Clothespin Cuteness

I do not have a clothes dryer. I sold it a few months ago, after not using it for a few years: My clothes air-dried on drying racks. It worked fine, and the savings on electricity have been nice.

Recently, my wonderful husband put up a clothesline in the yard. Now I actually have the drying space to do more than one load a day, if I so choose. I can still employ the racks if I run out of room on the line.

A clothesline meant that I needed to get clothespins, though--and clothespins just must have a pretty holder.


I have seen some very functional clothespin holders that were not pretty, but I wanted something that I would enjoy looking at while I am hanging out the clothes. I think mine fills that purpose amply, in addition to serving as a place to keep my clothespins.

The body of the holder was once the bottom of a dress. Since it was a straight-skirted dress, I just cut the skirt off straight across and folded part of it up to make the pocket. I left the fabric doubled to increase the durability of it. The contrasting trim was made from scraps left from another project. There are little tortoiseshell-colored buttons at the base of the straps to hold the bag on the line.



My clothespin holder makes me smile every time I use it.

Dressy Apron

I made an apron while I was in high school. It was a combination 4-H and Home Economics project. Here is how it turned out:


As you can see, it is pretty basic. It is just a plain, practical apron made of a navy cotton calico with stars on it.


It is a very functional design with not a particle of femininity. At the time, it was what I wanted. I was not into all that frilly "nonsense"; I was a tomboy and thought that anything ruffly or lacy or what-have-you would be entirely impractical and render the apron pretty much useless. Therefore, my apron was basically unisex.

Since then, I have learned better. It is so much more fun to have the frills, and they make it more enjoyable to cook (which is not one of my favorite activities). So, as a decidedly feminine and girly girl now, I wanted an apron that would make me feel pretty. I started with this:



It is a dress that I made several years ago. It was well-loved and, thus, well-worn. It became faded and not was not donned very often. I thought it would make a beautiful apron. So I took off the buttons (and saved them for another use, of course), lapped the left front over the right (to hide the buttonholes) and sewed it down with a few lines of stitching, cut larger armholes (the sleeves are raglan), and removed the back panel (it is a princess-seamed, gored style).



Then I serged the back edges and turned them under. From the removed panel, I made a couple ties and attached them to the edges at the waist.



The result is an absolutely adorable apron that makes homemaking even more enjoyable. Pretty things make such a difference in my world!!

Niecely Niceness

I have a fairly large family. I have several siblings, which means that I have many nieces and nephews. Family gatherings are always fun, if somewhat noisy.

Since I had so much fun making my purse, I decided to keep sewing and make some more stuff. That "stuff" turned out to be dresses for some of my adorable nieces. My nephews are adorable, too, but it is just more fun to sew little dresses, in my opinion. Since I am still keeping strictly to what is available in my stash, I ended up mixing and matching fabrics to construct some really cute little items. Here is the first:



Yellow is the favorite color of this little girl, and it looks good on her, too. The bodice and belt/ties fabric has a cream background with little blue, daisy-like flowers in yellow squares. The A-line skirt and two-part sleeves are of a brighter yellow fabric with red flecks.

Her sister's dress is from the same pattern:



This little girl looks really good in blue. When I initially put the bodice and skirt fabrics next to each other, I was not really sure if they would go well together. They seemed to be just enough "off" that they might clash. Adding the dark blue belt between them turned out to make the combination perfect. Since the dress seemed a little plain, I decided on applique embellishments, and flowers were a natural choice, because she loves flowers. I did simple, free-hand sketches and cut them out of the dark blue. The center of the smaller flower on the bodice is of the skirt fabric, and the centers of the three larger flowers on the skirt are of the bodice fabric. All of the applique work is satin stitched with a grayish-blue thread. I fell in love with this dress before I finished it, and my niece informed me that it is now one of her favorites.

My youngest niece lives a little farther away from me, and I had to email her mother to get her size. (The first two dresses were surprises for the girls and their mother.) I used the same pattern once again, but in a smaller size than either of the other two:



I actually had enough of one fabric for the entire dress this time. The little princess for whom this was made is very blond and fair, so I thought purple would look good on her.



The applique butterfly was a bit trickier than the flowers on the blue dress, but I think it turned out well. After I fused it, I was not sure that the lavender would look good with the purple calico, but the satin stitching really pulled it together and set it off nicely. The inner wings are cut from a batik-dyed cotton. I mailed this dress at the end of last week, so I do not know if they have received it yet. I certainly enjoyed making it, though!

I am so glad I have nieces.

Pretty Purse

I hate purse shopping. I mean, I really hate it. I hate everything about trying to find a purse I like. The colors, the styles, the sizes, the materials, the prices--it is all quite frustrating, because "everyone else" seems to like something that is much different from what I like. Thus, I generally avoid shopping for a purse unless I absolutely have to.

My last purse was a thrift store find. I was not even specifically looking for a purse at the time, but this one caught my eye.




It is small. (I do not go for big bags.) It is muted enough to go with pretty much everything, but it is not boring. It is feminine. It is cute. (Even my husband said so.) Besides, it cost only a dollar. I have been quite happy with it for a few years.

However, it is wearing out. You can see some of the pills collecting on it. Also, for awhile, I have wanted something a little more "elegant" than "cute." So I have idly glanced at purses when I have been out shopping for other things, but--as I expected--I have not discovered anything to my liking. Therefore, as I often do after attempting to find something satisfactory in the stores and utterly failing, I decided to make my own.

Currently, I am not buying any more sewing materials. My sewing room is full as it is. That means that I must work with what I have on hand. It also means that I have a huge stash to raid when I start a new project. This was in my stash, and I pulled it out most gleefully:



It is a shirt, a rather large one. It was given to a few years ago, and I saved it for the fabric (since it is much to big for me and not really my style). It is washable stretch velvet, and I think it is simply beautiful. I removed and saved the buttons and cut up the shirt to turn it into something I can use. Since it is stretch velvet, I needed a lining that would not give, or the purse would be pulled out of shape. Once again, I looked through my stash and found something delightful:



These batik-dyed cottons were also given to me. The pieces are not very big, which is why they have not been used in some other project. However, the combination of them turned out to be just enough for the lining of my purse. I put in a few inner pockets (one of them zippered), too. I love being able to actually see inside my purse when I am looking for something. Most purses seem to have dark linings, which makes trying to find something about like searching a black hole: All the light just disappears. Well, this purse does not have that problem.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out.



I did add some stiffening to the shell, since the purse would be quite floppy without a skeleton of some sort. Is it not lovely??


It is so demure and elegant on the outside, but it is bright and fun when you get close enough to see inside. Somewhat like some people I know. (The zipper, by the way, is a vintage one from 1947. Perhaps I will do a post on that sometime.)

I love my new purse. Even my husband exclaimed, "Wow!" when I showed it to him. Definitely a success.

I Have Returned

Obviously, it has been awhile since I last updated my blog. I am no longer sewing professionally. Since my marriage in August of last year, I am delighted to have started a new career as "domestic engineer." I still sew a bit, too, as the notion takes me. (No pun intended.)

I sewed for our wedding, of course. I had to. No one else could make my dress for me--and I certainly would never find such a dress in a store.



Yes, that is my wedding dress, and yes, it is blue. I have never wanted a white wedding dress. The fabric I used is actually drapery material. A seamstress friend gave me a roll of it years ago. I thought it was beautiful at the time, but it never occurred to me that I would end up using it for my wedding gown.

The princess-seam gown has a very full skirt: It is nearly a full circle. It is fully lined with cotton, which is cooler and more comfortable than a synthetic lining. The raglan sleeves are darted at the top to give them a bit of shape, and they are roomy enough for swing dancing (which was essential for the dance at our reception). The original pattern had a scoop neckline with a zipper down the back; but V-necks look better on me, and my husband likes buttons down the front. So I changed the pattern a bit and made a practice dress to try it out. It worked.


The ornamentation is handmade Irish crochet. My mother did most of it; I added a bit, as well. Each of the buttons has a tiny crocheted flower stitched to it, with a ring of opalescent beads in the center. (I made the buttons.) All of the threadwork has beads in it.



Here is the back. I made the snowflake-like motif in the center of the design and a few of the small flowers. Other than that, the credit goes to my mother. She made a large number of individual motifs and sent them to me, and I figured out a placement for each of them before hand-sewing them into place (and adding beads where necessary).

I did some other sewing for the wedding, too. Perhaps I will make some posts about that another time.

Runners for the Bride

As in "table linens," of course, not sprinters.

The bride who had me make a sash for her dress also wanted coordinating runners to decorate the tables at the reception.




The fabric is actually more navy than it appears in the photo, and the lining is more ecru than actual white. It has a poly/cotton fiber content. It had to be a closely-woven cotton or cotton-blend, because the bride plans to have a wreath design screen printed on to match the graphics on the wedding invitations. Each of the runners is seven feet long by one foot wide, with a decorative seam two inches from the edge.

Simply elegant.

For Auction Again...

Well, not really. It is for sale, though.

Remember the silent auction dress? I still have it, and now I am offering to you!! Here is another picture of it (I think it shows up better in this one than the one in the previous post):

It is about a size 6/8, and you can have it for $75 (plus shipping, if it has to be sent somewhere). Just send me an email if you are interested or if you have any questions.

Wouldn't you love to have this pretty little thing?