new shirt

This morning I grabbed one of the old black teeshirts J. brought me to sew with. I have a green and white floral sleeveless top but I don't really always like to wear green & white, but I would like to rid myself of this farmer tan. So I put the tank over the black men's tee and started cutting. The boys were pretty alarmed that I was cutting up a perfectly good tee shirt. As in, "no mom, you are not going to cut up that shirt! It's still a good shirt!" I don't have before pictures.

Envision, um, like a black size large Hanes shirt? Then I cut off the sleeves and the neck, hemmed around the sleeve, sliced a little down the front which I believe I will end up sewing up. The green & white one has a gathered neckline and some puckery not really smocked, with a tie at the vee which makes a keyhole neck. Oh and I cut the length to match the one I had as well. After that I got scared. Then I did three pintucks (?) down the front, and made ruffles from the sleeves which I sewed onto the neckline and into the keyhole. Oh and a big honkin flower. Um. Darts at the bust to de-gappify the armholes. I'm having trouble taking pictures of the shirt that (a.) don't look like I have 6 chins, and (b.) don't look like my breasts have taken over the planet.

These are the best I could get. 

It's probably a little snugger around the waist than it should be but I could probably remove the lower half of the 3 front pin tucks...or I might rip those out altogether.


So over the weekend the boys and I spent some time with our neighbors. They like to go next door and swim with their boys, and I've been over there on occasion to "watch" the swimmers but this was the first time I'd set down and had a beer with my neighbors. The guy is actually from a town south of New Orleans. He's younger than my dad but still he reminds me of {if Daddy was a very dark black man, as opposed to just very very tan} my Daddy. Probably the Louisiana in him, or the beer. Or maybe his eyes. I'm not sure exactly.