I finally made my way into the sewing room and finished my Dolce & Gabbana shirt panel! I have to admit, I love the material – it’s super soft and stretchy and will be very comfortable to wear. My only disappointment – the sleeves. Since this is a burnout type of fabric, some of the material was much darker than others…. unfortunately all I really had left to work with that would produce two sleeves was on the darker side so they are more maroon than the upper portion of my tee. I wish I would have manipulated the material (especially on the backside) a bit more so that the sleeves would be closer to the same shade as the body of the shirt. Drat. I’ll have to remember this for the second panel (which is much wider so I may get to use the raglan pattern after all).

Whew, what a weekend! I will start off by saying I finally have my t-shirt panel cut and supplies purchased to get started (because wouldn’t you know out of all the red thread I have in my stash, I don’t have a maroon that matched), but that is about the extent of my sewing. You see, this weekend was huge for the kids:

Taylor made her Confirmation on Friday evening – she spent the year participating in additional church groups, volunteering, etc. leading up to this day. You can tell from the huge smile on her face she’s glad it’s over (LOL)! The next day, Easton celebrated his 5th birthday with his friends (his actual birthday is Tuesday) – it was 2 hours of bouncing on inflatables, eating crazy donuts, and opening presents! This weekend was also filled with lots of fun family time, an exploding hot water heater, and very good food – it was a great time, but I’m looking forward to a slightly calmer week and some much needed therapy in the sewing room.

As much as I wanted to sew last night, my body didn’t have the energy after cleaning the house and shopping for a weekend full of family activities… so I knitted. I knitted enough that I managed to finish my first dish cloth. Not bad, although, I believe it would look better in a solid color – I think that the variegated yarn is distracting (I’ll try the seed stitch version next time I try it). Today I’ll attempt to sneak into the sewing room, but much of my day will be spent cooking, etc. – on the menu? This fabulous potato salad from a local eatery.

Last night was my last beginning knitting class. I have learned all the basics and am ready to move onto my first project…. the $56 dish rag (this includes the price of the class\materials and yarn for the project). While I tease about the cost, I really am excited to whip up a small project – I think knitting will be a good activity for when I’m looking to do something crafty when traveling or when we catch up with some of our shows in the evening. Plus (eventually) joining Ravelry is a huge draw – I’ve seen some amazing designs come from there!

This weekend, in addition to my lacy wrap, I had planned on making a pair of wide legged, knit pants. I started with McCall 6571 and decided midway during fitting, that I wasn’t enjoying the pattern. So, I switched to something ‘quick and easy’ (McCall 6748) only to realize after prepping the pattern that I didn’t have nearly enough fabric. So, I stopped for the day.

Yesterday, my Elliott Berman order arrived with two D&G shirt panels…. I decided that the one on the left would make a great raglan shirt for the weekend. After tracing off the pattern, I discovered, once again, I don’t have enough fabric (at least for sleeves)! My next option was to do a ‘standard’ t- shirt, but when I retrieved my pattern, I discovered that my traced size was gone.

So, now it’s back to the drawing board. I can’t decide if I should move on to another project, search for\trace another t-shirt pattern, or go back to the Palmer\Pletsch pants. They’re all causing me a bit of grief at the moment so maybe I’ll just avoid the sewing room until I have it sorted out.

A friend of my sister-in-law recently asked me if I could make an item for her baby shower diaper cake: A sippy cup tether. Basically, it’s an adjustable strap attached to a suction cup that can stick on tables and won’t fall to the ground (likewise, you can tie it onto strollers, etc with the same result). The photo on the right is what I came up with. While the tether itself was easy to figure out, I wasn’t quite as sure how to get the strap to adhere to the suction cup… so I glued it. I figured that hot glue wouldn’t be strong enough so I whipped out the E-6000 – I have yet to find a surface that it won’t work with! Once it dries completely, I’ll give it a test run to make sure that it stays attached under the weight of a full cup. Cross your fingers it holds!

Last night I had a bit of a departure from sewing and took a knitting class with my neighbor! It’s been ages since I picked up a pair of sticks, but after several attempts it all (slowly) started coming back to me. This week I vow to knit a few minutes each day (to keep it fresh in my brain before next week’s class) and start at least one of my new patterns… today is a perfect day to stay in and create something new – it’s snowing\sleeting again! When is winter ever going to end?

It seems as if weddings and baby showers come in spurts. Apparently, there will be a baby boom in my state this summer because I have another shower to go to this month. What does that mean? Why making baby gifts, of course! Once again, I’ve made a round of burp cloths – these boy fabrics are really getting a lot of mileage! I also (eventually) plan on making a matching set of bibs, but am contemplating what else I can add to it to make this more of a set (toy, booties, onesie?). I’ve got to start coming up with some original ideas or everyone’s getting the same thing soon!

I got off lucky. Prom was this weekend and I didn’t even have to make a dress – Taylor not only found one she liked, but it fit her well! Now I have a bolt of muslin (which was originally going to be used to see what changes\alterations should be made to the pattern she picked out awhile ago) and nothing to do with it. Not to let it go to waste, I decided to enroll in Craftsy’s Fashion Draping class. I watched the first few segments already and now I’ve decided that I need a new dress form, too. I’m leaning heavily toward the PGM brand, but would love to hear your suggestions before I settle on one.

Also this weekend, I stumbled across (and purchased) the new My Image Spring\Summer magazine. I was completely drawn in by the sleeveless, gathered neck top, but after thumbing through the issue, I plan to make the keyhole maxi dress very soon as well. Speaking of maxi dresses, my Jalie order should be here…. tomorrow! I am so excited for this round of patterns – I even have some fabrics ready to go so I can start sewing right away. I’m fairly certain that the maxi dress will be the first one I sew up… or the raglan t-shirt. What did everyone else work on this weekend?