I agree! I got caught up in telling the story and forgot I was showcasing photos.

Thank you!!!

MegRose

[We're about 30 miles]

 We're about 30 miles south of San Francisco, just north of Stanford University. The market is downtown on Sundays from 10 usually to 1 or 2. These are black grapes.


I always walk or bike to the market, feeling just like some European type in a Rick Steves video!
Everything at the market has to be produced within a certain radius. I am not sure if it is fifty or a hundred miles. Is it common to live where mushrooms are grown?
 
The different type of narcissus smell so sweet! I'm always buying their bulbs and cut flowers.


 
I can't eat onions, even these mild types, but I think they're gorgeous with spicy little red radishes!
.
 
I can't eat poppies either and they're equally beautiful.

MegRose

[Also published at http://megrosesews.blogspot.com/2009/12/more-stash-sewing-three-new-tops.html]

Here are three recent top and blouse creations I'm really proud of. I'm particularly happy with them because:
a) None take lots of time to sew. Once they are cut out each takes between 2-3 hours of labor.
b) My sewing labor is well invested because they fit into my real life style well. I wear them a lot. They go with both the normal clothes I wear and also work for festive occasions.
c) They work well with my figure and clothing style so I want to wear them.

When I buy things I try to think about cost-per-use. $100 is worth it if I wear those comfortable, posture-enhancing shoes three times a week for 4 years. $20 is too much for a pair of shoes I bought to wear to a wedding and threw out because they hurt to walk in. (I didn't even donate them. Nobody should suffer in those shoes.)

I value my labor time even more than a dollar in my pocket. What does my value-per-sewing-hour come down to?

FIRST is my new festive occasion white silky blouse. I had this piece of material in one of my boxes I took down out of the rafters. Yes, the ones we put up there when we moved into this house 19 years ago. I remember I was originally going to make it into a pattern that Brooke Shields modeled. I'm so glad I didn't!

This is my favorite regular old peasant blouse pattern. I cut it straight down instead of following the pattern curves, so it's a little fuller and flows well with a belt over it. It's very quick to sew. The belt is a piece of very wide black elastic with one of those round black slider belt thingies sewed onto the end. I've worn the blouse three times over the holidays and it will work during the rest of the year too, even if I'm not dressing up. I can tone down the jewlery a little. My peasant blouse pattern works well with a vest on top too.


SECOND is the same top in a coppery challis print. Also from my rafter stash. Also my favorite peasant blouse pattern. I was really into challis skirts back then. I'm so glad I never cut this one out either. I've worn this top probably eight times since I made it about six weeks ago. I use that same black belt I'm wearing with the white silky blouse. Same cut-it-straight style.


I'm particularly proud of the THIRD one. It's a velvety, rib knit. I'm not confident about knit sewing but since I became a big fan of Lori Van Monan's wonderful "Sew Forth Now" podcasts I decided to get brave and really think about how to make my knit patterns work out . I made sure to use knit type needles. I cut up a favorite old only-fit-for-exercising-in-the-backyard hole filed tee shirt and used it as a pattern. I made it up first in a stretchy green velour knit (no photo) and liked it pretty well but wasn't really enchanted with the neckline. So next I laid out my old tee on this pretty black knit fabric, chalked around it - adding seam allowance. Then I used a purchased tee-shirt pattern that had a good neckline, but had turned out lousy in terms of the rest of the fit and chalked in the neckline. Boy, I am happy with this tee. I've worn it three times since I made it about a week ago. Yes, I do cold-water wash these tops in between!

The beautiful young girl with me is my very sweet daughter. I used to sew darling dresses for her but now the only sewing projects we both like are double sided, tied fleece blankets with appliqued designs. I've made two for her and one for her best friend.

MegRose

Also published at http://megrosesews.blogspot.com/2009/12/more-stash-sewing-three-new-tops.html

THis old girl scout loves it too!

I'd turn it into a pocket on an apron or the outside of a tote bag....

MegRose

A young woman I love very much, just got engaged and I made her this darling purse. Although she can use it for any kind of outing, it reminds me of something a newly engaged woman might carry to a girls luncheon celebrating her engagement in 1962. I was a little girl then and I had plenty of bride paper dolls from that era. Lots of other fashion paper dolls as well. I loved paper dolls!



I used a pattern from a library book. I could find that book title if you’re really interested …. The fabric is a white damask from Joanne’s home dec section. The handle is a home dec cord. It’s lined with a pale yellow lining fabric and also has a layer of quilt batting. The sparkly blue button is also from Joanne’s. Isn’t it darling?

I did not make a closure. It falls closed naturally, but it could use a snap.

Moleskin is some kind of man-made material from Joanne's. No real moles were harmed making this bag!

I’ve made several cute buttercup purses but this is my all out favorite! So far I’ve taken it to a holiday season party and a holiday concert. It looks cute with my new white silky peasant blouse and black belt – which I have JUST NOW POSTED (!) in another crafster forum http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=332352.0

As often happens I sewed this during the early morning hours. All the sewing work, again, took probably less than 2 hours.

I used the free buttercup purse pattern that I and many others in this forum have used to advantage so many times. http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html . For this one I photocopy the pattern up to 129 percent. (Sometimes I also extend the length of the bag, not this time.)

I just used a piece of cord for the button loop, because it’s a party bag. I sewed grosgrain ribbon on the inside both under button and under the cord ends for stability. I put quilt batting between lining and outside fabric.

The lining is scrap pieces of that Joanne’s brocade (polyester) that goes on sale regularly and is so pretty. Not only is it scraps it’s a set of side set pockets I never used – but too pretty to throw out! I just zigzagged the pocket pieces side-by-side together with black thread, running a piece of grosgrain ribbon down behind under the zigzag stiches. Then I pieced out the part of the pocket that left a gap when I laid the results over my lining piece. Such pretty brocade scraps, I was so happy to use them here.

I bought the button at Britex in San Francisco on a holiday outing trip (I did a little blogging about that outing at http://megrosesews.blogspot.com). It was fun taking the mostly completed purse – minus it’s strap and full of pins to the third floor and try out every possible button with the saleslady. Even more fun to have the purse done and use it!

Here are some other buttercup purses I’ve made and posted
Eva’s cowgirl purse http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=330889.0



This reminds me I’ve made some cute ones I haven’t posted!

Do you really mean that Joanne's anti-pill, coordinating colors fleece is not a traditional and ancient material used by the Hopi people for generations?

You’re kidding me, right?

My daughter’s best friend Aimee goes to college at the University of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. This blanket is destined for her bed. And yes, I do love the real thing when it comes to the work of Hopi craftspeople.

Tutorial

Bet you do have time to make one for Christmas. And still a couple of days to make one for Hannukkah (oh, you wanted to get some sleep? never mind) (Hey, that fleece is on sale 50% off at Joannes! No, I don't work there and no, I'm not getting enough for another one - had enough fleece for this year.)

1) 3 yards of each color of fleece. Yes, it’s on sale about 75% of the year. Also scraps of old fleece projects for the design. You could buy maybe 1/3 yard pieces if you aren’t a hoarder. I’m trying to stop being one.

 

2) I did the Hopi-inspired appliqué first. I like a super wide zig-zag when appliquéing on fleece. It doesn’t ravel or fall apart when you wash it and you don’t have to cover every nanometer of fabric. Also black and bright colored thread looks attractive.

a)   I glued down the appliqué pieces before sewing, onto the slightly misshapen lime green square. Yes, that is supposed to be arty. Pretend it is if you don’t think so. Cutting out the holes so the green showed through like – shoot I can’t think of that beautiful sewing technique where you do that and embroider the edges of the hole – was something I hadn’t done before. I like that effect as well as the layered appliqué. I also scattered tiny snips of fleece around the edges of the design for a couple of reasons.
a.   Too much blank space around the design
b.   I thought they looked like bugs for the frog (my design is a frog– you got that, right?)
c.   It was so nifty to use every single scrap – hoarder mentatlity
b)   I used those big white headed quilt pins to attach the appliquéd square to one side of the blanket (bright turquoise). Play with multiple colors of thread here and multiple sized stitches. It could have used even more colors and borders, but I wanted to finish.


c)   The lime green piece was floating over the turquoise a little too much so I did a quilt-style sew down in black thread. I like that effect ! ALSO shadow appliqued around the frog on the lime green in black thread. I set my straight stitch bigger - maybe 3.5.

3) Then I layed the top piece (bright turquoise) onto the back (pale acqua blue). I used a foldout cardboard cutting board to get it reasonably straight and flat. Then I went all around with piins.

4) Then I rolled the quilt like a big burrito from one side to the other and repined so it was really – what would that be? Flush? So it really matched up between the two sides.

5) Then I trimmed it to more or less fit. It’s ok if it’s not perfect because it’s tied and you can’t really tell. Still more or less.

6) I cut out 4x4 inch squares at each corner. Then cut 4 inches strips all around all sides. I used chalk and a yardstick to mark 4 inches in from the edge in a long line (set in 4 “ from the edge)

7) I cut the fringe of strips by eye. You could measure them if you want to spend a few more hours. I cut them about 1.5 inches wide. I tied strips at each corner as I cut them. Also I moved pins as I cut so that they were in from the end of the fringe.

Then I sat and put a dvd on t.v. and knotted the fringe all around. It didn’t take as long as I thought. It was the appliqué that took forever.

It's snuggly and warm. Hard to give up. My daughter slept under it for one night just to make sure it was good! Luckily for Aimee, she's her very best friend.

MegRose

I still find it so very satisfying to sew something for a very little girl. Eva is about four and a half and is the granddaughter of a friend.  I hope she likes this holiday cowgirl print. I've had it cut out for a few weeks and when I woke up at 3:00 in the morning (it's almost 6 my time right now) and couldn't sleep I thought it was the perfect time to sew it up. All the sewing work took slightly less than 2 hours.

I used the free buttercup purse pattern that I and many others in this forum have used to advantage so many times. http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html . This one is actually sized the same as the original pattern because it's for a little girl. Usually I photocopy the pattern up to 129 percent and sometimes I also extend the length of the bag.



I used crinoline (like interfacing but Joanne's carries it in a separate area) to stiffen the inside of the red cotton lining on one side and fusible batting on the other side of the lining. I really like those two structure building materials and use them in grocery bags. I also used a bright golden yellow rayon decorative thread and it looks nice against both the blue print and the red lining.

I love to see comments about my postings!

MegRose

I think the length is just right. And you have the legs for that length too!

MegRose

When I googled on the name for the tutorial I only found (in addition to this post) some EXTREMELY vulgar url references. Somehow I don't think they are were this tutorial came from!

I hope somebody finds it because I'd like to try to make it too.

MegRose