Everything, all at once.

Whew!  Yesterday was a full day!

First thing in the morning, I stamped on top of Power Clutch.  I had it in my mind that I wanted to use a feather design in gold, so I got out my Konad plate m77 and China Glaze Passion:

Here's the picture I took in the morning, with
well-conditioned cuticles . . .

And here's one I took in the car in the early
evening after sitting in the sun all afternoon.
You can see the design better, but my cuticles are all
dried out, gah!

After that, Hubby and I got in the car and drove WAY out in the country to go to our first ever polo match!  We have a friend who plays and he invited us to come watch. It had been raining in the morning, but we got lucky and had a warm, sunny afternoon:

And I wore my new silk Sencha, which I finished on Thursday:

Here's the picture Hubby took.

And here's one my friend took.  She thought I should
have a picture with the horses in the background.

I am so in love with this top!  It is pretty and silky and comfy. AND it stayed pretty fresh all day long.  My cotton one wrinkled terribly, especially under the arms, but this one only got a few wrinkles on the back, due to sitting in the car for so long. There may be another one in my future, if I can find another print at Vogue that I like.

I originally thought that I wouldn't like this version as much as the first version I made - this one does not have tucks at the neck.  But I do like it, and having four fewer tucks to do made sewing it a little easier.  But boy, that silk was slippery!  I went really slowly, and did all the finishing by hand like I did on my first one.

When I got to the point of sewing the snaps on the back, I felt like it was a little plain, so I sewed the outer snaps all the way through the fabric to give it a little decoration:

I like how it looks, and it made the snaps more stable as well.  So, Sencha win!

After the polo, we drove back to the city to go to one of the concerts of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, held on the beautiful University of Chicago campus.  Our friends drove down too and met us there, and afterwards, we all went to Medici for dinner. This is a recent find for us, and I'm happy to have found it.  This place has some of the best pizza I've found in Chicago.  In a city known for its pizza, I've had a hard time finding pies I like.  But then, I'm a pizza snob.

Whew!  Like I said, a full day!  We're thinking of maybe heading back to the Jazz Fest today . . .

Worn

Saturday night we headed out to a concert and dinner with some friends, so I took the opportunity to wear my new Sencha blouse!  I got Hubby to snap a couple pix before we left, and of course I think I look like a dork, but at least you can see what the top looks like on the body:

Yes, I'm a school teacher.

I wore it with the Subway Stairs Skirt I bought from Anthropologie a couple years ago.  I loved the skirt, but could never figure out what to wear with it.  I think this blouse suits it beautifully.

What's that over there?

I did have a couple problems wearing the blouse.  Because the skirt sits  a little low on my waist, the blouse didn't want to stay tucked in.  I think one more snap at the bottom will fix that.  I also found that the snaps going up the back made it pretty uncomfortable to lean back on the chairs in the concert and restaurant.  I don't really see any way to fix this - buttons would be even worse.  I guess one must suffer for fashion . . .

Interestingly, I didn't have any discomfort at all from the neck.  In fact, the longer I wore it, the looser the neck seemed to be.  I think I just got used to it.  I really like the look of the high neck, so I'm glad it's not as bothersome as I'd thought it would be.

And before we left, I painted my nails RED to complement my outfit:

Zoya Sookie

Boy oh boy, do I love this color!  And application was so much easier thanks to the tip from Gerry and SoKnitPicky about doing the right hand first!  Thanks, girls!

Even despite the minor wardrobe malfunctions, I felt pretty in my new blouse, and I was even stopped by two different groups of ladies in the restaurant who wanted to compliment me on my ensemble!  I definitely want to make this blouse again, so I'm going to check my wardrobe and see what else I have that will go with this style.  I'd love to do one in silk . . .

Tea Time

I finally finished my Sencha blouse!  And I love it so much, I couldn't even wait to take modeled pictures.  I had to show it off right now!

front

back

The fabric is more of the $3 per yard cotton voile I bought at Vogue over the summer.  I bought 2 yards just because I liked the print, but didn't really have any idea what I'd do with it.  After thinking it over for a while, I decided to try it out with the Sencha.  It is quite sheer, and the print is (I think) very dark blue, almost black, with the lighter tones being more blue-grey.

I made version two, which has tucks at the neckline (I know they are hard to see in the photos).  This version is meant to button up the back, but when I got the thing assembled, I decided to do the closure with snaps instead, because I really liked how the pattern lined up at the back and didn't want to break the continuity.  It meant a lot more work, but I'm happy I did it that way.

I have to admit that I didn't make a muslin for this one, and I was sweating it for a while, but it turned out OK.  I had read that the neckline was uncomfortably tight, but I didn't really think this would apply to me; I have a pretty skinny neck.  But as I was sewing and trying it on, I started to get worried.  Once the thing was finished though, it was fine - whew!  It is a high neckline, but it works on me.  However, I would think that for anyone with a normal-sized neck, some adjustments would be necessary.

There is a fair amount of hand-sewing on this one, and I added even more.  The facings for the cap sleeves and button plackets are hand-stitched to the body, but I also hand-stitched the hem, just because I really like the hand-made, almost couture look of it.  (Am I kidding myself?)  Thankfully, I really enjoy hand stitching:

tiny little catch-stitching

There are a couple things I'd do differently next time - and I would like to do this one again.  I forgot all about finishing the seams until it was too late (duh) and had to go back and very carefully cut the exposed bits with my pinking shears.


And next time, I'll make my markings on the wrong side of the fabric (double duh) - the difference between the right and wrong sides of this one are so minute, I ended up making all my markings (in blue chalk, no less) on the right side.  That made it a lot more difficult to line things up for the tucks, and a couple of them are kind of wonky.  On this one I don't think it will show too much - this fabric is going to wrinkle like crazy within about a minute of putting on the blouse.

If any of you have made a Sencha, I'd be very interested to know how the neck worked for you.  I looked for references to it, but didn't come up with much other that the post I linked above.