FO: Fairy Tale Sailor Top

Guys, life is a crazy business. You can be going along thinking one things and then BOOM something else turns out to be your reality and you have to adjust accordingly. It's happened to me a few times before, but I guess I got a little comfortable this time because it's kept me reeling for months now. I've had the pictures done for this post for over a month, but I just could never bring myself to focus on it enough to write anything to go with it. Today I decided to write this post more as a personal will power exercise. SO while this technically isn't anything you haven't seen before, I've gotta start back somewhere, right? Here we go.

This is yet another Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts courtesy of my Creativebug subscription. I've been planning on making this pattern with this fabric for probably over a year now and I decided it would be a good first project in my new sewing room in my new house. The fabric is an Amy Butler cotton voile called Fairy Tale in the Pistachio colorway from the Alchemy line. I picked this up as a 1.60 yard remnant at The Sewing Studio so many years ago that I don't know when. Maybe 2012 or so? I didn't think about this fabric for this project until I made my other cotton voile version. That shirt is so breezy and comfortable and I knew I had to make more.

With all my other versions of this pattern, I've got making it down to a science, and this includes gathering at the neckline.  This shirt has my same forward shoulder adjustment and hollow chest adjustment I did on the Botany voile top so it lays wonderfully on my shoulders.

The one change I made was to curve out the bottom front hem - my previous versions tend to ride up there and it was suggested to me by another sewist that it could be because I need a full bust adjustment and that I could compensate by just adding a little length. It's not totally perfect, but it's much better than my other versions.

And the back view - it's not actually this wrinkly just standing, but I took these pictures after wearing this top out for the first time (scandalous! I never do that) so these wrinkles are courtesy of my several hours of riding in the car that day. 

Another simple but thrilling change I made to this version - I finally remembered to add a ribbon tag to mark the back of the top! It's a little annoying on my other versions to line up the shoulder seams to see which side dips lower to know if I'm looking at the front or the back. Now I can tell at a glance :)

And this was a lovely shirt to wear on my annual Sewing Studio pilgrimage. for their 4th of July fabric sale. I took the fabric back to the source, as it were.

My lovely mom came with me this time and we had a very nice day together buying fabric :) I'm really glad I finally made up this top and that this fabric is no longer languishing in a tub in my closet. And while life is nothing like a fairy tale right now, this fabric definitely lives up to its name. It's such a buttery soft and breezy thing to wear in the horrific heat of Florida summers. Yay for some new clothes at long last!

Summary:
Fabric: 1.67 yards Fairy Tale Cotton Voile for Alchemy by Amy Butler in Pistachio - $5.50
Pattern: Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts via Creativebug
Notions: Thread - $0.50
Time: 3 hours
Total Cost: $ 6.00

Watercoloring Again and More Art Shenanigans

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I've recently become obsessed with watercolor painting again. Back in 2017, I decided to learn to watercolor paint. My biggest achievement and most progress was made during July of 2017 when I participated in the Daily Painting Challenge on Creativebug where we painted a new flower each day with Yao Cheng. I had a lot of fun that month, but shortly after that I kind of fell out of the habit. Maybe I was just all painted out after painting every day for a month? Mostly I know that my old problem of not knowing what to paint without having a prompt caused me to just stop painting. I hadn't really picked it back up since then (so sad), but back in June I started to become a bit obsessed again after discovering the work of Josie Lewis. She paints beautiful geometric designs in watercolor, and she put out a book teaching color theory through her designs, so I bought myself a copy. Then she restocked her limited edition watercolor palette in early June and I just had to grab one for myself since I love her chosen colors. 

 This is what came in my package - look at that awesome painting on the cover of the book! The book includes templates so you can recreate these types of paintings yourself, but before you get there it works you through other projects to build up your ability to mix the colors like she does.

 One of the first projects is to make a color value chart - I seriously always love color charts, so I was right on board. I cut some larger watercolor paper in half and printed out the template (which you can download off her website) on nice watercolor paper. I love the format and evenness the template gives and I love that I can see all the colors I can create with this palette at a glance.

I also had to just mess around with the pretty colors, so I painted these little amoebas. Look how vibrant these are! I just love it. I also love the little tin this set comes in - you can mix in the palette really easily and it all closes up very compact (you could easily fit it in your purse). Just bring along a water brush and paper and you're set.

And about a week later I was just messing around and came up with this little painting. I like it so much I made it the cover on my Facebook page, lol. This was before I got better brushes too, so I'm sure I will be playing around more now :) Princeton Neptunes - check. them. out. For real.

 All this playing around inspired me to pull out some other art supplies - acrylic inks! I grabbed these on major clearance and hadn't really used them at all until now. Their little bottles just look so cool and I thought they might work like watercolor (spoiler, they don't - big surprise, right?)/

Then I decided to keep the amoebas going by mixing my few acrylic inks to see what combinations I could get and test out the different looks I could get. The painting on the right is with acrylic ink. I will say that I was impressed with all the colors I could make with just my primary set and the metallics are fun but more designed for lettering, but they just don't have the zip and glow in the color that watercolor gives. They also dry more streaky unless you even it out completely yourself - I was used to the flow of watercolor evening itself out. So, I will certainly use these, I just won't expect them to be like watercolor now. I also decided to make a color chart for another palette - this is the Windsor & Newton Cotman 14 Pan Travel Set, which I do like, but some of the color choices are a bit odd. They include white, which I will probably never use, and the two reds included are so similar I don't really see what the point was there. But the glory of this set is that I can pop out the ones I don't like and replace them with any other half pans I would use instead, so I will be adding a neutral tint I've filled myself and then I'll have to decide on the other color. I LOVE the case on this though. It has several mixing areas, a tiny dish you could mix in or put a little water in to use as a wash, and it includes the most adorable little brush that also fits inside. I just love that everything is so contained and easily portable - plus it's just cute. This was another thing I got on major clearance, so I'm really happy with it for the money. Now I'm just glad I have the colors painted out in front of me for reference.

So, the Josie Lewis book includes lots of projects that are designed to ease you in to more complex color mixing projects. Having made a goal of working through the whole book, I decided to start with the very first one. It involved smooshing acrylic paint around with a palette knife, and it's definitely something I never thought I'd do, lol. It was pretty fun though, even if my color combo came out kind of Miami Dolphins looking. That pthalo green really takes over.

Another beginning project is a color value collage. I've never been one to do much collage, but again it was pretty fun. I used 2 fishing magazines, a crochet magazine, and some junk mailers because that's what I had on hand and I'm pretty happy with the result.

And just yesterday  decided to make color charts for my most used watercolor set - the Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 pan set. I bought this back in 2017 about halfway through the flower painting challenge and I really liked these for how vibrant they were compared to the total cheapo set I was using before. Since there were so many colors, I never did a proper color chart until now. Thanks to the templates in the book, every palette is my oyster as far as color charts go :) I will confess that as I do more watercolor I am less enamored of this set of colors, but they really are lovely so I'm glad I did this to reignite the spark and make me want to use these again. And just as a reference for anyone else out there that is considering getting this set, I've included some close up shots of each page so you can really see the range of colors included.

The final page does have a few extra colors thrown in because I have them in tubes and needed to see their value somewhere. The are Windor & Newton Artists' in Naples Yellow, Windsor & Newton Professional in Neutral Tint, and Windsor & Newton Designer Gouache in Spectrum Yellow. Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there :)

So thank you for enduring all my random art adventures of late! Seriously who knew making color charts and simple art projects with not much skill involved could be so much fun? I will be progressing through the Josie Lewis book throughout the year, so be forewarned that you will see more posts of my projects some time. I've included a link to the Creativebug class that helped me so much in case anyone is interested. Fall down this hole with me!

*contains affiliate links, but all opinions are 100% my own.

FO: Botany Voile Sailor Top

This is a case of falling in love with a fabric and then figuring out what to do with it, lol. When I was at The Sewing Studio in July, I saw this beautiful line of cotton voiles from Windham Fabric's Botany line - there were 3 different similar designs with different background colors. I figured the white background would fit in my wardrobe best, so I bought 2 yards to make a top with it. After finding the burgundy twill fabric I used to make my Melissa skirt a month or so later, I figured this fabric would look great with that on the bottom, so I pulled this out and deliberated over what top to make. I entertained several designs I hadn't tried before, but knowing I wanted the fabric to be the star of the show and already knowing I could make it fit well, I went with my tried-and-true Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts (courtesy of the Creativebug class).

I knew I wanted this specific outfit, but it took me months to have the time to make these pieces up. Originally I planned to wear the top tucked in like shown above, but after my issues with the burgundy skirt I wore the top untucked and I really liked how it looked :) So this is all a win. I finished both of these pieces in time to wear the outfit to a shower my family threw for me (more on that soon) and I wore my spanking new Kate Spade silver metallic leather Keds (and I'm a total old lady because I bought a silver metallic leather watch band to match my shoes, lol). I really liked this outfit since it was all new (a novel thing for me anymore) and exactly what I wanted to wear. Don't you love when that happens?

But back to the top. Having made this pattern 2 other times, I've tweaked a few things each time. This time I knew I wanted to add a 1" forward head adjustment to my already added 1/2" hollow chest adjustment. My last version was made in a quilting cotton, which really exaggerated the issue that the shoulder seam was 1" too far back. After a panicked moment before closing up the neckband facing and thinking it wouldn't fit, I powered through and I can say that the fit is spot on for me :) My neckband doesn't gape or slide around to show my bra straps, but it's not restricting. I've finally got it!

So my only niggle would be that my side seams dip downward to a slight point - I'm really not sure why this happens on me, but it happens on most all of my shirts. It always looks fine on the pattern and the seams line up fine, so it must be something about my body that I need to adjust for. That will be my next puzzle to solve, I guess.

I'm really happy with the fit on the back even :) My hair covers it, but it is slightly poufy where it gathers to the yoke, so again that's super particular but on a simple top like this why not try to get it right? This is the first time I haven't had wrinkling in the upper back on this shirt and I'm really happy with it.

Here it is tucked in like I originally thought I wanted. The shirt itself looks great tucked in, so I will definitely be wearing it like this with other skirts. The voile is crisp and breathable, but still soft for the gathers and tucking in. I think it will soften even more with a few more washes. It's just the best fabric, lol.

But this is how I wore it on the first day, and on each day since. It's funny - this fabric was a little more of a splurge than I usually justify, but it was such nice quality and such a pretty print. When I was deciding what pattern to use, I thought of this pattern first but it felt like it was too simple for such nice fabric, lol. Silly how our brains work, right? Because this pattern was really perfect for this fabric and I'm so pleased with the results.

Summary:
Fabric: 2 yards Botany Full Bloom in White cotton voile by Windham fabrics - $16.05
Pattern: Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts via Creativebug
Notions: thread - $1.50
Time:
Total Cost: $ 17.55

FO: Lotta Jansdotter Sailor Top

So after my Memorial Day Weekend Sewing Extravaganza, I thought I wouldn't have any further time to sew before I needed to move. My house was under contract, so I figured I would be packing everything up, but some snags came up pretty soon that left us in a weird limbo. And then I got sick. I had a virus that turned into a chest infection and bronchitis :/ So while I wanted very much to be productive, I didn't have any definites on my moving situation, plus I just didn't have much energy and would fall into horrible coughing fits if I exerted myself much. What to do when you can't do responsible things you should be doing? Why not sew something, right?

This is my second version of the Sailor Top from the Fancy Tiger Crafts Creativebug Class. This pattern is seriously so simple, but I love my first version and wear it all the time. I bought this Lotta Jansdotter print quilting cotton in January at The Sewing Studio with this shirt in mind. I actually bought it to wear with another fabric I bought, but we will talk about that in my next post. This fabric is called Faril and it has acid green/yellow butterflies on it.

My first version was in a drapey Swiss dot cotton, but they say in the class that it works great for quilting cotton, so I decided to give it a try. I've generally found I'm not a fan of wearing quilting cotton - much to the chagrin of my previous self who bought tons of the stuff to make clothing with over the years. It's just a bit stiff and thick for Florida summer. I don't mind it in winter at all, but that's only like 1 month of the year. Anyway, this pattern is a raglan top that gathers into the neck yoke. The sleeves have a simple facing for the hem, and I love how it makes the top stitching deeper into the sleeve as this echos the yoke and hem.

The only adjustment I made this time was to shorten the neck yoke by 1/2" as a hollow chest adjustment. My first version goes out a bit far and sometimes shows my bra, so I just wanted to fix that. In this stiffer fabric though I can see other adjustments I need to make. Most notably is that I need a major forward shoulder adjustment. I need to move the shoulder seam forward almost an inch, so while I don't love this back photo I'm wondering how much of my back fit issues are caused by the need of this adjustment. I'll have to try it out on my next version and see what a difference that makes.

It also doesn't look so bad when it's untucked, oddly enough, which contributes to my thinking it's caused by the forward shoulder issue. Other than this slight shift the top is nice and comfy, if a bit stiff. I'm hoping it will soften up with washing.

This is a more accurate representation of the color of the butterflies. They are a great acidic green :) This is just a close up of the few details this shirt has - all very simple. There really isn't too much to say about this shirt since it only took 2 hours to make, lol. So easy.

Interestingly, while I really like this shirt (and I've worn it several times already with compliments each time), I don't really like it for the skirt I originally bought it to go with. I bought this fabric so that the skirt I planned to make with it would not be a wardrobe orphan, but I may have fixed that now - we'll see. So while at first I was a bit bummed it didn't work entirely as planned (though the idea is growing on me a bit more now I've had some time away from making it), I really like this shirt just for itself. Who would've thought so many people would compliment a quilting cotton top in an unobtrusive print? And such a simple shape? It's kind of baffling. I've worn this tucked in as well as untucked, and I like it both way. So I'm glad that an item I wasn't super fond of at first has turned into a nice item in its own right :) I really love this pattern, and I have a nice little stack of other versions planned in my head. If you haven't tried this (whether through the class or as an individual pattern), I definitely recommend you change that. It's a great piece!

Summary:
Fabric: 2 yards Faril by Lotta Jansdotter quilting cotton - $9.23
Pattern: Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts via Creativebug class
Notions: White thread - $1.00
Time: 2 hours
Total Cost: $ 10.23

*Affiliate links included, though my membership is purchased with my own money and my opinion is uninfluenced.

Black Friday Deals from Craftsy and Creativebug

I can't let a Black Friday weekend pass by without letting you know of the great deals you can score! Two of my favorite websites are having some great deals, so if you are wanting to learn any new skills, now is the time to snag a class and get moving :)

Craftsy has made all of their classes $17.87 or less :) There is even a nice handful of "doorbuster" classes that I can personally vouch for.

• Jacques Torres' Ultimate Box of Chocolates is $15.00 - I have this class and have really enjoyed watching. I've learned so much about chocolate making! Once I get my hands on some molds, I fully plan to make my own fancy chocolates. This is definitely one worth buying if you're at all interested.
• Susy Furrer's Patternmaking Basics: The Bodice Sloper is $15.00 - All of Suzy's classes are wonderful, and this is a great place to start with patternmaking. Once you follow her class, you can make a custom bodice block to make all the designs you like fit you more easily. She's super informative, and this is a fantastic class to have on hand.
• Startup Library: Painting with Watercolors is $17.87 - I watched this class on Labor Day (when you could watch all their classes as much as you wanted) and I can definitely vouch for it being very informative and a great place to start learning about watercolor painting. And you really can't beat that price for something that goes as in depth as this class.

The other doorbuster classes sound great too - I'm particularly tempted by the hand embroidery one :) But even the non-doorbuster classes are up for a great deal at $17.87. If you had your eye on any classes, or even if you don't know what they have to offer, I definitely recommend you head over here and see what will tempt you as this price does not come around often (trust me).

Craftsy is also having a great sale on their supplies - I use these sales as a great opportunity to stock up on some sweater quantities of nice yarn. Case and point:

• Cloudborn Wool Worsted Twist Yarn is $2.99 per skein! I grabbed some of this yarn for a similar price over the summer and just finished knitting my Salal cardigan with it (to be blogged soon). It's springy and woolly and a great yarn for the price. 
• Cloudborn Wool Fingering Twist Yarn is also $2.99 per skein - and that's for 402 yards of yarn! You could technically make a sweater for less than $10 with this stuff. It's the same lovely wool from as the worsted weight, just thinner. This is a seriously good deal.
• Cascade Eco + Ecological Yarn is just $11.88 per skein which is just crazy. There are only 2 colors left to choose from, but this is a fantastic price.
• Cloudborn Merino Alpaca Color Change Lite is a really pretty gradual striping gradient yarn that is marked down to just $8.99 for 274 yards of sport weight. These are just so need to get that gradient or faded look without spending a lot of money.

I've bought so many supplies from Craftsy, I can't even count, lol. They are a great place to get quality supplies when you don't have nicer yarn stores or fabric stores nearby (like me). This sale is a good opportunity to look around and see if anything tempts you :)

My other favorite place to learn is having a deal so crazy I honestly don't know how you couldn't give it a try. From now through 11/29/2017, Creativebug is offering a 3 month subscription for just $1. Seriously. Creativebug has a different structure than Craftsy, but I have learned so much from their classes:

• All of Yao Cheng's Watercolor classes are amazing - believe me, I've watched them all - and if she can teach me how to paint, that is absolute proof of how good her classes are. Beginning Watercolor is a great place to start, and I really enjoyed the 31 Days of Flowers Painting Challenge. If you're wanting to see this for yourself, this is a great time to get signed up for just $1.
• Needle Felting is way fun, and I never would've actually given it a try without this class to show me the ropes. I still plan on making that goldfish someday!
• This Cartwheel Pillow Class is adorable. I recently made one myself (to be blogged soon) and it was so simple but so cute :) 
• Fashion Draping is taught by Mood Fabric's in house instructor and is super informative. This is one of the more difficult techniques Creativebug shows as far as sewing goes, and it's a great way to get your feet wet. The other Mood classes are great too (Fashion Illustration and Understanding Textiles).
• Having made my own Sailor Blouse in the Fancy Tiger Crafts class, I can tell you that having this pattern alone for the $1 would be more than worth the subscription. I love my top and have a few more planned (when I get more free sewing time).

These are just a few of the classes I've enjoyed and learned from in the little over a year I've had a subscription. The glory of Creativebug's set up is that you are able to watch a class on a whim since you have free access to their entire library with a subscription (which is only $5 per month regularly anyway- so worth it) - this is the only reason I even contemplated trying to paint with watercolors. If I'd had to purchase an expensive class from Craftsy not knowing if I would take to it or enjoy painting at all, I would never have spent the money on a class. Just being able to watch things you may be interested in is an awesome concept. I honestly can't recommend their site enough, and what better time to give them a try then when it will only cost you $1 for 3 months?

Hopefully this post isn't too annoying. These are affiliate links, so I get a small percentage if you make a purchase, but I would never post about them if I did not enjoy these sites so much myself. I am always on both of these sites, watching classes, buying supplies, etc. They are great places for inspiration and I've never regretted any of the money I've spent on their products.

Yay for Black Friday!

My Daily Painting Challenge with Yao Cheng

Every once in a while there is a challenge that kicks my rear in gear and makes me want to really try something new. I posted about dabbling in watercolor painting back in March, but to be honest I haven't done any painting since then :/ I was still very interested in trying to get better at painting, but I just struggled with what to paint and when to fit it in. When I saw this new Creativebug class I knew it was just what I needed to get me to give it another try and (hopefully) make a habit of painting.

I waxed poetic about Yao Cheng's beautiful painting classes on Creativebug back in March (click here to see all of her classes), and I still love her effortless style of painting florals. Yao had a new Daily Challenge class that released on July 1st. The way it worked was that a new chapter of the class was released each day to show how to paint a new type of flower. I was stubborn, so I didn't start on July 1st like the class is meant to do, but by July 10th I could no longer resist the temptation. I pulled out my palette and dove in.

I painted all of #1 through #8 on the 10th, then I painted #9 through #11 on the 11th. After that I did each flower on its assigned day. Things didn't start off terribly or anything, but I wasn't exactly thrilled by what I was able to paint on these days. Mostly I was happy that you could tell what type of flower they are supposed to be, lol. These are: 1. Craspedia, 2. Lavender, 3. Hyacinth, 4. Tulips, 5. Goldenrod, 6. Orange Firethorn, 7. Agapanthus, 8. Stock, 9. Dill Stems, 10. Allium

By the 11th, I had a decent grasp on the techniques and got slightly better. These flowers are: 11. Hydrangea, 12. Rose, 13. Fuji Chrysanthemum, 14. Carnation, 14. Pincushion Protea. I enjoyed painting the hydrangea, but I really don't love how watery my results are compared to most of the other flowers. By this time I had a better handle on my leaves and I was better able to control my color bleeds. I LOVED the Fuji Chrysanthemum. This became one of my favorites even though it's not as well executed as later flowers (and it was with my cheaper materials). The carnation saw a new technique - wet on wet. You actually paint with just water and then drop the colors you want onto the edges to get a natural looking bleed. The pincushion was fun and was fairly easy to get the desired result.

This set is when I started to realize the failings of my materials could be causing my frustration. These are: 16. Dahlia, 17. Muscari, 18. Sunflower, 19. Ranunculus. The only one in this set I like is the muscari. I was getting major puddles on my paper as well as major warping where I used more water - you can see this in the way the paper scanned all wobbly and this was after I set the dry paintings under heavy books to flatten them out. This was when I decided that my paper wasn't great. I also noticed I was having problems with the depth of my colors when dry. I know watercolor is sheer by design, but mine were much more so than Yao's and it didn't seem to matter what I did. I put that question up on the class message board and the consensus was that I needed better quality paint. Since I had an Amazon credit, I sprung for a pan set that had good reviews and people specifically mentioned the vibrancy of the colors. Day 18 (the sunflowers) was the first day I had the new paint. I couldn't resist trying to add a little of my new gold paint in there, lol. I also must confess - I was afraid of getting my colors muddy in the pans - this is why the sunflowers are such solid colors, particularly in the leaves. I got over this by picking up a porcelain plate at the Dollar Tree to act as a palette - basically I get that plate as muddy and mingled as I want while keeping my pans mostly original. This has worked really well for me, so if you're at all OCD particular about your colors like I am, I recommend a wide open palette to mix with. Also day 19 was my first day I repainted, but I still wasn't really happy with it. The first time I got a lot of accidental bleeds and then I accidentally dropped my loaded paint brush and I was really done. I painted another version that night, but I think it looks like a lollipop, lol.

This set saw things really start to turn around. These are: 20. Hibiscus, 21. Water Lily, 22. Poppies, 23. Pansies, 24. Lily. I was very happy with my hibiscus ... until I added the gouache for the stamen, lol. I couldn't find gouache locally except for full kits, and being on my very tight budget I went with the cheapest option, lol. Well, the gouache I got is kind of useless. I'm not sure if it should even be called gouache. The paint wasn't opaque and kept activating the color beneath, mixing their colors and dimming my yellows. It was also very goopy even after I mixed it with water. I'm still very happy with the flower itself and the leaves of my hibiscus. I finally got better paper on the 22nd, and I'm sure you can see the difference in this day. I had no puddling or warping of the paper and it was so great, lol. Again I was happy with this until I had to add the gouache. I still like the green and pink poppies though. The pansies are another wet on wet technique and I need to practice it more. Mine was not quite wet enough to spread the color fully, so I had to go back and add more. The lily was one of the more difficult flowers in that it took about 3 layers to do. I was frustrated at the time, but it's really not that bad now that I look at it after the fact.

These next two lines are the final week, and this is where I really saw definite improvement. These are: 25. Cherry Blossom, 26. Anemone, 27. Cosmos, 28. Alstromeria. I loved my cherry blossom until I added the gouache (again). This gouache did come out better than others though, so I still like it a lot. By day 26, I had purchased a micro brush for the wispy details and this was the first day I used it. Oh man what a difference! These anemonies became one of my absolute favorites I painted this month. The alstromeria got painted twice because I forgot to add the yellow while the base flower was wet, so I ended up painting two. In the end I actually like the first try better, lol.

And the final few days are certainly some of my best work - go figure. These are: 29. Delphinium, 30. Foxgloves, 31. Peonies. I LOVE these peonies. I really like all 3 of these, but the peonies in particular came out really nicely. 

Overall these were my favorites. Some of them I can see aren't fantastic now that I've improved a bit, but I still remember feeling proud of them at the time I painted them. I will definitely be painting all of these again :)

What I learned:

• Cheap materials give cheap results - I talked a big game about saving so much money on my watercolor supplies when I first started, but to be honest I have replaced ALL of my components throughout this challenge. The paint I had wasn't giving me reliable pigment (probably because there wasn't a lot of pigment in the mixture), so I got a better set. My paper was warping something awful on every single painting, leaving rings around the areas where the water puddled, so I bought thicker paper (Strathmore 300 Series). My brushes just didn't seem to hold the amount of water that Yao's did, and after further research I discovered it was mostly due to the bristle type of the brushes, so I bought a few nice brushes (synthetic squirrel) in the sizes I used most. I still shopped sales at local stores, and somethings came from Amazon, but I still spent considerably more than my original $20 or so. I've really enjoyed painting everyday, so this cost was worth it to me, but it would have saved me money if I had just bought the decent stuff in the first place. 
• Not all brush types are the same size - Yao is pretty good about telling you which brand of brush she is using as well as what size and why. When she used a size 12, I grabbed my size 12. I started to notice that I wasn't getting near the swipe size she was, so upon further examination I realized my cheapy brushes were considerably smaller even though the number was the same. I even found this with a nicer set of brushes that was a different material - as in I bought a set of brushes that included a size 6, then bought a nicer synthetic squirrel brush in a size 6 and the squirrel brush is a decent bit larger. This isn't a terrible thing, just keep in mind that you will get a different result.
• You can improve at ANYTHING if you devote yourself to doing it a little every day. I certainly don't think I'm some amazing painter by any means, but I can see decided progress from my flowers at the beginning of the month to the end of the month. This is why I wanted to post all of my flowers here to show the difference. The differences are not just in the quality of my materials (which is noticeable as well) but in the decisiveness of my strokes, the quality of my color blends, the shapes of the flowers, etc. Just from spending a little time each day with this skill, I have improved.

I was so into watercolor that most of my other hobbies kind of stopped in the month of July. It's not that I didn't enjoy sewing and knitting still, it's that I really was having fun with watercolor and I wanted to keep that momentum going. I also painted a few extra things this month since I was in the mood and all my supplies were out. I tried Yao's geometric blending exercises from her Beginning Watercolor class a few times to test out my new paint set - *hint* all of these have metallic paints because I just couldn't resist. Then I decided to try painting birds,which turned out pretty well - a few of these were copied from tutorials I found on Pinterest, but the cardinal I painted from a photograph (cardinals are my favorite bird). Then another night I decided to paint my Crown of Thorns plant (which was on the new paper with new brushes) and I was very happy with how the leaves and buds look (still need to work on the thorns and the pot though, lol). One of the draws for me to start the flower challenge was to actually have something in mind to paint as this used to be my biggest hang up (meaning I would want to paint, but I just could never decide what subject to actually paint). Now I just have things pop into my head that I should paint, so this is another nice perk of completing this program. It made me realize that it doesn't have to be a big song and dance - just paint something!

I'm surprised and excited with the results of taking this class. What started as an innocent, "Hey why not?" type thought has turned into something that I love to do. I would never have guessed that I would take to painting in any form if you'd asked me any time before the last year. It's crazy that something I always thought I was no good at would become something I actually feel a little proud of now :) It's nice to see the results of dedicating yourself to something new. So, if you have a notion to try out art, I cannot recommend this class enough. It doesn't matter that the month is over because you can still watch each class and do this at your own pace. You can also do like I did and watch Yao's Beginning Watercolor class first so you have a little understanding of what to do going in. Both of these classes are included with a $4.95 monthly membership (you can even get 1 month free as a new member!) and I recommend watching anything and everything that spark your interest. I had a lot of fun and have a great jump start into a new skill. I'm also super excited for Yao's new class that comes out this Wednesday!

FO: Red Dotted Swiss Sailor Top

Ever since joining Creativebug last year, I've planned on making the Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts. It's such a simple shape and seemed pretty flattering in general, plus the examples were just so cute! I had to give it a try. I finally decided to just dive in a few weeks ago.

So, this is the Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts. The pattern is part of a class on Creativebug, so you print out and assemble the pattern like normal, but the instructions are given in video form. The class itself is very easy to follow, giving close up demonstrations of each step. The class is designed that even a beginner could end up with a cute shirt. You can use any type of fabric you like, and while the quilting cotton examples are tempting, I knew I wanted to use something different.

My fabric is a simple dotted Swiss cotton in red that I bought when Hancock Fabrics was going out of business. We're talking in the last days of their business, meaning this was one of the few remaining bolts. Which is kind of surprising since this is nice fabric. It's a light, breezy cotton that is just slightly sheer but the color helps with the opacity. I bought 2 yards not having any clue what I would make, but it was only $2 a yard so I went for it. It suddenly struck me that it would be great for this pattern :) Gotta love those random bits of inspiration. I think the dotted texture really helps a very plain top.

This fabric really is great for this pattern. There is a bit of shaping at the waist, but mostly this is just a boxy top. The fact that this fabric has a nice drape really helps keep me from looking like a lego brick. If I pull my arms out (like above) it definitely looks a bit boxy, but I don't typically stand that way, lol. I think the real saving grace is that it flares just a touch at the hip, giving the illusion of shaping.

I was skeptical about raglan sleeves on my shoulders, but I'm happy they look good :) The raglan sleeves seem to give my shoulders a bit of extra pouf which I'm never opposed to. I like the sleeve bands as well - it all balances well together I think. Even though the design is simple, it's well thought out because the sleeve hems, bottom hem, and neck band all have a similar look when finished.

It may be a bit wide of a neckline with my shape. I had to adjust the neck throughout the day when I wore it the first time - not so much it bugged me, but enough that I realize it's not perfect fitting. But really how much fitting can you do on a top like this?

So that's my Sailor top :) I have a few random fabric cuts in things like rayon that I think would be great in tops like this, so I'm sure I will be making more. The nice thing is that this pattern come with your membership to Creativebug, so if you're interested I'd definitely recommend following the links!

Summary:
Fabric: 1.5 yards red dotted Swiss cotton - $4.00
Pattern: Sailor Top by Fancy Tiger Crafts on Creativebug
Notions: red thread - $0.50
Time: 3.5 hours
Total Cost: $4.50

*I am an affiliate of Creativebug, and I get a little something if you sign up through me. I bought my membership with my own money, and all opinions about this pattern are completely my own. I just really liked this class :)