Another dress pattern from my stash that I seem to make again and again. It’s a simple loose fitting peasant style dress that again can be done in a variety of ways. Last year, I kept it really simple and did not add any embellishments at all.  This year, I got a wee bit more ambitious and added the large flower to the bodice, one on each side of the capris as well as the 2nd ruffle.  You will notice a theme with all Tasha’s dresses this year, most of them, if not all of them have a coordinating pair of ruffle capris. She’s in grade 1 now and loves to run, jump, cartwheel and the like on the playground. The last thing I want is her showing her undies off to everyone. The capris help prevent that. Each pair that I’ve made I’ve done so with lightweight cotton, so she won’t be hot in a dress + capris.

I have to admit, I do so love the flowers. I did not even have to sew them! I used my handy dandy glue gun. LOL. They are not sewn on either, I glued them to pins. I knew after multiple washings that they would start to look bad. This way they can be removed after each wear and then pinned back on and they will keep their “fresh” look.  Tasha loves this oufit, I think mostly because of the flowers. Have I mentioned how much she loves flowers??  The pattern is by Juvie Moon, which can be purchased from her shop on Etsy.  The fabric is Michael Miller’s TA Dot in Red (reminds me of Minnie Mouse) and Plain Jane Flowers – Turquoise.

Another cute Owl project.  Funnily enough, I’m not a huge owl fan, but I do have a few patterns with owls as I know many people do. They become a bit of a ‘no fail’ gift.  In this case, I made up this medium sized tote as a Teacher gift for Tasha’s Grade 1 Teacher.  I know, it’s “only” April, but I wanted to get rid of some scraps I had and this tote is perfect for that.  For the top band and the straps there is no set width the patches have to be, as long as they are “x” finished length. You do have to have them a certain width, but it’s not that wide.

It’s a magnetic closure with spacious pockets on the inside.  I considered adding a key fob to the inside as well, but then decided not to at the last minute. I have one in my purse and I love not having to dig around for my keys. For some reason I never seem to put them in one of the pockets, I just drop them in my purse. hah  I really hope her teacher likes it.

The pattern is by Two Peas in a Pod and can be purchased in her etsy shop (if you are american) or at various online retailers.

This dress pattern is another one of my favourites.  It’s a simple peasant style dress but can be done in so many different options. With the ruffle, without, double ruffle at the bottom, shirred neckline & sleeves, different colours or all one colour/pattern.  It’s also a fairly quick sew. Well that is if you can focus on just sewing the dress.  Nothing for me is a ‘quick’ sew.  I usually have one interruption or another!

Again, this was taken in Ms. Kate’s room. Mother Nature does not seem to realize it’s almost May and is still providing us with crap weather for outdoor picture taking.  It’s rather frustrating, not just from a photo taking standpoint.  Maybe in my next house I’ll have my own studio? hah!  The fabric for this is from Sandi Henderson’s Secret Garden Collection. I bought the fabrics last summer and used them to make Tasha a knot dress (another classic dress, which I’ve sewn again, you’ll see it in a later post).  The pale yellow of the bodice and Red for the ruffle are a Heritage Cotton fabric I picked up at my local Fabricland.

Finally, after having knits sit on a shelf for over a year, I took the plunge and decided to try sewing with them. Initially, when I first bought them, I did not have a serger, and while you can use your sewing machine, a serger makes things a lot easier.  The knit fabric is of course from a fabric line by Patty Young, I believe this particular fabric is called Mod Blooms, which is from her Andalcia line.  It’s long since been discontinued so I am pretty sure you would have a hard time finding it, in a knit version.  She did a re-print/re-release of the Andalucia line last year with new colours, but I believe it’s a bit hard to find now too?

Tasha spends 2-3 hours a week at the dance studio doing Ballet & Tap/Jazz (in the fall she also did rehearsals for the holiday production Alice in Wonderland) and the studio is *always* cold. I understand the logic behind having it chilly, but before N gets to the ‘warmed up’ point from dancing, she spends it shivering.  I was buying dance shrugs for her from Lululemon’s Children line at Avivva, but I never liked the fit.  The arms are super long and tight fitting and the bodice too short. I know that a shrug is not suppose to be long, and it’s not like she’s not wearing her bodysuit under it, but I still felt it could use a bit more coverage.

I’ve made quite a few Heidi&Finn designs, some might remember the bubble dress that I did for K for Christmas and I’ve done a couple others. I had not looked at H&F’s etsy shop in a while as all her patterns only go up to size 5 and N is now a 6/7 in clothes.  Just for fun, I went and checked out her etsy pattern shop to see if there were any new patterns that I might want to make Katers. That’s when I noticed that she had added 3 new designs AND she was making them in larger sizes 6-12.

I ended up buying this shrug as well as a dress pattern.  Like all her patterns, they are well written, great illustrations and easy to follow.  I would take a guess that if I was not being interrupted by the girls, this shrug could be sewn up in about 1.5hrs.  Tasha loves it, and for my first time sewing with knits, it turned out pretty good.  It’s a big ‘gap-y’ in the back, but I don’t think that has anything to do with construction or my skill.  I had to seam rip the binding off around the neck/down the sides and while I was careful not to stretch the fabric, I still did a teeny bit.

Other than that, it’s a great fit (I did a size 6) and I love the ‘faux’ wrap around appearance (they are just ties sewn in at the sides).  I *plan* to make a couple more for her, one in black and one in solid pink.

While Tasha’s tastes in fabric colours and designs has not changed a lot in the last year, her preference for a skirt over a dress definitely has, I think this is the 4th skirt/top outfit I’ve sewn her since I started working on her summer wardrobe a few weeks ago.  Skirts are super quick to sew up, but then when you add in making a top for them, they take just a little bit longer than a dress to make.  I’m currently working on one other skirt/top (knits!) and I told her it would be the last one for a bit, that I needed a break from skirts and tops and that she should pick out a dress pattern for her next choice.

Both the skirt and top are by two designers I’ve never used before. The skirt is called the Sophia Paper bag Skirt by Hadley Grace Designs.  I did not have any problems with the pattern though. It was well written, concise, full of great pics/illustrations and there is not much I differently from her instructions.  The two things I did change was that I sewed on the pockets before the skirt was assembled. In her directions she does the pockets last.  There is nothing wrong with that, but it does make it a bit difficult to maneuver the skirt around the sewing machine arm to get the pockets on when the skirt is assembled. The other thing I did differently was putting the belt loops on before I inserted the elastic. Again, this was more for ease of sewing/attaching them then anything.

The top is called Maddie Top/Dress and is by SisBoom. This pattern allows for several different options. Not only does it include lengths for the dress or a top, but it also has 3 different sleeveless options. Flutter sleeves, bias taped sleeves or clean finished. I chose to go with the clean finished as I did not have any bias tape to match this fabric and I had also decided to make the dress option, at which point I’d do flutter sleeves.  The fabric is once again more by Patty Young. This is a more recent fabric line – Lush, so you should still be able to find it on etsy and other online retailers like QuiltHome.

Tasha picked this pattern out last spring as one she wanted me to make for her, but I put her off and did other ones instead. Mostly I was intimidated by all the pleating and I’m not usually a fan of halter style tops.  This pattern though, only goes to size 7 (which is mostly what N is wearing for sizing in Modkid designs) so I knew if I did not do it for her this year, she’d be too big for it next summer.

The fabric for this is also a Patty Young line, Mezzazine.  I know the pink/lime is called Gothic Flowers, but I’m not sure on the solid printed pink.  The white is from Heritage.  Instead of adding lace/ruffle to the skirting of the dress, I added some wide grosgrain ribbon, pink of course! Tash loved it, as it has lots of twirl, the top and skirt both.

Anyone else tired of seeing my bedroom walls or Kate’s for these pictures? Still too cold to take any outside.  We’ve been lucky with a few days here and there that are nice, but the couple of times I’ve taken Tash outside for pics by the fence, she spends the whole time shivering or telling me she’s too cold, so it’s just easier to do them inside the house for now.

So I did a little searching on etsy & craftsy and found the Peek-a-Boo Skirt by Little Lizard King.

It’s pretty much identical to the Julia skirt & it was a downloadable PDF, so I bought it and figured I had found a solution.  Well………..I did find a solution, the skirt is pretty much the same,  except that this pattern does not even compare to a Patty Young pattern when it comes to clarity, design and ease of assembly. The pattern instructions were poorly written and there was no sizing chart (not all kids are the same size at the same ages!).  In the end, I used one of my tried and trusted skirt patterns (I just eyeballed how short to make the overskirt). The only thing I followed from her pattern was how to make the pattern piece for the ribbon to give the skirt the gathering on the front.

I understand where she was going with her directions, she wanted to make it as easy as possible for anyone to do, but I just felt it was poorly explained with a lot of unnecessary steps. She also made no mention whatsoever about finishing your raw edges.  Easily done with a serger or zig zag stitch if you do not own a serger. No one wants a frayed garment.

For the top, I used Patty Young’s Hannah Shorts, Capris & Cropped Top pattern. This is another classic top, easy to assemble and also includes the pattern for coordinating flat front capris or shorts.  I know, there are *tons* of ruffle capris out there on etsy and craftsy, but Patty gave hers a bit of a twist by putting a fold up band at the hem and buttons at the side.  I also like that they have a flat front versus the waistband being elastic all the way around. I wanted to make Tasha the carpis, but she vetoed them in favour of the shorts.   I do plan to still make the capris though for Katers, who still has zero preference/does not care what I put on her for clothing. hehe

I wish I had added some ribbon to the front center of the bodice or buttons, because now, looking that the photo it looks rather ‘naked’, so I might go back and added 2-3 buttons to dress it up a bit.

This top was another quick sew with only 2 pattern pieces (she gives you measurements for the straps). I love the elastic back that makes for a better fit as well as the criss cross straps. I’m not a big fan of halter style straps (probably bc I do not like them on me either) so like this nice “twist” of adding them to the back bodice for a sweet criss cross and bows at the shoulder blades versus just straps on the front to tie around the neck.

I used more fabric from my stash – Grand Bazaar (Turkish Garden, Spade Pomegranate) for the skirt and skirting of the top and Sanctuary (Aroma Therapy) for the top and straps. Both of which are a now no longer available fabric line by Patty Young.  You’ll being seeing a lot of no longer available fabrics over the next few weeks as I’m finally using fabric I already have instead of hoarding it and buying more.  Much to the happiness of my husband.

Anyone else remember the Dick, Jane & Spot readers in school? Or am I just really really old?  Although I am trying to decide if I actually read these readers in grade 1, or if I *just* remember them from my older sisters reading them or the shirts that later became popular with Dick, Jane and Spot sayings on them.  Either way, when I saw this fabric, I thought it was adorable and had to buy some.  What I did not consider is that white + little girls do not mix so I never made any dresses or skirts out of it.

Instead of seeing it sit on the shelf in my sewing studio and not be used, I decided to make this sweet rag quilt out it as  gift.  I made one a while ago for a friend when her 2nd son was born and decided to make it again for N’s favourite Ballet Dance Teacher. She’s expecting her first baby in May and decided not to find out the gender.  I always find it hard to find something that is gender neutral that’s not green or yellow and I figure she will receive a lot of receiving blankets, sophie the giraffe, and other popular ‘in’ items, but figured making her a quilt might not be something she gets.

I made this one toddler sized, it’s big enough (37.5″x40.5″) to allow her to use it as a blanket for the stroller, carseat or spread it out on the ground at the park or on the floor at home with some toys.  I need to pop a note in the card to wash it on it’s own a few times until it full ‘rags’ or else she’s going to have a lot of ‘fuzzies’ all over her clothes as a rag quilt sheds quite a bit until it ‘frays’ completely at the edges.