Woo-hoo!

I don't normally post work in progress pictures, but I'm very excited about this. Look what I finally figured out:
Shirring!

I tried it a couple of times last summer, or maybe even the summer before, but I never could get it to work correctly. I have no idea what I was doing wrong, but the fabric just wouldn't gather. But M loves the shirred sundresses, and the pre done fabric is super expensive, so I decided to give it another try. I read a bunch of tutorials, and this time it worked! Of course, the first attempts were so long ago now that I don't actually know what I did differently. Oh well, I'm just glad I don't have to pay $17.99 a yard! (Well, minus 40%. I refuse to pay full price for it.) Plus I have so much cute fabric already - this gives me another way to use some of it!

Under the Sea

A's birthday party theme this year was "Under the Sea". As it turned out, the theme was only VERY loosely followed - usually I make a thematic cake, but this year she wanted the kids to decorate their own cupcakes. So the decorations were about it, really. However, I did have to make the girls their own under the sea dresses (which I figured could do double-duty as Seaworld outfits this summer). I had found a cute, comfy knit dress pattern in one of my Burda magazines a while back, but I hadn't been able to decide what fabric to use with it. Eventually, I came up with a plan: use one color for the dress, another for the ruffles and ribbing, and to do a sea related applique. It turned out a lot more 80s than I'd really planned - good thing that's kind of in style at the moment! ;)

I ended up going with the girls favorite colors - blue for A and yellow for M, and I just did them opposing so that they could coordinate. My original plan was actually slightly different colors (and maybe would've been a wee bit less 80s, although I think the ribbing is the problem! Next time I'll just be using the coverstitch machine, I think....) However, there was some confusion about the price of the knits at Hancocks, which was maybe just as well, since I ended up with the girls' favorites.

I'm pleased with the appliques - these were more complicated than anything I've done before, and they worked out pretty well:

An orca for M, who loves whales:
And a dolphin for A - her favorite sea animal:

I'm all into the idea of applique at the moment - I wouldn't be surprised if more shows up on these pages, lol!

Oh, and I showed the girls their Goofy outfits from a few posts back, and the very first thing A said was "Those look like jammies." And darn it if she isn't right! Now I can't even look at them without thinking that! So... I had the girls use the shorts for under these dresses, as they're the same blue, and I'll be finding something else to wear on the bottom of the Goofy outfit. The tops are just t-shirts, so I figure that's fine - it's really the combination with the shorts that looks so much like pajamas. I thought it was pretty funny, though - my first reaction was more or less"Hmmph!", and then I thought gosh, she's so right. Hee-hee.

Anyway, it was good day - everyone had fun at the party, and the girls like their dresses. And now I'm off to collapse! :)

Seven!

I'm pretty sure I say this every year, but when did this baby:
turn into this great big SEVEN year old girl:

Today, that's when! Happy Birthday to my sweet girl! My first baby - she loves frogs and the color blue; swims like a fish; constantly fills up paper with her imaginative drawing and writing; is sweet to her sister (but definitely thinks she's in charge!); likes to wear dresses while she's climbing trees, riding bikes and splashing in puddles; is quite an athlete, but can spend hours on complicated (often inexplicable) imaginary play with M; and is sweet, loving, funny, and the best big girl I can imagine having. I love you, baby!

Hiya, Mickey!

The girls were on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse kick a while back, and apparently in the course of this, they decided Goofy was their favorite character. So, while we're in Orlando, we're going to have breakfast with Goofy. (And I think Donald and Minnie, too, but Goofy's the one I'm sure will be there.) Anyway, I figured they needed Goofy outfits, so I made these:


The shorts are a Burda pattern I picked up a while ago. I like the pockets, but they ride really low - I think I'm going to have to adjust the rise a bit. Plus I broke two needles making them - one on each pair - so that's definitely not a plus for this pattern! My girls love pockets, though, so we'll see. They were quite easy to sew up, at least, aside from the needle breakage.

Then I made matching shirts and used freezer paper stencils for Goofy:
For some reason I'm a little surprised he actually worked - I really don't know why. Maybe because it was rather complicated to cut out. Anyway, they'll be all set for breakfast now. :)

You can fly, you can fly, you can fly....

Here are the girls in their Tinkerbell shirts and matching shorts:

The presmocked fabric is totally cheating, but they're awfully cute! And M loves this kind of smocked top - she wears the one we bought in Hawaii all the time.

Hawaiian Shirt

(This is the project I was excited about in my last post...)

So, when we were in Hawaii, of course I had to indulge in my fabric addiction and visit a fabric store. Iestyn went along, and while we were there, he actually picked out some fabric for himself(!) He asked me to make him a Hawaiian shirt out of this very busy fabric:
Naturally I said yes, although I hadn't ever actually made that sort of shirt before. I found Simplicity 5581, which had pretty good reviews on patternreview.com and gave it a whirl. I've actually had it cut out for quite a while - I just hadn't gotten to the sewing together part. (I tend to go on periodic cutting sprees, and it takes a while to get it all sewn together.) I'm really happy with how it turned out:
and so is he. :) However, I have to say that I don't think I could have followed these directions if I hadn't already sewn collars and sleeves. The collar instructions were just confusing. (Although to be honest, most of the collar instructions I've ever seen have been fairly confusing. But the ones in my Vogue jacket are clearer than these.) And then they actually had you do the sleeves flat, rather than as a regular set in sleeve. While I think this is probably simpler than the other method, they didn't actually give any instructions on how to ease the fabric together. If I hadn't done it before, I think my sleeves would have been a puckery mess! I do think the pattern pieces were pretty good, and it's a nice fit, so I'd use the pattern again myself, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it to a garment sewing newbie!

Oh, and I also finally put together a tank top for myself that I cut out ages ago. I found this beautiful knit well over a year ago at Gail K Fabrics, but I'd never been able to figure out how to use it. It's lovely, but it's also completely see through, and I never could find any equally soft lining fabric. I finally gave up and got some not especially soft/nice knit lining so that I could at least use it! I modified a New Look tank pattern (a lot. Clearly not the tank top pattern for me.)
I'm not completely in love with how it turned out - I think I messed up the straps a bit because I was having to pin it on myself - but it's certainly wearable. And I finally used my lovely knit!

I've also just about finished a couple of fast outfits for the girls. I found some super cute pre-smocked Tinkerbell fabric at Joann's, so I made them tunic tops from that and some of my favorite Burda bike shorts to match. (I love that pattern. SO EASY. I don't follow their instructions for assembly, but I swear they only take like 10-15 minutes to put together. And as a bonus, they're A's favorite style of shorts.)

I think this means that I'm about ready for a new cutting spree - I only have one project currently cut out! It's a dress for me, which means lots of fiddling with the bodice, so I'm kind of procrastinating on it at the moment. As always I have lots of patterns I want to try, though, so I just have to decide which ones I want to try next!

Little boxy bag

I remembered to take a picture of the last little boxy bag:


Cute, no? I really do think they're adorable, but definitely a pain to make. Next time I want to make a number of gifts, I need to make a sample *before* I cut all of them out....

I've also just about finished another project that I'm quite pleased about. Pictures coming soon....