The Winnie Shrug - Pattern Testing

Well, my little girl got a cute addition to her wardrobe! It's the Winnie Shrug, a pattern by Anneliese of the WeeMuses line. I got to pattern test it for her and I made mine out of faux fur and added a shiny vintage button.

I love it!

Anneliese is a great pattern maker. This is the second pattern I've been able to test for her and once again, the directions are clear, the pattern is full of pictures to help you along, and the sizing is right on.

My daughter wears a 5/6 in regular clothes, but because I was using a bulky fabric, I was advised to go up a size. So I cut the 7/8. The Winnie Shrug is supposed to be worn over a shirt and I found this size worked perfectly. I imagine my daughter will get good use out of this shrug for the rest of the winter and into the spring. (I'm hoping she'll get some fall use out of it too!)

Thanks for stopping by!
Other clothes in pics:
Green dress can be found HERE. (Made almost a year ago, this dress is starting to look small on my little girl. Sniff.)
Wool circle skirt can be found HERE.

Kindergarten Pants for the Little Man

Recently, I have decided to start sewing again for my son. I made a gorgeous outfit for my daughter not too long ago, and she refuses to wear it! I am not at all sure why. My son, on the other hand, loves everything I make. From shirts to quilts. So I decided to make him some pants, which is what he needs. 

I used this free pattern, which is about a size 4/5. My son is a skinny 6 year old, so I enlarged the pattern a little bit and got a light-gray pair of pants that fit him OK, but weren't roomy enough (I was glad I used an old fleece sweatshirt of my husband's for the "trial run"). I opted to use knit fabric rather than cotton as the pattern does because it's what my son seems most comfortable in. And I also wanted him to be able to wear them to gym class and run around. Aaaaand, there's a pair of Carter's pants that he has that I wanted to try to replicate. I also seem to have more knit fabric suitable for a boy than cotton. :) 

The dark-gray pants featured in these photos worked out much better. I increased the pattern quite a bit more and widened the ankle some too. I also didn't do a cuff as the pattern calls for, but did follow the rest of the directions, including those for these awesome pockets. I think they are what make these pants so cool. For the lining, I used a cotton truck print from the stash. The main fabric was some sort of fleece from JoAnn's remnant bin.

Oh, and I added the faux drawstring at the waist, which I also think makes the pants look more professional. And a clothing label!

My kid wore these pants to gym class the day I took these pictures and they held up to some kindergarten craziness, so I think that makes them a success. Happy!

Does anyone else have a good (and easy) pants pattern for boys that they've liked? Please share if you do! I'd love to know.

Holiday Wall Quilt

So it's time to finally post my second and last Christmas craft! (Now that it's packed away in deep storage for next year...) The Holiday Wall Quilt! Yayyy!

The inspiration and design for this project can be found here. 

I loved Jennifer's quilt and wanted to replicate it asap. I found some leftover Christmas fabric (previously used here, here, here, and here) and a piece long enough for the background.

I freehanded my letters and holly pieces (and trees - can you find them?), but if you want to be more precise, I suggest you follow the tutorial and print out the pattern pieces that Jennifer supplies. (I was in a hurry...)

I had a great time making this quilt namely because I haven't made a quilt in a long time. It was fun to bust out the free-motion needle and aggravate my husband with its squeakiness (does yours squeak too?). Just kidding, I don't really try to aggravate him. :)

I got it up on my wall as fast as I could. In this picture it looks a little wonky probably because it is a little wonky, but probably also because it's hiding the ugly red fire alarm box that adorns our wall.

I thought I'd throw in this iPhone photo just to show you how big the quilt is. (I have no idea why my son looks like he's going to eat it. I think I said, "Smile!" and this was the best I got.)

Anyway, glad I made it and glad I finally got around to posting it. Whew!

I also got some knitting done over the holidays and that's up next for the blog...

Have a wonderful day!!

Tree Ornaments to Sew

These last few weeks have been so busy! I'm sure you can relate. I have been doing some sewing, but haven't had much time to blog. I made these ornaments over the weekend and just got pictures snapped last night.

I saw this cute idea here and thought it'd be perfect to try. My mother-in-law requested a knitted a ornament and I realized I didn't have enough time to get one ready and send it off, so I sewed one instead. 

I think it's so cute (if a little wonky). 

I hope she likes it!

 When I cut this little tree down to size, I had some triangular scraps left over. Since the fabrics were 

already pieced together, I hated to just throw the them away. So...I stitched up the 4 triangular scraps and made a second tree ornament (the one on the left). I'm going to tie it to the top of a package for my friend.

Relatively quick and easy gifts. Done!

I made one other Christmas-y item in the last week and hope to post that in a day or two. (It's a quilted wall hanging and I looove it.)

Hope you all are enjoying the evening while your little ones are nestled in their beds!

Now off to wrap some presents...

My Kid's New Pillowcase!

Perhaps I should've made this into a little tutorial? I guess I think of these things too late. But there are tutorials out there on pillowcases such as this one and also on piping. So you should be ok. Even if I did my pillowcase differently, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Down at the end of this post, I'll throw in a few tips on how I put mine together, if you care to stick around.

So a little background. My son has never seen Star Wars, and has only started getting into it because they are on Lego boxes. And he has just gotten into Legos after someone gave him a cool box of them this summer for his birthday (ah, marketing). Anyway, long story short, my son and his dad think Star Wars is really cool, talk about it a lot (without revealing too much, of course) and the soundtrack is playing 24/7. So, with so much excitement going on in regard to this new love-interest, and kindergarten having just started as well, I thought, I want to make him something. A little celebratory gift that says I love you, I'm proud of you, and I really am interested in the Force too. Nothing says that better than a new set of pillowcases. (Great idea, right?) The first pillowcase showed up, casually, on his bed after school one day and he was really very excited. Really.

To get this nifty gift ready, I picked up a couple 1/2 yards of Star Wars fabric at Joann's on a recent trip, and looked in my stash for some coordinating materials. The two shades of solid blue fabrics would be perfect for my pillowcases! And what have we here? Leftover blue piping from my Emily Elizabeth dress. Excellent.

I don't have a ton of experience piping. See this and this. (There may be one or two other projects in the files.) But it's not hard, and I think it adds a lot of pizzaz to anything that it appears upon. And pillowcases can be rather plain. I didn't want to add rick-rack or pom-poms to my son's bedding, but piping - now that would be perfect.

Oh, yes? Pretty nice, I think. And boyish and a little fancy too. Doing piping on my pillowcases helped me practice my continuously developing skills, and, quite frankly, made sewing a pair of pillowcases more exciting.

My daughter wanted in on this photo session, so my son kindly gave her the Dora the Explorer pillowcase I made for him a while back so she could feel included (and so the Dora case could actually get some use...since it hasn't seen the light of day since, well, since Dora became un-cool about a year ago).

And now for a few sewing notes/tips:
1. a 1/2 yard of your favorite print is perfect for sewing one of these pillowcases.
2. use a pillowcase currently on your bed for sizing/length (take the pillow out first, of course).
3. find some coordinating fabric and cut the same width (as your cool fabric) but twice the length you want (so you can fold it over and have all the raw edges align).
4. I sewed the two raw edges of the coordinating fabric to my Star Wars fabric after attaching the piping to the Star Wars fabric (follow that?). Yes, you can still see the raw edges inside the pillowcase, but if you serge it (or sew zig-zags), it'll look better. But who's looking inside anyway?
5. I did reinforce the sides of the pillowcases with a zig-zag stitch (I had a broken needle on my serger at the time, darn it).

Well, thanks for visiting and reading all the way to the end. I hope you like my pillowcases and feel empowered to give piping a try! Oh, and the dark-blue Star Wars case - notice how it's not in any of the "action" shots? I'm saving it for a surprise. Surprises are just plain fun.

I'll be linking up with some of these parties.

Everyday Tee for Me

This top was born out of need. I really needed a new top. I was tired of wearing the same ones all the time. This summer, I've been wearing this top from last fall a lot. It's just so comfy and fits so well. I figured I should just replicate it. I started looking through my stash for some suitable fabric. Part of what makes my first Everyday Tee so wearable is the fabric - it's so soft. And stretchy. And just feels great on. This black/gray striped fabric that I chose for round two is very different. I mean, I like it: it's light, airy, and striped. All good things. But unlike the April Johnson fabric for the last top, this one doesn't stretch as much, and isn't quite as soft. In hindsight, I should've enlarged the pattern a bit. But seeing that I didn't, I decided to add a binding to the sleeves and a band at the bottom to give myself a little more room. 

I kind of like the band. But maybe it's too much band? Still on the fence about it. Anyway, I wore this top out and about today and I was really comfortable in it and will definitely come back to this pattern by iCandy Handmade again. 

I always learn something new when I sew. And this time I learned that all knits are not the same, and won't fit the same way with the same pattern. I guess that's common sense. But for me, it took a couple tops to figure it out.

The black/gray striped fabric is from JoAnn's. The bird's nest necklace is made by me. 

Thanks for stopping by!

I'll be linking up with some of these fun parties.

Embroidered Jar Cozies and more

While the sewing machine was away, I got my embroidery needle out to play! I decided to make some jar cozies so that I could look at some little prettiness every day. I have been using some plain jars in the bathroom to hold make-up and hair brushes and thought it was about time to dress them up.

I so love the old fashioned look of embroidery. It reminds me of both my grandmother and great grandmother who lived in the hills of New York and had homes decorated with many little embroidered details - linens, pillows, dolls, etc. - many of which they made themselves. Back when I was little, I didn't appreciate all the hand-made goodness that I saw and touched. But now I do! And it's just so relaxing to sit back, watch a show (like Downton Abbey -- did you see Cora embroidering in season 2?), and get some crafty goodness done.
This embroidered girl with a stick horse is bigger than the cozies, though it's hard to tell in these pictures. I'm planning on putting her on a pillow! This one took some time - I actually finished her before my sewing machine broke, and then just stuck to some small projects, such as the cozies, while my machine was being repaired. Once it came back to me, I was able to sew up the cozy part. :)


 

All these projects came from this beautiful book by Aneela Hoey, Little Stitches.

You might know Aneela Hoey from her fabric collections such as the popular Little Apples line. I first came to her work when I was in my quilting phase and made the girl on a swing mini-quilt. (I did two of them, in fact, and both are still hanging in our home!)

But back to this book. Not only are there dozens of adorable designs to embroider, and projects to complement them (like the jar cozies), but Aneela also includes the iron-transfer pages in the back of the book!! And each design can be used at least 3x! Can you believe that?? It's such a phenomenal value for the price! I'm very addicted to this book right now. There are many more projects I want to make!

Well, that's it for now. I did just finish a dress for my daughter and need to take pictures of it. It's really lovely and I can't wait to show you. :)

Thanks for reading...linking up with these parties!

Patchwork Chenille Baby Quilt

Oh, Chenille Quilt, I am glad you are done!

Not in time for Christmas, mind you, but I did get it done a few days afterwards.

I started this little quilt by sewing the top and then assembling the quilt layers over the summer.

 Then, only recently, I spent hours and hours quilting this sucker and then cutting the strips.

Let me back up and say I followed this lovely tutorial at Aesthetic Nest, a blog I truly enjoy reading for all its beautiful sewing work and photography. I thought about going out and buying some nice matching fabric for this project, but decided to go with what was in my stash and see how the chenille turned out.

Everything turned out well and I'm quite happy with how the chenille looks and feels! I love the rounded corners (which I'd never done before). And I love my pink binding which I attached entirely with my machine.

However. This little 25"x22" quilt was a bear.

The biggest problem for me was that I made it more difficult than it should've been. Mine is more of a quilt than a blanket (as the tutorial calls for). Meaning, I made this patchwork top with all these little seams going this way and that. And I never even considered how very difficult cutting up those bottom three layers would be with my scissors getting caught over and over on those darn seams. So if you do this project, DON'T make my mistake and do a pieced top. I have an extremely sore and bruised hand/thumb from all my scissoring. And, I'll also share, that the last two fingers on my cutting hand went numb for a couple DAYS after cutting up the majority of the underside. Ouch!

So this leads to my other suggestion: get one of those Olfa Chenille Cutter's that Aesthetic Nest recommends if you are serious about doing chenille blankets. :)

Anyway. It's done. It's lovely. And it's going in my daughter's newly re-vamped doll cradle (which I'll post about later on this week. Hopefully.). I can now cross Chenille Baby Blanket/Quilt off my list!
Have a great week!

A Stick Horse for Christmas

Christmas gift #1 is done. [BIG SIGH]

I'm only making two gifts this year, one for my daughter and one for my son. And this stick horse is for my little girl. I really hope she likes it!

I followed THIS really awesome tutorial from ikatbag. Pattern pieces and step-by-step directions really helped me through the process (I was actually rather nervous to start.) I have never done a dart before (warning: this pattern contains a dart! Would you have guessed?). But I can now say that I've done one. Yay for learning new things! I know I made a few mistakes, but hopefully, you won't catch them. 

I seriously could not BELIEVE that when I turned the finished horse head right-side-out that it looked pretty close to what it was supposed to. Hurray!

Here's the view my daughter will have riding the horse:

All fall, she would find branches behind our building and ride them around like a horse. I may be chancing things by giving her an "inside" stick, but I think she'll have fun with it. And we have a long hallway on our floor.

The other reason why I made her a stick horse for Christmas was because my grandma made me one for Christmas when I was little. I was too young to appreciate her sewing skills, but I sure do now. Though my grandma is no longer with us, it was kind of nice to reminisce, and think about her a bit as I sewed up this horse. Oh, and by the way, I grew up calling it a "mop horse." Did anybody else, or was that just our family??

Seven days left... happy crafting and sewing!

PS: I took these pics with my phone, in a rather dark and gloomy bedroom (go away rain!) because, of course, I didn't want my kids to see this horse...and have I mentioned that neither one of them nap anymore? Right on. So I had to be stealthy...

Mama & Me Tops

Score! I made this top and I LOVE it! Thank you to iCandy for the tutorial for the Every Day Tee. The tutorial is fabulous and the top so easy to make. Plus it's now going into my regular rotation because it feels so good on.

 Perhaps the material helped a wee bit too. I picked up this super soft, stretchy April Johnson fabric at Joann's over the summer. I didn't realize that Joann's carried "designer" knit fabrics! So I bought some with a 40% off coupon and then an additional 20% off stacked on top of that and I think 2 yards of this ended up being $7. Hurrah for no shipping costs and good fabric.

So, being so happy with my new top, I decided to reduce the pattern and make a top for my daughter too.

And then wear them on the same day. She was actually THRILLED to have the same top as her mom. I'm sure you can tell from the pictures.

 

 Seriously. Elated. I'm sure you don't believe me. I wouldn't either. Not with this picture of my daughter defying my friend to get any closer with that camera. Right.

Anyway. I -- I -- am thrilled because I loved this tutorial, love my new top, and love being twinners with my daughter. (Never thought I'd say that, but I guess I am one of those moms now. Yay!)

(Yes...matching labels too. I am super corny.)