Patio Dress

I'm excited to get to work on my entry for the RTW & Designer Knock-off Contest 2009 hosted by PR.

I have a piece of cotton knit in my stash that is just waiting for the right project. It will be perfect for my interpretation of this beautiful Patio dress.
Here are closeups to show the pick stitching and amazing cutouts:














I plan on self-drafting the bodice. I will use an BWOF pattern from the 2005 wedding dress spread for the back. I'm thinking of another BWOF maxi dress pattern for the skirt but I need to check my pattern stash this afternoon to pull together my game plan.
This should be a fun project!

Floral texture design fun

I have been watching the squash flower each morning and then drop the blooms without setting fruit.
Startling to be sure but a quick check with Google educated me on the roles of the male and female flowers and assured me everthing is fine. The male flower spends only one morning in full bloom and always falls off so no worries. One squash plant sends out both male and female flowers but the female flower needs the pollen from the male flower. Amazing bees! Still, I'm worried that I won't get any squash this year.

Once I snapped these pics I wondered why I had never noticed squash in bloom before. They are surprisingly beautiful.

An interesting point of departure for a new round of sewing! How about an outfit or two based on yellow, turquoise, green and white? A cute jacket with drawstring waist and white pants? Or a bright yellow jacket? A few green tops. Endless inspiration here.

I was also inspired to update the old blog design since I love the texture of the flower. It was time to freshen up the place... because every rose has it's thorns!

One pic of my lovely garden and then off to sew for a bit before the night gets away from me.

This is the Northeast corner of my garden. Here I have squash, zucchini, onion, carrots, buttercrunch lettuce and broccoli growing.

I love watching everything grow.

Tracing time is over

I joined in on The Great White Shirt Sew-Along today at PR.

I realized recently that I have been tracing patterns, altering them and then setting them aside only to trace another. I think I've got stage fright or something, or just afraid to waste fabric. This sew-along will be the perfect remedy!

Here are the patterns I have traced and ready to go, I just need to choose which one:
Butterick 4985

Butterick 4609

There is a vintage pattern on my cutting table right now and I will plan on tackling it once the two shirts above are completed.

I also want to cut the BWOF artist shirt out of a light blue cotton I have waiting in the sidelines:
BWOF 01-07-122

Additionally, I have a few cute tops traced, a Vogue dress (V1086) traced and altered, a Butterick dress, skirt, top and jacket wardrobe pattern (B5333) traced and altered. The jacket is cut out in fabric but it is waiting for me to get back to it because I got stuck on how to/whether to line it. I better just sew it sans lining to get it out of the queue.

So much to do, tracing time is officially over! (for a while LOL)

Inspiration dress

It blows my mind that this dress is made from quilting cotton!
If you are interested, you can click the image to view a slideshow of outfits since the inauguration.


Such a pretty dress. I'm thinking I could self draft this design myself, at least the bodice and then frankenpattern the skirt. I really like the style.


I am intrigued by the fabric as well. It sure is interesting how the designer placed elements for effect. You have to look hard to see the cranes. In a way, the dress looks almost ombred.

Gardening for the Soul

I'll tell you, over these past 12 months, give or take a few, I've been nothing more than set up, beat up, chewed on and spit out for the dogs to finish off. Quite literally, without going into details, it has been tough. We relocated, moved across country, and I should be happier to be in this beautiful place.

But alas, having no luck righting my outlook, and only half-hearted sewing mojo, I have completed a few nice garments but still haven't found my happy place.

So, I turned to my garden. Weeding really felt good. Pulling out all the bad and chucking it into a bin.

My boys helped me start a bunch of yucky veggies like broccoli and tomatoes from seed (in April) and we've now set almost all the seedlings in the garden. It has been really fun to teach the boys about gardening and work on this project as a family. We still need to get the peppers in the ground (oooh! and the cilantro) but here's what we've started and planted so far:

6 romas, 6 beefsteak, 4 green pepper, 4 banana pepper, 2 habenero, 5 broccoli, 5 cabbage, 4 bok choi, 6 buttercrunch lettuce, 12 spinach, 3 bush beans, 6 pole beans, 4 peas, 10 Walla Walla onion, 12 Spanish onion, 3 yellow squash, 3 zucchini, 8 cilantro and strawberries.

Only half of the space is used so far. I still need to start basil and oregano. Maybe some petunias and marigolds to keep pests away from my darling broccoli babies. I guess I will go ahead and start planning a flower bed for shaded perennials and figure out what edibles I can intersperse in the landscape for fun and more good eating, and to use up the rest of the flower beds.

I'm too lazy to get out the camera today. I would like to show you my tomato experiment... soon I'll do just that. It actually involves a sewing notion!

I can't believe Cennetta still comes by although there is nothing here to see. I'm sending out a huge thanks and just want to say it cheered me up quite a bit!!

HUGS, Leah

Back Fitting Experiment

I haven't blogged for so long it is silly yet I really need to. I am on the computer all day and dread having to do more computer work to document my sewing. Hence the lack of blogging, but I really should just get over it and write it all down, huh? I'll start fresh today to document for myself, mostly, my latest experiment.

Here is my fun discovery with wovens. Let's see if I can explain clearly. First, I slashed horizontally 1/4'' above the waist mark but not all the way through the SA on the side seam, then overlapped the bottom over the top 1'' to make a sway back adjustment. Then I corrected the CB seam by cutting straight down, effectively removing a wedge with the widest part 1'' wide at the CB at the hem. Need that 1'' back on the side seam, but not yet.

Next, I made 3/8'' narrow shoulder adjustment to the back, but I didn't cut a box and move the entire armsyce over this time. Instead, I slashed vertically from top to bottom, then horizontally from the slash through the armsyce about 2.5'' from the side seam/bottom of armscye. I moved the shoulder in 3/8''. The bottom right piece pivots so the bottom hem gains the missing 1'' and the armscye moves up 3/8''... effectively adding back there and completing the NSA.

I can't believe this makes total sense to me and it looks good in pattern stage, however, I'm sure the sway back part is wrong and needs more thought. I can't see how this made any difference except in center back length, ultimately, but maybe that is what it takes to correct the puddling problem at the lower back.

I need to cut a muslin next! (and start blogging again, eesh!)