scrap busting

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments on my dress - it was certainly good to have one come out look smashing after a few failures at the muslin stage lately! I've already hand washed and pressed the dress, and it's now been lovingly placed in my wardrobe where it will probably stay for a long time since I have no other special occasions coming up in the forseeable future....

Anonymous - I think this dress would work really well with an a-line skirt, or any style of skirt for that matter. I'm thinking about making this dress again in a cotton for day wear with a less severe pencil skirt style. While there is plenty of room around the hips because of the pleats, the skirt is very narrow around the knees and definitely needs the two side slits to make walking possible.

Gail - there are a few reviews of this dress over at Pattern Review in addition to SewTawdry's fitting and crafting tips which are really helpful because as usual the BWOF instructions are not so helpful. That said though, once you've worked out how to sew the side pieces to the bodice pieces it's all pretty straightforward after that.

katherine h - oh no! As Sew4Fun said, special night outs don't come along too often after babies so I'm so sorry yours ended short with you being sick.

image from Sewmamasew.com

Jean it's funny you should mention making a fabric alphabet letters for your grandkids because I've been doing the exact same thing for Anna! A contest of scrap busting ideas is being held over at Sew Mama Sew!, including a tutorial for padded letters with magnets in them to put on the fridge, so I've been gathering little squares of fabric and tracing the letters to make two sets (since Anna's name has two A's and two N's). Not that this has made the tiniest dent in my fabric stash, but it's fun anyway.















There's heaps of tutorials for using up fabric scraps, my favourites being the one for drink coasters made from old CDs, a ladybug pincushion, a fabric brooch and a yo-yo necklace. I'm sure you're all like me and have scrap bags that are as out of control as your fabric stashes, so it's worth a look at all the fun ideas.