Once I was a Whirl-Away

Yes, you've met this dress before. I really love the IDEA of this dress. It is cute and easy to make. I added nursing openings and they worked great. Unfortunately, even after much tweaking and adjusting, I just couldn't get the shoulders and upper chest to fit. The armholes were too wide and sagged. The underskirt was too short and the overskirt too long. All in all, it wasn't wearable. It has been sitting on the floor of my sewing closet for months making me grumpy.

But I was inspired by clevergirl's awesome remake of her 4790. So, now it is a fun wrap skirt!! I took off 4 inches from the top, which lengthened the waistline to the point that it wraps around me twice. I added a waistband per the instructions in Sew What! Skirts. The waistband fabric was salvaged from the too short underskirt. There was just enough to match plaids and go around me thrice. Perfect!

An added bonus - this fabric was too sheer to wear without a slip (I hate slips!!), but now that it is double layered, it is fine.

Fun for the fourth

We had great fun celebrating the Fourth of July yesterday! We went to a picnic with our church group and it was amazing! The kids were the cutest in their outfits. Here they are before the heat and good food had a chance to wilt their clothes.Logan LOVES his helicopter shirt. Here he is sticking out his chest to show everyone his 'copter. He kept doing it all evening. It warms my heart to make something for him that he loves so much.
Here was my project for the Fourth. It was only sort of a spur of the moment thing - really, I'm sticking to the planned projects here! Sort of. It started out with me drafting my Sew What! Skirts pattern. I was planning to make the simplest of the skirts (a drawstring A-line) to give myself plenty of oopsie room. So, I drafted out the pattern. I have to take a moment to gush about how great this book is. Drafting the pattern was really easy. The method that they use is explained well and there are great diagrams along the way if you get stuck. Once the pattern was drafted it was very clear that I didn't have enough of the cute blue fabric I was planning to use to make this particular skirt. (It will be making an appearance later as a straight skirt - Fear not!) I hit my stash and found this cute bias printed check with cherries and thought, "Awesome, it's red, white and blue and perfect for a picnic. I wonder if I can finish it in time to wear it to the party?" Myra was considerate enough to sleep all morning, and I have Beth's serger, so between those two factors, I had a new skirt to wear to the picnic!! Yay!
It fits well, but then it is just a drawstring, so fit wasn't a big issue.
I have to say again, I love this book! The skirt went together so easily. Drafting the pattern was a snap, and the book is full of cute little embellishment ideas to make projects fun and unique. If you don't have this book already, go check it out!