Greetings t-rex’s! I nearly forgot to do a blog post tonight, I was super-focused on working on the June/July class schedule handout for the shop and it just slipped my mind! But I remembered AND I even knew what I wanted to blog about, so here I am, once again, blogging while the hound and Mr. Bug snore away… ANYway, like I said, I’ve been working on our July schedule for the shop and I’m super PSYCHED about the next two months of classes… but boy, oh, boy, do I have a lot of samples to sew up. Here’s a photo of my giant stack of fabric I brought home from the shop on Saturday…

Are you all waving your little t-rex arms around in excitement? I know I am! But I have SO MUCH SEWING TO GET DONE!! Grrr!! In general, if I’m doing a new class at the shop, then I’m responsible for sewing the class sample – the samples hang out in the shop and look pretty for a bit and then come home to live with me. Wanna see the projects that these fabrics are all assigned to? OK!

First up is this groovy home dec weight fabric from Anna Maria Horner.
I don’t know if it’s obvious, but it’s a rose print! The other fabric is greige
lining. This fabric will very shortly be a pencil skirt – I’m teaching that class
at the end of this month. Go pencil skirts!

Here’s the pattern for the Anna Maria pencil skirt. We use a lot
of Kwik Sew patterns for our classes –  good basics with good instructions.
I’m actually making this skirt in the owner’s size, as I didn’t want to mess
around with sizing up the pencil skirt pattern!

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This lovely coral wool and lining is for another pencil skirt, this one in my size!

I realized that we had a few copies of the HotPatterns
Plain ‘n Simple A-line and straight skirt patterns lying
around the shop. I decided to do another pencil skirt in
my size as a sample as well. That way if anyone out of the
Kwik Sew size range wants to take the class, I’ll have an
option available!

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The pencil skirt is the last class I teach in May, so next up are my June samples.
All the June classes are shirt sewing classes! I’ve already shown off pictures of my
Violet. I’ll be teaching that class and hopefully will remember to bring my sample to the shop soon! 

This fabric (below) is yet another Anna Maria Horner print that will be made into a
Pendrell blouse – probably view C, the no sleeve view. This class
is only three hours long and I’m not sure we could finish the shirt if I include sleeves!

I have some interlock washed and ready to be
made into a personal-use Pendrell. I might
make that before the shop-sample Pendrell and
time myself on that and see if I think view A
would be possible in our class format.

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Next up are these two lovely Art Gallery prints. Aren’t the little blue flowers adorable? This fabric is destined to be a ‘drawstring blouse.’

Here’s a shot of the drawstring shirt from the Kwik Sew
website. Anyone who’s been around kid-sewing will
recognize this as a plain ‘ole pillowcase dress.
The mainly blue and grey print will be the drawstring
part of my drawstring shirt!

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Now it’s time for dresses! First, check out this swirly and awesome
Tine Given’s print. I’ve been in LOVE with this since we got it and
was thinking of making a skirt from it, but don’t really have anything
that matches, so I’m going to make a DRESS out of it – the Crepe, to be precise.

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Oooooo… I’m super psyched about this next dress! The pink
fabric is a cotton interlock and the neutral fabric is a quilt-weight cotton. Can you guess what I’m making from it?

One of these tricky looks-like-two-is-actually-one dresses!
The bodice will be pink and the rest in the neutral. I love
these two fabrics together and am looking forward to
working on this dress!

***

I’m even MORE excited about this next dress. I’ll tell you about
it, but don’t let it blow your t-rex minds!! First, we have this
wonderful, perfect, silky, double-awesome Anna Maria Horner
voile. I. Love. This. Fabric. I love the colors – the yellow is
closer to a chartreuse than it looks in the photo. And I’m
supper t-rex titillated over the pattern…. Can you even
BEGIN to image what pattern will be good enough for this fabric?

Why. the maxi dress, of course! If you need me
I’ll be in the cabana, in my maxi dress
with 5” wedges and about five pounds
of wood and leopard print bangles….

Seriously, my meat eating dino-sour friends,
won’t this feathery-print maxi dress be
the envy of all my other dino-sour friends?

***

Last up are these coordinating prints from Oliver + S. I love the
colors and the viney print on the more solid fabric has
been a favorite of mine for the last few months, but never
made it into a project.

I’ll be using these fabrics for the ‘monique’ dress from Serendipity
Studios. This dress is our nod-to the retro-silhouette love that’s out
there. I’ll be making the version in the lower left, using the contrast
fabric at the waistband and hem. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned
my affection for these patterns before – they’re super basic, but
the designer (Kay Whitt, author of Sew Serendipity) includes tons
of instructions on design details – changing the width of the contrast
bands, adding ruffles and flowers, etc. I think her patterns
are great for new sewists who aren’t 100% comfortable improvising!!

So that’s it, t-rex friends! I have one or two
non-shop related projects that I’ll try to sneak in,
but for the most part expect to see LOTS
of sample sewing in the next few weeks!

And with that, I’m off to join Dan and Lucy
in the snoring contest!!