Simplicty is Difficult

Whew!!  The dress inspired by Goodbye Valentino is done!  I sew for the fun of it.  It is cheaper than therapy.  It allows me to use other parts of my brain to problem solve, feed my soul, ignore my children.  (just checking to see if you are skimming..)

Remember the post about the discontinued pattern I ordered from Australia?  I promised Jennine I would make her a dress.  I basically had to invent the pattern because she is so tiny.  I am going to bake her some cookies. 

That took a bit of heavy thinking - remaking a pattern and make it look nice.  Challenge.  Add in full on summer hit - too hot for us asthmatics, and kids sports every blankety blank night.  That means a scramble after work for childcare pick ups, dinner and nights at a soccer field, park or baseball diamond. 

After that, I finally made it AND there is still some summer left for Jennine to wear it.  I hope that she humours me and wears at least once. Update: She has worn it twice!   I hope she likes it.

Doesn't she look great!  You can't really see the awesome yoke but it is there!

Here it is finished.  And here is Jennine in the dress.

Thank you Goodbye Valentino for your blog, and for this inspirations. If you want to view the blog post that inspired this dress, click here.  If you visit, leave her a comment and tell her I sent you.


Live High,

Heather

PS, only a few weeks until the Toronto Jason Mraz concert!

Painting Projects Piling Up

Ian is about to divorce me.  Not nice.  It is not about time.  His patience is wearing thin I think.  Last week I made him take a massive amount of crap to the dump.  What is it about garages, does stuff multiple in the dark?  Suddenly there was no room in there to move. 

I need space to complete a few (a lot) of painting projects.  A bookshelf for the living room, an end table (ten bucks - score!) and a coffee table (same!!) The empty garage is now full of promised projects. 

On tap this week - the gathering - of the supplies.  I am going to get the sander out and a mask (damn allergies) and sand all this stuff down.

I promise.  My marriage may be riding on it.






Live High,



Heather

Too Early?

Christmas is right around the corner you know.  One can never really wait until November to get started on some hand made items for the festive season.  Besides, I always like to have a few small projects to do.  It's instant gratification.  Some fabric, an iron, pins and you have yourself some ready made coasters to tuck away for the busy Christmas season.

Should I show  you my big trunk of fabric?  What if Ian reads this blog?  He will know...Yeah,  I know.  This Christmas fabric was in the trunk.  Just a sliver, I don't even remember how it got there.  Honest.

I made a template out of a cereal box.  I need that to keep them straight.

A tiny bit of fabric is pretty awesome for making some coasters.  These were introduced to me by my mother in law, a supreme quilter.  I am not worthy. 

Each coaster requires five squares of fabric, five inches by five inches.  One is for the bottom of the coaster and the rest you fold in half for make the top.  Iron a stack of squares in half. 

Pin the squares to the bottom.  Over lap.  I tried to find a way to make this easy to understand but did not want to over burden you with pictures.

Place the ironed squares on top

Over lap, pin and then sew.

Sew away!  This nice stack is a good foundation for teacher's gifts.  Add a Tim's card and you are done.  Merry Christmas.  Was that bad?

Live High,

Heather