I'll stop whinging about all the rain one day...

Today:

...Hubby finally picked up his Christmas present, an electric-motor-boosted bicycle. Very snazzy! Since it's been raining he hasn't been for a ride yet, except to go around the block quickly, so we are hoping for some fine weather tomorrow to give a test run!

The big silver box on the crossbar is the battery, and the black box down near the pedals is the motor. It can be on all the time, or you can turn it on and off as you please. It runs at the same time as you pedal, so the faster you pedal the faster you go, and the longer the battery lasts. DH plans to only use it to get up the hills between here and work, but I'm guessing since he hasn't cycled for some time it might get a work out more often than that for the first few weeks, LOL. It will certainly make the trip a lot faster anyway.

...Despite spending the large proportion of the day at two birthday parties (the aprons I made were as well received by the recipients as the usual Bratz dolls and Barbie fashion accessories they also received, which is the best I could hope for, LOL), when I got home I had time to refashion another thrift-shop shirt into a dress for Miss 4.

It started out as the ladies shirt in the rear of this pic:

And ended up as this dress. Ta da! (Sorry about not having ironed it before I took pics!)

I used this tutorial again, and also made the straps according to the pattern this time too. Like the previous dress I did, this dress was also refashioned from a ladies shirt, but the fabric in this one was quite different; a very soft, somewhat slippery, pink gingham. Just quietly, I wouldn't try this again with this fabric, it was hard to sew for a beginner like me! I think it was much easier to sew the stiffer cotton that was in the last shirt, so that's something I'll know for next time.

As you can see, I tried to do the straps the same as in the tutorial, but a) I accidentally cut them way too wide, and b) since the fabric was soft they don't stand up stiffly like the tutorial's do, but having said that, because they are so wide, if they had stood out stiffly they would look really odd I think?

As they are though, they almost look a bit like cap sleeves I think, so I'm going to leave them as they are. Ignore the fact that they look lopsided in the photo below, they aren't really, it was that Miss 4 has flipped her shoulder up as I took the pic.

It didn't turn out too badly I think! Miss 4 is happy with it anyway, but then she's easily pleased ;-)

Tomorrow: The fortnightly Farmer's Markets. I'm hoping for another box of tomatoes; more sauce and a big batch of pasta sauce. Mmmmm.