The First Summer Blouse

Finally, I have actual new photos of an actual new thing I sewed. Yay, me! First of all, I swear the two halves of the front are perfectly even. This happens every time I try to take pictures of a blouse. And, even aside from that, overall, it's not a great picture but... [Stop apologizing for the lousy pictures, Lynn.]

And here are the two patterns I used. I love a couple of the collars on the old McCall's pattern but that was several sizes ago so I used this Kwik Sew pattern and reshaped the neckline to fit the McCall's collar. I like the way it turned out and I'm going to do it again.

Both this fabric and the buttons I originally bought to go with something else. The buttons are from Create for Less, which is a great store for buttons and other notions but their close-up images could be better so when I wanted buttons for something specific I ordered several different styles of button that I thought might work. These are the ones I didn't use but I loved them and I'm so happy I finally got to use them. A similar thing happened with the fabric. I ordered this to go with another print and ended up deciding to use something else for that project. It's a smooth cotton; the "texture" is just printed.

I think it would actually go better with my black jeans. Anyway, I like it and I think I'm going to be wearing it often.

Still Here, Still Sewing

Oops. It's been ages since I updated this thing. I have been sewing; (when I haven't had my face in a really awesome science fiction novel) the problem is that I haven't been photographing. I mentioned the long sleeved t-shirt. I also finished a little pink bolero style jacket but I kinda want to wait until I have something else new to show off with it at the same time. I'm in the middle of making a little outfit for my granddaughter.

I have also been working on a long neglected quilt. See, here's what happened. My husband has three brothers and two sisters and I got this brilliant idea that I was going to make a quilt for each of them and their spouses. I got two done and started a third but that one didn't go well and I started to not like it so I lost motivation to work on it. It's been - I can't remember - three or four years since I started it. I recently went back to working on it and I'm getting close to finishing it. I have lots of ideas for other quilts so that's my main motivation right now - finish this one so I can move on to the next.

I love hand quilting. I want to say it's "so zen" but I think we Americans probably don't understand what that word really means. We have a habit of picking up any word we like the sound of and giving it whatever meaning is convenient for us. That's not entirely a bad thing but sometimes it makes us look like idiots to the rest of the world. But anyway, there's something about hand sewing, doing the same stitch over and over again - some people find it unbearably tedious but I find it relaxing and peaceful.

So, since I don't have any new pictures to share right now, I'm going to go deep into my Flickr account and find a couple of old quilt pictures, just to have something to post here.

This is one I made for my sister-in-law. I don't have a picture of the whole thing, just this close-up.

And here's one I made for my younger son. He picked out the colors. This was, I think, the second quilt I ever made. I have always loved the tumbling blocks pattern. This is one of two that I have done.

And Another New Look 6963 (+ long sleeves)

I don't have much to say about this one except that I'm happy with the way it turned out. The hem looks uneven in all the pictures I took but it's not.

The fabric is a lighter weight quilting cotton so it's perfect for the spring-like weather we've been having. I think this and the long sleeved t-shirt I haven't photographed yet are going to be my last long sleeved things until fall. Next I am going to try to force myself to do some refashioning of clothes I don't wear but can't bear to give up and also work more on the quilt and maybe start another quilt. It might be a while before I start something else new but I will definitely post some of the refashioning here and maybe some more stash pictures so stay tuned.

All of these ambitious plans are complicated by the fact that a few days ago I started reading Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey and can hardly stand to put it down long enough to write a little blog post. Yep, that's right - I'm a sci-fi nut too.