Sharon Sews

It may look like this outside.... ...but that's not stopping me from sewing brightly colored summer apparel. Using a cotton stretch sateen bursting with colors I sewed a pleated yoke skirt (view B) from McCall's 5591 . Skirt pattern layout First of all, note that view B and C are cut cross-grain - which means you should not use a directional print. (A border print would work well even though it's not shown or recommended.) Now you might be looking at my skirt and thinking " but you're print has a one-way design" or " with all those colors who would even know that print has a one-way design ". And you'd be correct with both statements. This fabric does indeed have a directional print, but with all of the colors it's not immediately evident. I choose the fabric and pattern without realizing it was cut cross-grain until I pulled out the layout instructions. There would not have been enough fabric for this skirt if I had followed the layout

St. Paul Craftstravaganza, a one day rogue art & craft sale, will be held the end of April - Sat. April 26 to be exact. An opportunity to browse many indie vendor 's booths, listen to live music, or attend a workshop or demo. Check out the media coverage from last year if you're wondering what a Craftstravaganza is all about. Sounds like a good time to me! Leave a comment or send me an email if you plan on attending - maybe we can hook up while checking out all the cool stuff.

The second issue of Make it Mine went on sale today - at least according to their website . Click here to view a video preview of the issue. Now if I would have remembered to actually mail my subscription card I would probably be reading and reviewing this issue already instead of planning a trip to the bookstore to search the magazine rack...

I barely had time to catch my breath from an incredibly busy week and now another busy weekend will soon be coming to a close. In between the usual chores (and a beautiful wedding and super fun reception yesterday) I managed to squeeze in a small amount of sewing time. The result was the completion of this skirt. A seasonal transition skirt to wear as the dreary cloudy cool weather slowly changes over to bright sunny warm weather. I used the skirt from Simplicity 3962, an OOP Threads pattern (I sewed the jacket previously - and I have yet to fix the threads that Abby pulled loose ...). The fabric I used is a poly/cotton glen plaid purchased from The Fabric Club. I choose to cut the bottom section on the bias in an attempt to spice up the business-like appearance of the skirt. The end product was a nice, but slightly boring skirt. (But it did have a great flowing bias swing at the hem.) It needed something but I wasn't sure what so I set the skirt aside for a few days while I wai