Picnic In Oregon Dress Flip

  This month's pattern flip at Frances Suzanne isn't a pattern that I would normally buy. Not only is it not my style, it's something I could easily draft myself. However, I came up with a really cute flip idea that I wanted to make, and of course it wouldn't be fair to link up without actually using the pattern. There's also a Spring break/Vacation challenge going on at Project Run and Play right now, and my flip fit that perfectly. Not only that, but I had all the fabric I needed to sew the flip!

  Let me start by saying that assembling the PDF was made needlessly difficult by the lack of page numbers or markings to match up. Once I had it made up, I cut out the 5T length, and the 4T width. I had a hard time choosing a size, since the only measurement charts are the measurements of the finished garment and my daughters don't have any dresses in a shape like this to compare.

  I cut a line straight down from the shoulder seam into the armscye to remove the built-in cap sleeve, shaving off about 1.5 inches total. I also cropped the lining to the same length as the middle colorblock section, front and back

  I drafted a collar by matching the shoulder seams of the front and back lining, copying the neckline, and drawing a rounded shape out from that with seam allowances.

   I tried a new method of drafting sleeves for this dress, and it looked like it worked pretty well, but since they are puff sleeves, and very forgiving, it's hard to tell if the method would work otherwise. I'll take some photos next time I use it. I do wish I'd made the sleeves a bit shorter.

  The final two flips were leaving off the lowest dress section entirely -using 10.5" length cut from the hem of this skirt instead, and adding ruffled lace in most of the seams. I'd originally planned to do scalloped piping, but it didn't work with my machine, and I had a lot of pretty lace waiting to be used, a gift from my Grandma. The ruffle is really full! It was gathered as tight as it could go at the top, and since the skirt I cut it from was a half-circle skirt, the hem is even fuller!

  Before sewing any part of the dress, I used a freezer-paper applique to create a hand-sewn ladybug on the front middle section. I satin-stitched some spots on it, chain-stitched legs and antennae, did a peking knot for the antennae ends, and a running stitch for a trail. I've only done reverse applique before now, and I thought this turned out really well, until I washed it to remove the markings I'd made. Then the ladybug body bubbled up in a bunch of spots. =(

  When it came to the sewing, I had to do things a bit differently to accommodate the sleeves (no hand-stitching there though! I'll do a tutorial if anyone is interested.) but the entire bodice is still beautifully finished:

  I did decide to hand-stitch the inside of the sleeve bands, but goodness, aren't they pretty?

  I left off the elastic in the back, since in my experience it takes less than a month for the elastic to break and be useless, and used three buttons instead of one. I made thread loops to close the back with, using a buttonhole stitch over two full strands of red embroidery floss rather than the chain I first learned. These ones feel nice and sturdy!

  I also used embroidery floss to sew the buttons on:

   The denim is upcycled from this maternity skirt, which no longer fits me. The lining is upcycled from part of a dust ruffle, the green gingham was originally a curtain, the red and black were originally sheets, and the lace was from my grandma. =) I even had thread to match!

  And now, how this all fits into a Picnic in Oregon. =)

  On the Oregon coast, where I was blessed enough to live for several years, there are spots with high bluffs overlooking the ocean (denim), with whitecaps dancing their way toward the shore (lace).

  Atop those cliffs, nestled among the grasses, are tiny wild strawberry plants, green with white flowers (buttons and gingham).

   And on those strawberry plants, you will often find a dainty ladybug looking for aphids, ready to fly away at a gentle breeze.

  This dress would be perfect for a picnic atop those bluffs, looking out over the beautiful, sparkling blue, with the wind gusting up from the edge of the cliff. =)

  I really love the way it turned out. =)

  I'm probably going to have to do another flip of this pattern, since I have some other fun ideas and will not be using it again otherwise.

  I also have a knit shirt for myself in the works (although I'm nervous about the fabric I'm using... I'm afraid it's going to be garishly bright).

  And I still haven't shown you the other shirt I made (which is too small, which is why I haven't taken any photos yet) or the winter dress I sewed for Booper a couple months ago!

  Besides that I made (glued, not sewed) a phone case for my husband, and am halfway-through another puzzle ball.

She thinks she is smiling. =)

  I need to post more!

  I'm linking up at:

and:

Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Baguette Bag

  It's just a coin purse, but.... alliteration. =)

  The baguette shape was inspired by a much larger frame purse I saw online somewhere, but can't remember where. I understand now why it was larger... this little thing was a beast to sew! The pattern wasn't hard to develop, although as usual it could use some tweaking.

  It is so small that I was wrestling it through my sewing machine for half of the seams... it would have been faster to hand-sew it! The gluing wasn't particularly easy either, but that is mostly because I was trying out a new glue. I used Barge all-purpose cement for this one, and it is the stickiest glue I have ever encountered, and the smelliest. I had to pick off quite a lot of glue from the frame and the fabric once the frame was in place!

  The lovely blue fabric is from Karen and the not-so-lovely lining is stash fabric from a mod-podge and clothespin project several years ago. I probably should have just gone with white lining. =)

  I don't know if I'll ever make another one of these... I like the shape but the awkward assembly takes concentration that I just don't have anymore.

  I wish I'd thought of piping this one before I had the side seams sewn... I think it would work really well on a shape like this. If I ever do make another, I must remember to add that!

  3 more things to blog about until I'm all caught up! And I have another project in the works that I'm really excited about... I think it's going to be darling. =)

Thanks for stopping by,

Sweetheart Apron

  It seems like it's almost a requirement of being a sewing blogger that you sew and share an apron at some point. Thing is, I don't like most aprons. They pull on my neck and are extremely uncomfortable. I've tried before to solve that problem and didn't particularly like the results, but I tried again recently, and it worked! The pattern I developed will need some tweaks, so I'll probably sew another one up soon, but I finally have an apron that is comfortable to wear!

  It's pink, even though I really don't wear pink, because I wanted to use a fabric I wouldn't miss if it utterly failed. It turned out that this is one of those fabrics that looks considerably better made into something than in a pile. It came from a set of fabric-stuffed garbage bags that I picked up second-hand recently, as did the grey accents. The lining is made of pink sheet pieces left from making crib sheets last year. =)

  I accented the bodice with black flat piping, and the skirt with black decorative stitching when I ran out of flat piping. I almost wish I had no flat piping to begin with, because I love the scalloped stitches. I'm not sure they would have worked well in the curves of the bodice though.

  I created this pattern using my basic block, extending the vertical darts into a seam and folding out the angled side darts. I should have folded out extra though. I didn't take into consideration that the sides of the bodice would now be partially on the bias, and would stretch. I had to sew darts in, and there is still some excess fabric there. I should also have trimmed some off the side panel at the most curved point, where it meets the center panel, because there is some bubbling.

  The extra at the side edge means that the waistband slants downward where it shouldn't as well, and makes the skirt pieces bubble out a bit. This was a very good lesson in fit for me! It's amazing how many things just that little bit of extra fabric affects.

  Ready to see the special treatment in the back that makes this apron comfortable for me?

  As you can see, there is some bubbling going on in a few spots here, but all of that should be simple enough to to alter for the next version. I also want to lower the strap keeper an inch.

  I had fun making this one fully lined with all of those straps. First, I sewed the strap keeper and turned it right side out. Then I sewed it into a seam of one shoulder strap, and turned that right side out. I stuffed the whole assemblage into the second shoulder strap and sewed the strap keeper into that strap too, the turned it right side out. I did something similar with the sashes, but instead of stuffing the whole thing in there I just made sure the edges of the straps met the right spot inside the sash and kept the rest hanging out the end of the sash where it would meet the apron front while I sewed.... then turned them right side out. =) Finally, I sewed the front and front lining of the apron, basted the straps on, and lined it, leaving a small gap in one of the side seams, which I hand-stitched closed after -you guessed it- turning everything right side out. =)

  One more thing that I messed up.... the sashes. I intended to make each sash 30" long, and my accent fabric was 60" wide, so I should have just cut two width-of-fabric strips in my desired height, and cut or folded those in half. Somehow I got distracted while cutting and cut 4 strips across the fabric. That, in turn, meant that I sewed those 4 pieces together for my sashes.... which means that I have to tie a really big bow or my sashes drag on the floor! The hazards of sewing with children awake... =)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuffed Animal Storage Cushion

  I mentioned recently that I had exciting things concerning classes AND machines to share. I've shared the class (which is incredible, you should definitely check it out), and now it is time for the machines.

  A while back I entered a giveaway on a favorite blog, girl.Inspired. I NEVER win giveaways; although I've entered probably over 1000, the only thing I've ever won was in a giveaway I didn't realize I was entering, and was something I didn't particularly want.... so I wasn't expecting to ever hear anything about that giveaway again. But I did! I won it! Have I mentioned yet what it was? A gift card to Joann's, for $500!!!!!! And Stef is really sweet, and packaged it prettily, and sent it to me along with a lovely handwritten note. =)

  Most people would probably spend the gift card on fabric, but I have quite a lot of fabric that I need to use up. Having admired coverhem machines ever since I first heard of them, I decided that one of those would be my first item. Joann's only carries one coverhem machine, the Singer Quantumlock, which is a serger and a coverstitch machine. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but since choices were limited, I went with it.

  Joann's was skimpy on the details of what was included, so here is a layout of everything: the actual machine, an extra knife, extra needles, a set of 6 extra feet (elastic, taping, blind hem/lace, shirring, beading/sequin, and cording), spool caps (also cone holders, currently inside the thread cones), thread nets, basic toolkit of hex screwdriver, flathead screwdriver, tweezers, oil, and lint brush, a serging cover that swaps out for the coverstitch cover currently on the machine, a box to hold it all in, a scrap bin, a manual, and a dust cover (not pictured).

  I was pleased that the feet were included, although I do wish there was a folded hem foot.

  So far, I've only tried out the safety stitch, three needle coverstitch, and two needle coverstitch. The loopers are ridiculously difficult to thread unless you remove the throat plate, but once threaded I haven't had any problems adjusting tension, length, knife, or differential. The manual isn't particularly clear, but I managed to figure out the setups without too much difficulty. Although it's not the easiest to use, setup-wise, it's been beautiful to actually serge/coverstitch with. With 5 thread cones and 5 needle positions, there are quite a few different stitches you can make, even more than pictured here:

  Overall, I'm satisfied, although I'd recommend buying something else if you are shopping at some other place than Joann's, just for ease of setup. =)

  The second machine, which I would also recommend buying somewhere other than Joann's, is a Silhouette Cameo (affiliate link). This is another one I've had my eye on for years, and just couldn't justify getting it until now. I did end up paying a little out-of-pocket for this one, but still much less than the usual price.

  Not much was included in this one... there was the machine, a cutting blade, a cutting mat, a basic manual, USB and power cords, 50 free designs, basic software, and a $10 download card. It sounds like a lot, but I've seen bundles for the same price that also include a tool set, extra mat, an extra download card, and vinyl, as well as the designer software. In fact, Massdrop has a deal going on like that right now. If you are in the market, it's worth checking out.

  This machine also has a learning curve. So far though, it seems that the easiest mistake to make is just loading the cutting mat crookedly. If you do that, everything cuts crookedly, or worse, the rollers don't grip the mat and it swings wildly back and forth, destroying all the previous cuts. That said, if you can load the mat correctly and set the blade depth and cutting speed right, you can cut amazing, intricate designs from a huge variety of materials. Like this cardstock lace:

  I haven't had much of a chance to use this one yet, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what else it can do!

  Now that I've rambled for 30 minutes about machines you probably didn't want to hear about, here is something I made using both of them:

  I know, it's all lumpy and crooked. That is because it is full of stuffed animals. I've been constantly frustrated with stuffed animals everywhere, and I think this will help. It also doubles as seating for messy-haired little girls. =)

  I dyed some drop-cloth pieces a dusty rose color with the intention to make a stuffed animal storage cushion about 6 months ago, then cut out the pieces and left them sitting, because I wasn't sure if I wanted a vinyl window or not. Yesterday, when I was searching for my black knit (I think I accidentally threw it away with a bag of scraps. So careless. I know!), I came across the pieces and decided to finish it up. I decided against the vinyl window, because I thought it would be less durable and also look more cluttered.

  First, I cut a few freezer paper stencils with the Cameo and painted some daisies on the top piece. It seeped under the edges in some places, because the freezer paper adhered rather imperfectly to the canvas, and I painted a little too vigorously in some spots, but overall it turned out decently.

  It took a while to set up the safety stitch I used to sew this up, and in the process I forgot that I had a pile of piping waiting to be inserted, so I failed to add it in the lower seam. In the top seam, there is piping and a zipper for animal addition and removal. It isn't easy to add a zipper and piping in the same seam! Next time I'll hand-baste the zipper on before sewing it. And the piping! I had 2.5 yards. I was exactly 1/2" short. Which means there is a small gap in the piping in the back.

  The basic shapes here are two circles and a very long rectangle. I had to cut the rectangle in two pieces, since I was using leftover pieces and didn't have a single piece long enough. The construction was simple enough, since I was stitching and finishing the edges in one pass. If you'd like more detailed instructions though, check out this post or this post. Mine is kind of a cross between those two. Turns out, it's good for more than just sitting on... there was a whole lot of this going on:

  I wonder how long it will last. ;-)

  I have several other things made and waiting to be posted about, but since Beckers is both mobile and in the throes of separation anxiety, I haven't had much hands-free time for typing. It's much easier to snatch 5 minutes to sew than 5 minutes to blog, somehow. Hopefully I'll get a chance to share everything else soon! =)

Thanks for stopping by!