Sewing Again

I made a robe to go with the rose pajamas.

I used this pattern, which has a cut on sleeve, which makes it very simple to sew and cut out. The only change I made was to add a loop at the neckline. I used up all of the white pointelle fabric. I always forget how much fabric robes take, it's a lot.

I had a little bit of the floral fabric left, so I made another gown.

I used some old panty elastic as trim. At least if the elastic fails from age, it's only decorative here and not *load bearing.*

I ordered this Kindle bag from Janine King at Etsy.

I have a Kindle 2 with a leather case, and it fits, but just barely. The bag is padded to protect your electronic devices. I fell in love with the fabric, great colors. Of course I'm looking at it and thinking how easy it would be to make, but would I ever get around to it? Probably not.

Pajamas

I made a set of pajamas today. I have a ton of fabrics left from the days I used to sew all the kids' clothes. They make good nightwear for me. The white fabric is a very pretty and subtle pointelle knit in cotton. The rose print is from a coop of a fabric line called Painting Red Rhinos -- does it still exist?

The pattern is very simple and easy. I needed to get a one-seam pants pattern that fits me now. (I know the pattern drawing looks like the pants have an outseam, but they don't.) I had to lower the front waist by two inches, then cut an entire inch off the top, to lower the waistline some more all over. Fits great.

Closeup of neckline. I should have topstitched the trim seam allowances down, but my sewing machine is giving me a zig zag instead of a straight stitch when I push the straight stitch button. GGRRR. . . Hope that little problem resolves itself. . .

Made some easy freezer jam with my strawberries. I used the instructions inside the pectin box, which have always worked well for me before. Ds is eating jam and bread like crazy. Might need to make another batch this weekend.

Nightie

I made another nightie, it's a Kwik Sew pattern, probably discontinued, don't see it at their site. I had to shorten the area between shoulder and bustline, to bring up the neckline and armholes, but now the pattern is perfect. It takes just over a yard of 60" knit fabric to make one, very fast and simple.

Closeup of neckline finish. I remember that this lace trim faded very badly when I used it before. I don't think it will break my heart if it fades, but it looks nice now, and I used all of it up. I have a very ancient elastic stash and that stuff goes bad, so it's risky to use it.

I took up the shoulders on the light blue nightie, still kind of saggy but at least the neckline isn't open down to my belly button anymore.

A day's strawberry harvest. It's been very wet, and they're a little buggy, but you can cut the bad parts off.

Dh brought me some tulips from Holland (Amsterdam airport, actually). The cats haven't knocked them over yet, yay!

A Teeny Bit of Sewing

I made this nightie from some light blue rib knit, feels like a poly/cotton blend, that I'm sure I bought to make baby clothes for ds (who is now 8). Same for the elastic, I remember sewing diaper covers with it. I haven't tried it on, but it might be a wadder, the neckline looks too big and I didn't pull the elastic tight enough. Tried to steam it with my iron and it shrunk some, but not enough. Even if I can't wear it, I enjoyed making it.

I ordered a bunch of T shirts from Land's End and they were all too long, so I cut them off and hemmed them. Those are the scraps.

I desperately need some nighties, so I'll be working on a couple more in dribs and drabs. I love working on it, but it makes my little dog so unhappy. . . She chewed through the cord on my embroidery machine and sits and cries if I don't pay attention to her, so I have to crate her while I sew. Maybe it'll be better this weekend when the kids are home to play with her.

This is a picture of Tufted Titmouse babies in a knothole of one of our cherry trees. Ds found them while climbing the tree and of course the mother was going crazy. Need to teach him how to use the zoom feature - click on it to make it bigger.

I'm not going anywhere. . .

You'll have to drag me out of this garden. . . This is what she does when I correct her for digging in my garden. She goes all submissive and rolls over on her back. Funny little thing.

The first red strawberry.


I finally finished the little credit card/business card holder. I bought this kit in China in February and have been working on it ever since. I have to admit that it got a little boring after a while, it was just so tiny. . . But it inspired me to order some Moo cards from my Flickr photos, so that's a good thing.

Dd at the last horse show of the season. (This is a professional photo, I bought the rights to it. My photos are usually terrible with a digital camera and no tripod.) Her team came in last (she was the only one there, so it figures) but she got a blue ribbon in one of her events. My ILs were here this weekend to watch her compete.

Craftwise, I'm in limbo, not sure what to work on next. I just got an Amazon Kindle 2 for Mother's Day and I've been a little distracted with that. So far, I really love it. Spent a lot of time this weekend reading and don't have any complaints, easy on the eyes and easy to use.