What Could It BEE?

I feel another sewing bee coming on. It feels like... feels like it's about two weeks away! 

I was absolutely blown away by the fabulous seam finishing that Kristine and Stephanie did on Kristine's serger when we had our sewing bee for Steph 2 weeks ago. In all my years of sewing that are somewhere greater than 45 yrs now, I've never used a serger. After I saw what it could do for seams, I started doing more research. I decided to use my bonus that I had put away for just such a day and buy one to add to my sewing room. I did my homework, decided which one I wanted and found a place that had it on sale with FREE SHIPPING - yay!

It just arrived and I haven't done more than unpack it. Poor thing doesn't even have a suitable home in my sewing room yet - just a space I cleared for temporary safe keeping. I want to read the directions and watch the video before I take my first stab at messing it up.
We'll be busy for the next two weeks with all the packing, loading and preparations for Stephanie's migration to PA and then the crew actually going cross country for a week. Kristine offered to have another sewing bee with me once she's back home and I'm excited to take her up on the offer. I'm already thinking about fun nighttime treats to keep us going!
Here's a preview of the projects I have lined up to augment my thinning wardrobe:

The plaid skirt fabric is a polyester blend and has a nice, soft flow to it. The skirt pattern has panels composed of vertical seams that I think will be flattering.

You can't tell from the photo but the red fabric for the blouse is a thin dotted swiss. And I mean it's a real dotted swiss with textured spots formed from the same fabric. It's been years since I've seen a real dotted swiss. I usually find fabric that's been flocked with the dots. I'm going to make the view that is displayed in blue. The fabric is thin enough that I think it will gather along the drawstring in the sleeve quite nicely.

This next set has a skirt fabric that I fell in love with, as soon as I spotted it. This fabric is a cotton print that is a bit heavier than the synthetic plaid so I'm going to stick with the same pattern because the vertical panels should work well with the heavier cotton. I'm quite taken with the dainty floral pattern.


The blue fabric for the blouse is the same real dotted swiss that I got for the other blouse but the pattern is different. The blue is a perfect match to the blue in the flowers on the skirt fabric:

 I'm making the short-sleeved blouse in the upper right corner of the pattern:

I also got fabric to make two pair of pajamas for Sam :-) I'm still looking for a pajama pattern with feet in it but these pj's will have cuffs at the ankles and wrists.

The red fleece has Veggie Tales characters on it and the other is covered with multi-colored mushrooms. If I were 18 months old when the cold weather started to set in, I think I'd really like my jammies made from these fun fabrics!

From my research, I learned about two books that were recommended. They sounded like good resources so I got them, also. I hope I never need the one for solving problems!

So there you have it - somewhere between thinning the household at my house, having all the repairs done from the hail storm, keeping up with my Hebrew homework, finishing the housewarming blanket and knitting three pair of felted slippers for Valerie, Amol and Sam, I'm going to get to do some fun sewing :-) I could get so much more done if I didn't have to go to work each day... darn it.