Hooray for a hundred!

Almost exactly five months ago, I decided to take the plunge and started my very own sewing blog. I was nervous at the beginning and struggled a little bit to find my voice, but now I'm here and I can't really remember what my life was like without it. :)

I must say I'm quite surprised and grateful now to be celebrating having reached 100 followers - yay!

I just want to say a quick THANK YOU!!! 
...to blogland, the online sewing community, anyone who reads this, my mom, and the world in general. Thanks!! I really appreciate the comments you all make on my posts and the support and advice you've shared with me. I've loved "meeting" everyone who stops by my little neck of the internet woods!
 
Now, I'm planning to host my first giveaway to celebrate very soon. I'm thinking something a little bit vintage-y, but more on that in a bit! As I've mentioned, I'm still adjusting to my life/schedule with the new job, so sewing and blogging time are more scarce than I've been used to...but stick with me, it's coming. Promise!

In other news, here's another look at the top I'm working on lately. I've had to give it a little break for a couple days (not quite the same as throwing it in the "ehh" pile, more to prevent that from happening! -- absence makes the heart grow fonder?), but am now thinking I'll revisit those sloppily finished armholes and apply a bit of homemade bias tape to finish them nicely. I've also got some adjusting to do to the back to improve the fit before it can be worn.

You'll just have to take my word for it that this collar is not crooked in real life!

 
I've had a few comments on the fabric used for this project. I was lucky enough to have picked it up at the estate sale I visited back in April. It was hanging out in a huge bag of misc. fabric, along with the plaid I used for my Estate Sale Dress. I believe this teal-y/green-ish floral print is cotton...and perhaps from the 60s/70s? (based on the color scheme in the print), but that's about all the info I've got on it. There's no writing or marking in the selvage, so I don't have any more clues.

I can share my inspiration, though! 

As soon as I saw it, I was inspired by the collar on this cute dress from ModCloth.com. Does anyone know if there's a specific name for this type of collar? Is it just a pointed collar? Anyway, I just had to give it a try and I'm rather pleased with the results. What do you think?

Oh, and here's a quick little explanation on how I put them together, in case you were wondering.
I just made four of these little pieces, sewed them together wrong side to wrong side, like I was making two little pillows. I turned 'em right side out, made sure the corners were nice and pointy, and stitched them onto the shirt, just inside the neckline, so that the notch where the green arrow is was just peeking out over the neckline to the outside of the shirt.

sorry if this is blurry!!

Then, since I'd left the little side by the dotted red line open in order to flip it right side out, I turned that under and stitched where the red line is, attaching that whole back edge of the collar to the outside of the shirt, over the shoulder. I've seen this done a lot in RTW collared tops, and it's a shortcut I thought was worth taking!

That all seems rather wordy and in need of photos to clarify, which I can go into should anyone be interested. It was a very simple little project to make the collar pieces, so if you're thinking of trying out making up a collar, just go for it!