Summer is here

It has been in the low 30's (that is Celsius) this week and set to hit 36oC next week, it really is hotting up here in SoCal. Night times are cooler but poor little daughter number one has been getting pretty sweaty in her regular  pj's so I thought I would make her a nightie.
I got a yard of appealing linen/cotton blend from Joann's, which with the 40% preferred customer discount worked out to be less than 10 bucks. I briefly toyed with the idea of following a pattern, but as they were the same price as the fabric (and I am scared of them) decided to "freestyle".


I used an existing dress and vest top to cut out the shape of the nightie.






































Hemmed the bottom of the two sides (front & back of the nightie), used a fagoting stitch to secure the curved hems of the arm holes & neck (and because it looked pretty) on the front & back pieces, whizzed up the side seams to make the nightie and finished them with overcasting stitch. 

Last but not least joined the shoulder seams and double hemmed (is that a used sewing term?!) them so they sat flat on her shoulder.

It is not amazingly neat or well finished but I am happy in the knowledge she will be cooler at night and that she loves the fact Mummy made her nightie!

A cheats blind

Southern Californian sun is pretty damn hot, even at 7 in the morning. As much as I like to feel connected to the outside we needed a shield for our kitchen window; nobody likes to break into a sweat making their morning cup of tea.


I ordered some yellow gingham from fabric.com and set to work.  I hemmed the bottom and top and then made a wider pocket at the top to thread over the existing rail. Luckily I liked the raw selvedge edges at the sides so didn't bother hemming them.


As I said its a cheats blind - speed was of the essence & I couldn't be bothered to do a proper roman blind; its a hang by ribbons blind.   


I stole some red ribbon for mini Maker no.1's craft kit and added 2 pairs of loops roughly the same spacing up the side of the rectangle of fabric.

I love the red & yellow don't you?

This is the "blind" hanging.  

I attached two cheapey plastic hooks to the side of the top rail and to draw it hook over your ribbon loops.

So there you have it! I think it fits with the 50s american kitchen..