Last of the Summer Crafting and Some Fall Sewing

I can't believe school is back in session and that I haven't posted anything over here since the 4th of July! Yikes. Well, I guess we were too busy having fun summertime adventures. I haven't done much sewing over the past two months.  A small project here and there. I made two more KIP bags (Knitting-In-Public) that are all the rage in my knitting group, and even added a neat little detail of a scissors leash to keep them from going flying when the bag gets knocked over. This one is mine, I got the cute scissor fabric from my cousin Tiffany as a birthday present.

I also made two needle organizer cases. I have been meaning to do this project for months and I love how it turned out! It holds both my circulars and double points and makes it very easy to see if I have the right needles for any project. I don't have a picture of the other KIP bag and needle case, I made them for my sister. A cute pink and brown set. Anything I can do to seduce her over to the dark knitting side....

I used two fat quarter, a remnant of batting and half a box of ziplock bags. It closes with a piece of velcro which works okay, but if I were to make another one I would use a magnetic purse snap for a little more heavy duty usage.

It did provide a perfect place to display my mantra...

I finished a pair of lace socks.

I call them my Waterfall socks because of the color of the yarn and the zig-zag pattern of the lace. The pattern is Spring Forward and the yarn is Cherry Tree Hill.

I also knit a simple shrug for Lila out of some yummy yellow Sorbetto yarn that has been hanging out in my stash for a year or so.  And then I thought it needed something to go with it so I sewed up a little sundress, the cherry fabric was also in my stash. And the best part is that I got the yarn on sale for $1.99 a skein and the fabric on sale for $1.99 a yard.  This whole adorable outfit cost me less than $5 to make!

Okay, maybe the best part is how much Lila loves her new dress.

 I cast on the shrug in the car one Saturday and Evie from the back seat said, "Oh! What are you making me Mom?"  I laughed and said, "Actually this is for Lila, but I love how you think everything I make is for you." She took that with a pretty good grace, but she asked me to make her one to match.  Good thing I have more of the Sorbetto in my stash.

I have started pulling out fabric and patterns to plan some fall sewing for Evie and Lila.  I am not sure how many of these will actually get made up, I think I like the planning and the possibilities in a pile of fabric so much I get a little carried away.  I love sewing warm things when the weather turns chilly though, so I guess it really depends on Mother Nature how much sewing gets done around here...

Happy 4th of July!

My sweet MIL gave my girls these fun shirts for the 4th of July, but they were a little too big.  I could have packed them away for them to wear in a few years, but then I thought they would be cute as dresses too!  I searched through my totes of fabric and found a remnant that would work.  I cut the hem off the bottom of the shirt, cut a 7" strip for Evie's skirt and a 6" strip for Lila's skirt, gathered the strip, stitched it to the bottom of the shirt and hemmed it.  Easy-peasy, cute and free! My favorite kind of project...

A Princess Dress for Evie...

I will admit freely that when my friend and I decided to take our daughter to the Princess Festival, I knew that I would be making Evie a new dress. "Doesn't she already own a half a dozen princess dress-ups?"  Yes  "Well, you probably already had all the fabric and stuff."  Probably, not that it stopped me from shopping a sale at JoAnn's to get fabric for it...  "So at least it was cheaper than buying a ready-made dress."  Yes. But not by much.  Some of my other excuses were, that I didn't want to be looking for my Cinderella or Snow White in a crowd of Cinderella's and Snow White's... it can double as her Halloween costume this year and that puts me way ahead of the game come October... oh who am I kidding. I wanted to do it, it's what I do. And I stand by the fact that if you compared quality to cost it was much cheaper than buying one....

The goodies!  Teal and pink satin (costume satin on sale for 2.99/yd. I haven't completely gone off my rocker...)  The silver and blue netting was from their prom collection fabrics and marked down 60%, plus I got a remnant of 2/3 yd for another 75% off! Score!  Pink netting and jewels that I didn't end up using... this time around.

Part of my creative process, as this time around I used no pattern whatsoever!  I have to admit to being just so slightly pleased with myself for just sitting down with no idea of where I was heading and having it come out so right!  The upper sleeves did have to be cut out twice due to a drafting error on my part, but still...

TA DA!

I finished it the night before and was so excited to see how it would look on my little princess!

Practicing her curtsy, so sweet!

We decided that she was Cinderella from The Slipper and The Rose version, which just happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time!

P.S. to Me:  Chrissy- next time you do something like this PLEASE try to remember no matter how good it looks in the end costume satin is a PAIN in the REAR to work with!!!

Evie's Hat

I really love this hat pattern.  I have made 4 of them so far, one for each of my girls and 2 for baby gifts.  I love that with a few different details, it can be perfect either a boy or a girl.  And maybe most of all I love that so far all of them have only taken a single small skein of yarn.  (Even when I sized it up to fit my older daughter.)  So this adorable vision in pink cost me less than $4!

(Just ignore the messy face, about the only time I can get her to hold this still is lunchtime...)

I just clipped one of her flower hair bows to the band.  So she could wear it plain or with a flower or bow.  I am excited to see the many possibilities we come up with. I also love that she loves it, she calls it her "cute hat" and wore for the better part of the day.  

Sew Through the Decades Challenge: Week 2

This last week was 1910-1919.   I loved looking at all the pictures of the little girls in the dropped waist dresses and I liked the detail of the sash through bands of lace or fabric like on image i below.

So I designed a sun-dress for my three year old with those elements.  

The dress is white cotton eyelet. It sewn almost like a tube top, with elastic around the top and the skirt gathered slightly to the bottom.  Then I took 3" wide lace and tacked it in place at the top and bottom of the dress and stitched across it at the skirt seam to create a pocket for the ribbon sash to go through.

Each lace band runs up and over her shoulder to create a strap/sleeve at the top.  I also added a tiny cotton lace trim at the bottom of the skirt for a finishing detail.

With the hat and gloves from our dress up box I think she looks ready to head to the shore "In The Good Old Summertime".

I also entered the dress into this contest.  There are a lot of fun projects to look at over there.

Sunday dress for Evie

I finished this dress a week ago, but I had to wait to get these cute pictures of Evie in her new summer Sunday dress.  I have a weakness for full skirts and puffed sleeves on little girls.  Aunt Caite said she looks like she is ready to step into Alice's Wonderland.

I also have a weakness for how adorable it is when you catch a peek of the lace on her slip...

Baby Take a Bow!

This dress also cost me $5.  I got 2 yards of this plaid seersucker cotton on sale for $2/yd.  It would have only been a $4 dollar dress, but I only had a 7" or 22" white zipper on hand so I had to buy a 14" zipper.  I love how fresh and summery she looks, so we'll call this another success!

A summer challenge...

A few days ago while blog surfing I came across a blog where they are doing a challenge that could have been tailor made just for me!

Click here to check it out!

Many, many years ago (sometimes it feels like another lifetime...)  I was studying to become a costume designer.  Then I met my husband and got married and started having children, and what with one thing and another, that (going to school) part of my life has stayed on the back burner.  But as I started looking around at the links she has to all the costuming and historical clothing, I knew that I had to do this challenge.  

It was already more than halfway through the first week of the challenge, so that is why I opted to only do a small project this time.  

Week One: 1900-1909

Knickerbockers for Lila!

I finished them this morning and brought them upstairs to try them on her. I was really pleased with how they turned out.  But even better is I had her show her Daddy, who I hadn't told anything about this challenge or what I was doing them for, so as far as he knew it was just another piece of clothing I had made for one of the kids.  He chuckled and said, "Those make me think of old-fashioned golfing pants."  I think he was a little surprised at first at how happy that made me! 

I made these by customizing a shorts pattern to add the bands at the bottom so that they gather and poof at the knees.  The bands snap to open and close with the button sewn on for decoration.  I wanted to have the old-fashioned look of knickerbockers, but modernize them with the choice of fabric and make them easy to get on and off a squirmy 18 month old!