New Goods

G'day!
My bff and I went fabric shopping today!  (And to Wendy's!  Best day evaaaaaah!  lol ;)There's this place about 10 minutes from us called Osgood's.  It's a massive, massive fabric store.  It's like a single-story Mood.  AMAZING.  If you are ever in New England, I highly recommend paying Osgood's a visit...  you will not be disappointed:

Via

That's not even half of the store!  :O
I have been on a sewing-for-Emmy kick for so long now, I think it's time for some selfish sewing, eh?!  Methinks yes!  Last week when Tasia had a birthday sale on her patterns, I picked up the Renfrew Top and the Minoru Jacket.  I LOVE that jacket so much, and everyone's versions so far have been fabulous!  Definitely Google it if you haven't seen them!
I know I want to make the jacket in a brightish color, something good for Spring and Fall, so at Osgood's I got this tangerine-y/tomato-y canvas fabric.  MAD love for this color!

     And then just now when I was on Sewaholic.net to get these pattern images, I realized I am not the first one to make the jacket in this color:

Oh right!  It's the same color as Tasia's example!  Perfect then - I know it'll look great!  Ha!  :D
And then I got this pretty dark blue floral poly-something to make the Pendrell Blouse that I've had cut out for like a year:

Pretty, yes?  I think I traced off view B, but I don't remember (and I don't feel like getting up to check because I just ate Wendy's.)  I love it.  Can't wait to make this one either!
So that's that!  Awesome day.  Must go sew now.  :)

Love to all! 

For Shame!

Hi.  Will you guys come play with me on Facebook so that I'm not the only person who likes my page?Lol.
I put the "Like" thing over on my sidebar, if you're so inclined. :)

Happy weekend!

Onesies to Tops - Two Ways

Hello!  Happy Wednesday to you all!
So in preparations for Emmylou turning TWO (!), we've been getting rid of all the clothes that no longer fit her, to make room for a new haul - she's grown like weeds in the past few months!  Isn't it so hard to get rid of their adorable teeny tiny clothes??!  SADFACE!  But alas, we must.  I am saving some things to make a baby-clothes-quilt (I think. Maybe. I don't know.), but most of it we're donating.
I came across these two onesies, and knew I could still make them work!
Exhibit 'A':

An 18 month St. Patty's Day onesie that was too long last year, but too short this year!  It still had the tags on it!  And she IS a McCutie!  So, I hacked off the bottom to make it a top:

CHOP CHOP!

Then I put the bottom part on Emmy's head and went to town on the serger.Behold - my first ever lettuce edge hem!

So.  Cool.This took literally like 10 minutes, not counting changing the serger thread and settings and all.  Hooray for baby clothing longevity-creating!!

This next one I just flat out could not part with.  It's my favorite of all of her wee onesies!

Oh swoon. :)So it's the same problem with this one - it's just too short, but fits fine otherwise.  Here's what I did to fix it up:

CHOP CHOP!

POM POMS!  :DThat's all - just sewed on pompom trim!  Now it'll fit her through the summer!  WIN!
Convo between me and the Hubs while I was pinning on the pomps':Me:  "I'm adding red pompoms to this onesie, but it has no red in it."Hubs: "Now it does." Awesome.  :D

Have a great day everyone!  Is it warm where you are?  We're in the 50's up here in Massachusetts!  C'mmmon, Spring!
 

Valentine's Day Dress - Tiny and DONE!

Here it is!  Emmy's Valentine's Day dress!

This is the back, with the cut-out detail.  Ahh!I'm like 99% in love with the heart, but it's just a bit wonky.  I'm hoping that when Emmy is wearing it, it will sort of work itself into a better looking heart.  Unfortunately, it's 21 degrees out today, so I'd be jeopardizing my mother-of-the-year award if I took her out to model it today!  And there's not much natural light inside my house is a mess.  :)

The front...  My word - it's SHORT!But again I'm hopeful that when it's on, it will be utter perfection!  Or at least decent.  For a two year old who is used to flashing her diaper anyway.  :D

Here's a closer shot of the front.  Those we're by far the tiniest sleeves I've ever had to set in!  I literally almost fell off my chair when I turned it right side out and saw that they were good!  Miracle of miracles!  I think I'll be sewing sleeveless summery things for the next... ever.

And here's a closer shot of the back!  Squeee!For the top center, I sewed on hooks & eyes - I originally wanted elastic loops & buttons, but my machine really, really hates sewing over that tiny round elastic.  Sadface.  Does anyone have tips for sewing with that type of elastic?  I'd love to hear'em.
So that's the dress!  What do you think?!  If you missed the post about this dress coming together, here it be.
Look at the original sketch and the finished dress...

BOOYAH!  :D
So hopefully I'll be able to get pictures of Emmy in it before Valentine's Day, but if not I'll definitely get some next weekend.  Valentine's Day is my sister's birthday, and me and the Hubs dating anniversary (I know - so cheesy, we totally still celebrate that), and my moms birthday is the 17th, so we'll be having a raucous fiesta next weekend.  Hence the fierce dress.
EDITED TO ADD:

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Love to ALL!

The Making of a Dress from Scratch - Valentine's Day Edition

 Marnin'! So I said I would share the Valentine's Day dress making process if it were to go smoothly.  It has!!  Dude, this dress is ridiculous.  She looks like a mini Audrey Hepburn in it.  Ha!  So classy! 

 So here's how it came together.  It still needs sleeves and a hem, but this is the effort so far. First, I have a crazy fit of inspiration and draw out the initial ideas... 

Yeah, that's a heart cut-out.

I add details & whatnot's as they come to me... you can kinda see, I write down pretty random stuff so I don' forget!

 From there, I work out any kinks that I can foresee, and get to the math-doin'.  Fun! I use this large graph paper (purchased at Staples) and start making the pattern pieces. 

 The bodice was relatively easy to map out... Emmy is pretty much the same circumference from head to toe, so there was no fussing with darts or anything.  The bodice is lined, so the only tricky part for me was figuring out the varying seam allowances.  The skirt, same deal, I just figured out my finished measurements and went to town, no problems (or so I thought!).  The sleeve - yeeps.  I've never drafted a sleeve before (besides a little flutter sleeve - that doesn't count :), so I went scouring the interwebs for some direction.  Ikat Bag saves the day!  I followed the tutorial on her blog (written by Jen from My Measuring Tape), took a few measurements, and made a sleeve block!  WOOT!  It came out looking so... right!  While I was at it, I made markings for a full-length, three-quarter, and short sleeve.  AaaaweSOME. So, since I really had no idea how this dress would turn out, I knew I needed to give it a test drive in a fabric I was ok with sacrificing.  Here's the test fabric and the fabric originally intended for this dress.  I love the test dress so much that I don't even think I'm going to make it in the original fabric. 

Test run fabric.

 

Original fabric.

 Besides being madly in love with the navy dress, I've sort of realized that I don't like the literal-ness of the black fabric anymore.  At first I thought it would be adorable, but now I think a) the piping would get lost, and b) the fabric is too busy for the design.  Thoughts?



Business in the front...

 

Party in the back!  :D

I don't know if you saw on my CrazyNotes to 'not forget botton loops', and I'm happy to report that I didn't!, but my machine EATS little round elastic, so I'm going with hook and eyes instead.  So I just have to attach the sleeves and give'r a hem & it'll be done!  YAY!

I tried it on Emmy over her clothes and it's so flipping adorable, I can't even tell you.  However.  The skirt is tiny!  It's short and um, snug.  Hopefully that's because I put it on her over her jeans...  If I do make it again, I will definitely make the pleats deeper so the skirt has more poof & room for the poor girl to walk.  She's going to look fierce though.  :D

We're going away this weekend, so I won't be able to post pictures of the finished dress until sometime next week.  I can't wait to show it off on the little bean!  :D

Have a good weekend everyone! 

GO PATS!