Prudent Baby Dress

Prudent Baby is one of the most inspiring craft blogs I read. Spending a few minutes there usually sends me up to my sewing studio full of ambition. Jaime's "One Shoulder Dressy Dress" caught my eye all the way back in July of last year and it has taken me this long to come around to it. But I finally cut into that beautiful Laura Gunn dogwood fabric I've been hoarding...I'm so happy I did!

I know I took the process pledge, but I've been hard at work this week doing a lot of finishes. So, I have just gone with the flow, neglecting to photograph along the way. This dress was slightly tricky because the tute wasn't super precise - there was a lot of eyeballing measurements (especially since I had to size it up a bit from her original 2Tin the tutorial). My favorite technique here was using bias tape to line the arm-holes; I'd never seen that before and I think it adds a really professional finish.

Want to make your own version? Check out the tutorial here. I love the generosity of the online crafting community!

Christmas Tree Skirt

I've been working on this Christmas tree skirt since yesterday. My daughter and I were both stuck indoors for the last two days because of a nasty cold, and this was a great way to keep my mind off my sore throat. I got the idea from the lovely lady at Tall Grass Prarie Studio (find the tutorial in the right-hand margin of her page). I don't have a Christmas tree skirt in my Christmas décor, but I do have some leftover holiday fabric from the stockings I made last year. I also wanted to try my hand at some new techniques, specifically the "wonky star" and these cool trees. I have a bigger quilt project in mind with a tree theme, and now I think I have the confidence to go for it.

This skirt is still a work-in-progress, but I was so excited by how it is turning out that I thought I would share. It's been a while since I have enjoyed every moment at the sewing machine, and this project totally put me there.

Sewing Clothes Kids Love - Dortje Pants

A few months ago I bought a funky little sewing book called Sewing Clothes Kids Love. This is the second garment I've made from the book and I am loving the patterns. The whole theory behind the book is sewing something for your child that they will just go gaga over - the examples in the book are a bit gaudy and over-the-top - but they are absolutely fun for kids to wear. 

Still long and loose - but these were a US size 4 equivalent!

These pants are pieced together, which made doing my first pair take a few hours, if you can believe that. I was just very mindful of potential errors that often come out when you're sewing from a new book - and me and my seam ripper are not on good terms at the moment. Thankfully, I only had to take out a few seams (practically nothing compared to my norm), but the process still took me a long time because I felt I had to read and re-read the instructions (spartan as they are, so I do recommend this book for intermediate or advanced sewists).

The fabric I used was all knit, because I wanted something I wouldn't have to iron and that she would likely be able to use around the house most of the winter. It's an easy wearing poly-cotton blend that I am very happy with.

The pattern is called "Dortje" - it's a German variant of Dorthea (I believe it's pronounced like Dor-t-ya, if you're curious). A useful tip: sew a size up and alter the waist for your child if you are sewing these with different knee fabric, this is especially important is your child has long legs like my little fairy above.

Interesting techniques you take from this pattern are:

• sewing pieced pant legs
• curved seams
• gathering knits (if you use them on the bottom ruffle)

I really like this book and I recommend it to anyone who sews for youngsters. The book includes patterns for girls and boys (though a bit lighter on boy patterns) and size up to age 12!

Lunch Boxes

 I felt really silly on my daughter's second day of playschool/playgroup. I forgot to buy her a little lunch box to take with her, so I had to send her in with one of my old purses with her lunch inside. She thought it was super cool to have one of mama's purses, but when I saw it lined up with all the other cute lunch boxes, I felt embarrassed! Clearly my issue, not hers. But I decided anyway that a lunch box was what she needed, so I did a search on the net for ideas of making your own lunch box/bag and this is what I came up with. There were various tutorials that weren't actually very good, so I just decided to put something together by eye, with some oilcloth I had already had on hand from previous projects.

                                          

Some of the projects I liked from other bloggers were cute, here for example, but they left the edges of the bags raw and I wanted something more durable and tidy. There were lots of little things I would change if I were to do it again, but I think the general idea came out just right.

Scrap quilt sneak peak

Since I began sewing, I have kept just about every tiny cast-off that is left over from any given project. I hate to throw things away so I have been organizing them into little bags over the last year and a half. I was absolutely inspired by this post, so I finally whipped out those scrap bags and set to work on my own interpretation. The original pattern is meant to be funky, but I wanted to go a step further and be totally irreverent about it - more overlapping lines and wild color.

All of my scraps came from projects that I made for friends and a few that I sold on etsy. This is my way to keep a little bit of all that hard work for myself. I just finished the quilt top and haven't assembled all of the layers yet, so when I do I will definitely be posting the pics!

Oh the aprons!

new to the shop, tulips!

and only a small part of my wholesale order - unfortunately I'm out of most pictured prints now

Getting creative again

I have been swamped with work on a large wholesale order, family visits, and travel so I have had little spare time to make room for creative sewing for my daughter. After all this stuff ended recently, I finally pulled out some interesting striped jersey fabric and was inspired to sew a circle skirt with it. I found some fabulous online tutorials (links in my twitter stream) and got to work.

My girl has a thing for little yellow chicks, so I freehanded a little tweety bird that turned out very partridge family. I love it. This skirt took me less than an hour to put together. The waist is elastic so she should get quite a bit of wear out of it - at least through next summer.

Complete Satisfaction!

Oh so pretty, even if I do say so myself.

As always, my girl is involved in the process.

I really love the end result of this type of quilting.

The baby boy getting this quilt will have it on his bed in his college dorm room. I can see it all now.

Finished size, a generous 47" X 60" (approx).

Boy's Quilt: Almost finished!

I am working on my first quilt commission. I have made about half a dozen quilts for myself, family, and friends, but have never done it for money. That is about to change. I think that each time I endeavor to get a quilt done, I am surprised by the amount of work and hours it takes to get it finished - like childbirth you forget the pain when the end result is so beautiful (and of course, it's not pain all the way through)! Yesterday, I finally finished the quilting part. I also treated myself to a new ironing board before getting started on the binding (isn't it just lovely? Simple pleasures, I tell ya.)

The person I'm making the quilt for only requested a certain color palette, but the rest was up to me. Let me say that making a quilt without a specific desire laid out for you is like cooking a meal for someone whose tastes you are totally unsure of. She seemed to like simpler square forms so once I decided on the fabric I thought the best way to show it off would be a modified "around-the-world" pattern, which is similar to the quilt I made for my daughter earlier this year. It really shows off color and fabric in a way that doesn't get dated over time, and I think it is especially nice for a boy. I will post the finished photos soon!

For a little boy...

I was in an amazing Swedish department store that had tons and tons of fabric I loved. When I saw this striped fabric (along with a few others I have yet to touch) I immediately envisioned this little boy's overall set.

Months ago, I bought a packet of patterns from a thrift store for mere pennies and I have been working through the packet, redoing and redesigning some of the almost frumpy-style kids clothes. Amending patterns can be daunting at first, but as long as you cut conservatively to start with you can always adjust sizing later.

I've been primarily sewing for little girls but with this creation I'm absolutely sold on boys clothes. Actually, the overalls could be worn by a little girl as they're not especially boyish.

You won't see these in my shop - I'm just too in love with them to part ways. If I ever have a little boy they will be his! Unless one of my friends is very lucky :).