fall flower girl dress

November 14, 2012November 14, 201268 Comments

i was so excited when my husband’s cousin Amy asked Em to be a flower girl in her wedding. then i was HONORED when she asked me to make Em’s dress and gave me free reign on the design! seriously! sewing mama’s dream come true. i literally jumped up and down.

Amy and i went fabric shopping together, her bringing swatches from the bridesmaid dresses, me bringing ideas. my two major inspirations were this wedding dress, and this lovely dress by my friend Danielle. Amy approved. 🙂

fall flower girl dress

Amy and her awesome fiancé Ben chose beautiful colors – teal and bright yellow – which paired perfectly with their vibrant flowers and the fall season. there were peacock feather fascinators for the bridesmaids from etsy, and I loved that they ordered one for Em too! everything just came together so nicely! isn’t it great when that happens?

the flower girl dress is sparkly silk organza (was originally going to use tulle so i didn’t need to hem, but they didn’t have the right colors), with cream overlay on the bodice and top layer of the skirt, then three layers of teal getting progressively deeper in tone as they got closer to her body, like her angelina tutu. i french seamed the edges to join them, then folded each layer to create a bubble hem. i gathered it all together and attached it to the bodice, then serged. next time i’d enclose the raw edge of the skirt with the batiste – Em said it was scratchy and i felt pretty terrible about that.

i incorporated the gathered shoulder design in the overlay. underneath, there’s a basic tube top with exposed invisible zipper (tutorial here by kate), and i added teal satin ribbon as straps which i tied around each shoulder layer to gather them.

i took these photos over a week after the wedding, since the ones i took on the day were more of the event itself. the dress isn’t quite so perfectly arranged and her hair isn’t as fancy, but you still get the idea. she was happy to wear the dress again. the day of the wedding, i actually hand-sewed the back layers together so the zipper wouldn’t show.

the yellow sash is satin.

you wouldn’t believe how thrilled Em was to be a flower girl (or maybe you would?). she made it through the church ceremony, going up to stand on the altar with the bridesmaids and then back to sit down multiple times, paying close attention for over an hour with minimal fidgeting, no meltdowns. she sat with the bridesmaids, not with us, and she only knew a couple of them. i was so proud of her!

it was so cute seeing her there with the bridesmaids in teal and yellow. she also complemented Amy, who wore a cream dress with teal shoes and had a sparkly sash/belt. i wasn’t quite sure how my homemade dress would play into the whole look of the wedding, but i was really relieved that it looked like it belonged up there! PHEW!

Em felt so special wearing a little makeup and having her fingernails painted sparkly for the occasion. it also helped that her cousin S was the ring bearer. they’re just 10 days apart in age and they’re even in the same class in school! more like brother and sister than cousins, really. he did a great job up there too, and aren’t little guys in suits the cutest? his mom sewed his teal bow tie!

okay so confession time – i got worried about how i was going to sew the organza and whether i’d even be able to execute such a fancy occasion dress (since my style is much more casual), so i procrastinated a bit. i worked on it the week before the wedding and it was taking a long time to sew, plus i was a bit burnt out from KCWC and halloween sewing.

i tried the dress on her midweek, and discovered i needed to redo the overlay – it was too big. i was too tired after the rehearsal dinner to work on it, but figured it was a quick fix so i hit the sack and figured i could do it the morning of the wedding. then i woke up at 2:30am in a panic and HAD to sew it right then! it was actually a peaceful time to sew, and i also ironed O’s outfit and made myself a little emergency sewing kit (which came in handy, i ended up helping secure the bustle of Amy’s dress with a safety pin!). then i went back to bed.

and there ya go! Em keeps talking about the wedding and wearing her fascinator around the house. she’s definitely itching to be a flower girl again, which is a good thing because my sister is getting married in the spring!!

i’ll be back with my wedding gift for the happy couple, Amy + Ben! i hope you enjoyed the flower girl dress photo overload. 🙂

chambray big bow dress

November 6, 2012November 6, 201230 Comments

ah pattern testing, my favorite sewing blog activity!

i first found the big bow dress on pinterest. it’s by miranda of one little minute. i feel like it had popped up in my feed over and over, and each time i saw it i was like “ooooh that’s so cute, is there a pattern?” i’d click through to her blog post and was always bummed to see there wasn’t a pattern, she just took custom orders for them. since i sew, i don’t buy dresses for Em anymore, so that didn’t really help me. i wanted to MAKE one!!

but then i started following miranda on instagram and saw a photo one night showing she was working on a pattern! yippee! i told her i was excited, and a little while later she asked me to test it for her!

the big bow dress pattern is now for sale! for testing purposes, i sewed mine in a lovely chambray (purchased here) with vintage sheet lining. i love the casual vibe it lends to this more formal dress, and the blue floral sheet inside is so soft! i made a 3T in 4T length, and i just love how it looks on Em.

Em is kind of a sucker for exaggerated details, i think, so she loves the bow and the roomy a-line fit for dancing too. even despite the blue color, she was sold on it pretty quickly!

miranda was great at listening to tester feedback and as a result i think the pattern is really user friendly, though probably advanced beginner/intermediate-level since it involves a buttonhole, zipper, pleating, and lining…though the pattern is good at explaining it all too.

chambray big bow dress

i have just one construction tip that didn’t make it into the final version of the pattern that may help, and that is this: after sewing the buttonhole, sew a basting stitch down the length of the dress, continuing the same distance out from the fold as the buttonhole on the right side of the dress. press open the front box pleat and then remove the basting stitches. this will help you keep an even box pleat down the length of the dress.

my dress has a tiny inverted box pleat in the center of the bigger box pleat, which wasn’t miranda’s intention…the pattern actually calls for a knife pleat. take a look at her photos, not mine for specific details. 😉

the dress closes with an invisible zipper, and her technique involves no hand stitching of the lining! yay!

Em wore this to a wedding rehearsal and dinner (she was the flower girl! much more to come on that) and it’s great as a formal-ish but still so comfortable dress. perfect heading into the holiday season, don’t you think?

you can get your own big bow dress pattern right here! it goes from 6 months to size 6 and i think it’d be especially adorably ridiculous on a little baby.

thanks for letting me test this pattern, miranda!!

handmade halloween 2012: pink elephant costume

October 31, 2012November 7, 201250 Comments

you know about Em’s elephant obsession, right? and her love of the color pink, right? so you’re not surprised at all that this was her halloween costume choice, right?

there’s something about four year olds where they just get obsessed with things. any child psychologists out there, please clue me in. it’s like her whole life is pink and elephants (and maybe ballet?). so predictable it’s hilarious.

when we first asked her what she wanted to be for halloween (maybe in august?), she drew this:

a pink elephant sketch for me to sew from. since she drew it, she has not wavered. okay no, ONCE she said she would be fantastic mrs. fox, but the next day she was back to pink elephant. dang! i was kinda hoping my costume sewing would be taken care of with film petit.

i had a hard time fully conceptualizing the elephant. couldn’t figure out my designs – hoodie? jumpsuit? separates but wearable later? very specific and one-time use? i ended up going with separates, and had to do my own sketch because hers wasn’t entirely humanoid (yes i said humanoid).

here’s the pattern rundown. it was all sewn in fleece from joann because halloweens get chilly here and it needed to be cozy.

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procrastination project: field trip raglan tee

October 26, 2012October 27, 201211 Comments

sometimes (a lot of the time) i’m a terrible procrastinator. as i write this post, i should be finishing Em’s costume so I can move on to her flower girl dress. i should’ve also been making her costume when i sewed this raglan tee:

sometimes when you’re knee deep in pink fleece making a top/pant/hood/trunk combo, you just need a twenty minute break to sew something super easy, you know? this field trip raglan, which i had cut out during KCWC just in case i needed to deliver a death blow to my friend Rae over there (haha), was just the ticket.

it’s size 18-24 months, made with cream super soft organic bamboo jersey something-or-other that i found in the remnant bin at josephine’s dry goods, and a maroon men’s t-shirt i got at Target for $5.

i left the bottom hem raw, and used the existing neck ribbing and sleeve bindings. no hemming on this shirt, and it was all sewn on the serger except reinforcing the bottom side seams, quick quick quick. helped that i’ve already made it once before!

(his sister took a field trip to the fire station this week; he has commandeered the hat)

so yeah, nothing fancy or groundbreaking, but the boy needs some long sleeved shirts heading into fall, and quick/easy finishes make me very happy. i’m falling hard for this pattern; want to make more ASAP!!

okay i’d better go finish that darn pink elephant now…have a happy weekend!

film petit: psycho

October 25, 2012October 31, 201231 Comments

good moooooorning/afternoooooon/eeeeeeeeeevening!

it’s film petit time! it’s also October, the spooky month of Halloween. this month, my partner Jessica, our guest Jessica, and i were in the mood to sew something a little creepier than our normal fare. today we present to you outfits inspired by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. we each picked a Hitchcock movie that inspired us, and i chose 1960’s Psycho.

as with all of our film petit choices so far, Hitchcock films hold special meaning for me. my husband and i met in high school, and one of the first things i learned about him was that he is a major movie buff. our school offered Film as an “English” class senior year, and he was one of two students that the teacher actually created a Film 2 class for because he was so into it! his semester-long Film 2 project was an in-depth analysis of the films of Alfred Hitchcock. i went ahead and piggy backed on that when i took Film as a senior the next year, while he was off at college taking “music in film and television” class. movie buff? more like movie fanatic.

so many things make Hitchcock movies great. they’re spooky as heck but not typically gory. the plots have twists and turns, they can scare the pants off you but make you laugh too, and a lot of the creepiness is created through music and camera angles and what you don’t see. the soundtrack of Psycho is one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, and the shower scene is probably one of the most recognizable (and freakiest) scenes in film history (never seen it? well here you go). trust me, it never gets easier to watch! i got all jumpy just putting together this collage!

it was actually my husband’s idea to recreate that iconic scene at the bates motel, showing a mini norman bates transformed into “mother” and then back to clean up the mess she made. the original plan was to have O model the looks, but he refused to wear the wig so I switched my model to Em and retooled a bit.

for mother’s nightgown, i sewed a made by rae pierrot tunic with shirred neckline and sleeves, in 18-24 months extended to 3T. that would’ve fit O just fine but was much too short on Em, so i added a 6″ ruffle and vintage lace trim inherited from my grandma to make it long enough for her to wear as a nightgown. the yarn wig is based on this tutorial from this mama makes stuff (hers is for rapunzel, but i made it the same way).

the felt knife i made up on my own, quilting together three layers of gray felt with metallic silver thread, then wrapping brown felt around it for a handle. i had to starch the heck out of it so it wasn’t too floppy and i’d probably use better reinforcement next time…not that i plan to make too many felt knives in the future!

of course Em has never seen any part of the movie, but when i asked her to act like a “mean old lady” and handed her the felt knife, i was shocked to see her get SO into character!

she called the knife a “sword” and had a grand old time recreating the shower scene.

we all go a little mad sometimes. haven’t you?

this one’s downright GLEEFUL. not sure whether to worry about her or sign her up for acting classes. 😉

for the norman bates outfit, she’s just wearing store-bought jeans and a button down shirt, plus O’s fantastic mr. fox jacket (pattern is the basic blazer by blank slate patterns). it actually looked so good on her i might need to make her a blazer of her own!

here are a few more of the creepy “mother” scenes from Psycho…an attack on the staircase, her spot in bed, and the final reveal, plus one of our favorite lines.

psycho film petit

little mrs. bates has grown tired from her murderous rampage.

while she waits for new victims to arrive at the motel, you should head over to check out what the jessicas made – they both sewed outfits from The Birds but had very different takes on it! their photos are also in color, if you’re currently feeling color-deprived.

our guest jessica from running with scissors sewed an outfit for her son, another four year old that got WAAAAY into his role fleeing from flocks of crows! check out her post right here…if you dare! her photos are a crack up.

my partner jessica over at a little gray made a tiny tippi hedren suit, and it’s SO great – her little gal is far too sweet to be scary, but her outfit is totally spot on!

***

here are the guidelines for film petit:

every month or so, Jessica and i (plus a guest blogger) will sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love. our next guest will be robin from nested in stitches!
please feel free to add any movie-inspired kid sewing to the film petit flickr group. if you sew along with our film petit choices, we’d love to see that too!
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know.
film petit archives: the life aquatic with steve zissou, amélie, fantastic mr. fox