Final Tops I Like

A: Bird Top (fabric from Ikea) And I like the straight front – no gathers in this post if I can help it. Ruffles, I don’t know.

B: Bright Pink with cute flower.Like the neckline and the non-gathered front.

C: I like the bold black and white and the mitered square neckline looks very interesting.

D: Navy, which I am strangely drawn to (and few others seem to be, in the STW flickr pool.)

E: Oatmeal colored t-shirt redo that looks like I would wear it every day.I used to wear this “color” all the time but it doesn’t really say spring to me, I’ll have to find an actual color if I attempt this one.

F: A disclaimer – this is not my kind of fabric at all! Apparently, it wasn’t Sascha’s either, check out her blog for the hysterical tale of everything that went wrong with the fabric and pattern! But I really love the simplicity of it, and love those sleeves. Since it has been utterly freezing here the last few days – where oh where are the mid-80s of a typical Piedmont spring? – I’m digging the long sleeves and cardigan look right now.

Update on the schoolhouse tunic from mmmcrafts: I now have yardage in black and white gingham washed and ready to iron for cutting into. I rarely – ever? – copy a pattern so exactly but I am absolutely smitten with the whole idea, and for the last several days have been wishing for that top as I got dressed, so I could wear it.

Enough new tops thoughts. I found half a dozen new blogs to follow and some real inspiration in the flickr pool and finalists. Now back to regularly scheduled over-due creating for upcoming birthdays and a rain-check mother’s day project.

A: B:

C:

D:E:

F:

Happy Mother's Day!

To all you moms out there - whether your own, adopted, foster, or some other arrangement - what a great day this is.

I wore the ruffle top last night to an actual party at an actual bar (thanks Mr. Sycamore for babysitting!) and really love it in action. Comfortable AND pretty.

And I'm very happy to report that Florence's Ruffles top is in the top five from the voting Friday! Good luck Florence
!

Backpack!

So I needed to cover my sewing room chairs to find out how much fabric I had left over so I could make Sweet P her own backpack to match big brother's. She's been carrying it around for a week and we brought their pjs and toothbrushes to the ballpark in them so they could get all ready for bed and fall asleep in the car on the way back. I think the pink bulldog is special and does bear a bit of resemblence to P when she puts her mind to something.

I based this one on the boy backpack, with some modifications - shorter straps that can get longer as she gets bigger, and a simpler pocket on the outside with an extra pocket on the inside back. After sewing buttonholes in the straps I realized I really should have just sewn the straps on with the button - they won't need to be moved for a while and the buttonhole makes the strap weaker. Otherwise, we're all quite happy with the results. And no more squabbling over the lone backpack!

Last Day to Vote on Spring Top Week 60

Another top I already blogged about made the cut today! Go check out MadebyRae if you haven't already, you can vote until 7pm tonight. This may be my first chance to vote for the top that wins, Florence is currently in the lead with her olive colored Ruffle Top (I'm 0 and 4 so far this week) As you can tell from the posts below, my aesthetic is not exactly that of most voters, apparently. My top also did not make the cut to the top 60, which I was secretly hoping, since after seeing the voting I'm not sure I would like being in the mosaic but having NO VOTES AT ALL. Kind of like being back in high school.

But I'm very happy to have finished a sewing project for myself, which did take 28 days after all, and I probably wouldn't have except for the added incentive to enter. So thanks again Rae for organizing it all.

Out of time at the moment, this weekend will blog my extra tops that I like that didn't make it into the final cut.

More Tops I Love

A: Ruffled orange linen by zaaberry - you can vote for this today, as it is in the top 60 right now on MadebyRae!
B: Florence ruffles in olive by Flossie Teacakes (told you I'd pick some more ruffles)!
C: Tunic #3 by Elizabeth
D: Tunic by Elizabeth - I guess I like her style!
E: Tunic by Hanni
F: Tunic O by Sylvie.
G: Yellow flower tunic by Jenny (Do I love tunics?!) (and more orange!)
H: Sew liberated school house tunic by mmmcrafts - black and white and really nice! So simple.

A: B:

C: D:

E:F:
G: H:

Spring Tops!

If you haven't checked out the spring tops at MadebyRae yet (or voted!) go look. There are over 300 tops in all kinds of styles - ok, many many with ruffles - very inspiring for those of us who rarely sew for ourselves. I wore my top last week and just loved it - new clothes! For spring!



Because I can't vote for every top I love, I'm going to do a mini-favorites post right here (also so I can remember which ones I really really wanted to copy, being the most sincere form of flattery, right?) Click on any photo to link to either their flickr post (with details) or blog if they have one.

A: Here is a very cool tunic with awesome patterns/color from Crow-Girl
B: A lovely longer top from Jenny
C: Light blue from Shannon (and can you see my "longer" theme here? Love hip length..)
D: Cute orange flowers top by Rashooray
E: Poetry Top from Claudia. Normally this is really not my style but I love it! Could I pull it off?
F: Another orange top by Noodlehead
AB:
C: D:
E: F:

All right, enough oogling for now. Time to get sewing!

I see I choose only one really ruffly top above - will rectify the next time I browse thru the tops to pull my faves!

Chair Redo

First, let me say I love love love this table and chair set. It was a total score off Craig's List from a guy moving out of a group apartment where it had been the kitchen table. I keep hoping I'll see the missing two chairs somewhere local - I look in the thrift stores, at the dump... no luck yet. If you see them let me know!

Here was the covering when they came to me - very dingy. When I recovered them I found a pretty cool 70s print underneath that also looked like a redo. In any case, Sweet P already helped me pick out the chair fabric ("PINK")

Awesome mid-century lines, and very well made. I mean, really, how gorgeous are they. The table top is worse for wear with several water rings and deep scratches - so it is a great sewing room table - but it could be sanded and refinished (if I ever got around to it.) Yay wood over pressboard.

I had to pull at least a million heavy duty staples from the hardwood backing, and our shop stapler is very temperamental, so I just used our swingline, worked great. The oldies are the goodies, right?

In the spirit of Maya's fixit Friday.