*yawn*

I have been experiencing a lull in my sewing enthusiasm this week, so I don't have any exciting progess or new projects to show you all. Sorry 'bout that! To make up for it, here is a picture of my horse. Enjoy!

Brave.

Have you seen it yet? It was not what I expected at all, in surprising and wonderful ways. I'll not spoil it for you by going on about it here -- other than to say I was eyeballing Merida and Elinor's dresses so much that my fingers were itching for a sketchpad.  Pixar does such an excellent job of making the fabrics look real -- I could feel the weight and hand of Elinor's green layered outfit, and the pale blue outfit they put on Merida for meeting her prospective suitors --- the one with the wide gold band with jewels?-- "Wowzers Mctavish!" as Greg Proops would say.

Now, you guys have been so nice to come check out my blog. I really appreciate your interest in my projects. So I have a little present for y'all. After you've seen Brave, and you are itching to make Merida's dress for yourself, you can scoot to this page and scroll about halfway down and there you will find -- TA-DAH! *cymbal crash*-- the actual pattern for the dress. It will need some adjustments to fit a real person -- you know, unless you have a skinny little waist, a super long torso, and a back porch to make Sir Mix-a-Lot sing-- but seriously: the fact that the Pixar people needed to make a pattern in order to computer-animate the dress to look right simply astounds me. And and and if you know a person who wonders what they can be when they grow up, you can always mention that Pixar needs seamstresses to help with their animated costume department -- and I know that sounds like I'm joking but I'm not.

Okay, there's your treat for the weekend. Now I gotta go. I need to go see if any of my thrift stores have a couple yards of heavy blue silk.

Hmmmm...

I need a lighting box or something, I guess. Every picture I take these days seems to bend my subject's colors. Here's Dave's shirt -- the 3-Day Shirt, remember? -- pretending to be a very grape-y purple. But what I'm showing off isn't the color anyway. It's the silver embroidery that I've started on the neckline. How fancy will it get? Who knows! Stay tuned for further developments...

Dave's bag

Dave's jealous of my bag, so now I'm making one for him. It's almost time for work, so here's a quick picture of what I've come up with. It's a scribe, but as a silly little nod to Dave's job in a government office, the scribe has a little mouse in his hand.

Here's the thing: The shirt would have been done last night except that I had forgotten that we were going to see Prometheus after I got home from the stable. So the time I had planned to be sewing was spent nestled into a plush reclining theater seat with a bucket of Diet Coke and an industrial barrel of kettlecorn. I actually brought the shirt along and tried to stitch during the previews, but it's really dark once they turn out the lights. (Imagine that!)

Then as we were driving home from the movies, we decided that spending the following afternoon at an outdoor fair when the forecast was calling for clouds and showers did not sound like a fun plan. Instead we spent the day in Seattle, mooching around the EMP Museum of music, sci fi, and pop culture and eating PF Chang's and gelato. It was good fun and absolutely awesome to spend time with Dave. 

But Wenny! I can hear you saying, What about the 3-Day Shirt and all your bragging? You've really let us down. We had faith in you! 

Oh, get a life. Once I get done picking the popcorn hulls out of my molars, I'll finish that last seam and post pics  for y'all. I like my sewing hobby, but I also know that it's not the biggest priority I have in my life. And besides, it's not like Dave needed it to wear to the event today, after all. 

Getting shirty?

A 3-day shirt is a doddle. I cut the pieces on Tuesday night, hemstitched all the pieces last night, and at lunch today I faced the neckline and pieced the collar. It's pinned in place now, and tonight all I have to do is stitch it on. Then I'll sew the sleeves to the body and stitch up the sides. Three eyelets on the neckline and a quick braided lace, and Dave shall have a fine new shirt for Honey War. Here's some pictures of progress:

The sleeves and body cut and hemmed.
Goodness, my flash makes this fabric look very, very pink!
It's actually a maroon color, you'll see!

Here you can see the neck facing and the collar pinned on. 

This linen has a very shiny treatment on it that will disappear with the first wash. But Wenny, I hear you saying, Aren't you supposed to wash your yardage before you start making something with it? Isn't that like one of the big rules?

Hush you. This is linen. It won't shrink. It'll be fine. And if it isn't, then lesson learned for me, and a chance to be smug for you.

Next!

Honey War is this weekend and as usual, I have left it to the last minute to realize that while I have many pretty new things to wear and show off, my indulgent husband does not. Poor Dave! Readers of my blog will remember that in the past, I made a new kirtle for myself in a week. Let's see if I can make a new linen shirt for   Dave by Saturday morning.

I have chosen a few yards of wine-colored linen from my stash. I'm using my usual "Dave shirt" pattern for a collared tunic that isn't exactly 14th century, but we both like the look of it. Besides, Dave has never chosen a persona, and his taste in dress leans towards the fanciful, and I am also indulgent in my own way. He has said some silver embroidery on the collar and cuffs would be nice, and I hope to have time enough to accommodate that wish.

Last night I ironed the cloth and cut out the pattern pieces. Today I will turn and press the seams and hand stitch them. I can probably get all the pieces done by tonight, and maybe even start stitching them together. Pictures to follow -- stay tuned!

Done!

I finished my bag, just in time for Honey War next weekend. There's just one problem: I want to wear it and use it, but I also want to enter it in the Arts & Sciences competition. Dilemma! I guess I could enter it and just make do without it for the few hours it would be on display.

While I've done all I planned to on this bag as far as embroidery and embellishments, I like that there is still plenty of room on it if I decide to do more work. Already I am thinking that a motto in Latin would look good in the border space at the bottom. We'll see.