More Sewing...More Summer Reading

With one outfit for Cate and a few crayon rolls under my belt, I headed back to my grandma's yesterday for some more sewing. I'm making Cate another outfit like the one I just finished (and showcased in this post), except this one is a size smaller (so the top will be more of a shirt and less of a dress).
I love the bright fabric! Another cute outfit for the beach. I just have to sew the elastic into the bloomers (which I can do here at home). Next week my grandmother will help me do the ric-rac (I forgot to buy some this week) and the buttons/buttonholes. That should probably take me all of 20 minutes to do and then we'll have another finished outfit.

I'm also getting ready to start work on this skirt for me (pattern picture on the left in the photo below) with some cute chocolate brown and pink fabric (on the right in the photo below, blending in with my kitchen table). My "homework" this week is to trace and cut out the pattern.
Why trace? Because my grandmother has a seemingly endless supply of tailor's tracing paper and because then I can reuse the pattern if I want to make the skirt in a different size (my sister has already requested one-- she has way too much faith in my ability to learn to sew). My grandmother traces a lot of her patterns so she can use all of the different sizes and make things for both herself and for others. Good idea! Time consuming at first though.

In rifling through her sewing closet, my grandmother also came across these preprinted, quilted Paddington Bear bibs.
Just add a back to them, a little bias tape to make the ties, and voila! You have a bib!
So I have exactly 19 of these that I can make. Once they're cut out, they seriously take 5 minutes to sew (in addition to her regular sewing machine, my grandmother has an overlocking--serger--sewing machine, which makes sewing the bibs go so fast). Not only will a few of these be great--and washable-- for Cate, but will make some great additions to baby gifts as well.

Clearly we kept busy.

I also managed to finish another book this week. Dune Road is Jane Green's newest novel.
Jane Green is my go-to author for semi-trashy, but mostly tasteful, chick lit. I've read every novel she's written. Her early books have some passages that would make even seasoned romance writers blush, but her last few books have been much less sexy and much more focused on plot (this one being the first to have an element of suspense and mystery to it). I loved it! It was definitely time for a kind of mindless read and this fit the bill perfectly.

~Melody :-)