April 2013 Spring finally!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Emily

I have a friend who wanted Easter dresses for her girls. They are 10 and 12.

I had to make some adjustments. For the Pink dress I had to add a few inches to the hip area, but neglected to add the same amount to the skirt. So I had to make some adjustments to the skirt.

For the Blue dress I had to add sleeves since she didn’t want to wear a sweater over her arms. This fit pretty much out of the pattern. The pattern was sleeveless and thank goodness for my Threads magazine that had instructions for adding a kimono sleeve.

With the left over material I made skirts for my girls. The blue skirt is a circle skirt with a zipper on the side and a snap on the waistband to close. I really didn’t want to add a button. The pink skirt is just a A line skirt with ruffles on the bottom edge. Both the skirts ended up to big for the girls, but that does mean that they can grow into them. They should wear these for quite a few years yet.

MISC Stuff

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Emily

What do you think?

I got a new fabulous book called The Dressmaker’s Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques by Lynda Maynard. I wanted to practice some of those techniques on a wearable muslin. So this is what I made. I made a mistake on the neckline though because the gray band stands away from my neck right at my shoulder. I should have stretched it just a little bit to make it lay flat. Now I know.

The Back

The neckline.

This is also the first time that I used a double needle in my machine. I have to say that I am now addicted. They are wonderful to have when you need to hem or top stitch on a knit shirt.

My next project didn’t go so well.

Eh, not good.

I had a picture in my head. I wasn’t able to make it like that because the fabric is a thin sweater knit and you can see right through it. But I am going to wear it anyways. I just need to make a few minor/major adjustments.

Craftsy has cool classes

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Emily

I finally did it. I bought a class through Craftsy. I had been keeping and eye on the site to see what they had to offer. Then one came along that I decided that I couldn’t live without.

Sew the Perfect Fit. It is a video fitting class. I have been wanting to learn how to properly fit clothes for such a long time. And now it is here! I have already watched the videos and I am now waiting on my pattern to come in so that I can practice my fitting techniques. Yay!!

Now I have my eye on a new pants fitting class by Sandra Betzina. I am on that one next. Whoo, Hoo!!

Halloween Costumes 2012

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Emily

I don’t know why I do this to myself every year. I want to make the kids costumes and then I go crazy making them. Even though I started in September.

So here they are.

Julian wanted to be a Red Ninjago character. He showed me a minifig with the golden dragon and told me that he wanted to look just like him, sword and everything. So here you go. Except that it only took a few minutes for him to break the sword. I knew I should have put a wooden brace in there.

Yah!! The Red Golden Dragon Ninja!!

Here is my Mermaid. She has loved Ariel for so long. And she wanted to red hair but I didn’t think that I had enough time to make a wig so we sprayed her hair instead. Just the top and down her back. I wanted to keep her hair that was touching her clothes to remain color free since it does rub off. The tail is a skirt so that she can walk and run without any problems.

She was being terrorized by the Ninja and Flounder

And my youngest. I thought it would be a fab idea to have the girl go as Flounder since I have Ariel anyways. I looked on line for inspiration and saw the costume for Flounder in the Broadway production. I also sprayed her hair in light blue with Dark Blue streaks. I then painted her forehead yellow with blue stripes there. I didn’t want anything around her face or mouth since she would be eating in this costume.

Adorable.

Let me know what you think.

The Mermaid Dress

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Emily

It was my daughters birthday at the end of August. I had planned for this dress to be done but I didn’t get it finished, or started in time.

However, I finally got it done.

So she is mad. But this is just a simple jumper that I made especially for her.

Here is the back.

She does love it even though she looks mad in the photos.

I am working on the kids Halloween costumes next. Fingers crossed that those come out as good as they look in my head.

It has been quite a while.

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Emily

It has been quite a long time since I was able to update my blog. I had issues with my computer and WordPress. But that is all over now.

I finally have my blog back. So here are some pictures for you to look at while I try to get back into my groove.

Our Superhero cape! I made a whole bunch to donate to our local children’s hospital.

A princess skirt for my girls. One loves it and another not so much. It ties on like an apron.

A dress I made for my sister’s daughter.

An Easter Dress that wasn’t completed until way after Easter for the youngest daughter.

The back of the Easter Dress.

This is one of my favorite skirts. I made it out of two large t-shirts of my husbands.

One side and …

the other side. I have made more changes to this skirt but have to find pictures.

See I have been kinda sorta busy. Right now I am working on dress for my daughter and then the kids costumes are up next!!

The binder cover

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Emily

I was cruising on Pinterest and found this tutorial on making a binder cover for three ring binders. Go here.

Which gave me the inspiration to make one for me and my friend. I used what I had on hand.

I use this as my tote for my Primary binder since I am the secretary.

The back is the same.

Then I worked one up for the Primary President. Here is hers.

Here is the front.

Inside front.

Inside back. The PP wanted the black and white canvas that she got from the home dec section at Joann’s. Then I used the black bias tape for the edges of the pockets.

On either one I didn’t use a paper pattern but used the binder itself as the pattern. I did have trouble with the PP’s because her binder was slightly different than the one that I had.

Fabric Trays

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Emily

So I needed something small to keep on the kids dresser that would hold all of their bits and pieces. Fabric Trays came to mind. I looked online to see what tutorials where out there but I didn’t like what I found. I knew that I wanted to do something similiar to Fabric bowls. Next time I would do the top edge in a binding instead, but this worked for the moment.