KCWC Day 5, 6 & 7

Ok, so I dropped the ball a little bit at the end of KCWC but only in the blogging department.  During the weekend I worked on a couple different tops for the girls and at the end came out with several pieces for each girl and a good start on their summer wardrobe.  This is the first year that I have participated in KCWC and I loved it.  There was so much motivation from the flickr pool, Meg’s blog as well as all of the other bloggers that participated and posted about it.  I am still sorting through the flickr pool and looking for pictures that I want to save for future sewing ideas.

Since I didn’t do any blogging over the weekend I am going to do a quick wrap up of what I worked on for the last couple of days of KCWC.

Day 5

I worked on the second part of M’s birthday outfit.  I used the wonderful Oliver + S Swing set Tunic and cut the Children at Play parade fabric so it looks like they are parading around the hem of the tunic.  I am super excited about how this turned out and it looks perfect with the balloon shorts.  The only thing I am missing is the buttons for the back.  I picked up some small flower buttons last weekend but I am worried that they are too small so I might add some covered buttons instead. 

  

Day 6

On Saturday I looked at everything I had cut out and was not too excited about sewing anything in the pile.  I had an old shirt of mine that no longer fit and decided I would use the Toddler Swing Tank pattern from Kelli at True Bias.  Because I used a knit that would stretch I cut the back as one piece and because A is at least a 3T for length I added about 2” to the bottom.  I positioned the top just right so I could save the original neckline and used some of the scraps to make bais binding for the arm openings.  Because jersey does not fray I decided to leave the hem unfinished and help to preserve the length of the top.  This was a pretty quick project that I was able to finish in about 1.5 hours from start to finish.  This is something that A can wear to preschool and I don’t have to worry about her getting paint all over it.

Day 7

I had the Class Picnic tunic cut out for over a month and finally finished it this weekend.  The Lisette sateen is so soft and there was only a little bit of shredding while I was sewing it.  There are no exposed seams on the neck or bodice of this shirt which makes for no scratchy edges for my girls.  I added about 5” to the length of the top and my initial thought was it would be a tunic.  After I finished and tried it on A it ended up being more of a dress and I am still very happy about it.  She can wear it now as a dress and then when the fall hits she can pair it with leggings or jeans for a layered look.  With the way she is shooting up it might not fit as a dress long tough.  I have a couple of store bought play dresses in 3T and they are already becoming too short for her to wear without something underneath.

New Projects

We have a special joint birthday party that the girls and I will be attending this weekend for two little girls that live in our cul-de-sac.  They are sisters and one of them is the same age as M.

The theme of this party is going to be knights and princesses so I thought it would be fun to add to their dress up box. For my next project I am in the process of making them some princess dresses with cotton fabrics.  I picked up some white, light blue and purple cotton fabric over the weekend as well as some chiffon for an overskirt on each dress.  I am about half way through the first dress but will try and take some pictures while constructing the second dress so you can see how I did it.

Project List for the Week

Purple Princess Dress – 3T – For birthday girl S

Blue Princess Dress – 6 – For birthday girl K

Finish button holes and buttons on Swing set Tunic – For M 2T

Ice Cream Top – For A 3T – Animal Print

Cotton Knit Shorts – For A – Basic solid colors (white, black, navy) for under shorts

Cheers,

Erin

Weekend Sewing & KCWC Prep

This weekend I got quite a bit of sewing and sewing related activities done. 

I finished up a special order for the shop and liked it so much that I am going to offer it in the store permanently.  It is a dress in the same style as the top from the ruffle outfit and a matching diaper cover with a Mickey appliqué on the bottom.  I love all the ideas that my customers come up with and can’t wait to get this new one in the shop. 

This weekend I also prepped for KCWC; pulling out all of the fabric that I want to use, cutting out patterns and putting directions and notions together so I can get as much sewing time in as possible.  If you don’t know about KCWC it is hosted by Meg at Elsie Marley and it is a commitment to sew 1 hour a day for 7 days for your kids.  I am so excited to be able to participate this year and have a lot planned.

Top Row (left to right)

Leila & Ben Peasant Dress - Linen look cotton with polka dot ruffle down the middle

Camo knit dress pink ruffle accents

T-shirt dresses with Tula Pink Prince Charming fabric

Ivory gauze fabric for an elastic shirred top

Oliver + S Swing Set Tunic – Children at Play Parade fabric

Bottom Row (left to right)

Oliver + S Puppet Show Shorts – Navy Twill fabric

Oliver + S Swing Set Tunic – Red, White & Blue fabric

Clever Charlotte Flutter Blouse – Lisette Lawn fabric

Oliver + S Class Picnic Tunic – Lisette Sateen fabric

Oliver + S Puppet Show Shorts – Children at Play Balloon fabric

I know that there is not possible way I could get this all done in a week but I wanted to have plenty of options if something went wrong or I get tired of working on one thing.  There are a few items for each girl and hopefully this will help kick start their summer wardrobe!

The items high on my priority list are:

Peasant Dress w/ Polka Dot Ruffle – 3T for A

Oliver + S Puppet Show Shorts & Swing Set Tunic in Children at Play fabric – 2T for M’s Birthday

Tula Pink T-Shirt Dresses – 2T for M, 3T for A

Clever Charlotte Flutter Blouse – 2T/3T for A

Oh, I finished a couple of tops for myself but those will have to wait until after KCWC is over.

Cheers,

Erin

Ice Cream & Weekend Sewing

Ok, so I know this is a day late but I do have some fun things to share.  The weather this weekend was so nice and we had a great time outside with the girls.  We washed cars as a family on Saturday and the girls had a blast helping us; mainly splashing around in the soapy water!

There was a little sewing going on this weekend but most of it was for orders from my shop.  I started a Sorbetto Top from the lovely Sari at Colette Pattern Company.  I am using a light pink texturized voile that I picked up from Fabric.com a while ago.  The fabric was not what I pictured when ordering but it is perfect for this little project.  I did make a few changes on the pattern but I will go into more detail when it is all finished and I have a chance to show it off.   

I have decided to participate in the Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley.  Meg hosts this awesome sew along twice a year to help motivate us all to sew more for our kids.  When you commit to being part of the sew along you are saying you will sew for your kids an hour a night for a whole week.  This year KCWC will be going on April 23^rd through the 30^th and I have committed to participate.  My plan is to have all my outfits cut out and ready to go so I can start sewing right away.  This will give me more time to finish outfits instead of worrying about prepping.  If you have any little ones you would like to sew for you should really participate.  It's so fun seeing what others are sewing and getting such great ideas for your next project.

In tune with KCWC I just picked up the Charlie Tunic and the Charlie Dress Add-On from Rae at Made By Rae.  I have been waiting for her to release the Dress Add-On for a while and I am so excited that it is here.  I have great visions of a short sleeve summer dresses and some fun fall dresses for both the girls from this pattern.  Now I just have to decide what fabric I am going to use for my first dress.

I started and finished two tops that were not on the to-do list but have been on my mind for a while.  I picked up the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress pattern about 6 months ago and was a little intimidated by it.  I was worried my take on it would not look as good as all of the other great dresses and tops out there.  I should have never doubted Liesl because both the dress and the top came together quickly and the directions were very easy to understand.  My Mother in Law gave me these cute coordinating green floral fabrics to go with a specific top pattern for one of my girls.  I liked the top that she originally had in mind but could not stop thinking about how great these would look as Ice Cream tops.  

I decided that I would make M an Ice Cream Top in size 2T with the main floral fabric.  The top for M took about 1.5 hours total to put together and it was all finished in just one evening.  The top turned out great and has been worn a couple of times already.  I used a flower shaped shell button for the closure in the back and it looks so cute matching the flowers on the fabric.  I was a little worried about the neck opening because some of the other ladies on the Oliver + S forums have mentioned that it was hard to get over their kiddos heads but this went over without any issues.  I would only change one little thing and that would have to be the length of the top.  M has a little round belly and this top is on the verge of being almost too short.  When I make it again I would probably add about 2" to the length of the top to help with this.  She is just starting to lose her baby fat so this might not be a problem for much longer. 

For A I wanted to make the Ice Cream in a tunic length top with the main floral fabric for the body of the top and the lighter green fabric for the shoulder/sleeve area and the bottom band.  This took me a little bit longer than the top but it I still finished it up over just two nights of sewing.  Right now A is so happy with anything that I sew for her.  She is always asking me about what I am working on and if it is for her so she was so excited when this was just for her.  I ran into a small snag when sewing up the bottom panel of the tunic  Somehow the band was much wider than the body portion that I was sewing it to.  I am not sure why this happened but I think it has something to do with the fact that I used the shirt size for the body of the fabric and then jumped to the band from the dress pattern.  Instead of taking the band apart and cutting it down to size (which I should have done because it is bugging me now) I just made a little tuck in the band fabric on each side.  It is almost unnoticeable and really blends into the tunic especially because of how the fabric flows.  I picked a plain button for the back so nothing too show off but the top as a whole looks so good. 

This pattern is so versatile and I can't wait to make more of these for the summer and for fall to layer with long sleeve tees.  I already have another top planned for A in some Valori Wells Karavan. 

Project List for the Week

Lil Blue Boo Perfect Shorts – For A 3T – Michael Miller Hot Pink Interlock Finished – Just need to take pictures

Sorbetto Top – For Me – Texturized Pink Voile – Just need to finish bias binding!

T-Shirt Dress – For A 3T & M 24m – Tula Pink Prince Charming – Cut out

Clever Charlotte Phoebe Flutter Blouse – for A 2/3T – Lisette Lawn Fabric – Cut out

Oliver + S Class Picnic Tunic - for A 3T - Lisette Sateen - Cut out

Cheers,
Erin

Easter is Here!!!

We finally made it to Easter and as promised I took some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses.  I went with the grey ribbon so it would stand out a little more than the pink and instead of tacking the whole ribbon on I used the suggestion for making thread chains to hold the ribbon on the sides.  A big thank you to Liesl and the ladies from the Oliver + S forums for giving me such great suggestions and to help my dresses look the best.  The girls looked so cute and loved their new dresses.

My Easter Skirt/craft fail was not meant to be for this year.  I have it sitting on my sewing table and plan to get to it in the next week or so.  Hopefully I will have a great summer skirt to show off but I did not have enough time this past week to get it finished.  

I wanted to show some outfits that I made the girls pre-blog.  I picked up these shirts at Wal-Mart last year when they were marking down all of their long sleeve shirts to get ready for summer.  I made some ruffled capris for the girls out of a Easter printed fabric from Hobby Lobby and just embellished the shirt with a ruffle from the same fabric as the capris.  I think they turned out pretty good and they were perfect for Friday outfits to school.  The weather cooled down here a lot Friday and Saturday morning so I was happy to have something a little bit warmer for the girls to wear to their school Easter parties.  The capri pattern was from Violette Field Threads and was a quick sew.  This was the first time I have sewn with one of their patterns and I was very impressed. 

The project list has been staying the same for the past couple of weeks.  It seems like every time I think about getting one of the items done another sewing job or project pops up.  It is driving me crazy but hopefully I will get a couple of these done this week.  I will be participating in Elsie Marley's Sewing Clothes Kids Week starting on April 23^rd and have a plan to finalize some items for the girls summer wardrobe. 

Project List for the Week

Lil Blue Boo Perfect Shorts – For A 3T – Michael Miller Hot Pink Interlock

Sorbetto Top – For Me – Texturized Pink Voile

T-Shirt Dress – For A 3T & M 24m – Tula Pink Prince Charming

Clever Charlotte Phoebe Flutter Blouse – for A 2/3T – Lisette Lawn Fabric

Oliver + S Class Picnic Tunic – for A 3T – Lisette Sateen


Cheers,

Erin

Craft Fail

Craft Fail

Well, I got a few things finished over the weekend but nothing to shout from the roof about.  Both of the girls Bubble Easter Dresses are finished and with help from the ladies on the Oliver + S forums I decided to go with a grey grosgrain ribbon and make a thread chain/belt loop for each of the sides.  This will allow me to take off or change the ribbon if I want to because it will not be permanently attached.  I promise to show pictures of the finished dresses being worn by the girls after Easter.

Now back to my craft fail.  I had big plans to make a skirt from an online tutorial that I found a while back.  I wanted to use a grey sheet that I picked up so I could somewhat match the girls for Easter but also have something to add to my wardrobe for the summer. 

There were several problems with this skirt:

1. I measured myself back in August when I first planned to make this skirt and then cut the fabric out to match said measurements.  I am pretty sure that the August measurements are not correct now.
2. I measured so that the waistband of the skirt is on my hips not at my waist; this means that the gathered portion of the skirt starts right at my widest point making me look HUGE.  Also, because the skirt is so low it makes my top half look much longer than it already is. 

I worked on the skirt for about an hour last night to get it finished up and when I tried it on I almost cried.  I decided to take it off and just put it aside for a while.  I knew something was wrong but could not put my finger on what needed to be changed.  Thinking about it overnight helped me and I figured out what I need to do to fix it.  The waistband should really be up at my natural waist instead of low on my hips.  If I take the waistband off and measure so that it fits at my natural waist it will sit better and not flare out at such an awkward place.  I might have to take a little in on the sides because I am shortening the waistband but it should be a pretty easy fix once all of those stitches are picked out.  The good news is that I put my first invisible zipper in and it was pretty painless. 

Here’s to a week of much sewing and less undoing!

Project List for the Week

Fix Easter Skirt

Pattern Review – I just need to write this up, the garment is already sewn up

T-Shirt Dress – For A 3T & M 24m – Tula Pink Prince Charming

Clever Charlotte Phoebe Flutter Blouse – for A 2/3T – Lisette Lawn FabricOliver + S Class Picnic Tunic – for A 3T – Lisette Sateen


Cheers,

Erin

Weekend Sewing & Eggs

Oh the weekend, I love it. At our house we get a chance to relax and forget about the hustle and bustle of the week. We get to snuggle, bake, lounge around, play outside and sometimes sleep in! The girls are at a point right now that they love being outside and if we put them in the backyard they just want to run all over. This is a great chance for them to get some exercise, vitamin D and burn off some of that never ending energy. Soon it will be too hot here for much outside play so we will take it while we can.

Right now I have a great schedule for sewing on the weekends. I usually put both my girls down for a nap after lunch and then putter around in my sewing area (i.e. our loft that is in-between both girls bedrooms). I usually try to clean up any messes in my sewing space and organize things for the next project. Once I know that both girls are down for the count I take all my fabric and cutting mat, rotary cutter and scissors downstairs and cut out whatever I plan on sewing. I bring all of the cut fabric back up and organize it into piles with each of the cut pieces and any other supplies that are needed. This allows me to be all ready when I have the chance to sew. I do most of my sewing once the girls are in bed for the night and it usually amounts to about an hour of sewing time with just a few interruptions from little girls!

I had to chance to work on some Easter shirts for a very good friend of mine who has two little girls. The age difference between the two are about the same as my little ones so we have a lot in common when it comes to parenting. She spotted something similar out there on Pinterest and loved them so much that she asked me to make her a couple. I rounded up some of my favorite springy/Easter colored fabrics and got to sewing. These Easter Egg Necklace T-Shirts are so cute. I loved the way they turned out and think that the big/little sister combination darling. The grograin ribbow bow is sewn directly on to the shirt and the necklace "string" is just sewn in a contrasting thread color. I did have to decrease the number of eggs and the size of the eggs for the onesie. The larger eggs made the proportions off and having seven eggs instead of five made it too busy. I think they were a success and can’t wait to make some more for my two…if I can get them done in time. Maybe I will just wait until next year on these.






I am almost finished with the Oliver + S Bubble dress for A. The only thing that is lacking is buttons for the back so I am counting it as a complete item. It should take me about ten minutes to get it done tonight. I still have to sew up M’s dress but it should take about a night to get it all finished and then I will post pictures of them both together. These are for Easter so I still have a little time but I don't want to push it too close.

I did work on a few orders over the weekend. Just the regular in the shop but hopefully I will get the time to work on a few new additions.

I will be testing a girl’s dress pattern this week. I am so excited because the dress looks super cute and the designer is out of South Carolina.

Project List for the Week
Oliver + S Bubble Dress for Easter – for M 2T – Michael Miller Disco Dot Blush
Clever Charlotte Phoebe Flutter Blouse – for A 2/3T – Lisette Lawn Fabric
Oliver + S Class Picnic Tunic – for A 3T – Lisette Sateen
Pattern Review

Cheers,

Erin

Good Combination/Bad Combination

Weather in the 80’s and 90’s
2 girls with an infinite amount of energy
Mother in Law and Sister in Law visiting from out of town

Take all of the above good things and you would see that my weekend was full of fun times outside. We played in the yard and at the water table for several hours. I also snuck in a little shoe shopping with my SIL that was so nice. We had fun just walking around pointing out all the crazy shoes that are out right now and trying on some that were to die for. We all had a great visit with our out of town guest and were very sad to see them leave on Sunday.

Add the crazy pollen storm that we are having right now with all of the outside time and that makes me a sniffling, sneezing, itchy eye mess. Even if I had the time to get some sewing done I was such a wreck that I probably would not have made it through a seam without sneezing and messing everything up.

I did finish up the Lil Blue Boo Perfect Shorts for both of the girls last night and plan to blog about them in the next couple of days.

I also have some new additions to the shop. A new boy Mickey outfit, new girls Minnie dress and the Charlotte ruffle neck dress that is perfect for Easter.

Project List for the Week

Easter Egg Necklace T-Shirts
Clever Charlotte Phoebe Flutter Blouse – for A 2/3T – Lisette Lawn Fabric
Oliver + S Bubble Dress for Easter – for M 2T – Michael Miller Disco Dot Blush
Oliver + S Bubble Dress for Easter – for A 3T – Michael Miller Disco Dot Blush
Oliver + S Class Picnic Tunic – for A 3T – Lisette Sateen

Cheers,
Erin

Weekend Sewing

My plan is to put a post together every Monday that recaps what projects I worked on/completed over the weekend. I have high hopes that this will help motivate me to get orders from the shop done a little quicker and get a chance to work on some of the fun projects that I have in my head!

So, what did I work on this weekend? Several pending orders for the shop. Nothing super exciting but at least I was sewing.

Right now the most popular item in my shop is the Mickey Mouse Ruffle Outfit.
This outfit is so cute and can be worn for a Mickey or Minnie Mouse Birthday and would be perfect for a trip to Disney.

I have several new spring and summer items that I am getting ready to list in my shop. I promise to not make this blog all about my Etsy shop but I will let you know when new things get listed.

Project List for the Week

Secret Pattern Review!!!
Little Blue Boo Perfect Shorts – for A 3T
Clever Charlotte Phoebe Flutter Blouse – for A 2/3T – Lisette Lawn Fabric
Class Picnic Tunic – for A 3T – Lisette Sateen
Girly Pom Pom Garland

We will have to see what gets done this week.

My MIL and SIL will get here on Thursday evening and stay through the weekend. I know that I could slip away for a while to sew but it is nice to visit with them while they are here.

Cheers,

Erin