Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

My work was closed due to Hurricane Sandy so I had some unexpected sewing time.  A bonus, unplanned item seemed the way to go.  I sort of fondled my stash for a bit and ran across this crazy fluorescent neon safety orange sateen.  I purchased it from Fabric Mart a couple years ago for $1/yd to be the trim for my Butterick 5315 piped shirtdress  but I ended up using tie silk for that project instead.  I was wavering whether to put it into the giveaway pile or make it into a Halloween skirt.  Halloween won.  I love Halloween, but there is just nowhere for a grown adult to dress up in a costume and go someplace non-horrible.  It makes me sad that I've had to give it up.  This lets me celebrate a little. I went digging through my skirt patterns and found Simplicity 2413 .  I made the pleated skirt last year in silk organza , and had made a mental note at the time to try the paper bag skirt.  A bright orange skirt shaped like a pumpkin--...

Thank you all for the lovely comments on my photos from Portugal!  It really is a wonderful place to visit.  I highly recommend it. Since making my biking/travel wardrobe for The Netherlands , I've pretty much been set on travel clothes.  For that trip, I made 6 tops out of solid-colored wicking fabric and added 3 print skirts to my already broad repertoire.  Throw in a dress or two and you've got two weeks worth of outfits that you might not even get sick of.  However, for Portugal the weather was likely to be a little cooler than my sleeveless tops and summer skirts would work for, and plus I always need an excuse to do some sewing! I made four new items and in writing about them I realized that all of them are TNTs, or at least based on a TNT.  Am I getting boring?  I hope not.  I think it's that with 275 pattern reviews (plus all the patterns sewn before I discovered PR and those I haven't gotten around to reviewing), I've got a lot of bases c...

Back from vacation, back to real life.  Le sigh.  I have been back for more than a week but you know how it is to readjust (and the inevitable cold from flying).  Portugal was beautiful and easy to get around.  The people were all lovely and kindly spoke English.  I speak passable tourist-level French and Spanish and figured Portuguese wouldn't be too much of a stretch but, boy, was I wrong!  The spelling and grammar are similar, so I could read things well enough to get the gist, but the pronunciation is so different that I couldn't understand a word. We visited Lisbon, Porto, and Guimaraes, a small city about an hour from Porto.  Guimaraes was named European City of Culture for 2012, so it was a great year to visit.  A lot of money had been poured into it and has a lot of interesting history.  The button sculpture at the top is the Guimaraes 2012 logo, a G turned on its side so looks a bit like a heart. I managed to encounter some interesti...

...too many tops! I seem to be in a sewing rut of late, top-of-the-tops type of rut - am I able to actually sew anything but blouses, tops and shirts???? Can't quite remember back to my pre-top days of yesteryear, but I do love a new top. Now I am not crazily into the quick and easy tops, though in saying that the Sorbetto did fall into that category. And I have been known to actually enjoy sewing plackets full of button holes and buttons, with collars coming a close second. But my wardrobe needs to now make room for it's latest boarder - Simplicity 1886 - yes, a top pattern! A Misses' top with trim variations - go to town on that description!!! Now I did the usual PR pre-check as to how everyone went with this pattern, and only 2 others have given it a go - I am sure I have had it in my stash for a fair time. Anyway, talk of ' difficulty with the flounce ', joined with problems with the ' outlandish facings' , did nothing to deter me from giving it a go m...

During the past winter I made up Simplicity 3790 twice ( here ) both with the cowl neckline. So for a change of pace, and flowing along with the  change in seasons, I thought a different view would be good - enter View E. View E is the short sleeved version, with a bodice instead of a cowl neck.  This time my motivation came from this cute little top I found on Pinterest (aahhh, that's where my time is disappearing to lately!!!) Lucinda Poel has some really creative pins, and this was one of them... Basically this top of Lucinda's is Simplicity 3790, minus the sleeves. So I fiddled and chopped the bodice piece (not the original) until I was happy, and used up a bit of spare fabric from the shelves. Front, closeup and the sleeve/bodice detail... And the best exciting view of all....the back...couldn't get much more exciting than that!!! I wanted to try this change on the top, but have a feeling it is a bit on the frumpy side of things. So will give it give it a go at work...

When it is described as a 'lapped front', of course! Which is exactly what Butterick 5484 is, though the line drawing does give the impression of it being a twist, not a lap ... obviously I chose a pattern here with my eyes closed, as I was expecting a twisty front... Not to worry, the lapped front worked out well anyway. Not a bad pattern to whip up, and end result is on par with any of the current RTW tops found currently at the shops... Talk about a quick top! Only 2 pattern pieces (front and back) to produce this, in about 1 hour from start to finish. And the next time will be even quicker, I'm sure. I used a belt buckle, and just nipped off the prong. But there isn't a huge exciting range of buckles out there in the shops! I do think my buckle gets lost a tad in amongst all the other circles... The shoulder detail is pleated which gives fall nicely towards the buckle. I did top-stitch down a few centimetres on each pleat just to hold them in place... The back is...