My Girl

Happiest of birthdays to my little Lu, who turns 10 today.

She's the happiest child I've ever known, and I thank God every day

for letting me be her mama.

Speaking of sewing (wha? Weren't we?) I was perusing YesAsia this morning and fell in love with this book:


I'm seriously coveting this dotty skirt on the cover! And look at this lovely top on the left...


It comes from this book:


Too many lovely books to choose from. Summer budgeting stinks.

a.

Little Stitches

I have to do a plug today for a couple of really great small embroidery companies! The first is Sew-N-2-U Designs. The sweetest, tiniest fonts you've ever seen! Patty currently has 6 tiny fonts. I purchased two recently to make my own clothing labels

Another tiny design company is Perfect Little Stitches. MJ has the most amazing tiny designs! (and some regular size too!) I could shop all day at this site. There are tiny designs for every thought or occasion, and if Lu's not careful all her socks will be embroidered and all her clothes will have embroidered, covered buttons.

The best part?? They both have very reasonable prices and generous copyright agreements (both allow items to be stitched & sold). I never, ever buy brand cards or cds anymore. Not when there are SO many gorgeous designs out there from small companies with excellent prices!

Since I've been doing custom sewing, I've been in the market for woven labels. Lordy, they're expensive! Especially for a small home-based business like mine. I tried printed labels, but they just weren't what I wanted for a permanent solution. What I wanted was going to set me back several hundred dollars.

Enter all the tiny designs I've been collecting, and I debut for you my new labels:

Aren't they just perfect?? Now I'm ribbon and twill tape shopping. I can't wait to stitch them out! Sounds like a rainy Saturday afternoon project.

Flea Market Fantasy

I love flea markets. Dusty old windows with peeling paint, vintage patterns wrapped in Saran wrap (ooohh ahhhh). Oh, and retro appetizer cookbooks with be-gloved ladies sipping martini's on the cover in their starched ruffled apron.

On just such a previous trip to my local flea market I picked up this great vintage sewing book...


I mentioned it several months ago but never followed through on my promise to share the goodies inside. Since I've been doing the "One Pattern Multiple Ways" contest at PR, I've been paying all kinds of attention to the variety of ways you can change a pattern to reuse it.

After all, patterns aren't exactly cheap. Well, OK, the 99 cent sale is pretty cheap. But I've got a bajillion 99 cent patterns that I've never even cut into. And most likely never will. That's a bajillion 99 cents I could have saved!

Plus, using a pattern one time and then discarding it (or stashing it until you discard it) is just contributing to that "throwaway" mentality I keep hearing about on the news.

(Speaking of which, did you know that plastic cups were originally used in coffee vending machines, and people kept reusing them, because, HELLO they're reusable! So plastics manufacturers did a bunch of brainwashing, erm I mean suggestive advertising, to convince people that the cups were indeed disposable. And thus our disposable lives began.)

Anywho...check out these great "Multiple Ways" ideas in my flea market find...

The cap-sleeve dress:


So you can get married, go to a garden luncheon with Muffy and then out to a dinner party to celebrate your husband's promotion! All in the same dress! (Before you tar & feather me, I'm kidding of course. I'm a huge vintage pattern collector and I've got a dress like this one in my stash!)

And the Classic Suit:


Speaking of classic, does this pattern look exactly like a pattern you'd see in today's pattern mags??

Also included in this fabulous book is a section on how to alter patterns to further your "multiple looks". Below are images that show how you can alter a basic a-line skirt to achieve some pretty cute variations, still up to date looking 50+ years later. (Typed comments are my own, added to the image.)

A gorgeous side pleat with yoke variation...


This back pleat variation is awesome! I mean, how great is that contrast fabric peeking out??!!
I'll take off now, leaving you with vintage sewing book envy. Laters!

Home Sweet Home...

We're baaaacckk....exhausted but tan. Oh, and with that annoying respiratory infection I always seem to catch on planes. Achhoo.

Never fear, I bring pretties for you....

First we stayed in Orlando, at Downtown Disney (although we didn't do Disney this trip to FL.) Some of what we DID do...

Face Painting at Universal Studios...




And the beyond amazing animals of Seaworld...












The really incredible Shamu! (I was as excited as the kids!)



For the last few days of our week we stayed on St. Pete's Beach at the Don Cesar...It's a beautiful art deco hotel. Here's a snapshot at sunset last night:



another shot of St. Pete, from Crabby Bill's Crab Shack (Where I stuffed myself on yummy crabcakes! and Lu sadly lost her stuffed dolphin souvenier from Seaworld.)



We ferried over to Shell Key for the day, where you're smack in the midst of sealife. We snorkeled over hundreds of live sand dollars...



While snorkeling, a school of dozens of stingrays swam by, as well as a 7+ foot manatee! How cool is that?! It's a beautiful shelling beach too, and we gathered up more shells than we could bring home. Sand dollars by the BUCKET! Unfortunately, we had them safely packed in a hard plastic case and wrapped in towels in a suitcase for the flight home. THAT bag was one that was randomly searched by the TSA. They crushed all but 8 sand dollars. Why they would do that is beyond me. :(

Finally, I'll leave you with the gorgeous gulf coast sunset....Wow.

On this momentous occasion...

We have reached a milestone lurker-lu's! We hit...


And with that, I depart tomorrow morning for here...

and here...

and here...
and here (although we missed the launch of Atlantis by a few days)...


and oh a few more days here too...

See ya'll on the flip side!