4th of July

The 4th of July dresses are done. I hadn't gotten around to doing anything about dresses until the beginning of the week, and A mentioned that she wanted one. I, however, didn't really want to go buy anything. (Amazing, huh? Usually I'll take any opportunity to buy fabric!) So, I dug around in my stash and came up with some red, white and blue knit. (The red was actually a failed shirt from my wrap around shirt attempts earlier this year that I cut up. It's good kids are smaller than me!) Then I got a vision of a tank dress, and made up a pattern for it, using a t-shirt pattern I already had to get the sizing (more or less) right. I think the next time I'll make the armholes a little smaller on M's, but I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. M ran away from the camera this morning, so here's A alone:

(She was being kind of nutty, so it's not a great picture, but you get the idea.) They seem to like the dresses, although A's first response was "Why is it only stripes? I was thinking of something with more stars..." Hee, hee. I thought about stenciling some stars on, but honestly, it seemed like too much work. Plus I like them the way they are.

I actually managed to get a sewing project for myself done this week, too. I made a buttercup bag from Made by Rae. (I'm a bag addict, in case you haven't noticed. Iestyn is continually amused when a new bag shows up.) It's cute, but not really practical for me for everyday, given that it won't close when my normal wallet is inside. It'll be a good going out purse, though. And I'm using it right now even though I can't close it.

I changed a couple of things - mostly the strap, and I added a little interfacing (although I think I'd prefer more interfacing, actually.) I had some trouble with the pleating, but it was apparently user error, because it eventually worked the way it was supposed to. Oh, and I didn't follow the final assembly instructions, because I prefer doing it my usual way, and that worked fine. And I love the look of the original curved button flap thing, but my attempts to make a curved one all went really badly, so I went with straight edges. ;) Anyway, it's cute, and I love this fabric (Amy Butler, from Daisy Chain), so I'm pleased.