Winding Down

I plan on spending tomorrow at school and hope that at that point I will be motivated to start working on lesson planning, but as of now I am still in sewing mode. I finally felt confident enough to try my hand at a girl's A-line dress, but I cannot find a pattern that I like, so I have had to just try and design a pattern of my own. I think I like this one, although I would probably make the dress a little longer next time, or the top a little narrower. I made it from an old tablecloth that was given to me by a friend and the design in the tablecloth kind of determined the particular shape. It is cotton and is completely lined, with button closures on the top straps.

I also made a school bag for myself last night, while watching the men's swim team win the most amazing race in Beijing, defeating the trash-talking French (mwa ha ha ha!). This is the same bag I had previously screwed up, but I gave it another shot and now I like it. It is made from an old t-shirt from Goodwill (99 cents!) and lined with black twill.

And in the same line, I made another t-shirt bag that I will try to sell on etsy. I wish I knew how to target a high school audience, these are the same size and shape of school bags that my kids carry and I have seen them wear this same shirt before. This one has handles that are 4 inches shorter than the other bags I have made. It is lined with chocolate brown flannel (which I remembered to wash this time) and has an inner pocket.