A Happy Surprise and a Great Friend

I was working away in my studio yesterday when the mail came. My husband appeared with a magazine in his hand. It was the new issue of Threads Magazine. If you haven't seen it r received it yet, check out the fabulous top that's on the cover. It's a Kenneth King original, but then everything from Kenneth King is original!!! This would be a super fun top to make. In fact, I think it might translate into a few other garments as well.

Nestled back in the Reader's Closet section is my little polka dot skirt that I made last year for Sewing Indie Month. If you are new to the blog, I headed up the pattern hacking category for Sewing Indie Month and had a blast with it, I do like to chop things up!!!
The pattern is the Zlata Skirt Pattern from Stepalica Patterns.

Here's a picture of me in the skirt. I was shocked to receive a message from Threads asking to feature my skirt in the magazine. Honored and shocked! The skirt was sent off back in January, which was great timing since I wouldn't wear it all winter. When it came back home, I pulled it out of the box and wore it the next day. A little like a good friend returning from a long journey. If you would like to see the posts I did on the skirt, you can find them HERE and HERE. 

Thank you Threads!!!!!

I would like to preface this picture by saying that I am greatly blessed to have a friend like Cennetta from The Mahogany Stylist. She has believed in me, listened to me moan, and promoted me every chance she gets. In fact, there's a link on HER blog(not mine)to all the posts I've done for Sew News. My wish is that everyone could have a friend like Cennetta. If you do, count yourself very fortunate.

You may remember the Perfect Travel Dress I did some time ago. Cennetta has made a number of them, she loves them! But check this one out. Talk about VAVAVAVOOM!!! This is her beautiful daughter Lauren, or as I affectionately call her, Miss DeeDee :) The dress was made for our upcoming Haute Couture fashion show this Sunday. You can see more pictures on Cennetta's blog HERE. 

                                               

In closing, I thought I would share this picture with you. I'm feeling very overwhelmed at the moment, just a lot on my plate. I love this picture because it speaks to me of determination against all odds. When the quest seems insurmountable, it will be, unless you try :)

Happy Friday. I wish for you great friends, happy surprises and something that will make you work hard for the prize!
Rhonda

Sewing Indie Month, Pattern Hacking Part 2

I'm back with a few pictures. I think this is my new favorite skirt!!

In the event that you missed this morning's post, this is the Zlata Skirt from Stepalica that I made for this week's Pattern Hacking post. You can find the earlier post here, http://www.rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2014/05/sewing-indie-month-pattern-hacking_23.html
Check out the scarf I'm wearing. I didn't start the day off with the scarf. It was a lovely gift from Lisa of http://www.poldapop.com/, and it looks great with my outfit. How lucky am I?!!!!

 The skirt is just as cute from the back as it is from the front. Love it!

I see I missed a belt look :)) Oh well. You get the idea.
So as I said in the earlier post, just because a pattern states that you can't use a certain fabric, like stripes, with just a little manipulation of the pattern a lot of things can sometimes be possible.

Sewing Indie Month, Pattern Hacking

Oh...I had the best of intentions yesterday, but alas no post, so today is catch up day.
The pattern that I chose for this week's hack is the Zlata Skirt from Stepalica Patterns.
 
You may remember seeing a version of the skirt on the cover of the April/May issue of Sew News. Nice!

Here's my version. You may look at the skirt and wonder what I did. Notice that I used 2 different fabrics, the larger polka dot and the small polka dot. The pattern instructs you to not use a stripe as the skirt pattern has a bias cut to it. In order to give the skirt a striped effect,  

I cut the pattern apart along the fold lines of each pleat,

 added seam allowance and then cut my strips in a stripe manner.

I had this great batik print that I decided would accent the black and white polka dots in a little unexpected manner.

I made piping and piped the top and lower edge of the yoke,

 as well as the pockets.

I had just enough of the batik to cut a bias binding for the hem.

I lined the skirt with a piece of orange silk.

Now you see that just because a pattern tells you that you can't do something, it doesn't mean that it can't be done. True enough, if you were to use a stripe fabric and cut the skirt as the pattern comes out of the envelope, it would not work. But by cutting the pattern apart, you can then manipulate the pattern and give it so many more possibilities.

I'm wearing the skirt today, so I should have pictures a little later.

If you would like to enter and have a chance to win all the fabulous prizes that have been posted for the pattern hacking category of Sewing Indie Month, be sure to check out this post, http://www.rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2014/05/announcing-sewing-indie-month.html  and link your creations there. Happy Hacking!!