Hula-Lu

My girl has been giving me the eyeball for a couple of weeks now. She's used to being the sole recipient of my sewing skills :D She's even gone so far as to leave her pattern choices lying around my sewing area (which is everywhere basically, so she's been leaving patterns all around the house). Hint received & duly noted. Here's the sweet little Lizzie McGuire top & capri from Simplicity 4162, all made up in hula-girls & hot pink dotted swiss:


She was pretty wiggly, so the pic is not the clearest shot I ever took...so I took another closeup of the top, which is SOOOO cute! I love the aqua on the hot pink, it's perfect! The rick-rack is a vintage trim from an auction. I've been hoarding it for years, doling it out here and there on baby gifts & projects. I'm almost out now. Bummer. Here's the top closeup:


Sorry for the headless shots of Lu, but I did a review of the patterns at PR, and I didn't want to include her face.

Bought buttons yesterday...actually spent almost $20 in buttons alone. AND my local Hancocks, the only place within 75 miles of me, is discontinuing Gutterman thread!!! What's that matter with these people? They are getting Mettler at least, so I don't have to mail order thread. It's bad enough I have to mail order most of my fabrics & trims!! They've d/c'd all the nice lace and all the bridal section. You know, not to get off on a rant, but THAT'S exactly the reason people have been moving to online shopping in the first place!! Stores complain that all their business is going online, but what are we supposed to do when all you carry anymore is fleece, scrapbooking, and home decor Made in Insert-Your-3rd-World-Country trash? Hancocks in particular over the past year has discontinued most rayons & linens, separating zippers, lingerie supplies (including ELASTIC! HELLO!!!) I'm considering buying the whole roll of clear elastic next time its on sale because I can see it going next.

All of their trims have almost gone too....being replaced by pre-packaged 1-3 yard cello-wrapped beaded/lace trims. I realize they'll make a lot more money off me if they sell it that way, but if I don't buy it because I need more than 1 yard and refuse to buy a bunch of packages, then they're STILL losing money. I've never been so sick of looking at fleece in my entire life. Even the ladies at Hancocks were complaining. It was over 100 degrees here yesterday. And they were sick of cutting fleece. Um, what the heck are people making with fleece in July?! Ok, rant over.

Let's talk about buttons...What is it about buttons? I love them!! I love running my fingers through them, I love planning whole outfits around them... I guess that's why they're so expensive! Here's my button gorgefest from yesterday (which doesn't look so bad until you consider I bought multiples of each):


And a closeup of the red ones, because they're so sparkly!!


I love these mult-color sparklers too...I think they'll look great on either a plain black blouse or a plain white one:


And I wouldn't normally see myself as a flower-shaped button kind of girl, but these in a faux animal print/tortoise shell are just adorable! I have no idea what they'll go on. :D


I guess on the whole "sewing is an expensive hobby" train of thought, buttons really aren't that expensive in comparison. I highly recommend a day of button shopping for anybody in a sewing funk!

Today's Projects: Lizzie McGuire skort & top for Lu and a slip for me, mayyyybeee with cami to match!

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