Ice Cream Dress

I wanted a gift for a young friend and decided on the Ice Cream Dress. It's the first time I've used this pattern. I love Oliver + S patterns and this one is no exception. 

 The fabric is Fleur d'Paris for Henry Glass.

I hope she likes it!

A Remake

A few years back while traveling in Italy I saw this dress in a window. It was cheap and I thought it was a perfect summer dress. 

I didn't try it on.

My bad, because it didn't work for me. Guess I was channeling my 20 something self.....

I showed it to Jessica and she loved it, which is funny because it is much more color than she ever wears at once. Some days I cause her to cringe with my colorful clothing. 

Poor baby.

Before the little guy came along she wore it a couple of times but after little guy, some changes needed to be made. It happens when you are blessed with children, things change. 

Before.

Sorry for the mediocre photos, I think we were supposed to be making dinner?? Poor guys.

After.

Mom friendly but gorgeous!

Even better than the original, don't you think?

A Nice, Quiet Weekend

Not only was this last Sunday Father's Day, it was You Know Who's and my thirtieth anniversary. That's right, thirty, three zero, three decades. I'm not sure where all that time has gone. I look at our kids and grandson and know I am getting older but apart from the days where my body doesn't cooperate, I don't feel older. I look at this man whom I love more than when we first decided to spend the rest of our lives together and he just hasn't changed that much. (He loves being told that.) 

Anyway, I am blessed. 

We are blessed, to have the life we do.

 Together. 

It's appropriate then that we spent our weekend with people we love, doing things we enjoy.

It was a gorgeous day out on the water Saturday. He and I went out into the ocean for the first time. Not very far, but far enough for me....

One section of the beach was covered in birds. Their noise was so loud, you could hear it over the crashing surf.

Pelicans in flight are kind of amazing.

Heading into open water.

I made him turn back for the inner coastal before we went too far for my comfort.

Beach baby.

Look at that tongue! 

A picnic would not be complete without iced coffee. 

This stuff has changed my life. 

Seriously.

I broke up with a well known coffee house now that I make my own.

I can have it anytime I want.

I've gained weight. 

I am happy.

Join me?

Bias Skirt

If you don't follow Crafterhours, (you should really check them out, they are nice people who say nice things about me....) then you don't know about this skirt. Jess and I made this tutorial for their skirt week.  It is an easy bias skirt we made from linen and jersey knit. 

I want to wear mine all the time. 

Seriously.

Go to Crafterhours for the tutorial.

If you happen to make a shirt, the skirt waistband and the skirt in the same color fabric, you can have something that looks like a dress but is far more versatile. 

Outtakes.........

We're so lucky he puts up with us.

Hammock vs Uber

Guess who won?

Full Skirt Attempt Two

I finished this a couple of weeks ago..... Where oh where does time go?

Jessica has a favorite skirt she bought from ATL  a few years ago that she wants more of. This was my second try and I think I got it. Now I just need to make hers. When I do I'll show more detail and my first attempt. We took these photos last night, the tired, goofy factor was pretty high. I could blame it on the smoke in the air... There are a lot of fires here right now and this is not a cloud haze it is a smoke haze.

Back to the skirt, it has a 4 inch drop waist and a side zip, which I like because it makes a smooth waistline.

It's made with a cotton lawn and lined with a white batiste. 

It has pockets, you could leave out the pockets but I love pockets. 

 It has just enough gathering to make it comfy and flirty. You can dress it up with a blouse or go more casual with a T or tanks.

Found the perfect pair of sandals at Target to go with it.

Jess, I promise I will get yours done soon!!

Skirt Week!! Wrap Skirt Attempt 1

It seemed like a good time to do this since it's Skirt Week over at Crafterhours. Go on over to their Flickr pages, with five categories, there are already a bunch of lovely skirts in the pools that will inspire you to

  sew something. 

Last week or so (were does the time go?) Jess and I were talking about wrap skirts. It's kind of a love hate thing. The comfort factor isn't quite were I want it. The ties tend to shift. Sometimes they take a lot of fabric. I'd been contemplating it since then and Friday night around 7pm (cause that's the way I do things these days) I decided to experiment. 

I started with this much lovely jersey knit, 

 and a scant thirty one inches of yummy Art Gallery fabric. 

I ended up with this. 

I never felt like it was going to gape or fall off or strangle my waist. 

 I won't wear it with my shirt tucked in, this is just to show you how it looks at the top. 

You can also see I haven't managed to hem it yet. I am going to hem it (I am Jessica, promise.) I have decided to round off the angle at the bottom. 

This is how I wore it out on Saturday. Yes I did, un-hemmed and all. It was that comfortable. 

Should I try it again, work out the kinks and tell you how? 

Would you be interested?

This is just because he's so cute and I know that there are those of you who only come here for the chance of seeing this face.