Secret sewing - revealed!

I have been just dying to share this sweet little dress with you, but I had to wait until the pattern was officially released.  Well wait no more, dear friends!



Shannon from luvinthemommyhood designed the most lovely pattern called the sweetheart dress, and I was lucky enough to test it out last month.



Why is it called the sweetheart dress, you ask?



Check out this completely unexpected and adorable heart cutout on the back! 



The dress features a fitted and fully lined bodice - and believe it or not, this was my first time making a lined bodice!  Constructing the bodice was a piece of cake thanks to Shannon's pattern, and she even teaches you a couple of neat tricks to put everything together and hide all of your seams.

How adorable is that lining fabric peeking through the sweetheart back?



For the main dress fabric, I went with a print from Denyse Schmidt's Meadow Lark line from Joann's, and I lined the bodice with a print from Hello Pilgrim by Lizzyhouse.  The mini pom-pom trim was a complete last minute addition on my part, but I think it really puts a nice finishing touch on the dress since I used such a subdued print.



Shannon also includes a tutorial for a hand-sewn button loop, which uses a fun method that I have never tried before - but I'll be sure to use it again in many projects.  I love when a pattern teaches me new things!



Making this dress was a nice warm up to Elsie Marley's kids clothes week challenge that starts next week.  If you're not familiar with kcwc, it's a week where you set aside one hour each day to sew clothes for your kids.  The idea is that we all have the urge to sew clothes for our children, but we don't always give ourselves the time to do it.  Well this is the week, folks!  I probably won't have a blog post for everyday (it's not blog writing challenge week after all),  but I'll definitely be popping in with some project updates.  I look forward to seeing yours!

Sewing for school

First day of school!  First day of school!  We have been talking up preschool all spring and summer long and it was wonderful to see my normally clingy child so bouncy with excitement on the first day.



All we needed to send her on her way (aside from one of ten monthly tuition checks and a boatload of paperwork, meetings, orientation, etc.) was a couple of momma-made items to make her feel at home during those long three hours a day, four days a week that she is away from us.



First off - a brand new skirt to wear on the first day.  Fabric is from Sarah Jane's "Out to Sea" collection (narwhals!!!), and the double layer skirt was made using Dana's tutorial.



Next was the most quintessential of school items - a backpack.  I love love love Rae's Toddler Backpack pattern because it's super easy, holds it's shape really well - and it's toddler sized!  Most commercial backpacks are sized so that they practically swallow middle school students - let alone preschoolers.  This one is perfectly proportioned - but also comes with instructions on how to size it up for when your toddlers turn into big kids.



Phoebe picked out the Contended Cats fabric from Tammis Keefe tribute collection by Michael Miller.  A quick search revealed that they have it on sale over yonder at Fabricworm right now!



Truth be told, I don't actually give Phoebe total freedom when picking fabrics for her projects, because otherwise we'd end up with crazy psychedelic animals, or something that would leave a trail of glitter wherever she went.  So I end up picking about four or five fabrics that I think would appeal to her, but yet still stay within my realm of design sense, and let her pick from those.  Win win.



And here's my silly girl at the end of her first day.  Super happy and excited to go back again tomorrow.  Her funniest comment about the day?  "I didn't cry or scream at all....  but lots of other kids did!"

Washi dress x 3

When it comes to garment sewing, I usually only make things for children.  It's not quite as intimidating, it takes very little fabric, and if you screw up - it usually looks pretty darn cute on them nonetheless.  Plus, I'll be honest, I absolutely hate my body after two kids (we weren't great friends before kids either), so why spend the time and money to make something for myself when the entire aspect of clothing, fit, and size really depresses me anyways?

Enter the Washi Dress.  I was lucky enough to be at a sew-in a few months ago when Rae was working on a muslin for this pattern, and pretty much fell in love with it after she basically forced me to try it on.  The fit was fantastic, and it was super flattering - hiding all of my not so lovely areas.  Ever since that night, I had been practically stalking Rae to get my hands on this pattern, and my patience (or lack thereof) was finally rewarded when I got to test this pattern a few weeks ago.

The pattern itself is incredibly easy to follow with lots of pictures and diagrams, and sews up quickly once you've made it a couple of times.  So much so, that I've already made three of them!  The floral version above was my first attempt at the tunic style (a bit too short for my liking - but I've been informed that the pattern has been adjusted to add some extra length anyways :)

Oh yeah, another reason I have never been a fan of sewing clothes for myself?  I really hate being on the other side of the camera.  Blech.

This is version number two, made out of this lovely print from Tula Pink's new line, The Birds and the Bees.

And then here is my latest washi, made out of Sketch in Turquoise.  I'm in LooooooooVE! And what you can't tell from any of these photos is that this dress has pockets!  Perfect for holding all of the acorns, rocks, and playmobil animals that Phoebe is always giving me. 

So basically, this pattern rocks.  Many of my friends have tried the dress on as well, and it's amazing how great it looks on all of them - even with their different sizes and shapes!  It's super versatile and you can play with the length, neckline, and there's even an additional pattern piece to add sleeves - so you can sew a myriad of different versions. Buy it and make tons of dresses and tunics.  I plan on pretty much replacing my entire wardrobe with washi dresses!

***I heard from Rae that the Washi Dress pattern should be available this week!  Keep checking her site and I'll post a link once it's available!

I am not above bribery

I'm not sure if it's because we have a new baby at home, she's just getting over a cold, or because she's just being 2 1/2 (probably all of the above), but Phoebe has been particularly difficult and uncooperative lately - and that's putting it nicely. 

She is particularly pissed off in the above photo (and this was the best looking from the whole screaming, crying bunch) because - 1.  She's wearing a shirt that she did not pick out herself.  2.  She'd probably rather be having a root canal than have her picture taken.



Bring on the chocolate chips....



Okay, let's try this again (and let's try to ignore the sock-covered hand accessory that she refused to take off)....

I'm testing out Rae's new pattern for her Skinny Tee.  Can I say - what a freaking fantastic pattern!



I made this version out of an old shirt from the thrift store - which is my favorite source for knit fabrics.  They're super cheap, and you get to take advantage of things such as already finished hemlines, and premade cuffs - which save tons of time and effort while sewing.

This is a must-have, basic pattern for anyone sewing kids clothes.  Once you've made it once or twice, it comes together incredibly fast (we're talking 1/2 an hour, people!), and can be customized for soooooo so many different looks.  Plus, it comes in sizes 12 months - 5T, so this pattern is going to get a ton of use in my house. 



And no, Rae's not paying me to say any of this....
But she's welcome to!

The Skinny Tee pattern should be up on Rae's blog in the next couple of days.

Showing off my Showoff Bag

When Rae (of Made by Rae, of course) asked me to test out her upcoming Showoff Bag pattern, it couldn't have come at a better time.  My current purse is filled with goldfish cracker crumbs, a miscellany of treasures such as pinecones, rocks, and leaves that Phoebe has collected over the summer, and smells of old milk from waaaaay too many leaky sippy cups.

And who really has time to go through all of that and give it a good washing?  Not this momma!  So when my bag reaches that stage - it's time to sew a new one.

I'm lucky enough to live in the same town as Rae and when she walked in with her lovely chevron version to our monthly crafter's meetup, I knew I had to make one for myself.

The pattern is super easy to follow, and anyone with a basic knowledge of sewing could put this baby together in about an hour or two.

It calls for a heavier home dec weight for the main print of the fabric, but this lightweight cotton print by Michael Miller (Ellie in Amber) was calling my name, so I backed it with a mid-weight interfacing which provided just enough stability to give this bag some shape.

The top panels and straps are made out of a heavy upholstery-weight pillow sham that I got for $1.97 when Linens & Things was going out of business.  Score!  The only bummer is that the sham was shorter than the length the straps called for, so I ended up having to piece them, which kind of annoys me when I look at the photos.  I should have pieced them on the diagonal, but I get a bit lazy regarding things like that.

The best part - nice and roomy - my number one quality in a purse.  Especially when everything you carry around is 95% for your toddler and 5% for you.

The other best part?  Rae has so kindly offered up a free copy of the Showoff Bag pattern to one lucky EmmmyLizzzy reader!  She'll be releasing it later this week and you can be one of the first to get it!  Just leave a comment, any comment, and I'll choose a winner on Friday.

*Comments are now closed!  Thanks for playing everyone.  Winner will be announced soon.*

Last bit of Easter sewing

I never got around to sewing an Easter dress for Phoebe, but it was okay because her Liberty of London dress (which I loooooove) that I got her last year at Target fit her perfectly.  But I had to have something mama-made in her Easter basket, so I whipped up this cute little dachshund necklace from Wee Wonderfuls.  You can see my review of this book and another project I made from it here.

Super simple, cute as a button, and I finished it in one sitting.  Gotta love that.

Speaking of cute as a button.....

Christmas Wrap-up

Oh Christmas.  We have so much fun together, but by the time you actually get here, I am glad to see you leave.  I don't usually stress over holidays, but with moving and dealing with a 1 1/2 year old who has an early case of the terrible two's, I'm ready to get things back to normal around here.

Nonetheless, we had a lovely holiday.

I made a promise to myself that I would take it easy this year and not make any gifts, but as usual, I did not listen to my words of wisdom.  I completely blame Rae and her Lickety Split Bag Pattern.  I even got an email from her that included lots of evil laughter.  Darn you Rae and your awesome patterns!

I wish I had the means to shower everyone in my life with elaborate Christmas presents, but alas, living on the salary of a second year resident and a stay at home mom doesn't allow one to be very flashy.  So this year it was chocolate to the rescue!  More specifically Chocolate-Orange Hazelnut Bark.   I whipped up nine batches of this baby and packaged them all up for gifts. 

Please forgive my massacred orange pic above.  I actually ran out of oranges at the end and had to resort to clementines, which don't skin nearly as well.  Lots of pith scraping....

This is my absolute favorite bark recipe (any other chocolate and orange fans out there?), and I follow Martha's directions pretty closely.  My only changes include mixing in some good, dark chocolate along with the semi-sweet, roasting the hazelnuts beforehand, and generously sprinkling the entire thing with fleur-de-sel.  I love me some sweet and salty. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  Anyone get anything super exciting?

What I'm working on when I should be packing...

Hillary's book is just too darn amazing to be packed away just yet.  We're on a pretty tight budget here, so unfortunately I can't buy every beautiful craft book that comes out.  After one glance, I knew that this one was a keeper.  I seriously plan on making every single project in here.

These two girls were made using the Tag-a-Long Doll pattern, which was super simple and a great introduction to doll making.

Even though they'll be living in different homes, I'm sure they'll get to play together often since one will be staying here with us, and one will be going to Phoebe's best friend EB.  Phoebe and EB are only 10 days apart and have been playing together since they were only 3 months old.  I think all best friends need matching best friend dolls.

The dolls came together pretty quick, but getting these girls to stand up straight and take a simple photo took forever!

Simple dress x 3

 Lotta Jansdotter wasn't kidding when she titled this pattern "Simple Dress".  It is simple in design so it's great for showing off a really fantastic piece of fabric, or would look really lovely done up in some linen with some simple embroidery around the hem and neckline.

It's also incredibly simple to construct, with only one pattern piece in addition to a pocket and some bias trim for the neck and armholes.  After making it three times, it now only takes me about a half an hour to throw together. 

The first dress I made out of a vintage bedsheet.  I don't like to use my "nice" fabric the first time I use a pattern in case I totally screw everything up.  I first have to learn all of the pattern's quirks.  Luckily, this one is very straightforward and easy to understand.

My only complaint is that the pattern only comes in one size, which is pretty close to a 12 month.  It fit Phoebe perfectly this summer, but she grew out of it pretty quick.  I'm not a pro at sizing patterns, but I've learned the ins and outs of adjusting them a little bit here and there.  So with this one, I added a lot of length, and widened the neck and armholes a little bit.

I found this twill print at Joann's, of all places.  They are definitely starting to carry a better selection of modern prints made by their own house designer, which is great; however I really wish that they would up the quality of their fabric.

 

I think one of my favorite details is the wooden button that I found in the button-box that used to be my great-grandma's.

I'm simply amazed when I look at the picture of Phoebe in the first version of this dress taken this summer, and the current one that I just finished today.  She looks so grown up!