Catching up. The excitement is building!

The work schedule is continuing at a dizzying pace, and we are looking forward to going on vacation next week, so I want to get as much work done as possible. Everyone thinks being self employed is wonderful, and at times it is, but what they don't think about is you don't get paid vacations. That means for vacation, you have to cover the missed income plus what you'll be spending or your finances wind up kind of upside down. To that end, I've been adding a few jobs into an already full schedule, which leaves little time for sewing or for me!

We're going to San Diego for my sister and brother-in-law's 50th Anniversary. I can't believe that they've been married so long! Although they got married quite young, it doesn't seem possible that we're all so old. We'll be staying at the beach in Oceanside, and for the first time in probably about 20 years, my children with spouses and grands, and my sister and brother-in-law, and all their 8 children with spouses, grands and great-grands will be within a few blocks along the beach in rented beach houses. I expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 of us! AMAZING!!! Unfortunately, my oldest granddaughter won't be there as she's not able to take additional time off work. She will be sorely missed. I expect a week long party. It should be fun, exciting, full of love, family and fun.

BUT... all that said, I've been trying to stick to my 15 minutes a day at least, and it is helping me progress my SWAP. The brown pants are complete and have been worn, and are into the rotation. The striped shirt turned out quite well if I do say so myself. Front and back stripes line up perfectly, which may not be apparent from the picture. The sleeves are cut on the straight grain, so they don't line up that well, but it is what it is. I'm quite pleased with the tee, it fits well, and is flattering.

I am excited about sewing right now, and have moved on to the next top, which is a rayon knit in a batik of browns. I love the fabric and think it will make a nice and more dressy looking top for work.

 I also have my second "muslin" of the Style Arc Franki top cut out and ready to go. The first was made of real muslin, and this is from a wild looking rayon knit I got on sale. It's not my usual style or colors (on line shopping sometimes elicits surprises LOL,) but I think will be fun for summer. The fabric feels wonderful and drapes fantastically. I'm hoping the alterations I made will make for a really nice fitting and flattering cowl neck top. I love the pattern, and I love cowls. Fitting me with them is more difficult! If I can make this one work, I have a luscious chocolate brown knit for it.


After working on the batik top last night, when I was getting a bit tired but not ready to go to sleep, I pulled out a Burda top and started tracing and doing my standard alterations on that one. It's Burda 2898, I'm pretty sure it's currently OOP. But I have loved this pattern since I bought it and never made it up yet. To me it's lovely and will look wonderful for a summer top of a light weight fabric. I bought a beautiful French Cotton Lawn from Marcy Tilton and that will go beautifully with my swap and be perfect for work for summer time.
The muslin for that will be coming up soon.



AND on top of that, I have the Butterick #5616 top also in the "next up" pile. It's undoubtedly out of print too. It is going to be a muslin of denim first, and will be useful for a light weight jacket.  I have a muslin fitted except the sleeves, and hope to trace them off tonight and get a sleeve done to see if it will fit my bodacious biceps. They measurements look okay, but I never know until it's put together and tried on. I'm hopeful that no further alterations  will be necessary on this one. Once the fit is correct, this one will be made in a beigey-tan stretch cotton and will be my bridging piece. And because I love, love, love, red, expect to see it in a red too. That will be my next core collection after the SWAP is completed.

I have several more knit tops to do, and am optimistic that my SWAP may actually get completed this year in the appropriate time frame. AMAZING!

Hope you are all doing well on your sewing and having fun with it!