I finished Lucia's cherry dress, and it's gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

My fingers are crossed that she will love and enjoy it.

The buttonholes ended up being a total pain, and I redid them three times before I was satisfied, but I'm rarely happy with buttonholes the first time I do them, and I'm still getting accustomed to the different options on my machine. Once I got them done to my satisfaction, they were great, but it's a process.

Up next, I'm making the same style dress for Beatrice, but the fabric and buttons are different. Instead of cherries, hers will feature bees. I can't seem to get the photo to upload, but this dress is going to be awesome.

The fabric is a soft twill with yellow and white bees and flowers on a black background, and I ordered some bee-shaped buttons from Amazon. I haven't decided if I'm going to use them on this project or not, because they might be well into "too much" territory with the very graphic fabric, but we shall see. My fall-back position includes shiny dark yellow buttons and using bee buttons on a solid black corduroy or velveteen jumper where they'll really "pop" and have some impact.

OK, "black velveteen jumpers" just went on the "to do" list, because they will be the perfect and stylish foundation for all kinds of outfits throughout fall and winter. And scratch the bee buttons. These will need something classic and basic.

Maybe something with rhinestones.

Because bling is good.

My Favorite Thing I've Ever Made

Every time I'm working on a new sewing project, I get it almost finished before proclaiming, "This is maybe my favorite thing I've ever made," which is a big lie from the get-go, because my favorite thing I've ever made is the three-quarter-length fake leopard swing coat with black satin sheet lining I've been wearing to special events in really cold weather for the last twenty-five years. It's nothing too fancy or special, and when I purchased the fabric, it wasn't expensive, but this coat is a real looker and never fails to garner compliments. It is also very warm and has room for at least three people inside.

I digress.

Because I've had some "real work" to do and a couple of home projects underway, I haven't devoted as much time to my sewing in the past few weeks, but I have managed to complete a couple of things, and surprise, y'all, they're for grown-ups.

There was a butterfly shirt for a dear, sweet friend who's going through major life shit, which went from this sketch on a pad --

-- through this process...

-- to become this awesome shirt.

And thanks to the involvement of her scheming wife for confirmation of my measurement estimates, it fit! 

So did the matching patio shorts, so she is completely ready to kick back and watch ALL the upcoming University of Tennessee football games in the coordinated comfort of orange and white tie-dye.

Jack wanted patio pants for himself and selected a gorgeous lemon print cotton during one of our more recent trips to the fabric store. 

He was so tickled with them that he agreed to model them for me and even pulled out his saxophone to show off just how cool these pants are.

We don't have a patio, so we did the photo shoot on our porch.

I call this one the "Abercrombie & Fitch" shot for obvious reasons. HA!!

Since adult clothes are big, unwieldy, and difficult to cut out on our small dining table, I returned to the kid's department for my current project, a fall to spring dress for Lucia from a delightful, retro-look cherry print.

This is a new design for me, and I basically stuck to the pattern and instructions, though I already have a couple of revisions in mind for the next time I make one of these:

It still needs buttonholes, buttons, a hem, and that last good pressing when I trim off the remaining little strings and use my trusty seam-ripper to remove any visible gathering threads or stay-stitching, but I already know Lucia will love it. I do. 

It may be my favorite thing I've ever made.