OOTDs: Silky Vintage and Made by Me.

Hey, all!  Happy Thursday!  :-)  Just a quick reminder before I start that the 30% off dresses promotion ends tomorrow night over at Boden.  (At least that is what I believe will happen since the sale started last Saturday morning.  I would be more than fine if Boden made me a liar by continuing it into the weekend.)

Okay, in honor of May and the "Me-Made May" phenomena that happens all over the sewing blog world, I thought I would parade out five recent outfits that feature one item that was made by me, in conjunction with a bunch of non-made by me items, of course, since I have only been doing this sewing thing for so long.  I expect that maybe in a few years I could actually feature entire ensembles made by me, but I ain't there yet.

Day: Sunday, May 25, 2014.

Where: Angus's friend's birthday party.

Ease of Wear: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) The Silky Vintage Top (currently at 25% off here) is very comfortable and I am stoked I bought the size 6 since it was fitted enough in the upper bodice while being nice and swingy at the hip portion, where I need it the most.  I like this one so much that I decided to purchase the multi-colored yellow floral version to make up for the fact that the Selina dress didn't work at all for me in either size I tried (see the original review of it here at this BWRR). 

The shorts (see original post on them here), though, are the reason for the fallen ease score.  I am okay with *why* it fell since the shorts are now so big on me in the waist that it is somewhat laughable how close they came to falling off of me by the end of the day.  See even though they look fine in the original shots (the last three), you can see that I had to untuck the top in the first photo to cover up how loose they had become.  (The fabric is a loosely woven linen/rayon blend and while it is very nice to sew and feels pretty soft, it is very stretchy and very wrinkle-prone.)

Cool Factor: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I think this is a solid effort.  Feels very vintage inspired, of course.  LOVE the buttons on the back, adds to the retro feel.

Anecdote from the Day:  Angus's friend loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as much as Angus does so he was THRILLED to see all the Mickey/Minnie decorations at the party.  He was also one of the only boys and so he felt like he was the littlest king at the party.  Oh dear.

Day: Monday, May 26, 2014.

Where: Hanging out with friends and their kids.

Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) This pretty little skirt that I made last year (see here) will always be one of my favorites since it fits my shape so nicely, and is a mini without being too mini.  I realized after wearing it that I have nearly a yard of this gorgeous tana lawn left, and I can make a top from part of that (still plan on making some hair ties for some blog friends from the rest of that, cough cough, I know I am late).

The sandals are great and went well with the outfit, but do feel a bit tight upon first wearing them.  They do stretch out, though, so there's that.

Cool Factor: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I have had this tee for a while, having bought it back in 2010.  I never thought of pairing it with something more "upscale," and have always worn it with shorts or pants, but after realizing the colors worked exactly right together, I knew I had to wear it with this skirt. 

Anecdote from the Day:  I spent half the night holding our friends' littlest boy, who fell asleep on my lap in a monkey position.  He's only seven months, so I was in heaven.  I love little tiny babies.  So cuddly and squeezable and huggable!

Day: Wednesday, May 28, 2014.

Where: Volunteering at the school, Winesday, and Rex's batting practice.

Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) I felt good, but bear in mind that it was stupid hot and humid yesterday, I had a migraine in the morning, and the only way we could get to Winesday this week was to drag all three kids with us.  Since bringing all three to the world's most uppity Whole Foods is insane, I decided to put Angus in my carrier on my back so I would at least have one kid away from all the goodies in the aisles.  Yeah, my poor top was a bit soaked after that.

Cool Factor: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) This top is made from a beautiful tana lawn from Liberty of London (see the original post on it here), so that ups the cool factor a bit.  The combo of the slim denim shorts and darling tied striped sandals with the top make it look very 50s/60s, so I would say I felt pretty cool, even if my poor tired soul was anything but...

Anecdote from the Day:  So even though I felt crazy for dragging the three kids to Winesday, it turned out that this week's theme was "for the kids."  Well, hot damn, I chose the right day to do the impossible.  The foods were all things kids love, and of course my three went crazy for the yumminess (food only, of course).  Their favorite was the tomato soup, which was pretty darn tasty.

Day: Thursday, May 29, 2014.

Where: Bowling, G Street Fabrics, Barnes & Noble, and School Pickup.

Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) Yesterday was H-O-T, and today was cool and rainy.  Ugh.  I prefer hot to this, honestly.  I felt weird dragging out my boucle sweater (post on that one here) in late May, but the temp barely reached 65.  Sigh.  At least I had it all washed and ready to go.  And I am glad I had a cool-weather top to wear for part of my Made by Me outfits quest.

The shoes are too loose, should have bought the 40.  They work, but the toe area is very wide, and the 40 would have likely been more narrow there.

Cool Factor: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I don't know that I love the whole look together, but I am glad I wore the pieces together, and popped some crazy neon color in the sandals.  Otherwise my grey outfit would have blended into the cloudy background.

I really like how my makeup turned out, though.  Very simple, but I felt like it worked.  Now if only I could get my eyebrows freshened up, and a good ninety hour nap, I could take care of all of my cosmetic wants.

Anecdote from the Day:  I got a 139 in bowling.  Whoop!  Now why can't I get that score every time I bowl?

Day: Sunday, May 11, 2014.

Where: Mother's Day Mass, Zaytinya, and 9:30 Club to see Elbow.

Ease of Wear: (5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) This dress may be one of my favorites I have ever made for me (see more on that here).  I find getting shift dresses to properly work on my slimmer upper body and larger lower half very challenging, but hey, you make your own, you can make it fit you just right.  Aw, yeah.  Go comfort!

So you all know, I am not dumb, and did not wear those darling J. Crew strappy wedge sandals to watch Elbow in the concert.  I changed into a pair of black sparkly flip-flops for that.

Cool Factor: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) I think it is pretty darn cool, and since neon tropical prints and shift dresses are "in" (see this Just Cavalli one), I would say yeah, I looked cool.  (And was still "modest" enough for mass.  So yay for that, too.)

Anecdote from the Day:  Zaytinya is great, and I love almost everything Jose Andres does, but I still prefer Oyamel, and its tasty fried grasshopper tacos.

At the Elbow concert, there were about ten percent of the crowd who must have only been at the concert to *go and do something, anything* that night, because they kept TALKING LOUDLY while the wonderful Guy Garvey of Elbow sang his sweet tunes all romantic like to us.  I kind of wished that Guy would have come down to them and gone, "whatcha you all doing?"  But he didn't.  Instead this kind of nerdy fifty-year old guy walked up to them and said "SHUT UP."  LOL.  Go, you!  I loved that!

Okay, that's all for now.  I hope everyone is ready for a nice weekend.  :-)

Made by Me Files: Vogue 8915 (Neon Tropical Print Shift Dress) and McCall's 6875 (Enchanted Tea Party Dress).

First up will be the Vogue 8915 Neon Tropical Print Shift Dress, followed by the McCall's 6875 Enchanted Tea Party Dress.

After a few fairly intense sewing projects, I wanted a dress or skirt or top that I could easily sew up for myself, made from a summer friendly fabric.  I ended up deciding on this dress made from Vogue's 8915, which is for a simple shift dress with no facings, and no set-in sleeves.

But because I am me, I made this project take at least three times as long as it should, because I can't ever just be satisfied.  ;-)

What you see above should have taken a day *tops* to create, but with me fussing over every detail, it took me around three days of pattern alterations, choosing pattern layouts on the fabric, sewing the underlining to the main fabric, basting the pieces together for fitting, adding an invisible zipper, finishing the sewing, facing the neckline with a rayon binding instead of just turning and stitching, hemming the armholes and hem, and finally finishing off all the seams with a zigzag stitch.

Having said all that, I wouldn't do it any differently, since I quite like the end product. There are tiny things I would change in retrospect, but I think the extra time was worth it.

Side view.  Do not think for a moment this dress is meant to be anything other than a very easy dress that has little in the way of shaping.  For summer, I don't mind a fitted dress, but sometimes owning a dress that sits away from the body in a breathable fabric is even better.

The length is great, I am happy with where it fell on my body.  I think they had a pretty generous hem allowance, but at 5'8", I knew that making a 3/4" inch hem would be fine (I turned the hem up 3/8" and then again an additional 3/8" so that the linen would be fully enclosed and wouldn't ravel).

Originally my plan was to have those black leaves be at the hemline as a cool border print effect (bonus, the selvedge edge runs below it which would have meant that I could have had a touch longer hemline since I don't have to turn it up as much since the selvedge edge doesn't unravel).

I was sent this piece of fabric from Fabric Mart in one of their "craft bundles," which means the biggest piece you will receive in any bundle will be around 1.5 yards.  This one came at 1.25 yards, which would have fit round my body and been long enough to place the pattern pieces from selvedge edge to selvedge edge (or the straight of grain arrow perpendicular to the selvedge), but because of the kimono style sleeves, the pattern pieces were just a bit too wide to place them that way.  Sad!

So I placed the pieces the traditional manner, with the straight of grain arrow placed how it should be, parallel to the selvedge grain, and noticed that even that way, I still didn't have enough fabric to place both pieces on the fold.  Sigh.  So I cut out the back pattern pieces as two separate pieces with a 5/8" seam at the center back so I could insert a zip.  Don't cry for me, though, since the zip is genius and makes getting in and out of this dress SO easy.  :-)  I don't know that I will ever place this pattern's back on the fold again since the zip is perfection.  (Well, okay, if it's a knit I will since a zip in a stretchy knit is overkill.)

The print looks kind of odd on the back, but it does look intentional and kind of arty, so I'll take it.

Sizing is important here, I went with a small through the shoulders, bust, and waist, but tapered out (using my hip curve ruler) to a size medium.  That still felt a touch too tight at 5/8", so I went ahead and made all my side seams below the waist at 3/8".  I was worried that I chose the wrong pattern size for my skirt, but the medium's ease was more than generous for my pear shape.  Next time I may cut an extra small in the neckline, it felt a bit big there, especially through the back neck.

Belting helps with the shape, but raises the hemline.  Since I was going to Mother's Day mass in this, I wanted to have a bit more coverage.  Will definitely belt this the next time I wear it to give it a different look.  Not going to belt it every time, because it is so comfortable without!

The pockets are fab and placed in a perfect position.  I found myself using them to place my hands all evening.  They are deep enough for a phone and keys and change if that is what you use pockets for, but I carry a bag with me at all times, so I rarely ever use my pockets for that purpose.

You can find the Tropical Riviera Linen Print fabric here--last few yards, though--and since I wasn't super sure that it wouldn't be see-through when wearing it, I underlined it with a Kaufman handkerchief linen I found at fabric.com (you can see it here).  Both fabrics are a cotton/linen blend, so they worked very nicely together.

There was a little bit of wrinkling in the skirt, but minimal compared to what I have seen in linens in the past.  The print helps disguise some of it, too.

I hand-hemmed the armhole hem.  The stitching here is attached to the underlining so it doesn't show on the main fabric.  You can see the original stitching line where I attached the underlining fabric to the main fabric.  It ended up being a great hem marking (roughly 3/8") for the armhole.

Detail of fabric and invisible zip.  You can see where the neckline looks a bit generous.  I mentioned sizing down to an extra small in the neckline next time, but I may also end up deciding to keep the small but adding darts to the upper back, which I have found help me with fit in other patterns, and also look quite posh.

You cans see the rayon seam binding I used as a "facing/support" in the neckline.  I hate wavy necklines, and I felt like if I just turned and stitched the neckline as instructed in the directions, I would have ended up with a wavy, gaping neckline, and since I find most necklines are too big on me anyway, I didn't want to exasperate this issue by not properly finishing the neckline.  Plus the orange rayon binding (vintage like these from an etsy dealer) looks really pretty with the fabric.

You can see how the zip's seam is from the selvedge, so bonus there, no need to finish those seams!

All in all, I can highly recommend this pattern, but bear in mind that if you do it my way it goes from being Very Easy Vogue to somewhere a bit less easy.

This is the dress I made for CW for Easter.  I had chosen the fabric back in December (Riley Blake's Enchanted Tea Party in Lime, here at fabric.com) specifically for Easter since it features a darling little bunny having tea with Little Red Riding Hood.  I didn't know which pattern I would use, I just knew I would make her a dress from this fabric.

After all was said and done the dress ended up being even more perfect for CW since the dress was used again for her school's Manners Tea, where her class read the play "Red Riding Hood."  Umm, hello?  Red Riding Hood was at the tea table with the bunny on her dress.  LOL.  Serendipity, people, serendipity.

The pattern I ended up using was McCall's 6875, which features two styles of  "traditional" girls dresses.  I went with the plainer version, and even after making it up made it even more plain by leaving off the hem band (would have been made from the same fabric as you see in the waistband) and by not adding a long extended tie back to the waistband.

This pattern also has a pattern for a doll dress (same size as all her American girls), but I have yet to make it.  I do have enough fabric, though.

I made this dress in a size 7 (like to size up for a bit more wear, this will fit her until she is 7 at least).  I ended up making the skirt with the size 7 length but the size 5 width since the pattern piece for the size 7 was too wide to fit on the quilting cotton's width of 44 inches.  Whatever.  The skirt was to be gathered and full, so ultimately the size matters very little, unless you really really want to gather that extra two or three inches of extra width.  I frankly am not the biggest fan of gathering, since it takes. SO. LONG, but I love the results, so I am always willing to do it.  Anyhow, you can tell the skirt is still plenty full and very gathered at the slimmer width, so I suggest you do that, too, especially if you are using a fabric whose width is under 50 inches.

The waistband is meant to sort of be a bit more free (you aren't supposed to topstitch it down to the bodice--I only topstitched it to the main fabric, not the lining, fwiw).  I think the deal is you would use the tie end to get the waistband to fit nice and snug, but since I wanted no tie end, I needed the waistband to fit properly from the get-go.  Figuring out how to make that work when the instructions where telling me something else was a bit of a mind-bender, but not totally out of my skill set, either.

I think it is really important to make sure the back waistband lines up properly if you choose to do what I did, since it would be really obvious if the pieces didn't line up.  I managed that, and in my first attempt with a plaid, I even managed to get the plaid's pattern to sort of line up at the seam junction.  (Not intentional, really, pure luck.  LOL.  I'll take it, though.)

Close up of the gathers, waistband, and the adorable print.

I was asked by McCall's at my Pattern Review review of this dress if I would be okay with them publishing this version of the pattern at their Facebook page, and of course I was all, "umm, yeah, of course!"  I can't believe that they noticed my version.  I am pretty excited! UPDATE: It made it on the facebook page. Yay!

BTW, if you want to try the girls pattern, I suggest going over to As Reasonable As Can Be Expected.  She has a lot of versions of this dress, and I found her work to be very helpful to me in the early stages of sewing this up.

Okay, that's it for now.  Anyone else give these patterns a go?  

My reviews of these two patterns at Pattern Review can be found here for the Vogue dress, and here for the McCall's dress.

OOTDs: Sparkles and Stars.

Before we get started, just wanted to let you know that the giveaway officially ended last night.  I will pick a winner this weekend and make the announcement of the winner on Monday.  :-)  I am substituting on Monday, so it won't be till the afternoon at the earliest, though.

Day: Saturday, February 1, 2014.

Where: G Street Fabrics for a Pants Patterning Class and to see my dad in a musical (tonight).

Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) The knitted dress ( here on clearance) is spectacularly easy to wear, it's basically a normal sweater, lengthened.  Of course since I am tall I would have LOVED an additional four inches on it, but since I never wear shorter dresses and skirts, it was fun to be out of my comfort zone.  It is a great item to have if I ever want to try drafting my own sweater dress pattern since this one is fitted without being too fitted.  I could take the measurements down and create my own (now that I have the tools in my sewing belt to do so).

I took this dress in a size 15-16, which is my "tts" Johnnie b. size.

The opaque tights ( here, you can use code U216 for 15% off all regular priced items) are true to size (I wear a medium) and warm enough.  These are not the thick knitted sweater tights that they have in their lineup, these remind me more of HUE tights, which are a thinner opacity.  The only downside for me is that there is no control top, but even without that, the tights stay up pretty well, which I appreciate since I have owned tights that do not stay up without a control top.

I had to wear the tights since we were trying on our muslin of our pants pattern that we created last week.  Best to have something on your body, unless you are REALLY secure in your shape.

Apparently I did a good job on taking my paper pattern and turning it into a muslin since the instructor only had a few adjustments to make on the muslin, but there is enough change that I will have to redo the muslin completely.  Oh, well.  :-)  Anything to get perfect pants, right?

Cool Factor: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.) My hubby seems to like the outfit, but was a bit "huh" at the tights.  They are bright.  (Understatement of the year, right?)

It's hard for me to judge the outfit objectively, I think it looks cooler than a lot of what I wear, but since it is so different from what I usually wear, that may be part of my thinking it is so cool.  ;-)

Anecdote from the Day:  The pants workshop is going well, I can see the light and the vision of what my future trousers will look like, and man, does that feel (and look) good.  No more too short pants.  No more weird stupid whiskers at my crotch.  No more tight butt syndrome, while having too loose of a waist.

The instructor has a lot of great monikers for the butt/lady part region, but had never heard of my favorite, the badonkadonk.  Hee.  She seems to like it, but couldn't figure out where its origin is.  I don't know, either, but country singer Trace Adkins might know since he penned the (oh so awesomeful) song "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk ."  Aw, yeah.  

Day: Friday, January 31, 2014.

Where: Little Gym, Lunch out, JoAnn Fabric Store, and School Pickup.

Ease of Wear: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.)  The sweatshirt is a touch long so it kept riding up on my bottom, but that happens 85% of the time I wear any top, so I've gotten used to it.

Otherwise, A+ on comfort and warmth.

Cool Factor: (3 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest--for both outfits.)  Kind of boring, but some of the details make it a bit cooler (tie at neck, VA necklace from the tru.che etsy shop, the fun star print in the pants, and the neon piping in the shoes).  Respectable SAHM wear.  ;-)

Anecdote from the Day:  So one of the mothers in the Little Gym was a FREAKING Rockette.  I mean, how cool, right?  Knowing that makes me feel a thousand times better since I was always like how in the bleep is she so tiny and so tall?  LOL.

Okay, that's all for now.  I have a ton of comments to reply back to, but I will, I hope, soon.  Right?  It's always, I will, I hope.   

OOTDs: Five. So Bright.

Day: Sunday, June 2, 2013.

Where:  7000 kids' birthday parties followed by a trip to a Moroccan restaurant.

Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) This old school J. Crew dress (embossed cotton/seersucker fabric that they don't use anymore) is awesomely comfortable.  I especially love that it fits nicely through the bodice but is slightly flared at my hips.  :-)  One of the best pear-shape friendly dresses out there!

One point off because the Target shoes pinched a tiny bit (first time I had ever worn them).

Cool Factor: (3 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.)   Well J. Crew has stepped away from the embossed cotton, so maybe that is a sign that it is no longer cool?  They did reissue my pineapple skirt, though, so maybe there is hope for the lovely embossed fabric in the future?

The necklace is my favorite bit, though, it was purchased at the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and if you look closely, you can see that the shapes are taken from the natural stone steps you can see there.

Anecdote from the day:  We were invited to three separate parties for the kids that day.  Originally I was going to take Rex to the pool party for his *girlfriend*, then Mr. Dina would take him to Chuck E. Cheese's for another friend's party, then I would take CW to the SAME Chuck E. Cheese's for her friend's party later that afternoon.  Insane, right?

Thankfully, although sad for Rex, his two friends' parties were at the same time, so he had to choose.  He picked his girlfriend, lol.

The Moroccan food was delish.  Mmm.  Right before we got to the restaurant, it stormed like "woah."  (Hee, Joey Lawrence, hee.)  After the storm passed, and as we were walking to the restaurant from the car, we spied that rainbow you see in the third picture.  I love rainbows, so glad I grabbed the photo. 

 Day: Monday, June 3, 2013.

Where:  ???  I know that I was at home with the kids while I wrote the Boden preview picks post, but I know I wasn't wearing this outfit to stay at home.  I must have gone to dinner that night with Mr. Dina and the kids.  That seems right, but it's all fuzzy.  Must write these posts sooner.  ;-)

Ease of Wear: (3 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) The bodice of this Regatta dress is a bit large, and the shoulders stand off a bit from my shoulders, so I feel like I have to keep pulling the dress down.  After a while I got used to it, but in the beginning it bugged, so there's why I have the 3 there as a rating.

Cool Factor: (2 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.)  Hmm.  Well those are really practical nude Cole Haan pumps and a white handbag combined with orange and white polka dots.  Not especially cool, rather pleasantly pretty, exactly right for my lifestyle, I suppose.

Anecdote from the day: Should have one and would have one if I had bothered to write a post on this outfit sooner.  I tell ya...

Day: Wednesday, June 12, 2013.

Where:  Winesday at Whole Foods.

Ease of Wear: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) I dig dig dig this Target (girls!) maxi dress so much, especially how easy it is to wear.  Can't go wrong with a nicely fitted jersey dress in neon stripes with just the right amount of give to be comfortable.

The jeweled flip-flops were very floppy since I bought them before I had the kids when my feet were bigger (???), but it wasn't awful or anything, so only a half-point off for them.

Cool Factor: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.)  Well, I think it is cool, but I suspect the hi-lo hem is "out" or on it's way out, and neon may have played itself "out," as well, but at the Whole Foods, where hemp clothing, Capitol Hill business suits, and Toms are king, I think I brought it that day! 

Anecdote from the day: I love Winesday so much.  This was a typical Winesday, with my brother in tow, and our favorite employees working.  Only sad thing was finding out that our favorite employee, L., was leaving to go to another Whole Foods in PA.  Boo!

Day: Saturday, June 15, 2013.

Where:  Rex's kindergarten teacher's wedding, followed by Father's Day Dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Ease of Wear: (3 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) I think this Lace Dress is a superstar, and it is very comfortable since it fits me to my curves (review here), but it is losing points because every. damn. time. I wear it, I snag a lacy bit on something.  Admittedly, my fault, but still...stop being so testy, pretty crocheted lace fabric.

(The one snag I had that day was pretty big, but thanks to the sewing shop ladies, I now know how to fix it.  It requires hand sewing, though.  So nice new machine will be useless for that one job.)

Cool Factor: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.)  Again, a dress in a bright color with shoes in a bright color and a light-colored handbag...I have a formula here, but not for "cool."

Anecdote from the day:  Oof, what a day.  I finished these pillows for his teacher's wedding present in the morning, visited the sewing shop to buy a new machine (now that I sew nearly daily, I think I have the actual justification for a machine that can do more, including embroidery and quilting--thank goodness for no interest financing), went to the wedding, then back to the sewing shop to tie up some loose ends, then to my dad's to cool down, and then to the Mexican restaurant to celebrate Father's Day. 

The last photo shows that my brother and I were enjoying ourselves WAY more than the rest of our family.  We blame the margaritas.

Day: Wednesday, June 19, 2013.

Where:  Winesday at Whole Foods.

Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) This Madewell dress was a postpartum purchase so I could have something loose and nursing-friendly after giving birth to Angus.  It has become even more comfortable as I have lost more baby weight, but not so loose that I look like I am in a sack (thank you, belt!).

Don't adore the fabric, since it is a bit cloying and a bit wrinkle-prone, but I will forgive the dress since I could probably take a red-eye flight in it and feel comfortable.

Cool Factor: (3 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.)  Hmm.  I think the scarf is tied poorly, should have wrapped it more and in a circle shape...this version makes me look like a flight attendant.

Anecdote from the day:  My hair was so curly that day!  I washed it but didn't immediately comb/brush it, rather I let it air dry and this, combined with the *awesome* (sarcasm) DC humidity created the waves you see.  I sort of dig it, but it was not planned.

Okay, that's it.  Not sure how many folks are reading blogs on a Friday night in June right before a holiday week, but maybe a few of you will peek in?

BTW, Lands' End has a new promo out, 40% off Customer Favorites.  Haven't had a look around, but I have included the link below, as well as in the sidebar.