nothing new to show

Since Drew is getting to the point where he can almost sit on his own, I've been spending all of my free sewing time working bits and pieces on a shopping cart cover for him. I wanted to make it from Alexander Henry's Tattoo fabric, but the only quilt shop in town that sells Alexander Henry no longer had it. Bless their hearts, the ladies that work at Windy Moon Quilts looked high and low to find it. It probably didn't help that it was smack in the middle of Hot August Nights when I was looking and most of their really cool fabrics were already depleted.

So I did manage to find an alternative tattoo fabric that was similar to the Alexander Henry print I wanted and bought some of that, a bright red batik and some lightweight black denim for the bottom of the cover. The denim is more of a chambray type of fabric but the whole thing looks really cool! I have to finish sewing on the pockets and toy tabs, add the elastic and the whole thing will be done. I should have it posted before the weekend.

In the meantime, enjoy a couple of pictures of the little one from our 4th of July celebration at the lake!

is this too matchy-matchy?

I was browsing Smart Bargains today and found this shoe:

I love it!! It's the same colorway and a very similar print to my geometric skirt from my last post.

I doubt I could really pull off such a matchy-matchy look, but with a solid brown or even an ivory Cosmo dress that aqua would really pop!

Thanks to everyone who enabled me to discover online shoe shopping...like I need another addiction/obsession/passion/money sink!

I have a plan

But first, I have some completed garments to show off!!!

First up is my very first BWOF. I've had a subscription for a couple of years now, and haven't gotten around to making anything from it yet. I was especially inspired by a top in the July 2008 issue. Here is my version of BWOF 7/08 #118!

My husband - although I love him dearly - is not the best fashion photographer and this is really the best of all of the photos he took. Next time, I think I'll just go with the tripod and do it myself. It doesn't help anymore that I had just come home from work when this picture was taken.
Here is a picture of the top with the skirt made from the same geometric print. The skirt is New Look 6735:


Next, my first HP Cosmopolitan Dress. I love this dress, although there are several changes I need to make for my next version. I made this from a purple, gray, black and white floral from Gorgeous Fabrics. It's been sold out for some time, but I think she either has a red or blue colorway of the same print. I'd look to find out for sure, but I have an infant on my lap who desperately wants to type along, so I need to finish this as quick as possible :)


Friday was the opening of bow-hunting season so my husband left Thursday afternoon and is expected back sometime this evening. I decided to work from home Friday and got quite a bit of planning done in between projects. Saturday I cut out a dress from New Look 6779 in a black/gray houndstooth double knit from Gorgeous Fabrics, another New Look 6735 skirt from a black/off-white/green ITY, a New Look 6430 (apparently out of print and no longer on their site) top from the same ITY and I cut out and finished this New Look 6470 top:


I bought this ITY from Fashion Fabrics Club and they advertised it as aqua. It even photographs as an aqua, but in reality, it's more of a kelly green. According to Pantone, it's called Fir (18-5621). It worked out perfectly because I thought it was going to be used with my brown/aqua wardrobe but ended up matching the green in a black/off-white/green leaf print ITY that I bought in the same order. I made view A without the sleeves. Here is a side view of the tie for the band:


I also have the Vogue alice+olivia pants planned from a charcoal RPL from Gorgeous Fabrics as well as a really cool gray herringbone tweed with little metallic colored threads woven in that I bought at Joann's.

new Vogues

I was reading Carolyn's blog and she was showing off her most recent Vogue pattern purchases along with information about their $6.99 sale. I get the emails, but sometimes get too busy to look at them and because I don't really spend enough on patterns, have not joined Club BMV yet.

With that said, I must say some of Carolyn's choices *forced* me to go to Vogue's website and pick up a few for myself. Here are my choices that should be on their way to me any day:


The famous Alice + Olivia pants that I've been drooling over for months


I love this dress and already have a couple of possible fabrics in mind for it


I really like the style of this cardigan and I definitely need more of them for work when the A/C gets cranked up!


I like the jacket, but I LOVE the skirt!


I'm not sure about this jacket - I think it might make me look like I'm wearing football pads, but I like the details on the pants - and I definitely need to make some pants!


I like the pleats and while I probably won't make this as-is, I think it has a lot of potential.

operation wardrobe: episode 2

I have cleaned out the closet and now have nothing to wear!! To make my life even more complicated, in an effort to allow my husband to continue to stay home with our son, I have begun the journey of trying to get a promotion at work. I will be done with school in the next year or so and would like to use that time to begin the gradual overhaul of my work persona. From an experience and knowledge standpoint, I'm in good shape. Once I get the education part out of the way, all that's left is wardrobe!

I am considered an engineer although the nature of my job is not that of an engineer. My company is business casual, although in the past two years they've gone more beach casual. I tend to stay somewhat business casual, though I do love my jeans. I need to get away from that and move towards a more dressy/business professional look. Honestly, I would love to be the best dressed person at work! That's my goal.

I have taken a good look at what is currently in my closet and what I need. 90% of my clothes are on the more casual side. This is definitely going to be a transitional process. I am in need of slacks, skirts, jackets and dresses as well as tops (although I already have quite a few appropriate tops). I have a ton of fabric that I've been collecting with a work wardrobe overhaul in mind. Now is the time I need to implement it.

I got a serger (finally!) yesterday - I'll tell more about it in my next post. I am all set to get started. I will finish up my very first BWOF tonight (a great top!) and then I have three skirts that just need hems and then I can get started on my plan.

Up first will be a dress. I have a ton of really nice knits (and several more on the way). As much as I love wovens, with my body still changing and shrinking back down to my pre-pregnancy self, I love the versatility and ease of wearing I get from knits (and a nice pair of Spanx). I am FINALLY going to make myself a Cosmo dress from a black/white/yellow ITY that I got at my local Hancock a couple of months ago.

I am also going to finish up my aqua/brown summer wardrobe as most of those pieces are dressier and versatile and I'm also going to work on some of the pieces from my original Timmel SWAP that never saw the light of day. I have at least two suits and then my jacket from the coat sew-along if I can ever get to making a muslin of my coat (hubby's coat is coming along great though!).

So that's it for now! Next post will have some pictures and won't just be boring ol' text!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is my 2-year wedding anniversary to my dear husband. We actually celebrated our anniversary on Saturday since I have school tonight, but he took me out to a very nice anniversary lunch today. Although he doesn't read this - Happy Anniversary Nate!!

Back to sewing-related topics, I'm throwing in the towel on my JCC. I have had no time to devote to it AT ALL since the 10th and while I have the shirts for Drew cut out and ready to go, I don't anticipate having enough time in the next 5 days to get them finished. Part of the problem (although not a problem at all, really) is the fact that my in-laws were staying with us for the past few days. I actually had quite a bit of sewing mojo and time, but the sewing room doubles as the guest room so it was occupied. I really enjoy spending time with my in-laws and the lack of sewing room gave me some time to figure out what was bothering me about the muslin for my husband's coat. I already posted it for all of the readers of the Coat Sew Along blog, but I'll probably repost it here tonight after school or tomorrow.

In addition to just a lack of time for finishing my JCC, I realized that I do not have the proper mindset to focus on a SWAP-style plan and not stray from it. While I have no intention of straying from the plans that I put together for both my husband and our son, the timeframe made me take all focus away from summer clothes that I desperately need. I am more of a "make a list and complete it in whatever order suits me at the time". A SWAP-style plan is too rigid for how my mind works and I find myself spending more time planning and daydreaming about what I'll start after I'm done with my current plan than actually working on the plan! Sooooo, from now on I'm not going to take on any more SWAP/wardrobe type of challenges. I might start participating in some of the single-item contests on PR though, they look like a lot of fun and are really more up my alley in the contest realm.

I'm also thinking about getting more involved in other sewing endeavors in my community and that will take up quite a bit of time as well - I haven't quite found anything that speaks to me, but I know that when the time is right something will.

another baby capsule item finished!

Here is item #2 in baby Drew's capsule:


This is the first of several father/son bowling-style shirts. The pattern is Simplicity 3852


I took the baby romper pattern and cut off the shorts part, leaving the perfect baby button-down shirt pattern! After I made the buttonholes I realized that the bottom buttonhole is really too low. I'll fix this for the other shirts, probably only using 3 buttons instead of 4. I also couldn't find any 3/8" buttons, so I used 1/2" - fortunately they don't look too big.