On Sunday I finished up this little bonnet for some friends' baby's baptism, and it looks ADORABLE on her. :) Of course, anything would look cute on that child, but hey. The bonnet looks nice too, so I'll take partial credit. hee hee.
This was a superfast thing to sew - it's basically just 2 rectangles, and the trim goes on the outer rectangle and you stitch them together with some ribbons and lace and voila! Instant Bonnet Cuteness! So a few days ago I had to go to Wally World to pick up some eye stuff (kittens hid my contact case in the morning and I was forced to open a new pair of lenses. I had no idea the kittens were myopic). (They're also grounded for that, and have had no canned food since then - they must suffer with hard food until my old contacts are returned, or I cave into the cuteness).
Anyway, while at the store, I decided to take a quick look through their fabric department, and lo and behold, I found some fabric I liked. I'm into cottons lately - they're super easy to sew (no stretching!), inexpensive (unless they're designer, more on that later) and most importantly, they're cool and easy to wear when it feels like the 6th layer of hell outside, which currently it does in the SAV. Holy crap it's hot outside, y'all.
I prewashed all of the new fabric I had (which includes the designer stuff from the store in Asheville, which was I think about $10/yd). My new fabric cost between $2.50 - $3/yd, which really? You can't beat a $5 dress. So! Anyway. I digress. I prewashed it, which means I washed it (duh) and then put it in the dryer, so it would shrink. Why would I want to shrink my new fabric? Because I'd rather have it shrink BEFORE I cut it out and made it into a dress than AFTER I made it into a dress. If it shrinks before I make it, no big deal. If it shrinks after I sew it, my pretty little size 12 dress becomes a size 8 dress, and thus a castoff to friends who can avoid Doritos better than I can.
So here is my new fabric stack, all nice and pretty (they're actually folded with the wrong side out here, so they're brighter than this in reality):
Fun, huh? I got the red and the lime green as possibilities for contrasts for a plaid dress I'm designing out of the leftovers of Noel's kilt. I'm still iffy on that dress, and am going to put it away for a while and let it simmer there.
The next one down is a fabric that was used in my sea-themed quilt, and I loved it so much I went and got more. I ADORE that fabric. I would swathe my life in it if I could. It will likely be the bodice of a similarly sea-themed sundress.
The next one down is the designer fabric from Asheville. LOVE that fabric too, and am trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with it.
The next blue one is a fun $2.50/yd cotton print that looks like various shades of bubbles all over it. Very fun and...effervescent. heh. Might end up being another shorter sundress, not sure yet.
The last 5 fabrics (hard to tell there are 5 there, but trust me) are also from Wal-mart and cost a whopping $3/yd. I've been coveting some Anna Maria Horner fabrics, but at $15 - $19/yd, I just can't justify the purchase. These 5 resemble her style. So I liked these a lot and they're all designed to go together, and I don't own a lot of yellow clothing, so why not? The very bottom fabric is a dove gray with yellow flowers and black designs on it, and that's going to be the bodice of my dress. The other fabrics (2 yellow and 2 black) will be a tiered skirt to go from my hips down to the floor. I love me some floor-length dresses.
The dress will be of my own design, and I wanted to try it out on less expensive fabrics before cutting it out of the pricier stuff. That way if I don't like it, I can go buy more of the cheaper stuff and just make simple short sundresses out of them and be done with it. (Nothing like a little fatalism, huh?)
I'm going to get started cutting the yellow/black dress out tonight. I spent yesterday evening working on the plaid dress, only to have Noel come home and look at my facial expression while I stared in the mirror and say "You don't like it, do you?" and I said I was completely indifferent to it. Which doesn't encourage one to spend hours working on it. So I'm going to put it away for a little while and work on the yellow dress in the meantime.
In other news....um....it's hot here. It's really oppressive, and makes living here a real challenge. I get frustrated that it's so miserable that you can't comfortably go outside without sweating like a pig (oh wait, per Lisa, pigs don't sweat! What does? Um....a muskox?). Ok, so this weather makes you sweat like a muskox. NOT pleasant.
Also we live in fear of the Tyranny of the Mosquitos of Doom.
It's at times like this that I put snowy photos on my computer and try to pretend I live in, say, Wisconsin or something. Where it HAS to be cooler than here.
Speaking of, I'm gonna go turn on the A/C again. Whew!
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