Busy Busy Busy

Good morning all, hope your summer is going good so far. I love the summer, but I live in Florida and it's summer all year round. I used to live in Virginia, and I hated the winter; (cold, snow, ice, etc). I've been here for 4.5 years.

I haven't done all that great about keeping up my blog, I forget sometimes then sometimes I get real busy.

Talking about being busy, I have been trying to get my sewing cleaned up and organized. It seems to me that every time I get my sewing room cleaned it gets messy again. How is that when I'm sewing? LOL!
I have been getting some mending done that has been laying around my sewing room for a long time, and I have been going through all my things to see what I don't need anymore or have never used, and gave it all to the thrift store. I'm sure I will come across more. I can see my recliner that I have in my room and I actually got to sit in it yesterday. So now I know I am starting to see progress.

I got a new sewing machine. I had a Babylock Ellure Plus and I decided I wanted to update to a color screen. The old machine didn't have a color screen. It was black and white and you couldn't tell what the embroidery pattern was going to look like and you also couldn't tell what going to be stitched each time you had to change thread colors. Also, all it told you was thread color, like green, red, white, etc. No thread color number.
The new machine is amazing. I love it. When you turn it on the display shows a screen saver, then when you click that, you see the stitch selections.  Below is some pictures of what it looks like:

I have been watching a lot of sewing videos on youtube anywhere from fabric hauls to tutorials on different methods of sewing projects. I have been busy sewing a lot of dresses for African girls. I sew dresses for Little Dresses for Africa charity. It's a lot of fun. I try to make each dress unique and special for the girl that will be wearing them.

Here are a couple that I have made, I didn't take pictures of all of them, I wish I did.

The red and white one has a purse to match. I will be making more of these dresses for the charity. I think I might add this one to my etsy store. I am very pleased how it came out. I think this is a simplicity pattern. Not sure. I don't have the pattern near me to check, but I will add the pattern information in my next blog. I don't have any appointments or anything the next few days, so I will try to find time to let you know. This dress was real easy to make. I had a few questions about the pattern, but then when I studied it and actually started to put it all together, it was easier then I anticipated.

 I also learned how to make cloth sanitary pads by watching videos on youtube. They are a lot easier to make than I thought. I found a template on the internet. Below is the site where you can find the instructions and template:

https://sites.google.com/site/shewhorunsintheforest/home

I have been doing some crocheting also. I have made a ton of hats and a few scarves, plus baby booties, a diaper set (it's a frog), doll stuff.

I have made a lot more projects that I haven't taken pictures of. I will do that and show you more. These items above are going in my etsy store. So if you are interested to see these and more go over and browse my shop.
http://www.etsy.com/vintagesewingshoppe

I made a couple of these towels for my daughter for her birthday. It's easy, all you do is go to the store get a dish towel (or you can get a bath hand towel), Pot holder, and a button.

Center the edges of the pot holder on the towel, then fold in the edges to meet the pot holder on each end, then sew down each edge. Fold the towel in half long ways to find the center, then fold the pot holder in half with hoop on top (that's the button hole) to find that center. Put a couple of straight pins in on each end of fold on pot holder. Put the pot holder on top of the towel with the fold lines together (make sure you have the tag on the top). Sew across from one side to another. Bring hoop down to other side of pot holder to find where the button will go, mark that area with a marking pen or tailors chalk. Sew the button on. Your done! :

Well, I have a doctors appointment, so I guess I'd better get off my computer and get ready. Will update more later.