kid's clothes week: sunny yellow sunsuit

Another Kid's Clothes Week contribution! This will probably be my last project for this go-around, but I do have an idea for one more (small) thing that I just *might* try to work in tonight or tomorrow. We'll see.

Anyway. Since my little bug is still a crawler, dresses can be a bit of a problem. So I started looking around for a romper pattern and what did I find but a cute (free!) tutorial by Made By Rae for a sweet little sunsuit. Since I know she makes good patterns (see my geranium dresses here and here), I decided to give it a go.

I used a yellow seersucker fabric that a friend gave me awhile back when she was clearing out her stash. I've noticed that I sew yellow things for my daughter a lot, but when I think of her I just think yellow. She is such a happy little thing... she radiates sunshine!

So back to the outfit. The tutorial was easy to follow and I learned shirring! (I wanted to say that I learned how to shir... but it seems that shir is not actually a word. This makes the process of shirring rather difficult to talk about.) It was super easy and is definitely a technique that I know I will use again. It just looks so classic, right?

I decided to make ties instead of the straps that Rae shows in her tutorial. I think they look adorable, but my daughter thought they looked good to untie and chew on. Note to self: next time tie in knots.

Comfy and easy to get around in! (Though now that it's shorts weather, she'll need to figure out how to walk soon if she doesn't want sore knees!)

A great pattern. Easy and satisfying.

kid's clothes week: summery geranium dress

Hey, I'm back! Remember how I said on Monday that I was all ready to go for Kid's Clothes Week? Well, I lied. Actually I didn't lie so much as life had other ideas. 

Yeah. The cold that both my daughter and myself had last week came back in full force over the weekend and just wouldn't get better. Finally I threw in the towel and we both headed to the doctor... ear infection for her, sinus infection for me. Blech.

So my sewing has been slower than planned, but I am still trudging along. 

And I'm excited to share with you the project that I completed this morning... a Summery Geranium Dress! 

This geranium dress is a little different than my last... I did the version with faux sleeves and pleats. I sewed it in the 18-24 month size so that my daughter can wear it to a wedding in July. It is a little big for her now, but hopefully will fit perfectly this summer. Fingers crossed.

I decided to use navy blue piping at the sleeves, waist and hem - I used Rae's tutorial for adding trim to the geranium and it helped a bunch.

I finished the back of the dress with vintage yellow buttons from my grandmother's collection. I love the vintage look of the fabric, so of course I had to stick with vintage buttons! Plus, I love using something that was chosen by either my grandmother or great-grandmother. What a special touch!

I got a little lazy and didn't use navy thread when attaching the piping to the hem... the little devil on my shoulder was whispering "no one will notice, it's only the bottom hem of the dress" and I listened. Now I wish I would have sucked it up and changed my thread but what's done is done. I tell you this now so that you do not make the same mistakes as me. Don't cut corners, or you will regret it later.

But I am still super happy with the dress. This was my first time using piping and it is my new favorite thing... it just looks so clean and smart. I also love the way that the piping brings out the navy in the fabric. I can picture this dress being worn with navy leather shoes (perhaps some handmade Natty Janes?) and a navy bow. It will be adorable, I know it. Especially on my little cutie. 

My goal is to complete at least one more project before the end of this Kid's Clothes Week. Wish me luck!

Fabrics:

Main: DS Quilt Collection Piccadilly Orange from Joann

Lining: Matching pink quilting fabric from Joann

kid's clothes week: marshmallow bunny skirt + tutorial

Yay! It's the first day of Kid's Clothes Week! I've been ready for this... a great reason to forget about cooking and cleaning for the next 7 days! Haha... I wish.

I will admit that I started this project last week, but I truly finished it today, so it counts as one of my KCW projects, right? Of course. 

One night, I got it in my head that I just HAD to make my daughter a skirt with marshmallow peeps on it. Had to. No ifs, ands, or buts.

So I did. And here it is. Turned out just as cute as I imagined. And because I thought some of you might be interested in making one too, I whipped up a little tutorial to go along with it. Because I love you guys. :) (And I love peeps! If you do too, check out my Marshmallow Bunny Plushies and Marshmallow Chick Plushies patterns!)

 

So, want to know how to make it? 

You will need:
* White fabric for skirt (I used white bottomweight fabric from JoAnn. It's a little thicker than regular quilting cotton so it's less see-through. Almost feels like a thin denim. For a young girl's skirt, 1/2 yard should be plenty.)
*  Small amounts of pastel colored fleece or felt
* fusible webbing
* Ric-rac
* 3/4" or 1" elastic for waist
* black embroidery floss and needle for bunnies' faces
* matching thread

We'll start by making the bunnies. 

First iron the fusible webbing to the back of your fleece or felt. I used fleece and it takes a bit more heat and pressure than usual to get the webbing to stick tightly to the fabric.

Now, make a template to trace. Here is a link to a template containing several sizes of bunnies you could use on your skirt. Choose what looks best to you for the size skirt you are making, and cut out the template, then use it to trace the bunnies onto the back of the fusible webbing. 



Then cut out your bunnies. (For my skirt, which is about an 18-24 month size, I cut 9 bunnies that were each 3.5" - second largest bunnies on the template page)



Peel the paper back off the webbing and then add marks for the bunnies' faces with a pencil onto the webbing. (I poked holes in the template with a needle and then set the template over the bunnies to draw on the eyes and nose.)




Now embroider eyes and noses onto the front sides of the bunnies with black embroidery floss using french knots. Here is a great tutorial for making french knots.



Yay, your bunnies are finished! Now you're ready to make your skirt. I followed the Simple Skirt tutorial by MADE. My instructions here are kind of brief, so if you need more help in constructing the skirt, please visit Dana's blog!

Measure your little girl. You'll want to cut your fabric so that the length is twice the size of her waist and the height is the distance from her waist to just above her knee + about 2 inches. So, for my daughter who has an 18" waist... I cut my fabric 36" x 12". It is kind of short but that's on purpose because she's still not a walker and I didn't want her to get caught up in the skirt when she's crawling.



Now, lay out your skirt and pin your ric-rac along the bottom, leaving room for a small hem. I pinned mine 1.5" from the bottom of the fabric. Sew ric-rack to the fabric with a straight stitch.



Now, set out your bunnies. Position them so that they are an even amount of space apart from each other and an even space above the ric-rac. The centers of my bunnies ended up 4" apart, and they are each 1/2" above the ric-rac.  Now iron the bunnies to the fabric.



If your bunnies stick really well, you could skip this part, but mine didn't, so I stitched around each bunny with a straight stitch on my machine, using matching thread. You could also hand embroider around each bunny.

Ok, you're done with the really tedious part! Now we just need to assemble the skirt. 

Fold the skirt in half, right sides together, and then sew the end together with 1/2" seam allowance. Iron the seams out. You can finish the seams with a serger or a zigzag stitch if desired. (I used a zig-zag stitch)



Now, along the bottom of the skirt, iron the bottom hem under 1/4" and then iron under again. Stitch the hem in place with a straight stitch. 



Now, iron 1/4" under along the top of the skirt. Then iron under again 1/2" wider than your elastic. (So, since my elastic was 3/4", I ironed under 1 1/4".) Sew around to form a casing for the elastic, leaving about 2" open to thread the elastic through.



Cut a piece of elastic that is 1" longer than the length of your little girl's waist. (My daugher's waist is 18" so I cut my elastic 19".) Thread your elastic through the top of the skirt, being careful not to twist. Sew the ends of the elastic together with 1/2" overlap on each side.



Sew your opening shut.

You are done!!



Any little girl would love this cute, twirly skirt! :)

My blogging goal for the year is to write once a week. If I don't get a post in today, I will have failed, so here is the post where I ramble on just so that I can say I wrote something this week.

BUT... I am all about quality over quantity, so I will try to keep this short and sweet.

Both my sweet girl and I have been suffering through colds this week (her first ever!! *sad face*). Hers is dragging on longer than mine, but I've been a little sluggish as well and this week has not been as productive or exciting as usual.

I am, however, gearing up for Kid's Clothes Week - starting on Monday! If you'd like to participate, you still have plenty of time to sign up and get ready. Only one hour each day for a week! I have some projects ready to go but have already changed my mind a couple of times so we'll see what I end up with. Should have a couple of fun things to show you guys, though.

And my craft room overhaul is finally starting to get somewhere. It may be a few more weeks because I am s.l.o.w. but when I'm finished I might finally share some photos of my favorite room in the house!

Last but not least... one of my work friends is moving away! She found a great new job in Indiana and I am so happy for her, but that means I will have one less fun person in Dallas to hang out with. And I have very few to begin with. Sad day. I need to make some friends. Seriously. I've always been bad at it because I'm not the kind of person who can just meet a person and then instantly be friends... you know? It takes months and months. And outside of work or school, it's just really hard to make that happen. Tell me I'm not the only person like this?

There I blogged. Aren't you proud of me?

baby gifts

This week I kept busy making an assortment of baby gifts for two new little boys - one born to my cousin and another to my husband's co-worker. I decided to make baprons and burp cloths for both of them, because both things have been so incredibly useful to us.

I used the burp cloth tutorial from the blog MADE. I have sewed up a whole bunch of these over the last couple of years, but I don't believe any of them have made it onto the blog. Quick, easy and really great for wiping spit-up and spills!

I've mentioned the bapron pattern before (here and here). I seriously love these and they get easier to sew each time I make them. I think by now I've made over a dozen!

The fabric is all from the Riley Blake Designs line Farm Fresh by October Afternoon. I found a bundle of fat quarters for a super good price at Tuesday Morning a couple of years ago and have been saving it for the perfect occasion (read: hoarding). I decided I should finally use it and I'm glad I did because these gifts turned out so cute.

Hope these come in handy and get lots of use!

fun vintage find

My husband and I love to go antiquing. When we lived in Indiana we used to go almost every weekend, and when we first moved to Texas, we went antiquing until we ran out of places to go that were not too far away. But since we had our daughter we have slowed down in that area quite a bit. Mostly because we don't want to drive too far, and with a baby it's a little more of a hassle. Not to mention the fact that we really don't need more "treasures" cluttering up our house and it is in our best interest not to spend the money...

But last weekend we went. My husband came up with a couple stores we hadn't been to within an hour of our house and we set out. We had a good time poking around looking for interesting things. Baby rode in the Ergo carrier and made friends with anyone who would make eye contact with her. So it was a win-win.

Plus, I found this super cute toy!

I would say the majority of the times we go antiquing, I come away empty handed. But sometimes something just catches my eye and I have to have it. So it was with this StromBecker "Zoo-Apart" toy. I just loved it so I bought it. I love that the animals are on a track and can slide off, so that you can switch their positions. A little online research showed me this toy was made and sold in 1950.

Now it sits on a shelf above my computer so I can look at it and smile every day. How fun!

Do you like to go antiquing or thrifting? What kind of things catch your eye?

cargo duffle

I finished my cargo duffle, you guys!!

Really, I am super excited about this. As I mentioned before, this is a free pattern by Noodlehead available on the Robert Kaufman Fabrics website. I've admired since it came out, but it looked sooo complicated that I just wimped out, I guess.

Enter Sophie Crespy who hosted a (bilingual!) sew-a-long on her blog C'est la vie, and I finally worked up the courage to try it out. 

And really you guys... I'm not trying to scare anybody off, but it is probably the most complicated thing I have ever made. It wasn't that any one step was super hard, just that there were a lot of steps. And the quilting part was a little bit of a learning curve for me since I'm not a quilter. But even through the many, many steps, and the many, many layers of fabric, my little sewing machine just kept chugging away. And then suddenly I was done!

And here I am. Very, very proud that I finished this bag and that it turned out as nice as it did.

Whew.

And now for the kind-of-sad part... please skip this if you want don't want to to cry sad tears for me. I SEWED THE BACK PIECE ON UPSIDE DOWN!!! I'm am so upset about this. I didn't notice it when I basted on the handles. I didn't notice it when I pinned the back piece in place. I didn't notice it as I sewed each side of the back piece onto the bag. I didn't notice it when I binded (bound?) the inside seams of the bag. I didn't notice it when I flipped it right-side-out and set it proudly onto the counter to display. An hour or so later as I turned off the kitchen light to go to bed, I noticed it. BAH! (Only I might have said something a little stronger than that.) It was all I could think of in bed last night. My first thought was, "There is no way in HECK that I am taking that thing apart and fixing it." But I know it will bother me for the rest of my life. And now I am seriously considering doing it. I can take off that piece, flip it and then sew it back on... I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world. What would you do??? [UPDATE: I fixed it and it was a lot of work, but it didn't kill me!!!]

Regardless, I am still very proud of this bag.

If you would like to try one yourself, I highly suggest following along with the sew-a-long, and also checking out this page of tips by Anna at Noodlehead. The pattern itself is clear but incredibly concise, which means each step isn't described in photos like many of the patterns I have become used to following. But it is totally doable, and I hope you try it!

Fabrics:

Catnap by Lizzy House Cat Dreams in Cranberry

Catnap by Lizzy House Chasing Butterflies in Clementine

Catnap by Lizzy House Jewels in Coral

(all purchased on Etsy)