Tuesday, May 17, 2011

i love stripes - birthday shirt and a refashion

For our 5-year-old friend, Noah:


For Sweet...the pink stripey shirt was from a thrift store. It was one of those too-short and too-wide size 5T deals, so I added the navy stripes, cut from an old maternity shirt. I cut it in a circle, added a rolled hem, and then did a double stitch to attach it to the hem of the shirt. I then used the donut hole to add interest to the top. I LOVE how this one turned out!


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Easterwear


I realized that I hadn't made anything for the kiddos from a flat piece of fabric in a long time (I think it was last Easter, actually). Last year, I mishmashed lots (and lots) of tutorials read over the course of a couple of weeks to create the pattern for each of the girls' dresses. I liked that their dresses were the same fabric, but different patterns, so they were matchy matchy without looking uniform. This year, however, I did not spend that kind of time trying to do everything truly from scratch. While I did make my own pattern, I followed an amazing tutorial/sew-along, and I made both dresses identical, enabling a bit of an assembly line approach (much needed, being that my time and my brainspace both feel significantly more limited these days). I was intensely careful and detailed with my work this time, too, and I am happy to say that I am as proud of the inside of these dresses as I am of the outside. I finished all my seams with my awesome serger, and I picked out every seam that didn't come out looking [nearly] perfect. I loved doing a puffy sleeve for the first time, AND making/using bias tape for the first time. At the end, I decided to add the bows (which I safety pinned on so I can remove for washing). All in all, I was a proud mommy seeing my girls march along in their matching dresses (which they LOVED). Oh, and did I mention that a friend of mine GAVE me this fabric?!? Yeah, she did, and it is oh-so-perfectly Easter.


Once I finished the dresses, it was on to my little man. No pink for him. I could not even think of using either of the fabrics to make even a tie. So I went shopping, and found the perfect onesie in the perfect shade of green, and I had a most-perfect accent fabric in my closet, from which I created a tie applique. I wanted linen pants, but didn't have enough linen in the closet to work it (just one small shirt to use), so I used an old dress of mine that was linen-like, and I cut and sewed his pants out of that. (Please forgive the crummy phone picture.)

He was thrilled (haha)...