Made by me #4: Colette Sencha blouse

Pattern review can be found here: http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=62740

Hungry Caterpillar

I discovered this Eric Carle "Hungry Caterpillar" fabric and knew I had to make something with it. So I made this pillow and am planning to make a quilt for Jack. I envision him plopping down on the pillow to have a good read.

A Boy Who Loves Fabric

I'm keeping all my fabrics in a drawer that Jack can open, so he's gotten into taking them all out and playing with them. I just think it's so cute! (Until I have to pick them all up again. I gave up keeping them organized into categories for now.) When he wants to play with them, he says "fawbeeks?"

Made by me #3: Vogue 8580

Here's a top I finished a while back. About an hour after I finished it, I decided to wear it and then made lunch for the fam (turkey sandwiches with mayo). I looked down when I finished and got a nice blob of mayo on the lower portion of this which left a lovely grease spot. Moral: always wear an apron!

My review of this pattern is here: http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=61961

Made by me wardrobe #2: Simplicity 2360

Here's a dress I finished this week. I made it out of fabric I got on clearance last summer at Joann's for 99 cents a yard! The pattern cost $.99, too, so the whole dress only cost about $4. It's a great pattern--very versatile, and relatively easy to put together, although the ruffles were a little time-consuming.

I posted a pattern review of this here: http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=61913

One More Quilt

Well, I just couldn't resist making one more baby quilt. When I had out the fabrics for the cloth ball I made, I kept putting these 5 together and thinking how cute they looked, so I just did a quick squares quilt. The back is kind of crazy--a pieced combination of the fabrics from the front plus a couple of others. I was just trying to use stuff I already had. This one is fairly small; it will be a nice "tummy time" quilt.

Made by me wardrobe #1: Butterick 5397

This is the most successful of the three garments I have sewn for myself in the last month. The other two I'll post soon--I just happened to finish this one today and had on pants that matched so . . . voila!

This was a "one hour pattern" which, of course, took me about six hours. As Mr. Rogers used to sing, "I like to take my time to do it right," and with this knit top, I definitely felt the need to go slowly. I'm starting to get over my fear of knits sewn without a serger (I don't have the room or the budget for one) and thought this would be an easy pattern to try. It was quite straightforward and I like the drapey knit fabric I used, although it was very fussy to work with (it was some kind of rayon knit blend). It's hard to see from the picture, but the fabric has red and blue (kind of turquoise-y) circles outlined in black on a gray background. I am between two sizes with "Big 4" patterns, so I opted for the larger one since I don't like any clinging on my "back chub." My top fits fine, although it is a little wide at the shoulders. I would definitely make this again, and the whole top cost me about $6 (the pattern was $.99, and I got the knit on clearance from fabric.com) so it definitely qualifies as a bargain!

Update: I posted a review of this (my first pattern review!) on sewing.patternreview.com! If you sign up for a free membership or are already a member, you can see my review here:

http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/61036