Serger class, Wild Ginger, and an Etsy project

Monday night's serger class at my sewing store was great. The teacher - daughter of the store's owner - has been working with sergers since they became available for home use many years ago. There were only about nine students in the class versus the 20 that were in my last sewing class at the store, and one of her sisters helped out so that everyone was able to receive individual attention when needed. It is not nearly as difficult to thread this machine as it first appears and we learned several cool tricks for serging. I also picked up a book that came highly recommended on http://sewing.patternreview.com, The Ultimate Serger Answer Guide.

On Tuesday I took the plunge and purchased the pattern drafting software that I have been eyeing for a while, Wild Ginger's PatternMaster Boutique. Daniel helped measure me and I constructed a dress sloper based on my measurements to test it out. The sloper is complete other than the zipper which will have to wait for this weekend's trip to Joann's. I think there's going to be some adjustments needed to the measurements but it's hard to tell for certain until the zipper is in place.

Lastly, I've been working out some plans for a small bifold wallet. I traced some credit cards and cash in my notebook drawing the wallet around it, and then constructed a 1/2 size mock-up in muslin. It has a vinyl sleeve for an ID plus five credit card slots and two pockets for cash - I'm still uncertain on what closure to use or if I should just let it go without. I think it will do well as a first item for my Etsy store, though I'm having some trouble deciding on fabric. It looks like a guy's wallet to me and most of my fabric stash is littered with flowers or girly paisley. I think some more fabric hunting may be in order.