Sewing for me

Todd's cousin is getting married in August. And while it is an outdoor wedding at the farm, I'm pretty sure that is one event that my jean capris and a cardi or tshirt will not cut it. I've been looking (both in stores and online) for a dress that I could wear to both the wedding and to work for a large conference that we have the end of July. Everything that I am finding is either too short, too fitted or too low cut. And on this almost 40 year old body, none of those are a good thing. I did find one dress online, but the $180 price tag is a little out of our league.





Then I found this book online - Chic and Simple Sewing. I ordered it off of Amazon and had it in a couple of days. And I fell in love with some of the items in it.





For Good Friday, the office was closed. So I hit JoAnn Fabrics for some fabric to make a few of the items in the book out of. Specifically the baby doll top, the circle skirt and the shift dress. Loose, feminine but not bulky. And no zippers or buttons. Of course, I brought home some extra fabrics....

My only complaint about the book is that it only has 3 sizes in it - small, medium and large. And if I were to go by measurements, I would need an Xlarge (to get the size 38 that I am). But I dove in on Saturday night about 10 p.m., enlarged the pattern pieces slightly and made the baby doll top:

I'm still working on it (needs a little bit of improving and a hem yet)....which is why you are not seeing the whole thing. Flowy is good....looking a little like a tent is not:)


But I did cut out and finish the circle skirt in about 45 min. on Monday. As soon as I find a white tshirt to go with it, you'll see this one on this body as well...

And Jessie liked the patterns enough that I have to make her graduation dress out of this book. Which meant another trip to JoAnn Fabrics to find a pretty blue and lime green batik fabric. She picked out the summer sundress pattern - I'm going to widen the straps just a bit so it's not quite so skimpy (she is 11 after all and does have a dress code to follow at school about how wide the shoulder straps need to be) but since every blessed dress we have looked at she has not liked, hopefully this will fit the bill!