New Stuff In The Shop

This is a custom item.

Sneak Peek

Here's a little sneak peek at what will be in my store when it opens latter this week or possibly some time next week.

Also, I may be getting a new camera for my birthday on the 11th. Lets hope, NO MORE BLURRY PICS!

Rockibaby Dresses

 

These one are just sweet, pretty and perfect for Easter,

and the Roxy Dress. Its kinda mod kinda Austin Powers.

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What I've been up to

If been so busy lately sewing up a storm. Thread all over the carpet and fabric scraps all over the house, and its been crazy. I'm trying to get my Etsy shop up and running. There's about 3 dresses complete and I want to have 4-5 to open my shop. In between sewing for the shop I've managed to make something for the pumpkin. I've had this cute pink and black plaid in my stash forever. Then I saw a post on Craftster and decided to make a version for little one.


The Punky Pixie Skirt

There will be a tute for this one.

 

Lil Red Retro Dress

So the other day I got this idea to make the pumpkin a little hipster/retro dress. So I got out my A-line dress pattern, shortened it and took away some of the "A". I didn't think that it would turn out ok; it was more like I’ll try it and if I like it I'll make it again. I didn't serge and I barely ironed the seams. Now I wish I would have constructed the dress better because it turned out really cute. What do you think?

I even did her hair and got her "church" shoes out just to take her picture. She wanted to stand on the chair for the pictures. I have no clue why.

 

The collar needs to be modified a bit as well as the sleeves. This dress will be in my Etsy shop, which, I hope, will be open by the end of this month.

Pretty Pink Birdie Britches - say that 10 times fast

I won a free pattern from Vegbee. I helped her name one of her new patterns the Birdie Britches. I made these hot pink corduroy pants as a birthday present for one of the kiddos that I watch. This little peanut (that’s what we call her) has such a hard time fitting into her pants. 24-month pants are long enough but the waist is too big and 18-month pants are too short but the waist is just right. So when I won the pattern I told her mom that I would make her some pants that fit right for her birthday.

Here's a close up of the pocket. I really wanted to use a differant color for the pocket, but I figured keep it simple so that they can cordinate with her other clothes. I just added ribbon loop.

The best part about these cute little britches is that they only cost me 99 cents to make. I got the hot pink cord from Goodwill for $.99.

Quick and Easy Cowl Neck Sweater Dress Tutorial

I've been playing with cowl necks lately. Some of my attempts were a complete disaster while others were not so bad. This one how ever was the easiest of all. I used a thrift store turtleneck sweater and I'm gona share with you how make this quick and easy cowl neck sweater dress.

First you will need to gather your supplies-

A turtle neck sweater the bigger the better

A t-shirt that fits loosely on your pumpkin

and regular sewing supplies



Now lay out the sweater, then lay the t-shirt on top of the sweater making sure that the neck of the t-shirt is lined up as close as you can with the neck of the sweater. You don’t want to cut these seems off, that makes for less sewing. Trace around the t-shirt and add a slight A line shape, like this

Now remove the t-shirt and cut. You should have something like this.

Next, with right sides of the fabric together, sew.

Turn the dress right side out, hem the sleeves and you are done. Quick and easy!!

*Note* My pumpkin wears about a 4t, so my guess is the dress works best up to this size.

Fa La la la la !!!

I finally finished her dress. I started this thing in November. I had to make a pattern, test it, tweak it, then do a practice run at it so I would ruin the pretty fabric. The fabric by the way is burgundy taffeta originally meant for curtains or home decor, but I don’t follow the rules on stuff like that. It was on sale for $5.50 a yard and I only needed one yard. I used gold satin ribbon for the trim and I sewed in an invisible zipper in the back, but I wont be showing you all that because I totally did a bad job. Whipstitch has an awesome tute on how to do one. For the most part I like how it turned out and please pay no attention to the bottom of my tree. I have no tree skirt and the kid’s mess with the bottom, so I covered it up in hoping they would leave it alone.

Fat Quarter Skirt Tutorial

It's here. After a few weeks of procrastinating and Christmas shopping, I finally managed to get this posted. This should fit a 2t-4t, but you might have to adjust measurements for the 2t. So here we go.


1st gather your materials

1 fat quarter

about a half a yard of coordinating fabric for waist and and trim pieces or another fat quarter

1 inch wide elastic



Because my camera got the swine flu and only seems to wanna work when all of the lights are off, there are few illustration and they're made my Microsoft paint.



OK now you cut your fabric. A fat quarter is usually about 21-22 inches that will be the width of the skirt. Now cut your fabric like this.

Now with right sides of the fabric together, sew the waist pieces, the skirt, and the ruffle together. Either serge or use a tight zigzag, the raw edges and press your seams.

Next, using your favorite form of gathering, gather the skirt to the width of the waist and the ruffle to the width of the skirt.
Then sew them all together and serge or zigzag edges and press seams. Now with right sides together sew the side of the skirt and once again serge or zigzag edges along with the top of the waist.

Next fold the waist piece in half, press it down and then top stitch leaving an opening large enough for the casing.

For the elastic casing your want to use a piece about 21-22 inches long depending on your child. I have a tubby toddler with a belly. She likes to wear things below it so sometimes I need a snugger fit. OK, now attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic and feed it through. Sew elastic together, top stitch the opening closed and lets hem the bottom.

The bottom of the skirt can be done whatever way you like it. You can hem it, serge it, lettuce edge it, whatever you like. Then you're done!!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Once I get a new camera I'll update the tute. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

My last Fair Weather Jacket

I hope this is the last one of these for a while. This one is her winter Fair Weather "Coat". There's 3 layers. Cord for the shell, and fleece between that and the flannel lining. It wasn't very hard, I just cut the fleece about an inch shorter all the way around and used the iron on kind. Its pretty warm too.

I love Vintage Fabric

During the summer I got an awesome supply of vintage plaid fabric. Oh, how If dreaded cuting into it. I was fearful that I would  messed up. So I kept it simple, and did not cut a thing. I sewed it into a tube hemed the bottom and gathered the top, them attached it to a bodice. TA DA!!! I call this the "Play Date Dress", hopefully soon I'll make enough to sale in my own store. The problem is that everything I make, I dont want to part with. I'd rather keep it for my pumpkin.

My first store bought pattern

I know that it’s been ages since I've posted. It’s been a busy month in day care. We had a pig funk scare (H1N1, aka Swine Flu), and I’m so sick of hearing about it. Every one of the parents of the kids I care for was scared and worried and that was all any one talked about. In all the stupid mass hysteria of the last month or so I managed to whip out this little dress. It was the fist time I used a pattern that wasn't free off the internet, someone’s tute, home made or created by Vegbee. It's Simplicity 5478 and totally vintage, just my style. I'm not a fan of the yucky, brown, flimsy paper in the store bought patterns for the very reasons that I've just stated. It turned out ok. There was a little tweeking here and there. The collar was a bit tight. This was also the first time that I sewed in a zipper. It wasn't as hard as I thought and it was a hell of a lot easier than buttonholes.


I love the color combo of navy and red like on the Yes Man Jacket, also created by Vegbee. I have no clue what she doing in the picture.

I know that I promised a tute on the fat quarter skirt. I think my camera got the pig funk cause its not working right. As soon as I can address this issue there will be a tute on the skirt and maybe a give away.

Arrrrgh!

The Pumpkin and her buddy Banana wanted to be pirates for Halloween, so I made the girls matching pirate costumes. Whew!!! Thank goodness I'm done and don't have to worry until next year. I was in shirring hell. The backs of the faux corsets where shirred ... never again. I guess in the end they turned out cute. The skirts have 3 layers and they're poofy, thanx to a layer of tulle, and they're also twirly. I also made the Pumpkin a peasant top to wear underneath with fun flared sleeves. I didn't have the time to make the Banana one too. :(

Posing for Boo Fest at her Daddy's work.

Enjoying Trunk or Treat.