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Thursday, January 10, 2019

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

6 comments:

  1. Happy New Year! I remember thinking OMG I will be so old when 2000 rocks around. Well here we are and still going strong. In relation to the shirts, it will be interesting. Quite a boxy pattern and doesn't appeal at all to me. But you make anything look fabulous! Really!!

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  2. Happy New Year - looks like a fun top !! Can’t wait to see your tops & what’s coming next 😍

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  3. Just a word of warning on the Francine top. I found the sleeve head to be very high which gave a beautifully hanging sleeve but one in whichI couldn’t move my arms. I ended up taking at least a couple of inches off the sleeve head.

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    1. Thanks Nicola! I'm going to make up the pattern as is before I do any redesigning, so I'll keep this in mind.

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  4. I love your blog and thanks to you I just ordered the Merchant and Mills Workbook. I am also obsessed with Fabrics-Store and have probably ordered 25 yards of their linen thanks to your blog on the raglan shirt.

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    1. Hi Robyn, I just made up my first sample of the Merchant and Mills Francine pattern. I will be posting my thoughts on the pattern this upcoming Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. I made the dress version and I love it, but there are a few things to consider, so stay tuned :)

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