hey there delila....

I love this pattern. I don't generally make a pattern twice in the same season. Fickle girl that I am, once I've seen the pattern come together I am always anxious to start another project. The fabric is vintage (100% cotton) and it feels like silk. I barely had enough. In fact, I mixed the two prints to get the length I needed. I think it turned out great. More photos on my flickr.

Reclaimed

Found and reclaimed this gorgeous wool gabardine suit jacket and matching skirt (waist size impossible, who were these tiny women?) from the forties. The jacket is loaded with custom details from the notched lapel to the turned back cuffs on the sleeves. The buttons are covered and they fasten through bound buttonholes. This may have been a custom tailored set. The label reads Frankel's, Des Moines. I love the attention to detail that was so common in clothing of this era. Click on the photo to enlarge if you want a closer look. This is a rare find in this part of the country. Score.

Yes, I will have to redo the waist to wear it :)

summer of the dress continued

I'm not keeping up with my photos. I really have been sewing. I completed the Bella dress and posted to wardrobe refashion here. Then I made the Cassie dress for my sister's class reunion. She got out of here before her photo session. The dress is this simplicity pattern. I made view D in a salmon colored cotton fabric with soft white piping trim. Hopefully I will round her up in the next couple of days for photos.

Sofa Refashion Deax

Before:

After:

I'm not sure how to best fix the gouge on the back. I am tempted to slap a fabric patch on; Anthropologie style.
If I had a couple of pillows I'd take a nap

The Look for Less

I am a huge fan of anthropologie. The catalogs are so beautiful. I keep back issues and use them for inspiration in my own design work. This handbag is from the summer '05 issue. I wanted it but did not want to pay full price for it. As far as I know it never went on sale. As I still want one of these, I decided to make one like it. I know right. I-d-e-n-t-i-c-a-l. I can hardly tell the two apart. Oh, not so much? Hey, I already had this fabric. I did not have any vintage kimono fabric that is just a shade off watermelon. The project really went south when I realized I had a vintage silk tie that matched perfectly, and was crying out to be bag handles. Voila.
You know I'm not really seeing it either. I'm not quite sure how this happened. Back to the
drawing board.

I'm trendy. Who knew?

In Seattle according to this link you can rent a goat for $25 per week. The goats are tether-trained and all you have to do is move said goats around your weedy yard and give them water. Free fertilizer!! Also known as organic weed control.

Meet Smokey.

Smokey is a real force to be reckoned with. Yes, he is as small as he looks. Okay again yes, he still sucks from his mama. You just wait. He's eyeing those bad weeds right now.

strawberry shortcake memories

I am the oldest child in a family of thirteen. As you can imagine we are all fairly close in age. My mother gave birth to me and fourteen months later gave me a baby brother. Growing up we were close and he was one of my best friends. He was protective and treated me more like he was older.

Mom always put in a big garden and we had our own strawberry patch. Sometimes we had enough strawberries to actually have a shortcake.

One summer evening when I was about fourteen we were hanging out in the backyard with our shortcakes. I was going over my day (in detail as I was inclined to do) and Greg was my ever attentive audience. I should have clued in as he was a little more attentive than usual. So I am all blah, blah, blah he doesn't say a word. All of a sudden he falls to the ground laughing so hard. Okay, I thinking I'm funny but maybe not that funny. What? He cannot even tell me he's laughing so hard. When he finally catches his breath he said, "You just ate a fly." Followed by much more doubled over hilarity. You know now that I think about it maybe he wasn't one of my best friends.