Ahoy there!

Hello mates! I was asked to sit in over at Sew Weekly this week and to create an outfit around the theme "nautical". How exciting and gulp…pressure! These ladies know how to seriously sew and fast, me on the other hand…slow learner and all, will try hard to live up to their standards.

About now I started to wonder why I thought this would be fun…umm my stomach hurts a little bit!

Okay, what's done is done. Here's how it went with more photos and way too much editorial (sorry I can get way too chatty…uh chatty Cathe…oh whatever!)

The journey…

The love of boating started at a really young age for me. My parents on their "run-about" pre-me. By 18 months my parent's were taking me out on "the boat" and through my childhood on up, there were many boats…many…many boats. By far my favorite is Juniper, named after my Mom. Juniper was a 42' Catalina…dreamy! I now live in the land-O' lakes, as in at least 10,000 lakes so boats aren't too hard to find, nor is water. I decided I'd go down to the local marina and try out some boats.

I started out by creating a mood board…just for the fun of it, here it is: http://pinterest.com/cathej/nautical/

The over shirt pattern comes from this book, the pattern name is "Take Manhattan" and the t-shirt is from New Look 6838.

My funky muslin…don't even ask what's with the sleeves. Good thing I made a muslin as I needed to add about 4" to the body and 1" at the shoulders to accommodate broad. The downside is the fact the pattern takes about 50 sheets of paper…that need to be tiled!

Final shirt, Linen-Viscose blend.

A little stitchery…

for the backside! Now on to the boats…

Ahhhh, but I do love a sailboat and look at this sweetie!

Would it be wrong to take this little gem out for a spin?

Ahoy there, more boats, more boats!

Maybe this one…

La…la…la…just goofing around…

Let me help you dock that baby!

First Mate Cooper, hates water, more cat than dog. He told me no way was he getting on a boat!

No sweet talking could change his mind…

He said never!

As in ever!

First Mate Tag loves water!

So here's my boat, absolutely perfect!