Back in a bit...

Got out of town company, so I'm a bit tied up.

Hoping to get a bit of sewing done before the weekend is over; I'm beginning to feel withdrawal...

Choir Sundays '09 #28

This month's colors:brown, white, or gold with blue jeans.Ok, this is mostly RTW...blue jeans and a brown RTW sweater that's a couple of years old. But the vest is lace over white taffeta, from an OOP Butterick pattern that I haven't reviewed because I haven't made anything from it since joining PR in '03 (so, yeah, this is an old vest). Kinda cool that garments w/lace layered are actually on trend now...rare that I'm ahead of the fashion curve! ;)

Choir Sundays '09 #27

This month's colors:Gold, brown or white w/ blue jeans.

This was a case of closet inspiration. I intended to just pull out a white shirt to tie over my brown rayon/lycra Jalie 965 tank top, but instead I saw a RTW sweater set that I hadn't worn in ages tucked amongst the white shirts and got inspired. I put the lacy oversweater on over my tank top, instead of over the white sweater knit tank that it came with and, bingo, something a little different!

And, to continue my 'something little different', I wore my Vogue 2872 denim skirt.

Y'know, I might even use that lacy sweater on top of other colors of tank tops now...

Oh, almost forgot. Next week is the Quarterly Blogging break, although it seems almost silly to take a break when my posting has dropped off so severely. But, since the Break includes all internet activity other than checking e mail or the weather, I'll still get some time to catch up on a bunch of stuff that's behind. So, have a good week and I'll see you next Sunday! :)

Um, yeah....

So, My Sweet Baboo took me to *The Really Big Famous Fancy Resort Place that Used to be a Theme Park* in Nashville for an overnight birthday treat.

We couldn't drive by Textile Fabrics...while a sale was in progress...without stopping in to see if any new goodies had been added to the remnant room.

I didn't find any remnants that spoke to me when Miss A and I went up on Monday, but I grabbed six pieces Friday. Two of them aren't worth photographing...a yard and a bit of some gray Ambiance lining, and some very heavy navy blue cotton/lycra twill. One piece is already taken off to the laundry, but it's just a floral cotton knit (for testing knit patterns, I think! Or maybe for a nightgown; we'll see how much it softens in the wash), but the other three pieces are definitely worth a picture:


The pieces draped over the back are both wonderfully soft and light embroidered corduroy, tie dyed. I had to get both colorways; one for the orange-lovin' Flute Player; the other may make a shirt-jacket for me. The piece on the seat, though, is my Find...it's tie silk; a gorgeous jacquard of black, gold and cream. It's going to be a vest. I've got a yard and 5/8, but it's only 25" wide, so I'll need all of it for just the front and the facings. But, oh, won't it be nice!.

And, ahem, I spent $50 on it. Which I justified by saying 1) we did NOT take the little tour boat around the Delta atrium, which saved us $20. (I don't understand it. That boat was full every time we saw it. At $10 each...for a little wobbly loop...) and 2) we walked across the parking lots (about half a mile or so, I believe!) to the mall next door and ate at the Aquarium. After checking all the prices on the menus of the restaurants in the hotel, the Aquarium seemed downright reasonable. I figure we saved another $30 by NOT eating at the Old Hickory Steakhouse...and, bingo! I just paid for my little indulgence at the fabric store!

Um, the extra yardage in the Stash, however, may not be so easily dealt with. Oh, the rayon/lycra knits from Gorgeous fabrics came while I was gone, too, so the yardage is definitely UP. Time to do some serious sewing....

But there's nothing like walking through a mall full of poorly made, overpriced fashions to inspire some sewing.

(Cue the Beatles music) All I need is time...dut dut duh duh duh...all I need is time, time....time is all I need... ;)

Choir Sundays '09 #26

This Month's Colors: Brown, white and/or gold w/blue jeans.

So, I'm wearing my Lee bootcut jeans again; the white twill Vogue 8045 jacket and, for the top, the second go at the surplice top from Burda (FWOF) May '09. I found that that fit of that pattern really does depend on the fabric; what I did to alter it worked really well for the relatively stable poly/lycra matte jersey; this was a very stretchy cotton/lycra and it behaved very differently. It's heavy; it pulled the upper bodice down much like a slinky knit would've, so I ended up taking the almost all the extra length back out by taking the shoulder seams in 5/8".

And this one, I've decided, definitely needs a cami under it. Next time. ;)

The Handcrafts of Thursday's Children

Back in May, a group of folks from our church, including our senior pastors, went on a trip to meet the Moldovan orphans themselves, visiting two or three orphanages and the girls at Stella's Houses. They visited the orphanage at Cupcui, and the director of the orphanage had set up a room to showcase handcrafts made by the kids there... including some things that had been made by the girls who are now at Stella's House.

(Photo credits to Leisa Nelson)




These amazing handcrafts are made from the materials that they can scrape together...they have no 'handcraft education' budget, and virtually no notions or machines.

But look at what those kids have created. From almost nothing.

What do you suppose they could do with adequate supplies?

First Post on Thursday's Children

The Burda Denim Vest

The topstitching is pretty far from perfect; the denim was really bulky right at the edges and my little New Home just couldn't seem to feed it evenly. But, it doesn't show from any distance and the worst of it is on the underlap.

But it's a great top piece; especially good for wearing over a white blouse that has less than complete opacity! ;)

Here's the review....

My Early Birthday Present to Me....

I'm tellin' ya, black denim is hard to find...but I managed to find something else up at Textile Fabrics to bring home.

Besides some gray Ambiance, some brown Ambiance, and a piece of white china silk to line a white silk blouse, I bought two pieces of fashion fabric:



Only two pieces, but they're very nice....the pink stripe is horizontal on a piece of very soft, very yummy linen and I'm planning to make a tunic shirt from it. If you look closely, you can see shiny black stripes on the brown wool/lycra blend suiting (it was marked as being an Ellen Tracy fabric and is really nice...). I'm planning on some Oxford pants and maybe a straight skirt or a vest, if it works out.

It's almost worth the trip to Textile Fabrics just to pet the gorgeous woolens they've got...even if those super 150's are marked at $129/yard.... oh, they're nice!!!

I've got a couple of pieces still in processing from Gorgeous Fabrics' last sale; (those designer rayon knits...the brown I made the Jalie tank top from is so yummy I ordered another piece for a cardigan to go with it, plus a piece of gray while I was at it) but once those get here I'm going back on a 'no fabric' moratorium until I get some sewing done.

I need some work clothes! ;)

Choir Sundays 09 #25

This Month's Colors: White, gold or brown with blue jeans.
So, I'm wearing my Lee bootcut jeans with the brown poly blend Vogue 2975 pleated top and the white twill version of that Vogue 8045 jacket .

My sewing buddy Miss A and I are trekking up to Nashville tomorrow to check out Textile Fabrics annual 'half off everything' sale. I've got a short list of things I'm looking for, but, you never know when some unexpected jewel will start singing the inspiration song... ;)

Drought Breaking

So I finally finished the Burda denim vest and opened my Excel spreadsheet to record it and discovered that I did not complete a single project in June
I have to go back to September of last year to find another month in which I had nothing recorded on my list, and even then I did a wee bit of costume work. In June I did a teeny bit -- one afternoon's worth-- of mending. A day's worth of picking up/cleaning (which is not at all noticeable). And some fabric buying. But no finished garments.

So, after I saw my empty month, I decided I needed to do a couple of quick projects. I pulled out two of my recent acquisitions and quickly turned out two tops. So, after doing nothing all of June, I finished three garments yesterday. I need to get a good photo of the vest so I can write a review, and the other two will no doubt show up on choir posts very soon (brown is one of the colors for July). But, here's a quick photo of yesterday's sewing:


That's a Jalie 965 tank top, the Burda (formerly World of Fashion) May 2009 #108 vest (review coming soon) and another Burda (FWOF) May 2009 # 103 surplice top.
I didn't have enough fabric to cut sleeves (I intended to do at least cap sleeves, but couldn't manage it), and I *should've* pulled out a TNT sleeveless knit pattern to make sure the armseyes would work w/no sleeves. I've got some 1/8" elastic sewn into the lower front armholes to try and pull in the gapage that was going on there. It sort of worked. But, having no sleeves, the top will be worn under a jacket most of the time anyway. Maybe I'll remember this lesson next time.... ;)

Oh, the Princess walked by while I was cropping/resizing the photo and commented, 'That picture doesn't count because you're not wearing them.'

Can I roll my eyes?

Thursday's Children

posted by Lisa Laree to Sew Random.

I do try hard to keep 'Sew Random' focused on sewing; I use my other blog for discussing issues of personal faith. The Sew Random posts are from a life that is based on faith, but it is more of a foundational background here. However, there are times when what is in the background must be a bit more visible. This is one of those times. If you'll hang with me, you'll see that this really does have something to do with sewing, though...


In typical mixed-up fashion, I had a whole blog series based on the poem Thursday's Child. At the last minute (meaning just as I was writing this post), I decided to Google it and make sure I would quote the poem correctly.

Good thing I did. I had 'Thursday's Child' and 'Wednesday's Child' mixed up...it's 'Wednesday's Child' that's 'full of woe'.

See, I was going to to a series of posts about some kids who have very little joy in their lives...and I was going to do those posts on Thursdays for the next couple of months.

But, you know, 'Thursday's child has far to go' really is a much more positive thing to base a series on than '...is full of woe.'

So I'm going to keep the series name as I talk about some kids on the other side of the globe who have so very little, but they are beginning to have some hope. Because they *do* have 'far to go.'

And I'm going to present an opportunity to my bloggy friends to help them just a bit.

I don't have all the details down yet, but I will tell you that it involves stash purging. I'll say more as I get the rest of the plan myself.

But, in the meantime, here's the background story on the orphanage in Cupcui, Moldova:
Moldova Video
(note: the video was made a year or so ago; Stella's House II is open and housing girls; Stella's House III is currently under construction).