vintage buster brown

I haven't shared much of my thrifting adventures on here in a while, but, goodness, I have been doing a fair bit of it lately. I'm usually on the lookout for vintage sheets, linens, doilies and such. But last month when we took a little family vacation to the island, I found this super sweet Buster Brown skort at a rather massive thrift shop there.

I absolutely love this skort (yup, shorts in the back) and it's the most perfect tomato-red colour. 

It's a size 3 which should be the perfect size for lil C, except for the fact that lil C isn't really very little at all. It just barely fits her, but it was only $2 and she likes it (and I LOVE it), so she'll just have to wear it as much as possible in the next month before she really outgrows it.

 

And here are a few other things I picked up while I was there :)

x melissa

specimens

Today we went for a walk in search of dinosaur bones.

Found some very interesting specimens.

And came home to sketch them. 

(Along with a picture of a man sleeping with a dog and, oops, forgot to take off his hat!)

And here's my Hazel dress so far. I just need to get an invisible zipper foot to finish it up. Kicking myself because I was at the sewing shop just on the weekend but didn't want to shell out $28 for an invisible zipper foot. Thought I would be able to sew in the zipper without it, but then remembered the last invisible zipper I tried to sew on with a regular foot turned out rather crappity-crap. So, I'm going to spend the $28 in the hopes that this time, my zipper installation will be beautiful which will make my dress beautiful and I'll wear it all the time and it'll all be worth it in the end. Fingers crossed..

x melissa

lazy summer days

The weather has been just beautiful this past week. Usually when it's this nice out, I feel like we should make the most of it and head to the beaches, playgrounds and water-parks. But for some reason, my kids just didn't feel like leaving the house these last couple of days. At first I felt like we were wasting the gorgeous sunshine (which is kind of rare in these parts), but then isn't summer also about just lazing around without a schedule? Aside from sleeping in until 9, here's a bit of what we've been up to these last couple days.

painting in pajamas (or underwear)

playing with new birthday toys (my first baby just turned 5!!)

taking dolls (and action figures) for little walks

playing in the sprinkler

trying to drink water from the sprinkler

 cooling down with homemade blueberry milkshakes

harvesting greens from our little garden (crunchy summer peas as a snack, kale to be made into kale chips for supper, and mint that I'm hoping will end up in a mojito for me..)

and of course, my new sewing project. I'm hoping to have this finished in the next couple of days so I can wear it out while the weather is still so perfectly summery

x melissa

a simple, satisfying project

I was having one of those days yesterday... It felt like I couldn't quite accomplish anything. It was probably the first really sunny day of summer and my kids just refused to leave the house. I managed to get one kid out on our patio for about 20 minutes until a stupid wasp chased him back into the house again. (Truth be told the wasp really was just minding his own business but my kids are still kind of freaked out by them.) Whenever my kids seemed like they were happy doing an activity like painting, playing with trains, dress-up etc, I tried to sneak away to do some sewing or cleaning. But sure enough, once they noticed I wasn't right there with them they came chasing me down.

By the end of the day I was feeling super annoyed. You know that feeling when there are just so many things that you want to do, but you can't, but then you have a wee bit of time and you don't know where to start? Yup. I was there. After moping around feeling sorry for myself for a while, I decided to sew up a couple of these

Thank you Jeni for creating this pattern. Such a simple, satisfying project. Exactly what I needed :)

bags..

I haven't been feeling very (blog) chatty lately, but I have been relatively productive with my sewing. Just wanted to share a few things I've been working on over the last few weeks. First up, the bags..

This was made with a fantastic emerald green dobby fabric I picked up at a 'fill a bag' event put on by Our Social Fabric in Vancouver. I actually came home with an incredible stash of silks, wool and fine cottons, as well as an organic cotton jersey (at $2/meter!!) which I used to make myself a maxi tank dress with this fabulous pattern. 

This bag is made from a surplus cotton canvas with a denim gusset and a vintage sheet for the pocket. Think this will be my beach bag for the summer if summer ever decides to show up on the West coast.. 

This was a gift for a friend. It's the Fold-Up Eco Tote from Rashida Coleman-Hale's book I Heart Patchwork. I made one of these totes for myself a while ago and use it all the time. Such a great pattern!

This tote was a gift for my sister. I had this Echino fabric in my stash for a while and love it, but just couldn't figure out what to make with it. Think it worked perfectly for this summer beach tote :)

And finally, a little drawstring pouch made with Jeni's pattern. I actually love making these. They are simple enough that it can almost become meditative, and the end results are super fun with all the fabric combo options. Will definitely be making more of these for Christmas.

Giveaway Day WINNER!!

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for entering my Sew Mama Sew giveaway this past week! It was so fun reading about what songs were playing in everyone's heads. And I apologize to those of you who ended up with the Muppets songs in your head after reading my post (they're just so darn sticky, aren't they?!?) And thanks for all the great jokes too! Now I've got some new material for entertaining the kids during long car rides and boring errands :)

Well, after plugging in the numbers into Random.org (to keeps things fair, I only counted 112 entries as the last one was in past the 5pm deadline.. sorry to be such a stickler to the rules..) the winner is...

who happens to be:

Amy  22 May, 2012 5:03 AM

I heard some kids at my son's school singing/playing "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz in their rock band class! (Just imagine kindergartners and first graders on guitar, drums and vocals -- it was something!) Now I can't get the song out of my head.

Congratulations Amy! I'll be sending you an email to get your mailing address so I can get this little pouch off to you! 

Thanks again for visiting my blog and I hope you drop by again soon! And just a reminder that I've got a sale going on in my shop for 25% off everything! If you mention 'Muppets' in the notes to seller at checkout, I'll throw in a little extra surprise gift :)

x melissa

well look at that, it's GIVEAWAY DAY!!

Hi everyone! And a warm welcome to all you SMS visitors! For those of you new to my blog, here's a little bit about me: I'm a full-time (stay-at-home) mom to two little kids, a crafter, a self professed fabric hoarder, and a lover of remnant bins and thrift store treasures. I like to blog mostly about my sewing projects, my obsession with Japanese craft books, thrifting, and pretty much anything crafty or vintage that catches my attention. 

I've always loved participating in Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day because, well, it's pretty fun to randomly give stuff away to people I don't know. And it's also such a great way to discover new blogs and make new virtual friends :) So, for this giveaway, I'm offering up my little Mod Vintage zipper pouch.

If you'd like to know all the nitty gritty little details about this pouch (size, fabrics etc.), check out my shop listing (by the way, I'm having a little sale over there right now..).

So, if you'd like to toss your name in the hat to win this little pouch, all you have to do is leave a comment below letting me know... 

What song is in your head right now? 

I ask this because this whole weekend, I've had the songs from the latest Muppet movie running through my head constantly! I feel like if I don't get these songs out of my head soon I might turn into a Muppet!!

If you don't have a song in your head right now, then please leave me your best joke. (Kid-friendly jokes are welcome too as my kids are always hitting me up for new comedic material.) 

One entry per person and please make sure I will have some way of getting a hold of you if you win (like your email address connected to your profile, or add your email right in the comment). Contest closes on May 25th at 5pm (PST), and I will announce the winner (to be selected by the mighty Random.org) shortly after. This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere in the world (with a legit mailing address of course). 

Good luck! and make sure you head back to Sew Mama Sew to check out all the other awesome giveaways! (If you are also hosting a giveaway, feel free to include your link so I can head on over and enter yours!)

By the way, if you'd like to follow my blog, that would be fabulous!

I'm also on Facebook and Twitter if you'd like to pop by and say hello :)