birthday presents!

one of D's schoolmates turned 3 this past week, and her favorite color is purple...
I decided to take the opportunity to draft some of the patterns I've been working on...

I was reasonably pleased with them, and she lit up like a candle, she was so happy with them!

I love the rose I added to this dress (which is the Aviatrix Dress... with really big sleeves)

and here's the Peacock dress (and a doll, with a coordinating dress)

here's the back view of both....

Crocheted rock...

The Bean says it's a Rock in a Dress.
I'm gonna make some prettier ones (more complex designs) for D's Beach School teachers for Xmas presents. The Bean and I gathered a few rocks from the beach school beach this morning, and I'm gonna do a red one for the Red Bird teacher, and a yellow one for the Yellow Bird teacher.

Halloween costume hack!

Eek! Time is runnin out! No time for patterns or precision, just grab some old wrapping paper and draw! One kangaroo costume for a 2year-old coming up!

Playtime!

I'm drafting slopers, playing with my fun rulers, my pattern drafting book, and lots of colored sharpies. FUN!!!

Welcome home!

My kitties must have missed me, I have one on each side right now, as I sit and sew on the sofa... They're purring up a storm, it's like sitting with a massagy-vibraty blanket on top of me. Quite nice. I'm listening to the rain, watching the sun rise, and sewing up a CANDY CORN BARRETTE! Katherine, from One Inch World, was kind enough to send me extra supplies so I could make more, which I already did! Hers is the pretty one centered on the card, mine is the less-pretty one below. THANK YOU, KATHERINE!

East Coast Vacation!

And I managed to peek into the Stitch House Dorchester (in Dorchester, MA)... The bean insisted on this gorgeous variegated pink wool, and I didn't put up much of a fight. D wanted some knit toys, so I got patterns for him.

WIP wednesday (a little late)

Duplicate stitching a pair of "colonial blue" pants for the bean. We're gonna try to do a little junior-Yalies photoshoot this weekend.

Brilliant ladies!

Made-by-Rae's little bubble romper, and an awesome little quick sketch of the Bean drawn by my awesome grandma. Isn't it sooooo cute!

Raincoat!

This one is defninitely a coat, not a dress!

I was able to make the other two in about an hour or so each.
this one took much longer, 4-5 hours. ick.
I'm not a fan of laminated cotton, after all. Even if it is "Lindy Leaf" by Heather Bailey.
but it came out SO well!

I lined the hood with red Minkee scraps that I had...

and the inside is "Picnic Bouquet," in Moss, also by Heather Bailey

I *heart* this fabric line, and have used it for a shirt for D, a shirt for C, (which I still haven't put snaps on. even though I "gave" it to him on his birthday... MUST DO ASAP! and then will photograph!), and I have small cuts of several other fabrics in the line to make the Bean a dress... at some point...
luckily, she LOVES wearing this coat, and insisted on wearing it all day yesterday, even though we were mostly inside, and she was sweating.

(updated to add a picture of the lining... and a cat.)

Round 2, Dress vs Coat

My kids have really big heads, so they're going to be awesomely smart when they grow up, right?
I wanted to make a hooded raincoat for the Bean, but I know she has a GIANT noggin, just like her brother/dad/both-of-her-grandmothers, so I wanted to test my pattern/sizing before cutting into the cotton laminate...
The Bean had spotted this lightweight corduroy at the Cotton Shop when we were there last week, and I'd bought her a yard, with no real plan in mind.... I tend to hate black, and not like putting my little ones in black either, but it's ladybugs, so... whatcanyado?

I think it's a hit!

I made this more like a swing coat, it's really flared, almost like a circle skirt....

the hood is lined (with the same thrifted red-n-white floral I've been using for a year, and I still have SEVERAL yards left on the bolt!)

and I added a little rose on the outside, just because...
She's tiny enough that even cutting with the nap of the corduroy, I have plenty left over from my 1 yard of fabric to make her babydoll a matching dress!
(I also added a small pocket on the outside, after she wore it, because she insisted it needed to have a treat pocket.)

Necessities!

Underpants are definitely a necessity right now, but they have to be teeny tiny to stay up on this teeny tiny frame.
I bought some awesome pretty floral knits at Momen+, and tested my pattern with some scrap solids and a red ribbing scrap. The bean LOVES them, and insists on wearing them before I can take nice pictures. I'm thinking I might need to pull and all nighter tonight to finish my dress, make hostess gifts for our trip, make the Bean's birthday dress (her party is the day after we get back), make an extra surprise for the groom, and make as many of these as I can from the fabric I have. Good times.

It's hard to sew on a cool foggy morning...

One kitty on the dress I'm working on, one kitty sleeping right behind my sewing machine.
Their kitty rules clearly state that hans aren't allowed to wake or move them when they're comfy.

a coat or a dress

ummmm. other than the weight of the fabric, is there a difference?
I put lots of ease in The Bean's clothes, so that they'll fit for a long time, and so that she can run/wiggle as much as she wants....

I drafted this pattern to make her a simple raincoat, but I don't want to cut into the really expensive laminated cotton I bought for this purpose until I know if the pattern works, so I tested it with this simple (and cheap, as it was on sale) cotton corduroy. The Bean chose the fabric, insisting that we "need dat, mama, neeeeeeed dat fowers!"

I had JUST enough to make the coat/dress and matching hat....

D helped me put in the snaps (the bean did NOT help, as she sat there and mixed up all the previously sorted snap parts while my attention was on the press. boo!)

she really likes the strawberries inside the hat!

Huck Finn Cap

I LOVE this hat!
I bought the pattern to make a hat for D, but of course, even though the pattern is supposed to fit up to a 10 year old, my son's head is an whole INCH bigger than the biggest size. So I'm going to have to enlarge the pattern, boo.
I figured before I started scaling, I should test it, right? in a size that already works?
so, since the coat/dress I just made had some scraps left over, I whipped (or labored for 6 hours last night) this little cutie out:

I even used a twin needle to make these pretty topstiches:

of COURSE, I had to find something cute to line it, and it had to match, (and I had to find it without waking children, in the dark)... luckily I had this 1/2 yard of cloyingly sweet strawberries... the Bean likes looking inside her hat to find the strawberries, but I don't have to look at them all the time.


here's the hat with the coat/dress (in this weather, it's a coat, but it snaps all the way down, so it could be a dress, maybe? it's lightweight cord...)

hand vs. machine...

see this dress:

isn't it GORGEOUS!?!?!?!?

I found it in this book, which I got at the library, while looking for girls fashion.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this dress! love the embroidery, love the sash, love the zipper front, love ALL of it.

but it's vintage, and in a book, so, clearly, I can't have it.

...unless I MAKE it!

of course, if I'm going to make it, I'm going to make it perfect for ME, and that means, given my 2 young children, that it can NOT be white. So I found some red stretch poplin at Joanns (thanks for the 40% off coupon, LA Times!), and grabbed a variety of vintage patterns to draft from (and enlisted My Awesome Grandmother to help fit me!), and set to work!

I have been stitching/pattern-drafting away, all week.

I have 1 side totally done, and the other side about 1/2 way done... and I have all the patterns made and tested, although not cut out of the real fabric yet...

I'm having soooooo much fun with just stem stitch and satin stitch!

I realized, however, that while I can finish the two bodice embroideries in time to wear the dress next weekend, I definitely do NOT have time to do the skirt embroidery.... at least not by hand.

Luckily, however, (or, rather, thanks to my AWESOME husband), I have an embroidery machine and the software to design my own stuff.... so here's the design I digitized tonight for the skirt:

(it'll be turned horizontally, obvi)

hopefully this weekend I'll have time to cut the skirt out and start the embroidery process....

we leave on friday.....