Inspiration

I texted Annee a week or so ago, and I told her that I felt my fabric stash was holding me back from sewing something.  I love having so much fabric because when I want to make something I can just go to my sewing and pick up fabric and GO.  However, I've been feeling bored with what I have on hand, so I haven't felt very inspired lately.

After I texted Annee that I was stifled by my fabric, I saw a friend at church with a darling car seat cover made out of Sarah Jane fabric.  Have you seen her Children at Play fabric?!  Oh my.  You'll need some.  Last week I ordered 5 half yards on line with the intention of making more Quick Change Trousers for Henry.

My little chubby one is growing out of the QCT I made him while he was swimming inside me.

When my fabric arrived in the mail, I wasn't sure if I was going to try to finish a jumper that I've had cut out for way too many days without being sewn or just dive right into my new material.  Annee encouraged me to just dive right into the new fabric and ride the inspiration instead of putting it off.

So glad I listened!  Last night I busted out 2 new pairs of trousers for Henry.  To say they are cute just doesn't do them justice.  Their just precious.  I love them.  Love them!!

Too bad Henry's nap today didn't work out with my photo shoot.  I promise I'll snap some pictures of him in these soon.

For more technical details, for those of you wanting to make these, I was able to make 2 complete pairs of Quick Change Trousers in 3 hours.  That means tracing the pattern, cutting the pattern out, cutting the fabric, and sewing the pants.  I'd safely say you can make a pair of these in an hour and a half.  Now your first time, it will take you a little longer because it's your first time, but not much.  Also, as for sizing, Henry is just growing out of his 3 month trousers I made him, but in store bought clothing he wears 3 to 6 month clothing.  Three month clothing is way too tight on him, but the Quick Change Trousers still fit, but I give it a week or two, and they won't.  He's a big little baby, but this pattern sizing is generous.

Now I'm off to bed.  Hopefully I'll get pictures of my little guy in these soon.  I kind of want to make some onesies for him to go with his new pants, so it might be a couple days.  Stay tuned!!

As promised.

My models in their dresses:

Working together to blow some bubbles:

Jane's leg flick captured in photo is totally priceless to me.

I got super crafty, pulled out my hot glue gun and managed this much of a hair accessory.  I might be the last girl on the craft planet to attempt one of these type of wrapped flowers.  But in case I'm not, and you're like, "What?  How did you make that?!", here's a TUTORIAL.

I totally love this side zipper detail.  

I am right here announcing that I am official aboard the "Marissa Dress" bandwagon!  I will be making this dress again.  Since the pattern goes up to a size 12 or something like that, my ladies should probably get excited about all the Marissa dresses in their near future. 


Have a great week of sewing.  I already have a few other finished projects to share.  Here's to hoping my turn on the computer rolls around more often than it did this weekend!  

A Christmas Quandary

I know it's not even October yet, and I haven't figured out if I'm going to sew Halloween costumes or not, but all I can think about is Christmas.  Probably because I know from experience, if you are going to make things for Christmas now is really the time you should be making them.  If you wait until December, there will be way too many things on your holiday To Do List to even thinking about sewing up some holiday decor for yourself.  Sew this year I'm getting ahead of the curve.  Ha!

While on Pinterest, I stumbled across this cute scrappy Christmas tree:

                                                               Source: sweetandlovelythings.tumblr.com via Liz on Pinterest

I knew it would be easy to make, so when I made my Library Skirt for Grace I pulled out several green fabrics from my scrap bin.  Last week I had a small sewing soiree here, and within a couple of hours we all had cute scrappy Christmas trees.

Cute, huh?  Here's my quandary.  I was thinking I'd quilt this and complete it as a wall hanging like my scrappy spool wall hanging, but how do I quilt it?  Do I use straight lines, a design, quilt only around the tree, do straight lines around the tree and a design inside the tree, and on and on and on??? 

Sew, if you had a scrappy Christmas tree, and I hope you do sew yourself one, how would you quilt it?

I'll be mulling over that this weekend as I try to finish some other projects that I've started, but have lost my steam and desire to finish them.  I hate when that happens.  I don't want to start anything until they are finished.  Sew frustrating!

Oh well.  And my favorite part of the scrappy Christmas Tree...

The yellow Anna Maria Horner star, of course.  I had to throw in a little Anna.

Here's to a great weekend and hopes of sewing a little!

Two dresses coming right up...

My little ladies will be playing some piano prelude music at church this Sunday.  In their minds, this means they should be attired in new dresses.  I couldn't find any flaws in their thinking.  Pictures were drafted.  Colors were requested.  Saturday rolled around.  It was overcast and rainy.  People were tired from a busy week of school and schedules.  No one cared that I was off in the sewing garage.  One dress got finished on Saturday.  The next dress got finished on Monday morning.  There will be two new dresses for their big piano debut.  With time to spare...

I'll follow up next week with the dresses on the models:

Dress #1:

The Marissa Pattern

by: Jennifer Paganelli

I bought the pattern on May 8th.  It took until September 18 to make it.

It was a flawless pattern.  I will be making it again.  The fit is so darling I can barely stand it.  One complaint, it calls for an invisible zipper, but the zipper insertion instructions aren't really for an invisible zipper.  It's a tiny detail.  I can fix that the next time around.

I had exactly two yards of this Jennifer Paganelli fabric left in my stash from Korea!  Jane is so happy about the whole thing, and so am I.  

Dress #2:

Ruby gets these ideas in her head.  They are very particular.  It is very hard to be so specific in what you want, and merge that together with your mother's imperfections.  

This dress is a compromise for her.  Somewhere in the middle of what she wanted, and what I could provide.  She completely fell apart about it at one point.  She is being remarkable upbeat and appreciative about it now.  She is learning. 

I think it's very sweet.  She pictured it in her mind with white lacy socks, a black headband, and shiny black Mary Janes.  Oh, to be six again.

You can't tell from these pictures, but that little white trim is also along the bottom hem.  The dress is a fine whale corduroy.  I was excited to try sewing with something new.  You can't iron fine corduroy very much/at all.  It was easy to work with though.  I will try it again before the corduroy season is over.

This is my own design.  No pattern.  I like to use the sleeve piece and the a-line front and back piece from the Oliver and S Jump Rope dress.  But I kind of just wing it after that.  

The tuxedo front detail idea I did borrow from HERE.

Though I do sew, in general I don't feel very crafty.  It's why I don't ever venture into the realm of hair accessories.  But with a few extra days on my hands and the dresses completed, this hair accessory is sort of tempting me.  We'll see...

Source: themotherhuddle.com via Annee on Pinterest

I had to have one.

Several weeks ago when Annee posted THIS dress, I was floored with how darling it was.  Not to mention I was yet again impressed with my Sew Sister's sewing skills.  She's got mad talent.  Mad.  Her mini maxi dress was stunning, and I just knew I wanted Grace to have her very own.  I figured it was a tricky pattern and I would just covet it for a while, but Annee linked to the tutorial she followed to help make the bodice, and I started thinking maybe it wasn't so far fetched that I could make one.  Then within like 24 hours Summer busts out her own maxi dress.

And then I knew, Grace to have one.

I pulled out some knit I found at the Michael Levine Loft (where you dig through bins and fabric is sold by the weight - totally awesome) in the LA Fabric District, and started cutting.  The knit is darling, but it was so sheer, so I had to line the bodice.  You can see a peek of the teal knit I used to line the bodice here:  (Look closely.)

Sewing the bodice wasn't a problem because I was sewing multiple layers of my thin knits together.  (My bodice pattern could use some more tweaking, but the actually sewing wasn't a problem.)  However, when I started trying to sew the skirt my maxi dress construction came to a screeching halt.  My knit kept getting stuck under the needle and my machine and I were at war with getting this darn dress sewn.  I actually tucked it all away in the sewing room for several weeks before I had the idea of putting tissue paper under the knit to prevent it from getting caught under the needle.

It worked like a charm.  It was a messy process, but I'd like to think that the messier the sewing space while creating something, the better the end results.

See what I mean by sheer?

In the end, I think it turned out pretty darn cute.  At first it was a bit too long, so I took some length off the bodice, and I still think I could take a little more.

However, Grace is going to grow in the next couple of months.  Maxi dresses will still be in style in Spring, right? Maybe?

I'm just happy that the project was completed and didn't end up in the reject pile or the scrap bin.  That would have been tragic.

That's a wrap here at 

Made on 

West Coast.  Peace out!

Spread your wings.

So here it is:


The Patchwork Shift.  

Hand embroidered with the hope of my mother heart.

With a super simple placket (TUTORIAL HERE) down the back.

A touch of green floss to keep it spicy.

All to wrap her up in, a little on the "room to grow" size of things.  Hoping she feels my love for her all the school day long.

I love watching them learn to Spread Their Wings.

A few links and details...

• Inspiration first struck when I saw this adorable patchwork tunic over at "Me Sew Crazy".  Unfortunately, when I followed the tutorial on a scrap piece of fabric, I just didn't like the end result (someday I'll show you the shirt that I think ended up looking like a medical scrubs shirt).  So it was back to the drawing board to figure out what I'd make with my yard of handmade patchwork fabric. 
• I remembered this sweet a-line shift that Katy of No Big Dill made for her daughter's second birthday.  I decided that with so much going on with my fabric, the dress design better be pretty streamline.  Lucky for me Katy was gracious enough to email me back with some tips and pointers along the way.  Thank you Katy!  

A little more color

Grace kept telling me over the weekend that today was purple day.  Good thing I believed her.  Her teacher showed up with a bright purple shirt on, so I was happy that Grace wore her pretty purple skirt.  Sadly, it was hot today so the cute long sleeve Bow Shirt and matching tights weren't an option.  Grace was bummed that I didn't have a purple shirt for her.  Apparently it wasn't enough to just have a purple skirt.

Do you like Grace's fancy hair style?  Do you need a french braid tutorial yet?

But, I think my favorite color this week is going to be black.  When I made Grace's birthday Circle Skirt, I also made this Circle Skirt.

Have you made on of Dana's Circle Skirts?  If not, you totally should, so your little girl can twirl and twirl and twirl.  This skirt is really good for that.

I also added some simple white fabric flowers to a black shirt to go with the skirt.  

These precious fabric flowers are from my Korean supply stash.  I've been hoarding them for over a year.  It was about time they made it on to something.

That's all for tonight.  I have one more project to show, but I'm not happy with the pictures I took of it.  I'll be sure to retake the pictures soon.  

Color Week

Well, my birthday girl started school.  Kindergarten is a great year because as far as academics go I'm not concerned at all.  This means I can focus on the more important stuff like what in the heck my kindergartner is going to wear to school!  I'm kidding that clothing is more important, but when the cirriculum standard for the first couple months of the year calls for playing at school, I think I get to say clothing is a very critical part of this school year.

When Grace's teacher sent home a letter at the end of the first week of school saying that the second week of school was going to be Color Week I decided that I have sewn enough things for Grace that she could not only wear the colors she needed to wear each day, but she could wear a color coordinated handmade article of clothing each day.

The week started off with orange.  I loved the little mini orange cardigan I made to go with The Little Mini Skirt.  Unfortunately Grace didn't like the way the mini skirt felt at her waist, and she was concerned it was too tight to sit on the Magic Carpet.  Sew, luckily Annee made Grace a skirt like 3 years ago that still fits that matches the orange cardigan.

Tuesday was yellow.  (Or as Grace calls it "lellow.")  Grace strutted her stuff to school in her Oliver & S Popover Sundress.  There were only a couple of tears shed over having to wear this.  Apparently I gave away the "lellow lellow" dress from Target that Grace wanted to wear.  Admittedly I did give it away because it was too short.  It's so sad when we grow out of our favorite things.

Wednesday was green day, and Grace got to wear her Little Bo Peep Skirt.  It's a tad short, and Grace needed to be able to participate in P.E., so I bought a pair of leggings and hemmed them to capri length.  I would have bought the cropped length leggings, but the Old Navy near me was sold out.  I'm sew glad I know how to sew!

Thursday's color was brown.  I washed the capri brown leggings Wednesday night, and Grace wore them with her Owl Tank Dress on Thursday.  

Please excuse the messy background.  I live in a house not a museum, and I know I could have stepped outside to take this picture, but it's cold here in the mornings.

Friday was a big day.  It was blue.  Now ever since I saw Annee's Library Skirt, I just knew I needed to make one.  

In fact, when Henry was a couple of weeks old, and I was feeling a little frazzled, I would wander into my sewing space and just start looking at fabrics.  I started way back in July cutting off selvedge edges that I thought would add to a Library Skirt of my own one day.

My mom was in town the first week of school, and she makes a great task master.  She called me when she saw Annee's post about the Library Skirt many months ago and said she wanted one herself.  While she was here last week, she made sure that Grace got her very own Library Skirt.  

Grace loves it.  Probably not as much as I do, but she does love it.  I also made it big enough for her to wear through the 5th grade.  Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but still it's a tad on the long side.

I did a couple of things differently from the original tutorial.  Instead of sewing each book together as she says too, I just ironed the long sides into the center like so:

Then I pinned them down to the linen skirt like crazy.  I've washed the Library Skirt already, and so far I can't tell that my shortcut has any consequences other than it saved me a ton of time.

I also lined my Library Skirt by cutting a piece of muslin the exact same size as the skirt, placed it under the Library Skirt top, and serged them both together.  I'm sure this might make some seamstresses cringe, but it saved me time and spared me from Grace complaining that her skirt was itchy.

If I was still a school teacher I might just make one of these skirts for myself.  It's just such a clever idea!

That wraps up Color Week.  Grace seems to think it carries into this week. If so, I'll have a black outfit for you.  I didn't get a note home, so I'm not really sure Grace has her facts straight, but even if color week doesn't continue on this week, I have a cute outfit to share.  This post is long enough or I'd add the black outfit to it.  For now I'll spare you.  But, get excited, MOM will be updated  more than once this week!