Pictures galore!

I'm trying to keep good on some of my promises with some photos of recent projects!!

First I have the Butterick 5216 in the ever frustrating blue knit. I really love how this top turned out, problems aside (remember how I attached the bottom inside out? yeah...). It definitely needs a cami underneath it, but all in all I like it, and this pattern will get a lot of use! (please excuse the bad, self-taken, pic)
Next I have my finished dress! Not bad for the first dress I've ever sewn, if I do say so myself :) If you remember, it was Butterick 5181. Originally I was going to make it a long dress, because I thought I really wanted a cute maxi dress to wear to my brother-in-law's wedding, but with the cotton that I chose the drape just wasn't as flattering long, so I hemmed it up to a mid-calf length:

Also, a close-up of the bodice where I sewed the front together so that I'm not giving everyone a show!
My only regret in making this dress is that I didn't do an FBA. When I started making the dress, I really didn't know what an FBA was, so I guess that would have been a little difficult, but at least now I know for next time! With some left over fabric, and a couple of remnants that I picked up some time ago, I decided to whip up a purse to go with my dress, you know, in my spare time- hahaha. I really wanted to do an oversized clutch, but I couldn't find a tutorial online that I really liked, so I went and dug through my patterns and pulled out Simplicity 2685, I decided to make view B, the smaller bag, omitting the straps to make it more 'clutch' like. I haven't put any kind of closure on it yet, but I'm not sure I want to. I also took some of the left over fabric from my dress and made the front more of a 'patchwork' design. What do you think of the results?
I also modified the inside a little; the pattern has a fancy hidden pocket with a zipper. Seeing as I didn't have a zipper (and I haven't done a pocket like this yet and was looking to get this done in one night) I just added a nice big patch pocket inside:
Again, I really like how this came together, and I think it will be perfect for the wedding; I'll be able to fit my wallet, phone, camera, and some diapers, wipes and toys in it for during the ceremony!

And finally, I threw together this little dress for our friends' little girl. I also finally finished the sweetest pair of embroidered bloomers that I've owed her for a couple months now. I feel so guilty that its taken me so long, so I figured she could use a little dress to go along with the bloomers, or whatever else she wants! I pretty much made the pattern up, based on a little shirt that my daughter has and used bias tape instead of seams and ribbon to make adjustable shoulders.

Wait... where did I go??

I know, I know, I've been gone too long. But *whiiiiiiine* I was out of town for half of the month of July and I'm finally home and have eleventy-gazillion things to do before we go out of town again this weekend!!!

Ok, sorry, I'm done whining now. Like I said, I've been busy. I finished this tote:

and it turned out soooo cute! I made it from Henry Alexander Apples & Pears fabric (the blue), for my mom. I need to photograph it still, but I also need to cut the dowels down for the handles. I also have finished my dress for the wedding this weekend, yay! So I promise to get some more pics of my actual finished products for my next post. Also over the weekend I overhauled the kitchen and made chalkboard out of an old cabinet door that I had lying around for no reason, which was inspired by this.

Aside from all the work this weekend we went to the farmer's market and got some amazing stuff! We picked up fresh green beans, potatoes, carrots, garlic, bell pepper, lettuce, cucumbers, and the biggest zucchini I have ever seen! We also got fresh mint that we used to make mojitos this weekend- yummmm. And finally we got this amazing organic beef roast from one of the vendors. On Saturday we smoked it on our new grill, and then grilled the potatoes, zucchini, carrots, bell pepper, and an onion. It was all soooo good, especially when we mixed it with the fresh garlic, which I roasted in the oven with a little olive oil and pepper. It was seriously, to die for, and as an added bonus we were able to support our local farmers for a great price. We were also going to pick up some fresh peaches to make a cobbler from, but the line was a full block long, so we decided to pass!

All in all it was a very good weekend, so nice to be in town and get things done around the house before we jet off again this weekend for my brother-in-law's wedding!