Finished on Friday

I'd love to make it a regular feature on Fridays to show a finished project that I've recently managed to complete, but I'm not quite delusional enough to think I could pull that off very often.  Today I can actually do it.  Though not the best of pictures, I wanted to post a shot of my Squam smock, if nothing else to prove to Cal Patch and my classmates that I actually did finish it!  Cal is such a fun, relaxed and reassuring teacher.  She's got this wonderful slow drawl that would make you swear she's from the south even though she's a New Englander. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong size pattern and my smock is too big, but I'm already working on a smaller size and hope to finish it up in a few days.  I think this one will be okay to wear layered over top a long-sleeve t-shirt and jeans when the weather turns cool again.  This is such a fun pattern to make and the other patterns in Cal's book, "Design-It-Yourself Clothes" look just as do-able.  Cal has made the whole project easy and with just enough detail work to keep it interesting.  With the exception of the sleeves, all the seams are French-seamed, which makes for such a tidy garment on the inside and I love the pockets. (Every top should have pockets, in my opinion.)  I'm way past the age of wearing something this short as a dress, but love the look of wearing it as a tunic with leggings or jeans.

(A not quite 5 year old me - in a mama-made dress that I remember to this day. It was yellow cotton pique with a white pique collar-and I loved it!)

The workshops with Cal and Maya at Squam have awakened my desire to sew again.  My mother sewed a lot from necessity when I was growing up.  She made most of my clothes and a lot of her own.  I loved that she took the time to sew for me and it seemed nearly magic when a finished piece of clothing appeared where there had been a paper pattern and some fabric.  She taught me to sew on her huge metal Kenmore sewing machine that was so heavy,  I couldn't lift it up from the depths of the desk-like cabinet it was contained in.  It had a knee pressure control and to this day,  I prefer that to a foot pedal.  I sewed a lot of my own clothes in high school - mostly simple straight skirts and in the summer, shorts and sleeveless tops.  Later when I had two toddler boys, I made them little John-John Kennedy shortalls (really, really dating myself here - go ahead, google it, if  you don't know what I'm talking about.)  By the time my third son was born, I seemed to run out of time and energy for sewing and except for a brief foray into quilting, I mostly used my machine for hemming skirts and pants and doing mending.  I seldom have opportunities to wear dresses these days, but I think making myself some tops that will go over my "farm uniform" of jeans will be a fun way to get back to making sewing a regular part of my creative life. Taking Squam Sling and Squam Smock got me into the fabric stores and looking at fabric on line, which is at least as dangerous as looking at yarn on line!  There's just so much to choose from these days.  I think I see a fabric stash in my future!