Airlie Gardens, North Carolina

When on vacation in North Carolina, we drove to Wilmington to sightsee. I wanted to visit Arlie Gardens which had been closed the last time we were in the area. I will tell you that I fell in love. These are more architectural than botanical gardens, lots of structures, statues in wonderful garden rooms. Above and to the right is the Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden, inspired by a painting of the artist.

I loved the shrine to Aunt Jemima and Frangelico!

The oaks were breathtaking.

The Pergola Garden, doesn't it look like a movie setting?

The serenity garden

Sculpture hanging from the ceiling at the butterfly house

The real thing which I was thrilled I captured with my camera!


A hidden garden

I hope you enjoyed my tour of the Airlie Gardens and if you are ever in the area, don't hesitate and visit!

Burda Style 6-2011 dress 107

This is another one of those simple to sew patterns that Burda is favoring. Because the fabric I used was pretty sheer, a cotton lawn from my stash, I underlined the dress with cotton batiste and then treated the pieces as one. I used the facings that are included for the version that is not lined and stitched them by hand to the batiste for neatness.



I only had difficulty when it was time to turn and stitch the hem on the cut-on sleeves, being this is a woven fabric it wasn't cooperating so I trimmed the hem to about 1/4 inch and that worked. I don't know if there is another way of doing this type of sleeve hem when there is no lining involved.



I included the pockets so when you use them you can see the A line shape of the dress. I did take the dress in at the side seams in the bodice quite a bit, it was looking to much like a house dress, so I gave it some shape.





I fell in love with these shoes when I saw them at DSW, I guess the feeling was mutual because they followed me home =)



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One more...

My son turned 17 yesterday. As we sang happy birthday he was holding the phone so that his girlfriend who is out of state could be part of it.

I love shirtdresses

I wanted to thank you all for your wonderful wishes for my mom. She has enjoyed reading all of your comments!

Last summer I made the orange Burda Style dress. I enjoyed making this pattern, while simple in looks it gave me the opportunity to learn how to make a collar with stand and a yoke.

This time I wanted a shirtdress with a full skirt and found this McCalls pattern. This is a very out of print pattern, dated 1995 (I refuse to call it vintage!). At first I wasn't too sure about the pattern, the collar has no stand and there are no darts for shaping on the bodice. Then I decided to relax, after all Connie Long in one of my favorite books (The easy guide to sewing blouses) covers this type of collar and I figured it will give me a chance to compare it to my orange dress. So I have cut view A, the hem will be longer than the short view but not as long as the long length.




I'm using a beautiful cotton shirting from Michael's fabrics. I had like 7 yards of this fabric because when I bought it my mom was still sewing and wanted some. Now I have plenty for another project! The pattern came from my mom's stash; I wasn't sewing garments in 1995, I was making curtains for my new home in my mother's in law 1950s singer, so I think the pattern was one of the last my mom bought to make for me.

I have finished the dress below from Burda Style June 2011 issue. I hope to get pictures soon to share.

A day of celebration

Recently my mom turned 80. We planned to surprise her with a get together after I got back from vacation, so yesterday was the day. My family and I, my brother and his family and mom's best friend gathered in the back yard and surprised her; she had no clue, mission accomplished.



I had hinted before that I was working on a sewing project that I couldn't talk about and the quilt I made for her was it. The panels were embroidered by my mom quite a few years ago; she thought she was going to start quilting but didn't like the cutting and piecing involved, however she loves to embroider so she had bought the redwork designs for this quilt and then she gave me the panels. I have had them in storage since I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them and then I thought it would be a great gift for her 80th celebration.



I embroidered the center panel with our initials to show our joint cooperation and to highlight her beautiful embroidered I decided on simple framing in red. The hand quilting was done freehand and then I machine quilted in the ditch around the frames. The backing fabric is muslin I didn't want any color or print to come through to the front panels.



We had a lovely afternoon, we talked, the kids played (well the youngest played and we were entertained) and we enjoyed the food we all worked hard at getting ready. All in all a successful event!

A swingy tank top from Verena Knitting

I started to work on this project from Verena Knitting Summer 2009 last month. I wanted to use the linen blend yarn I bought at the MD Sheep and Wool festival. Andrea and I bought the same yarn, it was a great price and it has wonderful drape.




Even though I took this project with me on vacation I was not able to work on it. I have been having back/leg pain for a while now and sitting is my less comfortable position, especially for any length of time. I'm going to my first physical therapy evaluation/session today in the hope that I will get some help. As much as I am on the move during my day, it is necessary to sit every once in a while ;-)

Have you seen this fabric?

Image from Anthropoloy.com

What can I say? I love striped fabric...and irregular size multi color stripes? Oh my

If you come across similar knit fabric, would you let me know?

Back from vacation!

My family and I took our vacation early this year and we spent a week at Emerald Isle, NC. We have been going there for many years; we seem to schedule our time there when we need a break from a high energy vacation.


Sand sculpture at the aquarium

The weather was beautiful and we got to do everything we had planned the aquarium, the beach, miniature golf, the marshes hike and a visit to Wilmington, NC (I have plan another post for that visit!)


Marshes at the aquarium

The beaches there are like the ones of my childhood, clean sand, warm water, no boardwalks. Being there transports me back, and I reacquaint myself with that little girl.


The four of us proudly showing off our beach hair!

Burda Style 4/2011 114

I was inspired to make this top after seeing Lucky's trend "article" below.


I had liked this simple design when I saw it in Burda and I had planned to make the dress version. I found the striped almost sheer silk remmant and I decided to try out the pattern first as a top. I think it turned out cute to wear with capris and slim fitting skirts.

If you look at the magazine picture you can see the sleeve minicap fits closely on the model. I get a little bit of a wing which I think it's courtesy of my very narrow shoulders, even though I made my usual 38 for the shoulder area.

The armholes and neckline are finished with narrow facings which I finished using the technique that The Sewing Lawyer recently posted about. I have been doing my facings that way for a while, it gives a very clean finish. I believe these facings are so narrow that they caused problems insisting to flip out (even after understitching) so I topstitched to make them behave.







This is the first of my planned simple sewing, next up a dress!

A note about my commenting

First thank you all for your nice comments on my crochet dress, I'm glad you liked it!

I have been having trouble commenting on blogs that required you select a profile. I cannot leave a comment at all if I'm using Firefox, if I use Internet Explorer I sometimes am able to leave a comment if I select the Anonymous profile. In that case I leave my name and my blog address so that you know who I am. I apologize for not leaving more comments but that is the reason why. I hope my husband might have some suggestions for me or maybe one of you has encountered the same problem?

I finished the Burda magazine top I was working on and hope to have pictures soon.

Vogue Knitting Crochet dress

This is the Michael Kors crochet dress from Vogue Knitting issue Winter 2006/2007, that I blogged about. The yarn I used Gedifra Mayra was a pleasure to work with and I adore the color. It took me a while to figure out the right size to make since my yarn was a substitution, but once that was done the different stitches are easy to memorize. The skirt is worked in the round, the front and back separately but attached to the waistline, and then the sleeves are made and sewn in. This is the Ravelry link







Reverse single crochet edging




Hem detail


Reverse single crochet is used on the neckline and the sleeve hems

Am I proud of my dress?, oh yes! I really like how well the dress fits. This is my second crochet garment, the first was this skirt.

Sewing goodies in the mail

After commenting in Kyle's blog about the Christine Jonson pattern she received as a gift during PR in Chicago, she offered to send it to me since it wasn't her style. So here it is with other goodies she picked up in Chicago and another sewing event she attended. Thanks Kyle, it was a treat opening my mail yesterday!

My crochet dress is finished, just have a few tails to weave in, I am thrilled with the fit! So pictures coming soon!

I traced this Burda top but haven't been able to do much more, gardening is taking priority. And speaking of gardening, here are a few pictures of what is looking nice right now


Coral bells, seedum with yellow star flowers and a shrub I can't recall the name of. The shrub has never looked this good, it is 3 years old in that spot and I think it is going to do great there.


These are Japanese painted ferns and a few perennial foxgloves growing among them.