Things I Didn’t Buy 71

I really liked this 1950s dress pattern. Sooooo cute. I love the way they worked the red stripe dress and the navy dress is so adorable.

This 1950s dress and jacket was pretty nice.

I liked this 1960s simple top and skirt pattern as well.

This 1970s long robe is awesome (although I could do without the lace trim).

These 1970s separates were nice.

Finally, this 1970s wedding dress is fantastic. I love the sleeves, the high collar and the buttons down the front. The bridesmaid’s dress I mostly like—I’m just not a fan of that collar.

Cross Stitching Fun

When a couple of friends and I were planning to get together, one friend suggested taking a class—like cross stitching. She sent a link to the class, and my other friend’s response was, “$60! For $60 each, we could get all the supplies and make our own class.” And that’s what we ended up doing.

One friend got some Aida fabric and embroidery floss from a thrift store. And when we met up, we went to a craft store to get extra supplies (just some hoops and needles). The grand total for everything was about $7 a piece.

I picked up a couple of cross stitching books from the library, and we followed their straightforward directions. And after a couple of early mistakes, we all got into the rhythm of cross stitching. It has to be one of the simplest crafts to do. I knew nothing, and after about 10 minutes, I was stitching right along.

My friends picked a couple of images online to replicate. I just picked these classic video game characters from one of the cross stitching books I had. Truthfully, I didn’t really care too much about what I was making, I just wanted to learn how to cross stitch doing something fairly easy. I followed the pattern to a point; I did alter some of the characters so they would align more vertically and horizontally.

It did take a good amount of time to finish, but I finished it over the course of a week. I liked cross stitching—it was very relaxing. The only downside is I’m not sure what to do with the finished cross stitch…I’ll have to think about it. But I think this might be a craft that sticks. It was pretty fun and creative and very low stress.

Things I Didn't Buy 70

I thought the illustrations in this Music Through the Year book were adorable.

And here are some more pages from it.

Two Dresses

I went thrift shopping and bought two cute dresses that were $28 each. It was a big spending day for me, since I can’t remember the last time I spent that much for an article of clothing. But…I just couldn’t resist.

The first dress is this awesome 1950s dress that’s in pretty good condition. I love everything about it. I like the little details—like the little white collar, the small gold buttons, the triangular bit of fabric under the buttons, and the gathering in the skirt. It’s a fairly long dress, stopping around mid-shin. And the teal color is just so pretty. I really appreciate the craftsmanship of this dress.

The second dress seems newer; I’m not sure when it was made, but it was made in the U.S.A, so my guess is it’s a couple decades old. I really liked the pattern on this dress—kind of southwestern. There was a time I was against wearing patterns, but I’ve gravitated towards them in more recent years. The elastic waistband is nice because it makes the dress comfortable (and forgiving). I also love that this dress has pockets—I looooove pockets.

The one small downside is I think this dress is probably a little too big for me. I think the shoulders are maybe about half an each to wide, and maybe the waist is a little low on me. It’s not a huge deal (and I doubt anyone will really notice).