When We Were Young

Happy, happy Wednesday to you all!

I AM SO EXCITED TO SHARE THIS POST!

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen sneak peeks of this project over the last week or so.  Today, I finally get to share it.  The super kind and mega talented Suz from sewpony has an incredible sewing series called When We Were Young.  The mission is to find a photo of yourself from your childhood and recreate what you were wearing in it for your child.  What a fantastic idea, right?

Click through to sewpony to see what I made for Em, inspired by a picture of me as a three-year-old!  It's one of my proudest finished garments to date.  I hope you like it, too!

Do poke around while you're over at sewpony!  Suz sews the most gorgeous clothing for her children, and she's also just released her first delightfully adorable PDF pattern.  Go, go, go!

:)

Have a fabulous day, everyone!

Prefontaine Shorts World Tour!

Hey hey!  Happy Thursday!

Welcome to my stop on the Made with Moxie Prefontaine World Tour!

I am so excited I got to be a part of this pattern tour.  I fell deeply in love with these shorts back during Shorts on the Line.  That's when I made the crazy fish towel Prefontaines - remember?  :D

It's just the cutest pair of shorts, is it not?!

For this pair, I went in quite the opposite direction from the fish shorts.  I went with practical, lol.

These are a lovely lightweight red linen from Fabric Mart (similar here), and the binding is a super soft floral knit from Girl Charlee.

There are so many ways you can play with fabric combination for these shorts, but ultimately I'm glad I stayed on the straight and narrow for this pair.  I love them, and so does Emmy!

Awesome pockets, right?!

This is Em contemplating why I told her she probably shouldn't eat crab apples off the ground.  She totally didn't get it. "But they're so CUUUTE".  Nope.  Keep it moving, kid.  

The Prefontaine Shorts sew up very quickly, and are really fun to make!

I super recommend this pattern if you're looking for a cute, quick pair of shorts for your girl OR for your boy!

We absolutely LOVE our Prefontaines!

Don't miss these other FAB stops on the Tour:

Monday, July 29 The Crafty Kitty
Tuesday, July 30 Craftstorming
Wednesday, July 31 Kitschy Coo
Thursday, August 1 Emmyloubeedoo
Friday, August 2 imagine gnats

Monday, August 5 Petit a Petit & Sew Delicious
Tuesday, August 6   Buzzmills
Wednesday, August 7 The Southern Institute
Thursday, August 8 Sew Jereli & Max California
Friday, August 9 Sew Chibi & Living with Punks

Thank you for having me on the Tour, Jill!  

Have a great day, friends!

Too Sweets Circle Tanks - Finished Objects!

Good day, all!

So if you follow me on Instagram, you might remember seeing these tanks a few weeks ago.  I finally got a chance to take some pictures of them!

These are the Circle Tank from Too Sweets Patterns!  I have been a huge fan of Sophie, designer behind Too Sweets, for ages.  She's a major inspiration to me. Too Sweets designs are right up my alley - no frills, just beautiful, easy clothes.  WIN WIN WIN. 

Here are my Circle Tanks!

Emmy has Do-A-Dot marker all over her face.  Applied lovingly by her father.  Lol.  I couldn't get it off!  At least it sorta matches??  Public service announcement: 

DO NOT DO-A-DOT YOUR FACE. 

This fabric (amazing, right?!) is Space Galaxy by Timeless Treasures.  I used the same for the bias trim.  The wee poms are from JoAnn.

I SWOONED over this version (below) in Too Sweet's Shop, and totally did the exact same thing with the teeny white pompom trim:

Such a cute and simple detail!

This tank is a super quick sew.  So I made two!  I tend to do that - if it was fast and I still have everything out - I just make another one!  Why not!

And here's the second one!

For this version, I used a super lightweight polka dot voile (from Denver Fabrics, though it appears to be unavailable now), and contrasting bias trim made from Delphinium by Philip Jacobs.  I love the combo!

I really love this pattern.  It's simple, straightforward, and oh so cute!  I'm going to try to whip up a few more before summer ends.  Those adjustable straps really lend themselves to longer wear, so maybe we can wear these next summer, too!

BLOOPER REEL!

Ham sandwich. 

Have a great day everyone!

Pattern: Circle Tank by Too Sweets

Fabrics: Space Galaxy by Timeless Treasures

              Orange/White voile (looks like they're all out) from Denver Fabrics

              Delphinium in Yellow for bias binding

The Lady Skater Pattern Tour!

Good morning, all!
Today's my day to share with you my Lady Skater dress!
Amanda of Kitschy Coo - the mastermind behind the Skater Dress for both kids and adults - has become such a great friend of mine.  And omgyouguys she is stateside right now, and I GET TO MEET HER THIS WEEKEND!  I can't wait.  We're going to slow-run to each other in our Skater Dresses, with our children also in their Skater Dresses.  Epic.


Come!  Check out ma'dress!

I was lucky enough to be a tester when Amanda was preparing to release this pattern, so I already knew I loved it, and I already knew the fit was great.  So with that knowledge, I felt free to play around a little bit with added details.  I love the way it came out!  Even though it's 90 degrees here on a cool day lately, this dress is totally perfect for my office job, year-round.

Let me tell you how long it took me to pick a fabric for this dress.  Forever, that's how long.  I wanted a printed dress because in my head that's what I thought I was more comfortable in.  But I love the design and lines of this pattern so much that no matter which print I tried (omg you guys I bought so many lol), I was never totally happy with how it was going to look.  So ultimately I settled on a solid.  Like, two days ago.

I used a black light/mid weight rayon lycra from Jo-Ann.  I still don't know what drew me to the black.  I'm more of a navy/olive/burgundy girl.  After a little boatload of stressing, it hit me - I needed to add something to make the black less severe.  Enter: floral chiffon!

On the bodice front pattern piece, I cut the strap/shoulder area on an angle, about 5 inches down.  Then I used that new pattern piece to make two chiffon overlays.  Then I got into a fisticuffs and swearing match with said chiffon until it was nicely attached.

I LOVE this detail!  I think it really softened up the whole look and made the dress super unique.  I can picture it with leather, sequins, etc. as inserts/overlays, too!  Or what about a back yoke?!?!

Here's a closer shot of the overlays, as well as my tragic decision to not change my serger thread.

At the bottom of the chiffon overlay, I folded under once and bonded (using Heat 'n Bond), then stitched twice to make sure that sucker behaved itself.  So far so good, I can report.  

The only other change I made to the original pattern was to slash and spread the skirt, making something closer to a 3/4 circle skirt.  This fabric was too drapey and delicious not to!  Here's a better shot of how full the skirt is:

Perfect for dancing outside by a tree, whenever the mood strikes!

Cha cha CHA!

I adore this pattern to bits, I can't recommend it highly enough.  The instructions are incredibly thorough, and there is a crib-sheet version of the instructions for those already comfortable sewing with knits.  I found that SO handy.  Of course, I also love the original Skater Dress for kids too - you can see my versions of those here and here!

Additionally, Amanda has extra Lady Skater content on her blog with helpful how-to's and some really cool, simple changes you can make to alter your dress. Do check that out!

You can head over to Amanda's Shop to get your copy of the Lady Skater pattern!  And don't miss the other stops on the pattern tour.  There have been some incredible dresses made from this pattern!

  Many many thanks to Amanda for having me on the Tour!  Can't wait to see you, Lady!

Have a great day, guys!