Finished! (and some crafty happenings...)

Here is a pic of the little Tater in a (blog) finished Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress. I need to figure out what buttons to put on it. This came about because her sister asked for a Jump Rope dress for her birthday. The Girl-Chick tromped through my stash and picked out all the purples she could find and asked for it. I will post it later in a roundup of her birthday gifts. And then Tater sidles up and says, "For me?" and bats those great big eyes of hers. Who am I to refuse? I only have the larger pattern so I just waited until I finished the one for the Girl-chick's dimensions (the smallest size in the pack) and tried it on the Tater to figure out where to chop off and resize. Tater is on the small side - she wears size 12-18 months and is close to being 2-1/2 years old. BUT. She is tall and blessed not just with long legs but a long torso too. The resize wasn't too difficult. I left the width as is and Frenched the seams more generously than Girl-Chick's. I chopped off about two inches off the bodice and Frenched that seam too. I did the hems for the skirt and cuffs by hand and I was able to make up my own fabric origami to leave the lengths intact (for future lengthening) and still make it pretty.

Here is a picture of the some of the stacks of fabric I managed to sort through today...

The Girl-Chick's teacher is in the midst of packing for a monumental move to the other coast (in about two years) and she sent me an e-mail the other day asking me if I wanted some more fabric to add to my stash. Seems she (literally) stumbled into a suitcase full of stuff from almost 20 years ago. Of course I said yes. So today, I sorted through it all and categorized them. Some of the prints on the wovens are cute but have "Calhoun Sportswear" printed all over it. Hmm... must check that out. Tater has already fallen in love with the frogs and claimed it for her own. No idea what she thinks she wants to do with it. There was a generous yardage of hearts fabric too which I can pair with some of the broadcloth to make up some skirts for Valentine's Day coming up. What you can't see in the picture is a similar-sixed pile of knits in various wonderful colors to make up summer t-shirts and dresses with and a somewhat smaller pile of fashion fabrics - slinky stuff that I am not sure I am ready to tackle. Seems like I will have my hands full with projects for a while.



Speaking of projects, I have bit the bullet and have unlurked myself!

1) I signed up for the Sewing Buddy Project 2011 being organized by Deborah. I am so excited to see what happens in the upcoming year!

2) I signed up for a scrap swap hosted by Tara - e-mail has been sent to my swap partner and preferences discussed. I shall be assembling those scraps shortly. Only problem for me is... what's 10 oz of scraps look like? It doesn't sound like a lot... What if I just found an envelope and crammed it full of whatever would fit in there? Wonder if that would work? Hmmmm....

I want to do more in the community. I want to contribute more and this is my first small step.

And finally, here is another picture of the Tater in her owls dress! (I think she likes it.)