summer dresses

Nesting. That's what's happening 'round these parts these days. 

For me, nesting includes plenty of sewing. And I'm happy to report that my list of items 'to sew before baby' is all crossed off!  I'll spare you the pictures of bassinet sheets and burp cloths, and instead share the specs for a couple of toddler summer dresses.

First, the one I loooove:

Using some Japanese fabric I've been hoarding for a while now, I made a 'pillowcase' dress, using this pattern, but the yoke from this pattern (which I've used before).  I'm such a newbie to garment sewing, even the simplest construction techniques are new to me. Like this was the first time I've used single-fold bias tape to shape and finish arm holes -- a trick I'm sure I'll use again.

And in a distant second place:

I love this green paisley fabric, but the resulting dress is a bit more 'pajama' than I expected. I used this peasant dress tutorial, just shortened the sleeves. I thought this would be the easier of the two dresses, but all that elastic casing was a bit fiddly.

Ok, enough sewing talk for a while.  I just made some tasty new scones so I'll hook you up with the recipe soon. 

crayon roll

I swear, most of the projects I make for kids are basically attempts to recreate things I would have loved as a kid. Crayons that each have their own pocket in a colourful roll-up travel case? I would have been over the moon.

Here's the tutorial I used. Pretty simple stuff. A simplified version of my knitting needle case.

I love this version, where each crayon has its own colour-coordinated pocket. But since these are for toddlers, that level of organization seemed like overkill.

party bunting

I got on the bunting bandwagon.

We have a small paper-cut banner of sorts that we put up for celebrations, but I wanted something a bit more sturdy and well, bunting-like.

I went after my fabric scraps with pinking shears and now we've got seven yards of bright bunting. Party on.

I know, I know, the silly things have been everywhere. But I don't care. They're cute! Don't they make you want to have a cupcake or a slice of pie?

In case you're interested in all things bunting...
say it with a bunting birthday card
tell guests they're awesome with compliment bunting
or tell them whatever you want with alphabet bunting
icing's out, bunting on cakes is in
paint one on your tablecloth
Easter is coming. make a string of peeps
every nap is worthy of a rainbow bunting baby quilt

toddler's apron

My kid's got the best play kitchen ever, so naturally, she needed an apron in her stocking.

But since I didn't want to have to make a new apron every time her head grew, there was the problem of making it adjustable. I didn't have one of those buckles on hand, nor did I like the idea of tying ties at the waist and at the neck every time she wants to put on her apron.

Then I saw this apron (via this motherload list of apron tutorials), which is completely adjustable thanks to just one long tie. Genius!

Rough instructions should you want to make one: 

Measure the kid and decide on your length and widths*, create a pattern piece out of paper and cut out one piece from cool fabric and one from muslin or bedsheet (or whatever you want as a backing). Sew right sides together, turn inside-out, topstitch, sew in casings along side edges, and finally thread through a tie (I use cotton twill tape). 

*Final measurements for my two-year old's apron (add seam allowance if you want to make the same size):

8" from top to waist, another 7" to bottom, total of 15" long

6" wide at top, 12" wide at waist, 14" wide at bottom

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And with that final stocking stuffer, I'm signing off for a little while. Instead of a picture of boring poinsettias, I'll give the final word to my purple pansies. (I had no idea these little guys were so hardy.)

Enjoy the holidays!

temporarily festive sweaters

The assignment: Two cheesy Christmas sweaters for the holiday bash at Jeff's office.

Limitations: Didn't want to buy anything. Had less than an hour of naptime to spend on this.

The process: Used bits of felt from my stash and the sewing machine to make appliques. Safety-pinned them to sweaters we already own.

The result:

wool skirt

As much as I complained about those pajamas, I will sew more clothes. In fact, I got right back on the horse with this very simple wool skirt.

And since I received this lovely book for my birthday, I've got grand plans. The little red riding hood cape on the cover may be the first thing I attempt, but I can't decide whether I'll make it with a red cotton or with a nice gray wool I already have...  ooh, a red wool would be nice.

llama llama red pajama

This will not become an annual tradition. 

For all the folks that sew their kids new pajamas every Christmas -- wow, what an effort. I just made this one little set and think that sewing clothes is dang fiddly. I would've bought the pajamas if I could've found Plain Red Pajamas, but all I found were silly bears and moose and reindeer.

So, onwards and upwards, I decided to make my own. Granted, it would have been easier if I'd used an appropriately-sized pattern. I ended up using a baby pattern from this Amy Butler book, attempting to make the pattern bigger in the places I thought it ought to be. That's probably a relatively simple task for someone who understands clothing construction and sewing patterns, but for me, it involved some trial and error for sure. 

At any rate, the pajamas are done, and they fit, and they're pretty cute. They're to go along with a favourite bedtime book, llama llama red pajama, which, after Christmas, will finally be owned and not just perpetually borrowed from the library.

Yes, this is a Christmas gift and it is beginning of November. (Don't hate me 'cause I'm organized -- try as I might, I am not a last-minute shopper.) But this way, my kid will forget she ever saw it by the time Christmas morning arrives. 

handmade holidays

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

See you over at Sew Mama Sew this month.

e-i-e-i-o

This project started with a bit of hubris, an 'I could make that!" declaration in a store. The store-bought play kit had a fold-up barn made out of cloth and a cute collection of felt animals.

I quickly decided my barn would be a much simpler drawstring bag, but I didn't really intend for my animals to be quite as, ahem, rudimentary as they turned out. I think it goes without saying that I didn't use a pattern, but just whipped out these critters with little regard for the details. I like the horse, but all of my animals kind of remind me of what you'd get during craft time in kindergarden. But whatever. They looked enough like animals for my kid say, 'oh, this must be a cow!' or in her words, 'mooo.'

And then I saw these felt animals at Ikea -- too cute! I had to buy them. I planned to just toss my animals and let these new ones live in the barn, but now I can't bring myself to throw mine away. I've grown attached! And I'm kind of touched that my kid doesn't seem to have a preference for the professional-grade barn animals.

So I think we'll keep all of them for a little while longer. Mine will fall apart soon anyway.

a bag for books

I'm not sure what happened, but Blogger ate this post. Here's a repost...

Look, it's a book bag!

That's right, a bag for books -- library books, to be more precise. And look, a perfectly-sized hidden pocket for the necessary library card.

I was inspired by the Library book tote that Holly of Chez Beeper Bebe made for her boy -- made with a few adjustments.

I'm imagining a bag for the BEACH and the STORE and for FOOD. Honk if you love taxonomy too.

bathing with animals

Ever since my friend gave us a little washcloth bunny, I have been meaning to add to our bathtime zoo with repurposed towels. After cleaning out the linen closet over the weekend, I had the old towels I needed -- including a striped one just destined to be a zebra!

The zebra, which admittedly looks a little piggish, and the puppy dog are puppets -- a simple zigzag stitch around the embellished pieces. The bunny is a sew-right-sides-together constructed washcloth.

Isn't it crazy how a little embroidery thread and some felt can turn a simple blank body into a recognizable animal? I mean, that one little patch under the eye is kind of an ingeniously simple way to indicate 'puppy,' don't you think? (Thanks to Martha Stewart -- the puppy puppet washcloth is in her fabric & sewing crafts encyclopedia.)

Rub-a-dub-dub. Arf, arf.

hand sewing

Finally stitched up some bunny finger puppets. So easy, you could make a bunny army -- a very non-menacing bunny army.

And I've been whipstitching some magnet letters à la this plush alphabet set. I doubt this will ever be a complete alphabet though -- hand sewing may be relaxing, but it takes time.

spring fling

Feeling bright blue? Or perhaps orange?

That's the choice with this sweet little reversible top. (free pattern from Prudent Baby)

Funny story. One exactly like it -- or rather exactly like it except for the size of the neck hole -- is sitting in the whatamIgoingtodowithyou pile. Yep, I made the whole thing, was just about to put on the bias tape, thought to try it on for size... and I couldn't get it over my kid's head! (Anyone else have scenes of So I Married an Axe Murderer in their head right now?)

In my kid's defense, it's not as if I measured anything when I 'followed' the pattern.

But my second attempt fits great. I'm thinkin' of making a third, but with oilcloth on one side for a wee artist's smock.

* mosiac maker c/o bighugelabs

dreaming of laos

Some friends of ours brought me four beautiful, embroidered fabric panels from their trip to Laos. Now that they're expecting a wee one, I thought I'd give one of the panels back in a very useful form: a drawstring bag.

The rest were made into mini blankets for all the mini things that take naps at our house.

purple bunny blanket

Here's a completed quilt for my gal. It's her 'purple bunny blanket' since she's got a thing for rabbits.

soft chenille back + plain cottons + a few of my favourite prints =

I've been noticing appliqued animals all over blogland (cute onesies, anyone?) and I was inspired by the lovely quilts here and here to try my hand at it.

My free-hand bunny came out a bit fat plump, but until my kid gets really into aardvarks, I'll enjoy trying to wing it without clip art. Handmade is supposed to have imperfections, right?

Of course, now that I've done one rabbit, I have grand plans for a whole quilt full of critters. We're supposed to be optimistic, right?

kindle cover

I suppose it's time to show you a Christmas gift I made for Jeff. It is February, after all.

Both Jeff and I weren't really keen on the kindle when he got one as a gift from work, but it's grown on us. In those early days of rocking (and rocking and rocking) the babe to sleep, one-handed reading came in very handy.

As it came into our good graces, I decided it needed a handmade cover. Enter this great tutorial. Do you know a kindle that needs a cover?

projects for the new year

Check out this fantastic list of tutorials -- a roundup from 2010. So many of these projects are ones that I'd love to make. But first... I need to get organized!

I mean, I've got patterns printed and waiting in my WIP box, a ton of ideas bookmarked on the computer, pdfs saved to the desktop, inspiration jotted down on our fridge's whiteboard, my queue in ravelry... it's hard to keep it all straight, really. I need a master list somewhere.

What's your system? Is it paper or digital?

get it? block bag

I made a simple drawstring bag for the blocks we got for the babe's birthday. I had what I thought was the perfect fabric on hand...

And some little hot wheels will be making their home in this bag (truck definitely not to scale)

I'm not sure I have a fabric for every toy, but I sure like it when it works out.

mrs claus never gets coal

I needed one more stocking to round out our set of three. Here's the one I made last year, and here's the one I made from a hideous sweater at the thrift store. It was just begging to be made into something new...

This one's for me. Doesn't it look like a stocking that Santa would fill for his wifey? Just call me Mrs. Claus.

But now I think the striped one from last year is kind of a weak link in our set, so I've decided it'll just be Jeff's interim stocking until I find the time to make another one. For sure before next Christmas, okay hon?

How could it possibly take a person three years to finish a set of three stockings when one is already store-bought? Ah, but a clue!

it's november

I've been eagerly waiting these 30 days of sewing & gifting inspiration over at Sew Mama Sew. They're giving away a lot of stuff this month too. Very cool. See you there...