Category: sewing

great pattern hack: tulip antalya dress

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hello purple lovers!!  welcome back, i have another dress for you, yep two purple dresses in a row on the blog, you’re so welcome.

my friend Melissa of A Happy Stitch partnered with Michael Miller Fabrics for an event called THE GREAT PATTERN HACK (which sounds so epic it needed caps i think).  we chose from a selection of brand new fabrics from Michael Miller, a selection of patterns from indie designers, and got to hacking.  here’s mine!


tulip antalya dress // skirt as top

after seeing some really cool versions of the Antalya Dress by Willow & Co on the blogs, I was intrigued to give it a whirl.  i made a size 6 for E and figured the roomy fit and length would last her a bit, because she couldn’t possibly be a size 6 yet, right??  it seemed too big while i was sewing it but she really has grown a lot lately. Continue reading →

britex lace flower girl dress

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Sometimes timing just works out perfectly.  My daughter was invited to be the flower girl in my husband’s cousin’s wedding early next month (she has been a flower girl a couple times before and SHE LOVES IT), and the bride asked me to make her flower girl dress (which I LOVE).

Lucky for me, the upcoming Britex sale category of poly/rayon/lace and my ongoing status as a guest blogger for them meant I had plenty of wonderful fabric options to choose from to make her the perfect summer wedding flower girl dress.

lace overlay roller skate dress

I decided on this gorgeous Floral Net Mauve Cotton Blend Stretch Lace – it’s a cotton/nylon blend mesh with embroidered flowers.  The bride’s colors include purple as an accent, and her dress is white lace and somewhat fitted, so I thought a simple shift dress would work nicely for Em. Continue reading →

double gauze alder for nani IRO month

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it’s nani IRO month again, yay!  was super flattered last year to be invited by miss matatabi to participate, and equally flattered this year.  wanting to branch out a bit but remain very selfish with my nani IRO, i decided to use a pattern i’d been meaning to try since the day it was released – the Grainline alder dress.

nani IRO alder dress // skirt as top

the fabric i chose was a beautiful double gauze called Spectacle – it’s pink and lime green brush strokes on a light pink background.  i love the hand painted aesthetic of nani IRO fabric, it feels effortless and it’s always so pretty.  Frances has a great selection of nani IRO listed in her shop and even though she lives in Japan and I’m on the west coast of the US, her shipments seem to arrive impossibly fast!   Continue reading →

hudson’s bay point quilt tutorial

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welcome to the first day of Vintage May 2015!

Vintage May started back in 2012 with just kid clothes, then Jess and i expanded it to adult clothes, and this year i thought it’d be interesting to add vintage-inspired home sewing into the mix!  one evening i had a brainstorm of wanting to make a quilt inspired by the famous Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket…and i knew i had to make it happen!

hudson's bay point quilt tutorial // skirt as top

the Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket has a fascinating history – the original blankets were used as currency in the colonial U.S. and Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries.

hudson bay point quilt tutorial // skirt as top

the blankets were typically traded to First Nations and Native Americans for beaver pelts and were 100% wool, which is both fire and water repellant.  they were also very warm and easily sewn into coats.

Continue reading →