Stitch a Seam: Summer Sundress!

       Because I was so fussy about my outfits as a young lady, I now do not have the nerve to buy my granddaughters a dress. But I do remember one outfit that was fun to wear! When I saw bolts of material at JoAnn's with elasticized tops that needed only ONE seam to turn it into a sundress...and on sale half price...I thought I would gamble! More than that, it was a stitching craft the children could complete in a short period with success.

       Earlier, I made a quick stop at the store to assess the children's taste, to gather their comments as to what colors and designs they like. I bought about 5" less than a yard after using my hands to suggest to the clerk the children's sizes. The lady cut through the elastic and then ripped the rest. "That is how these frocks-to-be should be cut. And by the way, leave a little larger-than-usual seam binding so that next year you can rip out the seam to enlarge to wear another year," she contributed.

       At home, we measured the outfits, and cut some more. We pinned the sides; and I showed Hannah how to keep her seam straight, by eyeing a marking near the feed dogs. After fitting, we checked where she wanted the hem since she wanted a short rather than a long dress. What we cut off became straps. Then I showed her how to fold the hem twice, for a small hem with perfectly colored thread. She stitched the hem beautifully. I made wrap-the-neck straps she designed.

         Erika sat in my lap to move the fabric to be sewn. She wanted straight straps over the shoulder and thankfully I had some yellow bias tapes to use. They know what they want! I measured and sewed her 2" hem.

       Hannah also had a black and white skirt that had a 2-inch-wide elastic black band. She would find a top for it at home. The girls wore the one or two hour sundresses home and to a cook-out that night. It is WARM in Boston! David did not want a dress. He wants a Batman shirt! I wonder if he would settle for a pillowcase?

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Close the windows at Halloween: a Journal Quilt Connection 12 x 12

    A Halloween theme was chosen by my Journal Quilt Connection group for October. I had just returned from Texas and was thinking wide open spaces and big skies. I found the "Attic Window" block pattern for that. Several patterns and ways of creating it are on-line.

    I had dropped in at JoAnn's Fabric just to see what is new to find there were many exotic fabrics for Halloween. I bought small pieces of each and mailed fragments to the grandchildren. I decided my 12" x 12" attic windows were too garish alone, and placed these skulls atop the block. Perhaps I should sew them down, but I like the way the fabric floats or ripples like ghosts coming in the windows. It is Halloween, of course, but I had age and memento mori's on the mind :*)


    The following quotation appeared at Rayna's blog (click to visit where you may subscribe by e-mail) and it spells out what happened in the making:

Philip Roth: What I have in mind when I start to write could fit inside an acorn -- an acorn, moreover, that rarely if ever grows into an oak.  Write fiction and you relinquish reason.  You start with an acorn and you end up with a mackerel.  Unfortunately, my workday does not support the argument for a universe of "intelligent design."  Chance and staying power.  That's the hand that imagination's dealt. 


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