A few weeks ago I purchased a couple hair ties from Tomoka's Twists. While purple is one of my favorite colors I didn't have too many clothing items in purple so I stopped by the fabric store to pick up some fabric to make an outfit to coordinate with them.
The solid purple knit to make a skirt similar to a black skirt I already had and wanted to duplicate. The purple & white blend knit would be the top. I grabbed the below pattern for the top.
McCalls 6400
A pretty easy pattern considering it was only two pattern pieces, but OHHH! the issues I had. Mainly because I have a bad habit of selecting a pattern size that is too large for me because I'm trying to compensate for my problem area, my "gut". The result was a top that was WAYYYYYYY too big so I had to fix it.
After much tweaking I was able to get it to a point where it was wearable. You may not be able to see it well in this picture, but I added some elastic to one side to create the ruching. This pulled the fabric up on the side and creates a gathered effect to help camouflage my gut :-) . Overall I'm pleased with this first attempt, but will recreate this top in the smaller size in hopes that it will fit better.
And now, here's a head shot to show off the wonderful hair tie that was my inspiration.
In October I completed the clean-up of my sewing room. It had been in a state of disarray for the past three years because I didn't have time to sew once I went back to school. Seriously, I could barely move around in there, but now it's functional again. While cleaning I came across fabric I purchased specifically to make some pillowcases 3-4 years ago from Fabric.com, but hadn't sat down long enough to read and thoroughly taken in how to do.
Recently I've become quite addicted to watching YouTube videos and decided I would get these pillowcases done a lot faster if I could just watch someone teach how to make them. I searched for "pillowcase tutorial" and found this great video and followed the instructions.
Having my MacBook Pro set-up in the room with me allowed me to pause and play as I went along. I was soooooo EXCITED, you couldn't tell me anything. :-) The tutorial talks about using contrasting fabric for the band and narrow trim detail, however, I hadn't planned on that when I purchased the fabric so I used what I had. I used the same fabric for the band and a plain black fabric as the narrow trim. I was really surprised by how easy it was and they came out beautifully. In fact, that same night I made a total of three pillowcases.
The fabric looks "orangy" in some pictures. (true color shows in below picture)
4-Sets of Pillowcases
My goal was to complete 4 sets by the next night. The next night came
and went without any sewing getting done. However, I did finally finish
them by the following week and have some lovely pillowcases for the
house now.
I don't know about you, but there just seems to never be enough
pillowcases to go around, especially when everyone enjoys multiple
pillows on their bed. Hubby and I actually have six on our bed, so the
two that come with sheet sets are certainly not going to cut it. This is
a sewing project that will be a staple project for me so I'll be on the
lookout for great fabric at a SUPER LOW price. Speaking of price, the
cost of fabric to make these was approximately $4.00 each pillowcase.
If you're a sewer, let me know what you are sewing and post links to tutorials if you have some.
This is really a huge pet peeve of mine. Where should the line be drawn? Now let me first say that I'm not perfect in this arena, but I strive to speak and write in accordance with the "arena" I'm in without overusing the ever popular slang talk. Am I alone in this frame of thought? I think NOT!
Just this morning I was reading some tweets and one in particular caught my attention so I clicked on over to read the referenced article. I thought "WOW, this is so true. I'll retweet it when I'm done.", but then I noticed a grammar error. No problem, its minor. Then another, and another.....STOP....I can't retweet this because it has too many grammar errors. I decided that I would instead TWEET about my annoyance with the use of bad grammar and in the process, before I could post, I came across another tweet from AdviceToWriters with a quote admonishing us to:
"If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing. I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too. It’s very encouraging. “Hey, I can do so much better than this.” Read the greatest stuff but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging."
EDWARD ALBEE
Did I just get "served"??? -->> SMH = Shaking My Head
Well, not completely, but enough to make me reconsider my TWEET. The quote above is really about challenging those of us who choose to write, whether professionally or casually, to broaden our scope of reading in order to learn, not just from the masters of writing, but those that are up and coming "masters" as well.
I recall reading a few articles about this very subject over the years, did some online researching and found one in particular that I enjoyed. This article, The Importance of Good Spelling and Grammar, sums up my viewpoint pretty well and gives some great examples.
In closing, 6 Things to remember and consider when writing and speaking, whether it be for a web site, a blog (business or personal), posting on FaceBook, Twitter or even the casual YouTube video poster:
Know your audience.
Appeal to the masses and not your own personal style when it's going to be public.
Use slang AND "texting abbreviations" in moderation.
Proof read.
Proof read (again).
Have someone else PROOF READ your writing before posting if possible. :-)
Feel free to comment and voice your thoughts on this subject![or even point out a typo or error :-) , I'd appreciate it and correct it.]
