Friday Already?!?!

This week has been....well, crazy, which I am sure was this case for most of you with kids or grandkids since it was Halloween.  I basically dropped most everything to work on a pink Ariel dress for the Goob and then a Luke Skywalker tunic for one of the boys.  The other two costumes were pieced together without me having to do any heavy sewing projects, which was awesome!  Need less to say I was sewing all the way up to the last minute...and the tunic was not completely finished however it was wearable and the pink Ariel dress was pretty darn close to complete except for the zipper in the back.  I just ended up pinning it closed, hey whatever works, right?  Anyway, her is a shot of the mostly finished Ariel dress.

I think it turned out nice, and the Goob loved it so that is all that mattered!  By the way, all of the supplies for her dress I got at Joann's.

I also finished one more of the grocery totes using the free Cloud 9 tutorial pattern.  This time I made my own pouch to store the folded up bag and I think it also turned out pretty nice.  It was definitely easier to make that the pouch in the tutorial and I even did french seams on it so that you didn't need to cover the exposed seams inside with bias trim.  The fabric I used is Don't Be Koi from the Koi Collection by Rashida Coleman-Hale.

The pouch is pictured with one of the other totes folded up inside.  I think it looks a bit nicer than the last two pouches.

 Below is just a photo of the bottom of the pouch so that you can see what I did.

Now here is the top, you can see a little stress on the zipper but not too much.  When I make this one again, I will most likely try to make the zipper opening a tad larger.  It works okay but it isn't really "easy."  I was trying to use the pieces left from cutting the tote pieces out of the one yard of fabric, but if I cut another I might try to place it differently to see if I can get some larger pieces of fabric left over.

I also wanted to include a photo of the bag with items in it, since I think many people are leery of the lack of interfacing.  In the bag below, I have two cereal boxes, two boxes of pasta, and one canister of oatmeal.  Obviously, having the boxes helps the bag to keep its shape a bit, so with cans it would look a lot different.  I think it would be along the same lines as a plastic grocery bag, which I believe this pattern is attempting to mimic.  

Okay, lastly, I did finish my other Everyday Skirt that I had planned using the pink wool.  I like how it turned out.  I did modify the fold on the top of the back waistband/piece, by only folding it over 1/4" instead of the suggested 1/2" in the pattern instructions.  It lined up nicely with the front waistband when I did it.  I also received an email from Oliver + S suggesting to modify the back piece (#6) by adding 1/4" to the length, either way your waistband would line up! 

Here I am wearing the skirt with the silk blouse I made using Simplicity 1690, a Leanne Marshall pattern.  As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I only had one yard of each so I have to find a pattern that I liked but would also work with what I had.  I think I love it!  The only bad thing is that it turns out that the wool for the skirt is a bit sheer...you can see the blouse tucked in underneath.  It actually makes it look like I am wearing black underwear!  Oops, I will have to figure out how to fix that one later.

I wish it wasn't dark outside, so we didn't have to use the flash....oh well!  At least I got it all done, right?  I really need to get back to my quilts, I just sort of abandoned them....perhaps this coming week.  I am off to Nashville in the morning to visit my sister, then Atlanta after that, but the sewing machine is coming with me so hopefully I will still get some projects in.  

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great weekend!  This post is linked up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She.