A blogable offense

Actually, the offenses are three-fold: new Belle skirt, picking strawberries, and drippy red chins.


First, the skirt. Browsing through the remnant box at JoAnn's one day, Isabella found this bright yellow sparkle silky piece. "Mom, will you make me a Belle dress? Please, Mommy? Please, please, pleeeeeeeeese?" Yes, a thousand times yes. Even though I knew it would never be a dress, more like a skirt. But still, she is thrilled and it's one of those plant flowers/pick berries/first thing right out of bed in the morning skirts.

Unrelated: the plants are in! Four-year-olds are actually kind of helpful. She never ceases to amaze me.

She wanted this skirt to look like Princess Belle's from Beauty and the Beast (usually the whole Princess thing makes me uneasy but being handmade makes me cringe much less). I sewed up some scrap muslin for lining, put some crinoline (stiff netting/tulle) on top, and then the yellow fabric on top of that. Elastic casing, eyelet hem on the muslin and ta-da... BELLE!

Since the yellow was a remnant at 50% off and I already had the muslin and crinoline on hand, the whole project took about $5 and a good 2 hours. A most excellent way to break up my mega quilt days.



Which brings me to the second offense... strawberry picking! It's one of my favoritest things to do. Ever. I remember being a little punk and my mama taking me strawberry picking on Wednesday afternoons (her office was closed on Wednesday afternoons for some reason). So you better believe I'm taking the kiddies out every chance I get to pick berries whether we use them or not! Who am I kidding, those things are gone within hours these days.

Yep, different day, same skirt! Success!!

Oh my lands, this picture makes me laugh and then cry. It's an instant classic. The Drippy Red Chin/Hand/Shirt. I'm pretty sure she ate a lot of over-ripe, not-quite-ripe, and certainly perfectly ripe berries with greens. Her appetite knows no end.

Here's to handmade princess skirts and fresh-picked fruit this summer!