Hello again

Well, hello, blog. Long time no see. 

My reconstruction surgery was 6 weeks ago. Most of my time has been spent recovering, recooperating, and driving to doctors appointments. I have been able to get a little sewing done. 

First up: my butterfly blouse. 

Pattern: Ruby top from Made by Rae

I made the skirt, too. I wear it almost every other day. It's cool, and it fits my changing body. 

Then my second Ruby top. This time with sleeves (they aren't in the original pattern and gave me fits). 

And today I finished a cute dress. The patten is McCall's M7120, an easy learn to sew pattern. I learned two new things that weren't in the pattern: sewing on slippery fabric, and a blind hem. 

The fabric is a printed peach skin from Joanns. I love the color and the silkiness, but it was much harder to work with than the cotton I'm used to working with. 

Next up is a shirt dress in a cotton print. I will learn how to sew a collar and how to do buttonholes. 

Ultimately, I would like to create a memade capsule wardrobe.  A girl can dream, right? :)

Long time no see

It's been quite a while since I blogged last. The tamoxifen that I had to be on caused me to gain weight and feel super fatigued and yucky all the time. Plus, things always get crazy at the end of the school year. 

I'm a member of a great group: Crochet Texas! We are a chapter of the Crochet Guild of America. We focus on charity work, learning new skills and techniques, and fellowship. During our latest meeting, we learned how to make crochet plaid. 

This is the Texas Bluebonnet Tartan made with HobbyLinby's Love This Yarn. My little one (who isn't little anymore since she lost her first tooth this week!!!) has already claimed this as a blanket for her favorite toy. 

This summer, I have a reconstruction surgery, plus I would like to crochet, read a book, and work on my ukulele. Hopefully, I will be able to get back in the habit of being creative and writing about it here. :)

Slow progress

I made another Colette Moneta, this time in teal, but haven't taken a picture of it yet. And I've made a little progress on the pink baby blanket, but I had to spend a few days untangling the ball of yarn I'm using. I would like to start a new cardigan for myself, but I'm having a hard time deciding what to do. I really had hoped to do more crafting during Spring Break, but it didn't turn out the way I planned. Oh well. 

Projects don't grow unless you work on them

The past two weeks have been rough. I had to have emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder on March 1 and I'm still recovering from it. My birthday was on March 5, and it was my first birthday post-cancer diagnosis. I was grateful for the birthday and owned up to my 34 years. 

For my birthday, I got a new serger. I haven't really gotten a chance to try it out yet, but this week is Spring Break, so I'm hopeful that I will have some time (between the doctors appointments and the spring cleaning that desperately needs to happen at my house). I have a teal Moneta cut out that needs to be made up, so that should give the new serger a great warm-up. I may even write up a mini-review of it. 

I'm working on a crochet baby blanket for a friend at church, but I have discovered that it won't grow unless I actually work on it! It's a cute pattern that I bought through Ravelry that has some filet-type hearts on it. Can you see the pattern yet? 

Fleece Jacket number 1

Last night I finished a jacket from sweatshirt fleece. The outside of it looks nice and the inside is super soft and cozy. I just wish the temperatures here in Texas would actually feel like winter so that I could wear it without sweating. 

My next few projects will be: re-sewing some of the seams on my Minnie Mouse Moneta, sewing a blouse, and making a birthday Emery dress with some beautiful Cotton and Steel quilting cotton I bought from fabric.com. It has yarn balls on it! 

Colors

On Saturday I had color consultation with a friend who recently became a House of Color consultant. I thought for sure that I was an autumn, but I'm not! I turned out to be a Winter. A burnished winter, to be specific. She said that this type of winter often has autumn eyes. So that explains a lot. :)

Here I am in my burnished winter colors and lipstick. I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day! I went from her house straight to Joanns. I picked up some pretty charcoal gray floral quilting cotton to make another Emery dress. 

One of the most useful tools that you get is a wallet with color cards that you can use to help choose clothes. Then I went home and cleared out all of the spring and autumn colors from my closet. It was liberating, really. 

So now I have a better idea of what colors of fabric to use when I want to look great! 

FO: McCalls Tweed Dress

M7014 is a princess seam dress. It is my first try at fitting princess seams, and I think there is a little tweaking that I need to do to get the fit just right. Certainly not bad for a first try, though! 

Cutting the fabric was more difficult that normal because of two things: the pattern pieces were longer than my cutting boards meaning that I had to use scissors instead of my rotary cutter, and the fabric was a much looser weave than I am used to. The fabric liked to slip around and stretch out while handling it. Serging around the pieces helped. 

Sewing the pieces wasn't terribly complicated. I did make a few changes to the pattern, though. I used an invisible zipper instead of a normal zipper and I didn't make a lining. I used bias tape around the neck and sleeves instead. And I added pockets! :)

The final fit is a little off, but it certainly worked well as a teaching dress.