I need help.

I have a bit of a problem. I'm hoping someone out there can help me.

With their entire stock 20% off recently, I knew I had to order this lovely charcoal gray silk piece from Fabric Mart.

When it arrived home, it was love at first sight. The stripes are horizontal and because they're made with contrast stitches, they add a very dimensional feeling to the fabric. I just think it's super cool.

I usually launder my silks before working with them but this piece had a fairly delicate feel to it, almost like I could break it if I tried. So instead of laundering it in my new machine (whole 'nother post on learning how to love a new washing machine coming up), I decided to treat it like I would a nice piece of interfacing, and just soak it in hot water and then hang it to dry.


Well, this is what happened when I did that. Holy cow. The "white" stitching isn't white, thank goodness, because the gray ran as though I had added RIT dye to the tub. I added salt to try to lock the color, but I don't think it did anything. Eventually I ran a cold rinse, and even that didn't run clear. It's still dripping dark gray water on my drying line.

So what would you do? Forge ahead and make the blouse I'm planning, but be sure to dry clean this piece every time? Or wash it in the machine and hope the color stops running? Is there a better way to lock the color without damaging the silk?

I imagine the hot water did the pre-shrinking trick, now I just need to figure out what to do about the color. I don't want to have a charcoal gray torso after wearing this thing!

Fabric. And lots of it.

Well, it appears as though I'm back. Although I will be honest, I am going to try super hard not to let this blog take over my life! So my posting may be sporadic and lame, and hopefully will only record my progress on actual projects I'm sewing so I don't let my hobby run me over.

Anyhoodle, onward and upward, right?

A year or so ago one of our local fabric stores closed and they sold off all their stock in a big clearance sale. I was into fabric hoarding at the time (I've since placed myself on a strict no-fabric diet which is working about 60% of the time, thank you very much) and so I snatched up a bunch of their better woolens at 75% off.

I don't remember exactly, but I think I ended up paying less than $10 per yard for these Pendletons. And I haven't sewn a stinking thing with either one. Luckily, the moths found one of my better cashmere sweaters and not my wool stash, so they're in great condition. I steamed them this evening and I'm ready to make a decision.

What to sew?

Here are the fabric choices. Four and a half yards of lovely British khaki with one-inch windowpaney checks. Why so much? I have no idea! For a split second I considered making the Lady Grey out of it, but my mother's wisdom prevailed. It's all wrong for that pattern.


You can see the size of the check, as my cutting board underneath is in one-inch increments. Increments, check me out with the big words.


And two and a half yards of a winter white with 1/2" navy and brown check.



Both have a lighter feel to them. Not exactly tropical wool, but not heavy coating either.

I am considering making Simplicity 2648 out of one of them, I'm just not sure which one? And that pattern is not supposed to be lined, but I will be lining whatever I make with this stuff.

So. That's the problem. If you have any pattern suggestions, please throw them my way. I have tons and tons of current and vintage patterns.

I leave you with a gratuitous puppy shot. Except my gratuitous puppy is an enormous goon now who takes up quite a bit of square footage in this house. She was in desperate need of a bed for her "spot" in the kitchen, so I made something with fleece for the first time in for-EVER. Hate fleece! But she loves it, especially with the zebra on the one side, leopard on the other, and a foam pad in the middle. Ruby's in doggy heaven.

How to make $1,000

First, you have to spend waaaay more than that.

I had my gigantic Fabric and Crafts DeStash Yard Sale today. I am tired. I am sore. I am cold to my bones because it was only in the forties and early fifties with the wind blowing hard the entire time.

I have about $1,000 I didn't have yesterday, and I don't have about 500 yards of fabric I did have yesterday.

I can't believe it, almost every single piece of designer cotton I had is gone! The crowds showed up a little before 8:00, hovering on the sidewalk until I said it was ok to come down. Ladies battled over prints, standing in line together if they both wanted something, snatching up pieces that were about to be put back on the table before they could get there. There was a lady here who bought tons of fabric, and she doesn't even sew! She called her seamstress to come over and help her pick fabrics.

It was a madhouse.

If I'd had a camera, all you would have seen was blur.

All of these pictures from the night before will have to do. I had everything stacked in my office, ready to go. Fabric prints, apparel solids, knit jerseys, ribbons, trims, buttons and zippers. All color-coordinated and separated by width and by use.

Yeah, the color coding last all of ten minutes when the hoard descended. They were like vultures, snatching fabric out of each other's hands the second it looked like it was a discard. At least a dozen times I saw people on their cell phones, saying "you have to get over here, you'd love it," or "I picked some stuff out for you, hurry up!"

My mom and I were at the cutting table and my dad was taking money. We could have used at least two more cutters the first two hours, but after that it was over. As quickly as they came, they were gone and so was my gigantic fabric stash. Gone!

And you know what? It feels kind of good. As I was sorting and separating yesterday, I was totally bummed. I'd look at each piece and say "oh, I love this one!" But then I thought about it some more, and realized that even if I sewed every single day for a year, there's no way I'd ever use every piece of fabric in my Keep pile, let alone the ones I was letting go. So I added more to the Sell pile. And more. And then this morning some more.

I still have a lot of fabric left, but most of it is apparel fabrics, most of it is 60" wide. To my surprise, the apparel fabric didn't sell as well as the designer cottons, probably because it's a smaller audience that would use it.

All in all, it was a huge success. I feel lighter already. Now if only someone would go downstairs and re-organize my sewing room, I'd be totally set!

The Liverpool tunic lives

Remember how I started off with such good intentions of making a western-style dress a la Ramonster from Amy Butler's Liverpool dress/tunic pattern? Only it turned out hideous on me?

This was the dress with piped pockets. Eh. Not bad, but the pockets needed to come in quite a bit and I wasn't quite sure I was ready for the Rhinestone Cowgirl look just yet.

I took off the pockets. And then I felt like a housemaid. Like Alice from the Brady Bunch.

So I whacked off the bottom six inches and now it's a tunic. And I love it! I hemmed it quite wide, so I think I'm going to go back and put in a narrow hem, maybe a half-inch. That will give me another inch or two in length, which would be good. Gotta cover the buns if I can.

I wrote a review of the Liverpool pattern on Pattern Review but I'll repeat some of it here - I love Amy Butler clothing patterns. The fit is excellent for me, I only have to make the small adjustment to add length to the body. Other than that, the fit was exactly what I would get from a top at JCrew or Banana Republic. Maybe even a little better.

If you don't remember, I used two Liberty of London scarves I bought at Target. They're a lawn-like weave, 100% cotton. I piped it with white mini-piping made for children's heirloom sewing (it's not so thick and obnoxious and the bias fabric is much nicer), and put snaps up the front instead of the covered buttons the pattern calls for.

I am definitely going to make another one of these tops. I made elbow-length sleeves this time and next time I'll probably either do long-sleeves for fall or 3/4-length.

I was so prepared when I made this shirt, I didn't even cut the pattern lines! I carefully folded the pieces so I could cut my size and save the pattern to use in a larger size for my mom. It's like this pattern and me? We were meant to be.

Some exciting news - I managed to cut out three new projects last night, so I'm excited to get started on those and share my ideas. I stopped in to a cute little boutique while waiting for an appointment the other day and in ten minutes stocked up on so many cute sewing ideas!

Quick update

I have decided to have a yard sale. Every time I thought about how many Rubbermaid containers I have of fabric, I felt like throwing up.

I want to wait until my mom is back in town and can help me. So Saturday, May 8, is De-Stash Day! I think I'll sell it all for $2 a yard, maybe bits and pieces for less and something super great...well, who am I kidding, I'll be keeping the super great stuff.

If you're in the Saint Louis area on that Saturday, stop by and take a browse.

By the by, if anyone wants some of my babywale corduroy stash, that's now selling for $2 a yard too, but I'll throw in free shipping. I have tons of the alphabet print (bought the whole bolt) and at least three yards of most of the rest. Email me if you're interested.

See, I always wanted to open a fabric store!

The photographic evidence

I do not want to end up on Hoarders. I want to make that very clear.

I lamented my gigantic fabric stash in a previous post and Cara said I should include pictures. So now that my camera and her SD card are together again, I shall show you my work in progress.

Let's begin.

This is the biggest problem right now. These my fabric shelves, and they are out of control. Yesterday I had them all cleaned up, color-coordinated and straightened but then I needed a spot to mound up a bunch of other fabric I pulled from various places last night, like under my sewing table, and so now it's a mess again. I hope it won't look like this tonight.

This is the wall, pretty organized, right?
Here's the sewing table, from one side. The other side is where I'm supposed to cut things out. One of these days that will happen.
This is under the shelves. Much better! This used to look somewhat like the shelves. And check out the Large Cube Space Bag. It's awesome, I have eight of these babies packed already.

A pile of babywale corduroy I need to find a home for. I had such lofty goals for all of this. Anyone want any babywale corduroy?
The color-coordinated pinks! I love this stack.

A bag of scraps that's headed to Cara's doorstep.

Oh, look, there's more fabric on shelves in the basement room.
And a box of knits.
Uh, oh, the ironing board isn't clear either.
And that's not counting the four rubbermaid containers at my mom's house.

Yes, this is going to be a long process, for sure.

How many football fields is too many?

Have you ever wondered how many yards of fabric you are keeping in your stash? The just-in-case-when-I-find-the-right-project-I-can't-possibly-pass-this-up-it-feels-like-heaven-what-if-it's-gone-when-I-come-back fabric stash? I don't know how much I have, I only know I have a lot.

I know this because I've been packing it all (hah! all would be a stretch. 90%. 80%.) away in Space Bags for our impending home sale. God love the Space Bags, they allow me to literally double my storage in Rubbermaid containers. They have these new Large Cube sized ones, that form a, um, large cube. Perfect name for them, really.

I can't actually lift the Rubbermaid containers when they've been filled with two Large Cubes, but that's not a huge deal, right? That's what movers and husbands are for.

As I was moving through the zen-like motions of de-cluttering and tossing old spools of nearly empty thread tonight, thread I inherited in two Ziploc freezer bags from my Grandma Clare who passed away seven years ago, I wondered about it....if each piece of fabric is two to three yards long, and if I put them end to end, would I reach Rhode Island? Or at least West Virginia?


Why am I keeping all of this? Why did I collect so much of it in the first place, and so quickly? Two years ago I didn't have all this fabric, or all of these patterns. Two years ago I had one Rubbermaid full of old home dec fabric scraps. Maybe a dozen patterns, old ones my mom made me take back when I bought my first house.


I have piles and piles of fabric now designated with various tags - the Free Friday Fabric giveaway pile (there's some really nice ones in there), the cut scrap for some crazed quilters pile, the not good cut scrap for the Newborns in Need charity here, the piles that need more Large Cube Space Bags, and so on. My shelves are neatly organized, though! All of the apparel fabric I plan on sewing down on this summer is neatly lined up in rows, color coded and separated by woven or stretch. I will post pictures for your viewing pleasure as soon as my camera and its SD card are reunited. Great, now I'll be humming Peaches and Herb all day. Or is it Peaches and Cream?


Still, the pattern boxes overflow. Four boxes of vintage patterns I don't plan to keep for myself. One box I do. Oliver & S patterns in sizes sadly too small for the little girls I know now. I even unearthed a black and white UFO in my piles, of an adorable Oliver & S skirt and top! Too bad it never made it. Poor thing. Maybe I'll find a home for it, a sew-ist willing to give it life.


So how many yards do you have, just sitting around? Do you think it's a problem?

Free Fabric Friday - we have winners!

Whew. That was really hard work! Here's my super scientific way I chose the winners. I went to Random.org and asked it to pick a number. Then I went down and found the winner, who happened to choose the poppies print. Then I asked Random for a new number, and so on until it found someone who didn't choose the poppies! I had a string of poppies on my hands for a while. Luckily, the string was broken and it quickly found a pink winner and then the Alexander Henry. So.... the winners are...

Poppies - Wren315
Alexander Henry - Lacie Bug
Pink - Jeannine

Congratulations! I'll be sending you emails to get mailing information.

Oh, lookie, I'm changing things up today! Instead of the typical vintage pattern giveaway, I have a little fabric destashing to do. So there will be three winners of these three pieces of fabric.

First up is a lovely piece of pink something or other. Honestly, I have no idea what it is because I bought a grab bag of fabric online and this piece was the oddball. It's marked 2 1/2 so I know it's around two and a half yards, it's 58" wide, and it's fairly sturdy. I don't know how the pictures are showing on your computer, but this is true bubblegum pink and is a little lighter and brighter than my screen/pictures are showing.

I'm guessing it's a cotton or cotton blend, with a little woven jacquard design in it. It would make a lovely springtime overcoat for a girl or a peplum jacket for a lady, and there's enough fabric to make anything you'd like. It would be nice lined, but has enough body to stand on its own as well. It has no stretch or give to it at all, as far as I can tell.


It's probably machine wash and dry, as all the fabric I buy has to be durable! I machine launder silk, if that tells you anything.

The second piece of fabric for giveaway is soooo pretty - red, white and black floral print. Pretty pretty pretty! It's 100% cotton but feels very soft so it's perfect for apparel. In fact, the only reason I'm giving this away is I've already made a garment out of it and this is leftover. I made an a-line skirt for my mom out of this print, and it's beautiful. I can't remember if I've pre-washed this piece or not? It doesn't feel like it.

I think the flowers are poppies. What do you think? Maybe they're rhododendrons. I can't tell. They're pretty, that's for sure. It's 45" wide and there is 59" of it (over a yard and a half). Plenty to make a cute little summer top or skirt!

And the third piece for today's giveaway has a little sass to it. It's Alexander Henry's tattoo print called "zen charme," 100% cotton, 45" wide, and there is two yards of it. I made an a-line skirt for myself, a friend, and sold one on Etsy last summer out of this print, I love it so much. I have not laundered this piece yet.

I think it would also make an awesome sundress for the right person.

In order to win one of these lovelies, leave a comment with your email address by 9:00 p.m. CST on Friday, April 9. If you don't leave your email I can't choose you! If you have a preference of pattern, you can tell me that in the comments. I'll email the winner directly and you'll need to provide your mailing address in your email to me. (You can use spaces in your email to prevent spamming, I just need to be able to contact you somehow.) I will mail prizes to anyone, anywhere at no cost, so don't be afraid to enter.

Good luck, happy sewing (or de-stashing, in my case!) ~

Focus, Heather, focus.

I have a little problem with focus these days. I feel like my brain and energies are being pulled in a million directions.

There are the two little people running around, they seem to occupy most of my thoughts.

Then there's the job that I work to feed the family, that one always takes a big part of the day - and night - and I don't ever really get away from it since I work out of my house. It's relaxing, getting text and email messages on your Blackberry at 10:00 p.m.

There's the part where we're trying to get our house ready to sell this spring. Fun! I recommend this for people who enjoy root canals and the occasional colonoscopy.

My garden is coming up fast. I have a Master Gardener certificate, did I ever tell you that? Yeah. So it kinda bothers me when I notice my perennials have been overrun by wild onions or I haven't found the time to mulch my beds yet.

Oh, and then there's my other hobby. Sewing. By last count I have at least four projects cut out on the table, ready to go. The Parfait dress in linen, the Midtown Trench that's half-completed in Amy Butler twills, a stretchy robin's egg blue work dress for summer, a shimmery metallic linen sundress from a vintage pattern, and a beautiful blue knit top. Crap, that's five. And maybe sixteen, seventeen? other things rattling around in my mind that I'd like to get to.

Like this dress. I have a lovely beige silk with light blue flecks that I plan to make this out of. Some day.



And this! Who can forget this? It's my favorite vintage pattern of all time (at least today it is, I'm kinda fickle like that). I have a beautiful stretch silk/cotton print in blue and brown that is slated for this dress pattern. I happen to have two of this pattern (long story) so I'll be giving away the extra one soon.



The ubiquitous shirt dress pattern I've had on my table for two years now. I have a great stretch poplin in grass green I'd like to make it out of. When I have the time.



Oh, I almost forgot about this skirt! With summer coming up I think it would be so cute to have in my closet. But what would I make it out of? There's an adorable orange and white twill that would be cute. I just don't own it (note to self, place order with Fabric.com - wait, no! No more fabric!).



No wonder I do things fast. There's too much to do to be slow! But it's not fun, really, to be rushing through projects like this. It would be much more enjoyable if I could take my time and work on one thing at a time.

I'm going to continue the massive de-stash and sell at least one sewing machine on EBay. I have an older Bernina Record (800 series) that I'm planning to list soon, and maybe my newer Bernette 66? I can't remember the model number, but I'm not happy with it at all so it needs to go. And there's the two vintage beauties, the Singer 99k and the Elgin...yikes. It's not pretty when I start listing it all out.

In fact, I'd planned to have Free Fabric Fridays for a while, but there's so much fabric I need to de-stash, it's overwhelming! Maybe some of it will just need to go to St. Vincent de Paul or something. I took four bags of scrap to Newborns in Need last night. I have another two ready tonight. I wonder if I catalogued it all, would anyone be interested in just first-come-first-grab free-for-all over the internet? Kinda like a giveaway, except with a lot more things going out the door in a really rapid procession?

I think I need an intervention.

lovely lovely Liberty

Have I mentioned before that I love Liberty of London's Tana Lawn? I do so love it. I think it's because I used to go with my mom into fabric shops that carried it and it carried such wow factor - "ooooh, look, they carry Liberty," and there was some touching of the lawn with longing and admiration.

And let me tell you, Tana Lawn is lovely.

That's why I was so excited when Target announced their new collaboration because I was hoping hoping hoping they'd get some sheets or curtains or something that I'd be able to use as fabric. To wish for clothes that would fit me is kind of ridiculous. Target's clothes are adorable and I stock up on their t-shirts all the time, but the rest of their things are engineered for those women much shorter than myself. And those women who like skirts super short. Whose waistlines are way up under my boobs.

I was disappointed at the original offerings of Liberty at the beginning of March. Nothing I could use! Until today, when I had to go to Target early in the morning to stock up on goodie bags for my son's 4th birthday party, and found these scarves! They're beautiful, they're made of 100% cotton lawn, and they're $14.99. What's even better is they measure 42" by 60", or 1 5/8 yard! I broke it down and it makes it about 8.99 a yard. Much better than +$30 the Tana Lawn costs!

So I pulled out my Amy Butler Liverpool shirt/dress pattern and set about cutting it out during naptime. I'm going to try to put a Ramonster twist on it. We'll see how it goes. I may chicken out and go conventional but we'll see.

Saturday morning I took my son out estate sale-ing with me, and check out what I got for $10.


This is an enormous framed piece of fabric! It feels like cotton that's been silk-screened but since it was made in the sixties it's hard to tell. What I can tell you is I love it and it will be adorning the walls of my {future} sewing studio. For now, it's adorning the wall of my basement sweatshop corner.


I also picked up an awesome pair of swivel stools for $15, and I'll share their transformation in a later post. There's some oilcloth in my future. I know furniture technically isn't about sewing, but I have to make new seat covers for them and paint them black. Exciting!

Spring Top #2

My entry #2 for the Spring Top Week contest is another vintage pattern makeover. I took this maternity pullover, Simplicity 2554 from 1968 in view 2, and reworked the body to be a "normal" shape.

All this really takes is taking out the enormous swing in the front, and curving the sideseams in where the body would curve naturally.

Once again, this pattern had those weird darts that descended from the armscye into the bust. I just can't imagine that was ever a flattering look, and it certainly doesn't work for me at all. Maybe it's my height? I really loved the collar and tab on the front. I've looked at this pattern dozens of times in the past year and a half, and I never got tired of it. When Amy Butler's Love line debuted I thought maybe this would be a good combo for it?

I'm still searching for the perfect button. I used a fun, glittery glass button that looks like a fake diamond, but I also think something yellow that resembles a gemstone would be super cute.

Once the top was made I decided to go without the giant bow in the front. Maybe I'm too tall for it, maybe I'm too old for it, but it just didn't look right. I still like the shape of the collar and the tab without the bow, so that's good.

This pattern was a breeze to put together. I loved the way they have you assemble the collar and facings, it made it all lay super nicely.

Thanks for letting me share, I'll take some better pictures and edit this post as soon as I get a chance.

Clothing construction question

Good alliteration in my title, eh?

I'm turning to you talented people for help again. I bought a new coat pattern that I love. It just speaks to me for some reason. The sick thing is I think it has to do with the lady's dark hair? I've always wanted dark hair. Oh that's right, I have dark hair. I still don't exactly know what I look like.



Anyhoodle, I found the weirdest little fabric store in the basement of a sweet lady's house today. You heard that right.

I was in Lee's Summit, MO, just outside of Kansas City, for a lunch meeting. Afterwards, I googled fabric shops for a little looky loo and ended up finding a little gem called Zoelee's hidden (literally) inside this little gem's house. She has two basements, one on top of the other, and a full-fledged, full-service, fully-stocked fabric store in the bottom one. She even carries Juki sewing machines! I've never seen nor sewn on one before today, and it was a real treat.

For some reason I couldn't leave her home without buying something, and she happened to have this adorable coat pattern I've been eyeballing for a while. I picked up two coordinating ivory and gray Amy Butler twill prints for the exterior, but I plan on lining it. Technically it's an unlined jacket.



The thing is, it has front and back neckline facings that call for interfacing. If I line it, I was just planning on omitting the facings and enclosing the interior that way. But the facings are to be interfaced. So what now? Here are my options. Please weigh in with your expert opines so I can keep chugging on this beauty.

1. I omit the facings and line it as I'd planned, but fuse interfacing to lining in same place as would be found on the facing pieces? Kind of a quickie shortcut.

2. I include the facings and line it in a more complicated manner, attaching lining to facing pieces. This would allow me to interface as usual.

So, whadya think?

Psst....today's the day

You know where I'm going today.

Here.

I hope their sheets are good quality. I need one for Spring Top Week.

I'm stumped

I really want to tackle the Parfait dress again. I know, it's probably not a good idea, and on top of it all I kind of (really really) want to use a fabric I paid way more for than I usually do.

It was on sale, and they didn't have much left in stock (it's possible I've been stalking it for a while), so I bought 4 yards of this Yuwa cotton/linen print from Sew, Mama, Sew. I usually don't order from them because I can find the same things cheaper elsewhere, but this time they were offering $5 shipping and I couldn't find the Onnanoko (the girl) print anywhere else. So I ordered it, and it was here when I got back from the most ill-fated vacation ever last night.

It's beautiful. Soft, beautiful drape, subtle pink artwork. I washed it this morning and steam pressed it, and I love it! My original idea was to turn and cut the Parfait out of this print vertically, or rather horizontally? Whatever, you know what I mean. I want to have the girl and the long artwork running in the skirt panels, and the smaller flowers through the midriff section, leaving the bust free of decoration.
I envisioned using pink thread as a subtle detail (topstitching on the pockets, etc) without adding piping this time. Natural linen just kind of lends itself to a more pared-down design, right?

But now I don't know.

Is this the right dress pattern for this fabric? I'm going to search through my archives of vintage and modern patterns, Ottobre magazines, and Japanese sewing books to make sure I'm doing the right thing. This fabric was $18 a yard, WAY more than I ever spend on anything. So this time, I'll be making a muslin. As much as that makes me gag a little.

Oh, and I'm also super excited to mark by Blackberry's calendar for MARCH 14. The day Target debuts its Liberty of London collections! I can't wait. I know what I'll be stocking up on. Have you taken a looky loo yet?

New Look 6937 - featuring Jennifer Paganelli

Uhh, Jennifer Paganelli wasn't interviewed for this post or anything, I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression. I just used her fabrics to make this top to take along on our Florida vacation.

Pattern: New Look 6937 - $3.99
Fabric: 100% cotton - Free Spirit - $17.98 total (approx. 2 yards)
Total cost: $22.50 (including elastic for sleeves)
Time elapsed: 2 hours sewing, 1/2 hour cutting
Rating: Eh. Not my favorite but not a wadder either.


I finished my New Look top for our Florida trip.

It's an easy pattern, but there are a few problems with it.

First, it seems to fit too big in the back and I need to pull it off my shoulders to get the back collar/facing piece to lay flat, but in the front it's too big and fits best when I pull them together and overlap them a bit. I have no idea what's the fix for this? Also, it fits fairly tight in the bust but larger up around the neck/collarbone area. Weird.



Also, I made a few mistakes or I was confused on the pattern instructions, either way. They have you sew the interfaced collar band to the shirt. Then when you've sewn on the facing piece, the interfaced piece is what is on top, facing outward. In hindsight I would do it the other way, because maybe it would lay flatter then.




Ew. I don't like two back to back butt shots, makes me want to go exercise or something.

I think a thinner fabric like a voile might lay better?

And I added two inches to the bodice length and I'm still not happy with the finished length. I'd rather it was a little longer so I could add elastic or a drawstring at the bottom to make it kinda bubbly. And two extra inches would hide those two butt shots.

Hey, I just realized something. Look at the girl on the pattern sleeve. She's caving in her chest, too! Her shirt doesn't fit her either. But she looks more carefree than I felt, and of course she has that wicked tan.

Otherwise, I think it's cute and I'll wear it because nobody in the general public will be worried about these things but me.