad skills thanks to both of my Granny's). ;)  I enrolled in the Sassy Librarian Blouse class and not only was it super fun it was soooo beneficial to me.  I actually had someone in front of me explaining the why's and how to's of sewing and I got to make a super cute shirt in the process!  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not too long ago I got a new machine.  A Singer Signature and it does all kinds of fancy stuff.  I won't lie I bought it for that fancy stuff too, fancy stuff that most likely I'm never gonna use.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for fancy stuff.  My husband often makes fun of me at the grocery store for some of the things I buy, like cookies with fancy writing on the package.  Yes I'm being accused of buying cookies merely for the fancy writing on the package.  You know that fancy writing makes them cookies taste better.  

So anyway back to my sewing machine, it came with a lot of feet, 20 to be exact.  I have no clue what most of them are.  I decided to do a little research on them and thought I'd share with you all.  I don't usually talk about my feet but I'm hoping some may find this helpful.  I'm also hoping you all will be open to share your feet with me.  The feet or foot I'm going to discuss today is the cut-n-hem foot.

----CUT N HEM FOOT----

Now before you hit the gas this is the perfect time to make sure your on a zig zag stitch or overcast stitch and for pete's sake sit up straight and back away from the machine!

The results aren't too shabby.  I will probably find this foot useful for small projects like finishing the edges of pocket lining.  I don't see it working too well on a heavy weight fabric.  The blade is prone to wear out rather quickly making it absolutely useless.  I'm sure you could probably replace the blade that is if you can find replacements.  I also take back what I said about it replacing a serger.  I'm sure all you more experienced sewers are laughing at me right now.  A serger does a more eye pleasing job.  But for those of us that don't have a serger just yet there are tons of other options for finishing edges, a plain ol' zig zag to start and let's not forget about the trusty pinking shears!

So if your all still with me and have not stopped reading due to boredom do any of you have this particular foot and have you found it useful?  Was this post helpful to anyone?...anyone?...wanna hear about my other feet!?  Why do I feel like I'm in a once crowded, now empty room tapping on my microphone to make sure it's still on??

I have a feeling this dress is gonna get a lot of wear out of it...

Like several others I had some fitting issues with those pesky bodice darts.   I thought I had it all figured out but there was still a little puckering in the boobage area to fix.  A big thank you to Rochelle and Lauren for the very helpful post.  I discovered my dart points didn't exactly match up.  After making those adjustments the dress came together fairly easy.  So lemme break it down for you...

Plaid suiting I picked up from JoAnn's.  The pocket lining is gabardine and matches the green in the plaid perfectly.  Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the pockets and it's kind of hard to see the green stripe in the plaid.

The bodic darts were both moved over closer to the sides by 2 inches and shortened by 1 inch.  The bust darts were also shortened by 1 inch.  I used pleats instead of the gathers on the skirt.  The front and back shoulders were extended by 2 inches and the neckline was made more round in preperation for.....

A peter pan collar drafted using Gertie's fabulous book.  If you don't own this book yet I highly recommend getting it.  Gertie is just the bomb!

I intended on taking pictures outside but it's real windy out as you can see (who am I shitting, it's always windy out here in the country)..and absolutely freezing.

I had to make due with the laundry/sewing room.  It's the best room in the house for pictures as far as lighting goes.

 I'm super duper serial guysss!!

Matching the plaids was a real chore.  I have to say I did a fairly good job considering I totally forgot I was working with plaid when I cut my pattern out. Doh!  The hardest part was trying to match up the plaid while installing the invisible zipper.

I will now be working on the Sewaholic's Thurlow trousers.  Lladybird is having a sew along and I'm a little behind.  I guess shitty days like these are good for something, catching up on sewing projects.