Okay, so I'm here....I didn't mean to be gone that long but I seriously needed it. I went to Portland for a week and had a wonderful time with my nieces and nephews...and great nephews (all 4 of them!)....and sisters....and my mom and dad went too. It was great. I spent an evening with the Sweet Hot Yams, went shopping at Bolt, Cool Cottons (with Sarah Jackson!), and Fabric Depot....I even won 100.00 playing the slots at The Pink Feather. It was exactly what I needed.
Then I came home to the stress of a deadline and every major appliance in the house going on the fritz (the chest freezer is behaving though so it's not all bad). Sigh.
But now I'm back and I've drawn a winner for the cute knit dress from Shabby Apple. Normally when I hear the term "#2" I don't think happy thoughts but this time I'm thinking....winner! Congratulations to winner Deb!! Shabby Apple still has a coupon code just for my readers if you didn't win and want to shop at their cute store. Just type "stopstaring10off" in the coupon code box (coupon ends on March 19th so don't wait too long).
I've been sewing with a lot of linen lately and I've fallen completely in love with it. This week I dyed some linen that I got from Dharma Trading Company (I love that site!) and the whole process felt so earthy and organic I just wanted to eat some homemade yogurt and herd chickens. I used the 4.7 oz linen which was perfect for the skirt I was making. I'm going to get the lighter weight linen next time and make some summer blouses. They have an 8 oz linen which I'm thinking might be the right weight for a couch slipcover but I'm going to get some samples before investigating in that much fabric. This is still very new to me (any linen advice greatly appreciated).
I didn't have a big tub to work with but I did have this old dog food keeper which turned out to be better since I could see through it. I used the Blue/Grey dye and kept it in there for 20 minutes while stirring it most of the time. I also dyed a big piece of the fabric scraps with it just in case I want to make a rosette or something else to accessorize the skirt.
The end color is very beautiful and I'd call it a blue/grey with just a hint of periwinkle. They have dozens of colors to chose from so it was hard to pick but I'm loving this one and excited to try some more. Chartreuse is next.
The only glitch I ran into was on the hem where some of the color really saturated and stayed dark. I realized after inspecting it that it was right in the spot where my rolled hem had stopped and I'd applied fray check so lesson learned.
And look at what I discovered....my sewing machine has a 1/4" foot! It was one of those "duh!" moments that actually made my day. It makes sense that a machine named Quilter's Dream would have a 1/4" foot but since I wasn't quilting at the time I bought it I really didn't pay attention. I wonder what else my machine does? I need to spend a little time playing with it I think.
Have a great week!! Keep on sewing!!
