the fancy dress

Do all 4 year old girls love fancy dresses? Because even my decidedly not fancy child really does! Since I had some fabric left over after making the tiny ones jacket, I decided I could make a dress for the bigger little. A little bit of spin, a little bit of sparkle, and we are good to go.

The dress is the caroline party dress by Mouse House Creations. The style is perfect and the pattern is simple and comes together great! It has a huge range of sizes so I know I will get to use it again and the fit is lovely. I made a 3T bodice with 4T length for my tall skinny girl and it fits quite well.

She chose the red lining with gold dots and the black sparkly tulle. I hate that tulle, but she loves it so I deal. I installed my first invisible zipper and it is not quite invisible, but it works. She wants a green ribbon for a belt so we are on the hunt for that and she plans to alternate her red tights and her silver tights with hearts. She looks so darn cute in it I can't stand it and happily, she has at least 4 chances to wear it this year! Maybe one of those times I'll even get a good picture!

So that was a fun make and I am already plotting one for a birthday perhaps? We'll see when the time gets nearer I suppose. But anyway, we are in the home stretch here before we leave so I am a bit crazed. I am looking forward to sharing a few gifts eventually too, once they are all given.

one more for the small one

I thought I was done making things for the littlest. And then, it turned out I wasn't. She needed a jacket, and while outerwear is something I go back and forth on being willing to make, I figured I could handle a little between seasons number for her. Enter the Urban Weekender Coat by Heidi & Finn, a perfect fall coat.

I honestly was not entirely sure that it was going to look the way I imagined with a more drapey fabric, but actually, it's better! I had this fabric laying around that I got on clearance with the thought of a jacket or skirt or something, and decided a soft fluffy lining was in order to add some warmth, so I got some smooth minky stuff. I like the sparkle outer a lot and it wasn't as bad to work with as I was afraid (spoiler: the other kid is probably getting a holiday dress out of what I have left). In fact the coat came together perfectly. I made the 18 month size, and I probably should have gone up a size to fit more layers under, but this keeps it slim which is good for the carseat, so there's that.

The buttons were perfect and have been sitting in my stash for ages, so that was pretty happy. I love the cowl collar and it looks so cute on her I can't stand it! She looks so grown up! All in all, a very satisfying afternoon sew.

Next up: a quilt top, and then some mama clothes sewing!

wee{ish} little clothes....

So, apparently it is Thursday already? Somehow that happened. I am not entirely sure I know how. But anyway, here we are. I would like to state for the record that these cute clothes I am about to share have been done for a week, and I even snapped some pictures before life happened and did not allow me to post them. These are all for the tiny one, who, as it turns out, is not actually tiny. I used 18 month for all of these and they fit a bit too well, but hopefully we'll make it through the winter. Thankfully winter is short here and they are quick and easy to make if she does outgrow them.

First up, a set of flashback skinny tees. The bird one is a knit from joanns that I've had lying around, and the other is one of daddys old t-shirts that ended up in my pile. Don't tell him, but it looks way cuter on her :)

Next on the list was a pair of jammies. These are the same alex and anna winter pjs that I have made her before, and they are still slightly large, but they work.

Finally I found this hoodie pattern at joanns (yay $0.99!!) and decided to give it a go. I do prefer the digital since the instructions are always better, but I made it through and ended up with a cute shirt. I almost wish it was my size, I just love it. I only had enough of this great pink/silver stripe fabric to make something for her, and I am glad I found a worthy project before she outgrew it. The sizing is a bit funny, and I made her the 1 size and it is a bit big, mostly in the sleeves, but dang it's still cute.

So that's my main accomplishment recently. I think I am going to finish my shawl this week and then I just need to figure out where to block it. Currently, though, I am stuck in costume making hell. I am not sure how I got sucked into this, but I think next year we may just buy the costumes because this is really not my thing. As long as it is reasonably cute and she has something to wear tomorrow (ahh!!!), I guess it will be alright. Once I get that done, I am totally stealing some quilting time! I have some blocks waiting to be sewn that have been taunting me all week.

fall wardrobe time

Alright, so it definitely does not feel like fall around here. In fact, we are having some pretty hot, humid days that make it seem impossible that fall is even on the way. Still, the beginning of the school year convinced me that a few new shirts were in order for the little.

These are all made using the flashback skinny tee pattern, which I love. I am using the 4T size at this point and it seems to fit well, although a bit of extra length doesn't hurt. Two of these are repurposed, one from my old shirt, one from my husbands, and she picked all the fabrics out. I went with short sleeves for the robot since it was short sleeved to begin with and I didn't have enough fabric, plus I wanted to reuse the sleeve hems.

I actually didn't bother to hem any of them, so the only one with a bottom hem is the black one where I used the existing hem. I may go do it later, but I kinda like the raw edge look on these. The gray stripe I made longer so it is more of a tunic to wear with leggings. I made quick work of these on the serger and had them done in a couple hours.

I think the baby needs some of these soon too. With these my problem is that I want to make tons of them but they don't need that many shirts haha! So hard to narrow down the cute fabric options! Happy Weekend!!

in action

Hey! It's been a while. Between traveling and sickness close behind, I have just not found the time to be in this space. I am hoping we are past the worst and will start getting better soon, but woah, mama and two little girls all sick at the same time, not so good. I am actually finished my cross stitch now and just need to get it all framed up and then I can share that, which means that pretty soon I will start knitting my sweater (!!!) and I am pretty excited. I also have a few smaller things to sew, some cut and others ready to be cut, so things should start picking up soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a couple of action shots of the clothes I made for the girlies recently. Each of them wore their little dress on the big ones birthday and looked just fantastic. The baby had a bit of a problem crawling with it in the way, so I guess no more dresses until we've moved on to walking. Also, the babe is blurry because she is almost always blurry in pictures, what with always being on the move. Anyway, here they are!

With any luck, I'll be back soon with some pretty things :)

a dress for the birthday girl

I kind of love making dresses for my little girls, and birthday dresses are the very best kind. This is the 4th birthday dress for this little love of mine (others here, here, and here) and it is possibly my favorite yet. It is fun as she gets older to get more input from her about what she'd like. This year the requirement, once again, was a spinny dress. She first was going for something like this, but after I explained how freaking hot all those layers would be in the dead of summer, we decided maybe something a little lighter was in order. Enter the Scene VI dress.

It is perfect. I am not kidding when I say that I want one in my size. We looked through my voile scraps to pick fabrics for the top, opting to omit the piecing and just have one fabric triangles. She picked the fabric placements and chose the color for the skirt, and it is just awesome. And let me tell you, this dress can spin. I wish I had a picture of it, but my model was being uncooperative so I'll have to try again later.

I made her a 3T with the 4T length for my tall skinny girl and it fits perfectly. I probably could have gotten away with the 4 all around, but honestly, I won't mind making her another when she outgrows it. The hardest part was sewing around for the elastic casing (I don't really understand the elastic, but oh well) and I definitely had the skirt get a little wonky. Hemming was another headache, but worth it in the end....as long as you don't look too closely, it's fine. Also it called for 1.5" elastic and I used about half that width. The most exciting part was putting in the bra slider. It was simple and makes this so much easier. That is one of the main problems with kids dresses, the straps are either not adjustable or they tie and come undone.

Really, I hope she has a great time wearing this and spinning in it for her birthday. And I do honestly hope I get to make more of these beautiful dresses in the future.

a small {person} summer wardrobe: part II

Back with the rest of the clothes for the little! These are all the bottoms and pjs I have made. I might need to make a little more in this category, but this, combined with what she already has, should get her started.


Bubble shorts from the peek-a-boo pattern shop were first up. They are super cute and look pretty darn professional. The only thing I did differently are the pockets, which are now lined and don't have elastic.

A gypsy skirt, another from Making Children's Clothes, came out great as well, and I am sure she will wear it a lot. Girl loves her skirts. And please note, I don't know if you saw it in any of the other pictures, but the little tags I made; they make my heart sing.

Night dress is a nightgown from Making Children's Clothes again. I love it but I'm not convinced she'll wear it. In which case maybe I'll cut that cute fabric up and use it for something else :)

These pj pants are a free pattern from Sew Jereli and they came out nice too. I thought about drafting my own pattern, but it just seemed so much easier to use one that was already done for me. I made the 4T and she definitely has room to grow. The fabric is actually a pair of my old pj pants that had seen better days. 

crossover tee and sleeping johns are from Growing Up Sew Liberated, a book that I just love. I've made them before, and used the same 3t pattern for the shirt in short sleeve and went up to a 4t in the pants. They are pretty big but I am loving this polka dot fabric I found on clearance at Joanns.

And I must say that all of these projects were so much easier thanks to my serger. It is definitely a fun little tool and makes life just a little bit easier. I already used it to make myself a dress too that I just need to get some pictures of. Currently I am debating layout for the crochet squares and jumping back into the pony club. Almost halfway done the blocks!!  What has everyone else been up to?

a small {person} summer wardrobe: part I

It's been pretty quiet around these parts lately, but I am here to tell you that does not mean I haven't been busy. Life is just a lot right now and I tend to pick sewing over blogging about it. Consequently, I have an entire summer wardrobe for my biggest little to show. I even made enough pieces that I need to break it up a bit! I actually did an inventory of what she had and figure out what she needed and we picked out fabric and patterns together. It was fun and I hope she wants to keep doing it for a while yet. 

Starting off we have tops and dresses! I started off with the oliver + S roller skate dress/tunic pattern I bought last year. I made another dress and a tunic. The dress is a voile fabric I got at fabric.com a while ago and the tunic is a lightweight plaid (with purple sparkle, people, sparkle!) I have been hoarding because I love it. Both are lined with a lightweight white cotton. I stuck with the 3T that I made her last spring since it still fits well, but the tunic is a bit short and more shirtish I think, so I fear she will outgrow it sooner than I'd like.

I also made the go to shift dress, from a pattern pack I bought a while ago. It is super cute and so summery in this voile, but again, a bit short and I think she'll need something under it. I did love the yellow bias tape for the armholes and she picked a nice yellow button.  The only downside is how quickly it wrinkles.

The paper fan dress that anna maria horner designed has been on my list for a while too, and it is so cute! I love it so much! I don't even know what else to say. It is a great pattern and the little picked out the butterflies and we decided the pink cats were perfect. Red buttons are just the icing on the cake.

For this round I also broke out my Making Children's Clothes book for a few patterns. One was the toddler dress which is pretty much a pillowcase dress with a short lining. It came together easily but for some reason it doesn't bunch and lay very nicely. Maybe it's the ribbon I used instead of making a fabric tie, I don't know. But hopefully it will be wearable. It also is a bit short since it is a one size toddler pattern.

The smock top was another one I tried from this book. It is super cute but it is huge. I am going to wash it and see what happens, but I could easily take in at least an inch on each side. And wow those straps look uneven, but I swear they aren't really haha!

That takes care of the dresses and tops. Next up will be pjs and bottoms! Also, and unrelated, I am really super close to finished the crochet squares. I can't wait to put them together and share the finished afghan. And now that I have broken things up with some reasonably fast finishes, I really need to get back to some quilts. 

more little things

Happy Wednesday! I decided that since pretty much nothing has changed, I am going to skip the wip round up this week and see where I stand next week. I've slowed down since I've run out of nice small, quick things to do. So here we are, the last of all those little things I've made recently. I think. Unless I dig something else up. But I don't think so, I think this is it for now :)


I am ashamed to admit that making a new pincushion has been on my list for well over a year now. I made one years ago, like 2009 maybe, when I started really sewing, and had meant to upgrade for a while, but never made it a priority. Finally I decided to just go for it and I am glad I did. I used the pattern from Liberty Love, but I don't have any liberty scraps, I made it a round smaller, and I used piping instead of rickrack, because that's what I had. Honestly, even though it is quite different from what's in the book, I really love it. I did one side of the log cabin more low volume and it came together quite nicely. Also, it felt good to use some of the much smaller strips I had been saving with no idea what to do with. It has happily taken up residence next to my machine.

This last thing, is just a little hairclip holder for the bigger little one. One day upon questioning where all her clips had disapeared to, she told me she had put them all in her piggy bank (thankfully it has an opening so we could get them out!) and I decided she needed a more appealing storage option. I had seen something similar on pinterest, but I didn't even pin it so I have no idea where. I used a 9.5"x3.5" rectangle to make a little holder with a ribbon down the center to clip the hair clips onto and elastic and a button to close it up. It was so quick and easy. I did add a layer of batting to give it a bit more structure and it worked just perfectly. She picked both the fabric and the button which she was pretty happy about. And voila!

So that's what I've been up to. Now I am left with mostly things that will take a bit more time which is kind of shame since I was just loving this super productive feeling. Hope everyone is having a lovely week!