Easy rayon peasant top

So, my main idea for tops for spring is that they be loose, unstructured, and have interesting patterns. My friends and I were talking about our reluctance to start wearing the skinny jean. For one thing, we're not teenagers. I think they also come with a whole mess of fashion questions- namely, "what shoes go with that?" and "how do I cover the top part?" since that is not what I need people to see. The good part of the skinny jean thing is that I can taper my jeans that already have a little stretch, and I can then control the taper and they'll be long enough. I already like the part about the loose flowy top to go with. Here's one attempt at a top like that:
(I'm using an old seventies pattern for the peasant top, but you can find one in any pattern book these days. Just make sure the neckline is cut low enough- I don't see the point of the high neck.)

I have tried this peasant top in a printed light cotton and I find it sticks out a bit and really looks homemade. I much prefer a drapey rayon or something with a fluid hand. In addition, I recommend adding some fullness by laying both the front and back pattern pieces a few inches away from the fold in order to have a few more inches to gather in to the top. If your fabric is drapey enough, this does not look bulky and actually builds in a few more vertical folds to fall from a nice low neckline. this is one quick sew up and that is satifying. It allows you to just buy cool fabric and work it up. I'm going to do a few more, if I can find the right fabric.

Inspiration for new tops

I wanted to show some fabrics I've obtained recently from the thrift store that are soon to become garments. The multicolored stripe on the left is a cotton tablecloth that will be made into a blouse and the fine poly (with a very silky hand) on the right will become a dress made from a vintage 40's pattern.

Below I show some crocheted and tatted pieces as well as some lace. I got these at the most recent Nearly New Sale at GBMC here in Baltimore. This sale takes place twice a year (Spring and Fall) and is an enormous tag sale. It's such fun. If you're around here and like vintage or digging through junk, do go.
Most of this lace will end up on the front of blouses. Stay tuned.

Below I show how I have used crocheted pieces and cross-stitched bird (thrifted) to liven up some blouses I've made. I don't have the crochet skills or the time, but I love the look of handwork and the delicate quality of the lace, so if I find a good deal on it, I buy it and design a top around it. I find if you seal the edges in seam binding and hand tack the rest to the shirt, it works well. Hope you find this inspiring.

More quilt talk and one of my own (a start)

So, I got started on this quilt, after seeing one with this pattern from 1875 in a book. It's called Windmill Blades. I just wanted to figure out how to do it, so I started. It's working, even without a pattern to follow, but it's so time consuming! I keep thinking, "I could have made three shirts by now!" Anyhow, I'm not quilting it. It's going on the wall, so it will just be pieced (if I manage to stay with it).

I include a bit more from The Quilters. Women and Domestic Art. An Oral History by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Buford (p. 39):
"My husband tells about the time he got sick with the measles. He was six years old. His mother set him to piecing a quilt and every other block he set in red polka-dot pattern. Said it was his measles quilt. He wouldn't like me to tell it now I know. But lots of cold nights when I'm at the quiltin' frame on one side of the fire, he pulls his big old chair up on the other side and cuts pieces for me. He's even done a bit of piecin' from time to time.
It's a sight, that big old long-legged man with his boot toes turned in to make a lap to do his piecework on.
We've got a fair long road from the highway and three loud dogs out there. They all always sound off when somebody turns up our road. And let me tell you, he can git rid of that work quicker that a gnat can bat an eye, when those dogs commence to barkin'.
Plumb tickles me."

Aren't these women fantastic? and funny?

Second Sunday Market Score

Ok. So, the second Sunday of each month, if you go to Fells Point in Baltimore, to the open space on Broadway, you will find the cutest little antique/vintage flea market.

http://www.preservationsociety.com/secondsunday2010.html

Here are my scores from Mother's day. They also have vendors with great jewelry and a guy who sells shells and fossils and shark's teeth. He and my three year old are getting to be best buds. He is very sweet about running back to his truck to haul out new fossils and megalodon teeth for my little guy to see. It is so fun. Make a morning of it and have croissant and cappucino at Napoleon's across the street. It was a very fun Mother's day. Thank you to my two boys.

Selection from The Quilters

Hey there. Just wanted to share an image of a quilt from the thirties that I have hanging in my bedroom.

And a bit from an interview with a Texas quiltmaker:

"Mama was a beautiful quilter. She done the best work in the county. Everybody knew it. She never let anybody else touch her quilts; and sometimes when she was through quiltin' for the day on a job that she liked a lot herself, she would pin a cloth over the top of the quilt so nobody could look at it until she was done.
I always longed to work with her and I can tell you how plain I recall the day she said, "Sarah, you come quilt with me now if you want to."
I was too short to sit in a chair and reach it, so I got my needle and thread and stood beside her. I put that needle through and pulled it back up again, then down, and my stitches were about three inches long. Papa came in about that time, he stepped back and said, "Florence that child is flat ruinin' your quilt."
Mama said, "She's doin' no kind of a thing. She's quiltin' her first quilt."
He said, "Well, you're jest goin' to have to rip it all out tonight."
Mama smiled at me and said, "Them stitches is going to be in that quilt when it wears out."
All that time they was talkin' my stitches was gettin' shorter.
That was my first quilt. I have it still to look at sometimes."

From: Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Buferd. The Quilters.Women and Domestic Art. Doubleday&Company, Inc. 1978

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

www.sheepandwool.org
Oh, man. this weekend was our first time. If you haven't been and have kids and are from Maryland, you must go next year! So much fun! Here are the things my three year old got to see: just about every breed of sheep (shown 4H state fair style), border collie herding demonstrations, the entire process of sheering, carding, spinning and weaving, clothing and blankets made from wool fabric. Also, if you are a weaver or handworker (crochet, knit, etc.) it is Utopia. Beautiful things and gigantic festival. Oh, and free. you cannot beat it.

et voila; Smocktop

See below for brief tutorial. i'd be happy to answer any questions if you're trying this at home. I'm pretty happy with the neckline and the loose fit of the top. With short sleeves, it will be nicer for summer.