Rainbow brite x the big tent

Cruising the remnant piles at fabric stores, I picked up this vibrant-as-dart-frogs rainbow stripey fabric a few months ago thinking "oh! toddlers wear bright colors?!" and this weekend was the week to act on that impulse buy (because seriously...who buys fabric deliberately? Please see: my cupboard full of quilting cottons #don'twannatalkaboutit)

Abs has this adorable chambray dress I picked up at a holiday craft fair (#don'twannatalkaboutitx2) last year and I figured it was time to act on one of those "make a toddler dress tutorials" that promises all kinds of instruction yet offers none whatsoever. You know, the sort that says "take a dress you already have and trace it, then fashion that into your own dress and remember the right way to assemble a dress because you are already a sewing pro"? Familiar? Helpful?

Turns out, those are less helpful unless you are legit a sewing pro, but let me highlight some of the positive aspects and lessons-learned of poorly tracing a pattern off of an existing dress (without disassembling it because I paid good money for that chambray fantasy):

practice using the rolled hem foot

I rarely have a chance to use this scaled-down piece of evil, so it was good to experiment a little bit on her ruffled hems.

Lots of curses, but actually one of the better parts of this sewing expedition. 

This sewing machine foot (the rolled hem foot) is a pain in the ###, but this tutorial offered some assistance.

The near one is the first one...I like to think I got slightly better from one sleeve to the next. 

I should use some patterns with instructions

I had to approach and re-approach the ruffled sleeves a number of times. Why? Because my brain forgot the appropriate order for assembly and I stitched seams in the wrong order. e.g. stitching the bodice side before I attached the sleeves. What? It is like I wanted to rip seams. urg. So, I should sew some legit patterns to remind myself of viable vs. non-viable assembly sequences. 

ruffled sleeves, waiting for action.

Round three of "how tha heck do I make ruffles part of this dress?"

Toddler dresses are remarkably forgiving

Bodice doesn't fit? Who cares!? Dress is too long? Who can tell!? Baby girl moves so fast that you can scarcely see my error (of which, there are PLENTY.) I'm feeling more positive about making clothes for fast-moving blobs, place your orders now.

What baby?

I'm a big fan of my daughter

She's the best. Seriously.

P.S. Dress=success. Pleased to use remnants from Mishunky's playsuit; zipper is a little sloppy, but Abs isn't judgy. At least one of us isn't...

Back in the sewing saddle?

Now that Abigail has arrived, there is a whole unexplored direction for my sewing goals—baby things. First up on that list was a boppy cover. What’s a boppy? Well, it is a little creepy looking...

In short, it is a weird partial donut-type pillow used for nursing. As Abbie gets older she’ll be able to use this weird pillow thing for developmental activities like tummy time and for support as she’s learning to sit. Of course, there was the option to buy the boppy with a cover (cutesy at best, foul ugly at worst), but I guffawed at that prospect since it was $10 more. $10 when I could easily make one myself?

And I could enjoy the guilt of procrastination (priceless)! Of course, then Abbie came almost three weeks early so I’ve been using this naked boppy with swaddling blankets draped over it because I couldn’t even find the sewing machine in the front room, much less use it.

Anyhow, finally got my act together and it looks pretty good! This was a good reason to use one of my many pink-tinged plaids for something I'll be able to enjoy daily. And nightly, for that matter. Thankfully this allowed me to overcome my sewing hurdle that has been in place for several months.

I used this tutorial/pattern and it is really quite easy, though I forgot some really basic sewing techniques, such as clipping the inner curve and tacking the zipper in place before I legit sewed it in. But after I remembered those tricks I felt so good about stuff that I sewed another cover so I would have one to switch out on laundry day.

Here’s hoping I’ll be able to keep sewing items at a good clip—especially since I’m hoping to burn through some of my stash to make Christmas gifts and save some money, though probably not save any swears. Fingers crossed!

2013 KDVS Fundraiser

Ah, KDVS fundraiser! We have our annual fundraiser to...raise funds (ahem) for operating costs (spare parts for turntables, CD players, light bulbs, and so on). It is one week long and the source of 2/3 of the annual budget; our goal is $60,000 and we need every penny of it. Lot of stress riding on this one!

Per usual, I sewed some things that will be given away as premiums to people that pledge during my show from 8-9PM on Monday. All of these things will be available at 8PM on Monday and not a moment sooner! :) That also means the links below will show up as "not in stock" before my show starts, but will be in stock after 8PM. Ah heck, just look at the crafts!

The 1st KDVS Record Bag

I'm quite partial to this color combo, it makes me think of water nymphs and stuff. You might notice that it is the straps and bottom are the same fabric as my playsuit from a couple of years back. 

The 2nd KDVS Record Bag

A damask I've had lolling around for a bit, I made Cate some fancy pillow cases from most of it and have been working through the rest ever since. The yellow? Oh, you know...another playsuit.

The third (and final) KDVS Record Bag

It may look familiar from a purse some time ago...and a skirt.

A cassette holder, you can get at least 22 tapes in there. (bam!)

The salmon brocade is a remnant from Lucille's stash that was passed on to me a couple of months back. I love using fabric scraps! The fabric lettering is from a very foolish point in my life where I thought it made sense to buy fat quarters. (still living that down)

Since the bloomers take five yards of fabric, I couldn't very well use scraps (bummer) because I don't have five yards of anything laying around. Available is a variety of sizes! Size XS, Size S, Size M, Size L, and Size XL.

DJ Sister will add the stitching later...

Yeah, so please call in to the show! It will feed my DJ ego. :)

Monday, April 22nd

8-9PM (Pacific)

530-754-5387

fundraiser.kdvs.org

KDVS Fundraiser Crafts, final products

I didn't finish as much as I was hoping to in time for my fundraiser show last night (went well, thanks for asking!), but I think the crafts I did finish turned out super well. There was the KDVS Record bag with red appliqued letters and allllll dem bloomers. 

So the thing about bags is that they're so incredibly easy to make, but I have so many free bags (grocery shows, ag fairs, life in general) that I have absolutely no cause to make one for myself. Even though you know and I know that I would so much happier if my grocery bags were made of something other than stained canvas. You might recognize these fabrics from past outfits I've made (even the red applique).  

Any second now, Mario is going to shoot out and I'm finally going to catch him!

If I take note of anything about this bag, it should be the perfect length of the handles (17.5 inches/44 cm). I could pull the bag up on my shoulder or carry it by my side (arm extended) without it dragging on the ground. Awesome! However, I don't think I could wear it like a backpack (with one strap over each shoulder), which is what I need to do with all my grocery bags. That makes it a walking bag.

Mr. Lion says, "Put some damn pants on!"

The bloomers turned out well. As predicted, the yellow with the blue polkadots is summery and sweet, and Michelle's stitching does wonders with the theme "Your Beacon in a Sea of Sound". There is still one pair left in size XS for if you're feeling extra slender today. Come on, give it a shot!

KDVS Fundraiser continues until Sunday, April 29th at midnight, so be sure to pledge! If you're nice, maybe you can sweet-talk me into making you the most awesome bag you've ever owned. 

Easter dresses, part 2

I've been meaning to make Brycear a dress for quite some time (I think I decided that around Christmas?), but I'd been procrastinating because of the alterations I would need to make. I assumed I would need to make a full-bust adjustment on any dress I made for her and had been psyching myself out for quite some time. However, the FBA doesn't seem like something you could perform without the intended recipient being there for every step of the process. With that in mind, I figured that if the pattern was basic I could do most of those measurements and alterations in one day. I started out with Burda Style 108 from March 2011, which is the same pattern I used for my black, tan, and red party dress (which has the most wonderful and amazing border print known to mankind). 

Here's the front bodice panel. Two darts and you're done. Timber could make this dress.

The only wildcard was that the dress pattern only came in a small handful of sizes and to get the right size, I would need to perform some pattern grading. I used an article from Threads as my guide and gave it my best shot. Here is a picture of my efforts to be a legit seamstress who measures things in advance.

DON'T BREATHE! This was right before I taped all the pieces down to trace the modified bodice.

By grading the pattern instead of just trying to add some fabric at the seams, I was able to spread the added size throughout the whole pattern instead of just at the sides. The darts serve their purpose better when you have that kind of foresight, I'll tell you that much. 

I was expecting to have to make a FBA after that fitting, but Bryce was pretty happy with the fit of her swimtop muslin (which was light yellow with a hot pink zipper), so I just went ahead and made the dress from there. Of course, more adjustments had to be made sometime after midnight at the ranch, but she still had a dress to wear for Easter. A dress made in a day, yeah!

gettin' ready to catch stuff, Huck Finn style.

The fabric I used was one that Esch "donated" to my stash last year after she officially determined she wasn't going to learn how to sew. I think she got it at Bolt in Portland, and it is a cerulean x sky blue with white shamrocks. Very cute. I keep hoping she'll forget about some of the other fabrics she donated since her fabric trip yielded some smarter purchases than mine did. However, she brought up a certain fabric I've been going Gollum for on Sunday so I think I'm out of luck.

She looks happy because she got a lot of Easter candy.

I've finally graded a pattern! It is not my favorite thing to do, but I feel like it opens a lot of doors to patterns that aren't exactly "my size". You know what I'm sayin'.

2011 in Review!

It's leap day and I don't have someone to propose to, so I have to do other impressive things like beat my mile goal time (holla! yes!) and finally post my year-in-review. 

January !

2^nd: Bethie’s tweed dress

12^th: Scott’s Spice Pack

20^th: Bryce’s fireplace

January was a “clean-up” kind of month. I had a lot of Christmas gifts to finish and deliver. I was really stoked about Bethie's dress, but I made the huge mistake of choosing brown tweed for the fabric. I am fairly certain she has never worn it because it is brown (and a little big, but who's checking?).

February !

6^th: Chris’s bed pocket

22^nd: Jenn’s skirt   

We went to Mexico in February, and that seems more impressive than finishing up a skirt (hemming it, really) and making a bed pocket.

March !

23^rd Turquoise playsuit

26^th: bedroom curtains & ties

27^th: curtain ties (for the front room's curtains)

27^th: Cate’s pillowcases

Ah, the first playsuit! Made a size too big in some cheap yardsale fabric. Oh, how I love it! And my best curtains to date. So pretty and remarkably even in the hem!

April !

6^th: Michelle’s camel skirt

17^th: 5 pairs of bloomers for the KDVS Fundraiser!

May !

-fail-

But even if I didn't sew, it seems that I did wash a dog that month.

June !

12^th: Michelle’s light blue net dress

16^th: black w/ red & tan flower dress

30^th: coral window pane romper

Wedding dresses and other lifetime goals! I'm still mega proud of the dresses I made for Michelle and myself for Clara's wedding, and I can't wait until the return of romper weather. It should be a good time for all. 

July !

12^th: Michelle’s yellow playsuit

15^th: two headbands (one of which matches Michelle’s playsuit)

24^th: Orange/tan paisley Sorbetto top

 A Colette Patterns-heavy month, if I do say so myself.

August !

23^rd: teal skirt w/ black/white/red buttons

31^st: bed pocket for me

My teal skirt...why must you rumple so? I also need to do some serious fixin' on the lining, which I've shredded with my power stepping.

September !

2^nd: Jenn’s Art Tote bag

3^rd: Merril’s bloomers

22^nd: Thrift storedress modification

30^th: Blue BurdaStyle sleeveless top (never saw the light of day)

You guys haven't seen this shirt, but it is all around bad news. Susan is so embarrassed to be seen in it! I'm starting to think the buttons are cursed (they were used on my doomed Sencha blouse, too) since everything they touch turns to awful. Hrm.

October !

11^th: Atmosphere bag (decoration)

21^st: Jenn’s houndtooth wiggle dress

 Jenn didn't give me a picture of her in her houndstooth wiggle dress. I'll remember that. My atmosphere bag is pretty fun, though!

November !

12^th: Stella’s skirt

12^th: Cate’s sleep top (adorableness, why don't I have a picture?)

December !

1^st: Michelle’s laptop bag

1^st: Cate’s bloomers

11^th: Bryce’s eye mask and bloomers

16^th: Cate’s sleep top (I had to go back and finish the hems, then it was really done)

21^st: CJ’s bed pocket (which he keeps at the ranch)

24^th: 12 lavender sachets

24^th: Bethie’s white eyelet top

24^th: Claire’s summer fun dress

24^th: My red/tan lace dress

Busy month, don't you think?

That is my 2011 in review. December was easily my most productive month and May the least productive (I was distractedly working on Michelle's blue dress for Clara's wedding the WHOLE MONTH), and there were lots of bedpockets and bloomers. Colette Patterns dominated the show with thirteen items (though eight of those were bloomers), and my own love of cutting out shapes for home decor purposes made a good showing too. (hello bed pockets and curtains!) At the end of the year there were over 40 notable things I had sewn. Wow! Good job me!

Now that we're entering March, any ideas on sewing goals for 2012? It's not too late!

Rainbow Collection: Michelle's Birds-in-Your-Head Green Laptop Bag

I need to tie up Christmas stuff! Here goes...

Since Michelle normally negotiates for clothes all year long, I decided that I wasn't going to make her a dress or pantsuit or day-glo pantaloons. She had recently purchased a laptop, meaning she could once more go out and about and compute. "Excellent!," I thought, "I'll make a super-cute bag to lure her to coffee shops and parks and discotheques! Maybe she could even bring Olive along!"

Or not...

Then this seemingly innocuous laptop bag ate up the better part of November's craft time. I was following a How Joyful tutorial re-blogged by Craft: from Sew, Mama, Sew! I read through it a time or two with the diligence of a room full of Labrador puppies and figured I'd be good to go. It's a bag. Come on. Yeah. There were some...kinks to be worked out, especially with the amount of batting to be sewn into the handles and the final cut size of the foam padding that is built into the pockets and I'd rather not recall the bear that was turning the entire bag right-side-out through a two-inch opening. It became a huge trial because that cursed bag got in my head! Maybe it was me, I don't know, but I felt like there were parts when I should have just abandoned the instructions and followed my gut. I stalled and stalled and cursed and broke ~ five needles (those handles were death on my needles!) and finally wrapped it up with cattish finality on December 1st. By that point it was all I could do to trim the loose threads. I have enough extra foam and batting to give a go at another laptop bag (or something else with foam and batting), so we'll see how mouthy and irritable I am after that.

Never buy fat quarters unless you want to make quilts or really awesome laptop bag pockets!

All deprecation aside, the good part about this project was that it finally gave me a project to use a bunch of my smaller prized fabrics on. The inner pockets were made of some of my favorite quilting fat quarters and the outer shell was this (2009?) Echino fabric leftover from Bryce's wall hanging/curtain. The yellow handles and accent pieces were remnants from Michelle's yellow playsuit.

All in all, it is a nice little bag that should provide some level of protection to Burnt Chicken (Michelle's laptop). So though I didn't make an outfit, the level of intensity for this project certainly fulfills the Rainbow Collection: Green criteria. Besides, it looks dang good on Timber.

Technophobic dog says, "Get that laptop away from me!"

Huzzah!

Claire's Summer Fun Dress! in December

Yay for summer dresses in December! It really gives you something to hope for, since I've had summer on my brain in an incapacitating way for the past month. How is it in the 20s at night? How is that POSSIBLE?! Anyhow, Claire has long been talking about dresses of mine that she likes, specifically my 50s party dress. My goal had been to make her a version of that dress until I realized that I didn't have the pattern in her size. Dangs. The plan shifted into making a version of Burda Style 108 (March 2011), with the seam allowances included, unlike my last duel with this pattern.

more pictures from my porch, such class!

This fabric was a gift from Michelle as a thank you for sewing her a number of things. Can you picture it as something other than a spring-in-your-step dress? I can't. The original dress pattern called for a bubble skirt, but that seems a little silly on a grown woman. Instead, I cut the pattern pieces in the recommended length (a rather short and kicky 21 inches, ee!), gathered the tops and sewed it to the bodice. The hem is basic, as in without horsehair braid because I felt it would give too much lift to an already short skirt. Without the horsehair braid, the skirt falls about four inches above Claire's knees. 

Gathering skirts is something I should put on my resume...

The dress fits her pretty well (no photographic proof, just trust me), gives her hips and everything! Now if only it would warm up a solid 60 degrees. 

These photos were taken at the 11th hour, aka right before I wrapped this gift on December 24th. 

Rainbow Collection: Bethie's White Eyelet top

This may be a first for me--Bethie seemed to like her Christmas gift. WHAT?!

This eyelet top has been in my brain for a while. The fabric was picked up at a sale in a storage unit in Davis from when Riki was...selling fabric, I don't remember the line of reasoning behind it. This was probably the most usable piece of fabric I bought that day (what am I going to do with that army green wave design?) in spite of it being a smaller piece; I originally planned on making a dress for Stella, thinking that Beth would be crazy about it. I kept not making the dress and eventually adjusted my goal to make a top for Beth, which I imagined would pair perfectly with a dark grey cardigan (neutral colors to achieve her goal of looking French). I'd made the Sorbetto earlier this summer for a hangouts top and had originally planned to make the eyelet into a tank top, but it seemed like the right thing to do to slap some sleeves on it and make a delicate yet casual short-sleeved shirt. Claire of Sew, Incidentally drafted a pattern for sleeves for the Sorbetto and shared it on the Sew Weekly, so I was set.

I paired the eyelet with some tannish-gold liner fabric to provide much-needed modesty while giving the illusion of showing bare skin. Construction was not too complicated, but the lining caused some strife. The Sorbetto is not usually lined and I improvised on using the lining as facing, so there were some imbalances when I tried to affix the lining around the armholes to the shell fabric and sleeves. Specifically, the sleevehole lining came up higher than the sleevehole shell fabric, which was ugly and led me to curse and seam rip and curse some more. The only way I knew to solve the issues that rose out of using the lining as facing was to topstitch the hell out of everything--the neck opening and sleeves are topstitched into oblivion. Note to others: consider how fabric shifts when you're using lining as facing!

You've been topstitched!

I hereby declare that this top fulfills my Rainbow Collection: White requirement! I wonder if I have enough of this eyelet to make another Sorbetto...

Christmas is over, thank heavens...

It is a tremendous relief to have Christmas behind me--all of December was lost to sewing, worrying about sewing, preparing to sew, and breaking needles. I break the most needles at Christmas. Especially on Michelle's gift, which took out a pack of needles.

I made lavender sachets to accompany most of my gifts (homemade and bought) this year, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. The sachets are a great scrap-busting project! I have leftover lavender if anyone wants another (or a first) sachet to put in your drawers or with your laundry as it dries, drop me a line if you would like one.

I'll post pictures of some of the things I made over the next couple of days, though I sadly did not get a picture of Cate's Janet-Leigh-in-Bye-Bye-Birdie-inspired nightie (from Simplicity 2749),

I used the 3rd version, naturally.

paired with the mini-Madeleine bloomers, nor of Chris's ranch bed pocket from Simple Sewing (now with more pockets than ever!); aside from those omissions, I think I got photos of all the handmade items. Better than all of that, I only used fabric in my stash as part of the big fabric destashing effort. Huzzah!

Totally Premature Rejoicing!

Yes! I finished one Christmas gift already and I'm almost through another one. To make sure I took care of the most important things first, I made a gift for a very demanding recipient who would surely give me hell if I did not give them something wonderful and amazing for Christmas.

I played a dangerous game, placing a skirt so close to Olive's back end...quite a gamble.

Yes, I made a skirt for lil' nine-year old Stella, who doesn't seem to really know when I gave her something and when I ducked out of a gift-giving situation and just showed up for cake. Anyhow, I figured it was safe to post this because Stella doesn't seem to do much on the internet, and even if she did, she'd probably forget about her gift before Christmas.

This skirt was based off the tutorial on Sew Delicious for a little version of a skirt seen on Peggy from "Mad Men", which should also apply to making grown-up sized skirts if you're so inclined. The denim is from an old pair of jeans that I wore through (finally, something to do with those other than denim-bottomed bags!), and the fabric is something that Eschy bought a couple of years back at Bolt for me to use on an Anna Tunic for her. The buttons...

The buttons are from the Ephemeral Mailbox Museum from a time before I really knew how to buy notions. They're adorable and and I love them, but since I'm not as whimsical with my clothing as I originally thought, I've had a hell of a time figuring out how to use glittered cupcake buttons. Don't even get me started on how I'm supposed to use the glittered scissor buttons in the same fashion...

So, not a bad start to the season, right? Right. Hopefully I don't go on a sewing strike until December 15th just to bring myself to the appropriate stress level. I hate my subconscious balancing acts.