commissioned for e: a dress to MOVE in

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another piece for this year’s “commissioned for e” collection (see skirt here and dress here, which i’m told are getting some use!).  i started with sparkle power’s ruffle sleeve top tutorial.  since i made the dress extra full, though, ruffle sleeves seemed a little busy.  so i made simpler straps instead.  it’s a ruffle sleeve dress without ruffle sleeves…

the pocket is from “bend the rules sewing” by amy karol.  the fabric is denyse schmidt for joann fabrics, and the light blue is sateen from my stash.

i attached the straps closer together in the back than in the front so they’d be less likely to fall off her shoulders (nothing more annoying than that).  it worked!  those suckers are GUARANTEED to stay up through the following activities:

GUARANTEED.

a very pink third birthday party

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despite my best efforts to dress her in neutral colors as a baby and avoid too much pink, my daughter claimed it as her most favorite as soon as she learned her colors.  she wants pretty much everything to be pink.  last year for her second birthday, i organized an “up party” since it was her favorite movie at the time (photos here and here and her dress here).  this year, i indulged her and just went with the pink.  a couple weeks before the party, i started a pinterest board and rounded up a bunch of great party ideas i remembered from around the web.  the post-it note big 3 above was a combination of this post-it note wall art and this giant number from oh happy day!  i also hung twisty streamers like i saw on aesthetic outburst, only i made them two-tone with lighter and darker pink.

my main “statement piece” was a flower piñata like i’d seen on inchmark  last year.  it took a long time to cut out and stick on all of the petals (my husband did most of the cutting out), but i love it.  i didn’t have the heart to break it.  i’m planning to hang it in her room once i’m ready to take it out of the living room, but i do love the pink pop against our walls for the time being.

the whole time i was working on it, i had “the high road” by the broken bells stuck in my head.

see the resemblance?

 (maybe james mercer and danger mouse are inchmark fans, too.)

we had a 9am breakfast party, since two of em’s cousins had a t-ball game later.  breakfast parties are great!  parents of young children (and grandparents) are up early anyway, and generally in a good mood as long as you have plenty of coffee around.  we had a fun cereal bar (a la cakies), fruit, huevos rancheros, sausage, and sticky rolls.  for her “cake,” my mom made breakfast muffins with strawberry cream cheese frosting and fresh strawberries on top.  i punched out a bunch of pink and gold confetti and sprinkled that around the table, and used my grandma’s vintage bauer pottery to display em’s special birthday muffin with three candles.

i made her skirt loosely based on this crewcuts version (also discovered on pinterest, seriously my favorite site on the internet).  it’s a layer of voile and a layer of batiste with the selvedges as the hems.  then i hand-tacked on a row of sequins.  she looooooved it.

her big gift from us was a dollhouse with lots of accessories from various family members.  she also got a real tambourine, a soccer ball, clothes, and coloring stuff.  but her most-used gift so far has been the buddha board (which i discovered via the artful parent, though i think i remember seeing them way back when i was younger).  she likes to practice her “smiley faces.”  pretty good, eh?

once she finishes each drawing, she plays “black out” and just paints the whole thing with water, then moves on to something else while it dries…then comes back and paints it out again.

she really loved her pink party, and i’m still trying to come to grips with the fact that my little girl is now THREE.  i love her so much!

kcwc spring 2011: days 6 & 7

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final post for the kid’s clothes week challenge.  due to a couple of ill-timed nap strikes by the little fella below, this is all i could muster.  i finished it yesterday evening, under the wire.  i have a couple of other items that i haven’t quite completed, but i’m ready to move on with other bloggie topics (like em’s 3rd birthday party!) and i’ll come back to my sewing posts in due time.

this last project, another boy applique, is a “meeting people is easy” onesie that i’m really excited about.

my husband and i are big radiohead fans, and all through college i would doodle these two little business guys from the cover of the documentary.  see them in the bottom left corner?

i love to applique onesies for my little guy, but sometimes have trouble with inspiration.  this idea just hit me one day, and i had to make it happen.
it looks like he’s sort of doing an “ok” sign with his right hand there, sooo appropriate since the documentary follows the band while they’re on tour for ok computer, right?
(baby smiling in backseat)

kcwc spring 2011: days 4 & 5

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i fizzled out on sewing after getting home late yesterday.  a skirt is cut and partially sewn, but not finished.  then both kids went on a bit of a nap strike today (friday the 13th!), and we have out-of-town friends on their way to stay with us as i write, so i probably won’t sew again until sunday afternoon.

HOWEVER!  we  had a little photoshoot this morning, coupled with an alice-in-wonderland-backyard-breakfast-tea party-picnic.  the tea was actually cocoa.  she loved it.  please enjoy these natural light photos of the bucket hat and ruffle dress, which is a hit, by the way…


there, now i feel better.

kcwc spring 2011: day 3

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ooooo, i’m excited about this one.  sometimes i pick out fabrics and i think they’ll probably work, but when the garment is actually sewn, the fabric takes on a life of its own and turns out much better than i expected.  this is one of those cases.  i had been on the hunt for about a year to find the perfect stripe to mimic the pattern in the book, and i finally found this one (yes, at bolt again).  it’s skinny lines in misty gray by sweetwater for moda.  the book shows white lining, and but i only had this light blue batiste.  i got a little worried, because my daughter sometimes revolts against muted colors, but then i realized IT LOOKS KIND OF LIKE ALICE IN WONDERLAND!  she is on a major disney movie kick, so i think this is my selling point.

a little bit, right?  a modern interpretation.  haha.

the pattern is the dress with ruffle trim in “carefree clothes for girls” by junko okawa, my first project from that book, which i’ve had for a long time.  i’ve sewn other japanese patterns here and here (actually written in japanese, which i don’t speak), and i love them.  they’re simple, but look so nice.  i always learn new techniques too.

this one challenged me because all of the edges are left unfinished.  i tend to finish my seams more than i need to sometimes (love a french seam), so it was hard to leave them as is.  but i really like the juxtaposition of the clean bias-bound neckline and arm holes with the raw ruffle.

this is one i almost woke my daughter up to try on tonight…can’t wait for tomorrow morning!

UPDATE: i forgot to mention that i shortened the dress by 1″ and didn’t add side or shoulder seam allowances to adapt it to a 3T instead of a 4T.  she tried it on today and it is still a bit big on her, but wearable, and i bet by the summer it’ll fit pretty well.  she’s also buying it as an “alice” dress, and couldn’t wait to show grandma today (“grandma will love it!”).  calling it a success.