Five Ways from Sunday

That's how my last week has gone. So much to do in short amounts of time. I finished up the sequin encrusted wrap skirt and got it delivered, but I forgot to get a photo of it. Picked up stuff for the next sewing commission in the same trip.

Some how manged to get the samples for the miniature club project whipped together. Total eleventh hour situation there. Also one of the bananas in the bunch has a broken end. Whoops.

We had company come in from out of state for the weekend. Because of critter allergies they opted for a hotel, but I still had to remove copious amounts of dog hair and bits of sequins from the house. I hadn't seen them in forever, so I was really looking forward to the visit.

FuzzyHusband and I took them all around town this weekend. First Friday was in full swing, so our eyes got to feast on beautiful things. For our bellies, we had ice cream from a small, family business. It's our favorite place to indulge. They specialize in interesting flavors. I chose pistachio (my all time favorite) and sweet corn. So yummy!

I didn't take many pictures this weekend because I just plain forgot to. Was having too much fun. Also was being worn out by their child's energy levels. I wish we could bottle it and use it for ourselves once in a while!

Something I did get a picture of are the gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics my friend brought for me. She's always played with dyes, but she's only recently been moving into dying textiles in full force. Aren't they fabulous?

From left to right she used: cochineal, madder root, turmeric, marigold, basil and over-dyed with red cabbage, and blackberries. I'm going to have to come up with a special use for these.

But for now, it's time to put away the second round of dishes from breakfast, get back to the laundry, and think about dinner. See you all next weekend!

Because Karen Asked...

Here are some past sewing projects and all the details I can remember about them. I will put a few up now and do some more on another day.

1. FH's favorite shirt:
FH loves muslin shirts. He says they breathe really well and he rarely gets too hot in them. At one point the only muslin shirt he owned was of Renaissance design, so I decided to change that for him. I think I used a McCall's pattern for this, but I could be wrong. It's buried in the file cabinet in the craft room...unless it's still in my mother's sewing room.

The fabric started out as a natural muslin. I dyed it blue in the washing machine with very hot water and plenty of salt. Not only did it turn out a nice shade of blue, but the fabric was nicely abused and thus pre-shrunk to my satisfaction. You know your mother trusts you when she lets you use her washing machine to dye fabric in. Yes I cleaned it very, very well after.

The buttons were something I found while working at Hancock Fabrics years ago. I remember taking a swatch in with me during my shift and matching the color as closely as I could.

2. White Blouse I wear sometimes for Ren stuf... not really period, but wrinkled as heck from being stored with the period garb.
I fell in love with the sleeves on this pattern. I think it was a Simplicity. I could be wrong. It has been about five or six years. The fabric is a bleached muslin and the only closure is the ribbon at the neck. I really need to dig out the pieces if I can find them and alter it a bit.

I would prefer the entire shirt to be longer and slightly gathered at the waist. Less like a mumu with the added length. Of course I didn't know that until I made the first one. I will let you know if I revisit this one.

3. Brenna's Hat:I loved this project some much! The pattern is a discontinued McCall's. I used baby pink and off-white fleeces to make the hat itself and then cut out that little sheep from a patterned fleece for the applique.

I made two others but can't fine pictures of them. The first one was baby blue and right white fleece with a teddy bear applique. The other was all white fleece with a brown rabbit applique.