Painting and quilting and sewing and......

A sketchbook page -

Fabrics being cut for a new wallhanging - I received a copy of the Pottery Barn catalog and love the color mixes of naturals with that soft teal or aqua or whatever they call it - so I went through my cabinets and pulled out anything with that color - vases, candles, etc and then I pulled out fabrics to make some napkins and a wallhanging - more later

Finally I wanted to show you a top that I altered - I bought this linen sleeveless shirt at a thrift store for $1 but I hated the regular style collar on it so I opened the stitching, removed the collar, and sewed it back shut - voila! A sort of Nehru/oriental/tuxedo collar!  If you want to do something like this, you need to be sure the underlying collar attachment area is structured such that you can rip out the topstitching, remove the regular collar, and still have enough fabric to create the stand up collar.  I have found that more expensive garments are constructed this way and are much easier to alter.  Many of them also have sleeves attached in such a way as they can be successfully removed without changing the integrity of the garment (living in Florida, I often remove or shorten sleeves).

Off to work - see you soon and thanks for stopping by,
Chris