Ruching and Roses

Yesterday was so beautiful you could almost believe spring had really arrived. Today looks more like December outside. Beautiful puffy snowflakes flying around, decorating the trees with lacy white patterns. As one of nature's last hurrahs, we know that this snow will be gone just as fast as warm cookies in a kitchen full of teenagers as soon as the temperature turns.

Cold snowy weather makes for a perfect excuse to stay inside watching Nascar racing and sewing my first stash pattern.

McCalls 6205 version B is traced off and waiting for me to decide do I want to use blue chiffon? Or brown chiffon? Do I want to make my own lace or use something I already have? I've already modified the back and sleeve to make this ...

This is the backside sketch of a top I saw online. I'm not going to even mention how much they wanted for this simple top. With this pattern stash challenge, I am also going to work at using fabrics already in my fabric stash as well.

I am thinking I might want to work up some lace with butterflies making it unique. I have a large collection of vintage and new lace that I can piece together and add custom bits from my embroidery machine, or use some of it's quilting stitches to sew them together.

I'm also going to place a pocket onto the front to hold my cell phone. This is one of the best things about sewing for yourself. First you can adjust the pattern as needed to fit and, second, you can customize for features you need. For me, a cell phone pocket is a necessity.

I have never quite understood why so many women's clothing lines are designed without pockets? Where are you supposed to carry your phone? A couple coins for the vending machine? Or even just a pen? I don't want to carry my purse everywhere!

Not that I dislike my purse. I made this for another Pattern Review contest making purses. I got a couple votes besides my own, which is awesome. I was thrilled to complete the purse in time to post my review in the contest.

Here's one of my favorite features. Perfect size pocket to hold medications that I need to take with me all the time. I love how the selvage made a perfect fringe around the pocket facing.

I also used the selvage to trim the facing of the pocket on the other side. It's just the perfect size to hold my cell phone, address book and pens, while I can put my wallet in the middle and still have room to carry a magazine or other paperwork.

Now, looks like I'd better get the dough made for my pizza for dinner. I'm sure there are recipes for this, but I'm just going to wing it. How hard could it be to make a Rueben pizza? I'm thinking Thousand Island on the bottom, drained sauerkraut sprinkled over the top, then maybe a little swiss cheese, a layer of corned beef, then more swiss cheese, baked at 350 degrees F for about 18 minutes or so until hot and bubbly.

Sounds pretty good, now to just remember to take pictures!

Laura