Happy New Year and time to catch up!

I have been off for the holidays since Friday, December 23.  I have gotten a lot of rest, spent time with family and long time friends during Christmas weekend in my hometown of Danville, VA.

My DH caught the "crud" that has been going around so he ended up being home several days last week.  We both return to work tomorrow.

I completed the Renfrew top by Sewaholic using stretch velvet knit from Style Maker Fabrics. This is my fourth version of this pattern since it's release.   Here is a photo of me wearing it with my husband's niece where we celebrated Christmas afternoon/evening in Halifax, VA.

I also completed another Vogue top pattern, one I had made previously.  This too included fabric from Style Maker Fabrics.  The texture winter white (cream) knit is from them.  The solid is from Fabric Mart. Both worked well together.

The pattern is now out of print.  I made View B previously and decided to make View C.  My cowl neck does not drape like the view on the pattern envelope.  I think that the fabric is heavier and the cowl is not very wide.  I am okay with this.  I did use the cuffs from View B on the sleeves using the textured knit.

I will most likely wear this to work tomorrow or either the velvet knit top.  Both are warm and though the weather is expected to be in 50's my office always feels colder.

I have started on another project which will be my first for 2017.  I am making a sweater duster using Simplicity 8059.  I was going to make the longer version with some adjustments for my height.  I did not have enough fabric so went with the shorter version which will be longer on me as I did not adjust the length  for this view.  I am using a sweater knit fabric from EOS. This is a  heather pink/purple with black.

I have a bunch of patterns I purchased in December taking advantage of Simplicity sales on Pattern Review and Club BMV for year end.  I plan to go on a pattern diet as well as fabric diet for several months.  I did make some fabric purchases before year end and will post about these next.

I plan to sew from my pattern and fabric stash more in 2017.  More later.

Where have I been????

I have a been a bad blogger of late.  Between spraining my ankle and recovering from that and working, I have not been very motivated to sew until last week.

I cut out the Renfrew top and have finished it in time for the weekend Christmas time with family.
The fabric I used was a stretch velvet from Style Makers Fabric.  It was a lovely piece of fabric. Some small difficulties in cutting it out, sewing it was a breeze.  I mostly sewed it using the serger.  I even liked the selvage on this fabric so kept it intact to use somehow on something else.

I have a picture of the completed top on Instagram, user name is danvillegirl and you can see it on the blog under the Websta Widget on the right side.  I will post some photos of me wearing it soon.

I am not on vaca and holiday returning to work January 3!!!  Plenty of time to do some serious sewing.  I am going to put myself on a fabric and pattern buying sabbatical come the first of the year. I have more than enough of each to keep me going for sometime.

More later.

Current project

I am currently working on another Renfrew top from Sewaholic. This will be my fourth top using this pattern.  I have just about worn out my last one made about two years ago.

I am using this lovely velvet knit fabric from Style Maker Fabrics called Expresso. A very rich brown color.

It was an easier piece to cut out than I thought it would be and sewing so far has been good.  I am using my serger to complete most of the sewing since the top has all the fitting issues complete. That's the great thing about a TNT pattern.

I have tried to do a little sewing on it during spare moments before or after work.I have so many other projects that I want to start on after this one and not sure which one to do first.  I will have some vacation time the week after Christmas for more sewing.

Thanks for stopping by and always appreciate your comments and feedback!

Style Maker Fabrics

I found this site months ago while reading blogs and this was a new to me online store so of course paid it a visit.  I fell in love with this top and fabric at Style Maker Fabrics site.  I contemplated buying it several times and each time I put it in my cart I would then not make that final click to buy it.  I wanted to stay on my fabric diet.

Recently Style Maker Fabrics had a Spring Canvas Blog Tour that I learned about again from reading blogs of those who were part of the tour.  Since I had fallen off my fabric diet with two fabric purchases from The Fabric Market and I decided to take the plunge and purchase the lavender/pink/orangish fabric that I wanted to purchase since last year and purchased a textured knit that Sew Charleston posted about for the tour.

Here are the pictures of the two fabrics as promised in a previous post.