A little sewing and a lot of ranting

I've been sewing since I was young, say about 12 or 13. So that's around 30 years. Of late, I haven't enjoyed it as much, it seems to take a lot longer to finish something, and I'm doing more ripping. This last sewing session I figured it all out. It's not me. It's the patterns! When I started sewing, finishing the inside meant almost as much as the outside. And this was before sergers did a large portion of it for you. The patterns included instructions, and even tutorials, on how to finish the garment. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. It's more of a "git 'er done" kind of pattern. The end result is home made versus hand made. So, because of earlier training, and personal preference, I spend much of my sewing time reading the pattern and re-writing it to include nice finish details. In defense of the patterns somewhat, I have always hated hand sewing so I've always re-written patterns to avoid hand sewing if at all possible. But not to the extent I'm having to change them up now. This skirt/blouse/slip was made from an older pattern that I bought when my daughter was young. It was a joy to sew. I did change a little bit for personal preference, not because I needed to add to the pattern. The denim from which the skirt is sewn has butterflies embossed on it which is perfect for the 10 year old for which it was made. She has butterfli in her name and she Is a butterfly! Happy Birthday to my sweet 10 year old granddaughter. The slip and blouse fabric came from my sister. I love it when she isn't pleased with her decorating schemes and destashes the fabric.

So, this is the pattern that caused the rant above. The yoke was just sewn on, not lined. I lined it. The bolero in the picture below was also not lined and the pattern called for the edges to be finished with bias tape. I lined it and made it reversible. After "fixing" the pattern, I am very happy with the results. I had to find the fabric on ebay. I originally purchased this fabric at JoAnn's but they no longer carry it. It was perfect for my granddaughter's first birthday and I'm thankful I could find it again.

The bolero was stash fabric but worked perfectly with the dress.

And, the last sewing project for the session was doll beds. Also from my sister's decorating scheme gone awry, in her opinion. I'm not sure if I'm going to add the one doll bed to my toy collection for the grandmunchkins to play with here or give it as a birthday present. The other doll bed is destined for a swap partner in the Delightful Dolly swap in the Itty Bitty Group. The pattern is old. How old? I used this pattern to make a doll bed for my daughter and it is now being used by her daughter to give you an idea. It's supposed to have cardboard in it to make it stand up a bit. I used interfacing but wanted it washable, so no cardboard.

I'm half way through the year and 15 knitting projects completed. Sewing projects: 17, but some of those were more than one thing in a project, ie, in the knitting bags for WWKIP, there were 15 bags but I counted it as one project.