My Blog-Friends are Awesome!

How cool is this?? A great blog-friend of mine, Skitzo Leezra sent me stuff! A GORGEOUS cream suiting with navy stripes:


Can't you just see it as a pencil skirt? With a navy blazer with piping? Oh-so-very nautical!!

You must go check out Leezra's blog, she has the most awesome ideas for organizing, craft projects, sewing projects, jewelry....one of my favorites is this necktie flower....add a pin and use it as a brooch! After reading that blog post, I immediately hit the goodwill in search of neckties!! You can use the ends for your brooch, and I read in another blog that you can use the interfacing inside neckties for sleeve heads.

But, the fact that Leezra would send me this awesome fabric brings me to another point...isn't the internet a wonderful thing?? I know that among my friends and colleagues, that I am the only person that sews. But, out here in the "virtual" world, I am one of many. And I have been able to make friends with so many people with so much information to offer.

Thanks to the resources and experiences that people post out here on blogs, on places like Pattern Review, Craftster, and Stitcher's Guild, I have seen examples of amazing creativity and received support from so many people which has resulted in advancing my skills.

Before I found these places, I was content to simply follow pattern instructions, and turn out the occasional interesting garment. But now....I have been encouraged to make significant alterations, draft my own patterns, venture into the world of vintage patterns, franken-pattern, and I have started collecting (and even repairing!) vintage machines.

I can honestly say that my sewing skills have leapt forward thanks to these resources, and incredible levels of creativity out there. And I would like to thank everyone (and especially Leezra, who gives me stuff!!) for their encouragement, even when they might not know that they have provided their resources to a faithful lurker!

And don't forget, check out Leezra'a blog!!

In other news, I spent way too much money at the fabric store today. Wait...that's not news! That's just a Saturday! Anyway, I went to one of our nicer, independent stores looking for buttons for my jacket-in-progress. They were $4.00 apiece, but I found some really nice buttons for the jacket. They are flat copper/glittery with a slight texture:


Since I got the boucle at the $1.95 a yard sale at Fabric.com, the buttons actually cost MORE than the entire rest of the jacket!! I also needed to get some small, round buttons for the back of the neck on the shell. I found these apricot-color pearls. They are lying on top of the silk, which I washed and it now has a wonderful drape and the iridescence is not so pronounced:


Even though the store that I went to largely caters to quilters and home dec, they also have a small section of apparel fabric, and luck! I found stretch denim in a color that I really liked, and at only $6.00 a yard, is comparable to the prices at Fabric.com and Fashion Fabric Club (neither of which have stretch denim in stock right now):


Now I can make my Jalie jeans! And everyone knows that I can never pass up the sale table. I found this eyelet with black embroidery for just $4.00 a yard:


Overall, a good day's work! Now I need to do some sample buttonholes before attacking the jacket.