fill the salt shaker

with salt.  Some great advice I picked up from somewhere regarding what to do if you are so depressed it's hard to do anything.  Picking a simple goal is likely to result in accomplishment and so provide stimulus to continue with greater goals and more energy.  I am applying it to creative endeavors these days, and when I can't bear to contemplate or work on a greater project, I try to get to work on some very simple ones.  The other day I made rice bags for hot or cold therapy from left over flannel in hopes of prodding myself into a bigger project.  It worked!  Nothing amazing, mind you, but I'm pleased enough.  I finished another pair of big butt baby pants (pattern by Rae, here) and made a little ruffle skirt for the younger cousin without a pattern.

 

These are from vintage printed denim from my stash.  I bought it when my kids were babies sometime in the early/mid 80's, but it looks 1970's to me.  When we tried them on the waist was too low, so I added the waist band out of necessity and the bottom ruffles and waist tie followed to tie in the contrast fabric. The flower is one laying around I just safety pinned on.  I'm pretty happy with the end result.

 

This rear gusset is what makes them "big butt".  They are so cute on little diapered bottoms!  I added piping to play up the feature. The pattern is $10. but is simple and unique at the same time.  She does have a free downloadable for baby pants without the gusset.

 

There are two tiny grands at my house, so if I sew for one I try to sew for the other.  This simple ruffle skirt is out of twill or a light weight denim from the stash and scrap lace. It broke up all those polka dots on the shirt and leggings.  I doubled the fabric width for the second tier, I'm thinking now maybe 1 and 1/2 would have been better for the weight and hand of this fabric.   I didn't use a pattern, but I was inspired by this picture and tutorial by Tanya Whelan at Grand Revival Designs.  She does multiple tiers and also a version of a skort ruffle shorts, lots of other great stuff as well.

 

Now I have to stuff all those trims back into the drawer.  Ah, well, it's a great way to take inventory.