Tiered Rainbow Skirt

When Joanna picks out fabric for a skirt, her first question is usually "Can you start making it tonight?"  Her next question is usually "Will it be done by tomorrow?"  This was the case with her much anticipated tiered skirt.

The style for this skirt is a combination of Tanya Whelan's Tiered Skirt from 'Sew What You Love' and this blog post from Sew to Speak.  Joanna loved the tiers, but also liked the waistband of the Sew to Speak skirt that we saw on a recent visit to the shoppe.  I was a bit more generous with the widths for each tier - other patterns that I have used from 'Sew What You Love' have seemed a little less gathered than I prefer them to be.

I really love that we alternated the stripe direction for the tiers - I think it works pretty well, and the skirt has an interesting shape/appearance because of it.  The fabric is by Robert Kaufman (I think), and will be perfect for summer.  

And just a side note, Joanna is standing in front of our beloved elementary school for these photos.  Yesterday was her last day, and now she is moving on to bigger and better things (sniffle).

Second Serving of Sorbetto

A couple weeks ago I made this Colette Sorbetto top, and was completely thrilled with the way it turned out (though the photos leave something to be desired).  I decided pretty much immediately that there would be another Sorbetto in my future.  When I saw Robert Kaufman's London Calling Cotton Lawn fabric, I knew it would be a perfect combination.

I already wrote most of my comments about the Sorbetto in my Alligator shirt post, so I don't want to repeat myself.  The only thing I did differently here was I lengthened the hem a bit.  I just used the bottom hem from the original pattern and continued that line a few inches further.  I think this change makes it easier to wear with jeans - if I were wearing a skirt, it would probably get tucked in.

Another brief note - I was very careful to make sure the pattern was centered on the pleat.  It was easy, but the shirt wouldn't look nearly so nice if I hadn't done this - depending on the fabric, this may or may not be important for you, if you try this pattern.

Last weekend was perfect, so I got to wear my new shirt to the park with my kiddos.  A perfect afternoon!

Liebster Blog Award

 Recently, I was honored to be given the Liebster Blog Award by the lovely Laura of sew.knit.grow - she and I have been trading comments on sewing lately.  Not only does she create some lovely sewn goods, but beautiful knit projects as well (which I'm sure everyone could guess from the blog title!) - it makes me wish I were better at knitting.

The idea of the Liebster award is for the recipient to forward the honor to three other small blogs.  I'm a little unsure of how small a blog has to be to qualify (sew.knit.grow says about 200 followers or less), so I'm sort of just guessing.  I'm hoping that these blogs have approximately the right number of followers.  With that in mind, here are my three:
Africankelli:  I've been following Africankelli's blog for the past few months.  I was initially drawn to the blog because of the Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders sew-along, but there are lots of other fun things going on there as well.
Selfsewn: I've been following this growing blog for a few months.  Such beautiful quilts!  The author does some really helpful tutorials.  I have never used the English Paper Piecing Quilting method, but selfsewn makes me want to.
Kunklebaby:  I'll be honest, even though there is a lot of sewing going on here, I just love the photos of the little ones.  The sewing is lovely to look at, too.

And, because I can't help myself, here are some beautiful fabrics that should be arriving in my mailbox in the very near future:

From left: Robert Kaufman Lawn, Pale Blue Pique, Michael Miller Children at Play Flannel