More Sheet Magic

It started when I bought a backpack to use while on vacation. We would be taking a ferry instead of our car. That put a damper on my usual way of packing. I tend to bring all the comforts of home: my drying rack for all those wet towels and bathing suits, my electric kettle and coffee press, teas, "real" cups for us all. You get the picture. Once I even plotted how to take (smuggle) a sick guinea pig on vacation with me. (My husband put his reasonable foot down on that one.) Now, we each were to have one rolling bag and one back pack. A week before we left I found a back pack I could live with, it's purple and blue and flowery. Blue? Mind mind starts turning. Now I want some blue/purple clothes to go with it. I have one week and no money to use for wardrobe. I head to my trusty fabric stash. I find a blue patterned sheet that I got at a garage sale for pennies and a small piece of purple jersey. With no time to waste I forego using patterns. Sometimes I decide not to sew at all because I dread the nonsense of dealing with patterns. It's happened that after unfolding, folding, cutting, reading, sewing I end up with a garment that doesn't fit me and that I don't even like. So this time I grabbed a couple of garments that fit me well, I layed them right on the fabric and just cut away. This cut my work time drastically and gave me a perfect fit. I made this wrap around tie skirt and a purple shell to wear with it.

  I find a long, loose, cotton dress the best thing to put on my sun drenched body after spending all day at the beach. Of course I don't want to look like I'm wrapped in a old soft sheet, even though I am! For this one I used a favorite 20 year old Cynthia Rowley dress. I'm glad that I've kept it all these years, it's tattered and has pills but the fit is still great.
My vacation book, Wren Bay was wonderful. I devoured it.

"There is something satisfying in taking what one already has and using it in a new way."
from Wren Bay, the story of making a home