Sunflower Wedding: Flower Girl Dress

  This was my second-largest project for my sister-in-love's wedding.

  No, not the little girl (although I sort of made her too!), the dress she is wearing! I initially planned on making something like the Oliver+S Garden Party dress, but with different sleeves, in satin and chiffon, and longer.... but I changed my mind. =)

  I decided on a simple bodice with a scalloped neckline:

 a layered circle skirt:

  A wide sash with ruched sides:

  And sheer sleeves with circular flounces:

  I drafted the pattern myself, using Illustrator for the first time to do it, thanks to Pattern Workshop (affiliate link) and all I learned there. There were some parts where I was going, "Seriously, Illustrator?" but they were all due to little things that I'd messed up without realizing it.

 It went a LOT faster than my pattern drafting normally does! I made a muslin, altered a few things in the program, and made a second muslin before I was satisfied, and it still took less time than normal.

  I used satin and chiffon from the Casa Collection at Joann's (online) in Calypso color, which is a dark coral (the photos with it laid out flat are closest to the actual color), for this dress.

  I bought a couple different zippers at Joann's too, but neither really matched- one was too red, the other too pink. I ended up with an invisible zipper from zipperstop.com that was perfect. (Color was 517, 12" length.) The zipper tape on each side of a YKK invisible zipper is about 3/8" wide instead of the usual 1/2" that I'm used to from Coat's and Clark, but it wasn't a big deal.

  I sewed the bodice and sleeves using my tutorial, but left the back completely open for the zipper... then I tried in on Booper. It fit perfectly!

 Next I added the sleeve flounces, which was an absolute pain and I'm never doing it that way again on that small of a sleeve with that kind of fabric. I also spent several hours figuring out how to finish the flounce hems, since chiffon frays like crazy but I wanted something light. I tried a two-seam rolled hem... it was awful. I tried a narrow rolled hem with my sewing machine foot... I could get it to roll right on the straight areas. I tried just rolling the hem and sewing it as I rolled... awful. Finally I just took out my woodburning tool and burned the outer edge so it wouldn't fray. It was really difficult to get a smooth curve without beading or blackness, but I did it.

  Then I hemmed the skirt with a machine narrow rolled hem and added it to the bodice. The chiffon layer is another thing I would change... chiffon has a lot of stretch on the bias, and I should have hung the dress up with the skirt attached and trimmed the chiffon to match the satin before hemming it. It's a little longer in spots, although when I finished this dress I just thought it was because the chiffon squirrels around when you try to cut it... I found out about the stretch later. Since the back was open, I sewed the skirt to the front layer only, then folded the lining around the hem of the skirt and sewed it to the outer and skirt, leaving 3-4 inches unsewn near the back seam. 

  The next step was trying it on Booper again, just to see how it looked. Only there was a problem... I couldn't get her arm in the sleeves! I still don't know what happened... if I cut them wrong, sewed them wrong, or if she just grew. It was about 3 days after the first fitting, where they had been fine. So I cut the beautifully-finished sleeves out of the seam and drafted some wider ones with a shorter cap. They do pull a little toward the shoulder, but I think the only way to fix that without adding gathering would have been to lower the armscye a little. This time I left a seam allowance in the sleeve flounces and sewed them on flat, then seamed them and the underarm seam together. I still had to go with the burning method of finishing them though... this time on the sleeve cap too.

  Since the bodice was already finished, I didn't want to pull it all apart to put new sleeves in, so I carefully hand-stitched them to just the lining, then did a tiny whip-stitch over the edge and to the lining to keep the seam allowance from peeking out.

  From there on things were easier... I sewed a sash and attached it at one of the back sides of the bodice, added the invisible zipper, French seamed the two layers of skirt, and sewed the final few inches of narrow rolled hems. Then I finished the sash, tacked it down under the bow at the other side of the back bodice, and tacked/ruched the sides of it to the dress.

  It's not a true bow... I didn't want it coming undone during the ceremony, so I halfway followed this tutorial for adding a child-proof bow. I put the tail piece in front of the bow loops, but I wish I'd put it in the back like she did, it's much cuter that way. And finally it was finished!

  I also made the sunflower crown Booper is wearing in these photos, out of paper with my Silhouette! =)

  I used plain yellow, brown, and dark green cardstock, this cut file, some tacky glue, and floral wire and tape. Oh, and I sprayed it with Rustoleum clear crystal enamel in case Booper got it wet... which is always likely with a little girl of 4.

  I love how it turned out. =)

  The petals did get a little damaged after she dropped it about 8 times, but for the most part it's still in good shape. I pinned it to her hair during the wedding but it didn't really stay put.

  I planned on making dresses for the littler girls too, in yellow and blue to match the other wedding colors, but I ran out of time and just made skirts, which I will show you in another post.

  Thanks for stopping by!



P.S. Please excuse the grainy/blurry/dark photos in this post... my camera doesn't love dark rooms.

Sunflower Wedding: The Cake

  As you may know if you've been following me on Instagram, I was pretty busy last week preparing for my beautiful sister-in-love's wedding. I made quite a few things, but the biggest was the cake.

   I used the Chocolate Cake recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook for this cake, swapping out half of the butter for shortening so I'd have enough butter for the frosting. This was the amount of dry ingredients I started with... I ended up adding another 2 batches of the recipe to finish!

Photo from Instagram

  It took a lot mixing to get those dry ingredients combined! Once mixed, I weighed out 2 batches of dry ingredients and beat 2 batches of wet ingredients into that with a hand mixer, and repeated for every cake or set of cakes. I was really nervous about the outer edges over-baking, so I tried pinning some wet towels around the cake, but I couldn't get them tight enough that they stayed on. In the end I baked the larger cakes at 310 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 350. It did help, though the outside was still a bit more dry than the inside.

  I also have had trouble in the past with cakes sticking in the pans and breaking, so I greased the pans, added parchment circles to the bottom, greased the parchment, then floured the whole pan. It worked like a charm! I forgot the flour on one pan and it was hard to get out, but the rest literally fell out of the pans when I turned them upside down!

Photo from Instagram

  Including the time that the cakes were in the oven and I was just waiting for them, they took 12 hours to mix and bake. Including hands on time only, it was more like 6 hours.

  Once the cakes were baked and cooled, I made a batch of extra-thick frosting and piped a dam around the edges of each layer (I considered torting the layers, but my knife skills are pitiful and I didn't want to ruin it) then filled it with homemade chocolate mousse. I used a triple batch of this recipe, because I only had cocoa powder, but used less gelatin (because I only had 4 teaspoons) and added a miniscule amount of guar gum and xanthan gum.... less than 1/8 tsp each. It held up really well... there was a bit leftover and it was still fluffy and stable in the fridge for 6 days, at which point it was eaten. It was richer than I would have liked though.

Photo from Instagram

  Next I stacked the second layer of each tier on top of the frosting and mousse, then covered them and put them in the fridge overnight. Check out the size of this one! It's 14" in diameter. =)

Photo from Instagram

  The next morning I made some more frosting, thinner this time, and did a crumb coat on all of the cakes.

Photo from Instagram

  And finally I frosted them all. My sis-in-love wanted it to look rustic, so the frosting went pretty fast. Most of the time frosting was spent mixing up new batches of it! I used frosting recipe from the back of a bag of C&H powdered sugar, but added 1/2 teaspoon almond extract to each batch.

Photo from Instagram

  Here are all the cakes, after 16 hours of work, ready to transport. I decided against stacking them first, because cakes are a pain to transport as it is, and stacked is even harder. I do want to try this method out sometime though.

Photo from Instagram

  The transportation was where everything went wrong. We have a 4-door car with 3 carseats in it, black with no air conditioning. We live in Arizona, and it was about 90 degrees outside, which translates to over 100 in the car even with the windows open. It's a 40 minute drive from our house to the church the wedding was at... you can figure it out. The frosting melted right off the sides of the cake on the drive! I was SO UPSET. I feel bad for the bride, who was trying to comfort me on the eve of her wedding. I just wanted that cake to be perfect for her and it looked like it was going to be a disaster. I finally, at the suggestion of several relatives, scraped as much melted frosting off the sides as I could without getting crumbs, and popped the cakes in the fridge at the church. The refrigerator there didn't work very well, so it took about 3 hours for the frosting to firm up again... I even stuck it in the freezer for an hour! After the rehearsal dinner, I took the cakes out one at a time and re-frosted them as well as I could. They didn't end up quite as pretty as the first time I frosted them, but it did work. That was a horrible situation! I wish I'd thought to borrow someone's air-conditioned vehicle for transporting the cake! I'm just really glad I brought it the day before the wedding instead of the day of, since I wouldn't have had time to fix it on the wedding day.

  After the wedding ceremony I brought the cakes out side to the reception area and stacked them, added a bit more frosting to cover the small cracks between layers, and tied on some raffia. We were originally going to add sunflowers and roses to the cake but there was some miscommunication. I bought gumpaste to make the flowers, and it turned out that the bride wanted real flowers on the cake. Then we found out that the flowers were not organically grown, so we needed tiny vases to keep them from touching the cake... but we couldn't find them in time for the wedding, and by the time I realized that I didn't have time to make gumpaste ones. I ended up just setting vases of flowers on the table. The topper is a Willow Tree figurine (affiliate link).

  The bride and groom cut and served the cake to all of the guests, after eating some themselves. (Aren't they adorable?) =)

  I made 172 servings of cake, not including the top tier. I'm really glad I didn't put a 16" tier under that as I'd considered doing, since there was quite a bit leftover.

  Here are some cake stats, interspersed with photos of cake:
 In all I used:
Cake:
22 1/2 c flour
16 1/3 c sugar
6 1/3 c cocoa powder
12 1/2 tsp baking soda
10 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 3/4 c butter (7.5 sticks)
3 3/4 c shortening
12 1/2 c water
10 tsp vanilla extract
20 eggs

Filling:
2 tsp gelatin
9 TBSP water
1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder
3 c heavy cream
3 tsp vanilla extract
1/16 tsp guar gum
1/16 tsp xanthan gum

Frosting:
15 lbs powdered sugar
5 c butter (10 sticks)
3 1/4 c milk
5 TBSP vanilla extract
2 1/2 TBSP almond extract

  Surprisingly, the total cost of the ingredients was only $47.30. I did buy most of them at Costco. =)

  The cake was approximately 2 feet tall, not including the topper. It weighed... a lot. ;-)

  I spent 12 hours baking it, 4 hours frosting it, 2 hours re-frosting it, and 1.5 hours transporting and assembling it, for a total of 19.5 hours. If I were getting paid $15/hour, the total cost of the cake would still be less than $300... that does not, however, include the cost of re-useable tools.

  Some tools I used (affiliate links incoming!) are:
Cake lifter
14" cake pans
12" cake pans
10" cake pans
8" cake pans
Plastic cake supports
14" Cake Circle
12" Cake Circle
10" Cake Circle
8" Cake Circle
Offset spatula
Most of those were bought at Hobby Lobby... some by me, some by my mother-in-love. =)

   I made one other food item... modeling chocolate sunflowers to top cupcakes... my mother-in-love made the actual cupcakes, but I stayed up until 5am the morning of the wedding making the flowers. I wanted to make 150 of them, but ended up with 111 because I didn't buy enough candy melts. I used 4 packages and should have used 5 or 6. Rolling them thinner would have helped too. ;-)

  It worked out anyway, most of the cupcakes didn't get eaten. I started out making the sunflowers pretty complex, but by the end I was just using a daisy cutter to cut two layers, pressing the centers together with a ball tool, and adding a brown center... the center was just a ball that was pressed into a sieve for texture. The original version looked like this and took about 4 times as long. =)

Photo from Instagram

  That's about all I have to say about the edibles I made, but I did make some other things for this wedding. A few of them are in the photos above, but I'll post more about those another day. =)

Thanks for stopping by!

Little Projects

  You may have noticed that I haven't posted in nearly a month. Here's why: I'm trying to potty train my two-year old. She's smart enough that I just can't justify buying her diapers anymore, but stubborn enough that there has been bodily waste in multiple areas of the house 5-6 times per day. And it's just barely improving as time goes on. =( So I've been completely exhausted during the tiny amount of spare time that I have and haven't sewn much. A dress that should have taken me 3 days, maximum, is still only 1/4 of the way done. I have finished a few very small projects though!

  First, my storage buckets, which reside in my kitchen and which the girls like to move around and stand on. Since they are constantly moving, I had to open 4-5 buckets every time I wanted to get something- somehow the least-expected bucket is always the right one. That was a simple solution: I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut some vinyl labels and applied them. The cutting went beautifully... I was sure it would be too deep or too shallow a cut, but it was perfect!

  Applying the labels was pretty easy, though it took more time than I expected, especially weeding out the parts I wasn't using. The hardest letter was the capital 'W', so much so that I had to throw the first label with that letter away and re-cut it. I didn't really need a label for the bucket with the blue lid, but it looks pretty with them all matching. And yes, they are all a little crooked and it bugs me. That's because I put the labels on at night and the kitchen lighting is terrible. I also have some labels cut and weeded to give to my mother-in-love, who has the same kind of buckets. =)

 Next up, and this one is totally pointless but fun: I added washi tape to the closet doors in my sewing room. My washi tape collection has been slowly growing over 2.5 years, most of it from Pick Your Plum, and having it sitting in a bowl on my sewing table inspired me. =)

I mostly use little pieces of it on cards/gifts, so this is my biggest project with it so far.

  Another angle... cute, right? =)

 I basically rolled the tape along the edges of the insets and cut it with small scissors, then smoothed it down. Most of the edges peeled up, so I just stuck a tiny bit of washable glue under them and pushed them back down.

 
  I wish I'd used a different color on the green/aqua section, so I might swap that out, but I haven't decided yet.

  It also would have worked better to trim the tape with a craft knife instead of small scissors, so the corners would have been straighter, but I doubt most people will notice.

  The final small project I've worked on, which actually took rather a lot of time spread over small sections, was a sunflower crown for Booper, since she is going to be the flower girl in my sister-in-love's sunflower-themed wedding next week. I'll have some photos of that up hopefully soonish.

  I'm working on a coral satin-and-chiffon dress for her... and wow is chiffon a pain to work with! I cut circular flounces for the sleeves and they came out as ovals in spite of piles of pattern weights and using a rotary cutter. Next time I use chiffon I'm going to cut it between layers of tissue paper and see if that helps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Floral Tie-Front Top

  For a few months I was looking at clothing sites for inspiration way too much. I've stopped now, because I'm simply never going to get time to sew all of the things I like, but a relic of that time is a folder chock-full of inspiration. One idea that was saved in several iterations is a tee with a faux shrug tied in the front. I wasn't sure if it would accentuate things that are already big on me, so it's taken me a while, but I finally got the courage to try it!

 

  The verdict? Ehh. I like it enough to wear it but I don't love it. I'll probably make it again, but with a couple changes: I'll lengthen the top layer by about 2 inches, line the front of it so the ties don't curl, and make the ties go straight across the bottom, instead of curving up toward the center. I used this knit from Girl Charlee for the under-layer and this knit for the top.

  It can wrap to the back and tie there too! I like it better just tied, without a bow, but the only photo of that came out pretty blurry.

  About those photos... I didn't realize until I loaded them onto my computer (after dark, which meant I couldn't take more. Besides, Beckers puked on me soon after these photos.) that my camera was focusing on the rocks behind me in most of them. Oh well!

  I'm wearing my pleats and panels skirt with this shirt... it's one of the few skirts I can actually wear right now. I lost enough baby weight (finally!) that most of my skirts are sliding off, but not enough that I can comfortably wear my smaller size skirts. This particular one slides down, but not actually off. ;-) Guess I just need to lose some more!

  I did a rolled hem for the ties on this, and it was miserably hard. Rolled hems and the tight curves on the tie ends don't mix. I had to redo it three times and I still don't like the results. I used a twin needle to finish the sleeves, under-layer neckline, and hem. Everything else was just serged.

  I'm so happy I got a chance to sew in my new sewing room though! It's not set up at all, so the cutting was a lot harder than it should have been, but I love that I have that room! =)

  I'm linking this top up to Project Sewn, since it happens to be in a floral. =)

Thanks for stopping by,

2 Years: A Look Back

  Today I have officially been blogging for two years! I was hoping to have a handmade coin purse to give away with this post.... but I just moved. Instead, I'm going to barrage you with stats. =)

  I'm still a slow blogger, so I've posted an average of  1.365 posts a week here, for a total of 142 posts since I started blogging. There have been a total of 33,240 page views here!

  My most popular post is my crossover nursing dress tutorial, with over 1,500 views on each part.

  Second most popular? My very first post, with a refashion, that was featured on New Dress A Day.

   Also in the top 10 list are (from most viewed to least viewed)

Princess Seam Nursing Dress

Lace Watches

Circled Skirt

Butterfly Skort Outfits

The Original Crossover Nursing Dress

Leaf-Print Fall Dresses

Pleats and Panels Skirt

Gusseted Coin Purse Pattern


Post with the most comments? This one

Post I thought would be more popular? This one

My favorite sew? This one. I've worn it almost constantly since sewing it.

My favorite craft? The flowered phone case in this post. The resin didn't hold up and is sadly cracked and yellow now, but it sure was pretty, wasn't it? =) And the case also wasn't protective enough and my mother-in-love's iphone screen got cracked, which makes me feel terrible. I just love those pressed flowers though!

Least favorite sew? This one. Although I do like my hair here! =)

Least favorite craft? The earbuds in this post... they aren't bad, I just wasn't really happy with the outcome.

Okay, that's probably enough. I have to continue unpacking!

Thanks for stopping by,

I Moved! (Again)

 Last year when I moved, I upgraded from sewing on my dining-room table to having my own sewing table in the living room. This time, I have something I thought I wouldn't have for many more years... a sewing room!

  It's currently un-decorated (we moved last week, and I've been working hard on unpacking everything) but I'm truly excited, happy, and thankful to have it! It has natural light all day, and it even has a closet that fits ALL of my fabric. =) (This photo is half of it. )

  I'm hoping to eventually get some shelves for the fabric so it's easier to see what I have, but for now this is amazing! And I have room for a real ironing board and a cutting table!

  And not only do I now have a sewing room, I have a pretty yard! This is the front... the back is about the same size but without landscaping.

  I'm rather in awe of this house, and amazed that it is OURS... not a rental!

  And that is why I currently have no sewing projects to share.... packing and un-packing is a lot of work, especially when you have way too much stuff. Only about 1/4 of the house left to go though. =)

  One more thing! I've added a couple pages to the top bar...if you want to learn more about me and my family, check out my "About Me" page, and if you want to learn more about the tools I use, check out the page titled "My Machines".

Thanks for stopping by,