Summer Projects 101

It's been a busy summer! I know most of you probably would agree. As it is nearing an end, I thought I would show you what my little sewing machine (she really does need a name) has been up to these days. Here are a few pics from the beach:

These are the pillowcases dresses. My husbands grandmother crocheted around the bottom of a pillowcase years ago. When she passed away, we found a couple in the house (some embroidered and some crocheted) and I knew instantly what I was going to do with them. The one on the far left is from her house. The other two were pillowcases I purchased at target for $2.50 a piece. I gave them to my mother-in-law and she crocheted around the bottom of them for me. Turned them into dresses, added a little ribbon, and it doesn't get much sweeter! These outfits were really a hodge-podge of patterns. The bubble dress to the left is an oliver pattern that is so easy and adorable. It doesn't call for a sash but I felt like the dress was missing something, so a sash was added. The outfit in the middle is a portabella pixie outfit. It is just so stinkin' cute. Love it! Fairly easy to make. And the one on the right is my very first "without a pattern" outfit that a friend (whom I will introduce you to in another post) pressured me...hehe...into making. She loves to find projects for me to do in all my free time :). She saw a skirt like this in a catalog. There are no ruffles on the front of the skirt...just the back. In the catalog, the skirt was $72. I agreed it was adorable and decided to try it for myself. She challenges me like that. It's nothing for her to "see one, do one" with anything she sees in ANY store. Can't wait for you to meet her! I think it turned out pretty well considering. I don't really care to do things without a pattern. I like to know it is going to turn out and if it doesn't, I can blame it on the pattern! And that's what I was up to the first part of the summer. I can't wait to show you a pretty big project in our house (big for us anyway), but I'm being a perfectionist and don't want to show you until I get "stuff" on the walls. Enjoy the rest of your summer and if I get over being the perfectionist, I'll post about our bonus room!