knits and stripes and patterns, oh my!

I have finally broken my fabric fast and purchased some goodies, no thanks to Kristine who turned me onto Girl Charlee Fabrics.  I'm probably most excited by finally having my very own chevron SOMETHING...  Even if I'm late to the chevron party.  I got the B&W chevron knit:

Just what to make with it??  I saw an adorable skirt on Pinterest, but I've seen some cute tanks (a'la the Sorbetto) and even a few cute dresses. With a busy print like that, it would need to be something simple.  This is cute:

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 Hmmm.  Taking suggestions now.

 Then I caved to the pressure I always feel from nautical-esque stripes.  Stripes, why do I love thee??

And this glorious stripe with a floral...I'm seeing a dress with a swirly skirt.  Maybe something that wraps around?

This is pretty, maybe more swish in the skirt...  Pattern suggestions??

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And lastly, two small prints for (probably) more tees.

  Won't they be pretty in something feminine and girly?  Maybe that ruched center tee from Burda Style a few seasons ago.

 Or the Jalie sweetheart tee:

Good news...the Burda and the Jalie are already muslined.  Bad news...I want to start with the dress. Ha. Story of my life!

Hope you're having a lovely fall weekend!

The Impossible Dream: RIP

My fave all time commercial. 

In honor of you, Andy.

RIP.

wednesday wisdom.

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Saturday Pinnings: Pinterest Faves

My morning Pinterest perusing yielded all this inspiration. You're welcome.

I heart ethnic embroidered pieces.

Pin

Gingham, gingham, gingham: 

pin

 Extreme fluffy girlyness prevails.

pin

 Gorgeous.  OMG.

pin

The navy with gold, the cateye...perfect.

pin

This sweater is begging to be knocked off with a bias fabric strip.  No lie.

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My style doppleganger:

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Made me laugh...

pin

Gratuitous vintage pic:

pin

Gratuitous boyfriend pic:

smooch

Don't you think Saturday's and Sunday's should be longer?  Like 30 hours instead of 24?  How can we arrange that?

Nerd Herd ~ Burda Style Most Worn Garment

Career Day at school yesterday, so my compadres and I (the Business teachers) dressed as the Nerd Herd from Chuck ... 

What do you think?  Do we pass nerd muster?

I made us badges and everything:

I used the most flattering photos I could find of us on Facebook.  Of course.


I thought you'd all get an especially big kick out of it. Not only because the nerd label is such a stretch for me (shut up Kristine) but because the only white button front shirt I own is from Burda World of Fashion 6/08 #107.  (You can read my original post here. ) Yes, I was a girly nerd. Shocking, right?

I've worn this top a bajillion times.  Not exaggerating.  I have worn it at least once a month since I made it and often more.  I need a new one.  This one is now too big.  Woot for too big tops!  (My pants are too big too, but they're from Old Navy.  Woot for too big pants!)

Question of the week...What's your most worn Burda Style/Burda World of Fashion item??

wednesday wisdom.

Love, a story in pictures.  Here.  

Thank you Julia, makin me cry.

In a good way.

Saturday Projects...

Favorite pin this morning:

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It's vintage, long sold (via Etsy) AND it's suede, not one of my faves to wear.  BUT...can't you see it in linen with self-fabric bias trim instead of the "macrame" stitching??

Idea file, people!!  This is going in the "to make" pile.  Because...it's awesome.

But not today. Today I'm going to be blasphemously cutting into a vintage baby slip that has beautiful eyelet trimmings and the tiniest handstitched tucks you've ever seen, and is of the softest white cotton ever. 

 

The "fancy band" portion of the skirt is gorgeous.  All of that beautiful work, tucked away in a trunk or closet, never to be seen again seems rather pointless and sad.  So I'm going to make something new out of it. 

All of you vintage clothing purists out there should probably avert your eyes. If it makes you feel any better I only gave about seven bucks for it at a flea market years ago.  

I have another vintage piece that I'm trying to figure out how to use too, a beautiful lace and batiste slip.  It's frothy and awesome.  The waist measurement is approximately the same as my right thigh.  So, skirt refashion isn't in the cards.  

But possibly a top of some sort?  Or use the elaborate pieces of insertion and tucking and batiste in a new garment?  There are repairs to be made if I intend to use it "as-is".  Nothing for my bottom half would work, even if my waist suddenly shrunk to the size of my right thigh, we're talking about a 100 year old piece of fabric and lace...it would never withhold sitting and friction.  But a top...that might work.  

If I never, ever wash and dry it.  ha.  Handwashing. Dry flat. Forever.  

But first...baby slip cutting-up-ness needs to commence.   Wish me luck.

closure.

*brief pause for a fangirly moment*

So this happened.


And finally, three and a half years later, I feel a little bit of closure and can let go of my grudge regarding the finale of BSG. 

If you've been with me that long, you know how I adored my BSG.  And I have never, ever, rewatched the final season. The finale ticked me off that bad.  Not that the entirety of it was bad, in fact one of my favorite moments of the whole series occurs in the last 30 minutes ("moonrise").

The last 20 minutes ruined me. 

But the conversational thoughts above, what they were thinking, how they interpreted the scenes and the relationship, make me feel very warm and fuzzy and forgiving.  I actually agree with them, especially Katee.  (*cough* my giant girlcrush notwithstanding *cough*).

My babies.

I think I might need to purchase Season 4 now.  All this time I've been pretending it ended at the end of Season 3.  With a self-created bright shiny future epilogue in my head.

Which might still exist.  Warm fuzzies or no.

/fangirly  moment.

wednesday wisdom.

 

speaking of ...I totally need a new show to be addicted to. 

any fave suggestions??

Never forget.

Sewjo.

I saw that mojo-coined term on the Pincushion Treats blog. She's so cute. I'm practically salivating over her recent Ava blouse too.

Anywho, I'm feeling a bit of return on my own sew-jo I think.  Especially with fall looming closer and closer.  Of course most of the things I'm going to share with you today are all summery.  Such is my life, right?

In the same vein as Pincushion Treats' Ava blouse, I'm in love with lacy insets and details right now.  IN LOVE.  Like this gorge Zara blouse with lace bow inset:

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I think I could use my Sorbetto pattern to knock this off.  It would require a cami of some sort, but Lord, it's pretty. 

It reminds me of this Sencha by Colette Patterns: 

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 Have I ever mentioned how much I love red and blue together?  Speaking of Sencha's, this is another beautiful example of yoke detailing from the Colette blog:

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I'm never sure how practical all of that openwork is, since I would have bra straps and cami straps showing, but it sure is pretty. 

I'm in total and complete love with this top too, although I've had the devil of a time trying to track down the original source image.  The source link below is as close as it gets I think. Gorgeous Edwardian-inspired white lawn and lace:

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I'll take two, please. On the same blog I found this lovely creation too:

I think you could use the Colette Jasmine and knock this one off fairly easily (and have sleeves!)  The little jabot and applique are such sweet details. Love.

And then there's this amazing top of tucks and lace. Those are angels singing, btw.

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The lacework would take a bit of finagling, but note that it's all essentially straight seams.  Totally knockoff-able.

So that's my weekend in a nutshell...finally breaking out the warm fuzzy socks and dreaming about lawn and linen and lace.  

It's a quandary.  

But a good one.

beauty.

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies,

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meets in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impair'd the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress

Or softly lightens o'er her face,

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek and o'er that brow

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent.

~Lord Byron

Yes, we can.

I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have. 

You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear.

You elected me to tell you the truth. 

And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us 

to solve challenges that have built up over decades. 

It’ll require common effort, shared responsibility, 

and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that 

Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one.

And by the way, those of us who carry on 

his party’s legacy should remember that 

not every problem can be remedied with another 

government program or dictate from Washington.

But know this, America: Our problems can be solved. 

~Barack Obama, 2012

thursday thinky.

Otherwise known as: Oops. I missed Wednesday Wisdom. 

be yourself.

Burda Style: 8/12 and 9/12

I'm a little behind giving my picks on Burda Style.  In fact, I'm way more than 2 months behind...but I haven't been that interested in their offerings the past few months.  The fall issues are usually my favorites, so I was pretty excited to get these in my mailbox.

Unfortunately they don't rank up there with issues I will reuse and treasure.  Several garments are just repeats of things we've seen over and over.  I hate that.  And I'm not one of those who usually "disses" Burda Style.  I expect not to love every issue, or for every issue to have something I just "have" to make.  What usually happens is someone ELSE loves something and inspires me to see the contents in a whole new light.

I'm hoping that's what happens with these two issues.  So let's get started with my picks from August (my favorite of the two).

My very favorite garment, the one I want to MAKE RIGHT NOW, is dress #102:

 

Gorgeous, retro, very 1940s in feel.  Love love love it.  Worth the issue price alone.

Next, a true basic tee/top pattern with darts.  Not that easy to come by!  There are also back darts for shaping.  Top #109:

 The peplum is back, apparently. Which is good for me, I love peplums.  I remember being sad when they went out of favor in the late 80s/early 90s.  This is a beautiful, simple top and the issue has a simple skirt to match.  Peplum top #113:

Another basic, this classic silhouette with circular skirt is lovely and the style is timeless.  Dress #115:

Something BS excels at is seaming and pushing the darts/seams boundaries.  Sometimes it works, sometime sit doesn't.  I think it works here.  Dress #120:

Lastly from the August issue, another classic silhouette.  We've seen this dress before, with maybe minor differences in darts and neckline.  I still like it.  Dress #133:

Everything else in the August issue is either a complete rehash of something I like as well or better in a previous issue, or it didn't blip my radar. 

Moving onto September...less for me to like here.  In fact, I struggled to find something to feature.  I've been putting this post off because of it.  Literally, my previous September BS issues are falling apart. The covers are ragged, the patterns are all traced, the mags are worn and a bit tatty.  Oh well..there's always October right?

Let's start again with my favorite of the issue, perhaps an odd pick for me, the roll neck tee #106:

I love this very 1960s mod style of neckline, and I love the interesting dart/shaping.  Great fall/winter basic that's not "too" basic.

Next, a pretty blouse with a tie and an off-center placket.  Nice twist.  Top #118

In the interesting seams sheath dress category (it's obligatory now, right?) is dress #134:

 

I enjoy the seaming, probably won't ever make it, unless I could get my hands on the fabulous fabric they used for the magazine dress.  Beautiful. 

Something I almost never make these days, a feminine almost "English riding" jacket from the plus section, no less.  Gorge.  Jacket #137:

 And our honorable mention for September has to be this dress, a '10's does '70s does '40s shirtdress.  Another classic, but featured in a truly heinous color of brown that does this dress no favors.  A darling tiny print in a dark saturated color would be lovely though.  Dress #114:

And that's it for me folks.  I either don't love the rest of September enough or I'm so sick of the silhouette I can't be bothered to care enough to save the images. 

That being said...I believe I will drag out my September '11 issue because there's at least one top in there I would love to make, and a slinky knit waiting to be made up into it. 

Yes.  I'm sewing.  Booyah!

ps...Kristine, stop laughing.