Christmas Dress

I started this dress last Christmas (2014). I found this tutorial and free pattern. And totally copied it. 

Except ...

As you've heard me say here a few times, I am no seamstress. Clothes making is usually very stressful for me. I get confused in the directions, the language is foreign to me and majority of the time end up calling my mom (multiple times) or have her do the 'tricky' part.

I thought I was doing pretty good with this dress - until I sewed the sleeves. I must have missed something while reading and re-reading the instructions. Also, I'm just not that good. My first run at it ended up making the sleeves look like armor. I really should have taken a picture! I was so frustrated with it, I gave up!

And there it sat. Balled up in the corner for a year. I would look at it every once in a while and think to myself 'I really should finish that'. But as soon as those armor sleeves showed themselves, I was out!

I finally talked myself into tackling it once again. After unpicking nearly the entire bodice, I got the sleeves on and looking decent. whew!

The rest should be a breeze, right?! Practically yes! I did have one other little hiccup though. There was supposed to be a band just under the bodice. It was there. My girl tried the dress on, and I did not like it. More specifically, I did not like the band. It made the dress look too big for her. I suppose I could have shortened the bodice, moving the band up. But I was feeling a bit of a time crunch with getting the dress finished, and just took the band off. 

Then, there was the zipper. I can do zippers. Just not this one. 

The elusive invisible zipper. 

I'm not really sure how it's sewn different. That's just what I'm told. And the diagrams that come with the zipper confuse me more than sewing on these sleeves. Luckily, my mom is an expert and had it on in no time.

Despite my incompetence to dress-making, this really is a beautiful dress. I love the way the shoulders are exposed, giving it a simple elegance. If I were to make this dress again (I really would like to), I would adjust the bodice and band to fit her better. Taking the band out made the skirt just a little tighter around. The poof is still there. However, when she sits down, we have to constantly adjust the skirt so she is properly covered. I might also make the skirt just a bit fuller, too.

This little girl loves to get dressed up!

Makes it all worth it. Even if it did take me a year to get it finished ;)

It's not the dress, it's me -- I cut out a dress last Summer -- and that's as far as I got.

I'm hoping to get to it before the end of this Summer. Sometimes it seems so overwhelming to think about it.

Then it's done, and I'm already planning the next one :)

All Hallow's Eve - 2015

I am so excited about this year's costumes. They were easy to make, fun to put together, and cost was low or free :) 

My boy finally wanted to be a pirate! 

I was given some fabric a few years ago that I have been saving just for his pirate costume. The shirt is made from the same fabric I used for my girl's pirate costume last year. I barely had enough! The pants are made from a stretch material. It was a bit hard to work with. My machine kept skipping stitches. I tried a variety of needles, stitch and thread combos. At last, the only thing that really worked was a straight stitch with a sharp needle on the highest speed setting. Once I got that figured out, it all went together quite quickly. 

I borrowed the coat from my mom. It's a coat she made for a George Washington costume for a school project when my brother was a teen. The arms are a little long, so they are just tucked in a bit. I think it really pulled the whole look together.

Every pirate needs a little gold! 

My boy picked out the color for the sash. It was originally going to be a vest, which was no longer needed after finding the jacket. I like the sash much better :)

I didn't have a pattern for the boot covers. I just wrapped felt around his leg for size, then added a cuff at the top; and, lastly, a curved piece for the shoe top.

The ring was a last minute addition. He got it at his school Halloween party. 

Absolutely perfect!

I had an unbelievably hard time finding a pirate hat. I went to several costume shops, with the only hats available were for teenagers or adults. I basically gave up on finding a hat. 

A few days later, I just so happened to walk down the party aisle at Target and they had a pirate party section, with a pirate hat as a favor. The best part -- it only cost 2 bucks!

Argh!

There was no question what my girl was going to be .. a mermaid! Her biggest dream right now is to be a real mermaid. She even swims like a mermaid! 

We were on our way out from Joann Craft Stores one day (in July) and happened to see the fabric that would be perfect for her mermaid costume. I can't even tell you how excited she was!

I wanted her costume to be a good reflection of the natural flow of the fabric I was using. I couldn't find any pattern that I was really in love with, so this costume is entirely made up. I'm surprised at myself that I was able to pull it off. Clothes making is not my forte and I struggle with it quite a bit. I've gotten better over the years, but most the time still have to call my mom for help. 

This is my favorite costume so far. I made every part of her costume. 

Her costume makes me want to be a mermaid, too! She looks like she should be attending prom, or walking down the red carpet, instead of trick-or-treating. 

The top was fashioned after one of her halter tank tops. After I finished it, I wished I had made the back a little higher. That thought sat on my mind, until I ultimately made a last minute costume change (more on that in a bit).

One of my favorite parts of this costume is the arm bands. Not knowing what the weather might be on Halloween night, I needed to come up with some way to keep this little girl warm. I made the arm bands long, to cover as much as possible. I especially love the little fin along the side. 

I struggled mostly with the tail. It was the first piece I made. Not only did I battle the skipping stitches, but I also had to make up the skirt. Basically I wrapped the solid blue around her little body, making it form fitting. The fin was then gathered in. I love the flow of the fin when she walks. 

 I made her little starfish earrings. 

I also found these little jewel stickers to add a little more sparkle to her ensemble.

Her headpiece is 2 parts. The first being the double pearl headband.

The second, and more obvious is the flower arrangement. I've made quite a few flowers for her to wear in her hair, but these are my favorite! I'm so happy with how they turned out. I picked beads for the center that resembled sea glass. 

And then there's that starfish!

The last couple of days here have been getting colder. Not wanting this little mermaid to be frozen, I quickly made a little cover-up for her. I used the sequin material and lined it. I just hope it's warm enough!!

This was another first for me. I fabricated the pattern myself and had it sewn together in about half an hour. I'm still in shock!

I will definitely be making it again! .. with a few adjustments :)

They had a fun time trick-or-treating this year. They are much more about collecting the candy than they are about eating it. When I pulled out their trick-or-treat bags, they were still full of candy from last year!

The highlight this year was getting an orange from someone :)

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

The Making Of A Dress

A few week ago, I took my little girl to the Riley Blake warehouse, and let her pick out which fabric she wanted for her Easter dress. She picked Wildflower Spot from the Wildflower Meadow collection by Melly & Me. I adore this print!

Instead of having 2 spaghetti straps like the original pattern, I changed it up bit by adding navy trim for more of a ruffle sleeve, and sewing the second strap like bias tape to the trim. I also added the same trim to the bottom of the skirt.

Of course, the dress has to have a good twirl! 

She wasn't in the mood to cooperate. It was a bit of a struggle getting pictures that show the dress; but, when I saw this picture, it was worth all the hassle.

Row By Row

I had a pretty busy weekend, which mostly consisted of prepping my garden space for planting. Which also meant that if I was going to get any sewing done, it was going to be in the evening. I hoped to get a few rows done, but actually managed to get all my rows sewn!  

And then waited until morning to take pictures :)

I love the sun peeking through my window onto a freshly sewn pile of rows.

Maybe I'll get lucky and have the top finished by the end of the week!

Progress

After taking about a week long break from my new quilt, I had some time the last couple of nights to cut the remainder of the background and sew them into units. 

The result: a happy little stack waiting to be pressed and sewn into the next step. 

I just love fabric all stacked up, with little bits of color peeking out. 

Last night as I was sewing, I was thinking that I would be able to have all the blocks put together by tomorrow, so I could start laying the blocks out. However, this morning I've decided I may have been a bit overzealous in that thought.

I'll be lucky if I can get these all pressed today, not to mention sewn together :) 

Do you have any sewing plans for the weekend?

Secretly Sewing

It seems like December is just flying by! Almost 2 weeks away from Christmas, and it barely seems like there's enough time for everything! Last week while I was looking through my mess of fabric scraps, thread boxes and sewing drawers for a particular thread I needed, I came across a Santa Bag kit I bought a year or two ago from the amazing ladies behind Sweetwater. I immediately put it on my list of things to get done before Christmas, but at the same time wondered if I'd even get to it.

Last night, while brainstorming ideas for Christmas, I again remembered the Santa Bag. After the kids had gone to sleep, I pulled out the kit and got all the fabrics cut and ready for sewing. I planned to sew it while the kids are at school today. Here it is, an hour after I dropped my last kid at Preschool, and still have yet to sew a single stitch. Um.. I have no idea where the time has gone. I'm fully convinced that time speeds up when Moms get a moment to themselves :) 

Are you doing any Christmas (or Holiday) sewing this year? 

Happy Halloween!

This year's Halloween costumes were a lot less stress to make than in the past. My kids picked fairly easy costumes, which I started back in August (so I would have enough time to finish them, thinking they might be more difficult than what they ended up being). But then I put off all the finishing touches until last week.

This year for Halloween, my little girl wanted to be a pirate. I had a lot of fun with her accessories. 

I found a heart shaped eye patch in the costume section at Zurcher's. I added a flower/jewel embellishment to represent the missing eye. The little hat was also found at Zurcher's. It came with a very small black feather and little red ribbon. I replaced those with an ostrich feather and fatter pink ribbon to match her skirt.

The earrings and skeleton hand barrette are my favorites. I couldn't have found a better pair of earrings. I love them so much!

I combined a couple different pirate costumes to make her ensemble. I was, however, a little disappointed with the shirt I chose. I measured the length of the pattern to make sure it would be long enough for my tall girl, and it seemed like it would be the right length - even a little long. I must have forgotten about the seam allowances though, because after I had finished the top, it's just a tiny bit to short :( 

Luckily the belt hides that pretty well. 

My boy chose to be a parrot. He actually wanted to be a parrot with a pirate on his shoulder. We even found a skeleton pirate (it was all we could find), but then I couldn't quite figure out how to attach the skeleton without constantly falling down or being in his way of movement. Plus, I think he forgot about it :)

His wings were so easy to make! I made a template for the feathers, with 4 feathers in a row. I then sewed the feathers starting from the bottom and working my way to the top, curving the feathers as needed. The top row of feathers was cut on the fold and sewn with the fold over the raw edge. I attached elastics at the shoulders and wrists. 

 

I made the feet from foam and attached with a small elastic. One of the feet got ripped while he was at school, and the elastic in the other one popped out when we were taking it off. At least I was able to get a couple pictures with them on :)

And, if it wasn't hard enough to get a picture of them by themselves ...

This was the best picture I could get of them together.

Can you tell how much they don't want to be in the picture?!

Happy Halloween!

Busy As A Bee

In the past week and a half, I have sewn 2 quilt tops (1 for a tutorial - coming soon!), 3 quilt backs, finished 2 Halloween costumes, pin basted 3 quilts, tied 5 quilts and machine quilted 1! Needless to say, I've been quite busy lately, and I may have neglected all social media because of it.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to machine quilt this fun Halloween quilt for my husband's aunt. It's called 'Witches Celebrate'. It is the free pattern for the Witch Hazel fabric by October Afternoon.

She gave me free range to quilt how I wanted to. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the majority of the quilt as soon as I saw it. The only part I really had to think on was the maple leaf. In the end, I decided to curve around each seam and filled in the curves with lazy eights. Quilting so small in the corners was a little tricky.  

The pumpkin was easy. I simply made curves to make the ridges in pumpkins and filled a few with ribbon candy. It was my first time doing ribbon candy. 

I love this witch! As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted the witch to have hair. Although it doesn't show much on the quilt top, I did long skinny angled triangles to look like stringy hair. Swirls in the face and zig zags mixed with straight lines in the hat. 

I left the cat alone, since it was appliqued. I did trace around it, then stippled in the background. I did piano keys in the inner border and long swirls for the outer border. 

The thread blended pretty well on the top. Luckily, the backing was all white, so you can see the quilting really well. - - not sure if that's good or bad for me :)

I loved the corners in the inner border. For the piano keys, I followed one of the skinny black lines, but the corners I fanned out to turn with the border. I love the texture in this border; I love running my fingers over it to feel all the bumps. Kinda like I used to do on my Dad's piano when I was a kid.

I still have to take pictures of the Halloween costumes I made, and of course the other quilts that are waiting to be finished. I was hoping to have my tutorial quilted before posting, but I may take pictures of the top and show it quilted later. 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a nice day!

Baby Aa

I have been doing a lot of baby sewing lately! 

My friend just had a little boy a couple weeks ago, so of course I had to make him something to welcome him to this world!

Last year I came up with a monogram for my niece. It has become my favorite pattern. But it looked a little girly, so I came up with a more boyish monogram for this little guy. I absolutely love it! It's one of those things I wish I had thought of when my little guy was a baby :)

I also made a self-binding blanket and burp cloths to match. I took the leftover from the blanket and used it for the Aa applique. 

I love sewing for babies. It make me smile :D