My t-shirt dresses

Yes Sewing - can you believe it ? LOL

At the beginning of the summer, hubby & I had a day out to a local flea market. It was hot, so I dressed for the 30° weather of the day. That's me in that teeny, tiny short dress ! Hubby had his camera - OY, this dress was short when I bought it but not THIS short !!!!! Now that I've seen the pic it now gets worn with a pair of shorts underneath. 100% cotton and it shrunk a LOT. The hazards of RTW - no preshrinking. It is really comfy though and I decided to try to make a pattern and copy it in a work appropriate length. I made a knee length and maxi length pattern. Only much later did I realize there was some resemblance to the M6559 that was all over Pattern Review this summer.


This was my first version - finished sometime in June. The dress itself was a really easy sew of course, only 4 seams and the hem. The binding was another story. My first time - I tried to copy a few techniques I found online but messed them up. Got them on finally but the stitching is really wonky.

You can see the front is shorter than the back. I copied the original exactly, but am going to have to add an FBA, I think. It'll add a bit of looseness across the bust and a bit of front length. In these pics the dress isn't hemmed. I've since taken an inch off the back to even it out and hemmed it.

Second version was cut out almost right away. Before I decided I needed to adjust for FBA so this one has the cheater fix of just evening out the bottom as well. This time I lowered the front neckline about, an inch, I think. Tightened up the top of the side seam under the arm - it was stretched out a bit in the first version (maybe from the binding, but I wasn't sure - so I took it in about ½-inch right at the top). What else ? Ah, I tried the Jalie binding. It turned out pretty well. I need to work on my topstitching. More of these dresses will give me more practice.


Both are Poly/Lycra blends - no idea if they are ITY or not. The blue was a Fabricville purchase in Toronto back in May, the pink I picked up in Montreal (St Hubert St) in June or July. Bought 2 cuts that day but haven't decided if the 2nd piece will be one of these or another pattern altogether.
At the end of the day, I really like them both, wore them a lot during August and would like more.

During my websurfing in August, I found a local fabric store that carries Jalie patterns as well as patterns from BraMakers Supply. Interesting, very interesting. I went with a list - Jalie 2327, 2908 and 2794 all came home with me (not my whole list, but I'll be going again, for sure - the 45 minute drive means not often, but definitely going back).

Yesterday, I pulled out the 2327, decided on the size, traced it and cut out. Now trying to figure out the flatlock on the serger. After WAY to much time examining both DH and DB's underwear, LOL, I'm pretty sure that's the seam I'm supposed to be using. If it works out, that the end of horrendously expensive underwear for DH. It's awful what they charge for such a little bit of fabric and an elastic. Sorry, Marjie, this is another one you may not want your dearly beloved to know about. :-)

More Mish and More Mash

It has been a fabulous long weekend ! On Saturday I had a 'want to do' list as long as my arm but only got some laundry done - we were supposed to have beautiful weather and I made the most of using the clothesline. The rest of the day DH & I spent in front of the telly watching movies and knitting (well, me knitting, not him LOL)

My homemade coat hanger swift was put together and I started in on the 14 hanks of wool I picked up recently at a local thrift store.

There are 7 hanks of each. Said thrift store had them bundled up in bags 3orange/3green plus one with one of each. If you wanted one you had to buy 'em all. 'eh, for $15 total it was ok with me. It's pretty scratchy yarn. The green is labeled and it's an OLD company, closed now. The yarn is probably 30 years old. The orange wasn't labeled anywhere - I'm working under the assumption that it's the same stuff. The green's a bit thicker. Winding's going to be a pain. The orange ball I wound stuck on itself like velcro. It'll give me plenty of time to decide what to do with them.

My LYS Espace Tricot is having a knit-along (KAL) for the month of September. I decided to join in and see if I could finish a project in a month. There was a vote of 3 choices and the Holden Shawlette won. I cast on and have made quite a bit of progress so far. Using one of the yarns DH bought me for Christmas - Sweet Georgia Yarns CashLuxe Fine. It's really soft.




A couple weeks ago, I made my first loaf of multigrain bread. It was ok but I want a soft, airy, soft crust, freezable, good for sandwiches and good for toast bread. Not asking for much, huh ? This was my second recipe. Much denser and not as nice for either sandwiches or toast.


After doing nuttin' on Saturday, Sunday and today were much more productive. This was bread recipe #3. Bonus, it was a 2 loaf recipe. Whoa - light (check), airy (check), soft crust (check), freezable (2nd loaf is in the freezer - will find out later how well it thaws), toast was passable - soft but a bit crumbly. So far, this one is way ahead of the curve. The only issue is the sugar - it calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 CUP ! I don't think so, the bread has a sugary taste and the sugar is definitely coming out (or at least cut way down) if I make this one again.


More cooking...for the past few years, I've thought about buying a bushel of tomatoes and making tomato sauce. Out for groceries yesterday, I stopped in a a local farmer's stall and picked up a 1/2 bushel, about 14 lbs for $8


Today I blanched, peeled, cooked and canned my little heart out and ended up with...

6 quarts of crushed tomatoes. They seem fine, sealing properly. But I wasn't expecting this. I didn't puree the cooked tomatoes so there is liquid in the jars but the tomatoes are floating on top of liquid at the bottom of each bottle. Is that normal - do any of you know ?

So that was the sum total of my weekend. I had sewing on the list but never got to the sewing room. I've had 2 dresses (oh and a skirt, too) done for a while but completely forgot to have DH get pics, duh.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend :-)