the sweater got gussied up.

I was so into this j.crew sweater I had to try something similar and am so pleased with how this turned out. My rule was no buying anything new, I used what I had on hand. I pulled out the red cotton cardigan I've had since last winter, stitched a pleated ribbon to the neckline, and added a jaunty broach which is a blackwork stitched pin I bought from the crazy-wonderful Pin Pals a bit back. Please see their wares, especially the amazing paper dolls. I added a felt/ribbon circle to back the pin, making it all matchy.

The ribbon is zig-zagged on, and I added new (vintage) buttons. Thanks Hillary, I am 99.9% sure these are from you. The broach is on a stickpin for easy removal, like for when the baby tries to eat it. I must get some velvet pleated ribbon soon, I am sort of freaking out about it, not quite sure why I didn't notice this trim before now.

This was all pretty easy, however the collar stretched a bit and there is potential for much swearing. A careful pressing was needed (after misting with water) to get it all back into shape. Next time I will stitch a stay-stitch first, to keep the ribbing from stretching too much. (A stay-stitch is just a normal stitch, not sewing it to anything, just to keep it from stretching.)  it's all so autumnal looking—so I need to put it away. I still need summer, dang it! It's been really mild here this week, but I hear the heat is coming soon. Bring it.

We are gonna do a whole lot of nothing the next couple weeks. We are headed to the coast, have friends coming in from out of town, various house projects on the list, and much pie to bake and eat—so I'm gonna lay low for a bit and work the lazy. This includes reading more trashy historical fiction and seeing Brideshead Revisited and possibly starting a new cross stitch project. See you all in a few weeks! I will be on the e-mail machine, but hopefully on sloth-time.