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

... just needed a quick little top, and thought I would try out an end-of-summer cowl neck. Last winter I made a few of Simplicity 3790 with sleeves, so gave a sleeveless version a go. The fabric is just gorgeous to feel, a touch silky, and fairly bright and cheery. Very Eastery if I may say so ... It looks super with my cream/beige skirt, or my black jeans for a casual look ... I tried to position more of the aqua colours in the cowl to be closer to my face ...  And I didn't realise when I purchased the fabric, but there are actually butterflies flitting around the fabric ... I know, how could I miss a butterfly this big??? So I can safely pop this top into Faye's 2013 Essential Top Sew-A-Long  ...   And just a quick family shot from a 'Do' we went to last Friday evening for my son's volleyball at school. Now I am about 5'6" tall (or what I call near enough to average), and wearing heels for the occasion. And still I look like a midget at a Land of the Gia...

...this post, it is just me jumping on the Bloglovin bandwagon... <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/2784617/?claim=k4jekpkd5aj">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I love to give presents! I reached 100 followers this week on my little blog and thought I'd say thankyou to everyone for reading my blog. I've got two little prizes, just some of my favourite things at the moment; The first has a twin needle, 5mt of hug and snug seam binding, 2m of clear elastic and a roll of silk thread The second has the latest issue of Threads, 5m of hug and snug, 2m of clear elastic and a roll of silk thread. Just leave a comment with which one you'd like to win and I'll draw a random comment on Tuesday 2nd of April. Goodluck and Happy Easter!

It is pattern stash contest time!  It's a good exercise in getting to long-planned projects.  My first entry is    Burda 12-2011-105 (available for purchase at the link--I am not affiliated in any way and do not receive compensation).  I finished this skirt the night before our DC-area meetup , and Sewandwrite was kind enough to take the fun photos.  I haven't yet confessed the fabric.  It is a Fabric Mart Maggy London piece; I received it on Thursday, washed it that night, and sewed it on Friday.  It never had time to hit the stash, which means it barely counts, right? Because the skirt can't be shortened in hemming without losing the shape/design elements, I took forever trying to figure out the right length.  After trying a couple different tissue fits, I decided to shorten it 1 1/2 inches.  I took out the length about 2/3 way down on the front pieces (I folded out an equal amount of length from the back piece).  I just smooth...

It is so fun to talk about sewing in real life! It had been a while since we last had a DC-area sewing meetup, so Nikki took the initiative to organize through the message board at Pattern Review  (for some reason it literally did not occur to me to announce it on my blog until I left the house and was biking toward the restaurant).  We met at the Vapiano in Chinatown, which is convenient to all five metro lines.  It turned out to be a great place for a meetup.  Everyone orders their food separately at the counter, but the dining experience is not fast food.  We were able to take over a big corner of the restaurant with plenty of space to chat and to swap for a couple of hours. People came from near and far--I think Baltimore was our furthest trekker. I think I was closest. The restaurant is only a little over a mile from my house (lucky me!). Everyone was decked out in their fanciest sewn duds. We circulated around getting to know one another and reconnectin...

There are so many peplum tops in the shops lately and I love them! A couple of changes from the last version , heightened the midriff band and lengthened the peplum plus made the neckline lower. Makes the proportions nicer and its such an easy top to wear I made it in grey and purple! I'm still stuck on a twin needle sewing thing so I did it around the neck band, arm bands and hemline.   The fabric out of my stash, its just a cheap ponte knit from Lincraft. It pills really quickly but is a nice weight and stretch.

top SEW-A-LONG started today!  The clever Faye , from  Faye's Sewing Adventure   is hosting this annual top sew-a-long, between the dates of March 24th (today) till April 7th. Just long enough to whip up a much needed top, or two! At this stage the following patterns are wetting my appetite ... My Autumn/Winter wardrobe is in need of a new shirt, especially a lovely crisp white, and long sleeved tops are always welcome in my wardrobe. Not sure which one I will be starting with, but the sewing WILL start this coming Friday - first day of Easter school holidays ... So far, over 40 others have signed up to join the Sew-a-long! If you are interested, pop on over to Faye's Sewing Adventure and add your name to the list. At the end of the Sew-a-long there will be a grande-finale of piccies for us all to drool over, and get ideas from. See you there...

... patterns and fabrics coming through my door, but no little packages of 'time' being delivered!  Don't you just hate having to work - it soooo interrupts sewing plans! Not to worry, only 4 more teaching days for this term and then 2 whole weeks up my sleeve to sew ... But, in the meantime, I have been jazzing up the old sewing room in readiness. First I started with the chairs - originally they where the unwanted study chairs. You know the type - plain, boring old grotty black chairs that had seen their day. But a fresh padding of foam, some lovely new fabric and I have 2 great chairs... These where followed by a revamp of the poor old sewing ironing board, with enough fabric left over to  cover the corkboard used for my inspirations ... I know, a blank board meaning I am not inspired at the moment :( Gotta love a sewing room when it starts to come together ... just need to drill in the holes for the cords in my new Ikea table tops and I will be all set ... And did any...

I have been so thrilled with my TNT t-shirt draft that I've been wanting the same for a woven pullover top.  I have made many Simplicity 2938 tank tops , but (1) a recent attempt to add sleeves to the pattern was a disaster, and (2) I don't always want the front pleat detail or the front princess seams to break up a print.  I started with Burda 12-2007-123 and got it about 85% of the way there last year when I was attempting to duplicate the DVF Grandie Top .  As warm weather approaches (I hope?  pretty please?), my thoughts turned again to a basic pullover woven tank so I pulled out my pattern and brought it over the finish line...or at least to 95%.  I went to ScrapDC to find a muslin fabric and found this perfect piece!  I think I need to shorten it a teeny bit between the shoulder and bust in the front and the hem is difficult, as explained below. In the closeup photo it looks like the hips are winging out (the dreaded Mickey Mouse Hips where they sti...