the Lorax and some Mermaids

I have finished the birthday sewing ... yeay.

First we have another pair of boxers for Mr. Giggles. Now I have to say that in our house we are great fans of the Lorax. My husband speaks for the trees frequently (and the birds and flowers whisper his name) and we have the movie poster gracing our bedroom - it's great Feng Shui we've found, so take that Interior Design Monthly. So a year ago, he saw some organic quilting cotton that he decided would do just nicely for a pair of boxer shorts and it had been sitting there since.
Happy Birthday honey ...

I made the same changes as before - namely added 1/2 an inch to the waistband height and 2 inches to the leg length. This time I made it without a fly, so no high-fiving on that account, but look at the pocket ... it's super matchy and totally high-fivable :-)

I have also made another Ice Cream Social Dress for her birthday and I think this might be my favourite version.

It's got mermaids all over it. She loves it. This time I made quite a few alterations. The original pattern is a bit sack-like tbh, so I added some flare and that improved it greatly. Also instead of gathers in the front I made one large pleat that lined up with the v of the collar. I cut out the gathers in the back completely and added a centre back seam.

She loves it and I am super pleased with it, so there will be more in future. Happy Birthday baby girl. We all love you very much :-)

the pink ice cream dress

Before I had kids I was determined to beat the pink tide that seems to sweep every girl. Indeed, whilst I was expecting my girl I refused to purchase any clothes with pink in it. The only pink she got were hand-me-downs from friends and that was alright, because her main source of clothing was her older brother and that was mainly blues and greens.

However, when I started sewing I tried to let the kids choose their fabrics, because I was really worried that they wouldn't want to wear the clothes that I laboured over and then I would get all sad. Wanna guess the first fabrics she picked?  ... well, at least she was good in matching them ...

Those 2 fabrics have lingered in my stash for over a year, but I really thought I needed to get a move on before she grew to the point that there wasn't enough fabric for a dress. I used the Ice Cream Social Dress pattern from Oliver & S I had used before, but lengthen it a bit in order to use the maximum of the fabric I had. Also instead on the band of contrast fabric, I made ruffles.

It is rather long on her, but she grows rather quickly and I don't have any young nieces, so if she doesn't wear it out, nobody will. I have another dress planned for her (this time with mermaids), so hopefully that'll be done before March 1st :-)

creativity needs to be encouraged

I have a confession to make. I have quite a few projects that I have been trying to get to and then I get distracted by something shiny. Take this one for example. Last year my son came home rather excited. He had finally finished his embroidery project and couldn't wait to show everyone.. I was beside myself, because embroidery and my son were not 2 words I would have imagined to put together in a sentence ever, so yeay for this unexpected surprise.

In order to preserve this great work of art, I offered to make a pillow out of it and we went to Spotlight the next day to choose the fabric and the pillow. He finally settled on some dark green drill and then he waited and waited and waited, so this morning I finally decided enough is enough and quickly got to it. Who knows what his next creative project will be and when ... :-)

also on V-Day

I made a second B4176 dress for my baby girl. It went much faster this time (not 2 month, but 2 days) and I used some cotton voile for that one. I had hoped to get it finished before the summer ends, but I think I might have missed it. Hopefully it'll still fit in September :-)

This time I made some changes though. I took about an inch out of the body, because she is just not that wide, but I also added about 2 inches in length to make it last a little longer. I also left the sleeves without the elastic as I thought it would be cooler when it is very hot.

This was the first time where I did a rolled hem. I do have a foot for this, but it didn't work as nicely - mainly because I didn't have a patience probably, so I did it manually and it worked beautifully.  Initially I only did the bottom hem, but then I went back and redid the sleeves.

I think it is a great improvement. Onwards to more birthday sewing ...

Happy V-Day everybody :-)

T'is the season to be busy ... we have Valentines Day, Mr. Giggles' birthday (Feb. 29th - and even after all these years it is still cool), the daughter's birthday (Giggles-in-training) and then finishing off on the 3rd of March with our wedding anniversary.

I was working on my second holyburn skirt, but it involves a lot of stripe matching and the fabrics is loosely woven, so there is a lot of hand-basting involved. I am now at the point where I need to insert the invisible zip and it all needs to match ...

So I have decided to take a little break and work on some presents instead. For V-Day I give you sleep boxer shorts. Big ones (patterns is from the Sew Everything Book) and little ones.

It is the first time I have done a fly and it doesn't gape, so I've been high-fiving (oh, shut up, spell checker, it is a perfectly fine word) myself and anyone who stood still long enough all day. My husband was so pleased that he requested another pair for his birthday, though this time without a fly - not sure whether the high-fiving was at fault or not :-)

Hollyburn Skirt Sewalong Part 1

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I finished my first Hollyburn Skirt from Sewaholic. I wanted to test out the sizing and make a little summer skirt with some fabric that I had little emotional attachment to. It's a cotton poplin that was on sale in Spotlight that I bought to make Colette's Crepe Dress. However, after I washed it and it hung to dry, it reminded my very much of bedding and I really thought it might be a bit much for the dress, so I thought I use it for some skirts or shorts something (I do have 5m of it, because the dress asks for 4.5 yards).

I cut a size 10 after much much deliberation - I made a chart of my measurements for a week, because in the morning I have a waist size of 27-28in, yet after dinner it goes up to 30-31in (seriously Giggles, stop eating). In this mid-morning picture the skirt sits lower then my waist, but as the day progresses it moves higher and higher :-) I did deviate from the pattern a little, because I cut View A (smallest flare), but made it the length of shortest one. I also cut the waist band on the bias and used some stretchy interfacing, because I really didn't want the waistband cutting me in half after dinner. It turned out really nice. I french seamed most of it, it's addictive really, and the zipper seam was finished of with bias tape ... ahhhhh

My downfall was once again the hemming, it was laying around for a week before I included it in my great Australia Day finish-a-tron. I even made a little skirt for the daughter (and promised myself that we never ever ever wear it on the same day)

My dilemma was how to count this with the Stashbusting Sewalong. I still have at least half of the fabric left, so it is 0.5 of a piece of fabric I guess. Now my bad news ... I picked up some more fabric ... yes, it wasn't planned, but they are only small pieces ... no, I don't have any willpower, but I will use at least 3 if not 4 pieces in February ... promise ... sorta ... we'll see how it goes :-)