an orange unicorn dress

January 22, 2015January 21, 201510 Comments

at the same time i made CINO Jess her purse, I made her daughter Sadie a dress for HER birthday and mailed them off together.

it was painfully late – Sadie’s birthday was in August and i sent the dress in November. LATE November. the problem is, CINO is one of the best gifters you’ll ever meet, and i always feel the need to put together amazing gifts in return (which inevitably leads to procrastination on my part *cringe*). Jess made E a beautiful Heather Ross lulu dress for her birthday in May when she and Sadie came to visit, plus brought a gift for O and cookies and decorations for the Frozen party…anything i did would feel inadequate, but I had to try anyway.

i made her an Oliver + S Roller Skate Dress, a simple design but such a cute fit, and it’s a perfect dress to show off a print. E and Sadie are almost exactly the same size and seem to have growth spurts at the same times, so i just sewed what fit E and knew it’d probably work. so this is a 5 and i believe i added a little length to it, probably to the 6. that’s my typical adjustment these days. helps when E can model for me, ha!

yeah i took these photos in November. it was still fall then.

the fabric is red-orange unicorns from Heather Ross’ Far Far Away – the re-release. i got this fabric at Fabric Depot but it’s not available online there – though it is available over at my sponsor LiMa’s shop – she has a bunch of the prints! it’s quilting cotton but super soft and works well for apparel. Heather always seems win at having her designs printed on the best base material.

i lined it with a thrifted vintage sheet. also very soft, duh.

this button came from another sewing pal i met on the internetz and then in real life – Kelly!

it’s a fun, bright dress and E wanted to keep it. but she was happy to send it to her buddy Sadie too.

i really need to make E another one of these dresses! i’ve got a pretty substantial quilting cotton stash and the more she grows, the fewer dress options i have! ridiculous!

wild & free mini hudson pants

January 9, 2015January 8, 201524 Comments

everyone deserves a pair of comfy pants! comfy pants for all!

in september i emailed Kelli with a crewcuts link i’d found, suggesting that a kid version of her hudson pants pattern would be super rad. she wrote back saying it was actually already in the works, and now here we are! mini hudson pants! Continue reading →

handpainted sidekick tote

January 6, 2015January 6, 201533 Comments

a while back, my buddy Anna from Noodlehead asked if i’d help give her newly revamped Sidekick Tote pattern a once-over as she prepared to re-release it, which she did in late November. i’d sewn the Sidekick Tote before and remembered really enjoying it, so i was game. i didn’t remember the pattern having any stumbling blocks the first time, but PDF patterns have come a long way in the last couple years, so I get why Anna wanted to spruce it up a bit. the diagrams are a little clearer, the cutting instructions and sewing directions are a little easier to follow, that sort of thing. this time i thought it’d be fun to try a bit of hand painting on the fabric, inspired by another Portland crafty lady, Anna Joyce. i’ve admired Anna’s work at various craft shows and boutiques around town. i also follow her on instagram, where i noticed lately she’s been doing a lot of simple but graphic handpainting/stamping onto fabric, and it’s the type where i go “heeeeey i think i could do that!” Continue reading →

fairy tale christmas dress

December 30, 2014December 30, 201426 Comments

oh hey! how’s it going? did you have a nice holiday? right around the time of my last post, our entire family got sick over the course of a week, with two different and nasty little viruses…and then it was nearly Christmas! i decided it was as good a time as any to take a little blog break. i did sew a few things, though, so hopefully i can get myself back into the blogging groove.

once we were healthy, suddenly E’s school program was only a few days away and she needed a dress! i tried to talk her into a nontraditional Christmas dress using fabric from my stash, but she sweetly insisted on a fancy green dress with a gold sash, so i hit Fabric Depot right before they closed one night to grab everything i needed.

given the fact that that happened on a Monday and the program was on Thursday, i really should’ve kept it simple. i thought about the Hanami but no, in the end, i had to go all out and sew my first Oliver + S Fairy Tale Dress, which Liesl calls “the ultimate special occasion dress.” Continue reading →

gray + navy linden

December 12, 2014December 11, 201415 Comments

i’ve blogged for nearly four years now and i always struggle in December – movies and early bedtimes just sound better than sewing on winter weeknights, and there are a lot of events all weekend every weekend all month long. buuuut it had bugged me that i had this sweater half cut out and i really wanted to WEAR the darn thing, so i finally finished it!