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It's been awhile

Well it's been a little while... over 2 years to be exact.  Lots have happened in 2 years. Where to start?

Well first of all the title of this blog has changed, I think it reflects my direction a little better.  You can read about me more in my profile but for now I think I'll just share what I have been up to.  I have been sewing and it is a wonderful feeling!  I have been reading blogs from others over the years but somehow I haven't had the chance to really sew for me.  I decided that I would change that this summer.  My Thursday Sewing Camp has been an inspiration to get me going.  I meet with 3 lovely ladies every week and we sew or knit or chat and we inspire each other.  My goal was to have a new outfit started and finished for the next week's meeting.  After 5 weeks, I got 5 outfits done!

So for the first time I am doing my very own "I made this outfit" week.  Mimi has been a great help and so far she has steered me in the right direction.   Since this is Tuesday and this is my first blog entry in quite awhile, I'll just stick to Monday's outfit.

This was inspired by McCall's Palmer/Pletsch 6355.  The pattern has been discussed on various blogs and got some wonderful reviews.  It has also been in my stach for quite awhile.

 This was my second attempt at this pattern and it worked out much better.  I'll blog about the frist attempt later this week when I actually wear that dress.  Just trust me when I say that this went much better!  This fabric was given to me by a good friend who had  a stash of fabric "donated" to her and since she doesn't sew...I got to go through the stash.  I am sure you all have had the same thing happen to you.  Anyways when she asked me to go through and pick out what I wanted this spoke to me:


It reminded me of something Polo or Ralph would use.  It is a woven fabric.. more linen than cotton but it is little thin so I knew I had to line it.  Our Joann's doesn't have the best selection of lining (I'll rant about that another day) and I was too impatient to order something.  So off I went into the quilting section at Joann's and found a nice lightweight cotton that I thought would work.  Polyester lining in the Kansas heat just was not an option!! I would of preferred to use batiste but of course that was not to be found anywhere. Add an invisible zipper and I was good to go!

McCalls inpsiration on the left , my version on the right.

I loved how the bias finish on the neck and armholes turned out.  This pattern is great and showed you various ways to finish the neck and armholes.  I chose the third option for this and liked it so much better!  I made the lining and dress as two separate pieces and then combined them as one when I finished the neck and armholes.  I've been working on a more "professional" finish for my zippers when I have lining and I think I got that figured out for this dress.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture so I guess I'll have to save it for another post.  This dress agrees with Mimi and we thought it turned out pretty well!
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