Time to Clean House

The amount of fabric just sitting in my sewing room in boxes is just a little overwhelming, so I'm cleaning out! Today is list all this fabric on ebay day. You won't find carefully crafted listings with detailed descriptions of all the fabric, just bulk "hope you like surprises cause I'm just gonna fill up a box and send it your way" type of listings. I have made some effort to divide the fabric up into type, at least... satin, heavy, solids, prints... you get the idea. I really don't care to make money on the stuff, I just feel the need to GET IT OUT!
Of course, I'm probably going to fill the void with some lovely new knit fabric soon. ;)
If your curious.... EBAY

Undaunted Sewing

I decided to get fearless and sew something for me. I've been following the Make It, Wear It series on Sew Mama Sew and decided to give a project a go. The Undaunted Top by JCasa looked just perfect!
Here are my thoughts on the whole thing:
First, this top makes me want to work on my arms. I try not to be hard on myself, but I've let some things go unchecked lately and I gotta quit that! I should have also made sure that I chose fabric that matches a camisole I already have. It really could use one underneath since the armholes are breezy.
About the pattern. It was super easy to follow and very forgiving. The original said it would fit a medium/large so I reduced the measurements on the pattern by 1 inch all the way around. After it was sewn, I curved in the sides about an inch or so more on either side (just eyeballed it). I also sewed the shoulder seams 3 inches instead of 4. That made the neck hang better I guess since I took in the measurements. I think if I were to make another, I would sew it all together and do the shirring last, or at least be more diligent about marking the shirring lines. You really can't tell when it's on, but the lines don't match up on the sides.
This was my first go at shirring. After a whole heck of a lot of trial and error, I found that the best way for me to get nice shirring was to wind the bobbin by machine and then set the tension pretty high. This is a knit fabric, so I also had to make sure I stretched it as it went through the machine. Once I figured it out it was easy peasey.
Anyway, thanks JCasa and SMS for the free pattern! I conquered my first top!