Before we left last week, I made a travel jewelry roll. It was a very quick “instant gratification” project, as well as something I needed anyway.

There’s a wider pocket on the far right for bracelets, and a small flap to put earrings through. It was nice not having tangled jewelry this time.

Making Anna’s peasant dresses has been so much fun. They are easy and sew up quickly. I followed the tutorial at indietutes, shortened the bodice (by almost half), and added a gathered skirt. It took a little more measuring and some trial and error, but I’m pleased with the results.

The knit dress I made last weekend washed up so soft that it looks really comfortable. It looks so adorable on Anna (not that I’m biased, right?).

Saturday was one of those rare days when I was actually able to get some sewing done.

First, I made Anna a new gown. Her pajamas are too warm for summer and she’s about to outgrow them anyway. The fabric is a very delicate knit with pastel stripes – Stephen’s grandma gave it to me not long ago specifically for Anna.

Later I was able to start some pillow shams. The throw pillows on our couch are starting to look awful. I figured some new covers would be enough, rather than completely replacing the pillows. Here’s what I have done so far. They need a border before I actually make them into shams, but at least I was able to get a little bit done.

This one I used all the music-themed fabrics.

This one is my favorite. It’s quite a bit busier than I realized when I laid out the squares, but that’s ok. One day I’d like to make a quilt out of only blues and whites. . .I think that would be so pretty.

Instead of cutting any new fabric (or scraps, for that matter), I used squares left over from the first quilt I ever made. I couldn’t find where I’d shared a picture of the quilt here before, so here’s a picture I took of it years ago.

There were enough squares left from that quilt to use for this one:

(You can see another photo of the quilt top here)

It’s funny how many different projects I’ve made out of those squares. There’s quite a few more left too, but I don’t have specific plans for them yet.

Last week I made Anna a new dress for her to wear for our field trip to the zoo. It was supposed to be quite warm that day, so I wanted something that wasn’t going to be too hot for her. I also wanted something really long – even though she can wear sunscreen, I wanted as much of her skin covered as possible to protect her fair skin.

I followed this peasant top tutorial, and lengthened it.

Trying it on for fit – the sleeves were so roomy before adding elastic that they reminded me of wings

It fit her pretty well, but wasn’t roomy enough through the diaper area and in the legs. It also looked too much like a nightgown at this point to just leave it. I cut the skirt part off, added in some pink gingham stripes, and some lace with embroidered butterflies at the hem. I LOVE how it turned out.

I think it would look even better with a little pink band at the waist, but I ran out of time to add it.

Anna was too busy rolling around the floor to get a very good shot of her in the dress, but here’s a couple of attempts:

Caleb kept running around yelling, “CHEESE!” when I was trying to take these. :)

It sewed up a lot faster than I expected, and was really easy to make. There’s so much that could be done with those basic instructions. . .

Last week I found this eyelet bed skirt at the thrift store for $2. I love it. The only problem is it makes me want to make a more summery quilt to go along with it. The one on the bed right now took me two years to make – I highly doubt getting a new one done any time soon is very likely!

I’ve mentioned before that we use the cash envelope system for budgeting some of our expenses. First, I made some zippered envelopes. They worked well, but since they aren’t labeled they’re too easy to mix up inside the store. What’s the use of making three separate transactions if you pay out of the wrong envelope?

Then I came across this cash envelope tutorial. It looked simple enough, so I decided to just try to figure it out on my own. I didn’t want the pockets divided though – I prefer to pull out only what cash is necessary when it’s time to pay for something.

It took me a while to plan out, and there are a couple things I’d do differently if I ever sew another one. I’m pleased with the result though.

The zippered pocket isn’t lined (one of the things I’d change next time) but seems the right size for spare change.

Folded up, it’s about the size of a checkbook. Here’s the outside:

It also matches my checkbook cover. . .

And my purse organizer. . .

And my purse.

I made a case for my old Palm too, but can’t use it with my new one unless I somehow attach Velcro to the back of it. The old one came with the Velcro already on it, but I’d rather not stick it on my new Palm. But just for kicks, here’s a picture of the case and my old Palm:

Ok, so it’s a bit much of all the matching things, but I really like the pink and burgundy combination.

Our Walmart is closing their fabric section and has all their fabric for 50% off. By now, it’s probably pretty slim pickings, but this is what I was able to get last week:

Some of it is for quilts (enough muslin for a quilt backing for about $5 – crazy!), some is for clothes, some is stash-building, and there’s a few pieces of ribbon for hairbows. It looks like I’ll be set for a while. I’m going to miss the convenience of going to Walmart to get fabric, but thankfully we still have two other stores in town that still sell it.

My friend Stephanie found this little dress and jacket at a thrift store for me months before Anna was born. It needed some repair, but since the dress was so big, I just set it aside. I got it out this week to actually work on it.

It originally had really narrow binding around the edges, but it was coming apart and the stitching was really sloppy. The easiest fix was to put new binding over it. I also replaced the buttons and shortened the sleeves.

The jumper was in a lot better condition. It’s still a bit big, but there are ties in the back so that’s easy enough to solve. All I had to do was move the buttons on the straps and restitch part of the applique.

It was a quick and easy fix. Now Anna has another dress, which works out well since she needed another one.

The boning was coming out of my nursing cover, so I decided to make a new one. Normally I would just repair the old one, but the way they packaged it to ship it bent the boning before I even got it. Once it started coming through the fabric, I decided to just make a new one. Not to mention the excuse to use my new sewing machine. . .

This one is made from 3 fat quarters from Walmart. I really liked the print, so I pieced it to make the cover. It’s a couple inches shorter than the one in the nursing cover tutorial, but it turned out nicely.

After that, I made one for my sister-in-law.

I pretty much followed the directions for it, since I had more fabric to work with. Hopefully she’ll like it.

They were really fun to sew and went together pretty quickly. Anyone need a new nursing cover? I still have boning left to make a few more. . .

Matching jacket (kimono-style), hat, scarf, and mittens. No pattern, just guesswork. The hat is a little snug but overall it’s a good fit.