handmade (squirrel) Easter dresses

You may remember that instead of having the girls wear vintage this Easter I mentioned that I wanted to sew them dresses, and I am SO happy that I made the time with a little motivation from KCW - I love how these turned out!

I used a vintage pattern but made some alterations, like changing the zipper up for an open button closure in back, skipping the peter pan collar so they would read a little more modern, and using piping on the bodice instead of bias tape. Since vintage patterns only come in one size I was lucky that I had a size 4 which is right between LM and Lark's sizes. Having sewed vintage patterns before I knew they run a little big (at least on my girls) so I was pretty sure that I could make two size 4 dresses and it would fit them both. Luckily, I was right!      

I would have added length to LM's skirt, but I had just enough of this darling squirrel fabric to eek out both dresses. The purple chambray is from a Target shirt I found at the thrift store in the XXL section. I used almost every inch of that as well, including using the sleeve cuffs as one of the dress belts.

I received the organic cotton squirrel fabric c/o Sew Fine Fabric. Squirrels are totally the new Easter bunny, right? ;) But seriously, this fabric was such nice quality and sewed like a dream! I believe the main difference between your sewing project looking more professional versus homemade (I don't really want to put a negative spin on that word, but you know what I mean, right?) is all in the fabric choice and Jodi is 'obsessively selective' when it comes to stocking her shop with only the best. I have my eye on all of these fantastic prints 1/2/3/4/5 and am thinking about using one in particular for a baby boy quilt. And... I just now realized I have never sewed anything for a boy before, ha. That will be different!

The girl's and I almost can't wait for Easter now that they have these new dresses to wear - bring on the egg hunt!

See all of my KCW projects here.

kcw: gingham tank top with pocket

 

I decided to participate in Kids Clothes Week again. It's such a fun motivator for me to get back in the sewing room and make something! A quarterly challenge like this works well with my personality since I tend to be a binge sewer. Usually when I feel like sewing I'll spend a few days holed up in my craft room whipping up several projects in succession, then I feel like I scratched the itch and don't touch my sewing machine for weeks at a time. Do any of you do the same thing? :)

For my first project I made LM a tank top out of a dress I found at the thrift store. It can be a super cheap way to get fabric if you can find a print you like in good condition for a good price. I still have enough of this fabric left to make another shirt or possibly a skirt.

I just used a tank top she already had to draft up a pattern and then added a colorful pocket. It's a little big on her so I'm sure she'll be able to wear it next summer too.

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This tank fits right in with the black and white theme that was going on the last KCW I participated in, but the project I am working on now veers from that color scheme entirely. Can't wait to share more. Are any of you sewing this Spring? 

You can see my KCW profile and all of my projects here.

heart face hair clip valentines

For Valentine's Day this year I decided to give the girls a gift handmade with love. I found these felt heart shapes that we used a few years back for a Valentine's tic tac toe game and thought they could use a little more personality, so I embroidered some cute quirky faces on them and turned them into hair clips. They loved them! I had so much fun making them a little token of love l that I think a small handmade Valentine gift tradition has been started.

I am thinking about making a little different version of these for the shop, so you might see these and other quirky heart-faced characters again sometime soon. They were just too much fun, I am not done with them yet! :)

diy: geometric heart pillow

Every once in a while LM will come up to me and ask to sew. Most of the time this means I give her an embroidery hoop with a piece of scrap fabric and let her practice going up and down with a needle and thread making her own pattern, but this week she had a specific project in mind - a heart pillow. I was game and so we started to collaborate.

I fully admit that I kind of took over as the idea for a geometric color-blocked heart got me all inspired, but she approved the design with excitement. I quickly got to work drawing out a pattern based off of this one. Then I let her sit on my lap and help guide the fabric through the machine and stuff the pillow insert inside. The smile on her face was definitely worth all of the effort, but we also ended up with a really fun pillow for our living room that never would have been made without her!

We used an old pillow we had on hand for the insert and backing which helped speed things along nicely, so those were the measurements I used for the finished size. I didn't have to worry about adding any sort of closure since the back piece on the old pillow already had a zipper. This is an easy way to give a pillow you are tired of new life!

Below are some pictures of how I pieced the heart together. Using a 1/4" seam allowance you will end up with a heart about 9 1/2" x 10".

I scanned the geometric heart pattern below for your personal use. You can put all of the pieces together using the letter key on the picture above (you will need to cut 2 of a and f). Just click on the scanned images, save them to your computer, and print them out on a full sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper (if a shape is missing an edge that means it is the edge of the paper). Happy heart-making!

another edelweiss

I couldn't go too long without whipping up another Edelweiss dress. Since I made the last one a tad bit more difficult with all of the added piecework sewing a more simple version the second time around felt like it went super fast. You may have noticed a color theme going on this week. I promise I didn't plan on making everything black and white, but what can I say?! I am falling for the trend.

So this is my KCW summer wrap up! I didn't have time to sew a ton and I didn't even sew a single thing for sweet Lark, but it was really fun creating these outfits for LM.

       Stenciled Cat Top                      Jumper to Jumpsuit                     Black + White Edelweiss

refashion: jumper to jumpsuit

   

My husband bought me a cute jumper dress as a surprise when we were dating because he remembered I mentioned I liked it. I wore it a lot during the time we were falling in love, so later when I decided it was a little too short for me to feel comfortable wearing it anymore I didn't want to just give it away. It sat in a pile in my sewing room for almost two years before I finally decided to cut into it and this is what became of that nostalgic gift. I think this sassy pants almost five-year-old wears it better than I did!

This project only took about an hour start to finish. All I had to do was take the sides in and then I laid a pair of her leggings on top of it to use as a template to cut out the inseam. I actually finished this a few weeks ago but have been super busy with a work project this month so I am just getting around to sharing it now. I am pleased to report that LM has been pulling it out of her drawer to wear often.

I am linking up with KCW here.

refashion: stenciled cat top

This was one of those projects where I started with a vague idea, but really had no clue where I was going with it until I was done. It is a refashion of a plain long-sleeved peter pan collared dress I thrifted last year knowing it was the perfect blank canvas to do something fun. The dress was marked a size 3T so I was originally making this with Lark in mind, but when I tried it on her the shoulders were to wide and it fit LM much better as a top.

I chopped the long sleeves off of the original dress and added a black flutter sleeve, then printed the shapes along the bottom using fabric paint and one-half of the arrow stencil from Handmade Charlotte's Family Message Center Stencil Set. I was just going for something graphic but quickly realized - Hello! Cats! - so when I stitched the hem up by hand I gave each little kitty a pair of eyes along the way.

When I showed it to LM I secretly hoped she would exclaim, "You have cat to be kitten me, I want to put it on right meow!" You know, or something close to that. She didn't, but she liked it and I got a "Thanks, mom!" so I am happy.

I will be joining the summer KCW challenge this week. You can find my projects here. Are any of you playing along as well?

kollabora + my waves

I have had this skirt on my 'to-sew' list for a long time, but with our crazy ups and downs these past six or so months it was put on the back burner. Kollabora generously sent me a kit with everything I would need to make it, so when I was feeling pretty down in the dumps recently and just wanted to sew without having to think about anything it was the perfect project - it was all there waiting for me! I love the fabric they chose and the pattern was a real winner too. Their site is filled with inspiration, tutorials, and even the supplies you need to make the project you love, plus, you can upload your own projects to share. Are any of you already members? Let me know and I will follow you!

In other really important news that you definitely need to know about me, I have decided to ban my blow dryer this Spring/Summer. It's been almost a month since hot air has touched these locks and I am not looking back. High-fives to the lazy girl inside of me! I have wavy hair naturally but have never really embraced it, so this will be the longest stretch of time I will have let my hair air-dry. Also, I am growing out my bangs for the first time in years. Big changes are happening around here folks! ;)


p.s. The winner of the Shabby Apple giveaway was announced here. Did you win?


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scallop yoke tutorial (with a bonus!)

Hello! I am bringing home this tutorial I did for Skirt as Top for the Vintage May series... Hope you enjoy (possibly again)!

Hello! Today I am going to show you how to alter a dress pattern to add a sweet vintage-inspired scalloped yoke. First, of course, you will need to choose a pattern - I chose a simple vintage sleeveless jumper for mine.

Find the dress front pattern piece. We are going to use it to make our yoke pattern pieces. Using paper you can trace with (I used freezer paper), trace the outline of the top shoulder to about 2" past the sleeve opening, then draw a straight line across the bottom. Trace all of the seam allowances and add other important information such as the center fold as well.

 Cut out your new yoke pattern piece and it should look similar to this:

Next, we are going to make a yoke facing pattern piece. Lay your tracing paper on top of the yoke pattern piece you just made, and trace around the bottom going 4" up the sides. Draw a straight line across the top. Remember to transfer over any important information on this piece as well.

Now you should have yoke and yoke facing pattern pieces that look similar to this:

Now, we will add the scallops to the yoke facing piece. Starting on the side with the center fold, measure 1 1/2" up from the bottom and draw a large dot. Then measure 3" over and add another dot, and again a dot 3" over one more time (these measurements may be adjusted depending on how many/what size you want your scallops to be, these measurements worked perfectly for a size 4 pattern).

Next, draw the scallops connecting them at the top with the dots and making sure to leave yourself a seam allowance at the bottom (in other words, do not go all the way down to the bottom edge of the pattern). Now the yoke facing piece is complete.

The last pattern piece we need to make is the bottom part of the dress front piece, or the skirt. To do this place the yoke facing piece on top of the original dress front pattern piece. Using the tracing paper trace around the top of the yoke facing piece, then trace around the rest of the pattern down to the hemline without making any additional changes. Essentially, you just want to chop off the top. 

Congratulations, you now have three separate pattern pieces where you originally had one! A yoke piece, a yoke facing piece, and a (decapitated) dress front piece.

Cut out your fabric pieces now. On the yoke facing piece you may want to add thread markers on the large dots as I did in red thread, but this is optional. Open it up, and using your choice of fabric marker draw the scallops on the WRONG side of the fabric all the way across.

Then pin the yoke facing piece to the yoke piece RIGHT sides together.

Sew along the scallop markings.

Trim the seam and clip curves.

Then turn the yoke facing right-side out. A little trick to get smooth curves is to poke a crochet hook or something similar in the scallops and push out along the edges. Iron flat.

Next, open up the yoke piece and pin the yoke facing to the dress front piece RIGHT sides together.

Sew along the top edge.

And, you're done! Okay, maybe not entirely done, but your new dress front piece with a darling scalloped yoke is done. Continue to sew your dress per your patterns instructions.

And, here is my finished dress! I embellished mine with fabric buttons on the scallops as well as two pleated pockets.

And, I think she likes it!

BONUS!!! Use these same instructions to make a jagged yoke dress!

Using the same measurements (1.5" up, 3" over), simply draw a jagged line on the yoke facing piece instead of scallops:

Have fun!