For quite awhile the Simplicity 3835 Built By Wendy pattern has been quite popular. If you don’t believe me, check out Flickr. Just search Built By Wendy 3835. After two unsuccessful attempts at the shirt pattern (due to my attempts at altering the pattern without any forethought), I decided to follow the directions this time and make the dress. Lesson learned: Just follow the directions next time. The dress turned out a million times better than either of the shirts, which means it didn’t go directly into the garbage before it was finished.

I used a linen/rayon blend from Jo-Ann’s. Basically, I chose a linen blend so it didn’t have to be dry cleaned. No since in that. I added a contrast band to the bottom out of Amy Butler’s lime full moon dot from the Lotus collection. I cut out view B of the pattern from my main fabric, traced the bottom (view A) for the contrast band and it worked perfectly. Originally I was going to put a trim of the lime polka dot on the sleeves, but that turned out to be a less than fun idea. Thus, I have boring sleeves. I know, the horror!

The upsides, this pattern is pretty simple to follow. The only difficult part comes with the gathering, as I had problems with my thread breaking. Thank heavens for the internet. I used this tutorial from The Digital Thermos, and I found that her suggestion of gathering at each seam worked better for me. Also, I didn’t like the overlapping zipper idea, and went for an invisible zipper instead. I used this handy tutorial from Etsy Labs for inserting an invisible zipper, as this was only my third zipper and my first attempt at an invisible zipper.

Overall I’m very pleased with this dress. I read numerous reviews about the tightness of the sleeves in this pattern, so I chose to go with a size up from what I thought I needed. Well, I think the dress fits well through the shoulders but needs to be a bit smaller through the body. If I make this again, I’ll probably make it a bit more fitted through the sides so it looks more dress-like and less potato sack like.

I’m still amazed that I’ve had this much time to sew with my Wee One here.

In other lameness, you’ve seen the Bengals pre-season, right? Ugh. Thankfully the Olympics spared me from that tragedy. I mean, when one chooses to watch synchronized swimming and men’s platform diving it says a lot about the state of affairs with one’s football teams. I mean they brought back Chris Henry for pity’s sake! This can only mean one thing, Go Dolphins!

The fabric I used for the exterior was a green heather floral by Waverly, which I purchased at Hancock’s during a sale for about $5 a yard. The only other place I’ve seen it is at Warm Biscuit, where you can purchase your own for $30 a yard. *Warning* I don’t recall seeing “dry clean only” on the fabric bolt, however this fabric faded a bit when I washed it. Who knows. For the lining I used more of the leftover slipcover in beige canvas. Reusing fabric items is my version of recycling. This pattern calls for an 18″ zipper, however I could only find a 22″ zipper in the color I needed. I ended up thinking that even 18″ was too long, and cut my zipper down to 16″ when it was all said and done. This pattern calls for only 1/4″ seam allowance, as opposed to the general 5/8″ standard seam allowance. This tends to annoy some people, I don’t really care. I chose not to use the interlining for this bag, and it turned out just fine. Also, the directions call for leaving a hole on the side of the lining and turning, I chose to leave my hole at the top of the bag since the directions call for topstitching at the end anyways.

The only difficult things in this pattern involved the vague instructions for sewing in the zipper. Basically there’s a diagram, and if you’re like me and have only put in one zipper before in your life, you might find this step difficult. Usually a pattern calls for basting and then inserting the zipper under the basting. NOT HERE! You just line it up and sew it down. I chose to baste the zipper down, then sew. Also, sewing the bottom of the bag to the two side pieces was not as easy as I had hoped it would be, so I ended up basting the bottom to the sides to hold it together, then sewing. It worked for me.

Wait, where’s The Bus?

Speaking of really stupid quarterback choices, what is wrong with Pittsburgh? I mean, besides that it is Pittsburgh. With Charlie Batch injured, they felt the need to sign a new back up for that fat kid from Findlay. So they chose…Byron Leftwich? They could’ve had Daunte Culpepper, who admittedly has gone downhill in the last few seasons, at least he can move without breaking his ankle. Even Atlanta didn’t want Byron Leftwich? Lame Pittsburgh, way lame.

Did you hear in Baltimore they played Michael Phelps final race after the Ravens pre-season game vs the Vikings? Well of course they did. Ravens fans don’t have anything else to cheer for! It’s pretty sad when you’re at a football game and something on TV is much more exciting. The media is bashing Troy Smith by the way, about an apparently lack luster performance. It was on par with Kyle Boller. I thought Kyle-bot’s experience was supposed to lead them to the promised land? Trust me on this, go with Troy Smith and forget Kyle ever happened.

And about those Olympics, what’s going on in gymnastics scoring? In what planet is it ok for someone to have two terrible landings and win a gold medal?

So I’ve been quite absent from blogging lately due to the arrival of my daughter, Elise, on July 10. A surprise induction really fit in well with my birth plan of “wingin’ it”. She is totally worth going an entire day without eating and being awake for almost 26 hours (no, I was NOT in labor that long, I just didn’t get any sleep the night before).

With the fast approaching football season, I have plenty to blog about today. First, let’s talk about Fav-Ray. Couldn’t he just go out on top of his career and be happy? Seriously, he’s just a pest at this point! Do you think Aaron Rogers is ready to Tonya Harding the old unicorn yet? Personally, I think the Packers should let him go…right to the Bears. Only because it would be fantastic to watch Brett take over for Rex and Kyle, who are the most arrogant quarterbacks in the NFL….and they are both terrible. Speaking of terrible quarterbacks, is J.P. Losman still crying?

Reason # 518 why the Ravens won’t be going to the Super Bowl: They are letting Kyle-bot start in their pre-season opener. This means that they are still giving him a chance to be a quarterback. Kyle’s “experience” earns him this honor. Experience?? Apparently John Harbaugh has never seen Kyle play. He’ll be joining my friend Brian in the unemployment lines before too long…

Eric Mangini hasn’t decided who will be the Jets 2008 starting quarterback. Dear Eric, have you spoken with Favre? I hear he’s probably going to be looking for a new team. He’s really your best option if you plan on winning games this season. Honestly…unsure who will start? Did he forget last season? Why weren’t they spending the off season QB shopping? Reason # 789 the Jets won’t be making a play off birth….

This is about 27 kinds of ridiculous. First, no one from West Chester goes without shoes. They barely go without a Lexus! Even the high school kids tend to have better cars than what I’ve got. Second, Anderson Township is like 30 miles away!! Apparently the man claims to have walked to Anderson Township from a store in Covington, which is only like 27 miles away from West Chester, but still about 25 miles from Anderson. There are no transients in West Chester, the man simply won’t allow it. Finally, he crawled into a dumpster that was behind a convenience store to hide from the rain. Why not just go IN the store? That whole, “No shoes, no shirt, no service”, thing is probably not going to be enforced by the 18 year old kid behind the counter. That kid doesn’t stop theft either. Oh, and when I say “that kid”, I am simply referring to what I would have done if I worked a convenience store counter.

Thankfully our shoeless transient was not injured in the making of this foolish reality. He was apparently checked out and released at a nearby hospital. Released to where? Who knows. However, I hope the next time he’s “hiding from the rain” (aka dumpster diving), I hope he’s wearing shoes at least. Who knows what kinds of garbage is in there…..

I like my dessert yummy, hold the frill. I don’t need fancy names, dipping sauces or for pity’s sake 14 different kinds of meringue. I like cherry cordial ice cream or dark chocolate cupcakes. Rosewater frosting need not apply.

I like cake and I like green tea, but I won’t be making green tea cake with red bean filling anytime soon. Mostly because it sounds gross, but also the picture looked more like those Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes than anything fancy.

Here’s blanket #1 - Made from the Michael Miller Disco Dot - Citrus, purchased on Ebay and some yellow minkee fabric purchased locally. Allow me to reiterate this fact, if you are going to fall in love with a fabric, do so before it is discontinued. Unlike other items, when fabric is discontinued the price goes up exponentially. I just happened to get lucky and be the only person who bid on said fabric and actually got it for less than it was retail. YAY! Specs on this blanket are approximately 42 x 42. The Pimpo (aka George from the “George & Martha” series) enjoys this blankets larger size.

Blanket #2 is essentially a baby shower gift. After receiving the greatest gift of a fabric store gift card, I headed to the store for something involving hippos. Indeed there was a flannel with baby jungle animals, including hippos. I fought the overwhelming urge to back this with green flannel and chose yellow instead. I believe you’ll approve. This is only about 36 x 45, still slightly larger than the average receiving blanket and wonderfully soft.

An up close and personal shot of the baby animals….awwwwww

Finally, blanket #3, made from Heather Ross Lightening Bugs blue and yellow polka dots (again, discontinued…see rant above), and blue minkee with a star pattern purchased with the aforementioned gift card. Now a new fabric rant, minkee fabric is wonderfully soft but is sometimes a nightmare to work with. More of a nightmare than my constant need to end a sentence with a preposition! (Like you even noticed). I’m not sure if it’s the nap of the fabric or what, but I had the hardest time getting these to line up..eventually giving up and embracing imperfection. That’s one of my more attractive qualities anyways. Specs: about 36 x 45 again, I hadn’t intended to use the Heather Ross as a blanket, but it is honestly the softest cotton I’ve ever felt and I couldn’t resist. Off grain or not, I love this blanket. I think the bear approves too.

An up close picture of the details.

Maybe someday I’ll finish that weekender bag….