I can't stop sewing!

(This post is for Carol Ann and Loretta :)

I've been sewing lately and have really been enjoying it!  Mostly I sit at my machine in the evenings after the girls go to bed ~ its great for insomnia, because the concentration needed makes me tired after a shorter while than would just laying in bed lamenting my lack of sleep. 

My style of sewing (and life?) is pattern-less.  Last night I worked for 2 hours on a pattern for an Easter dress for Hannah, and fully half of that time was spent ripping out seams where I'd sewed them incorrectly.  I finally gave up when I got to the point where she'd have to try it on so I could make some adjustments.  When I slipped the bodice over her head in the morning, she could hardly breathe it was so tight across her chest.  I'm going to pitch it. 

Below are examples of the "patternless" sewing I enjoy.  The easiest is the skirt-to-t-shirt sewing technique that is described in a couple places on the Internet: http://www.kids-sewing-projects.com/shirt-into-a-dress.html and  http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/patriotic-apparel.asp (good crafts, modest dressing, theology - notsomuch). 

The other is the peasant-dress, which is also found on the Internet: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/11/long-sleeve-peasant-dress-tutorial.html

I made this one to use the last of some 'ballerina' fabric I had that Abbo liked, and I trimmed it out with purple polkadots.

This dress is also super-easy and fun to make.  I added a ruffle on the bottom with a cool new sewing tool I bought - paid for with "survey money" that I earned from doing surveys online! - it attaches to where my presser foot would go on my machine and gathers in one of three styles as I sew. 

Here is a dress I made for Abbo last year - I 'invented' it myself.  Its basically an elastic skirt pattern but instead of putting the elastic at the top of the 'waist tube,' I sewed a tube lower for the elastic to go in, giving it a ruffle along the top edge.  I also used a wide elastic.

I crisscrossed the straps to avoid them falling down.  To make the straps, I just eyeballed the length and placement. 

Miss Sassypants walking away from her modeling session - I made this dress last year so its getting a little short.  I'll make another one later. 

And, inspired by Loretta (!), I also made a potholder out of some scraps of calico and an old pair of blue jeans I had in my fabric stash!

Now, its off to work -again- on those Easter dresses.  More pictures to come!