The day didn’t quite go as I had planned. I was supposed to wake up with my coffee, bake a birthday cake, and share some home grown scrambled eggs with my visiting family. It was supposed to be a lovely day to dote on our beautiful three-year-old birthday girl. A trip to the ER definitely wasn’t on my schedule, but Little G awoke with a barking cough and a lot of trouble breathing, so off we went.
(He’s fine now, a couple hours, a breathing treatment, and a few prescriptions later.)

By the time we got home I couldn’t find one of my cake pans, so we made cupcakes instead. Even though I was in a bit more of a hurry than I had anticipated, I got out my Wilton set so I could decorate the little cakes just like my Baba used to always decorate mine. Baba, who happens to be my little Olga’s namesake, always put real flowers on my cake, but all I can do today is pink and white frosting. That’s okay. We haven’t forgotten what’s really important about birthdays–that we get to keep having them.

I inherited most of my Baba’s sewing notions and fabric, and included in the many bags and boxes of supplies were dozens of vintage zippers.

I, not being one to let vintage supplies go to waste (but then who is?) figured out a little project to use some of the zippers up.

Thus the zippy pouch was born.

I know that in some parts of the country it is still snowing, and in some parts of the world, winter is just getting underway. But here in the desert spring has sprung, and that means it’s summer. It seems to arrive earlier than we expect it each year. It’s been pretty warm for a couple of weeks, now, and we’re dying to turn the swamp cooler on, but none of the hardware stores have filters yet. So until then, we’re keeping the fridge stocked with cold beer, and we’ve even broken out the popsicle molds. But the real point of all this is that I’m in the mood for summer sewing. Today I whipped up this totally adorable sundress for the shop, and I’m going to make one just like it for Olga’s birthday next week. I think we’ll have a whole closet full of these sweet dresses by the end of summer.

P.S. There’s no pattern for this dress, it is just a different take on the traditional pillowcase dress.

I’ve finished another little outfit for the reconstruction project. This time, its an outfit for a newborn boy (size 0-6 months). I used a sweatshirt and a ladies flannel shirt for these.

The pants are made from the arms of a heavy sweatshirt, and they were super quick. I just estimated the crotch curve, then compared them to an existing pants pattern I have. I thought some knee pads would be cute, so I used the tops of the sleeves to cut out patches, then sewed them on with a three-step-zigzag, so they’ll be nice and stretchy. I serged some elastic onto the waist, then turned it to the inside and top-stitched it down from the right side. Easy as pie.

The shirt turned out so cute! Since I intended this to be for a boy, and since the original garment was a ladies shirt, I turned this upside down before I cut it out, so I could use the original buttons and button holes. (Ladies and mens garments button on different sides.) There was even enough to cut out a hood, and I think it’s so cute! Since drawstrings aren’t safe, especially on baby things, I made a casing with elastic in the hood.

I love this set!