gifts for the nieces

December 30, 2013December 30, 201312 Comments

when my blog is quiet like it has been, it usually means i’m up to my eyeballs actually making stuff.

and aside from making a human (due to arrive in less than 2 months now!), i also sewed quite a few Christmas gifts this year – nine, actually. that’s kind of a lot for me. i got photos of MOST of them ahead of time, but may need to follow up on a few that i really want to photograph modeled rather than taped to a wall, so we’ll see how many of the nine show up here. i even made a MAN gift! anyway, let’s knock three out right now, eh?

i have three nieces – my sister’s kids – and i feel like i don’t sew for them very often. i really wanted to make them each a comfortable, wearable, but uniquely handmade garment to go with some store-bought leggings I picked up on black friday.

for the 4 year old (Em’s best friend, currently in pre-kindergarten, and almost always wearing a knit top and leggings when i see her):

a Nessie Top! i tried to pattern test this for Jess of CINO, but her pattern testings somehow come at especially busy times for me, and I wasn’t able to. however, i still had the tester version of the pattern and was very excited to sew it up! the top comes together really quickly (construction is similar to the FBST, since it’s a simple knit shirt), but i love the swingy girly shape and hi-low hem of the Nessie, and couldn’t wait to make it in some Heather Ross Briar Rose strawberry jersey knit (sent to me by the very same Jess for my birthday, and such a dream to sew!).

i hemmed it using my double needle and a walking foot and it worked great.

i added a little olive colored microsuede pocket for a little extra interest and to make sure it didn’t go “pajama.” i left the pocket edges raw and zigzagged around them to secure. word is, my niece is a fan and it fits great! i made a 4T and she is average-sized (about the same size or bigger than 5.5 year old Em who tried it on and had just the right amount of growing room).

for the 2.5 year old…a peasant dress covered in bunnies and balloons!

pattern is the sweet little dress by leila & ben. i’ve sewed a bunch of these in my time, and they’re always Em’s most-worn everyday dresses (remember this one?). they make it easy for a little gal to dress herself, they’re reversible and comfortable and cute. they can be layered in the winter and worn alone with sandals in the summer. the recipient of this dress pulled it on over her Christmas Eve jammies upon opening it and, i’m told, cried when it had to be washed.

always a good sign.

i made a 3T for growing room, and flared out the sides a bit as i like to do on this pattern. the fabric is Balloon in Aqua by Sarah Jane from her Children at Play line (still available here and here). i think i got it at Fabric Depot way back when.

for their baby sis, who is 11 months and juuuust starting to take a few steps but still mostly crawls, another peasant-style top…

this is Made by Rae’s Pierrot Tunic, another pattern i’ve made quite a few times before. i made this in 12-18 months figuring it’ll be a dress now and a top later (the way these things fit, i bet the middle sis could wear it now if she wanted!). i omitted the neck ruffle but took a cue from Rae and added vintage ribbon trim to the bottom (can’t remember who so kindly sent that pretty ribbon to me! help? fess up!).

the fabric had no selvedge info but has a really nice feel to it (almost like pima cotton maybe?) and was sent to me by Sanae Ishida as a thank you for guest posting for her – thanks, Sanae! it worked perfectly for the Pierrot. i stitched the ribbon on by staying right on that purple edging – so glad my machine allows me to move my needle ever so slightly to allow me to get that precise.

and there ya go – three pink/purple garments for three sisters! i didn’t want to make anything so fancy or precious that it wouldn’t be worn, and i put a lot of thought into the styles i chose for each little gal. these were the first three gifts i made this year and i was nowhere near burnout yet, so they were super fun! it was good to sew patterns i was really comfortable with, too. that helped a lot.

i’ll be back with more handmade gifts!

spider mittens

December 10, 2013December 10, 201318 Comments

this little guy is now three years old, and no he hasn’t taken that hoodie off since halloween!

but now he has some mittens to go with it.

he grew out of one pair of mittens and another vanished from our house, as those things often do. the weather here lately has been pretty frosty by northwest standards – we’re used to 40 degrees and rainy all winter, but it’s been in the teens and twenties and either really dry or even a bit snowy! anyway, mittens and gloves are usually optional around here, but not lately. lately they are mandatory.

i whipped these up for him as part of his birthday gifts. the pattern is from Little Things to Sew (affiliate link), and i’d almost forgotten the book included a mitten pattern even though i just did a gift idea inspiration post from the book for Oliver + S! silly me. i’d actually sewn these once before but it was a couple years ago – they come together so quickly! the part that took the longest was adding the webs to the palms – my husband’s idea when i asked what i could do to make them special and fun. boy mittens/gloves at the store are super boring, have you noticed? i tried to just buy some but they come in such boring solids and O was not thrilled about any of them. and the girl ones were all so fancy and fun! ugh. typical.

so anyway, i drew the design with water soluble marker and just stitched them on with black thread, so now he can shoot webs like Spider Man! he loves them!

the mittens are made of charcoal and white fleece in a size small, and i was going to make them double layered, but i was sewing late at night and sewed two right handed linings, so i gave up on that idea and just put the elastic casing at the wrist instead of the bias finish since i’d already committed to that. they seem to stay on him just fine!

off to cozily shoot some more webs. he thinks it’s pretty hilarious to pretend to spin people up in a web and then let us loose again.

LOOK OUT! here comes the Spider Maaaaaaan.

rainbow roller skate dress

December 4, 2013December 5, 201310 Comments

every year i seem to forget how hard it is to blog in December. the weather and daylight are bad for photography (especially for those of us with daytime away-from-home jobs), weekends are packed with activities, and the sewing that is done this month is almost all Christmas-gift-related. SO. while i am busy behind the scenes elving it up in my basement sewing lair, i thought i’d haul out an unblogged project i’ve been meaning to show you for months!

this is Em’s 5th birthday dress.

i think it perfectly captures her personality on the day in May that she turned 5 years old.

the dress is the Oliver + S Roller Skate Dress. it’s a 3T with 4T length, just like the first one i made. the pink base is kona cotton, and the appliqué was ALLLLL Em’s idea.

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sparkle tote bag: book review & giveaway

November 27, 2013November 27, 201316 Comments

i’m totes excited about my post today – TOTES! and look, so is my little sister, Laura!

Laura has been wanting to learn how to sew, so i asked if she might want to tackle a project from Simple Sewing by Katie Lewis of The Red Kitchen with me for this book review. she was excited to! Laura chose the fabric and sewed this tote all by herself using the book, with my guidance (mostly tips on how to cut fabric, work my machine, etc.).

i think her bag turned out great and isn’t she the cutest?

the fabric is confetti sparkle in navy, courtesy of Dear Stella (available online here). i had some leftover from my Everyday Skirt and Laura gravitated to it.

she lined the tote with a navy twill, also from my stash, which gives the bag some nice structure. smart thinking, girl. i added medium-weight interfacing to the handles to give them a bit more substance, since i can’t stand it when handles get all bunched up over time.

here’s Laura sewing! yay!

we had a great time. Simple Sewing has the byline “30 Fast and Easy Projects for Beginners” which is totally accurate. it’s the perfect book for someone just learning to sew, where everything is brand new. the projects are fun and practical, the instructions are clear with step-by-step photos, and there is a low intimidation factor – nothing would be too difficult for a beginner to tackle. it’s a book full of confidence-builders!

Laura chose the basic tote bag as her project. some of my very first sewing projects (4 years ago) were tote bags that i learned out of a book, and it’s a great practical starter sew. i love that the tote bag in Simple Sewing is lined!

her fabric choice really shines, and a basic, functional object is now special because of the taste of the person sewing it.

i believe there’s a feeling of power and confidence that comes from being able to MAKE things, ya know? if you sew, embroider, knit, crochet, craft, build, cook, bake, decorate…it all leads to this sense of accomplishment and ability that’s pretty cool. for me, being able to help pass those the skills i’ve gained along to someone else (with the help of the right resource) makes me feel extra super good.

Laura was so happy with her basic tote experience, she actually wants us to have regular sewing time together. dream come true!

if you’re an experienced sewer, Simple Sewing would be a great gift for that person in your life that’s always saying “i wish i could sew!” – maybe include some fabric or a few sessions of personal sewing lessons to get them started? or if YOU are that person that reads sewing blogs and wish you could do this too – NOW IS YOUR TIME!

you can pick up a copy of Simple Sewing at the following retailers:

> Amazon

> Barnes & Noble

> Books & Things

OR, you could enter to WIN one!

to win a copy of the book Simple Sewing: 30 Fast and Easy Projects for Beginners by Katie Lewis, click through the link below to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway (open to US residents only, sorry!):

: :

> > > CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY < < <

: :

a big thanks to my sister Laura for joining me for an afternoon of sewing and for being such a fun model! also, you can check out Caila’s adorable bean bags and Taylor’s holiday placemats and enter to win the book over at their blogs, too!

*i was given a copy of the book to review at no charge. my opinions are my own. this post totes contains Amazon affiliate links.

film petit: zoolander

November 21, 2013November 27, 201338 Comments

and now, two really, really, really ridiculously good looking mini models duke it out on the catwalk as film petit returns with….ZOOLANDER!

OH YES. today we celebrate 2001’s Zoolander, directed by and starring Ben Stiller in the title role, in all its silliness. the plot is something about a very very dumb male model (Derek Zoolander) being brainwashed to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia to prevent him from enacting stricter child labor laws and destroying the fashion industry or something…(?). it’s totally random, it has crazy outfits, it reminds me of college for some reason…it’s just fun.

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