{amylouwho} the day I left for the sewing summit/or almost thrifting

Do you get stressed out when you are getting ready to travel? I do! I have weird travel dreams about losing my passport, being in Paris without enough time, missing flights, etc... It was no different this time around.

I was anticipating flying with babylouwho, leaving brother and sisterlouwho with mrlouwho for the weekend, doing last minute laundry, dishes and meal prep. It was a lot to get done!! I tend to procrastinate packing as well. I had my bags mostly packed on Tuesday night, so guess what I did on Wednesday morning, before leaving at 3:00 pm for the airport? Shopping!!!

I'm sure I should have been home packing and cleaning, but I had a couple of IMPORTANT things to take care of! First off, I stopped at Hancock's to pick up some of this awesome burlap printed with black velvet damask.

I posted a picture on instagram a week or so earlier and my roommate Darci asked me to pick some up for her. I may have bought a little extra for me as well. It's just so striking! I love damask anyway, but the texture contrast is amazing! I'm thinking it would make a cool boxy zipper pouch.

Next up, I had to stop at Ross. A few weeks ago I got a call from a very sweet friend:

Friend: Amy, Ross has queen sized Amy Butler sheets for 30$, they are turquoise and yellow and I thought of you! I hid them behind the others if you want to go and get them. 
Me: NO WAY!!! 
Friend: Well, I'm still out, if you want I can go back and get them for you. You can't even buy that much fabric for $30. 
Me: I KNOW!! Yes! Please!

She dropped them off a few days later. Are you kidding me?!? I love them. And what a great friend!!

And I'm going to use them on my bed!

A week or so later I went back into Ross looking for birdcages. I found one! So cute! And also saw THE MATCHING COVERLET to the sheets for $35! I stewed about them for a week and had to go Wednesday for fear of someone else buying it up.

YAY!!! It was still there!

And then on further inspection they had a cute twin sized duvet cover. It didn't really match sisterlouwho's bedding though, but it was only $15. And then I realized it was made from her LOVE line that I used for babylouwho's quilt.

She doesn't need a twin sized duvet though. Well, not now anyway. :) Sold!

I'm so happy with it all! 400 thread count, organic cotton, over 1/2 off the original prices ~ It's almost like thrifting!

I called Kim and told her about and she checked out her Ross and found some too - so hurry out if you're interested!

Have you found any good deals lately?

a very pink day

Did you know that today is National Pink Day?  Well if you follow pinksuedeshoe, you already know that.  Pink, as I like to call her, loves the aforementioned color.  So much so that each year on her blog she goes ALL out celebrating pink.  She's having a pink giveaway all week and then today will be filled with pink posts and all sorts of good fun.  Not to mention that if you live in Utah you can go The Pinkalicious Party she is throwing where you can partake in pink cupcakes, pink raspberry lemonade, and catch her with her newly dyed pink locks! (or click on that link and you can see a photo)

If you know Pink at all you know that in addition to the color pink she loves to thrift (pyrex and vintage sheets specifically).  Yesterday, I wore my new shirt that I made (in pink!) and went thrifting.  I found some pyrex, although faded, and some vintage sheets!  I couldn't stop thinking that I was having a very Pink day.

Here's a peek at my loot:

awesome green vase, hand stitched linen napkins, pink (faded) pyrex pie plate, sheets

The aqua sheet is so smooth and soft!  I can't wait to use it on the back of a quilt! And I'm pretty sure they are vintage - look at the labels.

I bought this pattern a few weeks back at that big blue box store (don't judge!). I've been looking for a replacement pattern for the Built by Wendy 3835 peasant type top (it's out of print).

And remember you can't judge a pattern by it's cover.  I was looking at the lines and this one looked the most like a shirt I had recently bought at Target.  I wanted to try some elastic thread for the sleeve gathering too.

I wasn't sold on the fact that I was going to like this shirt, so I made up a muslin first.  I actually used the muslin from my ball gown skirt and made a mock up and decided it would work.  When I saw this swiss dot at Hancock's (I was shocked!) I knew I had to have it for this shirt.  It's easy and comfy like a t-shirt but looks a lot nicer.

The sleeves called for a casing but  I used elastic thread for the first time to gather the sleeves. I LOVE it!

That thread is SO smart!! It knows just the right amount to gather. Amazing.

I know I always like to see the clothing on people when they blog about it.  So here's a shot my 5 year old took (again) this time with my heavy camera.  She did pretty good, but cropped off part of my head,  so I had to fix it a bit. And by a bit, I mean I cut the rest of my head off.  I wasn't wearing any makeup, and who wants to see THAT anyway?

just a note about that awesome haze in the background - no that's not from some cool lens creating a great effect.  It's actually smoke from a local wildfire.  It smells like a campsite in my house, and not in a good way.

I held up the shirt to a couple of other shirts I like and made this one about the same length. After looking at this picture, I think I might lengthen the next one just a bit more.

I'm going to be honest here, I don't really like how I look in the shirt in the photo - but some random person told me they liked it while I was shopping at Goodwill. (is that a good thing?) It's comfy though and cuter than just another t-shirt.

If you are nervous about sewing clothing this would be a GREAT beginner pattern. I cut out the 3 pieces the other day with the intent to put them aside for later. Then I thought - hey! There's only like 6 seams to sew! So I whipped up the major part of the shirt in about 20 minutes. The neck, sleeves and hem did take a little bit longer.

Hope you have a pinkalicious day!