I am surprised that I am the first to post pics. I got my stitch markers a few days ago, but haven't had time to post.

Here they are two necklaces with stitch markers



And a close up of two, one open and one closed.

I got my first package a few days ago from kayrun.



Books, a lovely note book and some yarn! This birthday is turning out to be very booky! Thanks so much. I will be happy to read them and happy to pass them on like you did for me!

I received from WYOKrista a few days ago, but am just getting to posting pictures. There was a lot of stuff. Cards, papers, stamped papers, playing cards and baseball cards, stickers, book pages.....um and a lot. I couldn't figure out how to organize these for the photos, so you see what you see.





On a side note, I have mentioned before that I am new to this whole paper thing. And I am a bit odd in the crafting world. I am a minimalist, I don't like to save things. But yesterday I was told that on my trip I am supposed to pick up brochures of fun places to visit in town for a friend who wants to take a trip. So I have been going around looking for brochures and now all I can think is "ohh that is cool I wonder if my partner would have liked that."

And I got a really great birthday card from a family friend, but there is no way I am giving that up to anybody!

I have been doing all sorts of new things. I just got a laptop sleeve and it was plain black. I wanted something more interesting. So I busted out some stencils. I did just a little bit to get me through my trip that is coming up, but I want to take my time so I don't go too far, which is a problem I have and look for some more stencils.

This has been one crafty night. I usually where my speedo slides whenever just need something on my feet and they are totally falling apart. So at Target I found some white canvas slides, but how boring! First of all not very interesting, second of all there is so much dust and dirt here that even the shoes in the store were starting to look dingy. I got out my Fabricmate markers and did a little coloring. Drawing/"art" is not my thing and it just kind of looks like markers on canvas, but oh well!



They will get worn. Maybe the bright colors will make me feel better because I was looking at some other shoes at Target that I thought were cute (and I am not really a shoe person) that I COULD NOT get my foot into because I have wide feet

It has been a while and the dress has been made for almost a month now, but I am finally posting it. It ended up being a "birthday" dress, as that is when I finished it. The last dress I made was finished for my boyfriends birthday. So here are the pics! The hardest part was I corrected the mock up at home and I only have a small mirror. So when I wore the dress out and we happened to stop at Target I found a full length mirror and looked at myself. The dress (and the mirror) make me look tall and extra skinny.

       

Since it was so much fun I also made a matching headband.


At the fabric store I found some fabric that spoke to me, so the challenge was to come up with a pattern for it. It was actually the same fabric in different colors as this apron I made for a swap. I really liked how the contrasting bias looked so I knew I wanted that to be an element. After some sketching I came up with this for my design



There is contrast bias along the yoke edges, armhole and neckline. I like the look of the gathered bust, but found that generally this style is done with halter tops and I didn't want to do that because I want to be able to wear my everyday bra. The skirt is gored with A-line flare. I draped it one afternoon on my lunch break. The "Part 1" is because I have only finished the mock up. It is however a finished mock up because as I was draping this dress I found out about Burda Style Design and Pattern Competition and decided to enter. I was already patterning a garment...so why not?


Front and Front Detail



Back

Catpants wanted to send my two packages and I got the second one over the weekend.



"Summer Sorbet" Falkland Wool, is kind of like the "Neapolitan" but more orangey, very sorbet like! I think it is my favorite because it nearly matches some fabric I bought to make a dress with. And "Glacier" Mohair.

Thanks again catpants. The yarn is wonderful!

my partner has received! i really hope she likes everything 

Oh yes, I do!!
There is "Neapolitan" wool, and "Honeymoon South African Fine Merino.  I can't wait to start using it.
 

I got a pair of hand knitted socks!
A subversive cross stitch like Simpson's quote cross stitch
Some fimo and instructions to play around with
Some airstream trailer postcards. I totally know who to send one to!
Little Mermaid stickers and a happy birthday banner. (My birthday is coming up)

Here is a picture. Aren't the socks great, and I really like the yarn! Of course everything else is great too!

My last year of college I got to take a tailoring class. We designed, patterned and built our own women's suit based on the L-85 war production board's fabric limitations during WWII. It was my first tailoring class and our university was on the quarter system so we had ten weeks to do it all. Later I took more classes in tailoring, it was just tailoring from commercial patterns and we had 15 weeks, which felt like a breeze because there was no designing or patterning! This suit was built for the costume department's stock.

Here is my little sketch for my design with images I used for inspiration. The details are contrast binding around the edges of the jacket and kick pleats in the skirt.





In Process
You can see the pad stitched lapels and the contrast button holes and welt pockets. What was I thinking? I had never done welt pockets or bound buttonholes and with contrast fabric.


Adding the Binding
This is when it really came together I sewed on the bias binding half by machine and then by hand for a clean neat finish. You can see that I was having fun and used matching pins.



The complete suit
Most of the time I spent working was on the jacket, I built the skirt from a commercial skirt block. It is basically the shape of skirt block with princess seams (that match the princess lines on the jacket) and kick pleats.




Jacket close up