Lost in the Woods

That's my excuse for not posting.  I left a trail of breadcrumbs, but when I turned around to look at my cat winking at me from the window (it's just the moon silly Gretel..) I found that hungry birds had devoured my trail back to this blog.  Also the light has been awful.  Minnesota bloggers everywhere embrace this truth.

I got a new camera, and a tripod!

 So I got a new camera, and the first sad lesson I learned was that my favorite time of day, in my favorite spot for pictures (on my porch, late morning on my way to work) was too bright for my camera's abilities.  Or just yesterday was.  Do you doubt me?

Also, my slip is showing.

So although I haven't been blogging, or taking photos- I have been sewing and will try to document some new garments for you to make up for time lost in the woods.  My first garment is one that took way more thought than you might think.  We got some adorable David Walker fabric in at Sewtropolis, and it had just enough of a sophisticated palette that I decided that I, a 43 yr old woman, needed a garment with bears on it.  Bears and squirrels.  The result was this little tiered self-drafted number.

 It's just rectangles, stacked and gathered.  For fun, I gathered the top and bottom of both tiers on some of the narrower ones, for a ruched effect.  I had to make it longer than I originally planned because it was a virtual tutu, in a classic Cyndi Lauper way which seemed a bit too young for me.  The added tiers/length fixed that.  I admit, I got pretty quilty with it, but it was a case of knowing it was going to get Becky Home-Ecky from the get-go.  I decided to embrace that and go with more is more-

It's a credo that extends to how I style it too, since this heathered sweater works well with it, as does another top that is ruffled tiers with a ditsy calicoish floral.  Obviously this is a boxier silhuoette than what is optimum for me, but I still like the layers, even if they do make me look thicker.  Winter in Minnesota, go figure.