Next up

Update: Trena's question about topstitching reminded me that I wanted to mention I found topstitching weight thread at my Joann's. They redid the displays and brought in new merchandise. I found the perfect color red to go with my fabric; I finished all the topstitching and it looks great, really stands out. I just need some time to finish with the rest...

I started sewing Burda WOF 4-2009 Mod 101 A. This is such a cute skirt and I have liked every version I have seen in blogland. I'm using a red stretch denim from my stash but I have to go out today and get a zipper and buttons. I hope to maybe finish it today, the boys are home (no school) and they have projects to work on so I might have some free time.

A prom dress

My mom used to make me all my party dresses, so when senior prom came along we headed out to the fabric store to find a pattern and fabric. I picked this Vogue pattern but we could not find a fabric we liked, so my mom after work (she worked at a bank that was located where they now do the Today show in New York City) went to the fabric stores in the city and found this beautiful silky fabric. I wanted to coordinate with royal blue (after all this was 1980) so mom made me the belt from beaded trim and I wore royal blue peep-toe pumps. My date brought me a blue orchid corsage, all in all matchy-matchy.

What was really funny, well not so much back then, it's that my neighbor whose personality and likes were as different from me as can be chose the same pattern for her dress!!Thank God her mom made her the short version and in a different color; well we both laughed at the coincidence and it wasn't like we would be spending time together at the party.

Here is one more with my brother who as a freshman got to go to the prom with one of my friends (he went to every prom after that except his own, I guess he had had enough!)

Mother's day weekend

If you click on the image to make it bigger you'll notice my husband's nose is covered in pollen (that's what happens when you go around smelling every flower you see)

On Saturday we went for a walk because the rain finally stopped in our area and Clio the beagle was desperate to be out; she hates to be out in the rain so she has been pretty sad for about two weeks. We went to the wetlands park which is local and we love it. The boys love wading in the streams and there's always wildlife to enjoy. We've had beaver's dams, salamanders, blue herons, snakes, turtles, ducks, geese,etc;yesterday we saw a blue heron and geese with chicks.



Sunday morning we went to see Star Trek the movie. I loved it! There was lots of action to keep you on the edge of your seat which was nicely balanced by the character's stories, we are all ready to see it again! I was telling my kids how when the Star Trek 1960's series was first on, I was in Cuba so my dad would put our little tv antenna on the balcony to get the US reception so we could watch the show; my oldest thought that it was pretty amazing that I wanted to watch the show since it was in a language I could not understand. Well, mom and dad understood English so they would summarize for my brother and I.

The afternoon we spend at home having a cookout with my mom. It was a beautiful afternoon to enjoy the backyard.

I'm finishing up the binding on the quilt and after my brother and SIL receive it I will post pictures.

I hope you all had as nice a weekend as I did!

A rainy weekend

Yesterday I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and I'm glad I did, today has been raining all day, yesterday was overcast but we did not get any rain. It was also the spring carnival at my son's school and as always we volunteered for one shift at one of the stations. It looked like my kids this year decided that they were too old to play so they spent their tickets on the food, so after our shift I left for the festival minus the family.

I met Holly at the entrance and we wondered around until 6:00pm when we sat down to enjoy a lamb dinner. It was very good. We also saw Jody along with other familiar knitters. See if you can spot me in Jody's photographs :-)

As always the yarn was gorgeous and here is what came home with me.

This is a beautiful sock yarn from Yarns Forever that I'm thinking will be made into fingerless gloves.



Next is Misty Mountain Farm Super Fine Naturally Colored Alpaca. I bought enough to make a lacy sweater. The color is a deeper brown the flash lightens it.



And lastly from Brooks Farm a superwash wool (Solana) in a worsted weight for a vest.



I also bought Kim Hargreaves' book Amber. The designs in this book are gorgeous, I couldn't pick a favorite.

Today I'm planning to do some more quilting. I already have my next sewing project (a garment) picked out, stay tuned...

A week in review

I have been busy with my crafts but have nothing finished to share. I continue working on the baby quilt, below you can see a preview; I am in the middle of machine quilting.



I'm also making progress on Green Gable (I guess mine is White Gable). After working on lace I wanted something simple.



This past Thursday I was a chaperone for my son's ninth grade science class. We went to the Air and Space Museum in DC. They had a handout to complete and after we had some time to wonder around. I found out that Pucci had designed uniforms for the stewardess in the 60's. They had one sample and lots of pictures. Here is one of the pictures they had on display.



I spent Saturday at Hershey Park with my family. We had lots of fun and actually got to ride some roller coasters (my kids are not too keen on them). Their zoo only has native American animals and they have a good selection of specimens, lots of lizards and snakes which are favorites in our household.

I'm kind of tired today but I hope to get some more quilting done after I get everything ready for the school week (laundry, supermarket run, etc).

I got the new Burda WOF yesterday and enjoyed it while having my coffee this morning. There's a lot I like in it, it is after all the dress issue, but I'm also liking the plaid section especially this little vest




And this jacket/top




And lots more....

Shetland Shorty from Knitty.com

I have had this project on my needles for almost a year. The weather got cold and I switched to winter projects so this waited until warmer weather. The lace pattern (4 row repeat) took a while to memorize and I ended up undoing my work quite a few times.

The yarn is Filati FF Sailor (cotton) that I bought from Elann as a full bag and at a very reasonable price. I made a medium which gave me plenty of ease, I wanted it with a loose and relaxed look. I made this to wear with a Burda WOF dress I made a while ago, I'll show a picture when I wear them together.

Lost in DC

Well, not really, more like sitting in traffic in DC, but it wasn't as catchy for a title.

Note to self: Do not attempt to go to the zoo during Easter break.. Really, it took us over an hour to get there (usually at most a 40 min trip) to find the entrance blocked with the sign "no parking available". Now, there is a lot of parking at the zoo, lots, so this was not a good sign, also all around us there were families trying to get to the entrance, nonetheless we tried to find parking on the street with no luck. We ended up on Connecticut Ave again sitting in traffic trying to get downtown to catch New York Ave to get to the National Arboretum, where we decided we could go to enjoy the picnic lunch we had in the cooler. That took about another hour. I have never seen so many people in DC; I guess because we live so close we do our trips during non-peak tourist days. I had a lot of time to study the architecture... Total time from leaving home to the Arboretum 3 1/2 hours...yeaph.

The Arboretum was heavenly, quiet, sunny, cool and few people around. We had our picnic and then walked around some of our favorite gardens.



Camellias in bloom



A view of the river



A Japanese Flower Arrangement Exhibit



The National Capitol Columns



The end of our visit

Burda WOF 10/2008 114 Knit top

I really liked the design for this top/dress when I first saw it and when I saw Christina's version I had to make it.

I tried the top first, that way if it didn't work for me I wouldn't try the dress. This top has been finished for a while and I wore it before today but I wasn't completely happy with it, so today I took it in at the side seam at chest level and a little bit of the "wing" and I'm much happier with the look. When putting it together I reinforced the shoulder area with fusible tape and I raised the neckline (next time I will raise it more ;-) The fabric I used is a very comfortable to wear rayon knit from Joann's, my only complaint is that it wrinkles very easily.

Here are a couple of more pictures.

A Trip to the National Aquarium

At the Australia exhibit

The boys are off for Spring Break and they had been wanting to go to the aquarium, so off we went yesterday.

My whole family loves aquariums and zoos, and we are lucky to have the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the National Zoo in Washington D.C. Tomorrow we are off to the zoo.

Here is a couple of pictures; it was really cold and windy yesterday so we didn't linger outdoors too much.

A bag and a sweater

Today I finally took pictures of the sweater I made for Large Marge's Yarn Shop and of the bag I made for my cousin.

The bag is Sandra Betzina's Vogue 7862. This sews up pretty quickly; I did not add a lining because this pleather fabric has a black knit backing that looks nice.





The pattern for the sweater is Sailor's Rib V-neck Pullover from Vermont Fiber Designs. The pattern is a tunic with no shaping which doesn't work with my pear shape figure so I added shaping to accommodate larger hips and slimming down (by decreasing stitches) up to the waistline. I also added extra rows for my long back waist length. I'll get to wear the sweater after a few months :-)





All pictures were taken at Large Marge's Yarn Shop. If you live in the Baltimore area drop by, they have very friendly staff and a wonderful selection of yarns and patterns.

****************************


My next project is a baby quilt for my future nephew. I have all the fabrics ready to start cutting. I chose Rowan's Baby Block Quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Road. I'm going to change one of the blocks but pretty much follow their design.

As you can see my colorway is very different but I think it will work. I will probably add a few more fabrics, after all this is supposed to be a scrappy quilt.

A few random things to share

Yesterday I finally cut Vogue 7862. This Sandra Betzina pattern for a bag, I have made several times before. One of those times I made it for my cousin who loved it and requested another one; this was a few years ago, I figure by now the original one has been put to rest so I'm sending her a new one. This one I'm making from a cool synthetic leather I bought from Emma one Sock a long time ago. Pictures to follow...

These two necklaces I made after taking a beading class. The pendant is made from early 20th century pressings(molds?) that I purchased at a bead show. I enjoy beading but I struggle with bead combinations.

I finally decided to buy the Kai gift set, since they have been highly recommended it on the net. I still haven't tried them, I'll let you know how they hold up.

I'm still knitting a pattern for my friend's yarn shop. I hope to finish it before Easter. I'm using Berroco's Comfort Chunky. This yarn feels wonderful against the skin, it is a mix of acrylic/nylon and once you touch it you'll love it. It also comes in worsted,DK, baby and sock. Go check it out! (NAVY, just love the yarn)

Vogue 8379 Wrap Knit Dress

I am so glad I finally made this pattern! I know this design has been made over and over by the sewing community and no wonder, the best part is the no gap neckline! The last knit wrap dress I made (a Butterick design) was very disappointing; I won't blame it on the pattern, maybe I did something wrong when I made my regular modifications.



The fabric I had been saving for the right pattern. It was the first fabric that Ann from Gorgeous Fabrics sold. This black and white poly/lycra knit came with a border that I used for the collar, cuffs and also for the front facings.



I had 3 yards and I used every scrap;after cutting all my pieces I realized I had forgotten the front facings and all I had left was a piece of the border...I did a faced facing following the instructions in Easy Guide to Sewing Blouses. Basically you sew the fusible to the unfinished edge of the facing (right sides together), turn the fusible to the wrong side and fuse and you get a very neat finish on your facing.





I recently treated myself to my own labels and this is the first garment to get one

I wanted to show how my bodice pattern looks after lengthening. I cut just above the waist (Vogue gives you a lengthening/shortening line) and moved the pieces along the grain line, this gives you a misalignment at the side seam which you need to fill in. The I add the same amount at the same place in the facing and the back. I know that this alteration always scared me when I first started to sew, especially on pieces that have darts or pleats (like in this pattern).



This is not a difficult pattern to sew but it does have a lot of pieces if you choose to do view B. I finished it last night and because is still pretty cold in the Baltimore area I wore it to work today with a cardigan and boots.

Clubbing and Ozomatli

This past weekend my husband and I did something we have not done in at least 15 years, we went to a club to enjoy a live performance. Of course not just any group would get us excited enough, it was Ozomatli.

When I found out they would be in Baltimore I contacted Cidell, after all she is young and hip, so I figure she might know about Club Sonar. Of course she did! and she recommended it. Right away I bought tickets and off we went Friday night.

Well we had a blast, Ozomatli knows how to put on a show. For those of you who might not have heard of them, they are from Los Angeles and they play a "fusion of Latin, Hip Hop and Rock". Just in case you are curious, here they are performing a favorite...

Burda WOF 12/2008 113 A Overblouse

As soon as I saw this pattern I knew I had the perfect fabric in my stash. The pattern is for knits and it has that pretty pleated neckline that we keep seeing lately in patterns and RTW. The fabric is a net with flocked flowers with the leopard print. Because of its sheerness and the fact that it didn't feel the softest against my skin I had held off for the perfect pattern. I had to use the lengthwise grain for the crosswise grain because that is where the stretch was. I lined the bodice with tricot from Emma One Sock that I originally bought for a skirt and never used.

This was an easy top to construct although Burda had some strange way of sewing in the sleeves that did not make sense to me. I sewed the shoulder/upper sleeve seam then attached front and back bodice to sleeve, finished the neckline and then sewed side seam and sleeve.

I'm happy with the result, I think I'll get more use out of it next fall.

**************************************

Thanks Ann for nominating me for the Sisterhood Award, I enjoy being part of the internet sewing community very much. Now if there was someone left to nominate....

********************************************************

And thank you all for your birthday wishes. I had a nice day watching the snow fall and my kids enjoying our biggest snow storm. I also got some good sewing time, more FOs coming up.

A snowy birthday

Today is my birthday and I did not ask for snow, I asked for a spring day. Right now we are in the middle of a snow storm and of course the kids are off from school. On the bright side maybe I will get that knit dress done since we are not going anywhere...

I finished the two knit tops from my list and now I am going to make the dress. The fabric is a geometric so I have to play with placing the pattern pieces, wish me luck.

Yesterday to celebrate my birthday we went to Longwood Gardens. The conservatory was bursting with fragrance, color and orchids (there is an orchid show until March 31). We did take a walk through the grounds but there wasn't much to see as my family kept telling me.





These colors just say Spring!




Son #2 trying to get the Venus flytraps to close up