Playdate anyone?

I made Sofia a Playdate Dress last year with a green elephant fabric.



She's worn it a lot of times and I love the silhouette of it. I've also gotten a lot of comments on the fabric. Apparently elephants are popular.

The fabric is a generic cotton fabric I found in the Patchwork section of my local fabric store. It came in green, purple and red (and apparently also brown, black and orange).

A few months ago I bought a length of the purple colourway, earmarking it mentally for another Playdate dress. It's such a great everyday dress and since we're gearing up for Spring/Summer Sofia needs more play clothes.



So I took out the purple fabric and some white batiste to use for the yoke and paired it with a mustard polka dot fabric for piping and facings.

I have the yoke sewn up and I'm trying to figure out how to attach the piping so that it binds the inside seam of the yoke at the same time. I have an idea - just working out the chinks.

Practice makes perfect

When setting out to make the Jump Rope Dresses for the girls I was a bit (very) intimidated by the plackets. It looked like it would be difficult and hard to get it to look good.



I made a few test runs since I had to make toiles for Isabel anyway, and it was a lot easier than I thought. Not simple and easy-peasy, but certainly not as fiddly as I had feared.



The cotton I bought for the dresses was fairly flimsy, and the pin dot fabric I chose for the collars and plackets was very thin.
I used a thin fusible cotton interfacing (which I didn't preshrink - fingers crossed it won't shrink!) on the placket and it turned out to be just enough.



Both plackets turned out well and I'm more than pleased with them.

I have some experience with sewing by now, but I have to put down a lot of the success to Liesl's excellent instructions.

The dresses are all but done now, I have to sew in buttons but one of the buttons shattered when I tried to sew it in with my machine and I only had the exact number of buttons. So I have to find new ones.

I will definitely make more of these for Spring!

Isabel's Milk&Lingonberry cardi

No pictures yet, but Isabel's cardigan is coming along nicely. I tried it on her this morning and I think I just have 2 or 4 more rounds to go before I can set thearm stitches on hold and knit the skirt part.

I wanted to make a different lace pattern on Isabel's cardigan, but I think I'll use the same as for Sofia's.
I might change my mind if I can come up with some nice cables or an easy lace pattern before it's time to start the skirt.

The yarns she chose work so well together. I most definitely would not have chosen those so I'm glad she came along to pick the colours herself.

She looked very pleased this morning when we tried it on for size.

I wish I had something picture-ish to show you but instead I hope you can hold out for another week or so until I can show you the logo I worked on this weekend for The Project.

I'll see if I have enough light this afternoon to take a picture of my progress.

My Creative Space June 11th

After a few weeks of sewing clothes for the girls I have started sewing smaller projects.

I bought a pattern for a sewing bag about a year ago and made two bags rather quickly after that.
Then I lost the pattern and no matter how much I searched I couldn't find it.

Cue to a week ago when I decided to clean up my sewing room and sure there it was. Tucked in between two other patterns in a ziploc-bag.

So yesterday I started cutting fabrics for another bag. This one will be a gingham/checkered outside with apple pockets and apple pie lining.

I have fabric combos to make 2 or three more bags but I haven't cut fabric for those.

Blessings Quilt

Our new cousin is due to arrive today, but so far we've heard nothing. BigBrotherCousin was 10 days late so it may be that it will be a while.

In the meantime I've started on a quilt for BabyCousin. It's made from Little Blessings by Nancy Davis-Murty in green, yellow and purple.
I love the little blessings on the green and purple fabrics... "May you grow up to enjoy the little things"

Initially I had intended to make a burpcloth as well, but I'm not sure I'll have enough fabric once the scrappy binding is done.
Maybe there is enough to make accents and I'll fill it up with other fabric scraps. I'm sure I have others that will match in colour tone.

The quilt is basted and I have the thread picked out. Now I just have to decide on how to quilt it.

Little Blessings

Fabric hanging to dry in anticipation of being cut and made into a baby quilt for our new little cousin.

It's all in greens, yellows and lilac/purple so it can fit both a boy and a girl without being glaringly unisex.

Quilt top done and basted

My friends ask me how I find the time to craft as much as I do, which btw isn't as much as some craft bloggers out there.
I work full time and I have two kids, but I also have a husband who share my life and he does as much at home as I do, or maybe more - not counting laundry.



I have basted Isabel's quilt. This is the back view. I think it turned out quite nice. I wasn't gonna add the white stripe but when the scrappy stripe was added it looked too busy without the divider.

I sewed the scrappy stripe onto one of the selvage edges and tehn the white stripe to the scrappy stripe. I then folded it all down the middle and sewed the other selvage edge to the white stripe creating a tube.
After that it's quite easy to just shift the tube around and get the stripe slightly off center if you want.
Place a new crease where you want to cut the tube open and iron it down. Then place as long a ruler as you can find and cut very close to the folded edge.



Now I have to decide on how to quilt the thing. It's quite huge and I'm not sure I can manouver it very well.
I would like to do some kind of wavy lines across, but I don't think it will be good.

If I had infinite amounts of time I would hand quilt it around the flowers on the back. That would be lovely.
As it is I think I'll do some kind of diamond pattern in the blocks.

I got the same green swirly fabric as I used for Sofia's quilt, but I don't think I'll have enough, so I'm thinking I'll make a scrappy binding with the green swirls and the purple flower fabric I have left over.
I had planned on using the purple fabric for something else, so I think I'll measure the green and see if I can't make it fit.

Quilt top done?

Isabel's quilt top is finished. Or is it? I'm thinking I need to put some of the white sashing as borders around it to make the binding really pop?

The blocks were so much fun to make and when I looked at some other projects with the Disappearing 9-patch pattern I discovered lots of other ways to cut and re-sew the blocks.

I bought backing and binding and I had to get two packets of batting to make it fit the width and length of the top.
I will also have to cut and add a length of patches to the backing since it will be too narrow if I add the white sashing around the outer edges of the top.

When I cut the 5" squares for the top I accidentally cut too much a few time and had to make a pile of 4" and 4.5" squares. I'll sew these into a long line and add them to the backing.

I'm not sure on how to quilt it though. I love the meandering style, but I dont' ahve the right sewing machine for that. There is no darning foot to attach to my machine. So I'll have to make straight lines or the occasional wavy line might work.

I have a prior engagement for tonight so I can't get started on it today, it's knit night and the second to last episode of "The State Within" that I have been following.

[wip] Dress for BabySister

Pattern from "Allt Om Handarbete" and the fabric is bought on Etsy. It's Chocolate Lollipop by Anna Maria Horner in a green colourway.
I bought a yard of it in pink as well and I cut out a dress for BigSister too. That's another wip though.

This one is finished almost. It needs heming and a button in the neck. The button I have and I'll serge the edge of the dress at my aunt's on Saturday and then hem it at home on Sunday.
Maybe BigSister's dress can be serged as well on Saturday - we'll see. Not counting on it though.