Dresses for Africa

Earlier this year I joined a group of ladies at church who where sewing little dresses for Africa.  Here is a sample of a couple that I made.

Dragonfly skirt

Circular skirt made of light weigh chambray

with dragonfly embroidery.

 

French Blue Linen Tunic

I made this tunic for myself.

I rarely sew things for myself.

But I am on this linen thing now and I really need some new clothes.

 

 

This one has pintucks.

I don't think the next will!

Finally - a new post!!

So I haven't posted anything for a long while,

but I have an excuse.

I have a real job and not much sewing time.

Hence, I made a lunch bag for myself.

Lining of my lunch bag

 

And another lunch bag for Jessica.

She keeps losing them!!

That is very annoying.

 

So I am kind of on a linen kick here.

I made myself this very basic linen tunic.

I will wear it to work tomorrow.

I know it wrinkles lots!!

Oh well.

Wisteria Linen Tunic

 And this is my linen shopping bag.

I didn't line it so it will fold up easily to put in my purse.

Linen shopping bag with embroidery

Christmas morning

What I sewed for Christmas.

Leopard pj pants.

They loved them.

Halloween

It's Halloween.

Jessica got up early because she got to wear

her costume to school today.

She was very excited about that.

She was feeling very pretty today.

I hope to get more pictures of all the kids tonight.

 

She loved her shoes.

Crinolines

So this week I needed to finish the crinolines for the poodle skirts

Here I am gathering tulle.

I am using my gathering foot.

This is one of my favorite ways to gather,

especially if you have many miles of fabric to gather.

 

 

 

The finished product.

Now I did not get to fancy with these.

They may only wear them once.

I made four of these.

 

Perhaps next year I will tell them they can go to the store

and buy a costume.

Seems to me that would be much easier.

I will get some pictures when they are all dressed up

so we can see the total look.

Getting ready for Halloween

This is what I did this week.

I am nearly done with Halloween.

Still need to make crinolines.

Did I mention I dislike Halloween.

 I made 3 monogrammed blouses.



 

 Pink poodle skirt.

(I made two of these)

 

 Purple poodle skirt.

 

 Turquoise poodle skirt.

Peasant top

The girls need some summer tops.

I thought some embroidery would be nice.

I should probably skirts too.

Well, I will see about that.

In the meantime, I need to do more tops.

Pillowcases

Pillowcases for a birthday gift.

Olivia dress

Another dress using the "Olivia" pattern

 Ethany wearing the dress.

I think it is a little big for her.

Oh well.

The way she has been eating lately I'm sure

it will fit better soon.

 

Placemats

Karen got a new table and needed some new placemats.

Ripley is checking them out.

Just going to see if they work.

 Yes, I think they meet with her approval.

More dress pictures

So as you know, photography is not my forte.

She liked the ribbon trim on the dress.

 Kids goofing around!



 It's all fun.

Dress challenge

Is this not one of the cutest dresses ever.

It is really hard to find cute patterns for girls

I got it here:

http://olabelhe.blogspot.ca/

This gal has several real cute patterns.

And she is having a contest so I thought I would give it a try.

 So here is my version.

The pattern only goes to size 8 so I had to

re-draft it to a size 10.

All my girls are getting bigger!!

Sure wish they would just stop that.

I gave myself a second challenge.

To use what I had. (No going to the store.)

This is a poly/cotton fabric purchased at Wallmart

several years ago.





 Also, I had to add a slit into the skirt of the dress

so it is easier to get on.



Pillowcases

I made pillowcases for the girls.

Last summer I made them new curtains for their bedrooms,

so I used the same fabric for their pillowcases.

I used poly/cotton broadcloth.

The less ironing I have to do, the better.

 

New lunch bags

The girls needed new lunch bags.

So here they are.

Sandwiches got left in their old ones over the

Christmas break.

When I found them --  Stinky!!

They went straight into the garbage.

What I did today.

So I have been in a bit of a slump lately.

And I have not made anything new or exciting or cute.

So I thought I would work on  a curtain project.

I have had the fabric since last summer

so thought I should get it used up.

These are the old curtains that

where purchased at Ikea a couple of years ago.

We nick named them 'zebras hiding in grass'.

This is the new panel I sewed.

What do you think?

Here they are together.

Which do you prefer?

 I also thought I would share this.

I made these 'Economy Oatmeal Squares' to day.

It is an old recipe but new to me.

My daughter gave it to me.

The kids thought they where AWESOME!!

And real easy to make.

Economy Oatmeal Squares

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar

 (they are quite sweet so feel free to use a little less)

2 cups oatmeal

1/2 tsp. baking powder

Mix, press into a pan to make 1/4 inch thick.

Bake till brown. (this is what the recipe said)

They will harden as they cool.

I baked at 375 for about 10 minutes.

Cut while still warm, so they don't break apart too much.

Enjoy