Gosh, I haven't posted in a while. I've made a few things, but I've been busy with life. We had a big spring party last weekend, which was a lot of fun. I had a lot to do for that, but I did manage to make the girls each a playdress from the the popsicle fabric I got at Gail K's. Somehow we didn't end up with any pictures, though. Possibly because they were running wild in the backyard, only emerging to get more Capri Sun and chips, lol!

Then somehow I got this terrible sunburn on my hands the next day. I mean, the worst sunburn I can remember ever getting - blisters and all. Plus it's sort of patchy. Very strange. Anyway, I didn't want to do very much with my hands for a few days there! Then I was busily tracing patterns and cutting things out, which is useful, but not too interesting, blogging-wise. I've been working on this blouse:


I'm not very happy with it, though. (Okay, so obviously, it's not done yet. And the bottom isn't crooked the way it looks in this picture.) For one thing, I think I should have made a different size. But more than that, I think it just looks a little strange when it's on. Plus the collar is *huge*, which I don't really understand - it doesn't look huge in the pictures on the pattern! (Iestyn thinks maybe it just looks odd because of the collar, but I think it's more than that.) I want to try and rescue it, mostly because I feel like I've done a good job with the construction, and I'd hate to waste that. And I think the fabric is really pretty. So there may eventually be pictures of me wearing it! I have some other fabric intended for another version of this pattern, too, so I may play with that and then return to this one. I really like the sleeves, I have to say.

I have a bunch of little girl things to sew together, too. Actually, I rather enjoyed making the playdresses last week - it's so much easier to sew for little girls. The fit of dresses is way more straightforward when you have no curves, lol!

Oh, and I got Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross for my birthday. I've really been enjoying that - it's like eye candy for people who sew. I'm planning to try her weekend blouse in white gauze for a pool coverup. However, as it turns out, the fabric amount isn't nearly big enough, so I have to go back to Joann's to get some more gauze before I can do any more on that.

Always plenty of projects to work on - too bad I have a cold at the moment, and I'm not really in the mood to do anything!

Happy Birthday to me!

Here I am in the skirt I posted about last time.
Today is my birthday, and it's been a very good day. Plus I got fabric! My lovely husband got me a gift certificate to Gail K Fabrics, which is a magical and wondrous place. It's not a very big fabric store, but it's got fabric stacked quite literally to the ceiling all over the place. It's packed very full. Kind of an organizational nightmare, but quite a place for a fabric junkie like me! Surprisingly, I haven't been there since before I got married (so, probably 2000), when we went and picked the fabrics that my mom used to make my dress (and the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. My mom rocks.) Ever since I've gotten into sewing clothes, I've been meaning to go down there, but it's just far enough (and has weird enough hours) that I haven't made it. So today I got a gift certificate (yay!) and the time to go explore. And this is what I left with:
Okay, admittedly, this cost more than just my gift certificate... but actually, the prices are really not bad for what you get. And I'm really excited about them all - the current plans include dresses for the girls (the purple), shorts for the girls (the pink and green), shirts for me (the stripes, the butterflies, and the green dots), a swimsuit cover up (the blue dots), and well, actually, I really don't know what I'm going to do with the other two, but they're absolutely beautiful. So that was a very fun trip. (It's just as well that it's a little annoying to get to, though - I'd be utterly broke if it was closer!)

Then this evening, my mom and sister and her family came over for dinner, which was a lot of fun. Iestyn has gotten very into records lately, and today he went digging around in our crawl space for all my old 45s. So we had a fabulous time listening to some of them - I love this picture of my nieces dancing:
Plus I got some more crafty gifts - gift cards for Joann's/Intown Quilters, plus these:
The Dressmaker's Technique Bible and Vogue Sewing, both of which look super useful in my continued clothing sewing. Plus Julie made me this adorable bag, which is fab because I'm kind of tired of my purse, but I haven't been in a purse sewing mood. So now I can switch without having to actually make one!

All in all, a very good birthday. :)

Pretty spring skirt

I mentioned a while back that I was working on a skirt. I got it done a couple of nights ago, so now I'm posting it.

(Sorry for the random skirt only picture - I was using the timer on my old camera, and it's such a pain to aim it!)

Anyway, it's more or less Simplicity 3881, although I did have to make some changes - I made it fit a bit better, and then I also had to line it. The outer fabric is Par Avion from Michael Miller, and then I found a nice soft Egyptian cotton at Joann's for the lining. It's nice and springy - such happy colors. Plus it looks great with a top I already owned, so that's a bonus. I planned on wearing it this weekend, but it's apparently going to get chilly again, so I decided just to wear it today. With a sleeveless shirt that the weather's probably not actually warm enough for. Oh well, the outfit's making me happy, anyway. And I can always change if I get cold. :)

Woo-hoo, success!

Hey, look, I finally have a wrap shirt that fits. ;)

It's Simplicity 4076, and I actually knew that it fit because I had made one before. And then I made a white one, which fits fine, but looks a little weird to me. (Because it's white, you can see the overlapped part really clearly, so it's like there's a big X across my chest.) But now I finally have one I can wear - hooray!

I also made a swing top and skort for A, although alas, I messed up on the skort, and it's too small. Grr. I'll have to get some more of the knit and make a new one. I've also come to the conclusion that I should've stuck with capri pants rather than a skort for M's outfit the other day. I think the prints would look better together that way. But she's happy, so I'll leave it alone for now.

It was a lovely weekend - the weather was absolutely beautiful. A had her first soccer game, and it went well. I'm actually really enjoying being the coach. I was nervous, but it's a lot of fun. (Although I really, really hope that the other teams have subs in the rest of our games - I felt bad for the other team because the kids had to play the entire time.) Then later we had an impromptu get together with neighborhood friends later in the afternoon/evening, which I quite enjoyed. And today I got in a fair bit of sewing time. So it was good!

Crafty stuff

Here are a couple of things I've made recently...

I found this adorable (very thin, but adorable) knit at Hobby Lobby, and I'm making outfits for the girls. This is M's:
I pretty much made up the pattern for both things - I think the skort could use a little work, but on the whole they worked out pretty well. And she likes them, so that's good. I need to do A's next.

And then I played around making another bucket hat pattern, and this is the result:
I don't have any action shots (next time, I'm going to make sure my camera has a timer mode!), but it actually looks like a bucket hat on me. So that's nice. It's fun for summer, anyway. :)

I also made another wrap shirt that actually worked pretty well, but I don't have any pictures of that yet. Oh, and I'm halfway done with a skirt that I really like a lot. It's pretty see-through right at the moment, though, so I'm not taking pictures of that until it's lined! Our septic tank is fixed though, so I can prewash my fabric now, so the skirt will be done soon-ish, I think. (By the way, it's much nicer to have a working septic tank than a non-working one - doing the laundry and the dishes is a very happy thing!)

My little mermaid

For some reason, I just love these mermaids that the girls drew the other day:

A's:
(I don't know why she's yelling at the fish to wait.)

And M's:

I'm not actually even sure what inspired the mermaid drawing, but I like them. (Oddly enough, A and I saw part of The Little Mermaid at the doctor's office this morning for the first time. Their previous Ariel exposure is all from Disney Princess stuff. Which is certainly everywhere when you have little girls!!)

I actually have crafty stuff to post, but I have to take some pictures first. So, coming soon! :)