New Fabric!

(I wrote this post last week, but it didn't make sense to put it up until I had talked about my sewing plans. I was considering putting it up later in the week, but I have something else planned for Friday. So I decided to do a double post today. Enjoy!)

One of my favorite local fabric shops is having a big sale right now. I love Nancy's, but rarely get fabric there because their fabrics are super nice, but not exactly budget friendly in a lot of cases (and I have a talent for zeroing in on the expensive stuff)! For the next two weeks they are having their anniversary sale and ALL fabric is 25% off. Since their sales are practically non-existent, I had to take advantage of this one! Luckily, I've been saving my spending money!

So I went down to the store last week on the first day of the sale and scored some great fabrics for my fall wardrobe refashion sewing. I found some lovely fabric for Ceylon and Rooibos, which you saw in my previous post. 

And I found this!

I saw them just as I was about to have everything cut and get out of there before I did more damage to my budget. Too late! I saw these and I couldn't pass up their awesome nerdiness! I am making up new bibs for Sebastian with both of these, but even with only buying half a yard, I'll still have plenty left over. I'll have to figure out something to do with the rest because these were just too cute to pass up! 
 
After all, who doesn't love PacMan? Or colorful and nerdy Space Invader fabric??

Since they're so quick and easy, I've already finished one bib and started on the other. Here is the completed Space Invader bib being put to good use:

That fabric is so fun! Now I can't wait to start sewing up my clothes!

A Trip to the Fair

Last weekend we went to the fair. I love going each year and this year was great, as usual. Since Sebastian is only taking one big nap in the middle of the day now, our visit was short, so we had to prioritize: animals, agriculture exhibits and food. There is more that I like to see, but we did the best we could in three hours and we definitely hit my favorite parts. I thought I would share some of our pictures:

Fabric: Ceylon and Rooibos

Just a quick post here, but I wanted to follow up with pictures of my new fabric for Ceylon and Rooibos. 

For Rooibos I decided on this great teal oxford cotton. It has white threads on the warp and teal on the weft. It makes for a cool muted teal color that is brought out by the teal poplin contrast lining and piping that I bought. Although it's an inexpensive cotton poly blend, I just love the crisp, smooth feel of the poplin. I kind of want to make an entire dress out of that, but it wouldn't do much to keep me warm! 

For Ceylon I bought this beautiful yellow cotton. I love the stripes with the tiny flower cut outs. It's semi sheer however, so I'm going to underline it with something. I would like to make it warmer to increase the amount of time I'll be able to wear it as the weather turns. I read a Threads article that recommended flannelette for that purpose, but I've never actually seen that in a store, so I'm not sure if it would be too thick for this dress and create strangeness. If so, I'll likely use a cotton batiste, which would have a similar drape. I will definitely have to experiment beforehand to figure out what I want to do. 

So much for my plan of getting wool for one or both of these dresses! In any case, I'm getting to work. I used Sebastian's nap time today to trace and cut out my Rooibos muslin. Now to stitch it up!

Okay! It's finally done! My Fall Fashion Overhaul epic-planning phase is finally finished. I kept going back and forth on color palette. At first I just loved this palette (I call it Fall In Paris) based on the picture below:

However, once I got to the fabric store, I realized I wasn't finding many fabrics that worked with the palette. The more I got to thinking about it, the less sure I was that I would be comfortable wearing those colors. I love the mustard and poppy red, but I couldn't see them as more than highlights in my wardrobe. A mustard cardigan here. A red necklace or skirt there. For an entire dress or tunic and pants? I know I'd feel self-conscious while wearing it, even if it did look good and the whole point is to feel comfortable with what I'm wearing to help express what is on the inside. So I decided to move on and went with this palette instead:

In the end, I'm so much happier with it. These are colors I already love and gravitate towards - plus I found fabrics that worked with the palette! I'll try to get pictures of those up very soon.

Thirty for Thirty

In 13 more days I turn 30. As in 30 years old. Three-zero. Holy cow. That's big! So big that I keep vacillating between panicking about feeling like all my fun, carefree days are behind me and being totally relaxed about the whole age thing. Whichever mood I'm in at the moment, I have also felt the need to do something out of the ordinary to mark the occasion. Something fun for sure, but also something meaningful. I loved Joy's idea of doing 30 things by her 30th birthday, so I'm borrowing the idea for myself and I've come up with my own list. I thought I would share:

I have been scouring the interwebs like crazy this week looking for inspiration for my wardrobe refashion. The fact that Colette Patterns also posted the beginning of their Fall Palette Challenge, which I had also planned on entering, has also spurred on my frenzy. I really want to make some serious progress on deciding what I will make, with what patterns, and what color palette I will use. I feel like I've been dragging this out since I started it, but I've also been working on it pretty steadily. This part feels especially difficult because I just can't seem to get enough computer time to do what I need to. Sebastian is pretty adamant about trying to pull out my laptop's power cord, smashing the keyboard and yanking back the screen. Makes it pretty hard to browse the internet unless he's napping! 

In any case, I've been playing with Pinterest, ColourLovers, and Polyvore. I still don't feel like I have a finalized plan, but I thought I would share some of my inspiration with you. I feel like I'm almost there. Just a little more tweaking and playing with colors. Then sit down and make some decisions!

Back to inspiration!

Camping in the Olympics

A good friend and I went camping in Olympic National Park this weekend. It was the first time I've been away from Sebastian overnight since he was born, so I was excited, but nervous. I did miss him, but it was great. It's been 2 years since I went camping last and I love going. We left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday evening. We had long ferry waits, pretty drives, singing in the car, scary guardrail challenged mountain hugging roads, fun chatter around the campfire, 2 great hikes, beautiful star strewn night skies, gorgeous scenery, and fabulous, sunny weather! What a great weekend! 

I thought I'd share some pictures with you. 

As we drove to our campground on Friday evening, we had lovely sunset views overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca. What an awesome drive.