Comfy Christmas Outfits

Yeah, I don't even know what to say about my littlest in this skirt, except I love it! She looks like a perfect little candy cane with her big ruffles! :) I made this skirt by just doing a basic skirt with three tiers of ruffles. It's all made of jersey or interlock knit, except the white ruffle which is nylon chiffon like I used in these flowers.

Oh and this is one of the ruffly skirts I alluded to when I posted my Blinging Rudolph stocking (hmmm, Jessica if you're reading, I'm still waiting of a picture of my little LC wearing hers!)

And my big girl for a Sweet A Line Dress (pattern by Lil Blue Boo) with matching leggings and sparkly red shoes (her fave). I absolutely love the fabric on this dress - it's a Rudolph print and that SO incredibly soft! I hope this picture does it justice!

A couple more pictures ... I love this hairbow (just below). I made it years ago with a Martha Stewart tutorial. I has red jingle bells on top of white holly leaves & pink ribbon.

And that's a wrap! (I do have another Christmas'y dress but it hasn't made its way into the wearingcycle just yet!

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Sweet A Line Dresses - Scrappy Style

So it's pretty obvious I *may* be a little obsessed with Lil Blue Boo, right? Yes, yes I am! When she released a new pattern last week I of course bought it right away, and made 4. Yes 4. Here are numbers 3 and 4 ... still need to photog numbers 1 and 2 :)

I so love LBB stuff that I bought a box of scrap fabric a while back; who can pass up promises of those silk screened scraps? Well not me. I have been just waiting and waiting for a good idea to pop into my head for using my favorite silk screen scraps (the "when I grow up" print, and the paper dolls)! This is what I came up with and I couldn't be happier!

This pattern (like all the others) is great. Easy, easy to follow, and super cute. I've made sizes 2/3 and 3/4.

It's safe to say we "all" like the new dresses. Except the little ones said they were "freezing" on this particular day (it was like 65 degrees here = freezing) and so we had to zip back home for long leggings and coats ... oh and the photo session was abruptly ended when my models walked out on me! ....

Isn't it cute how the little one's dress back is a completely different - yet totally coordinating - fabric? I love that!

Oh and did I mention this pattern goes up to size 14 years?!? So, nieces heads up: you're getting dresses for Christmas this year! ;)

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Preppy Apple Outfit

I've been making so many of these dresses lately, it's almost embarassing! Perhaps someday soon, I'll get around to taking pictures of them and posting :) You know what else? Making clothes = fabric shopping, and I've been doing a lot of it! Double :)

I recently discovered Girl Charlee as a GREAT resource for purchasing really cool knit fabrics, AND they are super affordable. Here in blogland, I kept hearing about "french terry knit" and was curious about it. Soon as I got to wondering about it, Girl Charlee listed this ridiculously cute apple fabric in a french terry - sold! This fabric just screams "back to school" to me, with all those cute apples. The apple core is a Heart on here, so I picked up this cute ribbed cotton trim to coordinate.

Beret Close-Up

The dress is made from Lil Blue Boo's Sienna Dress Pattern in a size 3 with a couple modifications: (1) changed pattern piece for neck trim into one piece about 75% of neck opening, and (2) added wide trim to arms and bottom, and (3) made this a "bubble" dress by making the trim piece smaller.

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Making Hairbows from Knit Scraps - {DIY}

You know how you end up with tiny little scraps like this:

All of these scraps were turned into the rosette clips pictured above!

I am using these lately to make hairbows / hairclips for my girls. Since I've been making a lot of clothes, I have all those scraps, so I can coordinate the bows perfectly!

For the pink rectangular scrap up there, I cut it down the middle (long ways) to about 1" before the end - waalah! One long strip! Since you twist and wrap anyway, that square end is not noticeable.

I stocked up a while back on various kinds of hairclips. I like the "alligator" style one for one daughter (very thin hair). I love these little organizer boxes that I found at the craft store; they are perfect for little things!

These are SO easy to make. There are about 40 million tutorials on the web for rolled rosettes, and Sarah has instructions here. Basically, you tie a knot in one end, and then twist and wind - hot gluing as you go!

When you get to the end, you'll have some left over ... I like to glue that down over the BOTTOM of the rosette. You can trim is "round" so that you don' t see any of it from the top!

To attach to a clip, I like to add a strip of felt BETWEEN the prongs and then apply glue all over the top of that strip:

...and them plop the rosette on top! Then, I trim that strip so that it doesn't show. For small flowers, I start with a smaller strip:

If you make them, have fun and make plenty!

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Another Comfy Outfit

Now that my serger is back, I just cannot get enough of sewing stuff up for my girls. It seems to sew so much faster and the seams are just SO NEAT!  Did I mention it tears through multiple layers without a hiccup!

I stocked up on even more knits after I discovered this site  (Chez Ami) as a place to order cute knits at really affordable places! I had a little trouble ordering online, but a phone call to them cleared it up quickly. :)

Fabrics Used ...

Top: Jersey Knit - Turquoise Multi Butterfly Dot from Chez Ami

Shorts: Knit Cafe Dot Green City Weekend by Oliver + S (the waistband is Modal Spandex from eBay)

Square Top made with the free Square Top Tutorial by Lil Blue Boo. My daughter is 2 yo, so I used a 26" square for her. It worked great! The Shorts were made with the "Perfect Shorts Pattern" from Lil Blue Boo. I may be obsessed with these shorts - they are SO FAST to make & work up adorably.

She makes quite the model posing up on Daddy's tablesaw (don't worry - she was supervised!).

It was hard to get a picture of the hot pink waistband on her, so here's a close up of them without the model.

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Fourth of July Dresses

Couple of pictures of the girls' Fourth of July dresses in action. It hurts me to say that these were taken at approximately 7:10 am on the first day of vacation (after a 7+ hour drive which ended in a 2:30 am bedtime). My kids are clearly morning people! 

Anyway, these were really easy ... basically  gathered fabric attached to a tank top. There is a detailed tutorial for this here. We love the American Apparel tanks and always have a ton on hand; I see more of these in my sewing future. I like the mix of knits & fabrics and the ease of the pre-made top.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! :)


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Festive Romper turned Dress

By  now, the cat's out of the bag: I'm currently obsessed with Lil Blue Boo's patterns, and I love sewing with knits. This is Ashley's Maliboo Romper Pattern, which is the most recent clothing pattern of hers. When she released the pattern, she offered a giveaway on her blog and I was lucky enough to win one! Woo-hoo! 

I couldn't wait to try it out, and I knew I wanted to make a patriotic one for the upcoming Memorial Day & 4th of July. I have had the worst luck finding cute printed knits in stores, and am slowly realizing that you have to just purchase online. I am so impatient, I couldn't wait for that. SO, I went to Goodwill and found some fun red, white and bluep prints (and even one with stars!).  Silly me, I thought I may have gotten enough for two rompers, but it was only enough for one, so the "baby" gets this one! She makes a fine model and may be the cutest thing I have ever laid eyes on. Ever.

Materials for this one: upcycled knits from Goodwill; purchased ribbed knit in red for the back 'band'

see the little 'flair' on the bottom back here - that is because I didn't sew up the crotch!

Why is this a Romper turned Dress? Well because I goofed up! I accidentally sewed the crotch of the front piece to the outside. I'm a little embarassed to say that I didn't even notice this until I got to the VERY END and realized that there was no front crotch to sew to the back crotch. Oops.

I wasn't even about to rip this all out and I also wasn't going to scrap the project. So, I tried this on the little miss without any crotch being sewn and decided - it worked as a dress! The only modifications I made were to trim the front crotch (which was on the outside edges of the dress) to make it flow a little smoother. I left the back crotch there (it gives a little asymmetrical flair) to the back and just did a quick zig zag stich around the bottom as a "hem."

I totally love it! I may make more dresses from this pattern too because these rompers / dresses are just perfect for summer! ;)

If you're wondering about the leggings - California is COLD! They don't totally match, but it's what I had. It was a little colder there than we are used to here in Arizona ;)

In case you're wondering, yes I've made more rompers by now. The proper way. As soon as I finished this one, I cut material for another. I slowed down and paid attention and ended up with an actual romper. Then I made another one ... because this time I had enough for two matching rompers for my sweeties! I still need to attempt photos of them together in those rompers so I can post, but they are stinking cute in them.

Gotta say, I love the open back of this halter style romper - shows off her cute baby tan she picked up at the beach! :)

We were in Oceanside, California this past weekend for the holiday and Great Aunt's 90th birthday. My in-laws beach house is GORGEOUS and I thought this Red & White lifeguard ring was a perfect prop to have Izzie pose with. She is always happy to play along!

ps- have you voted for the Garden Challenge yet? Please do!

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Another Shirt for Me! and Sewing Machine Discovery

I introduce you to my Lil Blue Boo Pieced Tunic No. 3! I daresay that I may be obsessed with this pattern, ok all of Ashley's patterns from Lil Blue Boo ... I love knits, her patterns are easy to follow, fit is super flattering and always comfy! And, now that I've gotten the hang of this tunic, it really is quick to sew!

I bought some Modal Spandex from this eBay store and used it for the top front & top back pieces (the pink). It's pretty slippy and a little tricky to sew, but SO WORTH IT. It really does drape beautifully and it's SO soft. When sewing the spandex to spandex, I definitely had to start at a middle point and sew out to the ends to avoid my machine "eating" it. (I don't have a serger -YET - so this was done on my regular sewing machine w/ a ball point needle).

Other than the pink spandex, I upcycled tee shirts & some jersey.

• Hog's Breath Tee from Key West circa 2001. I bought this for my then boyfriend, now husband. He never liked so I just took it back! Hog's Breath is a staple in Key West; what's he thinking?
• The gray is from an Atlantic Beach tee shirt ... I didn't get a good picture of it, but you can see a little of the words in the pic above.
• Grey / white stripe - in waistband. In a desperate move to add stripes to this tunic ... I ran to Goodwill and crossed my fingers. I came away with a ladies shirt in this grey /white stripe for $4. Sold!
• The ribbed knit for the neck and arm bands is also upcycled. Years ago, I made a MOBY wrap for myself because I couldn't see the sense in paying $50 for a long piece of knit. I no longer have a need for it, so I have started cutting into it and it's just perfect for the 'bands.'

Speaking of the neck and arm band ... if you're making these or any knit items with a neck or arm band and having some trouble, check out this video! Wow! This helped me SO MUCH in making Tunic No. 3. Being able to see someone else do it properly helped me alot. It was also incredibly helpful to see how to 'quarter' the neck band since the front is so much lower than the back. Really helped me out. The video is by Threads Magazine, which appears to be a great resource! I decided to buy the current issue @ Joann's the other night to see what it's all about - I haven't gotten to it yet, but maybe this weekend!?!

I'm still  a fan of the racerback!

=

Attempted close up shot of the quote ... this was the front of the Hog's Breath tee; flipped around and used on the back.

What about my discovery? It's a new stitch that I've discovered on my sewing machine! When I saw down to make these tunics, I decided to read up in my sewing machine manual about "stretch stitches". I tested them all and discovered that I really like this one called "slant overedge." It creates a seam AND finishes it at the same time. Since I'm sewing on a regular sewing machine (Singer Confidence), this is a big time saver. I use this stitch in lieu of a straight stitch followed by zig zagging the seams. Also, I seriously think this just looks better. It lays very flat - I liked it enough to put it on the right side in tunic no. 2 (on the back). (I really wish I'd discovered this sooner - it would have been helpful with these pieced jersey dresses with all those layers!?)

Anyway, here are the tunics in sequential order; I do love them all and wear them all! I have so much more modal spandex left (a "cosmic" silver and some pretty blue / aqua), that I'm pretty sure I'll make more. Maybe I'll take a page from Fashioned by Meg's book and switch up the pattern because how cute is her variation in this post? I love it! And, I love that bustle skirt she made (which is from a free LBB pattern). Hmmm, this is why blogging is so much fun - you never run out of inspiration!

Tunic No. 1



Tunic No. 2



Tunic No. 3 - I swear my mother taught me to put my shoulders back ... why didnt' I just do it in this pic? Grrr.

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LBB Beret

Pattern: Lil Blue Boo The Blue Beret Pattern - this one's a freebie!

Fabrics: Upcycled Old Navy toddler tee (print) and old green t-shirt (trim)

Audrey refers to this beret as "her doctor hat" ... pretty clever, right?

Given my recent tunics and dresses, I'm almost afraid to post this and reveal that I've recently been a tad obsessed w/ LBB patterns! I tend to get on a roll with stuff and I've been on a knit kick lately, and these patterns are so precise & easy to follow.

Yes, she is still playing with her Fabric Nesting Doll that I made for our last challenge!

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