Burda 6990 top repeat and sunny San Diego

Last week I spent some time in San Diego for business meetings, unrelated to sewing but I managed to fit some sewing in anyway. Since Elizabeth of Sewn blog is now a west coast girl and the only person I know in San Diego these days, I contacted her to see if she wanted to get together for some in person sewing counsel :) and she said Yes! We met last year at the Pattern Review weekend in San Francisco and have been talking and emailing ever since.

We spent a great afternoon going through patterns, fabric, checking out some of her previous makes, helping her with some fitting woes, convincing her to ditch a pattern that was trouble with a capital T, taught her a few little tricks and then we went out for a fantastic dinner. The margaritas were great, the sunsets are lovely in that part of the state and as you can see in this photo the bougainvillea is beautiful (the rose colored vine above me). It is blooming everywhere there, and hard to grow here as it gets a bit too hot and dry in my part of the bay area, although I see it in San Francisco - closer to the coast with more moisture.

I have been swamped with projects recently so have not been doing much sewing that is interesting or blog worthy however I did manage to make another raglan sleeve T-shirt using the Burda 6990 pattern I made a few weeks ago.  I got this fabric recently from Girl Charlee, my new favorite place for knits. It is a rayon jersey. 

I know you will ask so I will show you the side view, the pattern is on the fabric so I did not do anything other than cut it out. This is the second zig-zaggy stripe fabric I have used from Girl Charlee and I really like them. I couldn't really match the stripes as they don't go all the way around but I could get the thin and thick strip motifs to match up reasonably well, just so it didn't look completely crazy.

And a close up so you can see the colors.  I love this fabric and fear I will order any wacky stripe they put up on their site. How many do I need?  Oh well, it makes a change from my excessive use of turquoise, right?

Up next, I have a yearning to make a seersucker blazer for spring, something in a light color which I can photograph and show all the details on collar, lapels, etc.  I have done a number of jackets but I am always slightly annoyed when I take photos and the sewing details disappear due to a dark color.

Plus I have a few examples stockpiled so will finally get around to a fitting post I have been saying I would do for a while: on bodice length. Stay tuned!

Happy Sewing,  Beth

SunnyGal garden photo: my tulips are done for spring but I did snap this one before the petals fell. I bought a few bags of bulbs at the dollar store and was amazed at the results, mixed colors and new shapes. I find plant possibilities everywhere!  good thing they don't sell fabric.