Kids Clothes Week: Day 5 and 6!

by alwaysacraftylady

Okay so late night I was all set up to make a new school dress for my older daughter Lu. And there I am tucking her into bed and telling her I’m going to start a new dress for her when she starts talking about how she doesn’t like dresses and wants a skirt. Kids. She’s slowly becoming more interested in wearing skirts and that is difficult because I started putting her in dresses because I couldn’t find pants or skirts small enough to stay on her waist. Anyways, now she likes to wear skirts more only I have all these dress patterns ready to sew for her.

Last night I didn’t sew. I knit instead. At least I was knitting for Lu so I think it still counts for Kids Clothes Week. I was able to bind off the sweater and now is only needs ends woven, buttons sewn on, and a good bath.

This is Petal from Brooklyn Tweed in Anzula Nebula. The color way is Petals so I figured the combination was meant to be.

Anyways today I decided that I’m the parent and I know Lu has to wear navy and red to school so I made the dress.

This is from the same pattern as the umbrella skirt Olive + S’s Hopscotch. It is made with some awful poly blend interlock I bought at JoAnn’s. I hate this fabric. I still have half of what I bought left over.

But it will make a serviceable school dress and that’s the point. Now what do I make tomorrow for the last dat of Kids Clothes Week? I’ve made more things for my older daughter, but she was also more in need of clothes. Should I sew the baby some love tomorrow?

24Apr2015

Kids Clothes Week: Day 4!

by alwaysacraftylady

Yeeeeeesssssssss. Look at this corduroy. Isn’t it pretty? I was really really looking forward to cutting into this length of Small World fabric by Rae Hoekstra. I have the Lemon Drop and Small World prints too, but these umbrellas named Signin’ in the Rain really called to me to be sewn first.

Sadly it was also printed a little off gain.

I know little rain cloud. It is sad. But the resulting skirt is anything but sad. I cannot wait to buy buttons for it so I can have DD1 give it a twirl!

I did a search for patterns this morning and ultimately decided on the Hopscotch Skirt from the amazing Liesl at Oliver + S. Her patterns create the most professional garments and this was no exception. It only took any hour and a half to cut it out and sew it all together sans buttons and buttonholes.

I thought this would take two nights to complete so now I get to pick out a new project for tomorrow. Lucky me!!!

23Apr2015

Kids Clothes Week: Day 3!

by alwaysacraftylady

Today’s sewing brought to you by this tool

That’s right, a seam ripper. Adding the piping didn’t go very smoothly. It’s been more than 10 years since I last tackled sewing in piping so I did what lots of people do…I headed to the internet for some tips. I don’t have a piping foot for my machine, so I tried using my zipper foot and then proceeded to swear and yell while ripping it out 3 times. Finally I put my regular foot back on the machine and got the piping to go in nice and smooth. Well, except for sewing the skirt into the waist multiple times in both dresses. It’s that kind of night.

In the end I got both finished except buttons and buttonholes. I couldn’t find any buttons to match in my stash, so I’ll hit up a store this weekend or maybe even one of these evenings if I have a chance.

I think I like them as is with the selvedge edge as the hem. What do you think? I’d love to hear some opinions since I have a few more days to finish these before the deadline!

I tossed these cute fabrics in the wash tonight. Tomorrow I think I’ll start on a skirt for DD1 in either the umbrellas or the lemons.

22Apr2015

Kids Clothes Week: Day 2!

by alwaysacraftylady

Dinner time, bath time, nurse the baby, and do the dishes. A mother’s work never seems to be done, but tonight I carved out my sewing hour again. I made good progress on my girls’ outfits! Bodices are ready to be attached to the skirts. I made could have kept going tonight, but I want to add navy piping between the bodices and skirts. I need to be more rested to tackle piping!

I think they are off to a good start. And it is nice to make clothes with just plain quilting cotton. I’ve been using other types of cotton fabrics lately and quilting cotton is just so much easier to work with.

I’m exceedingly pleased with the the way the backs of the skirts meet.

However the back of the viewfinder bodice was not as orderly. Of well. Tomorrow I tackle piping, hemming, and buttonholes.

21Apr2015

Kids Clothes Week: Day 1!

by alwaysacraftylady

And so it begins. Today is day 1 of Kids Clothes Week and I am joining the challenge to take an hour a day to sew for my kids.

Step 1: Get your dog to get off of the fabric.

I have some good fabrics to pick from, but I only had a couple choices washed and ready to go, so I picked a couple prints from the Cotton + Steel Playful collection. Did you know the jacks fabric has a border? I did not, but now that I do it will be at the hem of DD1’s dress.

Tonight I was able to get DD1’s dress and DD2’s tunic cut out. Tomorrow I’ll start doing the sewing!

15Apr2015

Clothing Sisters

by alwaysacraftylady

So confession time. My favorite part of having two girls…matching outfits. It is soooooo about the matching outfits when your girls are young and the parent is still mostly selecting their clothes. I live for holidays. My husband is not a huge fan of putting our girls in perfectly matching outfits, so we reached a compromise. Coordinating outfits.

For Christmas they had coordinating sparkling dresses I knitted. (This is seriously the best picture I have.)

So as Easter approached I started searching for the best pattern and the best fabric to use. Ultimately I landed on the pattern Geranium Dress by Rae Hoekstra. If you’ve read pretty much any blog that features little girl’s clothing you have seen this pattern before. I’d say for good reason, because is it dead simple to make, classic, and easy to modify.

For the fabric I settled on two prints from Nest by Free Spirit Fabric. The fabric is so lovely. Soft, easy to work with, and washed really really well.

I did the ruffle trim on the sleeves for both, but DD1 has a dress and DD2 has a tunic. She’ll be trying to crawl soon and I know dresses are much less practical for that stage of baby-hood. Both outfits are fully lined. DD2’s tunic was pair with Rae’s pattern Big Butt Baby Pants that I shortened to bloomers. They’re trimmed with some sweet lace I purchased at a rummage sales more than a decade ago.

Sadly I have no photos of both dresses together. DD1 was recovering from a stomach bug and DD2 only has short windows of time when she is willing to be photographed. Oh well. There’s always the next holiday.

Anyways, I really loved making these outfits. I love it a whole lot and seeing these photos is making me even more excited for the start of Kids Clothes Week! I wonder how many things I can crank out in 7 days? I’m hoping at least one school dress for DD1 and one more tunic/bloomer set for DD2.

29Mar2015

Back to Work!

by alwaysacraftylady

As I mentioned in the last post I have headed back to work full time. I cannot believe it has been 4 weeks already! I’ve sewn up 3 dresses and 3 skirts so far with plans for a few more as summer comes closer. I’ve share the first already, but here are a few more things I whipped up.

Double gauze is amazing. I bought a dress quantity of Cotton + Steel Bespoke double gauze because I was intrigued by how much people seems to love wearing this fabric. And while it was a bit difficult to sew due to the easily frayed edges and its ability to stretch along the curves, wearing my finished dress is like wearing pajamas to work. Two thumbs up. I picked this up from Westwood Acres which usually only has pre-cuts, but sometimes has yardage available too. It’s a very nice shop to order from as things ship quickly and the prices are very competitive with other small fabric businesses.

And maybe it isn’t the most flattering dress I’ve ever made, but the Sewaholic Yaletown dress pattern was dead simple to make and the fit of the bodice is easy to fit with the amount of ease built into the pattern. Plus the cross front makes it very easy to breastfeed when I’m home or pump while I’m at work.

It also fit in easily with shoes and sweaters I already owned which is a big plus when you’re having to buy or make an entire new wardrobe. I snapped this picture when I was in the office this last week. Now I’m trying to decide if I have enough time to make a sleeveless spring version in time for Easter next week.

Next up is a simple dirndl skirt I made with a print from Zoe Ingram for Robert Kaufman in the line Carried Away. It was a total impulse purchase from my local quilt shop and I also have some yardage of the feathers. But honestly I don’t like this skirt and I’ve never worn it aside from these pictures. I think I’ll cut it apart to make summer clothes for one of my daughters. Two yards is plenty for a skirt of dress for littles.

Lastly I made a skirt using Sewaholic’s Hollyburn Skirt. And I’d like to say a big thank you to Sewaholic for printing patterns made for women with more of a pear shape. I was able to cut one size and have it fit right out of the envelope!

I ironed this skirt that morning. Probably less than 20 minutes before these photos were taken, but it’s made from linen. Gloriously light and easy to wear but always wrinkled linen. And I have two small children who need lots of help doing everything. It is what it is. I’ve already made two of this pattern, so it’s on the back burner for now, but I’ll pull it back out eventually because it was so great to sew together.

And that is all for now. I’ve continued to sew up a storm so next time I should have at least one quilt to share and more clothing as well.

Thank you for reading along!

16Mar2015

Birthday Quilt

by alwaysacraftylady

Oh hi! I didn’t mean to disappear for 2 weeks. I went back to work on March 2nd full time, and then DD1 had her birthday the very same week and my life went a little crazy. But I’ve been hard at work with many things. I still have some clothing items for me to share, but in the mean time I bring you a quilt made for my pretty little birthday girl on her 3rd birthday.

As you might remember from my Quilt Layout post I’d been struggling with how to fit together all the little triangles I’d cut out. I could never get things to line up in a perfect way. I took it to a vote with some of my crafting friends and they overwhelming voted for a more random placement.

I tried to finish it for her actual birthday so she could take it to school, but I was too busy making 3 dozen cupcakes. So she opened it on her birthday party instead. And then at her party it was the very last gift opened and the immediately threw it aside so she could play with her new tea set and doctor kit and OMG Mulan doll instead.

But that’s okay because the next day when she went to school her snuggly blanket went with her and my heart filled at the thought that her momma’s love was wrapping her up tight while she’s away from me during the day. That kid. She’s a cute one.

This quilt was made with fabric from the Princess Life line by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman. Such cute fabric, but a little hard to pick a pattern that actually showed off so many larger scale prints. I hate needing to decapitate princesses to make the blocks. The backing is some minky leftover from making the Fairies Quilt. Both came from the fabulous Hawthorne Threads. I have to admit I often look there before any other online shops because they have such a large selection and usually have things available by the yard as well.

1Mar2015

Story Time Sampler – February!

by alwaysacraftylady

Okay so in 28 minutes it will be March here in Los Angeles which means the next installment has come out for The Frosted Pumpkin’s Story Time Sampler. March’s book is Sherlock Holmes and I started working on it right away because I am all caught up. YAY!!!

And look who is tagging along, my new needle minder. Isn’t it cute?

Still hoping to get a photo session soon. I’ve finished 2 dresses and 3 skirts I’d love to share, but my poor husband seems to have caught what DD2 had a few days ago.

28Feb2015

Stitches West!

by alwaysacraftylady

Whew! What a week. It was my last week of maternity leave and DD1 was sick and well, I was busy. But Stitches West was great! Look! Knitting! Bless my mother who did the majority of the driving while I knit and tried in vain to get DD2 to relax and nap in the car.

Stitches itself was really great as always even if I was only there for less than 3 hours. The marketplace was filled with fun vendors and I was especially glad to meet the ladies of The Frosted Pumpkin since I’ve picked up cross stitch again. And my friend Erica snagged me one of the exclusive kits The Frosted Pumpkin was selling. So cute with little sheep and socks and such! My sister was thrilled to see Stephen West’s outfit.

There was also Jennie the Potter. I’ve heard a ton about her beautiful work from people who have attended Rhinebeck. I told myself I wouldn’t buy a mug, but I ended up buying a small tumbler to bring out on special occasions (when the kids aren’t around).

Mostly I like to just walk around and see what’s new and hot. Last year Plucky was all the rage and it was clear YOTH was this year’s hot ticket. By the time I got there around lunch on Friday a lot of their stock was already gone! But I hear they are coming to Vogue Knitting Live in April, so maybe there will be more selection there. Also, note to self – track down this gorgeous purple from Jill Draper Makes Stuff.

My girls also had a good time. My mom and sister took DD1 while I shopped. I think the escalator was her favorite part, though her chocolate milk snack was a close second. DD2 had a great time snuggled up against my chest. I swear I couldn’t go more than a few feet before being stopped by someone wanting to take a peek at my red headed girl, but I don’t blame them. Babies in hand knits are irresistible!

In the end here is my haul of goodies.

I’ve been busy sewing almost every night this week, so I hope to have more to share soon. But it will depend on if we get rain this weekend. I hope we do because we need it so badly!