Glanalaw - delighting in pure song

I missed out taking WIFD photos yesterday - sorry! And I'm not sure I'll get to them today either. You see, tomorrow I leave for another year of college, 12 hours and about 700 miles from home. Which means that when we drive away tomorrow, my whole life has to be in the car - books, clothes, music, kitchen stuff, sewing and knitting supplies... everything I'll need for the next 9 months or so. And this being me (Procrastinator Extraordinaire) I neglected to start packing until this morning. (Feel free to insert incredulous laughter and copious scolding, here... I'm sure I deserve them.) Anyway, it's going fairly well, I suppose. All the clothes and books and bedding and kitchen odds and ends are packed up (along with a sampling of home-made jams), and I'm down to sorting through my yarn stash to decide what I'm taking, and rounding up the odds and ends in some semblance of order. That's always the part that takes longest, though. I was going for dow...

Today was a going-out day; we made a stop at IKEA on the way to the airport to pick up my brother, who has been in Arizona with relatives for the last two months. Boy, was it good to see him! He hove into view looking like the stereotypical beach boy... cargo pants, loose, brightly-patterned shirt (untucked), his hair shoulder-length and topped with a backwards baseball cap, and very "cool" sunglasses. My little brother's getting all growed up! But he's still the same David - silly jokes, unique mannerisms, charming smile and all. I'm glad to get him back! Here are photos of the day's outfits for Kate and me! My skirt is a $2 find from Salvation Army this week, but the tag says Covington. It's a wee bit on the short side for someone of my stature, but I really love it - I just wear shorts underneath. Kate's shirt is a hand-me-down; the tag says "Wayne Diamonds Designs". Her skirt, also a hand-me-down, is minus the tag so I can't h...

Well, yesterday I didn't take pictures, and anyway I just wore jeans, but today I took double-duty photos! Double-duty, because they are both photos of what I wore today, and documentation of another newly-completed sewing project! (Please excuse the photo quality; I can't find my camera charger and my mother's was objecting to the dusky lighting outside.) Here it is: Simplicity 4086, view B, in a lovely, slightly stretchy denim. I flat-felled all the seams and topstitched in a tan thread, so it has a "storebought" look, but nicer! It fastens with pewter buttons and is very comfortable and fun to wear. About the rest of my outfit, for the WIFD: I wore a black knit shirt from Old Navy (a size small, but strangely it fits me!) over a camisole from Kohls; the sweater is a garage sale find, perfect for cool summer evenings as it's mainly openwork, and the sandals (which I shed to climb our apple tree) are from Sketchers; I bought them on sale this summer for a...

This being the first day of the "Week In Feminine Dress" over at the S&S forums, I thought I'd get in on the fun and post some pictures here! Here's the dress I wore today: Vintage Vogue #2858 in $1.50/yard navy crepe from Wal-Mart. I made it up a few weeks ago and despite having to size the pattern up it went together like a dream. I love it! It's a 1944 pattern and it just cried for a hat. A couple weeks ago when this first photo was taken I wore an old hat of my grandmother's - probably circa 1950, although I'm no judge of hats. This one's actually from today, again with a hat! This one I made myself, with leftovers of the dress fabric and using a Vogue pattern. It was quite a challenge - buckram is quite interesting to work with! - but I got through it and I love it. My only disappointment is that this style of hat does not look good with straight hair. And mine is certainly not naturally curly. So I take advantage of the days when I sl...

I find I've been quite lax in posting lately, for which I apologise!  I have, however, been busy in other ways, so I have several sewing projects to share with you over the next few days (whenever I can find my camera battery charger so I can upload photos!)  My 1830s stays are all but finished (must sand the busk and stitch the openings for it and the two back stays), and I have a lovely 1940s dress to share as well. I also spent a good part of yesterday and today cleaning, tidying, sorting and organising my bedroom, and I'm SO pleased with it now!  It's been terribly untidy all summer - I got home from college, half-way unpacked, got distracted and never finished, so it's been full of piles and half-emptied boxes and clutter all summer.  It's so nice to have the floor free, the tables and my sewing machine clear, and everything in place again! So - I hope to upload some photos of my latest projects over this weekend.  I'll try to be more regular in posting in ...