Girly goodness

Back in January, with my head down in a flurry of sewing projects, I took the easy way out and picked up a store bought art smock for Lily for school. But oh no - a garish, orange, PVC sack-like thing was not going to cut it for my fashionista. So back it went to the store.

Weeks went by and finally she really did need an art smock. Like YESTERDAY. She wanted one with babushkas which her friend's Mum had bought from Spotlight(by now sold out). With the clock ticking, my grand vision of making one out of Amy Butler oil cloth ground to a halt when I discovered it retails locally for AUD$44m! Inspired by my friend Steph's approach to de-stashing, I decided instead to make one completely from my smallish but perfectly adequate stash.

I was lucky enough to have this super-cute pattern on hand - the Little Flirty Skirty Apron by The Apron Lady Designs, very kindly gifted to me by my friend Marilyn for my birthday last year from Sewco.



Using some sturdy canvas bought many years ago from Ikea for the apron, I added a small bit of babushka fabric in my scraps bin for the pockets, from the very first quilt I made for Lily. Pre-made bias binding added an accent of red.



Some divine babushka tape jazzes up the ties. (Where did I buy that from? A Brusselsprouts de-stash sale?)



The girl is now happy.



This month I also whipped up these two sweet dresses for my little cousins. Again a mission in stash-busting, I used some fabrics from Denyse Schmidt's DS Quilts Collection fabrics from her first range Picnic and Fairground for Spotlight (a "must-have" purchase that has since sat staring at me on my shelf). Thanks to Facebook I came across the Apron Knot Dress Sewing Pattern (3m-5t) by Pitter Patterns on Craftsy. I really liked their sample made using blues and grays. I tried to emulate this by using similar colours in each of mine - greens in one and reds in the other. It was a buzz to create buttonholes on my machine (not something I do very often!). I love how this pattern uses knots in the straps instead of buttons. I'd like to adapt this pattern into a top for myself, perhaps even using a voile (from my stash!).





**Edited to add pics of my darling cousins in their dresses...