I thought I grabbed the quote about the mermaid outfit. I have two ideas. This past weekend we were in Ohio at the Twins Days festival and we saw a few sets of mermaids. one (I wish I had a a picture, I looked back thru my parade photos to see if they were in the background anywhere, no luck) had a mermaid tail-like long dress, which was like a maxi skirt but around the bottom 8-10 inches was a tulle tutu like ruffle. The next idea I had was the lady who designs Fairytale pattern designs (the Ireyln Peekaboo ruffle dress among others) has a new pattern I have seen tests for on FB and it totally looks like ariel to me. It has a large bow across the chest that screams purple seashells. SO I assume that pattern will be out soon since it is going thru testing now, and I would bet you could find someone to make it w/ the bow purple, the bodice "flesh" color and the skirt teal. Just a thought.
Love these. The fireworks one is my favorite though I think. I would not have noticed the AK shirt is too short, it blends perfectly with the top of the skirt. Very cute.
I have been staying pretty busy, trying to get some dresses and other projects done for friends before tackling my giant to-do list for our trip. I got one thing done for our trip, which is totally something we could live without.

a LONG time ago Diane made pool robes for a big give, and I totally stole the idea. Not only the pattern, but she told me she got the cute and super cheap towels at Kmart so I picked those up too. I gave my kids the choice of snorkel characters or Nemo characters and of course they picked exactly what Diane had done: snorkel characters. I did add hoods since we are going to Disney late october/early november. And I used snaps instead of buttons because she had said the button holes in the towels were tough.

So I guess my kids can always wear Prince Charming outfits, too small bowling shirts from last year and pool robes all week at Disney if I don't get everything done!
But I finished two dresses for custom orders, one is for a friend who is taking her daughters to Disney in a few weeks, I am making the other daughter Cinderella, but the younger daughter wanted Tiana. I LOVE how it turned out. Someone (I forgot who, sorry and I am too lazy to look back) recommended the in-the-hoop flowers, which is what I used. I attached it with a snap that is under the petal so it can be taken off to wash or worn without.
And this adorable pirate dress I made for a friend of a friend (the same one I made the quilt below for, btw) for her daughter's pirate birthday. I am bummed that it was way too big and I am currently re-making it since her daughter apparently can't/won't wear elastic so I would have to take the whole thing apart to bring it in and it is easier to just start over a smaller size.
And outfits for another friend's twin boys 1st birthday this month. I love the shorts.
I did FINALLY finish this insanely time-consuming quilt project which I was supposed to have done before the end of June. I finally finished last week. It has 24 dinosaur appliqués, each one took 45-60 minutes to set up, stitch, etc. Everything about this project was cursed. During this production my sewing machine made a terrible clunk and I thought it was a goner. I took apart the bobbin area and cleaned it out and reassembled it and it seems fine (knock wood) but I ran out of fabric, and had to make a second trip, then when I went to buy the backing the Joann near me was out and only had 1 yard so I drove 40 minutes to the next-nearest joann, which had it thankfully, but ended up in tears because I wanted the 6 yards cut in half, offered to do it myself if I could borrow the big table, the lady gave me all sorts of grief about it and refused so I said OK, then she said well, she would go ahead but they don't normally cut things in half. but then she entered it in as two separate pieces so I could only use my coupon for 1 of the 2. I was SO glad it was done. The lady had a friend of her moms quilt it on a long arm, since I was not willing to quilt that thing on my tiny home sewing machine.

I feel like everything I try to do lately is MUCH harder than it needs to be.