Jenneth Wedding Jewels

I had the honor of attending the wedding festivities of Jenny and Kenny (henceforth known collectively as "Jenneth") in lovely Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota a few weeks ago.  Jenny partook of my services for the bridal party jewelry, and here's what we came up with:

 

A mix of shades of blue and yellow beads, some sparkly, some matte, crocheted together on silver wire...  they came out pretty awesome and everyone seemed to love them!  I made them very loosely based on this video tutorial (which I've used before, here and here).  However, I used significantly more beads... probably 30-45 per strand, started with 5 or 6 empty (beadless) stitches and then pulled a bead up on each stitch until I was done with the beads, then another 5 or 6 beadless stitches.  

Here are some of the lovely bridesmaids, Colleen and Eileen, modeling the jewels and doing their best Blue Steel.. hot!:

Congratulations again, Jenneth!!!

Mo Shawties

More and more shorts...  these two pairs are both made from the Simplicity 4203 pattern, but with some modifications.

The plaid pair has pockets sewn on each side (I used the flap pockets from the Colette Negroni pattern), and the striped pair has a button tab on the side of each leg as an accent.

Pattern Blocked Scout Tee

Q: Which one of the three design features on this iteration of Grainline's Scout Woven Tee was intentional?

a) The contrast stitching

b) The diagonal pattern blocking

c) The button down back
 

A: If you guessed b, you are correct!  I had this awesome pattern blocking tutorial by Mad Mim bookmarked for months now- I love the diagonal line (not to mention her awesome hand stamping)!  I had big plans to use my trusty Grainline Scout t-shirt pattern as the basis for my pattern blocked tee, but somehow these plans didn't come to fruition until this week. My impetus: a few weeks ago I saw that Kollabora and Sown Brooklyn were hosting a Scout Tee sewalong/contest and I decided that this was the perfect reason to put my well-laid pattern blocking plans into action.
 

The other two design elements (the button back and the contrasting stitching) were pretty much accidental.  I didn't have enough black fabric to cut the back on the fold (hence the button back) and I (in)conveniently ran out of black thread right before sewing (cue white contrast stitching).  But I kinda dig the result, so we'll call them happy accidents...
 

Here are the deets: black cotton fabic from Pasar Mayestik plus some really cool black, white and minty green geometric/floral batik (scraps from another Grainline Scout Tee as well as a Grainline Tiny Pocket Tank I made as Christmas presents for Martha and Chuck, respectively).  For the front I followed Mad Mim's directions pretty much to a "T" (har har), and for the back, I traced the pattern piece not on the fold but cut two separate pieces that I extended out 2 extra inches at the inner seam.  Before adding the bias tape to the neckline I zig-zagged the inner edge of both back pieces and then pressed each of them under 1 inch to make the button plackets, which I top-stitched down.  Add buttonholes, buttons and ta-da!  I also lengthened the top a little bit- an inch or so.