Summer sewing for me...

 

Although I have been a little absent from my blog I have been doing some sewing this past month, only a little though :-) The above dress is what I whipped up on Christmas eve at the very last minute. I have a tradition with myself to make a new dress to wear each Christmas. This year though I was so busy sewing Christmas gifts etc... that I did not think I had the time to make myself something new to wear and it wasn't until the afternoon of Christmas eve that I decided to bite the bullet and try and get a dress completed to wear that next day, after all I had the pattern, fabric and thread ready to go so I had no excuse. After cutting  out all the pattern pieces I proceeded to sew like a mad woman and by 6pm I had it all put together enough to have a try on to ensure a good fit. Unfortunately it was way too big so I ran over to my neighbor who just happens to be a dressmaker (the kind who doesn't need a pattern and can make something from a photo). She kindly re-pinned all my seams and a couple of hours later it was all finished apart from the hem which I did the following morning. I'm so glad I made the effort to make this dress as it fits like a glove and I love wearing it.

 

I also made up another top like the one I made here before Christmas except this one has the elasticised gathered sleeves. It goes perfectly with a pink skirt I already have and the fabric just happens to be the same as my Christmas dress except in a different colourway.

And this is what I have been working on today. Finally pin basting my string quilt ready to start machine quilting it tomorrow. I am not totally sure how I'm going to quilt it but hopefully inspiration will strike once I sit down at my machine. Although as I'm typing up this post it has occured to me that some hand quilting in perle cotton would look quite pretty in those white frames. What do you think? Suggestions most welcome!