KCWC: Just a tad late......

Ah.....life.  Sure can getcha sometimes. I'm not surprised I missed May.....but sewing/crafting sure helps to keep things moving along, doesn't it??

So, this blue/brown number was supposed to be Lila's birthday dress(March) but no dice.  It's the Pretty as a Picture dress from AMH  Handmade Beginnings book.  Flower panel and brown voile from Little Folks and blue/brown stripe is from Innocent Crush voile - all from Anna Maria Horner (I do so love her!!This video is awesome!)

I iron while I sew the garment - NEVER after it's finished though.  I've heard it's bad luck....

  The dress is super cute and comfy i.e. she actually picks it off the hanger herself.  I altered it on accident by making the neck hole too small - I will not cross over as much on the top next time. 

 I altered it on purpose by taking the elastic off the back panel.  It was just a tad too snug with the elastic across the back.  I think it was still on in this pic.  Having the gathers on the sides only looks better to me :) 

I also altered it on purpose by changing up the front panel- I added brown strips to either side of the flower panel until it was the correct width.  I followed the pattern for the back.  I have another one cut out in almost the same fabrics.  I don't know why :)  Maybe because I have twin sisters - I like doubles?

During the week, I HAD to make the Seahorse Sundress from Oliver & S.  It's so freaking cute - but I don't know about a one scissor rating..... lots'o pieces to cut out.   I cut out double of everything because of the off-center nature of the fabric.  It was sort of a puzzle to pick which ones to put with what(huh?)  but I really like how both dresses came out.   And wow does my girl ever like pockets!!  I love her search-for-pockets pose.  Pockets in dresses are awesome!! 

After finishing the one above, I decided it needed some hand stitching.  In my opinion, it came out so awesome!!  I did only hand stitching on the yoke of the second dress. 

I love how the hand stitching looks on the dresses.  Here's both dresses side by side.  I used AMH Good Folks line.  I also used snaps instead of buttons.  Someday I will not be afraid of button holes.....someday....



Dress Fronts

A lot of influence from AMH, but also I've been recently re-hooked on my Alabama Chanin books.   I bought myself this (I guess I wear mine backwards!oops)  and some other goodies from them for Mom's day.  I would love this or this.  I will sew this one from the pattern in the book.  The bridal is so amazing... I could go on forever!



Dress Backs

Happy Wednesday!

New Sandbox Pants

He grows and grows....and more get made. This first pair is for Atlas, size 4. We call these the book pants.

Made with Anna Maria Horner's Volumes(I think) from the Drawing Room line and Oliver & S Sandbox pants.  I love love love these pants and almost have the directions memorized!

 Twill tape for the drawstrings shaves at least 10-15 minutes off of the total time to make these.....

my kinda thing!

 I didn't worry much about fussy cutting the back pockets like I did the front.

 These are a pair made from green and white ticking with Echino for the pockets and waistband.  I love the way these look together.  I wanted to find a semi-girly way to do these pants.

 More twill tape!

 Another pair of book pants

 I cut all the back pockets for the book pants with the grain going the "wrong" way - just to see....

I like how it looks....it's more noticeable in person, especially as this fabric has a little sheen to it.

The last two pairs are being donated to Atlas' school.  I never finished them in time for the auction in March...so we will have a mini auction just for the pants.

Nature Walk Knit Pants

 As Sascha did say - these might be the most insanely easiest thing I have sewn in a long long long time.
And I really love the cut/shape of these pants.  They fit the kids quite well.

            I made each kid a pair of lobster pants.  Lila will get the smaller rose pant and the larger will go to a friend's daughter for a birthday present(do I have to hem them then?)  The lobster print is an interlock.  I love how sturdy the fabric is.  Atlas loves his lobster pants.  He's already worn them to pre-school.  Husband thinks these should be designated as PJ pants.   I bought the fabric from the Fabric Fairy.  I think it was flawed and super on sale.  I love flawed things! :) 

I made Lila a third pair out of some very lightweight knit I received in the Heather Ross studio sale.  I used some leftover rib knit for the waist.  I've been playing around a lot with mixing fabrics.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  I don't think that wobbly bit will go away.  I think I need to be less lazy when it comes to ironing......

TGIF!!

Queen Size City Weekend

Woohoo!!!  Finally finished sewing the binding on the back side.  That took forever.  But I am so so so so very happy to sleep under a homemade (by me) quilt!!

 I way over estimated the size and didn't actually measure accurately, so this thing is seriously verging on being a king size!  I did a hack job quilting it.  Some of the lines have some super duper bad puckers.  I knew I just wanted this done and on the bed.  I have all my AMH voile cut and half sashed for a queen size quilt that I'm planning on free motion quilting.  I will definitely be taking my time on that one and quilting it with grace rather than speed.

I was planning on making some pillowcases to go with the quilt, but now that I can just hide the pillows, I'm not sure what I'll do with it.......

And I did get some of the City Weekend knit fabric.  I'm not sure what to do with it, and it is way softer than anything else I have, so I'm scared to cut it.   The white fabric came in my Heather Ross Studio Sale box, and is equally as precious and hard to cut into.  I am currently trying to swap for some more.  It is a sickness.

Also, I totally chopped all my hair off!  It was pretty crazy.  I do it every 3 years and donate it to Locks of Love.  I donated 12" and I'm pretty sure she chopped another 3" off.  Eeeek!  I feel so much lighter!

Also, this past Sunday, there was a Harvest Festival for the Santa Barbara Birth Center.  It was so fun!  It was the first fundraiser in the official location.  They signed the lease just a month ago.  I hosted a "quilting room."  Really I just painted kids hands and stamped them onto some PFD.  They stamped their names next to it.  It should turn out really cute when I sew them all together.  I think I'll mix in fabrics based on the colors of the rooms(to be determined). 

     I made a pillow for my mom out of my kids hand prints and have to make another one for my MIL for next week.  I will try to take pics of the process because it was insanely easy to make, and it would be a cute pillow for the holidays - especially if you are going along with Erin at House on Hill Road and making a pillow.

At the festival, I sold a quite a few things.  It was so exciting to have my things well received, and to make some money.  I donated 10% of my sales, and I met some insanely cool people.  All in all, a great day!

New Clothes for the Boy

This post could also be titled "What I Really Wanted To Do During KCWC"

Neck facing and collar - Nature Walk Tunic

I made this Nature Walk Tunic for my boy out of some Rocket ship fabric and some super soft shot cotton.  I made it for his 4th birthday, woke up at 3 am to finish it for that day.  He started crying that he hated it before he even had it on.  Yay for my happy warm feelings being squashed!  So much for the sensitivity of 4 year old boys.  He'll get more guilt from me as we all get older - I'm sure of it!

Next I made some shorts from the Sketchbook Shirt and shorts pattern.  Brown linen, maybe some rayon mixed in(Joann Remnant Bin) so I'm not sure :)   SO easy and soft and comfy and he LOVES them.   Waaay better reception than the tunic.  Warm happy feeling is back!

And then I made another pair of Sandbox pants with Echino pockets - my absolute favorite thing right now.  And the boy loves them as well.  They are really man-pri/ short pants.  I was going to cut these and make shorts since I was short some fabric lengthwise.  I waited until I finished them and hemmed them to see how long they really were, and they were long enough!  Sweet.  I love these a lot.  They are a total mish-mash.

I used an upholstery fabric that was bought years ago.  I used some ruler printed twill tape for a size tag.  I love it!  It was a scrap that had 4 on it, so I used it.    I think I will be making these pants until he hates them.  They are so easy to make, now that I've made a few.  Such a bummer this pattern is out of print.  If you can find it, get it.  I think I will try making a girly pair soon.
:)

Um, fell of the planet for a while



Binding for queen size City Weekend quilt!



So, it has been an interesting few weeks round here.  I've been making a ton of stuff.  Both my son and husband had a birthday.  I tried out a craft show and sort of hated it.  I've been reconsidering the why's and how's of selling.   Really just a bunch of "how much is my time worth?"



     I have come to the conclusion that I like making stuff, but don't like any of the aspects of selling it.  Tags, photos, descriptions, pricing, displays - not a fan of that "stuff."   I will try again at another craft show in November.  I definitely learned a lot about what I did wrong, my display set-up, my location, all that jazz.  I will make the appropriate changes and try again.  I really really really want to not try again, but I've always been a quitter, so I'm going to try to not quit, and see if I get different results.

My other solution is to actually list some items in my etsy shop.  I have had it for years and never listed anything.  I just hate almost every picture I take.  I've had multiple people help me and read almost every online photo tip.  I don't know what it is - except that my fear of bad pics leads me to not take any.  Perhaps this is one of those practice makes perfect situations!

After finishing my son's twin quilt a few months back, I've fallen asleep under it many many nights and love sleeping underneath something I've made.  And so the decision to make a queen size quilt with my fave's from the new City Weekend line.  I added in some Kona Coral, Canary, and Azure, as well as some white sashing.  The City Weekend is so damn soft!!  I finished "straight" line quilting it yesterday - I did speedy rather than slow and nice. There are quite a few minor puckers, but it's for us, so I'm not being picky.  I am quite scared to sew the binding on, both machine and hand aspects.  That's a big ol' quilt!

Big girl and a big quilt!

The back!  She just went and sat down like that! :)

I really just cannot wait to have this finished so that we can start sleeping under it.   I am so excited to be getting this one done!  I must have at least 8 different quilts in progress.  I hope everyone has been well.

I am really looking forward to getting back on track with fall here!!

And spending more time with this little girl -who has given me such a run for it recently- she just gets better and better every day!!

:) Rave

Feeling Better!!! YAY!!!!!

Oh my goodness!!  That was such a terrible first trimester!  I am so very thankful to be feeling better.  My mind does not do well when my body is sick.  Thanks for the positive comments.  It really is so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, huh? 
Busy weekend here.  So glad to be back in the sewing shed, even if it is just for cleaning and purging.  I have too much stuff.  I haven't bought fabric or any sewing machines since finding out we are having a third kid.  Baby steps, pun intended!  It feels really nice.  Sometimes I go a little crazy with things and buy what I want.  But there really is NO satisfaction out of this.  I think I have tried to teach myself this lesson about 457 times, but yet still don't have it figured out. 
I forget about the enjoyment of finishing things, how good it feels to pull a finished quilt out of the dryer, or dressing the kids in something homemade, or polishing up a dirty old sewing machine.  The instant gratification of buying just can't come close.   Maybe I just have an aversion to hard work- very possible.......

Anywhoooo, I cleaned, oiled and q-tipped a featherweight all weekend.  It was a nice weekend here, and I just laid it out on the picnic table and cleaned away.  It so fun to see the FW's get cleaned up.  When buying one off ebay, you will most likely end up with one that has been sitting somewhere funky for a reeeeeal loooong time.  They all smell terrible inside the case.  I have yet to figure out anything other than airing them out in the sunshine.  Old oil on the machines turns into a yellowy film on all the shiny parts, so they just look so blah until you get busy.  I like to use a silicone spray/ degreaser to clean parts.  I try just soap and water first, and that can get a lot of the funk off.  But for the really gooked on stuff, you have to go for some chemicals.  Not my fave, but you can't beat that shine! 

This one could have used some Turtle wax, but I have never tried that on a machine before, and I really wanted to get this one out in the mail.  I'm doing a trade with an East Coast amigo.  I'm really excited just to have one less thing in my shed!  And I really hope the recipient likes it!!

I also gave up on trying to pick out buttons to put on this dress.  Snaps are great if you hate buttonholes!!  It's been finished for months, probably February sometime.  Just sitting in the shed, collecting dust.  I love how it came out.  The reverse fabric was not intentional.  I can't even remember how I screwed it up, I just know that I did!.  And I ran out of fabric, so I threw in the extra solid.  I went with it and I love the reverse of this fabric.  It's a Kokka waffle weave and super soft.  I used Kona, school bus(I think), for the other panel and top.  Hopefully it will fit the girl soon!  I made a size 2 and my girl is an avg. sized 15 month old.  Maybe it will be her birthday dress?

I just love how great the Oliver & S patterns are- I mean look at that hem- I DID THAT!  It looks so compicated, but the patterns are so rad and Liesl explains things so well.