My Evening Empire Dress

A few months ago I purchased the Evening Empire pattern and some cotton voile from Anna Maria Horner… when would I find time to make myself I dress?  I thought, but still, I wanted a blue dress in this luscious fabric… and I make so much for my kids, I decided it was time to try a full-size dress.  Kids clothes are so much less fabric.  I think my least favorite part of making a whole dress is wrangling with all the material.  I had never put in a zipper before, and found Anna’s directions pretty easy to follow, and was amazed at how great the zipper foot works! 

Overall I am happy with the dress and think it will get worn quite a bit.  I need to adjust the straps a little and make them shorter but other than that it fits pretty perfectly!  I of course made several mistakes in the making of the dress, but fortunately they aren’t that noticeable.  The wrong side of the fabric is facing out on one panel of the bodice, but the right and wrong sides of this fabric are nearly identical.  The interfacing is a little mixed up between the lining and the front of the bodice, but that is hidden!  And the zipper I ended up using is white and shows a bit so it doesn’t look as finished as I would like, but I can live with it.  It is my first zipper for goodness sake, and it works! And our JOANN’s is closed until winter because the roof collapsed last winter under all the snow, so I had to work with what I had on hand...  I never realized how much I rely on them :) 

The hardest part for me with this dress was deciding on the lining.  I didn’t want to use cotton, because I think I’ll wear this dress with tights and I don’t like to wear slips, so I chose a polyester taffeta-esque fabric from my stash in dark blue.  It makes the dress a little poofier, and the material was a pain to work with (very slippery and thin), but I think it will have the desired outcome!

It has been an Anna Maria Horner year for me.  I have sewed so many items from her fabrics, and now this pattern, and I have another project or two in the works from her book Seams to Me.  Thank you Anna for a wonderful year, I find such inspiration and joy from your beautiful fabrics and creative ideas!!!

Midsummer Morning Bonnet

Oddly enough, the children slept until 8 this morning.  So I made myself a bonnet from 7-8.  I love it!
I admit, I picked out the fabric the night before, thinking if I had a few moments I might get started… This is some lovely Denyse Schmidt  County Fair decorator weight fabric that I got from Sew Mama Sew a while back, with some stretchy combed cotton for lining from a shirt I tried to make myself several years ago without any luck.  The ribbon is a very soft grosgrain in light grey with a thin white stripe on each side.  I have had this ribbon hanging around forever, picked up at some thrift shop, waiting for the right project. I love the way it looks with this fabric, and it is very soft against my skin. 

I think I’ve now made about 8 bonnets from this great pattern I purchased from Amy Karol, totally totally worth every cent.  This is the first one in the Adult size that I have made.  I think I might try making the brim a little deeper next time, for more sun shading, I need that here in the desert mountains!     
Nothing like a bonnet for a Midsummer day – I am reminded of an old folksy song on the Nields’ kids CD Rock All Day Rock All Night,
Put on your old grey bonnet
With blue ribbons on it,
And we'll hitch old dobbin to the shay,
Over fields of clover
We will drive to Dover
On our golden wedding day.
Yes!

Babies to Kids

There's a local baby/toy shop in town called Babies to Kids.  Lately I have been feeling like my own Babies to Kids with all the variety of handmade gifts I've been making...  what fun!  Here's a look at some of the special gifts I've been making for all my new special friends here in Flagstaff ...

Race Track Pack ~  a pouch for storing race cars that unrolls and has a 'race track' on one side of the pouch.  This was made for one of AJ's friend's birthdays, and it is a prototype.  I really like the idea of this!


Girlie Apron ~  made for one of AJ's spit-fire friends.  She isn't exactly a girlie-girl, but her mom tells me she enjoys twirling in this one.  I was going for retro 50's poodle-skirt style... note the vintage kitty-cat ribbon!

Driving blanket - a splurge of a yard of this fabric from the local sewing shop.  I love it!  I made it in an afternoon, and backed it with some Denyse Schmidt decor weight fabric I bought on sale from Sew Mama Sew...

Birthday crown ~ made for AJ from leftover decor fabric from his curtains my mom made him when he was born, and I used Anna Maria Horner fabric for the gems... perfect!  It has velcro on the back and should fit him for years -- it fits me, when I need to feel like the queen :)

Mommy(or Daddy) and Me slings!  ~  Made for Beth, the owner of our local Stroller Strides.
She literally cheered us on at a 10K over the weekend then delivered her baby that night, no big deal :)  The sling is the first I've made, at her request, and I used a couple of patterns for guides -- Maya wraps website and Jan Andrea's patterns.  I struggled with the fabric choice at first.  I wanted something funky and colorful, but I was worried it would be too pink (Beth didn't know whether she was having a girl/boy).  I had purchased the polka dot fabric (Jennifer Paganelli I think) online and then found the nice lily/blueish fabric from the local sewing shop (Beth's oldest is named Lily).  I made sure to sew a billion extra rows of stitches to keep this sling secure, and used crazy stitch patterns to make it look nice...    Got the pink ring from an Arizona company, Sling Rings! And even Beth's husband can rock this sling, look at that tiny baby!

I had planned from the start to make big sister Lily her own sling to match, and here she is with her doll --  I just made a pocket sling and measured it on AJ to make sure it would fit.  She looks GREAT in it! (and I had to try it on myself, too...)

Melman pants and a quilt-in

I keep forgetting to take pictures and also to post things about my sewing these days. Here are some odds n ends....

First, some pants for AJ.  I used the Elasticated Pants pattern from Making Children's Clothes for these, and some giraffe (or Melman if you're familiar with Madagascar) fabric from Michael Miller.  Love these!  Nice and lightweight for the breezy 60-70's we're getting here in late spring.  And they can be PJ pants too.  Note the real underwear instead of a diaper... we are making progress in other ways here!


And I started a kind of quilt-in at my house over the weekend.  I have a lot of scraps and decided to make some quilt blocks to use them up.  I am still thinking about the end result -- maybe a quilt for Coco since these fabrics are from many of the clothes I have made her, and it will be a nice memento of her early childhood.  I may do some Sunbonnet Sue blocks to go with.  Or I might make quilted purses/project bags out of them... I have a quilted bag my mom made and I love it.  We shall see...  in the meantime, I just love the gratification of cutting triangles and randomly sewing them together to make blocks -- so beautiful to look at too!!!

'Sewing for my sanity'

A friend of mine had the phrase 'sewing for my sanity' for her sewing blog, and I kept thinking of it all weekend long.  Between sick children, potty training, night feeding, doctor's visits, and just general spring haywire-ness, I have definitely been turning to my sewing machine for my sanity.  And I am pleased to report that several lovely items have resulted from this therapy...

Toile Love
I have finally cut and sewn with my Anna Maria Horner Good Folks Toile.  It is a bit tricky to work with at first because it is like AIR, or as Anna Maria Horner put it, like BUTTER, but boy, the results are wonderful.  I turned first to a favorite pattern from Oliver + S -- the Swingset Tunic.  I have already made Coco two of these, and now she has a Toile version.  Every time I make this I feel like I perfect my sewing techniques a little more.  But that is true of all the Oliver + S patterns, they are so educational!

With some of the leftovers, I made myself a quick scarf. I've seen several nice scarfs out of this fabric, and I am pleased with mine, except I may redo the edging - some thrifted home decor tassels -- I sewed it flat, but I might try and sew the edging on in a circle, making the scarf just a tube.  Seems like it might be lighter...

Little things
I have a knitting project ready for finishing that I can't share yet... but I am so far very happy with the results!  Knit most often while watching episodes of Northern Exposure.  Love that show :)

And I just finished another Kingpod bonnet, in the Baby size, for a friend's baby we'll be meeting in Phoenix later this week.  I used some nice Japanese sunflower fabric from our local sew/vac Odegaard's.  It is so sunny and lovely, and I thought this little chica needed something sunny since she is only visiting Phoenix and is actually from Anchorage Alaska!  

Finally, I made another kitchen mitt for a young lady who was the recipient of my Kid Chef Kit donated for LUNAFEST earlier this year.  She declared that she needed a mitt for each hand.  Nothing like getting good feedback, and since I had some leftover fabric, I got right on that and even added her initial to this one!

We are ONE!

Miss Coco turned 1 this week, and we had a small tea party for her with some of our new friends.  It was a lot of fun!   There were as usual a few handmade items to celebrate the day, some made by me and some made by my very talented mother in law. 

I whipped up a birthday banner out of some scraps of cotton to use for all of our family celebrations.  Coco's name was made with leftover scraps from the skirt she wore, a Lazy Days skirt in some of my favorite Heather Bailey Freshcut fabric (purchased while pregnant, made the skirt while home with an infant, and now at a year I think it will fit her for at least another year...). And made her a crown that should fit her even as an adult (it fits me, for when I need to feel like a queen I guess). 

She also wore her new '1' t-shirt appliqued by Grandma.  And she received her very own handmade Raggedy Ann doll, made by Grandma, and she came complete with a dress to match Coco's Easter dress.  Grandma also sent me the dress pattern for Annie so I can make more matching dresses, I am excited about that!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful girl, who has brought much delight to us through the ups and downs of this exciting year~

Easter Again

Well, we had a good Easter in our new town out here in the West.  Lucky Coco has had TWO Easters before turning 1!  This year she was much more involved in the activities.  Despite some mood issues, some wind and a slight chill in the air, the day was very nice. 



Coco wore her Easter/Birthday dress today.   Again, the dress is the Oliver  + S Bubble pattern, size 12-18 months, so it will fit through the summer hopefully. The bonnet is Amy Karol's design, in matching Anna Maria Horner Garden Party green.  She rocked the dress, and in the cold air both kids wore there new 'sweatjacks' -- hooded sweatshirts from the Target clearance rack with initials and decorations (a flower, a rocket ship) appliqued for interest. 

While playing in the afternoon, I had time to work on another special item for Coco's birthday -- a birthday banner.  I've seen the ones Amanda Blake Soule has made for her children in her book The Creative Family and have always thought these were great decorations.  And reusable!  I finished the fabric painting today.  Now to finish the part that says 'happy birthday'.  I am going to put the part that says 'coral' up in her room after her party.

Lately I have a ton of little special crafty things going, just the way I like it!