I'm back...sort of

My high school reunion was so much fun! Even though we didn't have as good a turnout as everyone had hoped, there were a lot of faces that it was nice to see again. Some of them I will be fortunate enough to see in September when one of my closest friends (and Maid of Honor at my own wedding) gets married!

In addition to seeing friends that I hadn't seen since I was 18, my hubby also got to experience Central Oregon for the first time. My goodness has it changed drastically since I left 10 years ago. There is a freeway now (although they call it a Parkway)!! There is even a Macy's and several Starbucks. Just so you all know how shocking this really is to me, when I left there were probably 50,000 people in the county - now there are 50,000 people in my hometown. It was still nice to visit my old haunts, although that nagging feeling like I was missing out on living there is now gone.

What have I been up to in the sewing room? Not much, I'm afraid. I did cut out a Kwik Sew 3263 (I think that's the pattern number, I don't have it handy) from a pink and white cabana knit from Gorgeous Fabrics that should be really cute. I cut it out the day before I left for vacation though, and it's still sitting on my cutting table waiting to be sewn.

I also ordered this fabric right before I left for vacation and it showed up yesterday:



It's a stretch cotton twill from Fabric Mart and I fell in love with it. I got enough to make a skirt - probably another Simplicity 3881 (which has become my TNT skirt pattern because of how flattering it is on me).

Now to answer a question. I'm newer to blog-land than many of you so I don't get too many questions. I'm excited to be able to answer one! Dawn asked me how I tacked down the grosgrain ribbon on my Simplicity 3881 skirt. The pattern originally called for 5/8" twill tape that you join to the right side at the waist with a 3/8" seam and then turn under and topstitch. I just find twill tape sort of yucky to work with so I chose a 7/8" (because I couldn't find 1") grosgrain ribbon and did basically the same thing. I used a 3/8" seam, and turned it to the inside. Instead of doing a wider topstitching like I think the pattern called for, I did a less than 1/4" topstitch at the waist just to encase the seam edges. Because I wear the skirt with longer tunic-style tops you don't even see it. At the zipper, I folded the edges under and hand-stitched them to the zipper. I had originally attempted to put the zipper on after the ribbon was attached to the waist but it just didn't look nice so I redid it.

I have a couople of other ideas of how I could use this technique without topstitching but I should try them first before posting just in case someone else actually reads this blog :)

I have a couple more projects that I need to finish and then I will be on a temporary (and hopefully short-lived) sewing hiatus. More on that later.