I'm happy to report that my Sahalie inspired top is now finished (the finished picture is now on the sidebar)!

Sadly, my fabric still hasn't arrived. It's still early enough in the day that the UPS man probably hasn't made his rounds to our neighborhood yet (even sadder is the fact I know what time he arrives in our neighborhood). So while we're on the topic of dissapointment, let's talk about Santacruzdesigns.com. When are they going to put some goodies on their site? I've been anxiously waiting for some of their patterns- their teaser page sounds so interesting:

From the funky to the fabulous, just some of the awesome patterns we'll be offering are: Knit tops in every design we can dream up. Cute, sexy- blouses, beach-wear including shorts and more shorts! Work-out and lounge wear.

I'm also hoping that Hot Patterns also comes out with some new designs soon too. With all this fabric that I've got coming in, I need something to use it all up!

Taylor started basketball camp this morning and I realized something very important. Two hours is not long enough to make a top.

Well, actully, it's more like an hour and a half once you taxi back and forth, etc. So, what did I get accomplished? Lots of serger headaches for one. I had to change the thread - I'm using a black woolly nylon. So I tied it to the tails of some previous thread that was already sitting in the machine. Everything was going so smoothly, until the thread decided not to pass through the eye of the needle and sprung back into the machine. After several failed attempts of trying to rethread and tie it together- only to have it spring back on me, I just decided to scrap that whole idea and use regular thread in the upper looper. Then the serger blade gave me problems. I had found a new blade in with all my serger tools and installed it. I don't know how I installed it wrong, but it kept eating the fabric, not cutting it. I finally got it set right and started sewing - only to realize I had somthing like 45-50 minutes left to sew before picking Taylor back up!

I did manage to get the side panels attached to the front and the shelf bra attached. I guess that's something!

In other news, my large Fabric Mart purchase didn't arrive today. The whole Memorial Day holiday must have really messed with my cutting\shipping times. I'm hoping that my package arrives tomorrow - otherwise, I'll have to stalk the UPS man around town.

I got to work today on making my Sahalie inspired top. I traced off my top pattern and placed my fabric underneath it to guage how I wanted it to look. Then WHACK! I cut the pattern - I feel liberated!

Anyway, here's what I have so far:

Taylor starts a basketball camp tomorrow (for 2 hours) - I'm hoping that I can work on this and\or finish it so I can wear this later on in the week. I hope it looks as fantastic as the Sahalie swimsuit that I saw in the catalog!

Well, maybe not Picasso - but I did do some painting today. The house kind.

After Taylor's softball game (woohoo, they won!), Bret and I painted the trim on the house. Then did yard work. UGH, I'm beat and my arm is already sore. So I guess that means I probably won't get to my next project tonight - Simplicity 5502 (which I think is now out of print).

I made this pattern a year ago (you can read my review here) and changed it a bit by adding some some sporty looking stripes. It's another one of those quick to sew up type patterns that gives great results. I also think that this pattern will work well in copying this inspiration piece. If I can hold a pen, I may retrace the front top to see how I would like to add the contrast middle panel (it seems to be wider at the top and tapers off slightly as it reaches the hem).

For some reason, my mom gets quite a few catalogs that are different than anything that I've ever gotten. I was browsing through Sahalie and I came across this swimsuit.

I am absolutely in love with it! If I can't find fabric that matches the center panel, then I'll scrap the swimsuit and just make it into a halter top and use the Wazoodle Girls, Girls, Girls fabric. Now, when am I going to find the time to sew this one up?