Monday Monday

When I added myself to the Free Fabric Friday drawing over at Sew, Mama Sew the blog, an email from Kristen asking me to pick out two fabrics from Heather Ross’ West Hill collection was the last thing I expected. Which makes finding this nifty little package in my mailbox on Saturday all the more enjoyable:

Matrioshki on beige and adorable tadpoles

My entire weekend was wonderful like this. We slept in, walked around the market, made a quick trip to the library, and even caught a few garage sales. And, oh do I have a treat for Thursday! I can’t wait to share my latest find.

I also have a finished object (*gasp*):

We went over last night to meet Baby Boy and these items were gifted. The booties ended up being simple toe-up baby socks with picot edging, sans pattern. Here is also a tiny kippah for Baby to wear during the ceremony. It is crocheted from a basic Star of David pattern. I am happy to add that the family is doing well and Baby is absolutely gorgeous, tiny, and sweet.

 

Excitement

Today, my copy of Sublime Stitching came in at the library, so I schlepped over there to pick it up. This is exactly the sort of endeavor that makes me really miss my bike. It is just barely too far to make a good walk, but perfect for a bike ride. (In fact, that was where I was headed when my accident happened…) But I’ve been waiting for a long time to get my hands on a copy of Sublime Stitching and I could not bear to wait one more day, so I went for it.

I did get my book and about ten pounds to accompany it (books, magazines, and a dvd). Tsk, tsk. Let’s just say my back is not happy with me now.

On the way home, I found myself in the neighborhood of a Ben Franklin Crafts store. I have not been to BF since I was ten. Back then, I was not very impressed. I’ve always thought of it as the B-list of craft stores. So when I first noticed this location several months ago, I was not over-eager to go. Today, I decided that I may as well stop in and see if they happen to stock fabric ink. (They don’t.) WOW! I was so wrong. It was maybe the best craft store I’ve seen in a long time, even topping Michael’s, due in large part to the fabric section. I was just very impressed.

And now to the point of the post, they had Amy Butler fabrics! even though I’m a skint student, I couldn’t go home without a fat quarter, so here’s what I got:

Apologies for the bad pic, the lighting sucks, but isn’t that gorgeous fabric! I was obviously influenced by that luscious satin ribbon from my stash when I chose this print. Originally I was thinking I would make an apron, but it could become a clutch purse instead. I haven’t yet decided.

 

Last night I finished construction on my dress. He…

Last night I finished construction on my dress. Here’s a not so great pic:

The fabric is muslin that I dyed myself using good ol’ Rit. It was supposed to be a dark teal, but turned out more greenish as a result of my dyeing ‘tea stained’ muslin instead of the bleached sort. (The bleached muslin from the same dye bath turned out bright bluebird blue.) I’m tempted to re-dye it a darker blue and if I don’t decide on the embroidery soon, I may do that. I love muslin, it’s light and perfect for a summer dress, not to mention extremely cheap and great for dying. However, for the life of me, I cannot iron the thing out! I’ve tried steam and heavy spray starch and everything I can think of, but nothing has helped.

The only real change I made to the pattern was to pleat the skirt instead of gathering it. Gathering just doesn’t work well with my body. I would like to make a petticoat from the white muslin, but I need to stock up on muslin first.

Next is the exciting part of figuring out what and where to embroider.

 

Bustin’ Out

When my 9th grade sewing teacher used me to illustrate how to properly mark bust darts, I thought I’d never forget. However, it’s been years since I’ve attempted them and now all I can remember is the embarrassment of being groped by a 70 year old woman in front of the entire class. I’ve been wrestling with the bodice of my dress since yesterday and I think, *Think*, that I may finally have tamed it. I’m having a hard time not rushing through it, because what I’m most excited about is getting the hoop on and adding some embroidery.

And, because I’m trying to include pics for your visual enjoyment, here is a little scene I was embroidering in hopes of making it my logo:

I hadn’t finished the embroidery, but wanted to see how well it would photograph, which is a good thing because this is the best pic and I’m not at all fond of it. If I ever get around to making a light box, then I may finish the scene. Otherwise, the project has pretty much lost my interest for now.

This morning, I was awake at 5am for no good reason. The sun was beginning to peak through the window and those darned early birds were already singing*. My first thought was to go on a bike ride, which is weird enough in itself (though if I make a habit of waking up that early, I just may do it next time). I wondered into the living room and drank my coffee over a good book. All was quiet and peaceful, as that hour tends to be. The sun was shining and a cool breeze was running through the apartment, carrying with it the green smell of spring. It promised another beautiful sunny day like the ones we had earlier this week. Now it’s cloudy and cool. Just another example of nature’s moodiness.

* We have the twitter of birds here from dawn to dusk, sometimes after dusk, sometimes at 1am. As a child, I lived in a house in the country, off the postal route and down a half mile long gravel driveway, and yet I’ve never heard anything like this.

 

Goodness, Geisha!

This morning, and a beautiful sunny cloudy sunny Friday morning it is here in the NW, I present to you my latest F.O. and what is soon to be my very first etsy item (see here);

The Geisha Tote:

They seem to be whispering about something (or someone), yes?

I’ve had this fabric in my stash for a while now, but had a difficult time cutting into it (it’s So Pretty). That is, until I found the little polka dotted fabric.