Ruffled Arch Skirt

I was lucky enough to get to test the Ruffled Arch Skirt from Call Ajaire. This is an sweet a-line skirt with an option for ruffles at the back. Even with the ruffles, it was a pretty quick sew, and the results are just adorable! This pattern released last week, and is available at Upcraft Club.

My little princess loves her ruffles, so I made the ruffled version, and haven't made one without yet. I used a pink cotton lawn, and added some embroidered white lawn that I had scraps of from this skirt for 2 of the 4 ruffles. I had a little trouble with things shifting when I went to sew the ruffles on, so mine ended up at a bit of an angle, but when she's running around you'd hardly notice. I'll be more careful with my pinning next time! I would definitely follow the recommendation of lightweight fabrics for the ruffles. Even the embroidered lawn was honestly a bit stiff once it was done, and I ended up trimming some of the ends off. Fortunately, there's plenty of length to work with. I also love the flat front on this skirt. It gives it just a little bit more polish than a full elastic waist.

This would be easy to dress up, especially if you used a fancy fabric. But this one is cotton, and Ellie decided it was also very good for stomping in puddles. That would be an example of preschooler styling at work. She resisted my every effort for a classier photo shoot, so I just went with it!

End of Summer

I realize I've been quite neglectful of this blog for the past couple of months! Summer has been crazy. The kids and I were away visiting family for a whole month, which was amazing, but I didn't do much sewing to speak of. Just before we left, I was dancing around with the kids and fell, resulting in a ligament tear in one knee. Ouch. It put something of a damper on some of the things we'd planned to try to do in Maine, since it was hard to walk for awhile. I'm recovering, but it's been tiring to stand for long periods of time, so project completion has been really slow. We did still manage to find some fun things to do while we were away.

Now they (and I!) start school again in a week. The summer has just flown by, though I admit I'm sort of ready to get back to the school schedule. Keeping then occupied and quiet during the day while Patrick is sleeping (night shift sucks) is getting old. We can only go to the mall so many times, and these 90 degree days can go away for the year any time now. Ick.

There have been some projects! August has so far been full of pattern testing, so I will be able to share some of that very soon. Might have even missed one release. Oops. Been that sort of month. I will also be doing a couple of guest posts coming up in the next few months, which is pretty exciting. Some new fabric is on the way, but I'm trying to pull as much from my stash as I can. I started reorganizing just before I injured myself, and found that I really need to use what I have for now rather than buy more storage. To be honest, given some of the projects I have coming up, stash sewing is going to be hard! I have not been as good about it as I meant to be this year so far, so except for some very specific projects I'm going to try not to buy more fabric. Wish me luck on that!