Stuff I’ve been sewing on lately

I was talking to my girlfriend about sewing a few weeks ago and mentioning how I had downloaded a few patterns from Etsy.

“Really?” she said, “I never use patterns. I just…figure it out.”

Huh. I used to do that way more but ever since I took a sewing class I’ve gone back to basic rules and margins. But man, the moment she said it my mind started to work.

Then we saw the new Oz movie and on the way home I started thinking about the costumes in the old Oz movie, which made me think about Babes in Toyland because don’t we all just love the dresses from that movie?  By the time I got home there wasn’t even time to pee, I had to run straight to my sewing room and start cutting pattern pieces. Two weeks later, this is what I ended up with for Easter. To be honest, I didn’t intend to use the green polkadot as anything but practice fabric for June’s peplum top, but it was so cute with the old yellow from my scrap bin that I had to use it for Georgia’s dress too. The girls’ dresses and under slips cost me $20 for the pink fabric, everything else was recycled.

This next dress is from a great tutorial I bought on Etsy, I used the bodice for Georgia’s Easter dress above as well. It is also made from my scrap bin (minus the pink ruffles) and was incredibly simple to do. June helped, we made this for her darling cousin, Meara, and sent it for Easter. I’m hoping to get a picture of her in it if it ever gets there. We gave the USPS nearly two weeks priority and it still didn’t make it in time for Easter. Bummer.

Yesterday I was going through a bunch of my cast away clothing from my closet and found an old yellow girls’ camp T-shirt, plus some other knit dresses and jammies. I made each girl a new pair of leggings and a cute t-shirt, and this morning I made Georgia this adorable little dress from the camp shirt and a swim coverup I never wore (because swimsuits are stupid). Notice the pattern? I’ve used it enough times that I barely have to look at the pieces anymore. The back of this and her Easter dress are ribbed with rows of  elastic thread, sort of a lazy mom’s smocking. Makes them fitted and super comfy.

I’ll post pictures of the birdie mobiles I’ve been making later, but these are now on record for posterity’s sake. My mother always says she wished she had taken more pictures of what she made.