ouch.

Handmade Ryan Gosling via Pinterest

Gee, if only 12 people entered!  I love these Ryan Gosling pictures, whoever makes them is clever (I guess they stopped making new ones).  The giveaway is a big flop, so I'm going to close it - it's getting too pathetic and this way I can just give one bow to each.

It's a good reminder that I take myself too seriously on this thing and for most of the time I've had this blog I've had mixed feelings about it, maybe it's a reminder too that the cons outweigh the pros.  I don't like when it starts to feel like real life is what happens on the internet.

Danielle, if you want a bowtie, do you want to send me your address?  hiyalorn AT hotmail

vintage-inspired bowtie GIVEAWAY

Hi folks!

In my absence I have been working away (and watching Twin Peaks every night, let's be honest) and last week I did a test pattern for Stefanie from A Common Thread.  I loved it so much I made a little stash of these adorable vintage-inspired bowties and I thought that I would love to share the goods, so I'm sharing them with YOU!

These things are so friggin' cute.  As I was finishing the first one, sitting alone there in my sewing room, I turned it over and said out loud, "That is so CUTE!"  I was overtaken.

Not only cute, but so fun to make and a great stash-buster (I love the chance to use my favorite fabrics over again).  The best part about this giveaway is that no matter what you can make your own bowtie!  The pattern is for sale in Stefanie's etsy shop, I Make It You Make It.  I highly recommend you check out her shop, there are other great little patterns available for really clever stuff.  This pattern is super-thorough and easy to follow AND she allows you to make to sell, as long as you, of course, credit her pattern.  How great is that?  Maybe I should charge you guys.  Just kidding.

So here's the deal: leave a comment on this post by the end of the day on Sunday, July 1 (and make sure you leave a way for me to contact you!).  Depending on the number of entrants, it may be all three for one winner, or one each for three separate winners.  Open to the whole world, because I love my international readers and I love reading my favorite international blogs.  Closed.

And although I discovered as soon as I clipped the polka dot one to this little blouse that I will be making another one of those for myself, if the collar isn't your thing, how about clipping it in those gorgeous locks...

Or clipping it to a necklace!

Good luck!

update on nothing

Life, knitting, and ambivalence about what to make next gave me a little forced hiatus on sewing.  I'm eager to back to it though, so I should have a something in the works soon.  Allusions towards a completed knitting project seemed to have jinxed me, so I'll just keep quiet about that.

Until then, a little green pepper from our community garden plot.  Aw!  It's so cute.  It's the first pepper we ever got to pick and eat - in Providence they always got munched off the plant and I can't figure out what creature did it there but doesn't in Baltimore.  I'm sure we have all the same rats, mice, and squirrels.  You could easily convince me that the creatures in Providence are more evil though.

wilma flintstone

Pattern: Sleeveless Blouse, Burda 9/2011
Fabric: Summersville Brushstroke Coal from Dry Goods Design

Love this fabric, love this pattern. Although the fabric makes it hard to make out the pleats at the neck, I still like it.  I feel like some kind of a modern-day Wilma Flintstone, which is kind of awesome, I think?




It looks like I have some kind of crazy mohawk hairdo here!

The buttons are from my inherited stash from my Nonna (didn't realize until I put this skirt on today, but I used the same buttons here).

Here's a closer look at the neck and pleats. 



I really like this pattern, the collar, the pleats, the way the back yoke comes over to the front, the bias strips on the armholes, and the length. Those Burda printouts sure make you work for your prize though (nothing matches up!  I'm always surpised it ends up working out in the end). I read that a few people found their size to be too big, so I went down a size - it's a little snug but it works. 

I was glad I've made a [3!] tova tops because that made the construction of the collar a little easier to understand.  I also handstitched the edges of the front facings - I didn't see any instructions to finish them.  I'm going to make another one of these down the road - with a material that allows you to see the pleats more clearly.

kimono dress

This is Pattern Runway's Kimono Dress. I only recently learned that some patterns are only for wovens or knits but I have decided to continue to ignore that apparently. The result is a little clingy and maybe frumpy at some angles, but I LOVE this fabric, so I hack-jobbed it, er, I mean, made it work.

I was thinking, while making this, of changing the name of this blog to Hack Job.  Only sort of kidding.  Here you go:

1.  This fabric (some kind of double-layered knit in the remnant pile) was not wrinkled before I was it twice and is un-ironable.  Maybe this is not machine washable fabric?  Hmm?

2.  I used a crazy zig-zag stitch resulting in wavy seams and thread showing through.  I'm not too picky so I don't really care, but I read if you lowered the feed dogs you could reduce the wavy seams.  Too bad I'm afraid of my sewing machine and can't do that.

3.  I did not finish any edges.  I use the excuse that I like unfinished knit edges, but really I'm afraid to stich one more stitch into knit fabric than I have to.  I therefore used no facings either.

4.  I stink at elastic - the waistband is all wonky.

5.  Lightweight knit fabric makes buttons sag:

 But you know what? None of that matters because I adore this fabric and I still like this dress!

I was lusting after this necklace this weekend but I can't have it, so I found some big crocheted beads I bought years ago and made my own big bead necklace.  I love blue and orange together.

This is another solid pattern and I will surely make more kimono dresses (maybe in a recommended fabric?)  I'm on a sewing kick lately what do you know?  In a week or two I should hopefully have my first knit garment post in I don't know how long...

vintage wrap top

Tutorial that I found via The Perfect Nose by Freshly Given (by the way, have you seen this blog? I found it only recently and I can't say enough about how much I love this woman's style and creations. These shorts especially. The Perfect Nose loves them too!)

Modifications to the original tutorial:

• I did not make as deep a neckline, but wish I made it deeper than I did. However, I am not good at necks without facings and am too afraid to try my own. I'm a chicken.
• Only to save fabric because I might have enough for another project, I made two separate large straps instead of one going across the back.

And, not a modification, but something I learned is that the inner straps that hold the front secure have to sit at the waist.  When they are to high they slide to my waist and pull the front way low and the back way up because those straps naturally want to sit at the narrowest part of your body. Logic.

Oh yeah, and if you have to learn from my mistakes, I thought I wanted smaller sleeves so originally planned a narrow body but, DUH, if you make it too narrow it's not going to WRAP around your body.  Fortunately I had planned on large seam allowances so I was able to just use those to widen the top.

Unfortunately it's a little shifty and slides around, and after moving those inner straps down (after these pictures were taken) the side gaps are pretty big.  Hopefully both of those problems will be solve with a tank underneath?