Getting ready for Summertime

Apparantly, Courtney already had a closetfull of summertime dresses. Meanwhile, I have been making her little dresses and summer play clothes. Oh well, she tells me that she likes my clothes best and still wants me to sew for her. How sweet she is. Music to my ears.

Last week, I got some more yummy fabric specifically for summer sewing, all anna maria horner's new Good Folks collection. I am dying to make a summertime picnic type quilt / blanket with it. It just screams cozyness and relaxation. I've almost decided how I'm going to piece it all together. For some reason, although I seem to be buying fabric nonstop and am getting better at buying coordinating patterns, I never have enough or the right mix to follow a pattern. I wonder, do quilters follow pattersn, do they make it up as they go? I don't know? Anybody out there?

Anyways, here's a very fitted (bodice) part Flower Girl dress from the new Heather Ross book, ( yes, I caved and bought it), and it is surprisingly very easy and simple to put together. I used some of the fabric that I brought back from France. It was like rayon type material with absolutely no give to it, so if you are making it, you need something with at least a little bit of stretch to it. Fortunately, Courtney doesn't have a lot of "hips" so we put it on by pulling it on, as it couldn't get over her shoulders / arms. It's a great length and very twirly and dancy to wear.

Also, a few sneak peaks on some dresses that I've been making using some Freshcut from Heather Bailey. One of the patterns is a Oliver & Co that I got from the UK Sew Hip magazine and the other is another Heather Ross from her book. The mock smocking or shirring is a lot of fun and super easy to do. I've got another one in the works...it's put on hold now that I've see how many dresses my little girl actually has. I might have to make it a size 6 just so she can wear it next year too and hopefully all her other dresses will be too small then.

Have a great weekend. Got to run! The base of my lemon tart is now ready for the oven. Getting things prepped for dinner tonight. Still have to pick up the fish though...will be a bit tricky wish, I could have bought it earlier, but c'est la vie.