Why, yes, yes I did.

Let’s start things off with a little story and then we’ll get to the goods. May I suggest you grab a drink (iced tea would be most appropriate for this tale) because this post is sure to be a long one.
Back in the halcyon days of college, Matt and I started dating when he was a fourth year and I a lowly second year. Fourth-years, particularly those of the male variety, tend to have a lot of extra time on their hands. And so it was, with this extra time, that Matt could often be found out in the mountains of Albemarle, fishing rods in tow, little black lab trotting alongside him while the trusty ol’ red jeep sat on the gravel dirt road, awaiting their sure-to-be-filthy return.

A key indicator that fishing was on the agenda? Matt’s ratty old hat, acquired from his favorite fly shop, that had the cheeky message, “The way to a man’s heart is through his fly.” He sported this thing every day until Hootie Bootie ate it in a fit of boredom while we were at a horse race or something. Look closely below and you’ll see I’m not making this stuff up.

Were I a true, proper Southern gal I may have been repulsed. But I’ve got coarser Yankee blood and love to throw a “that’s what she said” out there whenever applicable so the hat’s message caused me to roll my eyes with affection.

Fast forward four years and I decide to move back north to Chicago, dragging Matt out of the woods and into the city. Fast forward another four years and I drag Matt out of the city and into our basement, armed with the brilliant idea of gutting the place and reinstalling a perfectly functional but currently fugly bathroom. Take a quick visual inventory of what we were working with, would you?

Some of you know the middle part of the bathroom tale. Like the part where we tore up the floor and were trying to decide how to cram existing bathroom fixtures in a new space half the size of the old.

And some of you also know that I painted the basement twice, my decorating M.O., and in the case of the bathroom it still wasn’t right.

Just as I thought I was losing his interest in home renovation I came across a little design element that I knew would win him over. Since this is a bit of a gentleman’s bathroom, why not bring a little gentlemanly sport to it? Some posh flyfishing wallpaper from England got Matt back on the basement reno path. The hat’s message was applicable again! The way to this man’s heart is through his fly. So without further ado, I present our basement loo:

I know wallpaper ain’t everyone’s cup of tea, or bourbon, but friends, we love this little room. Like, luuuurve it. And as for all our grand plans of reusing the old stuff in order to be budget-smart, this is one case where I’m glad that idea flew the coop. This tiny slice of our city cottage reminds us both of life in the South and once we committed to the fishing wallpaper we ran with it. Let’s stand in the middle of the room and take a tour:

You’ve seen the Ikea Ann sink and now you can see it dressed up with a $19 mirror from Hobby Lobby, whose riveted frame gives a gentle nod to the classic Federalist hostess mirror.

Atop the commode (another word no one uses anymore!) is a small metal basket plucked from TJMaxx for $8 and is the perfect container for spare toilet paper and a petite Ikea-grown succulent. While the plant leaves coordinate perfectly with the shades in the wallpaper I can’t say this was a deliberate pairing. I’m not that anal!

But while we’re on the topic of being, ahem, particular about house things, I’d like to move the tour to a few of the salvaged bathroom items. The first is our linen closet, which the picture plainly shows as being in use but not organized. Last weekend we had some friends visiting and they were delightfully amused when they opened our upstairs linen closet and found it to be in slight disarray. Apparently, this shattered the perfect image they had of my housekeeping skills. So ladies, this closet shot is for you. My messy towels aren’t just limited to the second floor!

Moving upward you’ll see the ceiling light and exhaust fan. Nothing special here other than we reused it and spray painted the baffle white to better blend in with the fresh new ceiling. $3 in spray paint goes a long way with something like this.

The new configuration of the bathroom doesn’t really allow for towel racks so we’ve got some handy hooks instead. Both the towels and the towel hook are from Ikea.

I particularly liked this hook as it reminded me of a fishing lure. You might say I found it a-lure-ing. HA!

As we go to make our way back out the door you can get a glimpse of the wood plank-like tiles against the new carpet. All in all I’d say we’re pleased with both of these selections.

But before we close the door on this project (and pack up our fishing gear) let’s take a closer look at the wallpaper. Remember my earlier comment about the bathroom giving a slight, if inaccurate, nod to the Civil War? All credit for this realization goes to Angler Matt. He took one good look at the scene above the toilet and said, “The gray coats are on the wrong side of the river! They should be on the south bank! And the blue coats on the north!” Blasphemy! Then again, it’s not like the Brits were fighting this battle so I guess we can’t blame them for getting it wrong on the wallpaper.

With that, if you’re still reading and sipping your tea, I close out this bathroom story. Enormous thanks go to my mom, who practically hung the wallpaper all by herself while I just provided additional paste and held the razor blades. She’s a talented gal and we’re so thankful to her on this Mother’s Day weekend. Go grab your fishin’ hats and have a great weekend!

• Sunday night I pretreated the fabric. It’s a super soft linen from JoAnn’s that looked destined to shrink. I try to avoid pretreating as much as possible because of impatience, first and foremost. And when it comes to cutting, the fabric never lays as smoothly as it did straight off the bolt. At least not for me, even after ironing.
• Monday I cut stuff up. Because I had to match the pattern print, this took a decent chunk of time. Oh, and it involved a dumpster dive. More on that later.
• Tuesday I started assembly. Roughly 3.5 hours later I had a dress! All that’s left to do is the handstitching on the hem and tacking down some facings. Have a look-see at the progress:

We’re having some of Matt’s work chums (no one uses the word “chums” anymore so I thought I’d throw it out there) over for dinner tonight or tomorrow. Thus, I’ll probably finish the dress this weekend and will provide a full review Monday. And you’ll see why I’ve dubbed this one the “Over Easy” dress.

To finish things off today, J sent over some pics of the kiddie clothes for your viewing pleasure!

The Gentleman’s Bathroom is on the docket for Friday. Get your fishing gear ready.

B+

This exhibit at the Met was charming. I only wish they had shown more of the collages on the wall and not in the books that were hard to get to.

I’m leaving on a jet plane for New York tomorrow and I won’t be back again until Monday morning, whereupon I will hop in a cab at O’Hare and scoot back to work just in time for a meeting (fingers crossed).

Then, next weekend is our first year Kellogg reunion. Talk about time flying. My favorite people are all returning to the coop and there will be lots of fun and debauchery next Friday through Sunday. This means little to no time for projects and even less time to create some blog posts. Things will be a tad sparse in this neck of the internet but here’s what waiting for us the first week of May:

1. Basement bathroom reveal. Fly fisherman in top hats and a slight reference to the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression? How can you NOT love that?

2. Summer fun dress. I’m picking up this pattern from Joann’s sale this afternoon (assuming it’s in stock) and can’t wait to cut up a great mod print to make it all happen.

3. Fancy schmancy dresses. Based on your votes, we’re down to madras and stripes, with the comments leaning towards stripes. Poll closes tomorrow so get your say in now! Then I’ve got the “black-tie-optional-what-the-hell-does-that-mean” dress to get going on, too. Per Kate’s comment a few posts back, if I can find the right fabric in The City this weekend then Cynthia Steefe’s little number might stay on the cutting table. Erica did a stellar job on her version – could I be so lucky?

Instructions: Not bad. In fact, if you can force yourself to really read them, pay attention, and not say, “Whatevs, I know how to sew a shirt, forget this!” then you’ll be rewarded with a well-constructed item. The neck, hem, and arm banding are sewn backwards and if you don’t pay attention I’m going to bet you’ll think it’s a mistake in the instructions rather than an intentional approach. Or maybe that’s just me….
The pattern does call for a fair amount of understitching. I only did this on the neck band facing, reason being that the other areas that call for understitching can be difficult to get to fully. Personally, I think semi-finished understitching is less desirable than no understitching at all.
Once you’ve flipped all the bandings into place you then edgestitch them. I thought this helped
the shirt look a little less home-sewn.

Fabric: The fabric is your basic striped shirting in an ambiguous charcoal gray/navy shade. While the pattern says you can use all kinds of material I’d suggest sticking with the lightweight wovens. There’s a lot of folding and flipping going on with this top and thick material could make things sloppy.

Fit: As a tunic/popover/whatever-it-is I don’t believe you should be looking to this to show off one’s figure. Thus, I did nothing but cut on the line marked “10.” I feared this could result in a look of me wearing one of Dad’s old shirts for art class. My first fitting came after the last stitch was sewn and mercifully, I was pretty happy with the results.

Finishing: Do you see the serged seam allowances? I love, love, love being able to do this! I particularly enjoy being able to finish off the armsyces with the serger. It cuts down on bulk and looks so much more professional than my past approach of using pinking shears.

Cost:
Fabric = $4.50
Pattern = $1.00 Never pay full price for them!
11 buttons = $13 (!). They’re small knots – j’adore, even if it was highway robbery.
Interfacing = $2.00
Total = $20.50

Verdict: I like it. My model shot highlights how thin the fabric is and I’ll likely sport a long tank top beneath to hide that shirt-to-jean transition. I suspect I’ll get some good use out of it this summer since it’s made from a classic fabric and the shape is pretty versatile. It’s lightweight for day and the 3/4 sleeves will keep my always-freezing self comfortable at night. And, I’m thinking beach cover-up for sure.

Has anyone else made this shirt (and given half a day to do it?)

One year I got Matt a knife skills class session for a birthday present. It’s still paying dividends.

While the hounds and the boy were snoozing, I was sewing. I finished McCall 5556 but need to pick up some buttons today during lunch. Full post to come later tonight!

Well, I liked ‘em. Color me shocked.

So then I got to thinking and a tunic top seemed to be in order. Since I promised Matt I would pick him up at the airport late Sunday night I needed something to help me stay awake. Enter McCall 5556, stage right, straight from the Out Of Print door.

After a few hours of work, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve got little to show. It took me 30 minutes to figure out how to turn one strap inside out using this poorly illustrated technique in the instructions. Pathetic!

Mom’s in town for a conference and she’s spending the weekend with us. Hooray for a visit from Mom and her wallpapering skills! The basement bathroom is about to be finished, once and for all.

* Scroll up and over to vote on a dress!*