Happy Home Quilt

by alwaysacraftylady

Last week my little family traveled to Colorado to spend a week with my sister in law and I was able to unveil their house warming gift! They bought and moved into their first house last spring and I’ve been plotting a home warming gift for a couple of months. But what fabric to use? Something geeky? Something traditional?

Well, after finishing my husband’s quilt, we looked at the other half of the collection and my husband requested I use it for his sister. Sold!

So the front of the quilt features the magenta/orange colorway of the Franklin by Denyse Schmidt collection. Gah! I love this collection. So classic. So pretty. But what pattern to use? We scoured my favorite sites and decided on Suburbs from Cluck Cluck Sew. I mean, it seems like a natural fit for a house warming gift, no?

However those houses did present a conundrum. I do all quilting on my little home machine. It’s a good machine, but not one I’d use to do a heavy overall quilt pattern. And I had this idea of quilting around each house, but then there are all these blank squares that need…something. Just deciding on how to fill those spaces took a couple of weeks. I was stumped.

Eventually I decided to do a combination of machine quilting and hand tying the quilt. I had grand visions of hand quilting trees, and their monogram, and clouds, and a bunch of other stuff. But in the end the simplicity seemed to fit the quilt and my sister in law’s family much better.

But the back of the quilt. It’s my favorite part.

The backing fabric is from Natural History by Lizzy House. I love the way the homes look like they are in the middle of a night sky. A big night sky like you might encounter someplace like Colorado in the summer.

Of course the week of our visit was rainy and stormy, so no star viewing for us, but that’s okay. This California girl was happy for the rain. Too bad I couldn’t bring it home with me.

And my sister in law? She loves the quilt!

2Jul2015

Not Quite Utopian Dress

by alwaysacraftylady

This dress started off so well. I picked some bright and beautiful fabric from the Utopia collection from Art Gallery Fabrics. So cheerful! So summery! Perfect for a dress to wear to the office.

I dutifully picked a pattern. Something breastfeeding friendly and nice for work. Something to highlight my smallest point and gloss over my still pudgy midsection.

Then I cut out the pattern…and made the first mistake. I didn’t layout all the pattern pieces before cutting. I never do. But this time I misread the layout on the directions and had cut the pieces with the fold on the wrong edge. Which means when I went to cut the very last piece, the front skirt panel…there was no fold to cut it on. But I soldiered on and cut the skirt to have a seam down the middle. Not ideal, but also not the end of the world.

And then I sewed the dress together.

This was how it fit the first time around. Notice the gaping in the bust and the huge amount of ease in the underarm!

Okay, at this point I should back up and explain. You see when I picked a pattern the only size range in stock was the plus size version Simplicity 1653. It’s one of their Amazing Fit patterns with options for make a pattern to fit multiple bust sizes and body shapes. I had researched to see what other people had done with the pattern and seen over all positive results. I had also studied the pattern to see what size I should cut and landed on the 20W curvy fit. In theory the pattern should have come out pretty close to perfect, but as you can see the reality was different.

In order to make it wearable I took it in 4 inches overall from underarm to waist. And I took it up 2 inches in the shoulder. That made it a lot more wearable even though it also make the bust darts a little too high. Whew!

Then I started hemming the skirt and…cut a hole in the fabric. Seriously. This is the dress that just didn’t want to be. But I was stubborn. I love this fabric. I was going to make it work.

And I did.

I even fixed the whole in the fabric pretty nicely. But when I wore the dress to work I got so annoyed with the tie. Its bulky and every time I moved or had a pumping session I would have to wrestle the dress back into shape. It was annoying.

So I took it back to the machine and took off the tie closure and sewed the wrap into the side seam.

It made the dress a tad bit tight. I didn’t have any extra fabric to extend the front panel a little bit, but at least now I want to wear the dress. Before it would have just sat around unloved. Ease of wearing is just such a deal breaker right now. Plus I wear cardigans all the time, so the pulling isn’t so noticeable at work.

In the end this is not a pattern I’ll be attempting again. There were just too many issues. But at least I got one mostly wearble dress from all the time I put into it. And with weaning only 3 or 4 months away I can start dreaming of sewing clothes without boob access as the #1 consideration!

29Jun2015

Nothing but Skirts!

by alwaysacraftylady

It’s been a little quiet around here. Sorry! I’ve been working on a couple gifts that I can’t post about until they are given. Those have been in the big projects. But I’ve been busy with a few little projects too. Mostly making clothes for Lu to wear this summer. Her school usually requires navy and red uniforms, but summer they have free dress. Yay!

The only problem is that Lu has decided she only likes to wear skirts and with her little 19 inch waist almost all commercially made skirts fall right off of her. And yes, I could have just altered the waists on purchased skirts, but making them is more fun and super easy.

For instance this little elastic waisted skirt featuring Ann Kelle’s Super Kids fabric.

Such a simple skirt to make. I just cut a big rectangle, added a casing for the elastic, and hemmed it. A project that takes less than an hour from start to finish but makes the most of a larger scale print.

There is also this little skirt made with Heather Ross Briar Rose Fabric.

This is fabric Lu picked out when we went to The Intrepid Thread last February. To make this one I traced her favorite Hanna Anderson skirt for the shape and length. Then I added a ruffle to the bottom and an elastic waist band. I was cursing myself for adding the ruffle because it sucked up a lot of time, but the end result is so cute that I’m glad I stuck with adding the fun detail.

Then there is the skirt Lu and I designed together using Cotton + Steel’s Palm Springs lawn.

This was a fun skirt to put together. I had a piece just 26 inches long and spent a couple of months trying to decide how to use the fun pink border that runs along one selvage of the fabric. It wasn’t quite long enough to be on the hem of a dress or skirt. So one night Lu and I studied the fabric and we decided to put the flower on a pocket. Yes! a pink pocket. Lu was pleased. And I had just enough length left to make a pink waistband too. This one is fun because it is also fully lined with the blue flowers.

And the last to share today is not actually a skirt, but a skort!

Skorts are the best. Looks like a skirt, but with shorts built in for modesty while playing. The fabric came from a Girl Charlee KnitFix. I decided to try it out one month and was disappointed in the prints and quality overall. But someone traded with me so I could have this daisy print which worked perfectly for this project.

Originally I’d thought to make a dress with it, but then I took a trip to JoAnn’s and found McCall’s patterns on sale 5 for $7. So I took a look through their catalog and found that their children’s patterns start at size 3. Perfect! M6918 is such a versitile pattern. 4 different skirt shapes and the option for shorts or capris underneath. I will get a lot of use out of this pattern. All I had to modify was the length of elastic in the waist!

Whew! So that makes 4 skirts for this summer, but that won’t be enough! More to come once I have them put together. But probably not for a couple of weeks as my machine is due for a little maintenance. In the meantime I’ll be knitting and update you on a couple of other projects I’ve been working on.

13Jun2015

Mermaid Baby

by alwaysacraftylady

A few weeks ago a friend of mine came over for Jessica’s Sewing Boot Camp. Truth is she did not need my help. She only lacked the confidence she needed to start whipping out endless outfits. (And she’s made a ton of stuff in the last 3 weeks!) But the high light of my day was making this romper.

Oh my word. Was this really 3 weeks ago? Indeed it was. Baby is very nearly crawling now.

The pattern is the Hummingbird Romper from Rabbit Rabbit Creation. Tiny baby is tiny and even at 7 months old she is swimming in the 6 month size. But it should also fit her well in the heat that will be descending on Southern California any day now.

The pattern was a snap to put together. The hardest part was trying to attach the pants along the narrow strip at the back below the elastic. That is probably easier on the larger sizes, but a tiny bit tricky on the smaller sizes.

The fabric is from the ridiculously cute Saltwater from Riley Blake Designs. These are my two favorite prints from the collection and I bought just enough to make a little something for the Charlie. I should have bought more.

As for the romper pattern, I see more of those in her future. I have 1 yard each of the Hilltop line from Dear Stella and I think a romper would be a fun use of a couple of those fabrics.

25May2015

Division Quilt aka Man Quilt

by alwaysacraftylady

Back when I was working on my Buzz Quilt my husband mentioned how much he would like a quilt. Truth is I’d been looking for manly quilt fabric for a few months already! Quilting is a majority female craft and it is no surprise there are tons of feminine and juvenile fabrics available for sale. But trying to find modern quilt fabrics appropriate for a man, that is kind of tough. And while my husband is a big fan of Liverpool Football Club he is not the type of man to want a fan fabric quilt. Likewise he is a camera operator/director of photography, but does he really want a camera quilt? Not really.

Enter Franklin by Denyse Schmidt

Photo from Denyse Schmidt’s site.

Franklin is inspired by the magic of possibility and discovery found in the small-town libraries of Denyse’s native New England. Combining the comfort of the familiar with excitement of new ideas and places, Franklin transports and trancends with the timelessness of our best-loved classics. Nostalgic calicos, stripes, and geometrics are reminiscent of beautiful end papers – and elegant, wise librarians. Franklin’s library is the oldest (1790) public library in the US and houses a collection of books donated by the town’s namesake, Benjamin Franklin.

Denyse’s mom (who taught her to sew) visited her local library every week, without fail, creating a lasting and deep influence on her daughter!

The line reminded me of the pocket squares my husband wears when is dresses up for special occasions and felt like the perfect fabric line for his quilt.

And designing a quilt with him turned out to be really fun. A collaborative effort. I gave him a choice of 14 different designs and we both liked Division Quilt from A Bright Corner the best. We also agreed grey sashing would be far more practical and more his style. I made all the blocks and they he picked the layout. He picked the batting (wool). And he picked the backing fabric and design too (Moda’s More Hearty Good Wishes Ripple Ocean).

I think this is my new favorite quilt. All the design choices played together perfectly.

The quilting is very a very simple diamond pattern. So glad I picked a batting that could be quilted up to 8 inches apart.

And the backing is so simple and classic.

Such nice little waves that read as a semi solid from afar, but little waves up close.

Both husband and dog agree this quilt is a winner.

23May2015

An Instant Favorite

by alwaysacraftylady

I’ll admit it. When I bought this fabric I bought it because I loved it. I had no idea Lu would latch onto it so firmly. I also had no idea she’d suddenly start asking to wear a skirt every day.

But this is easily the item of clothing she requests most often. Easily.

It’s a tad on the large side. Lu is hard to fit in that she is average height, but quite slim, so I made a size 2T with 3T length and cut the elastic to be 2 inches smaller than the pattern recommended. It’s still too big.

But that doesn’t stop Lu from picking it first every single time I do laundry. Sadly she wears uniforms Monday-Thursday, but come free dress Friday… only umbrellas will do.

I am preschooler and I will wear what I want!

(I also wanted to say that I still cannot tell if the fabric is printed ever so slightly off grain or if I am just exhausted.)

20May2015

Almost an Easter Sweater

by alwaysacraftylady

Well, this was almost an Easter sweater if you think finishing something almost 3 weeks after the holiday counts. Ha!

It would have looked so cute with her Easter dress, but instead Lu will have to settle for wearing her new sparkly pink sweater over her new school dress. I think she’ll survive.

I used Brooklyn Tweed’s pattern Petal. The first minute I saw the pattern it was begging to be knit. So feminine and delicate a pattern. Something my girly girl would love. Then on a wet and soggy day I went shopping at The Yarnover Truck and spotted Anzula Nebula in Petals. Kismet? Yes, I think so.

Unfortunately Petal is kind of a pain to knit. So much patterning. Patterning on every single row. Twisted stitches. Lace. Small gauge. Almost everything I dislike in knitting, but yet the finished sweater is nothing short of perfection. Totally worth the nearly two months worth of knitting.

Her new dress is pretty cute too! I know you cannot see most of it in these pictures because Lu was too excited about her sweater to remove it, but trust me when I say it looks and fits nicely. There are (poor quality) pictures of the dress in this post.

For the dress I used Oliver + S’s pattern Hopscotch (same pattern as the skirt I posted recently). It is fantastic. Really I have yet to find anything bad about Oliver + S patterns in general. They are nothing but professional quality with clear directions.

Fabric is nothing fancy. I only recently started sewing with knits, so this is some inexpensive cotton/poly blend interlock I bought at JoAnn’s. I bought 3 yards and even after making a skort, a dress, and a skirt there is still more than a yard left!

Anyways, looking back I know realize I haven’t shared modeled photos of most of my Kids Clothes Week projects! Sorry about that! We’ve had a wee bit of drama at preschool and it has been a major distraction in my life, but hopefully I’ll have more brain space for writing very soon. I’ve been sewing up a storm as an outlet for the stress.

11May2015

Woodland Baby Quilt

by alwaysacraftylady

Now that I’ve shown you my sister’s quilt I can also show you another gift quilt. A quilt for a wee baby girl.

This quilt at first suffered from indecision. You see I bought the fabric, Acorn Trail from Birch Fabrics, on a whim. One of those fabrics I just couldn’t ever forget, so I just went ahead and bought the collection. So when I decided to make a quilt for my sister at first I thought this would fit the bill. But something didn’t seem right.

As I worked on the quilt using this tutorial, I realized it was perfectly sized for a baby. Perhaps a baby who has a woodland themed nursery? Yes! Yes, that is a good idea and I knew of such a person. A knitter friend who is due to have a baby this summer.

Suddenly everything clicked into place! Diamond shaped quilting to match the piecing on the front. Scraps to help fill in the white with gold dot backing. It all works perfectly.

And in the end I love this quilt so very much. It has gone to its forever home now and I have it on go authority that this quilt will be loved. As it should be.

30Apr2015

Buzzzzzzzz Quilt!

by alwaysacraftylady

The eagle has landed! The eagle has landed! The quilt I made for my sister was delivered today and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out and how it was received

The fabric is the Sweet as Honey collection by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics I found at Westwood Acres and the grey background is Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman. Gosh it was hard to find a coordinating fabric that would show off the bee fabric. This grey was a good find at my local LQS.

I knew I wasted a honeycomb look, but as a new quilter I wasn’t sure I could handle a hexagon quilt, so I followed this tutorial from Amanda of Westwood Acres. It was a lot of cutting, but also very fun to put together Everything didn’t quite line up, but I think you can’t tell much.

But the back, the back is my favorite part. Its a hexagon!!!!!

I probably would have picked a less busy background, but my sister owns two fluffy silly dogs that shed like crazy. I see the flowers as camouflage. And I followed this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew to make the backing the binding as well. So so simple and perfect for when you don’t want a binding made from a different fabric. Mine was 2 inches wide instead of 1 inch, so it makes an extra wide border on the front.

For the quilting, I like simple designs, so I followed the zigzags of the grey down the front.

This was just such a fun surprise. I can’t wait to do it again!

27Apr2015

Kids Clothes Week: Day 7!

by alwaysacraftylady

Ta-da! Last day! Here on the West Coast I suppose I still have 90 minutes, but I’m calling it done. Today I managed to fit in one last project. Another Geranium Dress for my younger daughter Charlie.

My friend Erica gave me a completely random package of fabric. It turned out to be maybe several eighth yards of the Moda Grunge collection as far as I can tell from what I could read from the selvedges. And I had lots of small pieces of fabric left over from the dress I made from Cotton + Steel double gauze. The little slip of Moda fabric was exactly as much as I needed to cut out the bodice of the dress.

It was also the perfect color match. I even had buttons to finish it off and a husband who took Charlie to run errands while Lu took a nap. I almost had it totally finished by the time he returned.