Quick, Easy and ever-so-Sweet Baby Shower Dresses!

Petunia and I did some sewing last week for a baby shower. I made one dress and she made the other with just a bit of help. These two dresses were quick and fairly easy to make, and turned out so cute!

The smaller dress is the one that Petunia made pretty much on her own. It's the Summer Breeze Baby Dress by Shwin&Shwin. It's a free PDF pattern and tutorial. There's lots of gorgeous stuff on that blog, so be sure to take a look. The wonderful thing about this dress is that there a onesie sewn into the skirt to keep an infant's tummy warm and out of a draft, and it eliminates any need for a diaper cover. Genius!

The bigger size dress is based off the Shanty Onesie Dress Tutorial by Shanty2Chic. What I did differently is made the skirt a few inches longer because I was making it with a 6 month onesie instead of what I figured was a 3 month size. I used 15" instead of 12", and I made a small hem at the top and bottom instead of doing a rolled hem with my serger ... because I have no idea how! 

I also covered up the line of gathers with a ribbon and added a fabric bow to the top of the onesie because I had to take off a pink decoration that didn't match. Easy, quick, comfortable, but also very cute. We searched our local fabric store for cute fabric and I'm happy with what we came away with, but I was beginning to worry until we found this purple butterfly fabric. Pretty scary selection, sometimes!

Throw in some homemade hair bows and you've got a gift. The ones on the right are these Double Layer Chunky Hair Bows, which I love. I use them all the time in Sweet Pea's hair. 

The little ones on the left are mini velcro hair bows from this tutorial.

What have you been crafting this summer?

The Little Shift Dress by Favorite Little Things

I haven't sewn or crafted for so long - my crafty post was in March, the embroidery wrapped tangle free headphones. I've been on a roll this week, and I started off by finally sewing the pattern I had cut out in March - the Little Shift dress by Favorite Little Things - times 2! I was worried that the little dress might not fit anymore, but actually they both turned out a bit big which means they will fit next summer too.

I made little SweetPea's dress a size 2 with the size 3 length because both my girls are on the small side. It can be worn the way it's meant to be sans belt, but it is very baggy and the one strange thing about the dress in her size is that the neckline is so big, even though there's a button closure at the back. I'm hoping another size up in growth will fix that. Petunia is 10 and I made her a 9/10 and it's very baggy. It might be wearable without the belt next year, but it's huge. I was disappointed, but then again it'll fit for longer. I tried cinching in the elastic tighter before I fully secured it but it just made the dress hang funny.

The dress is easy to make and the directions are nice and clear, which is good when you're paying a premium for a pattern. The fabric is from my cousin in Tanzania, the same as I one of the Runaround Bag from. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and the girls love them, so that's a big plus.

Little Shift dress by Favorite Little Things

A Learn To Sew Project - A Doll Dress

My oldest daughter is nearly 10 and is learning to sew. I've found it daunting to try to teach her the basics and then find projects that are fun and interesting for her but don't frustrate the heck out of both of us. This little dress worked out well. She was able to make it with minimal help from me.

We followed a Pillowcase Dress with Ribbon Trim for 18" Doll Tutorial by Leigh Laurel Studios. There's a very simple downloadable pattern and the instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

This is definitely something to keep in mind next time we need a birthday gift for a friend.

Christmas Gifts For My Little Nieces

For Christmas I made my 3 yr old nieces a few things. It's Christmas/Birthday gift not because their birthdays are anytime soon, but I generally sew for them and I won't be sewing much with a new baby. The dress above turned out the best but gave me the most problems. I was nearly ready to give up. Drove me right crazy. I used the In The Garden dress tutorial by From An Igloo. 

This is the dress for the other little niece. Kelly has a dress the same style and this 3 yr old lives in town so they can wear them together in the summer. Both of them will like that. This is another From An Igloo tutorial - the One Hour Sundress.

I also made matching skirts for Kelly and the two little girls. 

I looked at the Ruffle Bustle Skirt on Punkin Patterns that she made from this pattern by Lil Blue Boo but I didn't have any knit fabric. I found another pattern (that I can't find now) that I looked at the picture on the front and with some help from these I came up with these skirts. Flat in the front and all ruffly in the back. For now I don't have any good pictures but I'll post some when I can.

I may do a tutorial on how to make them one day.

And last, I made them patchwork aprons and oven mitts.

I made the apron using this pattern from Living with Punks, and the oven mitts as well, but I can't find picture of them!! Oops. 

 was totally guessing as to whether they would fit and poor Zack was my model a couple times (he wasn't too thrilled to try on the first dress) but he's five and so I just made it too short for him but not too much and the aprons were about a size too small so I figured they would be ok. They were fun projects and since a lot of it was scraps (and thanks to mom for all the lace!) I spent $8 on 2 m of the butterfly fabric. That's it. And more white thread but I needed that anyways.  :D 

Ruffle dress from a t-shirt

This is a project I've been wanting to try for at least a year but never had the right material and shirt combo. It's based on the tutorial on www.makeit-loveit.com. The tutorial is here. I'm almost happy with the result. It's a good size bigger than I expected it to be overall so when she grows a bit and it's not so big I think it'll be better but it's a fun little play dress and pretty easy to do. I've started finishing the ruffles a little differently so that the tops are all neat and tidy. I'll post about that later. Hopefully soon. :o)

Double Layer Smocked Sundress

This dress is from the same tutorial as the double layer smocked top. I made the arm holes just a bit bigger so the ties stay up on her shoulders better. I love how this turned out. I think it's my favourite thing I've ever sewn. This material was in the clearance bin. Gotta love that. 

The tutorial is at From An Igloo.

I'm back! and jumpers from last fall

rrrrm  rrrrm  rmmm ... hear that? A rusty motor sputtering back to life. I've taken a health related very long break from this blog - and crafting of any kind. I can't stand it anymore!! I must have an outlet. the kids and I are starting a new project today - lapbooks that will count for school but they think it's just a fun art project. That's a start at least.

This was one of the last projects I did in the fall. I made jumpers for my two nieces and a friend's little girl. The nieces got them for christmas. I basically followed the tutorial from From An Igloo for her Bubblegum Jumper, and made a few changes along the way. I made two out of the three reversible, but the one photographed on the table was out of thicker material so it isn't reversible.

Each of them has an applique on one side, which I'd never tried before. So fun.

This is the first one I made. The owl here is just laid out. Below is a closeup of it almost finished. It was the trickiest of the three appliques.

This one is the pink of the butterfly on the other side.

The third one here is brown like Emma's on the reverse.

They were super easy to make, a good project to make in an evening (well, if you're quicker with the applique than I am!). The neat thing about them is that we tried Emma's on my daughter, 6, and it fit as a sweet summer top, or you could layer long sleeves under it for winter. These should be wearable for quite a while.

Doll Dresses

These are the little girl's dolls and pretty much all they have left to wear are hand me down sleepers and one big dress, so I decided to make them each a dress. They are based on this dress I made her and are very easy to make. I used scraps and ribbon. 

The green flowered dress on the big doll (Martha) turned out the best, but I really like the ruffle I added on the bottom of the smallest doll's dress. It was a scrap I had practiced shirring, and the dress wasn't quite long enough and very boring, so I added the ruffle. They are Martha, Meg and Sara if you wanted to know. I don't really know where Martha's name came from. 

Bandana Halter Top

This bandana dress (or shirt) is so easy! There are tutorials for it all over the place but I followed this tutorial at Joy's Hope. I made them for my 2 nieces as well, who are both turning 2 in the next few months. This is can grow with them, dress to shirt. A 20 minute project, tops! I forgot, of course, to take pictures of the little ones in their dresses when they tried them on. 

Sundress with a sash

I don't have a tutorial to send you to for this one. I saw it last summer, and finally made it. It is so cute on! The sash goes in the back. The little girl absolutely loves it and that's what counts. 

Is spring here yet? ... wishful thinking ...

I got tired of waiting for spring. Not to say it hasn't been warm lately, but one can only take so much rain. I found a tutorial for this "one hour sundress" on from an igloo, a very cool new blog (via one pretty thing). One hour, I think not. I haven't sewn for a while, so that could be why, but it is very easy. The white fabric has sketches of disney princesses drawn all over it in purple and is not anything I would have bought to make clothing out of. It was bought to be curtains in a house we put up for sale as soon as I bought it and here it has sat. I needed to do something with it.

Well, I've been sewing up a storm the last couple days. I'll show you as soon as I can. We have sunshine here, I hope you get some too!