This Week: Birthday cheer

First of all, look how close we are to reaching my birthday goal for Charity:water!

I can’t believe how close it is and hope that a few more of you can spare a few bucks (any amount you want) to put us over the edge. 5 bucks, 10 bucks, whatever will help move that ticker to 100%.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who donated. We even had one generous donor give $320, which is amazing. It means so much to me that so many of you were able to give so generously. You’ve truly made this a spectacular birthday.

Other than my own little pledge drive here, I celebrated my birthday with a wonderful day hike in the Columbia Gorge, complete with butterflies, wildflowers, waterfalls, and a picnic.

After that, I cleaned up and slipped into this lovely mini dress I made this week for my birthday dinner (at Andina, a local Peruvian restaurant).

I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it and bought the last 1 1/4 yards off the bolt. It’s an aqua silk jaquard and so light and breezy. With so little fabric, I had to do some fancy footwork to get a whole dress out of it. I used every last scrap, but I did it. It always feels so satisfying to use every little piece of fabric, doesn’t it?

(The pattern is the same vintage one I used for my blue Liberty dress and shirred coral dress recently.)

I hope you all had an amazing week too. Here are some awesome links for you to check out:

• A handy guide for creating a lining pattern for a blazer.
• Got a mystery fiber fabric? Check out this great video on using the burn test to determine fiber content.
• Summer is perfect for easy-wear garment with shirring, and this oldie (but goodie) series outlines how to add it to a dress pattern.
• This may be a laundry bag, but wouldn’t it make a great scraps bin to store all those odd bits of leftover fabric?
• Looking for some vintage garment inspiration? Check out the Xtabay Vintage blog.
• Seeing other’s sewing spaces is always intriguing: take a peek at some in the sewing spaces tour series.
• Great tips from the Sew Weekly on ways to organize and keep your pattern stash more organized.
• This 40s era shirred embellishment could be easily replicated in silk ribbon! (Try it on flap pockets or collars.)
• Add a personal flair to any project with your own DIY, sew-in garment labels.
• Stuck with a small-scale pattern that needs to be enlarged? Threads Magazine shows you how.
• Turn an old (and not valuable/readable!) book into a stylish, DIY clutch purse.
• After a long day of sewing, these iced lavender shortbread cookies would be the perfect treat with some iced tea!

Thanks to Casey for her help in rounding up these links.