Spring Top Sewalong Entry #2

My second entry for the Spring Top Sewalong is:

It's adapted from my current favourite pattern New Look 6962 (see here and here).

I made the top in a comfortable length for me and also did some fitting adjustments, but it is very similar to the top on the pattern envelope.

The fabric is from my stash, and I think I had bought it last year during Fabricland's members sale. If memory serves me right, it would have been about $3/m. It's a light cotton, with delicately embroidered flowers. I've been waiting for warmer weather to arrive in order to make a top with this fabric.

I realize that I seldom show the back view of my sewing projects, so here it is:

Close up view of the lace trimmed neckline and adorable capped sleeve:

There it is:
(Tara Banks will flay me for my facial expression and clawed fingers, but I guess it's no secret that I'm not Top Model material! Hahaha!)

It's in the Bag!

I was going to do another spring top post today, but got so distracted reading up on what my bloggy friends are up to. Just as I was about to get down to my post, I stumbled upon Care from Obsessively Stitching's What's in Your Purse? (and it includes giveaways!).

That flickr group is so fascinating. Wow, let's just say that I've never known myself to be such a busybody, but who knew snooping in people's purses could be so much FUN!

So, I emptied out my purse and laid it all out for you to see:

Blackberry

USB key - because you never know?

Wallet - stuffed full of receipts and cards, not cash, unfortunately

Card Holder - so full of club cards it would not close

Watch

Keys

Hand sanitizer

Allergy eye drops - I can't stand itchy eyes

Floss - Can't stand food stuck in between my teeth either

Watch

Swiss army knife - always be prepared? It really does come in handy

Notebook - for ideas, but it's also full of kids' doodles

2 pens

Sunglasses

Sunglass cloth

Silly bandz

Hair elastic bands

3 lip balms

Ipod - *but no earphones?

Toys from Kinder Surprise Eggs**

What's in your purse? Or should I say, what's weird in your purse? :)

*Chock full of yoga music, in case I need it for a class

**Did you know that Kinder Surprise Eggs are not sold in the US?

Edit: Since I received some questions, info about the bag here.

Perugia Blouse from Ottobre

This top is a little different from the usual tops that I like to make. In fact, when my husband saw it on Diana (my dress form), he went, "Huh.... that's very different!"
And indeed, it is a different, and I wasn't too sure if I really liked is first. We are after all, creatures of habit and find comfort in routine and the norm. Once in a while though, I think it is important to step out of our imagined comfort zone. So I decide to make this sleeveless top shown here on the cover of Ottobre:

The fabric is a Polyester Charmeause(wow! Look at me, actually knowing the name of the fabric I'm using!), and I thought that it would be a pain to work with. However, it wasn't that bad at all. This fabric was given to me by my buddy, Wendy. She gave me yards of it, and I decided that it is the perfect fabric for this top.
Isn't the bow cute?

I don't have anything like this in my closet, and I've never really thought of myself as a "bow" person.
View of the armhole and the dart:
Unfortunately, the fabric doesn't really press really well, so the dart is quite obvious. It doesn't really take away from how pretty I find the top to be, though.
And I was able to make use of my vintage buttons.


As it is a tradition now, for the 3rd row running, I'm going to enter the spring top sewalong:
It is a contest of sort for the best spring top, but if you are like me, you will enter just to go along with the fun. I just took a look at the Flickr pool, and there are some pretty amazing tops entered already. This year, we are allowed to enter 3 tops and I'm hoping to get all three tops entered before the dateline, which is on May 9th. I hope you will join in the fun too.
This is the photo that I will enter into the sewing pool:

Hopefully, it shows enough details to be interesting!

A Pretty Free Project - Paper Medallion Wall Hanging

"If you really wanted to, we could go and purchase some of the furniture brand new, you know", said my husband, as he sees me pick up yet another project.

It's true. My husband brings in over 90% of the household income, and we have learned how to make do with this arrangement. We've learned to save on somethings, and splurge on others. If we really wanted to, we could put aside money for furniture, home decorations and the "frivolous". I could annoy myself and everyone else, by saying that I'd rather spend that money on my kid's piano and martial arts lessons, but deep down I know that it's a LIE.

The truth is, that when I put time and effort into something that I make, the joy (and pride?) I get when I happen to pass the object cannot compared to a purchased item. This coffee filter light fixture,

makes me smile each time I look at it.

This made-over bench too.

I would have been happy to buy something like that. However, knowing that I've had a hand making it pretty like that, seems to extend my joy. You guys know about my little projects because I blog about it, but for the most part, people who visit my home don't know how much of myself goes into these things. It's like a delicious little secret I hug close to my chest. It is a trippy sensation. Why do you think that is? There is probably something negative about this, but I'm not looking too deep into that for now. :)

So, you know that High and Low comparisons that you sometimes see in magazines. For example, a picture of a room with "really expensive stuff", and on the opposite page, a similar picture but with more "reasonably priced stuff"? Some times, I think if you traipse through my house, you may be able to add another page to the comparison: the "really, really cheap stuff".

I was browsing through images on google when I came across a picture of a beautiful bedroom with fur-like medallions on the wall. It reminded me a little of the paper wreaths I've seen in diy blogland. Add them together....

Image on the left: from LilianRitz.com
Image on the right: from livingwithlindsay.com. Tutorial here.

The result:

Bwahaha! Not even close, I know. But it still makes me happy.

The project was free, if you don't count the glue gun and the electricity.

The base was a 10" in diameter circle cut out of a cardboard box.

I glued white poster board on it just in case the board peeks through.

Then I rolled lots of paper and glued it as such:

And then glue, and glue and glue! Glue in a circle spiralling inward

I thought of using old sheet music, but that saddened me. I even nearly used my old calculus book, but that too depressed me. Who doesn't like flipping through old calculus books? Oh...... er, forget I said anything.

Anyway, I ended up using this out of date book:

(It is nothing against Mr. Firesmith who writes a mean textbook, I'm sure. We just can't use this book anymore and we are pretty sure it is obsolete to most people. )

I used half of each page for a roll, since the whole page was a little too big.

Software engineering never looked so pretty:

Edit: Decided to party at

Review of Ottobre Sardegna Capris Sewing Pattern

My laptop has a really fickle keyboard. For the past few days it decided that the keys "d", "h" and "s" would not work. Do you know how hard it is to compose a sentence without those letters? The new keyboard is in the mail, but right now, since the keyboard seems fine, I'm going to take the opportunity to review the capri pants from the Feb issue of Ottobre Design.

This is how the capris are supposed to look like:

"That looks like Mrs. Kendal", says my 5 year old. Lucky, lucky Mrs. K, with her mile long legs can wear linen capris that cut off at the calves and still look well-proportioned!

I do not have longs legs, so I decided to make clamdiggers instead of capris. Hehe, I found out that the correct term for "long shorts" is clamdiggers.

All I did was to shorten the length of the legs, but other than that, I followed the pattern and instructions.

Is it wrong of me to think that capris will make me look stumpy?

This pair does not have quite the flat front, but they are very small pleats.
The suggested fabric was linen or some sort of linen blend, but I used a cotton-poly fabric from my stash. I don't even remember when I bought the fabric anymore, but if I know myself, it would not have been very expensive at all.

It's a simple 4 piece pattern, so there are no pockets.
The shorts came together easily enough, and the instructions for the zipper installation was surprisingly clear and even came with pictures. Pictures are such important tools for this visual learner! Of course, as it is with the Ottobre design instructions, there are no other pictures, so I had to try to understand the written instructions.

The only problem I had was attaching the belt part. I think it was due to user error and inexperience with sewing pants. It doesn't look bad from the outside, though.

About sizing, I used size 40 based on the sizing guide provided by the magazine. It is what it is, and there are no surprises there. Sometimes, I'm not able to trust the sizing guide provided by pattern makers, but I seem to have no such problems with Ottobre so far.

I almost made the waist size 38 and was going to grade to size 40 around the hips, but changed my mind. This was a good call, because the pants sit about 1"-2" below my natural waistline. This is usually where I like my pants to sit.

So there you go, Sardegna Capris (or rather, Clamdiggers) from the Feb Ottobre Design issue. A quick project that came together quickly.

The Perfect Bench in Disguise

If there is one thing that I can learn from reading sewing, diy and crafting blogs, is to see the potential in things that I would have previously dismissed.

Take this little bench I found at a flea market last weekend. It is charming in it's own beat-up, shabby way, but it had the most disgusting seat cover ever.
Take a look at the underneath. It was really coming apart!
I was really tempted to keep the shabby and trashed wood the way it is. However, I knew that it would look really out of place in the foyer, which is unfortunate. So, I gave it a couple of coats of primer and white paint to spruce it up a little.

I bought padding foam for the seat. Who knew padding could be so expensive? The fabric was cheap though! It was over 75% off, which was a bonus.

Do you like the Peace Lily? It's my favourite plant in the house.

Anna Maria Horner's I'll Have One of Everything Bag

I've been lucky enough to be able to sew some yoga bags for the studio I work at. One of the things I absolutely love about that, is the freedom I get to choose the most beautiful, fun and fantastical fabrics.

Look at them hanging, aren't they yummy?

Some of the fabric comes from Ikea. I picked them up during my spring break vacation in Montreal. I've always heard wonderful things about Ikea fabric, and they are true! I stuck to fabric around $7/m range. For that price, you can get strong medium to heavyweight canvas-like fabric.

I also got to purchase fabric through fabric.com. It's my first purchase from them, and I love the experience. It is like Christmas morning when you open the box that arrives. The shipping is a tad expensive for Canada, but if you buy a lot (ahem) like me, it is still worth it. Don't forget to look around for promo coupons before you purchase from them!

Anyway, I do end up with a lot of scraps from these projects and have been using them up steadily doing my little projects. My favourite thing so far is making the I'll Have One of Everything Bag. The pattern for this bag is from Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me book. I really like how this bag turned out:

I haven't quite brought myself to use it yet.

Love the frayed braided handles:

The only addition I made is to add a little magnet clip. I salvaged that clip from an old tattered handbag that was so worn that I could not even donate it to charity.

Oh, I almost did not say anything about the pattern.

It's very well drafted and the instructions were very clear. There were a lot of words, but there were also hand-drawn pictures to accompany the more wordy instructions. Thank goodness for that. This is a wonderful, versatile pattern.