For the Love of Tunics and Dresses - A Love Notions blog tour!

Happy New Year! Long time, no blog, huh?! Just slogging along through the inevitable winter blahs over here and impatiently waiting for spring. In the meantime, I've got some fun projects to share - like this one, of course. ;)

Here's a super romantic story, about the time that I decided to step outside of my comfort zone (evvvvvver so slightly ;) ) and my mom (Hi, Nana!) got a cute new sweater.

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Love Notions patterns. I've tested nearly every pattern that Tami has released and have sewn up multiple versions of each of them along the way, too. In fact, Tami is one of the primary reasons that I've been sewing as much for myself as I have - if she hadn't started drafting women's patterns, I'm not sure that I would have taken that leap. Her aesthetic fits with my everyday lifestyle (some might call it a mom-iform ;) ) and her dressier patterns (Willow, Sybil, Bluezette - I'm looking at you ladies!) have become my staples when I need to dress up.

My husband and I have been married for almost 10 years (yikes - that was fast!) and we're pretty firmly in that stage of our lives that involves - and revolves around - having young kids. I'm sure we'll spend Valentine's Day doing weekend errands and hanging out with the kids, so casual is the name of the game for me. He's really good about noticing (and complimenting) when I put a little extra effort into my appearance (i.e. leave my jeans on when I get home instead of immediately putting on pjs) so I thought a new sweater would be the thing for V-Day this year.

Lest you think this is *just* any La Bella Donna, I'll have you know that I bought this fabric specifically to do something for me. (Of course I was doomed lol) I don't usually wear florals, but this one caught my eye when I was in the Garment District in NYC recently. I've been trying to explore one or two new shops each time I head into the city, and this time I found my way to Metro Textiles. A bit of a hole in the wall but an awesome find - I'll be headed back there for sure. I bought both of these fabrics there - the purplish knit is a little bit of a jersey and a little bit of a sweater knit. In any case, not my usual print and not my usual type of pairing.

I'm sure you can see where this is heading. I have made several LBDs and love 'em all, but I've never made one with a cowl. So I branched out yet a bit more. Well, hubby didn't like it AT ALL, especially the cowl. Mumbled something about it not being very "me." (So much for branching out!) And then Miss P walked into the room and said, "Ooh, cute sweater, Mom. Did you make that for Nana??"

Yep, apparently I did. At least I know it'll be well-loved by my cowl-wearing, floral-loving, pattern-mixing Mom. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours, and thanks again to Tami and Kelly of Love Notions for inviting me to join in the fun this week. Please check out all of the other stops on the tour, and enter below to win your choice of 5 patterns from Love Notions AND a $50 gift card to Girl Charlee fabrics.

Feb. 8th Pear Berry Lane Rebel and Malice Craft Blizzard

Feb. 9th Friends Stitched Together Bunch o Berries HattieLu Handmade

Feb. 10th Beri Bee Designs The Wholesome Mama Handcrafted by RED

Feb. 11th Phat Quarters Blog Sew Sophie Lynn Sew Starly

Feb. 12th Boutique Birdie Pen Seb & Rox Creative Counselor

Feb. 13th All Things Katy! Sprouting JubeJube Lulu and Celeste

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