Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning is nice,quiet calm and peaceful. Sleeping in once in a while is such a relaxing gift. 

Later, my older brother and parents will be coming over and we will go to the club where my husband works to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner. With Rob working every year it is hard to really enjoy myself over a good portion of the Holidays. He is busy the week before as well as the week after, with very little down time to relax. It is peak season and this is when all of the money is to be made to cover the slower parts of the year.
Thus he works, a lot, from November through Easter!

This time of year is the time I am free to follow whatever hobbies catch my fancy. With Rob at work I have to have something to occupy my time other than watching t.v. and eating. Most likely this year that will include, running, blogging and sewing and a good bit of gardening and canning thrown in for good measure. After all this is peak growing season here in SW Florida.

A lot of my time has been spent sewing the past couple of months. Thus far a skirt, 3 blouses and a child's apron have been completed. Next up is a pair of cigarette pants and a remake of a dress purchased at the thrift store. Pictures to follow on another post (Once the camera is located).   

Today, gratitude is on my mind. Looking around the country and around the world we are so incredibly blessed. At times it is easy to forget how bountiful my life truly is at the present time.  My life includes a loving family, food on the table and in the pantry as well as a roof over my head. On top of that there is a career that is challenging and provides room for growth, a life in a subtropical paradise and my health. Even if my health is not always great we have the extreme luxury of medicine and sick days. For many people these are not realities these are the things that they can only dream of having in the future. So I am so profoundly grateful for what we have today. 

May we be grateful today for all that we have and remember that no matter how "bad" our life seems at the moment, someone, somewhere would love to be in our shoes. Below is a link to one of my favorite local charities!



http://www.harrychapinfoodbank.org/

May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!



 

Colette Sorbetto Blouse

Learning to Sew

The last few months have been busy - when isn't it busy around here? And what did I do in response to all of the busyness? Went and added a new hobby.

It was all by accident. Whilst surfing the "interwebs" there appeared in front of me a sewing blog. It was mesmerizing. Here was a woman who could sew, yet best of all her items did not look homemade. They looked polished, refined and very well executed. It was all so intriguing.

As I hopped from blog to blog a glimmer of a thought suggested that, maybe, just maybe, this is something I could do. After all my valances and curtains had turned out well and my progression to custom pillows and slipcovers was better than passable. If this was sewing, than this I could do.(Insert evil laugh here).

Ummm. yeah.......then reality set in. Highschool Home Ec happened to skip the part about adjusting patterns to accomodate "the girls" when they are a bit larger than the accpted pattern friendly "B" cup. At an "E" there was no pattern that could accomodate them AND fit the rest of me without being too large. What to do???

The aforementioned blogs led me to Colette Patterns. https://www.colettepatterns.com/  an absolutley wonderful site for a beginner sewist. Personally, I love the word sewist. It is used on the sewing blogs in place of the term "seamstress." So I am stealing and using the term. Sewist- that is me.

Colette Patterns has a couple of free patterns to get a beginner going and comfortable with basic concepts.These are PDF documents that one can print and use immediately. Additionally, Sarai Mitnik, the talent behind Colette has written, "The Colette Sewing Handbook- Inspired Styles and Classic Techniques for the New Seamstress," Beacuse the book is so well done the use of the word "seamstress" in the title is forgiven. The book covers everything from adjusting for "the girls" a.k.a "the full bust adjustment" to using a muslin to fit the pattern to yourself prior to sewing the final product. Let me share that I adore this book. It has barely left my side since Amazon dropped it on my doorstep several weeks ago. With it I have made 2 blouses that not only fit they are comfortable.

I have a picture of my favorite shirt a Black and white Swiss Dot Sorbetto Tank top on my I-phone and for some reason they can not be seen if I load them into Blogger through the computer.  I am going to try to load one as a separate item from my phone to the blog

Next up is the Colette Meringue Skirt followed by the Colette Crepe Wrap Dress. I am also salivating over some Vintage Vogue dresses! Maybe someday.

Pictures to follow as the items are completed. Happy Wednesday to all-
jo