Rain Dance Jumper

by alwaysacraftylady

I had so many good intentions to get decent photos of this dress before Charlie really started wearing it and potentially staining it. But getting a busy 11 month old to stand or sit still is not happening.

First I tried our yard, but she looks like she is in baby jail.

Then we went to Target and the little monkey spent the entire shopping trip trying to stand up and climb out of the cart. See that look on her face? Trouble. Oh yes we have trouble right here in River City, or uh Pasadena.

Anyways, I thought I’d have one more chance to get in some good photos before she wore this dress to day care and it ended up covered in formula and dirt and who knows what else. We went apple picking this weekend and I fully admit I had a mental picture that we would suddenly be transported to New England. But of course the orchard was in Southern California and it was a bright and sunny day. The light was much too harsh for photos. Plus the ground was mostly dirt, gravel, and burs. Nothing you’d want your baby to crawl on with no covering for her knees.

In the end I gave up trying to get the perfect photo of our baby in her dress and sure enough I got a few cute photos…when we stopped by a brewery on our way home. Figures.

Look at those sisters in their matching outfits. Warms this momma’s heart to see her girls in coordinating homemade outfits. A lady stopped me at Target to compliment me and it was such a great moment when she asked if I’d made their outfits. Probably something she doesn’t see a lot, but used to be such a standard part of childhood. I love being about to make them such nice things to wear.

I’m calling this Charlie’s rain dance jumper because I keep hoping if I make her more corduroy dresses we’ll get the El Nino rain that’s been promised. At least my girls are ready for it if you considering wearing umbrellas to count as preparedness!

The dress is sewn with Small World Fabric from Rae Hoekstra. I bought a couple yards of 3 different prints specifically to make clothes for this winter. Making a toddler skirt and an infant dress has exhausted this print. Lu doesn’t really need more clothes since she wears uniforms 4 days a week, but Charlie’s supply dwindled once I cleared out all the 6 month sized clothes. So I’m sure most of the other 2 remaining prints will be used for baby clothes first.

The pattern is Geranium Dress which is easily my go-to pattern for kid dresses. Simple, quick to sew, lots of options to customize it. You’ll be seeing many more of these in the near future.

In other sewing news, not a ton is happening right now. I’m knitting away on a sweater for my husband and that take the majority of my crafting time. If you follow me on Instagram you’ve probably seen a lot of boring grey knitting posts like this one. A sleeve!

When I’m not knitting I’m working on Halloween costumes and my first (I think ever) plaid dress. Hope to have something else to share with you soon! So many plans, so little time.

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.)

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.