I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. It’s so delightfully kitschy – how can you not smile? I scrolled through Pinterest this morning, looking for “retro kitchen” and “dish soap bottle dresses” ideas, and I came across this website: Home in the Finger Lakes. I printed out her pattern, but I made it wider over the “shoulders”, longer (because my bottle is tall) and fuller in the skirt. I added a cute little button at the back of the neck and a pocket.
It was a quick project. I had just enough of the picot-edged bias binding. It’s been in my stash for years, because it was too sweet to throw away. It’s perfect for this. I used Aleene’s OK to Wash It glue to hold the binding to the fabric prior to stitching it, and even though it made a sticky mess of my fingers, it really was helpful. I zigzagged it in place while the glue was still wet. It didn’t gum up my needle at all. I stitched through the button a couple times and then added a little glue to that, too. The pattern recommended a wash-out glue, but I feel the permanent glue will be better here.
I’m sure this will make washing dishes more fun, right?
Did your mother or grandmother have one of these? What retro kitchen items do you remember from your childhood? (or rather, what items do you remember that are now considered retro??)
This is one of my favorite quilts. It was a class sample for a Quiltmaking 101 class: fabric selection, rotary cutting, accurate straight-line piecing. No triangles, no curves, and few corners to match up. Most of the students made it in just two colors – dark and light. It was striking and dramatic that way, but I like these batiks and similar fabrics. Orange and blue are complementary colors on the color wheel, which is supposed to be an attractive arrangement. I didn’t start out that way, though – I was looking at browns and blues, and the rustier browns and oranges kept popping up on the design wall, In the end, the blue and orange (rust) quilt is perfect for autumn!
A couple more pictures of my autumn home. 
