Stenciling is My New Thing!!

Okay, I know I'm suppose to be sewing, and yes my fabric did arrive from Fabric.com minus the Navy Boucle fabric and the Steel Chiffon(You know I wasn't happy about that). They were sold out of the boucle and sent the wrong item for the chiffon. Oh, well, what's a girl to do? I order the cotton faille in dark navy blue and a couple of other pieces of which I then receive an email today, and they tell me that the designer woven jacquard circles in green is also now not available. I am not even going to touch this subject right now. Especially since they are now not allowing you to make substitutions. You have to place a new order.

I cut the pattern pieces out to do the muslin of my skirt, but I haven't worked on it.

Today's another day and hopefully I'll feel motivated to do something tonight.

Now, I wasn't all that lazy last night. Recently I've been interested in trying my hand at fabric painting. I purchased some fabric paint cans to try spray painting, I have some puff paint to do the 3-D stuff, and I also picked up some regular old fashion fabric paint. I decided to try that first. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I purchased a cheap long sleeve t-shirt, a couple of stencils, and I had a few stamps on hand and this is what I came up with. Except for a couple of very light smudges, it didn't turned out too bad. I think there will be more painting in my future, plus I want to make my own stencils. My husband saw this, and he already told me he's got plans for me and a few of his shirts.

Have any of you tried something new, and/or want to try something new in the crafting department? Let me hear it?

I've Been A Bad Girl!!!!

and I owe it all to Rachel. I put myself on a fabric diet until May, and I couldn't resist buying fabric from the Vera Wang Collection over at Fabric.com. I mean come on, $1.95 a yard? That was temptation at it's best. I did give myself a limit, and I couldn't go over $40. I just made it, as my order came to $37.98. I got a total of 17 yards from the collection and another 2.5 yards of a Stretch Matte Jersey Knit in Tomatoe which cost $1.93 per yard. This top I think will be for another Vogue 8597, but my version. I checked out the sweater material I had this past weekend, and found that it wasn't enough fabric to make the sweater, so right now I have another piece in my stash in mind, but I have to check the yardage. This one here, might be a present, not sure yet. Here's what I purchased from the collection:

5 yards of Polyester Boucle Suiting in Navy. Sorry this picture is so small, but the bigger picture of this fabric was taken off the fabric.com sight before I could capture it. Anyway, I have this designated for a Suit. I'm just not sure which one yet.


3 yards of Printed Brocade Floral Lavender/Black. This will be for a dress, I think.


2 yards of Printed Brocade Floral Amber. I have this in mind for a cute knee length skirt.


3 yards of Satin Twill Chartreuse. I'm thinking of making that popular tunic/dress from Burda 1-2010-128. I figure if it doesn't work out, or I don't like it, I can turn it into a nice blouse.

2 yards of Polyester Chiffon Steel. I'm interested in making some ruffled flowers and maybe a layered scarf for the Spring. Something with Cream Chiffon, Tulle and pearl beading. We'll see.



2 yards of Techno Taffeta Navy. This piece will be for a matching blouse for the Polyester Boucle.


I didn't get any sewing done this weekend, but I did manage to do some crocheting for a friend. She's trying to raise some money for the drama group that she's involved with, so I told her that I would donate a few items for them to raffle off the night of their fundraiser. I'll blog about that later as it's coming up early next month.

Did anyone catch the Golden Globes last night? I didn't watch it, but I did make sure I checked out what the girls were wearing today. Here are a few of my favorites.

I'm trying to decide what my next sewing project is going to be. Right now I'm thinking about replicating this baby. I figure I can accomplish that with Butterick 5421and a few minor adjustment/alterations. I also might try my hand at Vogue 1053, but I'm not sure yet. I'm afraid I think.

Vogue 8597 #1

One down, one more to go. Please excuse the hair!!!

Hanging with the Cowls

Last weekend I was blog surfing and saw Meli88a's cowl neck sweater and thought to myself, I like that and want one. She made her's using a pattern from 2005 Burda issue. I started searching the Big 4s and found Vogue 8597. I figured with a few minor adjustments to the cowl part, it could work. Vogue and McCall patterns were on sale two weekends ago at JoAnns. So you know I drove over there and picked up the pattern right away. I decided to try View A. In drawing out the pattern pieces Sunday night I lengthened the cowl part by about 15 inches, and gradually widened the cowl by about 3 to 3 1/2 inches. I'm hoping this will give me the the depth and length that I'm hoping for. In checking out PR for the pattern, I came across Violet's version and her inspiration. I was hoping to get more done this past weekend, but, as we all know, life sometimes gets in the way of our crafting, plus, I've been having a hard time with my sinuses the past 2 weeks. I'm using a matte t-shirt jersey I picked up at JoAnn's for my muslin, and for the actual sweater I'm going to use this lovely sweater fabric that I picked up at Jomar's last month on my little excursion with Karen. I cut the fabric out this morning for the muslin before getting ready for work this morning. I'm hoping to sew tonight, if I'm not too tired when I get home.

Back in the beginning of November Knit Picks had asked me to so some knitting for them, and I received my new Jan/Feb catalog yesterday. I was flipping through the pages and a big grin came across my face when I saw the Stained Glass Hat and Mittens I knit for them. It's from the book All New Homespun Handknits by Amy Clarke Moore. I loved making this hat set, but of course I had to give them to their rightful owner. Now I have to put this pattern on my list, to make a set for myself .

Yesterday I finished up the final hat that I needed to make for my bass player. I gave it to him last night at practice. Let's just say he was a happy camper. He requested the Jamaican colors for his hat.

I have to send a big shout out and THANK YOU to Adrienne. Back in June she posted about the Suave Giveaway and I went over to Suave and signed up. Last night when I got home from work, this was in the mail. I can't wait to try this out. It smells wonderful.

Hopefully, I'll have pics of my cowl neck blouse tomorrow, but for now here I am last Thursday night at the yarn shop wearing my Deep V-Neck Sweater With Collar.

First FO of the Year !!!!

So, I hope you all had a wonderful and uneventful but crafty weekend. It is so cold here. Let me tell you, layering right now is a must. Right now it's 31 degrees and it's suppose to go down to 23 tonight.

Last weekend I was browsing through JoAnn's and I came across this awesome crochet book Contemporary Crochet: 37 European Designs, by Sys Fredens. I had to have it. I don't think there is one design in this book that I don't like, and everything is pretty basic. On Monday, I started my first crochet sweater ever(I have done a tank top before), and finished it yesterday. I guess you can call it my rollover sweater. It's the Deep V-Neck Sweater With Collar. I love how this sweater turned out, and I love the colorway of this yarn. I also love that I got it done in a week. The yarn is Jo-Ann Sensations Rainbow Boucle. I purchased it on sale for a whopping $5.99 on sale last weekend. Now I just need to weave in the ends and find a cute matching tank top to wear with it. If you are new to crochet, this book is definitely a winner if you want to get your feet wet. Here are a few of the other designs.The Lovely and talented Ms. Faye awarded me To accept the award, I need to list 10 things about myself and then award it to 7 other bloggers.

1. I grew up an only child.

2. My parents divorced when I was 25 after 29 years of marriage.

3. Most people automatically think that I'm spoiled, but my parents always made sure that I worked for everything that I received. They also taught me that as long as I had money, I could purchase whatever I wanted.

4. I love doing outdoor activities like hiking/trail walking, biking, swimming, etc.

5. I have a dream of one day having a wardrobe of my own handmade creations.

6. I need to be more goal oriented. I start things, but I don't always finish them.

7. I would like to travel more.

8. I would love to read at least 50 books this year.

9. I would like to sew/knit/crochet mainly from my stash this year. I have entirely too much fabric, and yarn.

10. I'm outgoing, but a real home body at heart.

The 7 women I'm going to nominate are:

Sheila
Rachelle
Rachel
Elaina
Karen
Robin
Marissa