Summertime, and the Living is Thrifty! intro

 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Summertime, and the Living is Thrifty!

A bit of a backstory on this event… Once I realized that my husband and I were really making the leap into self-employment and everything involved therein, I felt that I needed to be as thrifty as possible this summer. I also knew I’d be alone with the kids a lot, as Chris will be working a lot of hours to get things started well, and thusly I would need an outlet, a distraction. 
So I emailed a bunch of people, including some of my best blogfriends, some of my favourite bloggers, and some of the first bloggers that came to mind when I thought of ‘thrifty’. And while I had this panicky feeling that absolutely nobody would be interested – never mind that I’m not a ‘big blogger’, it’s summertime! The kids are home! It’s time for vacation! One of the bloggers I have lined up is having a baby!! Possibly literally as I type this! – I was overwhelmed with the positive response I got. Whether because living thrifty strikes a chord with all of us, or because I am really good at whining… we’ll never know. At any rate, I am so beyond excited and delighted for what’s coming up this month! All sort of thrifty summertime living.

 

I hope all of you in North America had a great long weekend! Fourth of July and Canada Day both. Appropriately enough, this is the fabric I was hunched over on Canada Day:

I am making a sister set for the girls out of this subtly patriotic fabric. (To be honest, it is so subtle that I didn’t even really realize when I was buying it that there were Canadian flags on it! I was in a rush as I was shopping with Chris.)

I got the fabric on sale, doubly so. Firstly, it was marked down to $5/m. Secondly, it was a buy-one-get-one-free event. So, for $5, two dresses. Both cut, one sewn. Come back on Wednesday for the first tutorial, the Not So Basic Pillowcase Dress Tutorial. Well I mean, come back tomorrow for our first guest poster, first. ;)

Thrifty doesn’t need to mean cheap. Simple details can make something very inexpensive look much less so. In the tutorial I will show you how to make french seams for a clean finish for those without a serger. I’ll also show you a video my facebook followers will have seen already that shows you how to do straight, even topstitching very easily. Lastly, the neckline has a curve instead of going straight across like your average pillowcase dress – a subtle detail that makes for, I think, a lovely finish.

Also on Wednesday I will share Nicole’s half of this sister set, the tutorial for which I will share next week. Both dresses take the same basic start of the pillowcase dress shape but end in completely different looks. Olivia’s is short with a ruffled hem. Nicole’s… well, you’ll have to wait and see, I guess! And both are very thrifty and can easily be done with actual pillowcases. Olivia’s (size) in particular, you need less than half a meter to create. Which would be around half a yard I guess, for my American friends. And one more thrifty thing about pillowcase dresses? They can later be used as tunics… and then shirts. :)

How do you keep your fun in the sun on the thrifty side? Hop on over to our flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/thriftysummer/ and share!