Are You Ready for Some OONAPALOOZA!?

Twitter and myself have struck again. Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow and caretaker of our Sewcialist blog footed the question "What should our next color theme be?" and when there was some back and forth I tweeted:

What about #OONAPALOOZA?

And everyone, including the Diva Herself said HECK YEAH OONAPALOOZA!!  So this month of July up to August 1rst, Oona is your inspiration. Post your makes in the Sewcialists Flickr Group. Challenge yourself to sew with bright colors and wild prints, make it in something that you've always wanted to try but were afraid of what people might think. And if you find yourself dizzy from the choices, do what Oona does and grab a cocktail and tackle that apprehension with boozy glee.

 If you don't know who Oona is, then you are missing out! Head over to her blog here and lurk her closet here. Here are a few of my favorites.

That's a BHL Victoria Blazer with the most awesome of maxi dresses.

Feather skirt. NEED I SAY MORE?

I've got a few ideas brewing in my head, please tell me yours!

This November

Hey y'all, what's going on in your world? We heading into what I call "The Holiday Season" where there's lost of present making, giving, receiving, food galore, and no small amount of stress that comes with it all. Which is why I'm here to let y'all know of some Goings Ons around Teh Interwebs while I procrastinate cleaning and cooking so you can be in the know too!

First and foremost, I would like to announce that the Sewcialist's Movement now has its very own blog! We hope to eventually embed it within sewcialists.org to compliment some other exciting developments in the works, but for now you can find it in the Firehose aggregater. Have you signed up to be added yet?

Also, as had been bantered around on social media, people seemed to like the idea of having a color theme every two months. Probably because its super laid back and also narrows down your choices of "What do I make now?". Well, if you want to participate and it is still a Red Themed Month (which goes through November, FYI), now you've got your stash narrowed down to a less overwhelming choice. Am I right? I know I am, because that's got to be why so many of you participated in #SewRedOctober! Keep 'em comin' folks! We're posting a second round up of separates and then try to do again at the end of November. Our next color theme is #SewGreenDecember and February is up for suggestions.

Up next is our Grunge Sew Along. Yours truly will be doing an inspiration post soon on the Sewcialists blog to help you get inspired. There was a lot more depth to this than most people think, and a lot of it was rooted in music. I'll save the rest for that post, but I created a pandora station which you can listen to here.

I think that's it for the community participation projects now. I'm finished with my big secret sewing project and can now move on to the holiday sewing. I also have a huge back log of projects to photograph. As I stated in my last post, my life has been a whirlwind of doctors and tests. I have a few more things to get checked but the treatments for my back has improved my pain by about 50%. It takes a bit more to trigger break-through pain but I find my strength and stamina has not caught up yet. I learned the hard way I couldn't dive in head first. Lesson learned, so I'm back to slow and steady.

So what is everyone working on now? Are you planning on making gifts for the holidays? Traveling? Hiding in your blanket fort? I'm thinking of constructing a blanket fort around my sewing area and hanging a "Do Not Disturb" sign. Or maybe just turn off every electronic thing I own and read all day in bed. I deserve some rest!

Everything Old is New Again

I found this gorgeous silk at Gail K's some ages ago and there was maybe 1.3 yards of it left. I was trying, for the life of me, to find SOMETHING I could make out of it. The only pattern was this silk tank/blouse thing from an old McCalls pattern (#4525 image here) that was floating around in my stash. I had to do a full bust mod, and also widen the back a bit as it is non stretch and its gotta go over the girls. The fabric is scrumptious and drape-y enough that it hangs beautifully, but I really prefer it tucked into my vogue skirt. I even made my own bias binding! Happy day!(see, bias binding)

I wore this to work with a RTW jacket I've had in my closet for a while now. It matches the skirt quite well. I got tons of compliments on the outfit, which made me very happy. Of course its always nice when people appreciate the things you work hard on. And this particular item has been in "the works" for weeks. Maybe months. Well since before Mom had to go into... yeah. Lets not talk about that, k?

A few notes; 1) I'm wearing shoes I JUST got in the mail. Those are not the ones I bought at work, but I heart them much. Now that I can wear heals again I seam to be on a shoe-buying binge. 2) I'm also wearing my favorite pair of tights that have polkadots (click to make bigger). Though I fear they are at the end of their life. The necklace is thrifted.


I'm not really sure what the blog title has to do with this, maybe the pattern being old and making something fun and fresh out of it? Or maybe a reference to spring? You decide. In the meantime, all ya'll northerners get a view of my lovely azaleas! Its springtime here, ya'll!
P.S. Oh Oh! I just have to edit one more thing in. I used some of the ancient cotton thread my Mom gave me that she got from somewhere else. I found out if I took off the top layer its JUST FINE to use. This meant I didn't have to go out and BUY thread. SCORE!

Another Sew-A-Long

That's right boys and girls, I'm doing another sew-a-long. But not to make it a crazy thing, I'm working on one of the projects I had chosen for my Spring Palette Challenge. Since Spring in the Western Hemisphere is not technically over until June 21rst, I'm going to say that the Spring Challenge is still ON.

So I've signed up for Pattern~Scissors~Cloth RTW Tailoring Sew-A-Long. My chosen project will be Newlook 6564. Though I haven't quite decided WHICH view I want to do. I have plenty of my "wearable muslin" fabric in black (pictured above) for View C, but my floral linen I may only have enough for View D. I'm not doing ruffles. No, instead I am going to be making piping out of the green crepe pictured to the far right.

I'm leaning toward View C due to the fact that, given my shape and size, it will be much more flattering for my figure. Any thoughts or comments from the peanut gallery(I mean that in the most loving way possible)?

Stay tuned for my silk tank top (almost done!) and my Vintage Sewalong (I can see the light at the end of the tunnel).