What I sewed this summer :)

One of my goals for this summer was to do lots of sewing, and I'm happy to say that's one goal that I actually accomplished--for a change! :)  It was really fun, and even kind of therapeutic after a busy school year.  The only thing that makes me sad is that I don't have as much time to sew the rest of the year!  Anyway, between May and August I made 9 skirts and 1 dress, as well as hemmed a pair of dress pants for Jim and made a body pillow cover for myself, because my old store-bought cover was falling apart.  For this post, I'm just showing you the fun stuff--the things I made for Julia and me. :)

I had used my birthday money to buy some jersey fabric to make maxi skirts.  Before I cut into the fabric, I wanted to do a trial run, so I cut up an old maternity jumper and made this skirt.  It came out a little more snug than I wanted, but it's still wearable.  It gave me a basis to work from, to figure out what I wanted to do differently with my new fabric.

 For my next maxi skirt attempt, I went with a tutorial for a gathered version instead of A-line. (I can't actually remember now which tutorial I used!!  But I think it was similar to this one.)   I wasn't totally happy with the way this one fit, but I don't mind it too much, and I still love the fabric.  Best of all, I had enough to make a matching skirt for Julia.  She LOVES it when I make matching things for her and me. :)  (I'm going to enjoy that as long as I can!!)  We wore our matching skirts to my aunt's wedding in June and got a lot of comments on them. :)

 Sorry for the washed-out pic; I forgot to take any of the two of us together until after we got home, when it was mostly dark out!

 I had found this super cute red flowered fabric at Walmart for something like $2/yard.  I got all they had on the bolt, which was enough to make a skirt for me from my very favorite pattern, and then I followed this tutorial to make a matching sundress/jumper for Julia.  She complained that it wasn't very comfortable (the elastic top, I think) and she only wore it once. :(  But I think it'll still be long enough for her to wear next summer; maybe I can find a way to make the top more comfy for her, or find a thinner shirt for her to wear under it.  I was extra happy to find a perfectly-matching necklace for this outfit at Kohl's.  I love it when an outfit comes together like that!

 I did make this top for Julia, but it was last summer. :)  But I made the skirt this summer!  I used an old pair of her jeans which I loved the color and style of, but which were now too short (and had a hole in the knee).  I had seen ideas online for turning jeans into a skirt, so I used those ideas to come up with my own version.

 It's too hard to see here, but I also added a little flower near the bottom hem (off to the right in this pic) out of the cut off material.  It added a fun little touch!

 I loved the flower she wanted in her hair, too--the perfect accessory! :)  The only sad thing is that this little skirt will probably be too short by next summer, but hopefully she can still wear it with tights through the winter.

 I believe these tiered maxi skirts were my very favorite project of the summer, although they were also the most work.  (And that's a LOT of fabric, let me tell you!! :))  I was so, so happy with how they turned out, though.  I've been wanting a cute white skirt like this for a while, and thanks to a fabric-section-closing sale at our Walmart a few years back, I had yards and yards of white muslin to use.  These were not complicated to make, just took a lot of time because of all the layers.  I used this tutorial from Ashley of Make It and Love It.  

 I also had to show you one of my new favorite hairstyles--on both Julia and me. :)  Got this topsy-tail variation off Pinterest, and I am loving it especially for church!  (And can I just say I adore my daughter's hair--it is so easy to make it look nice in pretty much any style!)

 This is the final maxi skirt variation I made.  I used this tutorial for both of Julia's, but for mine I used a pattern from a friend.  I'm not normally a "green" person, but I thought this would be a fun fabric for summer.  As it turns out, it's nice for fall, too!  I wore this outfit to church a couple weeks ago.  I already had a green tee that matched close enough, the jean jacket was a $1 thrift store find, and the scarf was made by me, a couple years ago.  If you look close, you can also see my new cowboy boots that Jim bought me, which I am loving. :)

I am by no means a fashionista ;), but it's been really fun to add a few pieces to my wardrobe and come up with some new outfit variations using clothes I already have.  For example, the blue sweater/plaid shirt combo in the pics above was one I just recently realized would work together, although I've had both pieces in my closet for a year or two!

I plan to do another post soon about some of my summer thrift store finds and how I add to my wardrobe in that way, too.  For now . . . hope you've enjoyed seeing my sewing projects.  It was really good to "scratch the itch" and get some creating done.  Very satisfying!  And I do have a few sewing projects on my list for fall, too--just not quite as many.  Hopefully I can get at least a few of them done. :)