A New Challenge

A very belated...

Happy New Year! 

A new year. As the calendar rolled over to 2019, I thought back to a math assignment that I was given when I was in the 1st grade. We had to figure out how old we would be in the year 2000. Once I figured out the problem, I looked at my age and thought, "Well, that's like dead!!!" Now, here we are 19 years after the year 2000 rolled around, and I don't feel anywhere near as old as I thought I would be in the year 2000, and especially, not dead! Such a blessing :)

A friend of mine and I began having weekly check-ins in January last year. We began the year by sharing our goals, and then would check in each week to see how we were doing. Neither of us accomplished everything on our lists, but it was such a great way to help each of us stay on track, and I think we both accomplished more by having to check-in than we would have if we were left to ourselves. If you have a friend that you love and trust, I highly recommend doing this. It's such a great way to feel as though you aren't alone in the world, to have someone else care about what you would like to accomplish, and then to hold you accountable. 

As for blogging...

You may remember that Becky of Trial Balloons and I challenged each other last summer with 4 weeks of woven tees. I so enjoyed the challenge. Each week we had a different theme, and neither of us knew what the other would be creating. Below are the pieces I did. Each was done with the free raglan sleeved tee pattern from Fabric-Store.com

Since we both enjoyed the challenge, we have decided to do another for the month of February. Once again, the pieces will all be woven, but this time around, we will be doing tweed shirts. We will both be using the same pattern, the Francine top and dress pattern from Merchant and Mills.

 I like the nice basic lines of the pattern.

Becky has made the top a number of times and has been quite pleased with it. Check out THIS post to see the top she made for her son's girlfriend. Lucky girl!!! I have not made the pattern, but I am very excited about giving it a try and seeing what I come up with for my challenge pieces.

If you would like to purchase the pattern and follow along, you can purchase the pattern from Oak Fabrics in Chicago. I had initially looked up the pattern online and thought that I would order it from Merchant and Mills. Believe it or not, I awoke one morning at 4 a.m. and the thought occurred to me that Oak Fabrics just might carry it. So, I looked, and sure enough they did! Since I live in Chicago, it was easy enough for me to just pop over and pick up the pattern. So, if you are in the United States, and would rather not pay the shipping from the U.K., pop over to the Oak Fabrics site and she will get it out to you quickly. 

I have chosen a number of fabulous tweeds from my stash of fabrics. It's a win, win for me, I get some fabulous new pieces, and delete a few pieces from the stash.

I have another fun project that I will be working on this year. More on that tomorrow!

Rhonda

Thrifty Thursday

Hi Everyone! Once again, I know I'm late!!, but I am determined to get back on track!! So I decided to go ahead and post this week's Thrifty Thursday pattern. If you are just finding the blog, a quick review, on Thursdays (at least I try!!) I am reviewing the free patterns that are available on the web from independent pattern companies. Some of the patterns have been posted by fabric stores, and I also find them in other venues. It's a great way to try out a pattern. The only expense is the ink for printing, your paper, and of course your fabric. But at least you are not putting out money to take a test run on a new company only to find out that their patterns aren't quite right for you, or me as the case may be :) I'm having so much fun with this series, and as it looks at the moment, it will go on for quite a while as there are an abundant amount of free patterns available.

Today I am showcasing the Zoe Top by Tessuti Fabrics. I was drawn to this pattern for two reasons. First of all it is designed for sheer georgette and chiffon fabrics, so lightweight wovens. 

I was also drawn to the pattern for the shape. The picture above is quite deceiving as the top looks like a big rectangle with dolman sleeves. As you can see from the picture below, this is not the case. The pattern has a lovely shape.

 I also liked the shape of the sleeve opening. Notice the slight curve. This helps the sleeve to hang straight around the arm rather than hike up on the shoulder seam. Very nice design feature.

I made my top out of a silk. I love this print! I bought it far too long ago at Britex while on a trip to San Fransisco.
The pattern is designed to cut the front and back on the fold. In order to do this, you will need a 54"-60" wide fabric. My silk was only 45" wide, so I added a seam down center front and back. Because of the pattern of the fabric, it really isn't noticeable.

 The back.

 The top may also be worn belted.

I did make one alteration to the pattern. I am rather narrow across my shoulders, so I added an inch at the neckline on the shoulder seam. If I do the top again, I will probably add another 1/2".
The top is super easy to make, and has a lovely feminine shape that gracefully skims the body. The top would also work well as a swimsuit cover-up, or lengthen it and turn it into a breezy dress for summer, so very versatile.  If you would like to download one for yourself, you can find the pattern here, http://www.tessuti-shop.com/collections/free-sewing-patterns/products/zoe-top-print-at-home-or-copy-shop-pdf
While you are there, you might want to check out the lovely fabrics that Tessuti carries. The shipping is a little killer if you live in America, but sometimes it's just worth it ;) Tessuti has two other free patterns available on their website. I am planning to give one other a try, especially since I enjoyed this one so much. For those of you who do not like the idea of taping a pdf pattern together, Tessuti offers a copy shop version as well. All you will need to do is download the pattern to a memory stick and then take it to your local printer. To be honest, I prefer to just tape the pattern together. This pattern took me a little less than 30 minutes. I would have spent more time in the car!
Hope you are having a great day!
Rhonda

Thrifty Thursday

Yes, I know that it isn't Thursday. It has not been a very happy few days. When I opened my computer on Tuesday, it locked up, just froze. So it's off to the repair shop because of course, I have no earthly idea what is wrong with it. My laptop didn't have Word for writing documents. Everyone had said that it wasn't an issue to download and install. Great. So my husband purchased it and I tried to install it Wednesday night. No luck. The laptop took a ride to the computer store and rather than going into a lengthy explanation, I lost everything on the computer and that resulted in me having a meltdown, truly. At least I have saved some things to Dropbox. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to get back into my account. In conclusion, I now have a brand new laptop. Computers, such a love hate relationship. I saw a piece on the news a few days ago about aggression in the work place. A hidden camera caught one man taking a bat to a computer, I can relate!
Time to just move on and I do have something very sweet and nice to share with you although I am a day late.

It's the Polly Top from By Hand London. I was initially attracted to the pattern, well, first of all because it is free, but I really liked the idea that it had been drafted for woven fabrics. Being able to wear a cool and comfortable little cotton top in the summer is always a plus in my book. If you have followed my blog for some time, you know that I don't make a lot of muslins, unless I'm using a very expensive piece of fabric. I measure the pattern and decide the size that will be best and then it is cut and go. I typically don't have a lot of fitting issues and if I do, it's usually because it's a poorly drafted pattern. I was very pleased with this pattern.

At first I thought that the center style lines were only style lines, but once I saw the pattern pieces I realized that the fit for the bust had been incorporated into this area. I laid the top flat so you could see that it doesn't just lay flat against the table. This little design feature gives a very nice fit over the bust.

The back is just a flat piece cut on the fold. It felt and looked a little too boxy on my, so I added darts. I'm rather small across my lower back so this made a very nice difference in how the top hangs on my body. Doesn't the top have a lovely neckline? So pretty for the summer.

 

Here you can see the darts on the inside of the top. If you feel a little apprehensive about adding darts, I would suggest adding a center back seam to the pattern. A center back seam is almost always a good thing and gives you one more seam for fitting changes.  

I plan to make a number of these tops for summer. The fit is good and the top is a snap to sew up. This pattern could easily be lengthened and turned into an easy to wear summer dress. Based on my experience with this pattern, I would not hesitate to purchase a pattern from By Hand London. You can find the Polly Top pattern here,  http://byhandlondon.com/products/polly-top. You will need to create an account, but I think that is only fair. Once you create an account, the pattern will be sent to your email address where you can then download it.

I will post a picture of me in the top later today. I'll look a lot better once I see my hairdresser this afternoon!!!

Wishing you a lovely and computer problem free day!!

Rhonda