Ice Cream Dress

I can't believe it, but Spring is already here in Southern California and has been for several weeks!  The beautiful tree pictures above is in my front yard and I get to enjoy it every time I enter or leave the front door.

 

After being under the weather for the past two weeks I am ready to get out and enjoy the sunshine!  If you haven't had the flu yet this season -avoid anyone who has it like you would the plague! 

 

Do you remember me posting about the Ice cream cone dress?  I actually finished this many months back, but I chose such a plain pattern that when I got it put together I didn't think it was a chic as the original inspiration.  I pretty much was going to avoid posting about it again altogether and really hadn't worn it much either, but it was also cold outside. I needed something quick to pull on the other day to run out and get dog food and run a few other errands.  Wouldn't you know, in the short amount of time I was out I received many compliments!  After that I figured I could be brave and post it on the blog.  Sadly, I really don't have the proper accessories for this outfit to stand out.  I think I would like to purchase this belt from Modcloth in the next few weeks to wear with this dress over the summer.  What do you think?

 

Speaking of both Ice cream dresses and Modcloth, are any of you following the Carrie Diaries on the CW?  Carrie was wearing this Modcloth dress which has ice cream and other yummies on a current episode and looked amazing.

Quilting Class Review

A few weeks ago I attended my first ever actual sewing class at Cotton and Chocolate Quilting Company in Thousand Oaks.  I am pretty fortunate to live so close, as this store is pretty well known in the surrounding areas for having a wide array of amazing fabrics and fabulous instructors.

I ended up selecting the Friendship Braid Quilt class, the pattern is from this book: Jelly Roll Quilts and the sneak peak above is my quilt in progress.

My instructor Diane was awesome!  She was not only a lot of fun, but I was impressed that she not only offered clear instructions to get us going, but was able to move fluidly around the class spending time with each of us and always seemed to be "right there" when you needed her most.

I would definitely recommend taking a class at Cotton and Chocolate if you happen to be in or live near the area.

In case you are curious the fabrics are once again Kaffee Fasett, can you tell I have a bit of a love affair going on? I have completed the vast majority of the piecing and once I decide on the border and backing fabric I will be finishing the quilt top and moving on to the sandwiching and quilting stages!

Other news, I mentioned awhile back a special surprise and here she is.......

I have finally upgraded my trusty Hello Kitty sewing machine!  After much research and a lot of thought I decided on a Bernina 330.  While this is on the lower end of Bernina models it still has heads and tails more functionality than my Hello Kitty machine and the stitch quality (which was my chief complaint about the older machine) is beautiful!

This is looking to be an exciting year for sewing!

Sew for Victory

As many of you may know by now Lucky Lucille is hosting Sew for Victory, a 1940's inspired Sew-along.

I am scrambling to participate but seem to have many an abundance of small projects piling up on my sewing table that are in some form of progress. We'll talk about those later, back to the Sew-along.

I have been trying not to over commit to ... I mean we all suffer from too little time too many projects, but I really want to participate in this sewing along and I had just purchased the perfect pattern that would help me keep things simple, Simplicity 1962 version B.

If you have been following along with the posts on Lucky Lucille you'll know that for notions I have a blue slide fastener as zippers were typically called back then and while my pictures do not correctly reflect it the button I purchased has a look similar to some of the buttons Rochelle posted from the Sears catalog pictures from the 1940's.

I also thought this small print fabric reminded me of fabrics you might have seen.  However, the fabric is a silk chiffon, which from what I can recall would not have been easy to find with the rationing going-on.

Project photos are due March 29th which means I need to get the fabric and pattern cut pretty quickly and get to sewing!  Are any of you participating?  What are you making?