Whew. What a week. The last week of school for my 3 girls and so much to do. Today was Olivia's last day of highschool. I started homeschooling her 13 years ago. Our last one will finish highschool in 14 years (you do the math while I sit here wiping the tears away). Anyway, Asher will be done with 3rd grade in 2 weeks and then summer can officially begin.
I made a dress with one of Kay Whitt's new patterns yesterday. I started in the morning (by washing the fabric) and finished in the evening. It went together pretty quickly given all of the interruptions I had throughout the day. This is the Claire Cami dress and I'm giving it two thumbs way up. It's so uncomplicated that I would highly recommend it to a beginner. I love a pattern that just gets the point across and doesn't add a bunch of unnecessary steps just to look impressive. There are no zippers (and everyone said "yippy!") and the only complicated(?) part is making 2 buttonholes and they're located in a place where it won't even show if you make them too long like I did.
I cut off my head because I had Joey take the picture this morning and I looked like I had just rolled out of my crypt. Look at our holly hocks!
Kay adds all the right details to her patterns like these two lines of top stitching. I love top stitching because it makes a garment look professional (as opposed to "homemade") and it makes it so much easier to care for (ironing is so nice and easy when you've top stitched something).
And this simple strip of fabric between the skirt and ruffle is just a nice touch that keeps the skirt from being ordinary (and more top stitching!). Oh, this fabric is Laura Gunn's new Poppy collection by the way.
And I decided to use a spokes model for this weeks give-away (the speaking part is when he says "let me see it! let me see it!" and runs to the other side of the camera every time I take a picture). Mr. Cheesy McCheese-grin is showing you the Rachel Cross Body Bag pattern and all the fabric needed to make one of the bags. It's 1 3/4 yards total fabric (cute stuff too!). You'll still need to get the hardware but this will get you mostly there.
Here's a picture of the bag (I switched out the dots with Ta Dots Moss because I didn't have this exact dot fabric but they're darn close). Isn't it gorgeous? That's Jessica Levitt's Timber fabric on the top and straps. Super cute!
Just leave a comment and share your big summer plans once school's out. We're taking a two week road trip to Oregon (including 2 separate family reunions). I hope it rains (it usually does)!
