A Few Projects for the Road

 It's that time for snowbirds to migrate north.  I'm not sure I'll get used to how quickly the time in each locale seems to fly by.  We are busy doing all the things that we could have done for the last 5 months and are cramming them into the last week!!!  So much would not get done if not for the last minute!

I have been sewing, but several of the projects are slated for the Threads series I am doing this year and I have to wait until they are posted on the Threads site before I share them here.  I am a couple of months ahead on the projects so it feels a bit like backing up...anyway...the latest challenge project is up on the Threads page with all the gory details.  

My first Tabula Rasa garment was a beach cover up made out of towels.  It was a pretty straight up version of the pattern other than the giant pockets!  Which I love!  The next installment I am calling my "bowling shirt."  I had a piece of rayon printed with flamingos and stripes and for some unknown reason it just looked like a bowling shirt to me.  You know, the ones with panels and piping and rolled up sleeves.

I chose a flamingo colored cotton jersey for the piping.  It was a little fussy to put in, but I really like the way it turned out.  Getting all the different pieces I needed out of the appropriate stripes in the fabric was definitely a head scratching exercise, but all came together nicely in the end.

Just rent me some shoes and I'm ready to roll!!!!

This is a lovely mural on the outside wall of one of my favorite restaurants.  It's a little "matchy-matchy" but I love it.

Another project I worked on here in KW was a dress for a charity gala that we attended.  I have had the sparkly fabric for awhile and wasn't sure I would ever have an occasion to use it...but it was perfect!  I did, as is my norm, have to wiggle the pattern around a bit...a lot!...to get the dress that I wanted!  

...is that my husband pinching my bottom??!!!  Can't take him anywhere!!!

Turns out that the gala was the coldest night I have ever seen in Key West!  Notice the 'bike friendly' knot that keeps my dress from getting completely wound up in my bake change...😂  Other than the shivering, it was a lovely event and a fun evening.  It is nice to finally be getting to know our new town!

The last project for the season was another charity project.  The Oldest House in Key West has been turned into a museum and garden and they are freshening up some of the rooms.  The parlor is getting new soft furnishing...recovered couch, window treatments, rugs...and I helped make the window valances.  I had fun researching the period and "engineering" the hanging apparatus.  I also loved learning more about the women who owned and lived in the house.  They were a bunch of strong, resilient ladies who were instrumental in starting and growing many of the institutions here in Key West (think, libraries, churches...) It is an honor to be helping preserve and recreate their home.  These are definitely not my taste, but, apparently I nailed the period according to the curator!  Cha-ching!

...So, next stop....Michigan.  The snowbirds take wing....see you next fall Key West!