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!

I made it!

Don't laugh. It looks better in real life. Its a fruit wreath! You can barely see the dried petite pears, but those are grapefruit slices on a handmade wreath - made from wisteria vines I pulled down from our yard back in Chesapeake.

And then there are the gourds: I forgot to take pictures of them after I finished them in November. The best looking ones were given away as Christmas presents, but here is a before and after (I tried to crop all the dust off the shelf but it didn't work!)

I saw a wren perched in the hole this morning. Dunno if she was eating the seeds out of it that I left in or scouting out a nest spot! Its sprayed with glossy sealer so it should hold up just fine.

OK, and here is the last thing:

Hannah's dress. Its reversible, too - and before you get carried away thinking I know what I'm doing, that trim is fabric-glued on there because I messed up the stitching and couldn't figure out how else to cover it. The buttons are just sewn on because I couldn't figure out how to make the bodice truly reversible. I traced one of her other jumpers to get the pattern and just kind of guessed at it. The red polka-dotted side turned out a little better I think - but they both are good for church. I'm going to learn from my mistakes and try to do a better job next time.

OK, that's enough blowing my own horn. I just wanted to show you what I've been working on!!