Images of New York City

It appears that I've been missing from the blog! Not much sewing happening, but that's not the reason. The real reason is that I spent last week with my daughter, Laura, first in NYC, and then with her and her husband, Thomas, at their apartment in Alexandria, VA. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Bonus points if you can name some of the buildings or places and even the dogs. Enjoy...

Me and my friend Amy

You bet!

Is it over?

A New Jasmine

Boy, have I been a blogging slacker! I can't really blame self stitched September, though that would be tempting. No, I've actually been doing a little traveling, meeting with some of the friends I've made on Etsy for a little get-away in Providence, RI and other points east. Aren't we all adorable?!

I had planned to sew lots of adorable outfits for the trip, and did manage to finish one top. And it's not the one I'm wearing in the above pic. But, on the Friday before I left, I was furiously sewing and finished the Colette Patterns Jasmine top.

I did wear it, but didn't get a picture with my camera. So I wore it again today and it's time to fill you in! I love it, by the way. Before I do any reveal, let me just say that beginner is the right rating. It's super easy, and so far, it's been the easiest to fit (for me) Colette pattern yet. I suspect I know why, and it definitely has to do with user error.


I made a muslin, and for the first time in my history of making Colette Patterns, I just traced a straight size 10. Usually, I try to do a little tweaking before the muslin stage, but not this time. And the muslin told me that I only needed minimal tweaks. Having a center front and center back seam made things easy.


My usual narrow upper chest problem was solved simply by pinching in the excess at the center seam. I did the same at the back center, though not quite as much. I shortened the dart by about 1/2", and shortened the length about an inch. I also shortened the sleeve about 3/4". Finally, I pinched out about 3/4" from the length of the back armhole, because it was a little long, but left the sleeve seam alone because it was gathered at the top anyway.

The fabric is a madras I had in my stash, and I picked up the dark navy linen contrast at Gail K's in Atlanta. I did interface the collar pieces (not in the instructions) because the linen was a bit floppy.


One other big change was in the cutting out... I actually cut it on the bias cross grain. Is that a thing? Instead of placing the grainline arrow on the vertical, I placed it on the horizontal because I wanted the chevrons to look like the V's that you see and not upside down with the widest part pointing to my hips.


Finally, I have this thing about being trapped in my clothes. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, I put a 9" invisible zipper from the hemline up on the left side and solved that problem.

The madras colors varied greatly from stripe to stripe, so the matching is as good as it could get. I'm thrilled with it. Even the sleeves mostly match.


If I make it again, I'll pinch just a bit more out of the center and that's it.


Yesterday, we had a visit from Kyle, and after packing up more cool-weather clothes and a few other things, he went back to school today. It was fall break after all, so we were thrilled he gave us a few hours.

So is Danny the Dog saying "who is this boy?" or is he thrilled, too?