Here’s what I came up with:

Cute right? I thought so. All it took was cutting off the top of the pillow case, cutting the arm holes, hemming the arm holes and creating a casing for the ribbon to run through on the top. Then I tried it on, marked where I wanted some runching and sewed three lines of elastic thread through the waist.

Too bad pillowcases don’t fit over my hips! Thank you childbearing. Lesson learned here: pillowcases do not make good tops for adults! I tried to add some slits to make it fit but the slits would have to go up too high to work. Other lesson learned? I wanted to attempt this again as both a top and a dress. Lots of potential here!

I don’t generally consider myself a trendy dresser. I tend to try and purchase items that are going to last me more than one season and I’m slow to adopt any ‘current’ styles. This season though, I’ve been seeing a lot of those tank dresses around and tons of tutorials for them. Since I worked in an office pre-child, I really never bought many shorts and now that summer is most definitely in full swing I’m getting a little hot wearing jeans every day. Enter simple tank dress. Nice and cool. No need for a strapless bra. A throw it on and go type of style. The very reason I adore dresses.

Since I am still being very cautious on where we spend our money, I decided to try and and replicate one at home using items I already had. The only thing I bought was some wide elastic for the waist. I referenced a couple of tutorials to guide me, but really kinda made it up as I went along.

The tank top was one I bought years ago while I was still interning and it shrank up just short enough that it’s annoying to wear. I have a policy in my closet: if I haven’t worn it in a year, it gets given away. Well, I decided to give this one away until I considered repurposing it for a better use. So it lived in my sewing room until yesterday.

The skirt fabric is one that I bought on clearance awhile ago without any purpose because I loved it so much. It’s a sheer black with white embroidered flowers. Very fun. Because it was sheer, I lined the skirt with some black cotton.

I am really happy with how it turned out and that it only took one nap time to complete! Although, in my head it looked more casual that it ended up turning out. I think it looks more dressy than I thought it would. I guess I’ll just have to make another one with a ribbed tank top for a more casual look and next time I’m adding pockets!

Ever useful nursing cover:

And of course the bibs and burp rags:

I also sewed up a couple sheets (using the MADE tutorial) and some curtains, but forgot to take pictures. I’m hoping to share a picture once the nursery is complete.

But the true gem of the set is the quilt which is the New Wave quilt from Oh, Fransson! There is a free tutorial for this patterns here but she also offers an expanded version of the pattern for sale here. She ran a discount on the pattern awhile back, so I went ahead and bought it. I bought another one of her quilt tutorials and found it incredibly helpful. I knew I liked the New Wave quilt enough to make it a couple more times in different sizes, so I decided the purchase was worth it.

It turned out beautifully. I couldn’t ask for a better end product.

I think I love this pattern so much because it showcases the beautiful fabrics that the new mama picked out for her nursery.

And the best part about it all? The sweet reaction.

But I will get tired of these:

Tomato hornworms. There were two of them, one eating a jalapeno and the other eating my banana peppers. I plucked them off and dunked them in a bowl of soapy water. No more defoliating for those two! I’ll be on the lookout for their friends. . . .

A very sad looking wilted zucchini that had happened in a matter of hours. I figured I had under-watered so I proceeded to give it a good watering. The next day it looked the same, so I took a closer look. This is what I saw:

Nasty. Nasty. Nasty. Squash vine borers ate holes into the main stem of my plant, proceeded to eat the plant from the inside out and filled it with their excrement. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. I couldn’t save my poor zucchini plant that had just bloomed with about 9 more blooms and buds. The borers had done their damage and it was irreversible. Apparently these pests are very common in Austin as my friend Jenn has lost three of her four zucchini plants to these yucky bugs this year too. There aren’t many organic pest control methods that I’ve read about, but I’d love to know if any of you readers have a preventative measure to protect your zucchini from these things. And I’m wondering if it’s already too late in the growing season to plant another zucchini plant in its place. Fellow gardener friends, tell me your experiences!

Hmm shoulda ironed the nursing cover before taking that picture…

The lifesaving sling… Perfect for those early days… And the later days too!

And no set is complete until the bibs and burp rags are done!

There are a couple basic sets in the shop and I have plans to add a couple more this summer. Always a helpful gift for any new mama.

Those tomatoes on the right are taller than I am. The zucchini is starting to take over. In fact, this garden seems to be putting forth many things that are larger than average. Look at this:

That’s a quarter on the left. The zucchini on the left is normal sized. The one on the right is ginormous and seemed to get that way overnight. I think that I owe this success to something specific. Magic perhaps. Mater Magic. I used it at the roots of everything I planted and it seems to be supersizing everything in the garden. LOVE it.

Because everything got so super sized on me, I had to remove the banana and jalapeno peppers and plant them in pots. They seem to be loving not being shaded and crowded out by the bigger bully plants. Peppers are awesome potted plants, in case you didn’t know. They don’t need much room to grow.

Here are the rest of my potted beauties. Still going strong. The blackberry bush is fully leafed out and it already had a bloom! I need to find something for it to climb on. My olive tree is still doing well, and my basil seems to be chugging along.

My hanging herb garden. . . I’ve gotta say that the grommets aren’t holding up super well. If you are thinking about doing this project there are a couple things you should know. If I was going to do this again, I would have folded the top over and sewed it down so that you could run a rod right through the pocket instead of allowing grommets to hold the full weight of the planter. I also would consider using a gel product, (like this) to mix in with the soil. These pockets dry out so quickly that you have to water them every day. I don’t know how the herbs are going to hold up to the Austin summer heat. I’m hoping to build another planter and get them in the ground. We will see.

In my little 4×4 plot we are starting to see the bell peppers fruit. So exciting! Organic bell peppers are so expensive in the stores.

And my yellow pear tomato plant is plotting to take over the world. It is huge, and putting out so much fruit it is insane. It has completely taken over my patio tomato plant. But hey, we will have a bunch of ripe tomatoes here soon!

And so are my little yellow pear tomatoes:

The zucchini is taking over, but also providing many growing veggies:

And my blackberry plant is fully leafed out! Yay!