What an incredible group!!!

The Sew Incredibles group surprised me tonight with dinner at the Relish in Roswell and a pretty birthday cake baked by June Hoffman, and a card and a gift! Thank you everyone for celebrating my 50...uh...we'll keep it at 50th birthday! Yes, the cake was sweet! What a great group of nice people! Makes getting older nicer.

I also did a quick demonstration of silk dye painting and let the group loose on a silk scarf. Wow! The scarf turned out absolutely wonderful, and after I steam and wash it, we're thinking of auctioning it at Common Threads -- well, unless I "accidentally" lose it, :)

Click on the pics to get a close-up view!

At Show N Tell, Sandie gave us a mini fashion show (she had so many outfits she made!!!), Helen Mirren -- oops! I mean Martha, made the new Shapes skirt out of batik and the Mimosa Top (see photo left), Barbara Moss made the cutest pair of plaid capris lined in lime green, Sue Eisen showed us her quilt that makes one feel happy, and I can't remember the rest, so someone let me know what they were.

We're supposed to get instructions from Barbara on how to make this nifty tote bag that folds and zips into it's own little pouch that's attached to the tote bag front as a pocket!

Jan Martin's Recycled White Cotton Jacket

Here's the info Jan sent me regarding the White Cotton Jacket she recycled and modelled for us at out June meeting:

The jacket was made about 5 years ago from a Vogue Pattern. I followed the directions, adding a medium weight interfacing to the front panel. Because the front panels overlapped quite a bit, the result was a somewhat stiff front. The fit was very good with a mandarin collar included in the front panel of the pattern.

This year I decided to remodel it so I could use it in more casual settings, including going to concerts. First, I removed the white soutache braid from the edges. Since I no longer had the pattern, I folded back the unneeded sections, pinned them and wore the jacket that way around the house. I did much stretching and moving (I'm getting visuals here, Jan!) to make sure that when I cut into it the shape of the back and sides would not be affected.

I released the mandarin collar seam. Allowing for a 1/2" seam, I drew the cutting line with a pencil and cut the jacket fronts. I closed the raw edges with hand sewing and replaced the soutache braid and mounted the large button to close the front.

It was a very nice jacket -- hard to believe it was recycled! click on the image to enlarge