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.