second improvement to summer wardrobe

The second improvement to my summer wardrobe finally got finished today after a couple false starts and an attempt by myself to screw up the other knee.

I used the pattern pictured as inspiration for a better neckline.  I redrew the neckline a couple of times before the old noggin remembered I had a pattern making kit in the closet.  I dug it out and got the neckline much closer to what I wanted. (Still needs a bit of tweaking)

Some of the best money I have ever spent.  I bought this kit and the one for pants back in the mid-80s.  There was a seminar that went with it to explain how to get the most out of the kits and some pretty cool tidbits like; why Simplicity patterns are usually two sizes too big, McCall's are one size too big and Butterick and Vogue are usually dead on.  Which helps explains to me why I always preferred the fit of the Butterick and Vogue patterns, as well as the fact they were more couture/stylish.  Interesting side note: while I was making sure I spelled the names of the pattern companies right, did you know McCall's now owns the Butterick and Vogue labels?  Me, nether!  If you ever run across either one of these kits or the clear acrylic ruler that goes with the kits grab them.  The best thing that ever happened to altering patterns so what you make fits.

Anyway back to my new shirt, I went through my button box, which is a plastic 7” x12 “x12” drawer in one of those tower thingy's, and found a button in the buttons I inherited from my mother I liked really well.

It's old and some of the gold is worn off but I think it adds to the charm of the button.  I moved the button loop down a little from the edge of neckline for the fun of it.  The jury is out as to whether or not I think it was a good idea.

Well, on to the next one.  I'm thinking maybe a keyhole neckline for the next shirt or a V-neck or a scoop then there is a square neckline.  I don't think I want any collars but who knows where my imagination could wander off too.

I hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy

Oh yeah, the knee!  Friday morning as I was coming out of the kitchen my left knee popped and I thought I was going to the floor but caught myself with the table and hung on for dear life.  I finally got myself back to the bedroom using a folding chair as a walker to get to Hubby's cane.  Then, I used both of them for the rest of the day to get from the bed to the bathroom.  I was eating naproxen like it was candy.  All I could think of was, "Man as bad as I hurt, I don't even want to experience this pain without these pain relievers."  It took me until the middle of the night to remember I have a TENS unit for the other knee that would work just fine on the one that was hurting so badly.  LOL, I know, kind of slow! By Saturday afternoon all I needed was the cane to get back-n-forth.  Yesterday, I made it down the stairs to the dumpster and to the mailbox only using the cane for the stairs part.  The weird part is the lower calf muscle is painfully tight and the muscles up the outside of leg into the hip are stiff-tight.  So much for my doing a bunch of exercises to strengthen the muscles that support the knees and doing more walking to get the weight off for the time being!  Jude

the state of my wardrobe(summer)

The state of my summer wardrobe is sorry, sad, embarrassingly ragged.  Since the temps are in the middle to high 80s the situation is becoming critical if I want to leave the A/C off for a few more weeks.  I have repaired or remodeled 6 pair of shorts and should get another summer out of them.  The tops?  I'm down to 2 shirts that are only fit for rags and don't want to be seen in public in them.

So I have gone through my fabric stash and found 8 pieces of fabric that there is enough yardage to make shirts with.  I even found a pattern that I had never used rolled up in a piece of fabric.  What could be simpler than a front, back and neck-facings?  I have the first of the new shirts made.

The shirt pattern takes about two and a third yards.  Not thrilled with a boat-style neckline so the next one will have something different.  Probably bring the back of the neck up to the natural neckline and change the front to a v-neck or a scoop neckline.  Have also considered cutting a square opening just at the mid-line of the bust and inserting a button closure, kind of like the dickeys of my youth.  I'm waffling on this as it is more work (buttons and buttonholes) but it would add some more pizazz to the shirts.

And no, I did not use the shoulder pads! LOL I have football-player shoulders and neck muscles.  Which is why I want to bring the neckline back around to the natural neckline.

I hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy

another pretty - shamrock

I made me another pretty to hang on my wall.

Since it is March, why not something to do with St. Paddy's Day?  I looked at leprechauns, rainbows, pots of gold, shamrocks and all sorts of thing to appliqué.  As beautiful as some appliqué is, I don't have the patience nor do I like it when my hands go numb from gripping a small object such as a needle for long periods of time.  So I when I discovered a pieced shamrock over at Quilting Works.com I went for it.

This is what I came up with in EQ6:

Once again, EQ6 did not have this block in their Block Library, so I went to the Easy Draw section and drew the block.  I then imported the block into my lay-out.  The block is a 12-inch block set on point.  I played with the inside border to get just a section on the bottom.  The outside border is the binding.

Need to cut:
(12) 3.5-inch blocks for the patchwork of the leaves of the shamrock.
  (9) 2 3/8-inch blocks of background for the shaping of the shamrock leaves.
 (1) 6.5-inc block of background for the quadrant the stem is in.  This is where I variated from the pattern and instruction, and used a 10-inch piece of bias binding cut down to 1.5".  Pressed the sides under a 1/4" and machine appliquéd it across the diagonal of the 6.5" block.
 (1) 6 7/8-inch block cut on the diagonal for the 2 lower triangles around the shamrock of background material.
 (1) 9 7/8-inch block cut on the diagonal for the 2 upper triangles around the shamrock of back ground material.
 (2) 6.5 x 7.5inch blocks for either side of the flowerpot on background material.
 (1) 9.5 x 7.5-inch block for the flower pot.  The flowerpot was another variation from the pattern and instructions.

I had to square up the block after I added the four side triangles and before I added the flowerpot bottom.  I trimmed off about 3-inches of the stem part of the block.

I was having trouble pinning the trimmed flowerpot to the two pieces of background until I had an Aha! moment.

Take the piece you cut off the pot and lay it on the background to get the right angle for pinning.

Sew it down and press.

Repeat with the other side and trim the seam allowance to a 1/4-inch.  Attach to the bottom of your block.  I echo quilted the background and stitched in the ditch around all the colored parts of the quilt with an echoed flowerpot in the center of the pot fabric.

When I got ready to make binding, I decided I didn't want the original green binding but something different.  Why not a gold binding to represent the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?  I found a goldish-yellow print in the stash.  I think it was just what this pretty need.

The label is on

So now I need to get busy with a wedding gift for Hubby's nephew that is getting married this June.  I have a couple of ideas, so we will see where they lead me.

I hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy