What's that you say?

What's that you say? You made ANOTHER shirt? lol Oh yes, I'm just a busy little beaver this weekend. Actually, I went through my stash (and going through it is another story all on its own), and decided that there were 3 lengths of fabric that would lend itself to this blouse pattern, giving me 3 new shirts. The price for all of them (counting fabric and thread, since there are no buttons, zippers, etc) was $20.50 as all the fabric was bought on sale at one time or another.

I finished up this animal print this afternoon and will start on the next one tomorrow morning. The next one will be a black blouse with 3/4 length sleeves AND the animal print for the collar. The last "stash" fabric is a sheer red knit that I picked up for something like $2.50 a yard about 3 years ago...time to use it for something constructive so it will become the next blouse with a very short flirty sleeve. And then I'll be done. At least for now.

I had a little bit of a problem taking the picture of the animal print. If I used the flash, it washed the color out, but if I didn't, it appeared to be too dark. So I turned all of the lights on in our office/sewing room and tried it that way. These are the by-product of that problem-solving session.

The next piece....

Today, I made a little blouse. It is sleeveless with home-made bias binding. But the most important thing is that this took me less than 2 hours to put together. The whole thing! Rarely, do I believe the advertisements that you see claiming a piece of clothing will only take an hour to make. Bah! More likely that piece of clothing will take 3 hours at least. In this case, there are 3 pattern pieces...two of them on the fold, and the third on the bias (and you can put it on the fold, if you have enough fabric). This is my own design (again). I've been experimenting with pleating, so you can see I tried it on the neckline (both front and back, although the back is only two pleats).

But the absolute best is where the fabric came from. I had in my mind that I wanted this color of blue for a blouse, but look as I might, the color just wasn't available (or at least not near me). I was already familiar with this color as I had three tablecloths this color that I used for decoration when doing antique shows years ago. So guess what? You guessed it, one tablecloth is now "missing in action". :-)

The only thing not done in this picture is the hem, and I'll do that while watching TV either tonight or tomorrow. Hems are simple and take very little time to finish. And the next time you see this blouse on here, it will be made from knit fabric, because I'm about to make another. :-)

The Jumper

I want to publish this picture even though the jumper/dress isn't finished yet. This closes with buttons at both shoulders (and it is pinned on the dress form right now).

This is ALSO embroidered fabric. And once again, I picked up a large amount of it, thinking that I didn't have a clue at the time what to make with it, but it was so gorgeous, I wanted enough that my imagination could go crazy.

My time...

I am sometimes amazed at where the time goes. I'll get up in the morning, get coffee, breakfast, feed the cats, usually watch the previous night's 11 pm news, then either sew, do yard-work, clean house...something. And then I'll look at the clock and it is already 4pm. And I don't feel like I've accomplished much in that time.

Sometimes I've been lucky in that I DO accomplish something and don't even realize.

Here is a picture of the cape I finished last weekend. The fabric is embroidered and initially, I bought a ton of it because I had no idea what I wanted to use it for. It lent itself well to this lined cape (and I designed the pattern also, so it was a double-whammy success for me). Now, I've got an a-line skirt cut and am thinking: pants. But this fabric wrinkles easily. So I'll debate that while I work on something else.

Picture of the Dream house

As promised, here is a not-so-great picture of what we call "my dream house". It is actually a condo community at the foot of the hill that is Seattle.

ATTENTION!!! ATTENTION!!! lol An update is that one of the two-level condos in this group is up for sale! It is a two bedroom (but rather on the smallish side with a tiny kitchen) and the asking price is $399K. Now I told you I'd have to be rich, but what I didn't figure on was that the price would be UNDER $400K. Oh well, I'll see if I can get pictures and post them here, lol.

This first picture is a view of the Condo community from the balcony at the back of Pike's Market.

The next two pictures are of the actual unit for sale (in the middle of the picture, ground floor two story unit, separate from the main building) and a picture of the bedroom at the back of the first floor.

This is the floor plan of the original unit. :-) Yes, I've done my homework.

This place needs a lot of updating. It was built in 1982 and I really don't think anyone has done any real work since then. New kitchen appliances, new kitchen counter, replace carpet hardwood and tile, fresh paint, closet inserts, new drapes, etc. etc.

And this is why the place is too small. This is where we live now. I can only imagine that less than half of what is in this house would fit in the condo. :-(

Busy is as busy does.

Ever since returning from Seattle, we've been SO busy. First, while we were gone, our house-sitter left one of the outside faucets on. While the hose was turned off at the nozzle, this particular faucet leaks slightly. But slightly only counts when the faucet hasn't been on for four or five days. So we know the ground next to the foundation under our kitchen window is drenched. Today, as a last resort, I took the weed whacker and literally put it into the dirt, so now there's nothing there except wet dirt...all the grass and my beautiful ferns are just a pile of cuttings. :-( I'm hoping that, now that there is nothing blocking the sun from warming the ground, that area will dry out. But since it has rained all but two days since we returned, I'm probably making wishes that won't come true.