may burda!

Shannon & I waited rather impatiently for our BS (hehe, that always makes me giggle) to arrive in Oklahoma. I think we over-anticipated because when it finally DID get here, I didn't really love anything. (that always happens!)

But on second perusal, here are some contenders for a future project.

I'm on a dress kick (if you hadn't noticed!) and I love love love this shirtwaist!! Very "new retro", very cute.
I like this bermuda pattern alot, and I always need shorts in the summer. I'd have to grade up for the old bum, but that's do-able. Burda has had some cute shorts over the past few summers!

I especially liked this view!



This dress is also very cute, even if we've seen something similar before.
We've also seen a lot of sheath dresses over the past year, but I really love this cool square neckline.
I really love this very interesting blouse. If you didn't look at the line drawings, you missed it, because the magazine photo is terrible!! But I think it has as vintage, Edwardian feel. Like something you would wear to afternoon tea.


I'm interested to read the directions for that neck piece. They're probably indecipherable, but in the line drawing it looks like shirring. That's interesting!

Hey! It's almost the weekend!!

ww mini-update.

I know I said I probably wouldn't be referring to my Weight Watcher's program again, but several of you sweet readers have emailed or posted comments on the blog! And I'm happy to share my thoughts after my first 10 days. If you're not interested, just skip this one and I'll be back with a sewing post asap! :)

I did lose between 2 and 5 lbs after my first week! Unfortunately I had a "scale" glitch during weigh-in weekend (of COURSE!) So I'm just claiming the smaller number because anything else would be water anyway.

I also found the whole plan surprisingly easy to follow. So easy I was wondering why I haven't been doing this all along?? Hmmm. Good question! The online tools are pretty cool. Here's a snapshot of the interface, where I enter my daily totals/meals.


You can track your activity, your water intake, dairy, healthy oils, veggies & fruits...just about anything you want! There's also a calculator for figuring points for foods that aren't in their database (although this thing is extensive! I've personally only run into a couple of foods that I had to enter manually.)

You can "favorite" foods so they're easier to find in your lists. Or if you're in a rut (hehe) you can look at the previous few days and enter foods from those days too. (I'm a whole grain 1/2 bagel person in the morning if I'm on the run!)

As for my own personal food choices...I pretty much eat whatever I want. The points system just makes you think twice (or three times) about portion sizes. I had garden veggie burgers & sweet potato fries with corn on the cob for dinner last night. The day before, we had pizza. Tonight, I made "mock KFC" mashed potato bowls. Yum. We had a baby shower after work today for some coworkers, so I had a small slice of cake and some mixed nuts. Guess what ? It all worked out fine!

You just have to put a little more thought into planning and even when you forget or something unexpected comes up (like truffles), WW allows you some extra banked points each week. So that day when you just HAVE to have Chinese takeout or a Dove bar...it's all going to be ok if you've been following the plan the rest of the week.

Some of my favorite foods right now...
*Smuckers All Natural Peanut Butter
*Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches
*Diet A&W Root Beer (seriously a great diet soda!)
*Orowheat Sandwich Thins (1 pt! yummy multigrain goodness)
*McCain Sweet Potato Crinkle Cut Fries
*Yoplait Light Cinnamon Bun yogurt. Wow, this one is good.

Ok, I'll try not to bore you with more details, but I might share other food favorites I discover along the way! I hope your week is going well! I'm not quite finished with my top, but hopefully today or tomorrow!

pink jeep.

The Pink Jeep tour company in Sedona, AZ is celebrating their 50th anniversary, starting today!



The kids & I visited Sedona (and nearly the entire upper half of Arizona!) last summer and I fell in love with the entire area. One of the first things we did was a Pink Jeep tour!

All of these pictures were taken on the 2-hour jeep ride. We're still talking about it! It was amazing! You get to see things in the back country that you otherwise wouldn't have access to because there are no public ROADS! (Of course every direction you turn in the Sedona area, there is something spectacular to look at anyway.)

Enjoy the photos, and if you visit the Sedona/Flagstaff/Grand Canyon area of Arizona this year, think about taking a Pink Jeep tour. I highly recommend it! They're running all sorts of specials due to their anniversary! (And I'm not affiliated and wasn't asked to give them a plug, I seriously just loved it!) Here's their website if you'd like more info!

Colette Sencha pt 2

Just a baby post, folks. I was so excited about my pretty sleeve hems, though, I just had to share!

(plus, I like talking to myself on the internets. Ahem.)

Look! It worked!


That nifty catchstitch is so pretty, and nearly invisible!

How/Why did it suddenly work? (other than sleeping between the frustrated cursing and the picking back up of the needle & thread, I mean.) I actually didn't have the hems folded back on the correct dots. Remember how I couldn't find them? Yea. I wasn't looking far enough back! The hem does fold back at an angle, with more folded in at the shoulder level than the armhole. It fits perfectly when you, you know, follow the directions.

If you're not familiar with a catchstitch, here's a picture of the inside, and my pretty, pretty handstitched sleeve hem. It was actually rather relaxing this afternoon and stitching my pretty hems.


Just a tip for making your handstitching go a little smoother...I always wax my threads (run your doubled & knotted threads through or across a block of beeswax) before sewing on buttons or stitching hems, but a cool little trick is to run a hot iron over your waxed thread. The heat & wax melds those threads together and help them to slip right through your fabric.

I'm almost finished! I do have a bit of a boo-boo though. I got so involved stitching the neck facing that I totally forgot to attach my keyhole ties first! I'll just have to figure that little glitch later.

Colette Sencha pt 1

This weekend I had huge sewing plans. The problem was, I couldn't find suitable fabric in my stash for any project or pattern I wanted to make. Or I had the perfect fabric, but not the right amount of yardage. Grr. Don't you hate when that happens?

Finally I decided to try out the Colette Sencha blouse:


I love how retro this one is! It reminds me of the vintage Simplicity I did several weeks ago. And Actually, that vintage pattern has a technique I may borrow for the sleeves on this Sencha, but more on that in a minute.

I decided to use a fabric piece I had actually bought for another project (last SUMMER!), this red Recess cotton print by American Jane:


Now, I'm not saying I was never going to get to that other project (a wrap skirt from the Weekend Sewing book). But after an entire year has gone by, it doesn't really look promising. So the fabric is fair game for another project, right??

I cut a 14 through the neck & shoulders, and an 18 at the side seams. I don't know if I actually will need all that side seam room, so some of it may come out.

The pattern is mostly together at this point. I have the pleats in, the fronts sewn to backs, and am at the point where you're supposed to turn back the sleeves and hand stitch them.

Now, my vintage pattern actually had sleeve facings and they were a little finicky but went together ok in the end. These turn back "self" facings on the Sencha are a pain in the rear so far. I'm not sure what the problem is exactly? I know its not my cutting, because I checked.

As marked, the "stitch to" dot was too high for me (sleeve hole strangled my poor arm!) so I had to pick that seam out and try again with a lowered dot. So there was that little mishap. Then, when I followed the directions to "turn under 1/4 and stitch. Then turn under at dots and hand stitch", I end up with way too much fabric at the shoulder seam. As in, I could make a good 1/2" tuck right there.

It's possible I could ease it in (thus the hand stitching??) But I'm not sure it will ever lie flat, which annoys me, WHICH is why I set it aside until tomorrow. Maybe I'm supposed to turn it back more at the shoulder level than I am (I can't find my dot, even though I marked it!)

I'll try to get pictures tomorrow to show you! And hopefully, the rest will go quickly so I can wear it. The good news is, it looks like a pretty perfect fit! Stay tuned!