Dusting off the sewing machine

What miserable weather we are having at present!  It has rained all day, and the temperature is 59 degrees - more like October than August.  Strangely on days like this I sometimes decide to do some sewing.  My mum was an excellent seamstress, and I grew up watching her at her sewing machine, making clothes for us and doing alterations to clothes for friends and neighbours.  I'm not in her league, but I can cope with simple patterns.

In my window box seat, where I keep my sewing stash, I found a couple of old shirts of my son's.  They were too good to throw out but no good for a charity shop because they were ripped on the sleeves.  I found a pattern for a pair of child's shorts, and repurposed a striped shirt into some cotton shorts to fit a four year old.  I enjoyed the pattern so much that I made a second pair out of a piece of blue fabric left over from a skirt I made a while back.

By now I was on a roll, so I pulled out my favourite girl's pattern and made a little tie-top dress.  The fabric comes from a duvet set I found in an RSPCA charity shop.  It is really versatile, with patterned and plain sections in pink and purple, hence the two-tone effect.

I've left the sewing machine out - I wonder whether I will feel like dong some more sewing tomorrow?