A Tinny Dress (a new Straight Grain pattern) and a healthy dose of honesty!

You may not have noticed but I've been absent around here!  I knew May would be a crazy month and I was totally right!  If you throw graduations, dance recitals, and weddings (at least we didn't have one of those this year) into any month in gets busy but then you add our wedding anniversary (we celebrated 9 years!) and the garage sale I had to have; things gets really nuts!
But in all that crazy I still found time to sew because sewing keeps me happy!  I was fortunate to be a tester again for An of Straight Grain for her newly released pattern Tinny!  I'd seen this dress on her blog and was thrilled to get a chance to try it out.  It is a bit different than what I am normally drawn to but looked like something I'd learn from and I'm always eager to try something new!

I'm very glad I did!  An is so right when she says a circle skirt makes any girl happy.  Mine loves to twirl in her new dress!

I tested the largest size of the pattern the 6y. The patterns sizes are 1-6 years.  There are so many style options to choose from.  You could make this dress so many ways and that is a big selling point to me in a pattern!  For this dress I choose the peter pan collar, the notched sleeves and the circle skirt.  The fabric is Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House.

Another appealing element to me was the blind zipper.  Peyton's hair is long and button closures don't make her very happy since they seem to get her hair wrapped in them.  I've been wanted to learn more about zippers so I could go that route instead of buttons.  I've got a bit more to learn with a blind zipper but I'm learning! :)

Testing this dress was adding one more thing to my hectic May but I'm really glad I did!  I'm looking forward to making another one soon!  To enter for a chance to win a copy of the Tinny pattern click here.  GOOD LUCK!  :)

And now a little honesty!  Did anyone know I've been at this a year?!  My first post was on May 30th, 2012.  I've learned SO much about blogging this past year! Some of my favorite have been:
     1) Taking more photos and spending the money on a nice camera!
     2) Having a virtual diary of my sewing is very fun on a personal level.
     3) Feeling more a part of the sewing community that has taught me LOTS!
There are some things that I've been less happy with.
    1) I've got a limited time to sew/blog and the more I blog the less I sew! : (
    2) Also blogging seems to be more competitive than I realized, maybe that's just me. (I seem to have really checked out of my competitive nature when I started staying home!)
So what I'm saying is I'm not going anywhere, however, I I think my past notion of becoming a BIG/frequent blogger is not what I want either.  I'm a Mom to two wonderful kids and I want to hang with them, they're getting big way to fast for my liking!

I also think I'll be expanding what I write about.  Another FYI, I'm a Horticulturist (currently retired as my husband jokes).  I spent much of May planting my garden and containers.  I'm thinking some "Green" posts are in my future.

 I am so thankful to my readers and have enjoyed blogging this past year.  Blogging is like any other piece of my life; change is a constant!