E is for Eliza & Eggs

 

       

D is for Dazzling Diamonds & Dancing Dress

 

       

H is for Hedgehog

Lu is an avid admirer of the hedgehog. She often asks Siri to find very cute hedgehog pictures on my phone. She plays with her hedgehog family. She sleeps with Hedgie, her beloved stuffed hedgehog.  She has been waiting ever so patiently for H week at preschool so she could bring Hedgie for show and tell.  This week is H week!!! I bring you Happy and Hedgehog. 

The patterns are all from Ottobre Winter 2012.  All materials were stashed in my sewing room which makes me wonder why I haven’t made this outfit earlier.  The blouse is Sinikello, design 21 in size 92 cm.  It is made from a swiss voile I purchased from Farmhouse Fabrics for nearly nothing in one of their voile bundles.  I have sewn with these a couple of times now and they are exquisite but quite sheer.  To compensate for that I did french seams or binding on all my interior seams and made a camisole to go underneath.   The camisole is Lumikello, design 22 in size 92cm.  It is made from cotton batiste from Farmhouse Fabrics and an unknown embroidered batiste I had in my shelves.  It is so sweet and really deserves a picture all by itself but I didn’t get one.  I anticipate that it will be worn a lot because it is so versatile.  You can see the front yoke with the pintucks and the bit of lace poking out from the bottom.  The hedgehog was needle turn appliquéd with corduroy and cotton and then hand embroidered.  The skirt is Jaakukka, design 23, size 92cm.  I omitted the suspenders and made the waistband smaller to fit better.  This cotton came from Yellow Bird Fabric, a local shop.  Jaakukka is a darling design and isn’t properly shown in these pictures.  This bubble skirt has curved panels trimmed with narrow gathered frills. The invisible zipper is concealed behind one of these frills so even as it shifts on little moving bodies, as skirts often do, it seems to be on right.     

PS I won’t even begin to explain how many posts are due.  Suffice it to say that I am better at sewing than blogging.

Happy Fourth of July

Fabric: Light Cotton/Linen Blend (Joann’s), Red Cotton Lace (Yellow Bird Fabric) worked over organza (Yellow Bird Fabric), Cotton print (Yellow Bird Fabric)

Pattern: Adapted from Simplicity 9968 which I used previously to make jammies for Bird when she was 2.

Size: Lu size 3

2013 shall hereby be known as the year of the scallop.  Since dabbling in Madeira appliqué I’ve had a hard time stopping because why put a strait hem on a little girl’s dress when you could put an appliquéd scallop?!  I’ve played with several applications of the appliqué.  For their Easter dresses I pin stitched; Liza’s birthday dress (which hasn’t been featured yet) I used piping/stitched in the ditch.  I have plans for a beaded appliqué and a standard hand appliqué stitch.  For this little dress, I used a playful running stitch in red anchor pearl.  It may be my favorite part of the dress in a fierce competition with the darling puffy pockets, the sheer lace back panel, and the lined flutter sleeves.   

Size: roughly an 8 for Bird

Pattern:  Ottobre 3/2012 #13 Hollywood Cerise

Bird has been bugging me to sew with her all summer, all year truthfully.  I love the idea of her finding her own little creative outlet and sewing with me, but in reality it is hard to find a pattern that I’m interested in that is suitable to teach with and also muster the patience to allow Bird to sew seams twice—ever so carefully (and slowly), have somebody else in my sewing space, push aside other projects, and find something for my other kids to do.  In an effort to make myself feel a little better I put her in sewing lessons.  They don’t start until August. 

In the meantime, with a resolved hopeful perspective I invited her to help me make something patriotic.  She helped me plan, cut out, and sew.  She sewed nearly every seam while I did quality control, zipper, hem, and embellishments.  She really wanted a dress even though I originally thought I’d do fourth of July shirts/skirts and only had enough of the printed fabric for that plan.  She even agonized over the color of the belt but I’m so glad I let her do what she wanted because she loves it and I love it and most importantly, we actually had a good time sewing together!

     

Simplicity 1697

Another peplum.  Ryan asked me what those things were on the sides of my skirt when I put it on for today.  I told him they were called peplums.  He said they looked like I installed the pockets upside down.  Despite the initial review from my darling, I like my skirt.  The pattern is Simplicity 1697.  The fabric is a cotton in loose (lot of bias shift) basket weave.  I purchased it at Yellow Bird Fabric.  It takes 1 1/8 yard (though I could have squeaked by with 1 yard I think) of 60” wide.  I serged each piece to sparkly poly satin left over from a Halloween costume because they weave left holes big enough to need a lining and I wanted to stabilize the pieces some.  I made a size 12 due to my measurements.  It couldn’t be any smaller.  I think it is a little under a true 12 because of serging the pieces before construction and also the bulk of the fabric.  The pattern is easy to follow and cut well for me.  The only change I made was to add a small kick pleat in the back because I don’t like slits.  Excuse the wrinkled pictures—two hours of sitting through church did nothing for the skirt. 

    

Simplicity 1699

Great pattern.  I meant to cut out the sleeve from view A but forgot and cut out view B so this is a real capped sleeve—like inspire you to get to the gym and lift some weight capped.  I’d love to make this again with the view A sleeve. Its cute though and goes together like a dream.  I added an inch above the waist and an inch the the peplum.  I wish I would have kept the original length on the peplum but not enough to re-hem and am happy with the above waist addition.  I made a size 10 and it fits well.  The back has an invisible zipper that I can just barely zip up without help.  The fabric is a cotton poplin I picked up from Farmhouse Fabrics.  I used 1.25 yards.  Total cost including zipper was around $20.00 except now I want some white capri length pants to go with it.  I don’t know how many peplums a closet can support but I want to make this pattern again.     

The GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY

Good.

 

Bad. Penciled in the motif every scallop.  Much more embroidery to go.  

The UGLY.  I have two daughters!?! Actually it’s hard to call all these little pieces ugly.  Let’s go with VERY VERY BAD given our countdown to Easter.

Break over.  Sewing must resume.

Front Inset

Lu’s inset it smocked, to be blocked and set.  Onto the second.

Scallops

In the time it takes a person to make a whole dress I was able to accomplish the hem of—wait for it—of an apron.  Good grief these dresses.  There is a serious discrepancy with the amount of time left before Easter and the amount of sewing, smocking, applique, and embroidery I have left. 

Night-Knit-Sew

I used a traslation from a French pattern that was not very helpful but by miracle the dress turned out.  I made it as a stashbusting play dress but it turned out more sweet than I anticipated.  I’m excited to make some more.  I think I can adapt this one to be a very versatile pattern.  It is sized for Lu.  

The yarn is Rowan Calmer. It was left over from my Fifi project years ago.  The Fifi shows the color more accurately.  I need to grab a better photo of the dress.  More specifics can be found at my Ravelry page.

Night-Knit

I enjoyed knitting the infinity scarf for my friend so much I looked through my stash.  In the years I’ve taken off knitting my style has changed some and the stash items don’t make as much sense as they did when I originally bought them.  This is Malabrigo Worsted, Applewood.  I only had one skein, intending at the time of purchase to make a cozy little sweater for my new baby… who turns three soon.  I jumped on Ravelry and paired this pattern with the lonely skein.  Ravelry has grown since I dropped knitting and it is amazing the volumes of information available.  The pattern is A Noble Cowl by Emily Kausalik.  No revisions.  It is perfect for the cold winter we’re having. 

 

McCalls 6654

This is a fall back pattern for knit skirts.  I love it because it takes literally 20 minutes to make one of these elastic waisted skirts and they are so comfy.  As I was cutting out this one my daughter came downstairs and said, “Whoa Mom.  That material is making me dizzy!”  In a lot of yardage it was overwhelming and vertigo inducing.  I love it as a pencil skirt though.  I’ll probably wear it more in the spring when it is a little warmer and I can wear it with ballet flats.  

Simplicity 1693

Pattern Description: 
Pullover top with bias neck finish and back button with loop closure.  Elastic waist.  The pattern is Simplicity 1693 View A

Pattern Sizing: 4-6-8-10-12  I made a size 10 which is my typical size in Simplicity

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?  Yes.
 
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?  I like this pattern a lot.  I think the shape of the sleeves and body is great.  Enough ease to be an easy wear but fitted enough to not feel shapeless.

Fabric Used: I used a silk/cotton blend by Marc Jacobs.  Its a bit sheer, like voile. It should be lovely to wear in the heat.  The pattern calls for 1 3/8 but I only had 1 1/8 and it was workable (60” wide)

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I omitted the back seam and instead inserted a narrow placket.  I also used the fabric scraps to make my own bias tapes for the neckline, sleeve elastic casing, waist casing, and binding to finish the sleeve seam.  Because it is pretty sheer I chose to finish all the raw edges inside with either french seams or bias tape.  I also did a very narrow rolled hem on the bottom because I didn’t want to sacrifice any length.  I shortened the sleeves by about an inch to accomodate not having enough fabric but then narrowed the sleeve hem allowance to make up half that.  Probably ended up being 1/2” short in the sleeves. 

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?  I really like this blouse.  I would add a couple of inches to the length and 1.5” to the sleeves if I made it again.  I want to make another with a Peter Pan collar (view D).