Friday Finish

Today I'm sharing with you this Friday finish!!

A little dress for my almost ONE year old

granddaughter!!!

The fabric is a nice piece of vintage cotton that I LOVE....

and the pattern is also an OLDIE but goodie!

I don't make many clothing items...

JUST simple ones like this.

Quilting comes much more naturally to me!

I like the IDEA of making clothes..

but more often than not....

I'm disappointed with the outcome!

;)

I also had some success in the kitchen this week.

Yeah!!!

Two "new to me" recipes.

The first is a Navajo taco.

I have great memories of traveling through Arizona

and stopping for this regional dish!

I found an excellent Youtube video on how to make the fry bread

HERE

I wouldn't call it healthy eating...

but it SURE WAS good!!!

AND...

Everyone enjoyed dinner!!!

I also got SUCKED into making these

after seeing a post on instagram.

(coconut brown butter cookies

by Smitten Kitchen)

DO you find yourself cooking new things

after seeing them on instagram or other

social network type places???

These cookies are ...I think....

the BEST I've ever eaten.

They begin with browning butter in a saucepan

and letting it cool before getting all the ingredients together.

WOW!!

THAT is the secret to GREAT cookies, I guess!

There you go.

A little sewing

and some NOT-so-healthy eating!!!

a little dress making

Sometimes you just HAVE to make a dress.

 

It would be a LOT less trouble to buy one.

It would probably cost LESS too.

:)

But...

A Grandma does...

what a Grandma HAS to do!!!

And that is...

Make a DRESS!

I finished off with a BIG ORANGE buttton.

Can you see it peeking out under that curly hair?

I love it!

The pattern claims to be easy.

The "set in" neckband was NOT easy for MOI!!!

 

After ripping it out THREE times

I finally managed to get it all together

without any BIG puckers.

Whew!!!

 

This Grandma sees a future FULL of

frustrating, FUN and

FABULOUS

dress making

OPPORTUNITES!!!

 

 

 

A dress!

Once in a while...

the dress gets made.....

before the little girl.....

grows OUT of the pattern!!!!

 

This time it was made JUST in time!!

But....

Now that the weather is cooler...

the DRESS needs an undershirt!!!

;)

 

Notice the blue sleeves???

LOL!!!

Sewing Room in MINIATURE!

While settling into our new trailer...

I decided the FIRST order of business was to stake my claim!

I needed to Find a small area that I could call my "sewing room"!!!

 

This small table and chair fit perfectly.....

but I needed an ironing board!

Hmm......This looks like an opportunity!

All it needed was an ironing board COVER!!!

 

I made a sort of fabric pillow case.....

and filled it with some batting that has heat resist foil in it.

 

I added a casing and elastic!

Now it's PORTABLE!

;)

After getting my sewing space fitted up....

I finished this quilt top for an upcoming wedding gift.

I'm hoping to embroider the new couple's last name

and the wedding date in one of the white areas.

We'll see......

Then....

I made a couple of potholders for gifts.

I had packed so many scraps....

that I had enough to make some more for ME!!!

 

Last, but not least, I worked on a little girls dress.

Whew!!!!

Clothing construction is so FIDDLY!!!

Zippers.....ugh!!!

lining.....ugh!!!

 

Ah well.....

When things got rough.....

I just walked out the front door....

Took a DEEP breath....

and FELT the peace of nature

ALL around me!!!

 

Camping and Sewing

WERE definitely

MADE for EACH OTHER!!!

 

 

 

 

 

a dress!

IF.....you know how to use a sewing machine....

you REALLY should make your little girl a dress....

at least ONCE!

Don't you think???

I finally did it!

I found a FREE pattern here...

that I used as my jumping off place!

If you look at the pattern you'll see....

I didn't follow it

WORD. For. WORD.

;)

Since I made this while my little one was at school

I had an issue with the length.

I made it WAY too short....

Guess I still see her as my BABY. :)

Sooo....

I added that bottom piece.

I added a yo-yo flower to dress it up a bit...

and some elastic around the mid section.

I feel like I've NOW done one of those MOMMY things

you're supposed to DO if you know how to sew!!!

Hey!

I might even do it again! 

this and that

Just plugging away over here...

Doing little things.

I can't believe I didn't make one of these hexagons

for myself last year!!!

They are so easy and I made so many last year...

I can honestly say.....
"I can sew them in my sleep!" :)

For the one above I enlarged the outside two strips to 3"
instead of 2 1/2".....

hoping I'd be able to get those snowmen in!

I was afraid of losing too many if the strip was too narrow.

It took more fabric that way and it's a little too big for my taste.

Oh well..

Live and Learn.

Then I added a little excitement to...

This dress...
That came from the thrift store. ;)

 It's amazing what leftover beaded trim

and a few simple buttons can DO!!!!

 Our Christmas dress is now ready for
some action!!!

mending and maintenance

Here's a little dress that I really like.

The colors are great and the fabric is sort of like courdory,

but not as heavy.

I've always loved brown and pink.

And, it does look great on my little girl.

The problem is this.

The hem was basically a serged or zigzagged line along the bottom.

When it came out, I wondered how I was going to fix it.

I found some fabric that went with that pink

in my overflowing fabric cupboard.



I cut a few strips 1 1/2" wide.
sewed that on the back side.

This is where my quilting skills come in handy.
It was just like doing binding on a quilt! ;)




Rolled it over and top stitched it down.




A new hem.




A new dress!!

Then, I thought I'd share with you a simple trick.



Look under your machine.
I've had my sewing machine for 2 years and never noticed...
there's a trap door under there!!!?

I was contemplating taking the WHOLE bottom piece off to clean the lint.

Who knew there was little door there???

I like that little door idea a LOT better than
the BIG sewing machine OPERATION I was going to attempt!






note: Victoria over at bumble beans read my post and
told me there was a lot of lint farther back!
AAAH! I guess I've got to do another post on
How I managed to get my machine apart and
then couldn't figure out how to get it back together again...

more sunflowers

Aren't these pretty? I sure enjoy the summer flowers.

Here's the dress/shirt(?) that my BIG girl brought home for my LITTLE girl. HOW SWEET!

The problem is it's too short for a dress and too long for a shirt.

I have lots of fabric and could probably do something about this!

Here's some nice yellow - sorry about the bad lighting here..

I think all I need to do is gather this long piece....

Sew it on the bottom of the dress....

Add a flower to make it EXTRA cute......

What a cute little girl.....

With a very nice BIG sister!