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!
Here's another quilt that I finished over the summer. It has long been sent off to it's recipient, but the photos have been sitting here for forever, just waiting to be blogged about.
So this was another commissioned project - a wedding gift - and the only
information that I was given was that a) the couple's apartment is very
modern and mostly white, b) the couple really likes peacocks.
Thankfully, feathers of all sorts seem to be a big trend right now, so it wasn't hard finding a modern peacock print. I went with a couple of prints from Dear Stella's line, Lanikai, then threw in some coordinating solids.
I stayed true to my usual sewing method and didn't plan a darn thing. I made some half square triangles, and haphazardly picked up whatever fabric was lying close to me and sewed some wonky corners onto 6" white squares. Then I threw everything onto the design floor (seriously, I've been quilting for years and STILL haven't made a design wall. Eesh!) and rearranged until I shouted, "Eureeka!"
I backed it in a giant piece of the Dear Stella peacock fabric, and quilted it with random (of course!) straight lines.
Word on the street is that the couple loved it! Congratulations, you two!
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!"
