Summer Sewing...and procrastinating, 101

We went to Paris. You wouldn't know it, though, since I haven't put one picture or whatnot on this blog. I'm a slacker. And I'm a little overwhelmed by trying to sort, organize, edit, whatever. Also, I'm trying to figure out flickr. In my spare time. Ha.

So, if you can't get your you-know-what together to organize all your photos, what should you do? Well, you should sew, of course.

That's also what you should do when you're supposed to be packing for said trip to Paris. Before we left, I had to whip up something special for myself - so I settled on this bag from my new favorite sewing book.


It was actually super easy, and I had a good time making it, and seeing how things go together. I liked it so much, I had to make some matching (but not too matchy) zipper pouches to go inside. I got the pattern for those from this book - another easy, go-to fave for all kinds of projects.



That gave me my sewing fix until we got home, and since then I've been working on a few other projects. My cutie patootie niece Charlie wore this cute dress to our family reunion last summer and it was WAY too cute - in some super sweet Amy Butler fabrics, I might add. She was heartbreakingly adorable in just this dress and a pair of bloomers. Did you hear me mention that it was cute?



It showed up in a bundle of hand-me-downs this week, and I was so excited until I realized it was way too big for my teeny tiny doll-baby. Sooo...


I traced it onto a piece of cheap muslin, then "fitted" it to Chloe. And let me tell you, fitting a pattern on a 13-month-old is not something I'd recommend doing often. It mostly involves three people and a lot of (mostly) silent cursing - a 7-year-old to hold her hands, make her laugh, and keep her standing up when she tries to sit down and crawl away, and a 4-year-old to pop cheerios in her mouth one at a time, thereby keeping her happy for 7.4 seconds while I checked the fit. The final product turned out pretty great, I think. The outer fabric is one I picked up a long time ago...probably at Joann's. The inner fabric is from Heather Ross.




But again, it's much better to see how cute it is on the model, dontcha think?

I love the way the hem flares out and is so vintage-y 50's sweet. I totally did that on purpose.

This is what 90% of my shots look like. Babies are SO HARD to photograph. Why won't they stay where you put them?

But occasionally, it works out pretty well.

Also, this fabric SOMEHOW slipped it's way into my hands, up to the cutting table, and then home in the car last time I went to the fabric store for a zipper. Ahem. I do NOT know how that keeps happening. And no, it's not for the baby. It's for me. Because I like mermaids.