Another Sewing Project Done!

My friend Jen and I are learning together by sewing the same thing.  We got together and figured out the pieces, did the cutting, and then begain piecing the garments together.  I actually was making a top and she the dress the version.  It was really fun to do this with someone and have someone else also think the instructions may as well have been written in Greek.  We ended up googling “bias tape in armpit” and finding a great visual tutorial on Shear Delight.  I followed her instructions instead.

I was so eager to finish this that I did forge ahead on my own tonight and do it.  This is a pattern I will definitely make again because 1)it’s relatively simple 2)it can be endlessly varied, and can be a dress or a top 3)I made so many errors in this one that I look forward to correcting them!  I found myself thinking “good thing Nina Garcia is not here”.  This garment is definitely more “homemade” than “boutique”, but oh well.  Also, check out how wiiiiiiiiide this little top is.  It looks like you could fit a hoop under it.  Perhaps for future versions I will take it upon myself to make it slimmer fitting  (of course, Tabitha hasn’t actually tried it on yet.) It’s a little hard to see in the picture below, but there is a pocket in the center.

I think this will look adorable with a pair of jeans, though I hope she doesn’t look like Minnie Mouse.  My favorite touch is this little ladybug ribbon I put in the seam:

Tonight we collected FOUR eggs.  I don’t think one of the comets has begun to lay, instead I think that we are so close to the longest day of the year that one of them laid two eggs in one day! Pretty cool.

I haven’t been baking much this year, nor have I been recounting much of my baking or cooking here lately, which is too bad, but oh well–the garden and the sewing have taken over!  Today I kept staring at a bowl of fresh pineapple and longing for pineapple upside down cake ( a favorite comfort food dessert of my youth.)  Given the endless rain and sibling rivalry I decided we all deserved some and made one.  Here it is fresh from the oven

and then, voila! flipped over.

I am very partial to things that are basically brown sugar and butter.  I know lots of sticky bun recipes and upside down cake recipes involve corn syrup or various other things, but the recipes in my family are pretty much straight up dark brown sugar and butter and I LOVE IT. Oh, and the maraschino cherries are a must.