My brand new Etsy shop

I am so excited to announce...I am starting my very own Etsy shop. If you haven't heard of Etsy before it really is a great place and you should check it out.

You can find my first listing here.

There will be more to come. I decided that I had to start somewhere.

Just for fun I made this sweet dress for a nieces birthday. I hope she likes it. Tee was quite funny. She wanted to package it up but I told her she couldn't till I took some pictures of it. She took the pictures for me. I think there were 20 of just this dress. I had to laugh.

WIP...no longer

Today was a pretty good day in the sense that I got a lot done. Despite my headcold I spent time in the sewing room. My Work in Progress pile shrunk! I love that feeling.

Today I:

Ironed the ironing pile (and it was a pile)

Hemmed a pair of shorts

Fixed a shirt that needed repairing

Finished machine quilting a quilt

Now it doesn't look like I did that much but it sure feels good to have my table almost all cleaned off.

What did you do today?

The stack is no longer a stack

My small stack of fabric has turned into many little dresses. It was awfully fun too! I have such a great time sewing little dresses and only one girl to sew for. So when I knew that I could get things to some nieces without having to pay shipping, I jumped on it.

This peasant style dress is very cute and comes together very easy. I made one for my sweet Tee and had to make some more.

Tee got a matching one with a cousin. Except that I had to add a strip at the hem of Tee's because she is so darn tall. I am having to do that a lot lately. She doesn't get the match with anyone very often and she really loved it. I am so greatful to get the share other little girls in my life.This one was for a friend's birthday gift. Her little sister loves to play "dress up" and I just happened to be there when she tried on this dress. A few sizes too big for Emmy but just right for her sister.

Emmy also had to try on Tee's new skirt that I made her for school. Again a little too big but so cute and I can't get Tee to model this cute for me anyway.

These peasant dresses have an elastic neckline and sleeves with a ribbon bow at the the neck as well. The sizes are very forgiving if you get it a little too big. It ties in the back and the neck stretches. Can't get much better than that. They are great for using up the remnant pieces of fabric that I buy. You don't need very much of each color. I have now made 5 of these little dresses and I think that this color combination is my favorite. Although they are all VERY cute on each little one.

Let's do some catching up.

First off, I really haven't been in the sewing room a whole lot in the last couple of weeks. This is the time of year for canning and I have done my share to make sure we have our food storage for the year. It has been time well spent. So...here we are catching up on a few projects that I just haven't gotten around to sharing.

I had two new nieces born this summer and both needed blessing dresses. Sweet Abby's was requested to be a daisy dress just like the one I shared before. The other one was a little harder. Little Audra was intended to have a different dress but my plans changed...

Her dress began to form in my head. Then as I was trying to recreate it into fabric, it just wasn't coming together. Sometimes that happens to me. I hope I am not the only one. So two days before I needed to get it in the mail or it wouldn't be there, I scrapped the dress and started over. Call me crazy! I know I was thinking it. But this one came together and went in the mail.

A while ago I came across this white linen skirt at Goodwill. I fell in love with the sheer, embroidered hemline. Even though it was a size 4 (sorry...no longer fit into that size) I bought it anyway. This was the time to refashion it.

So here we have our before picture. (I don't do many "refashion" projects)

Since it was linen I decided to keep it simple. This fabric really didn't need much to make it pretty. I had a simple, short sleeve and added a daisy trim to the neckline.

The gathered skirt was already hemmed for me with the adorable embroidered hem. Gotta love that!

And here we have our after shot. A simple, white, linen dress.

My small stack

Oh what would you do with a stack like this?

Summer is pretty much over because the kids are now in school and I get to tackle a stack of fabric like this most anytime of the day now. Strange feeling it is! Stay tuned. Some of it got done before school started.

I haven't been sewing much...

But I have been doing plenty of other things.

A little of this...

and a little park time.

Let's throw in a nap or two.

And don't forget the family reunion. Gotta have one of those.

Last but not least...the most time consuming of all...these wonderful little spots. They start with one kid and move on to the next, ect. It also involves lots of laundry, cleaning and cream.

I am seeing a lot of white lately...

If you don't know this already I love playing with my doll, Addy. Strange I know. I am a grown up and love any excuse to make something for a doll. This time is for a dear friend's daughter.

Ray has made the choice to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am so proud of her and wanted to celebrate with her, even though she is so far away. She loves her doll just as I love mine and thought this might be something fun. Not spiritul or testimony building, but fun.

Her dress is made from my favorite white satin. I make everything out of it. I do stray very far from it. It is just a simple dress with a cap sleeve, gathered skirt and a netting overlay. I added a 1" satin ribbon to the hem of the netting. I really love that touch.

At the waist I also added the same 1" satin ribbon.

And of course, it has a velcro back. After all, what good is a little girls doll dress that she can't do up the back?