Stripy Fall Stashbusting

Yippee! I finally got to sew something fun! It fits into my FESA plans and it is Stashbusting! Win Win Win! Do you want to see it?

 There are those mornings when you drag yourself out of bed and don't want to fight with your clothes. I was spoiled with all my easy throw on summer dresses and wanted something for fall and winter. When I found this gorgeous teal and grey strip remnant at a thrift store I thought it would make a nice cropped sweatshirt or something. Then I got it home and realized it matched perfectly with a remnant of gorgeous cotton interlock in my stash!

Yes, I'm feeling full of sass in this!

I used Cake Pattern's Hummingbird Top for the bodice lengthening the sleeves as much as I could with the yardage I had. As you can see it wasn't much. I cut 2 inch wide strips for the bands for the neckline and sleeves. I really like the neckline on this top. 

For the skirt I kept it simple. I serged all the remaining fabric into a tube, quartered it and pleated the front and gathered the back. I just eyeballed the pleats and kind of like how the five little pleats turned out. Easy peasy.

I didn't hem the bottom and the sweatshirt fabric had enough body that I didn't need to reinforce the waist seam. I sewed it on just my serger and it took about an hour. I can't tell you how delighted I am with this color combo and comfort. I think this will see a lot of wear with my Espresso leggings and sweaters!
How's your fall sewing going? How often do you reuse your patterns? I find myself often reaching for this top or the Cabarita pattern when I'm wondering what to do with my knits.

Thanks & Sneak Peeks

Hello Sewing Friends,
  Before I left for the summer I won some giveaways and was never able to say thank you properly. I have all my lovely loot surrounding me now that I'm home and decided it was high time!

I entered Sew Mama Sew's big giveaway extravaganza early in the spring
and one this lovely fat quarter bundle from Bear Creek Quilting Co.
I LOVE this color palette and really want to quilt something now...

Squee! My first piece of Liberty Tana Lawn from Sewbox UK! I love this print
and was delighted when I won it! But I don't remember if it was So Zoe
or Handmade Jane's giveaway but I'm so thankful and trying to dream
up something special for it...

After I left I received a lovely bit of loot from Sanae Ishida! Such fun stuff
But I might have been most excited when I saw...

THIS Drawing! One of my favorite things about Sanae's blog is her
lovely illustrations and her note happened to be one! I immediately put
it up on my sewing wall!

Speaking of my sewing wall, I'm loving the way it looks these days. Bits of practical and bits of inspiration and fun..

Things have been pretty busy around here and you can see all the patterns and wool getting thrown around! We're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I have high hopes we'll finish in time!

Finally, there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes right now and I'm giving myself permission to only blog once a week. I know the world goes on and I don't really need to announce to you what I'm doing but I love this community and want to keep myself accountable as well. I'll still be reading all of you and doing the Stashbusting Announcements. So... stay tuned... 

To end, I was going through some boxes and found one of my first quilt attempts. I think it's funny because I have been pinning small square quilts the last couple weeks. I guess my tastes haven't changed very much... My question for you is what would you do with this? I want to keep it and use or display it but I'm not sure how. It's 13 x 10 inches. 

A Sewalong to Get Me Sewing

Readjusting to home life after a crazy amazing summer has been difficult. I walked back into my room and the fabrics started screaming at me for my long neglect. There are things I have to sew and things I want to sew and things I should sew. But I haven't known where to start so I've just been sitting on my bed cruising the interwebs instead. Until I read Heather B's post today.... It was the kick in the pants I needed.

I do make lists to keep myself from being overwhelmed or distracted so the categories offered here are very appealing. I'm also going to try to not write everything I could make and keep it to a more realistic amount...

Fashionable Foundations

• Brown Corduroy Maritime Jeans Hack... I've got a couple more fabrics for trousers as well, I'm just not ready to tackle them again...
• Green Wool Skirt of some sort. Today I found out I'm entering SD Make It With Wool Contest and showing my garments on the 18th. No panic...

Chic Chemises

• Finish Red Cabled Sweater I've got partially knitted. 
• Green Wool Crepe Top that should be drapey for MIWW contest. Any pattern suggestions?
• Pink & Blue Plaid Japanese Tunic Top
• Teal & Grey Sweatshirt Knit Tunic Top

Fabulous Frocks

• Something Pretty! I'm bummed I missed out on the summer stuff!

It's Cold Outside

• Schnittchen Mona Jacket in Turquoise Corduroy

Whew, just looking at that seems more manageable than what I was thinking. Maybe now I can move forward and sew on!

September Stashbusting: Children

Hello My Eager Stashbusters!
  I am so happy to be back sewing with you! It seems Facebook has been roaring away without much assistance, which makes me happy. There's nothing like accidentally starting a group that becomes self sustaining. We've had a lot of new people join so I thought I'd go over a few of the "rules" just in case...

The Only Real Rule is: USE YOUR STASH!

The themes are completely optional and only there to inspire or give you guidance if you so desire.

The goal of this sew along is to encourage us to consider and use the resources we already have instead of always getting new stuff.

Here's some helpful links to: Our Main Page (which includes links by month to our Pinterest boards) Facebook, Flickr

I do feel kind of bad for how little participation I've put in this year and want to say again how thankful I am for all your encouragement and enthusiasm for this project!

Now September's Theme! CHILDREN!!! Inspired by, or literally sewing for them, children or childlike is this month's theme. Will you make clothes? Toys? Quilts? Or add some childlike whimsy into your next make?

Let's jump in and get sewing!