Dress Sewing Patterns for $2

Hallo everyone!

I came out of my cave today after weeks of being holed up, sewing, and - whoa! It's 60 degrees outside. In November. Apparently, winter's passed us by and it's now spring.

If only.

I've had a rather insane October. You? Part of it was costume sewing, but there were other bits, too - the kids' crazy social engagements, the kids' crazy after-school sports, the kids' crazy growth spurts and corresponding need for emergency leggings, the kids' crazy medical appointments which, thanks to insurance stipulations, somehow all got scheduled in the same month. . .

I am seeing a pattern here.

Then there was a rogue kitchen appliance thrown into the mix, too.

But I finished the costumes! 12:19 am on the morning they needed it for their fall parties in school! I have no photos to show you because I didn't take any WIP shots. No time for photoshoots or blogging, I told myself - just sew.

I did, however, let myself take this photo to share, because it was funny and real and evidence of my month of madness and mayhem. Because halfway through the costume making, all the children came down to the sewing room to "hang out" and make Emoji Pillows (of course no photos either). Did I have the time to spare? Was I in a nurturing mood? Was there even space on the floor for crouching young 'uns wielding shears and pins and vast amounts of yellow fleece?

No, no and no.

Somehow, I must have said "er, okay," because I gave away a couple of afternoons teaching the girls to applique eyes and tongues and eyebrows instead of working on The Main Event.

And the time I was convinced I didn't have to spare? Apparently, I did; I just didn't know it. This is motherhood.

But back to this disaster zone (and this is just one half of the room):

Truth: the number one motivation for me to finish any project is getting to clean it up. Really. It's the high point of my creative process - to put away everything so the room looks like no one ever made anything in it, ever.

Back to what I was saying about blogging: I'm slowly sifting through photos and eventually, we'll have blog posts again - about costumes and Harry Potter birthday parties and emoji pillows and advent plans. And the kids all want to make zippered pouches, so there might be a children's tutorial for that, too. It's good to be back; I just don't know how soon.

Speaking of being back, let's talk about the title of this post. You might remember my dear friend Jen (a.k.a. Dee), who wrote the children's drafting series Sew From Scratch with me long, long ago and whose work I shared with you in this post. She's a professional custom tailor and designer of two ready-to-wear fashion lines, and also she runs sewing courses and gives back to the community. But before her tailoring business took off running in this direction, she designed three sewing patterns -one for women and the other two for girls. Here they are:

For the indefinite future, she is offering the pdf patterns for sale at only USD $2!!

Go here to buy them. You can also buy the paper patterns for USD $13.50.