pink elephants on parade party

May 30, 2012September 14, 201239 Comments

way back before vintage may started, Em turned four! since her favorite thing is still the color pink (she’s obsessed with it, seriously), her party much resembles last year’s but with the added flair of elephants (her very favorite animal!). it’s a pink elephants on parade party!

the living room got the full elephant treatment, with even her favorite stuffed elephants in attendance…

the art was painted by my talented friend Erin in Em’s nursery colors before she was born, inspired by one we saw at a local store. she moved bedrooms so it normally hangs in O’s room now, though she has requested it be moved to hers soon. the elephant statue is from west elm a while back. i made the elephant garland out of felt using the same method as the elsie marley eye patch tutorial, which worked great though it was pretty much the most tedious sew ever. i wanted to do it right rather than glue it or something so it could hang in her room later (which it now does).

dining room decorations were a bit more subtle – just a little pink garland and a couple elephant drawings by our resident elephant artist…

our house is pretty small but has a great floor plan – the living and dining room are open to each other and separated by an archway, so we can fit a lot more people in than we should based on the square footage. and for parties, all i need to decorate are two rooms! kind of nice. we had the party in the morning again, which i love doing. the kids got a pancake bar and the adults got biscuits and gravy from pine state – yummmm…

Em helped me color her cake to be…which colors? oh yeah, pink and purple! i don’t care if this is all over blogland, pretty much no one at the party had seen it. Em helped me with the sprinkles (i cut a 4 out of cardboard and she sprinkled…er…dumped them into the stencil).

it was well-received.

the birthday girl wore a new oliver + s ice cream dress, a pattern i first made for her second birthday. this one’s View B in a 3T and because she has a big head i cut the neck hole in a 4T, though i should have just followed this tutorial to lengthen the opening because it slips down off her shoulder a bit. i omitted the v to copy gail. Em didn’t like the morning dew on her feet.

it’s in four colors of shot cotton from bolt, and i let her pick either a sparkly pink button or an elephant button…guess which one she chose?

i had originally planned to make the dress ombre but couldn’t find four pink shot cottons that worked, so i moved the colors around and added the purple. then i saw this lovely ice cream dress and realized i should’ve just done the top in the light pink too! gah!

her favorite gift was the sarah jane necklace we got her (you’ll never guess what’s on it).

it’s pretty crazy to me that she’s four already! she suddenly seems so grown up…

KCWC spring 2012: day 4:: fox pajamas

April 28, 2012April 30, 201215 Comments

it seems that all of my girl outfits this week have been “new to me” patterns/tutorials, and the boy items have been familiar ones. funny. these are the oliver + s bedtime story pajama pants (sadly out of print – hopefully they release this one as a digital pattern!). it’s quick, easy, and cute. i’ve sewn it a couple times (here and here) and was curious how fast i could make it. so i speed tested myself.

starting from already cut pieces, these took me 50 minutes! i had guessed it’d take 45. my stitching isn’t as straight as i’d normally like, and i was slowed down by too-wide-of-elastic for the waist (all i had at 11pm). but i also added a yellow elsie marley bunting tag to it so i suppose under one hour is pret-ty good!

the shirt is one i appliquéd during my very first KCWC last spring. radiohead reference anyone? i chopped off the onesie part but it’s still way too small on him. might be time to make a new one.

i can’t remember if i made 18-24 month or 2T pants for 17-month-old O, and can’t find my pattern pieces in the disaster area i call my sewing room, sorry about that. the adorable fabric, however, is aneela hoey’s blue bell foxlets with kona olive binding. i firmly believe kona olive goes with everything. EVERYTHING.

i grew up with three sisters and i’m finding it so funny how differently little boys play – O is so much rough-and-tumble than Em ever was, and he and my husband have a running game where they roar at each other like bears and chase each other around the house. O thinks it’s HILARIOUS. here it is in action:

while mommy activities are a little more calm:

we love our little guy!

okay, now i’m caught up on posting prior projects. i didn’t sew on friday night, but i’m going to try to finish my final KCWC project and post it tomorrow. have you gotten lost in the flickr group yet? sooooo much great stuff in there. it’s an inspiration fest!

KCWC spring 2012: day 2:: stripey sailboat top

April 25, 2012October 16, 201329 Comments

a couple of my goals this week are to sew for both my son and my daughter, and to use both new and familiar patterns. yesterday’s was for her and new, so this is for him and familiar. it’s also a good layering piece, since our springtimes tend to be sunny and 75 one day, and rainy and 50 the next. gotta layer up.

the pattern is the oliver + s sailboat top, in 2T (his 12-18 month one is getting too small, and the 18-24 month measurements didn’t look much bigger). i REALLY love this pattern. the fabric is a men’s sweater from old navy in kind of an interesting vintage-y sweatshirt knit material. it actually frays a bit, so i serged everything on the inside. i applied interfacing under the buttonholes as instructed, and otherwise just sewed it with a longer straight stitch, since it’s a loose-fitting top with a neck opening that doesn’t need to stretch. this top works really great with a heavier interlock type knit, IMHO.

after seeing jessica’s awesome yellow topstitching for her winning PR&P design this week, i decided to go nuts and add yellow topstitching and buttonholes, with minty green buttons. it’s not a color combo i’ve used before, but i LOVE it on him! it feels both neutral and fun.

the top is too big and the sleeves are way too long, but that’s what he grew out of first on his first sailboat top, so i left them. this kid grows really fast and the wide hems actually look pretty cute cuffed up, especially while he’s doing mischievous boyish things like trying to squeeze himself behind the fireplace screen…such a toddler now!

up tomorrow – a new pattern for her!

PR&P week 5: japanese tea party

February 3, 2012February 7, 201345 Comments

we’re getting down to brass tacks here on project run & play! it’s week 5, and in case you may have missed it, last week’s outerwear voting (and judging) was so close they decided to make it a non-elimination round. that means this week is a DOUBLE elimination round, heading into the finale next week! eeps!

one thing that i’ve tried to be conscious of throughout this competition is remaining true to my aesthetic. it’s surprisingly easy to start feeling swayed by what other people are doing in a situation like this, especially because i tend to design things that are much more understated, normally. so i have worked hard to keep to my own look while still pushing myself to add “wow.” i think this week is my best example of that balance. the jacket has clean lines and is very wearable, the pink shirt and ballet skirt are more elevated from the everyday. most of the time i’m sewing what i hope she’ll want to wear anyway, and using pink, elephants, and ballet stuff are always a good bet!

for initial inspiration, i couldn’t stop looking at this lovely loveliness. it guided me to make the skirt, textured top, and use olive green tones.

source: pinterest, original site appears to be defunct

i did a bit more sleuthing around on the skirt and i believe it’s from shabby apple, although theirs only looks to be in white. regardless, i had to make it for my ballerina girl. it’s a batiste circle skirt on the bottom, then three layers of cream tulle, also circle skirts. gotta admit, i felt pretty smart when i realized i could cut them that way and avoid hemming the tulle!

oh and the shirt! did anyone recognize it from Em’s birthday???

i even used the same petal template! it’s all pink voile (the birthday pinata is tissue paper). i hand cut the 65 petals and decided to leave all edges raw for a fluttery look. i lined them up in a row, stitched them down, layered the next ones on top, stitched those down, etc. i then sewed the front and back parts of the shirt together, bound the neckline and armholes, and hemmed the bottom. pretty easy, but a really nice textural effect and added the dose of pink that Em loves.

here are my initial drawings of both:

so i had the general concept down and knew i wanted a textured shirt, but didn’t have the idea for the kimono jacket until monday this week! that morning, feeling a little stuck, i asked Em what she wanted me to make her. she told me she wanted an elephant coat with elephant buttons (i’d shown the buttons to her before)! i thought a kimono would add to the japanese vibe of the peony shirt, so once again, i hit the fabric store on my lunch hour. i don’t usually drive to work, so i walked to the only fabric store near me, which is smallish and has just a little of everything. jackpot, though – they had this dark olive sueded twill. i paired it with the kona olive that i keep on hand because it’s my favorite, and i thought the tonal effect was pretty magical.

i’m now calling this her “ballet ninja” jacket. other PR&P post titles i considered this week were “tea for elephants” and “skirt as top’s skirt and top,” but i chickened out. 🙂

for the jacket pattern, i took the one i made for little red and shortened it, slimmed it a bit, and shortened the sleeves by a couple inches. then i drew a subtle curve from one shoulder to the other armpit, similarly to how i drafted my sweet tartan dress. so the pattern is still originally based on the oliver + s sunday brunch jacket (out of print but can be found in stores, and they’ve been realeasing lots of out of print patterns as digital ones lately), but the only original elements left now are the armholes and shoulder seams! it closes with three of those cute little elephant buttons.

and yeah, i totally hand-finished the whole neckline and sleeve bindings with a blind stitch. i wasn’t going to, but at 10:30pm the night before i planned to take photos, i decided it was a must to preserve the cleanliness of the jacket. i’m so glad i did, even if it meant another late sewing night.

the lining is marrakech elephants by valori wells. i’m sure Em wishes it was on the outside. hehe.

all photos were taken here, which turned out so perfectly – i had forgotten that their house was the same colors as the jacket! my lovely host was thanked profusely and gifted some special fabric for the trouble.

i got waaaay too many great photos, so please forgive the overload!! oh just one more thing: the pretty little orchids in her hair came from the same florist that did our wedding flowers, and i just happened to go get them ON my 8 year wedding anniversary! i thought that was kinda cool.

i’ll stop now so you can head on over to project run & play to vote! japanese tea party! double elimination! vote here!

domo arigato!

**Voting is now closed.**

psssst…want EVEN MORE photos??? check out THE OUTTAKES!

PR&P week 4: little red

January 27, 2012September 27, 201245 Comments

oh wow, i am so grateful that i’m still alive and kickin’ in project run and play! you guys are really the best. i’m having a fun time thinking as creatively as possible and gaining experience in actually designing out of my own brain rather than following patterns. this is all so new to me, and it’s changing how i will sew from here on out. it was really uncomfortable and hard at first, but is becoming normal now and that’s pretty cool. thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue on!

this week’s challenge is “Outerwear” and i was glad for my outerwear experience lately (here and here) but also stumped on what to make! i sketched so many different designs for this one – it gave me the most trouble because i had lots of ideas, but none of them really sang to me. i sketched capes, trench coats, jackets, but everything felt like something i’d seen before. i tentatively decided on a simple raincoat that i’d make in a cool laminated cotton, and headed to bolt on my lunch break with a friend to look for fabric. what i found actually surprised me – a bright red canvas that was actually very soft, and i had a lightning bolt inspiration – what about a red riding hood COAT? hmmmm, i’ve never seen that before! my friend suggested an oversized “guillermo del toro hood,” whatever that means, and i agreed that a giant pointy hood would be a definite must (thanks buddy!).

i looked for mushroom or some other woodsy japanese import fabric for lining but none was to be found, so i grabbed a great amy butler lark print instead. on my drive back to work, i had a brainstorm – i’ll print my own fabric on linen! back to bolt for this lovely natural cotton-linen blend, and then i started printing in a three-phase stamp process. perfect.

the ticking stripe binding is what i had picked to join in this sewalong which i never got around to, but it got poached for this because i had another brainstorm to add 1/4″ flat piping around the whole coat and it was the perfect fabric! it was a fun, easy way to add a whole lot of style and break up all that red. i also added a little “e” label to the back – mine is machine-stitched, but i would have loved to embroider it like this beauty.

the coat pattern is actually based on the oliver + s sunday brunch jacket, which i altered heavily (those are the rules!). i took the top bodice pieces and extended them out at a diagonal from the armpits to create the swing coat shape. i shortened the sleeves and flared them out a bit, too. those are the only pattern pieces i used! i drew the hood pattern freehand and the canvas is so sturdy, it didn’t even need interfacing. the sunday brunch pattern isn’t lined, but i lined mine except for the facings under the buttonholes, where i used the canvas for stability. i piped the whole coat, sleeves, and pockets with the flat piping, and hand-stitched in the sleeve lining and opening that i used to turn the coat closed. the only visible topstitching is on the pockets, so it has a very clean and finished look.

the dress that i made to go underneath is the leila and bed sweet little dress in a 3T, which i lengthened and slanted out at the side seams to create fullness. i made it in the amy butler lark print that i’d originally pegged for the coat lining.

the apron is a simple muslin rectangle, gathered and sewn to a waistband that ties. it has a little toadstool patch on it which i don’t think you can really see in my PR&P post, but it makes me happy and that’s what matters (secret: all toadstools remind me of super mario bros!!).

this coat is the first garment that i’ve sewn for project run & play that really evolved as i made it – the prior three looks were fully formed in my head before i even started sewing. the piping was a later addition. because of that, my sketch is super boring this week!

Em really does love this coat, though, and i’m so happy with it too! it’s already getting a lot of use, which is fantastic!

alright – once again, it’s time to vote! won’t you please skip on over to project run and play to vote HERE? voting closes on sunday evening. i thank you, the ducks thank you, and my little red riding hood girl thanks you! 🙂