St. Patty's Day Skirt

Yeah... I'm a few weeks late posting this... I know...

I did make a cute and comfortable skirt that I wore for St. Patrick's Day this year - because it's green, of course!  :)

I found this post with this awesome skirt pattern and although I didn't exactly follow instructions exactly, my skirt turned out pretty cute.  It's got the same waistband concept as the pattern and that is what made is really comfortable.

What do you think?  

The Schoolhouse Tunic - On Hold

The Schoolhouse Tunic is on hold... after all that work getting motivated and getting everything all set up, I have come to a halt with the issues with my sleeves.

Basically, I'm not in the mood to rip the seams that need ripping... not quite yet at least.  So it's sitting here on my dress form... waiting.

Color Inc. Weekend Giveaway: Newborn Cable Knit Bonnet from Little Labyrinth! - printLife

Good Morning!

Normally I don't share a lot of contest and giveaway links on here, but this one is way too cute and I just had to let you know about it.


Go check out this adorable hat by Little Labryinth and find out how you can enter to win!
Weekend Giveaway: Newborn Cable Knit Bonnet from Little Labyrinth! - printLife

The Schoolhouse Tunic - part 2.1

Sleeves...
I've never made a top for myself with sleeves on it before.  The only sleeves I think I've ever done on my children's clothing has been the little simple things on the peasant top that I just recently made.

Sleeves are a little scary.

I started working on the sleeves of my tunic tonight - it was the next step in the pattern.  The instructions looked simple enough (run a few basting stitches, pull a small gather, pin sleeve to top and sew) so I figured I'd be able to get this done fairly quickly. (I had spent a good bit of time just browsing on the web tonight but I really wanted to make some progress on my top)

The basting was simple, as expected.

Then I went to pin my sleeve to the bodice piece.  I read instructions over and over but for whatever reason, I could not make my sleeve line up with the edges of the bodice.  The bodice was too long - so the gathering on the sleeve was really pretty pointless - I had to un-gather everything to get it to fit most of the way around.

I went ahead and stitched the sleeve on, then stitched the sleeve underneath and closed up one side of the bodice - but as I sit here looking at it, I'm afraid that I'm going to have some seam ripping to do.

The biggest problem I think is that the sleeve piece seems like it should have been larger.  I'm pretty sure that I cut out the correct size pattern piece so I'm not really sure why it's an issue.

I'm going to think on this a bit and figure out what really should be done with this.  Any ideas?

The Schoolhouse Tunic - part one

I said before that I have been wanting to make myself some new clothes... well, I am finally getting around to something that has been sitting on my project list for awhile.

The Schoolhouse Tunic from Sew Liberated...

Cute huh?  I think so too... bought this pattern sometime last year and am just now getting around to making it for myself.  That's how it usually goes though...


After going back and forth a few times about what kind of fabric I wanted to use, I finally settled on some nice black/gray linen.  I found it at JoAnn's for $14.99 a yard and had a 50% off coupon - total I spent around $18 for the fabric (not too bad for the nice quality stuff I got).  I actually kept trying to decide between the fabric that I ended up with vs. a linen almost exactly like the one that was on the model for the pattern... too funny :)

I started tracing the pattern pieces on to transfer paper some time last week, in hopes that I could have stitched this up over the past weekend - which was a good plan until I got sick and spent a good bit of the weekend in bed.

Anyway, on Monday evening I cut all my pattern pieces and started pinning the first few steps of the pattern together.

I did make one little adjustment to the bodice - I added a few extra inches to the bottom of the bodice pieces.  My normal problem with tops/dresses with seams under the bust line is that they are always too short for me and end up cutting me right through the center of my bust. 
 I'm hoping that the extra inches added solves this problem and doesn't cause me any other issues with the pattern.  I don't really see why it will, but it really is my luck that it would mess something up.   I guess we'll see when it's finished :)

Tonight, I was able to get the entire bodice piece put together.

What do you think so far? (please ignore that skirt that is still pinned to my dress form - it's still waiting to be hemmed)

The next step is the sleeves and attaching them to the bodice...  I'll share step by step until I get this finished - hopefully over the weekend at the latest so that I can wear this sometime soon. :)

A First of Many - Peasant Blouse

When I found this tutorial for a child's peasant blouse at Prudent Baby I just knew that I had to make one for the girls.  If it really was as easy as it looks, then I'd make several.  I mean seriously... what a perfect addition to any little girl's wardrobe.

Well, I am happy to announce that it really was as easy as it looked.  I followed the measurements that were listed for the 18mo - 2T size because, conveniently, that was the exact size that I needed (it's always nice when you can follow the instructions exactly as written instead of having to do the math to make it a different size).  The instructions were perfect and super simple to follow.

I've been really needing some sort of project that could give me some instant gratification and this was definitely a great one for that.  It took me most of the day (between wrangling two toddlers, one of whom was sick) but could have easily been done in about an hour for those people who can sit for an hour and just work on a single project.

Of course, I made a few customizations myself though.  I did not add the waistband elastic piece from the original tutorial.  I might try it out on future versions just for some variety, but didn't feel like it for this one.  But, I did add some cute little pockets on the front.

I really like this fabric because it's almost got a vintage feel to it.  Nora actually picked it out herself when we were at the fabric store this past weekend.  It was cute and on clearance, so of course I couldn't say no.  :)

Another thing that is so awesome about this top... I really think that I could make it using 2-3 fat quarters (depending on the size).  I'll probably try that at some point and let you know how that turns out. :)

As you can see, my model wasn't really up for the job tonight - too busy watching Toy Story. :)

I like how versatile this type of top is.  You can wear it as a shirt, or as a dress.  With short sleeves, long sleeves, or even no sleeves if you wanted.  It's nice and cool when the weather is hot but can also be worn with a long sleeve shirt underneath during the colder months.  I definitely see myself making lots of these types of tops in the future - maybe even eventually one for myself!

my latest obsession: patterns

Once again, I've gotten hooked on finding new ideas of projects that I want to do.... I really have no need to ever look for another project or find new ideas, because my current "I'd like to do" list could seriously last me a lifetime.  That's part of the problem with having so may awesome resources, and ideas out there to find.

My latest obsession has been patterns.  I decided that I wanted to finally make something for myself so I started looking for ideas, which led me to the pattern books in the fabric store, and then of course I had to pick out just a few.  And of course, I can never stop at just one or two.  In the past 2 weeks I've bought probably close to 15 new patterns.  Most of them are for adult clothing (i.e. for me), but I did also get a new purse pattern, and a coat pattern for the girls (I'd like to make them coats for next winter I think).

This recent pattern obsession has been fueled a bit by some pattern sales, so at least I'm not paying full price.  Hobby Lobby has Simplicity patterns for $0.99 through Saturday, and JoAnn's has them for $1.99.

I've found lots of tops, a few dresses, skirts, even jackets and cardigans.  I'll share along the way as I actually make things.

One awesome tip I have found when it comes to buying patterns... or maybe more just picking out patterns... plan ahead.  If you know that a store has patterns on sale then that is definitely the time to buy them!  I mean, who really wants to pay $17.95 for a pattern when you can scout out the sales and get them for $0.99-$1.99 each? 

Another thing... get online and check out all the patterns and spend your time browsing through the designs at home.  I could honestly spend hours just looking through all the pattern catalogs at the stores, and of course I never actually have that much time to spend doing so.  If you browse the pattern manufacturer website and make a list of the patterns you are interested in then you can head straight to the pattern drawers at the store and save a ton of time. 

I've taken this a step further and will actually take a photo of the patterns that I like on my cell phone, that way if I am in search of a pattern then I can just flip through my phone till I find what I am looking for, and I've got all my info right away.  Or, on the chance that I do sit down and browse through the pattern catalogs, I take a photo of the page and then I have my info handy when I get to the drawers.

Oh yeah, and try not to get too stuck on a specific pattern - especially when they are on sale, the popular ones can easily sell out before you get there.  So be prepared with some alternatives.  There are so many similar patterns available that it's usually pretty easy to find another one that will work for you.

One little rant though - I am a bit disappointed by how a lot of the pattern sizes are limited.  I can find some great patterns but then end up disappointed that it isn't offered in my (larger) size.  Part of my whole reason for wanting to make clothing for myself is so that I can wear things that fit.  It's fairly easy to make things fit if you are able to make it from a larger (than accurate) size pattern and then adjust to take it in where needed, but I'm finding it quite a bit harder to make a pattern larger in the areas that I need it to be bigger to fit.

I'm thinking that maybe I need to learn how to customize pre-made patterns...