Buttercup Bag: Chicken Edition

This bag was made from the Made By Rae Buttercup Bag pattern (which is free!). A few weeks ago, Mom and I went to an AWESOME fabric store in Lancaster County. It is called Obi's General Store, and the place is stacked to the ceiling (literally) with fabric. It is really quite overwhelming, and I know that despite our time spent there, I probably only saw a fraction of the fabric they had. While there, I bought several pieces of fabric, including this chicken print. Now that I have chickens (!!), I should have something with chicken fabric, right?! I figured I would make myself a cute apron, but plans changed and I made a purse instead. This purse is super-easy to sew up. I added rick-rack for a little punch, and also because I can't find my red piping. No doubt it is off somewhere being used by my children to rig up a squirrel trap or something. I left out the small interior pocket, and added a divider instead. The buttons are from my Grandma Heppner's stash.

Quilt Top

Here is the project that has sucked up the majority of my sewing time lately. This quilt is for my oldest son. He is into everything farms, horses, and cowboys. The majority of the fabric is horses, but there is also a frame of blocks made of a scenic farm print (covered bridges, Amish horse and plow, barns, etc.) Now on to the sashing, borders and quilting!

Summer Dress - Modified Simplicity 2587

I made this dress last year (click here) but it was a size too big. I liked the style though so I decided to make it again except this time I redrafted the back to a low V, used an invisible zip instead of a side-lapped zip and added hidden pockets. I also fully lined it which I do for every dress because I like the weight better that way. Anyway, it's a simple, slightly poofy summer dress that's perfect for the pool. The added bonus is that I used a tablecloth from my childhood for the outside and an old sheet for the lining. I figured why not upcycle some old stuff sitting in my stash?

Summer PJ Shorts - Modified Simplicity 2821

I don't know about where you all are but where I am it's HOT! I guess it's not even so much the heat in the 90s as it is the humidity. Even with the AC set low the house still feels like a wet towel...yuck! I keep seeing cute PJ shorts around town at Target and Espirit and Anthropologie but for $15+ a pair I'm just too cheap to buy any especially when the quality is so poor. So with that in mind, I dug out a simple PJ pattern, totally redrafted it to fit me perfectly and went crazy. I used Marimekko fabric for the red and flower pairs and a regular quilting cotton for the brown pair. I also used vintage buttons and trims to finish them off. They are fast and easy to make and use very little fabric so all in all, I paid less than $5 for all three pairs. The added bonus of this project was that I discovered the overlock stitch on my sewing machine. Why and how I missed that sweet feature before I do not know. Now if I'm feeling too lazy to do french seams I can quickly finish them with stitch 06 and foot G!

More Food Projects

I recently brewed myself some strawberry vinegar. It was very high-tech: I put 2 cups of strawberries in a quart jar. I topped it off with vinegar. I let it sit for two weeks. Strained out the berries. Bam! Strawberry vinegar. I used some of it to make Poppyseed dressing and it was good.

And pickles! These are refrigerator pickles, though I aspire to can my own this year. Refrigerator pickles are very easy to make. You need 6-8 cucumbers, dill, salt, garlic and vinegar. Cut cukes into spears, sprinkle with 1 TBS. salt and chopped dill. Let sit for 30 minutes. Take 2 quart jars, and add several cloves of garlic, whole peppercorns, mustard seeds, a hot chile, whatever floats your boat. Add 1/2 to 2/3 cup white vinegar to each jar. Add cukes, top off with water and refrigerate for a few days before eating. These will keep a while, hypothetically. I happen to have three children who will eat anything pickled, so they don't usually last long.