With just a few more days until my granddaughter's birthday, I've been continuing to work on the party dress I've been sewing for her. The progress is slow, partly because of the sporadic nature of my motivation, and partly through the 1965 pattern instructions which are archaic and unclear. Today I've been fiddling about trying to attach the collar to the dress bodice by what has to be one of the least effective methods I've ever come across. If I make this style of dress again, I'm going to substitute some easier method. But I am determined to finish it, one way or another.

Meanwhile, I putter about with various other more-or-less useless pursuits. There are the usual Etsy listings to prepare and the occasional package to ship. I've been making a lot of Etsy treasuries recently, supporting the various "teams" I belong to and attempting to increase sales. I'm getting fairly good at it; I can whip one out now in 15-20 minutes.

Made this one last night: www.etsy.com/treasury/MTUzNDcxMDN8MjcyNDg1ODQ1NA/i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my

And this one the day before: www.etsy.com/treasury/MTA0ODU1ODB8MjcyMjI5NDM3Mw/red-green-white-not-just-for-december

I'm also knitting a blue wool baby dress for the imminently-expected new grandbaby, and I put a few rows in on that in the afternoons. It's also from a vintage pattern, but this one's quite simple. It just uses fine yarn and tiny needles, so it's slow, but it's not difficult.  

Purchased from a wonderful Etsy shop located in the UK, where they have a heritage of wonderful knitted baby items. The shop link is here: www.etsy.com/shop/georgie8109

I'm making the dress in the upper corner, but I'm using a blue background with pink contrast trim. I love these vintage patterns available in PDF format, because I don't have to languish about, waiting for them to arrive in the mail. I can just jump in and go, providing I have the right type and amount of yarn required on hand.

Recently I got out my scraps of vintage print fabric and decided to try my hand at some half-baked patchwork. I haven't the patience or desire to do hand-stitching, and I'm not interested in anything complicated, so it's simple squares on the sewing machine at this point. Anyway, I've put several together, and eventually I'll join them all.

I like the idea of making use of fabric scraps that are too small to use for anything else. At the risk of offending all the real quilters out there, I'll confess now that I've never seen the point of buying big lengths of fabric, merely to cut them up into tiny pieces and then re-sew them into big lengths of fabric, no matter how attractively patterned. I think the pioneers had it right--quilting as a way of reducing waste and making do.

There isn't much more to report... life is just moseying along for now and I'm moseying along with it. Thanks for checking in, though!