I found this linen blend at Jo Ann's for 90% off and it was just begging to be a shirt and the pattern is JJ from Burdastyle minus the ruffles, found free here: http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/jj

The pattern was well drafted, but some of the directions were vague.  It'll be little problem for anyone who has made a blouse with collar and cuffs before. 

WIP photos and such are on my blog: http://renaultthespacegoat.wordpress.com/

I was finally able to set up my sewing table again after two years of having no where to put it.  I'm just getting into the swing of things again with these two projects:


The skirt pattern is Vogue 8703, a thriftstore find, and the shirt is Simplicity 5581.  The shirt is made from another thrift store find, 2 yards of soft seersucker and the plaid fabiric  used to make the skirt is a stretchy poly blend of some sort. 

I had to add a couple button to the skirt to combat gaping, but it was otherwise a pretty easy pattern to make, though the stretch plaid drove me a little nuts. 

The shirt was straitforward and simple.  I did leave the pocket off, because my kid didn't really need it and I'm lazy.

I saw something like this at the store, but didn't want to shell out $75 for it, I'll have to make one someday

Very sweet.  Are those bought patches or did you make them?

How cute!  I wish boys were as interesting to sew for sometimes.

Wow, I've wanted to try painting jeans with bleach for years, ever since Clorox came out with that bleach pen.  Seeing yours just makes me want to do that even more.  I need to find a good pair of thrift store jeans....

very nice, I esspeially like the curtain ones.

My teeth just hurt thinking about all those skittles.....of course I'm sure they weren't all eaten in one sitting   

It looks like one of those dresses that only look good on people with very very lean bodies.  It's not kind to curves.  I sort of like the idea of a belt, it would give you a little definition at the waist, but honestly I think your best bet is to make it a cute skirt.

Changing the neckline is easy enough, you just cut a new neckline and either hem or face it, you could even face it in a different material.  I can't quite see what the front seams look like....can you pick out the seams and play with the darts a bit?  That could help with the bagginess, though the elastic runching idea above would probably be easier.