Alterations

My MIL came over this evening. This is the night before the girls and I leave for camp, the night that I need to pack, the night that I still have about 4 loads of clothes to wash before I can pack.

She brought a little something with her.

Two pairs of pants for me to hem up for my nephew.

I DON'T WANT TO DO THEM! But, he's also going to camp and they're about 4" too long.

Sigh. I really love that boy, but he needs to grow!

Knitted Flowers

Used some leftover yarn to make some small (1.25") flowers.Aren't they sweet?

Meh...

I whipped this up this morning. Not really sure that I like it very much.

This pattern is Portobello Pixie's Claire (designed by Sandi Henderson). I made version D, the dress with shirring. The dress itself is very easy to put together and the pattern instructions were easy to understand. I only had one problem, and it's probably my fault, but I couldn't find where it tells you the seam allowance! Or wait, I just thought maybe, I was supposed to add it myself, like BWOF or Ottobre. Yikes! Anyway, I ended up sewing with 1/2" seam and serging the edges to finish them off.

I fell in love with the dragonfly print on a recent visit to my LQS and bought a few of the coordinating fabrics. I'm not feeling the love for the green sleeves. I like the sleeves, just not the green fabric - I kind of wish that I had had more of the blue (which I used for the bottom ruffle).


Even though I saw my elastic thread somewhere two days ago, I couldn't find it anywhere today. So, I ended up using 1/8" elastic and zig-zagging over the top.

I feel like this dress needs something. An embellishment, ric-rac, embroidery or something.

Anybody out there have any ideas? Rescue me, please!

Copycat

I originally saw the idea for this dress over on Brown Paper Packages. I remember thinking that it was just so cute and perfect for those little girls that love to twirl.

You take a woman's tiered, crinkled skirt and turn it into a dress for a little girl. The dress pictured is one of two that I just made up for two little girls in my church. Hannah and Rachael drew them as Prayer Pals and since their mother likes to dress them in matching outfits, I thought she would like these matching dresses. The only modification to the original dress is that I used 1.5 yds. of ribbon for the ties instead of making a fabric tie.

Folks, if you've got a little princess in your life, get thee to a thrift store and make her something to be proud of!

Where's the Calgon?

Yesterday was an extremely long day. Most of the day was spent in town going to the orthodontist and the eye doctor. A little shopping did occur, but I'm trying to restrain myself. When we did finally arrive home, I put Debra to bed and then spent the rest of the evening making her a pair of panties for her next outfit. They were simple enough to put together, however, I think that next time I'll put bias tape around the legs as a casing for the elastic around the legs.

It was only 9:30 when I finished up the panties, so, I thought I would get the embroidery done on her dress.

I had already decided to just put her name or her initials on the dress as the fabrics* I picked out were kind of busy and I felt like a design would be too much competition. I didn't like any of the fonts that I already had on my machine so off to search the inter-webs! I found two fonts that I really liked here (actually I like most all of them), but finally settled on Ainsley, but I also bought another font to play with later.

Folks, this is where the trouble all started. I'm not going to get into the entire long story, but suffice it to say, it took me 2.5 hours to get her name done. It was totally my fault, I should have gone to bed and started fresh in the morning, but oh no! Not me!

I went to bed after washing the wash-out marker out of the fabric and then laying it on the ironing board.

When I woke up, it was back to the grind stone. I iron the front and then made up the dress. It's a completely reversible pinafore dress that ties in the back with ribbons, a snap, or button and loop closure.

Side 1 view:

Side 2 view:

Back view:


I'll bet y'all think that I've forgotten how to sew clothes for an adult! I have to say that sewing for a baby/toddler is very rewarding. They (most of the) time wear what you put on them and they rarely have fitting issues.

* In an effort to be frugal and use up larger scraps of fabric, I used leftovers from this dress and paired it with 5/8 yd of a cheerful floral from the same line (Happy Campers by Moda). That 5/8 was just the perfect amount for the panties and the reverse side of her dress. Just small scraps left of both of these fabrics. Yea!

Finally

Somehow, I was volunteered to make two boleros for a 4 yo and a 5 yo. They will be flower girls in their aunt's wedding this coming weekend. I have now developed a strong dislike for bridal satin. Let me explain:

To save a bit of money, the bride wanted me to use the stole/wrap that came with her wedding dress. That satin is thick, doesn't want to take pressing, and frays like no tomorrow! The other problem that I had was trying to find a bolero pattern that showed off the beading on the top of the girls' dresses. Actually, it was trying to find a bolero pattern at all that was my main concern. There was nothing left to do, I had to resign myself to going through my pattern stash. At the back of the closet, I finally found a pattern. OOP McCall's 2422. Since, I only had a 60" x 20" piece of that awful bridal satin to work with, both boleros are a size 3. One of the girls needed a size 5 but that's not what she's getting. I say that she needed a size 5, her chest measurement is 25" and that is a size 5 pattern but the size 3 has a finished measurement of 37". I think that a size 3 will fit just fine.

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I don't know about y'all but I sew for the fun of it. When I'm making something for another person and I have a deadline, it becomes WORK and no longer fun. I almost always end up putting the sewing job off until the last minute. I'm glad that this time I didn't - it means that I have time to make something for myself and maybe something for one of the girls before we head off to camp next week.

Ott Lights

Have you always wanted an Ott Light, but thought you would rather spend your money on fabric? Well, let me tell you about a deal.

Hobby Lobby has decided to discontinue selling Ott Lights and has marked them down 60% off.

Ignore the mess please, I'm in the middle of a sewing project.

Testing, Testing, 1...2...3

This morning while checking out Google Reader I saw that Nicole of Cole's Corner & Creations was showing off a dress for a pattern that she had tested. I also had the privilege of testing the same pattern and thought that I would go ahead and show off the two dresses that I made from the pattern designed by Sara Norris. I love the pattern. The dress is simple, and can be made dressy or casual.

This is the first version that I made. The smallest size is a size 2. While looking through my stash I saw these fabrics that I originally bought for an apron that was never sewn up. Since I wanted Debra to be able wear this dress, I thought these fabrics combined with a turtle-neck shirt would be perfect for this coming winter.

Close-up of under dress, and apron with bias binding.


I loved the first dress so much that I wanted to make one for Debra to wear right now. I cut the dress down to a size 1. I used a marbled quilting cotton in a beautiful, muted orange for the under dress. White batiste for the apron and straps. I thought about smocking this one, but...well...I would have had to drag out my pleater, find the needles that I like to use (or had to buy more, as the ones I have are probably all rusted) and then dust off some pretty rusty smocking skills.


Even though I didn't smock this dress, I still wanted the apron to be special - more dressy. I noticed this gorgeous piece of hand embroidered lace hanging out of my lace cabinet. With only 1 yard I could never figure out what to do with it and I have always thought that it needed to be the centerpiece on whatever I sewed it on.

Doesn't the orange really make the embroidery stand out?

Simple Round Yoke Dress

Do you remember this dress and this dress? Well, I still had more fabric leftover and since I just can't stand to throw away big pieces of fabric, I kept them thinking that I'd do another dress when the others got too small. On Saturday, when I was desperate to sew something (and putting off what I needed to really sew!) and all of the other fabrics still needed to be washed, I pulled these out. Hmm, what to do with them?

Last week, I went on the hunt for a round yoke dress. I had a few requirements: I wanted it to be an ePattern, I didn't want to have to go to the fabric store; it needed to come in Debra's size, most round yoke patterns started at size 3.

I finally found this pattern from Make Me Pretty Designs on etsy. Got to love the inter-webs! It's a very simple design, sweet and just perfect for the summer heat. The yoke buttons on the shoulders with the front yoke straps having the buttonholes, you can't see the buttons but they are 2 mother-of-pearl buttons from stash.


The skirt is embroidered with two different flower designs. The big flower applique is from Lynnie Pinnie. The smaller flowers are from Embroidery Library. I made an oops and didn't space the flowers far enough apart, but I figure that any body that gets close enough to notice - is too close.

I used the remaining yellow fabric to make a pair of matching panties. So cute! I'd love to show y'all a modeled shot but Miss. D is way too busy moving and walking and jumping! She's everywhere!

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I've finally figured out my reluctance to sew for myself. All of the fabrics that I had pulled out were brown and pink and peach. More Autumn colors. My recent weight gain hasn't helped much. So, I've put those up and have pulled out pinks, fuchsias, turquoise, and teals.

The rest of today will be spent making boleros for two little girls that will be flower girls in a wedding this weekend.

Ugh!

Ever want to sew right now!! But every fabric that you want to use needs to be washed first? Ugh!

Crayon Rolls

The church that I attend has a small Christian school. There aren't many students, mainly because there is such a huge gap in ages. Lots of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 yo children, but only one 7 yo, one 8 yo, and one 13 yo. After that nothing until 23. Like I said, a huge gap. Anyway, every year we have an end-of-the-year ceremony and graduation (if there is anyone to graduate). This year there are four 5 yo children graduating from Kindergarten. At the reception following the ceremony, they are usually given little presents by proud parents, grandparents and any one else that attends.

This year I decided to make crayon rolls (completely in the hoop) with each child's name on the inside.

The crayon rolls are a free download from Planet Applique when you join their Yahoo group. The crayons will cover up their names, but younger children, and some older kids, just seem to love to have their names on every thing, so I thought these would still be a great little gift.

The crayon rolls, along with crayons (of course!), and an activity book will each be inside a drawstring backpack that I bought from Oriental Trading. Each backpack has the child's name and color co-ordinates with their crayon roll. Got to be matchy-matchy.

I also made a set for Rachael, but she snatched hers as soon as I finished them.

Lions and Tigers and.... Giraffes? - Part 2

I love a ruffled bottom! When Hannah was first born, I hated the look of ruffles on the bottom of a baby. Of course, I would never put them on Hannah! But one day, I needed some ivory tights. I walked all over the mall trying to find a pair and when I did, I didn't look too close and just purchased them. I realized when I pulled the tights out of the package that they had a lace ruffled bottom. Oh well, she was just going to have to wear them. And... I fell in love with a ruffled bottom. There is just something so cute about ruffles on the most perfect little bottom.

Anyway, with the advent of Etsy.com and a new baby in the house, I knew that somebody would have a ruffled diaper cover pattern for sale. It didn't take long for my search to yield fruit. Bettsy Kingston's Ruffled Pants. I love her patterns, she has some cute ones.

This is the giraffe print that I spoke of yesterday. Isn't it too cute?


I used a solid pink broadcloth for the top and bottom ruffles and the pink and brown plaid for the middle ruffle.

Hannah has recently started to shun all things "too girly". So, imagine my surprise that she wants Debra to wear these every time we go to town.

And... this post wouldn't be complete without a showing off of the final outfit.

Lions and Tigers and.... Giraffes?

Yep, giraffes! My local quilt shop is starting to get a few fabrics in for children. One was a totally adorable pink twill with giraffes printed all-over. That fabric, combined with a solid pink broadcloth, a brown twill, and finally, a very sweet pink, white and brown plaid made for inspiration and a return of the old sewing mojo!

Once again, I started out with a TNT pattern, Frannie Baby by Children's Corner, only this time I went up to a size 18 month and added 3" to the length. I wanted to have an old-fashioned apron instead of a dress (I'll show you why in my next post). So, I cut the back all the way down to the hem. I used pony-tail elastics as the button loops. This is one of the best tips that I've ever read as far as button loops go. Much, much easier than making thread loops.

I hate to make the buttonholes needed for the side ties, so instead I made a casing and inserted 5" of elastic to gather the sides. A 1/4" ribbon bow was then tacked onto the side to replace the ties. See the lining? I didn't think of it until later but this makes the dress reversible.

The completed dress/apron. Sweet, huh?

Close up of the applique. I bought this machine applique from Planet Applique.


I learned quite a bit from this first applique project.

Rachael's Piano Recital

I pushed record just a little too late, so she's already played the first note.

I was also playing at the recital and just bombed. I can not think of ever being that nervous. I couldn't even remember where my fingers were supposed to go. ACK! Definitely not fun. Honestly? I wanted to go crawl in a hole and cry.

One Year!

From this:

To this:

Hey! Has anybody out there had iLasik surgery? How was your experience?

PJ's for Hannah

What an original title! :)

These are a pair of pajama shorts for Hannah that I finished up this evening. The pattern (Madeleine by Colette Patterns) is a free download! Yea for free.

The pattern is easy to follow and I do recommend it if you are the shorty short type. Hannah came inside while I was sewing these for her and said, "Mom, those are sooo '40s!" Yeah? And your point is?

The fabric is a wax-printed batik that I bought at Hancock's. Rachael has started sewing and wanted to make Hannah a pair of shorts but I, obviously, ended up sewing them up myself. The lime-green ribbon along the back is so that Hannah knows which is the front and which is the back.

P.S. She's tried them on. Doesn't like them.