Stretching My Skills

A few weeks ago I wore a ready-to-wear (RTW) tunic to an embroidery club meeting and was asked if I made it. The shirt is lightweight denim with beautiful cutwork embroidery and beading around the front neckline. The program that night was embellishing t-shirt necklines. So, I began thinking about giving this neckline thing a go!
Here's the pattern I chose: Tunic Top - View B The fabric is a gorgeous shade of dark teal linen blend from JoAnn's. I made a muslin first and worked out a good fit, I hope. I purchased some neckline designs and decided to follow some great advice from a fellow embroiderer to trace the front of the shirt onto the fabric, do the embroidery, THEN cut that piece out. Her reasoning is that the fabric is much easier to hoop before cutting it out. Makes sense, right?
Today is embroidery day! I'm taking pictures as I go and will post them all once I finish. Wish me luck!

Why this title?

I've tinkered with blogging for a couple of years now and haven't been committed enough to sustain any of them. 2012 shows promise for being memorable on several fronts, not the least of which is the advent of my 60th birthday. Of course, I thought that when I retired from teaching in 2010 and again in 2011 when my lovely daughter married. More often than not, anything I wrote about (indeed, even the act of writing) took place with a chihuahua on my lap (if said activity involved sitting for ANY length of time). 


My passion right now is sewing, including machine embroidery. Entering my second year of embroiderying, I bought a used Babylock Ellegante (researched with a chihuahua on my lap, of course) and decided to "get serious." We shall see...


Want to know a little more about me? the chihuahua? Stay tuned.