and the winners are...

We used random.org as opposed to a cute little slip of papers in a bowl, so here is our virtual drawing...



Dress: Sew Ducky!


And then we "drew" again and came up with #2 once more, so...

Bathing Suit: Elizabeth!

Send me your address at my first name at "wendyk.org" and I'll mail them off!

I'm very excited that these patterns are getting a new home instead of the recycling bin. Enjoy sewing them up!




To make this a non-picture-free post, here's an old picture of some peonies that I took many years ago. I need to stop by the farm soon and see what flowers are blooming- I'm sure the hill down the road is covered with daffodils all set for picking. I haven't been over there (even though it's all of 2 miles from my train station) for over a month and I miss running around up there with all the flowers blooming for the sping. My grandparents aren't big fans of flowers, since they'd rather grow food, but plenty of flowers grow in the corners and the hilly areas anyway.

A pattern giveaway - closed

The move is almost here! Just two more weekends to pack up my sewing room and squeeeeeeeeze all my sewing stuff into an extra bedroom that I'll have to share with my sailors huge computer setup. Little does he know that i'll be eyeing the extra space behind his computer monitors to store thread. ;) Since I'm downsizing quite a bit in space I've been going through all my fabric and patterns & I wanted to share some of that with my blog readers. So, here's a small pattern giveaway.

Pattern 1 - Vogue 7234

I bought this dress pattern a long time ago because I loved the style lines. It's size Bust 42 and in great shape. It has a cute rolled collar and a slightly off center button front.




Pattern 2 - McCall 4301

This one came in a batch from a garage sale that my aunt gave me. It's Palmer/Pleitsch, so it has great directions. Bust size 36. It has a bunch of options for sewing one piece bathing suits.




Leave a comment before Tuesday evening with your choice of pattern #1 or pattern #2 and I'll get Kate to help me pull the winners from a bowl or something. :-)

a tea party dress

What's this? Two buttons Kate found in my button tin! We made her a new dress from the Oliver & S Ice Cream Dress pattern this weekend. When she was about 4, I had made her a dress with a tea party print on it, which she LOVED. Like, wore constantly until it didn't fit LOVED. (Flickr says I even have photos of it here). So we thought perhaps she should have a new one, and tracked down this adorable print of little teapots.

I wanted to try out the new Oliver + S ice cream dress, which seemed like a good pattern to show off a nice fabric print. The pattern was very quick to sew, and the bodice goes together easily in a cute little way that takes advantage of the lining.



I added a little strip of khaki colored cotton as a flat piping between the skirt pieces to add a bit of interest to it.

Here is Kate trying it on so it could be hemmed. We made a BIG mess in the sewing room that I'm still working on cleaning up.

Nicey Jane dresses

Finally, here are the Nicey Jane dresses (so far) for my nieces.

The pink one, made from the "swing toss" print is another Simplicity 2989, but a sleeveless version lined in a gray cotton batiste so it will be cool for summer.




Kate was very interested in why the skirt from this dress swirls out when she spins. We ended up sitting on the floor sketching pencil skirt shapes, gathered skirt shapes, and A-line skirt shapes.




Then she wanted to know how a dress went together. So we looked at the dress that I'm making for her sister, which is still in the flat stage:



(This is also nicey jane fabric, but a different print)

That was really interesting to her. We discussed how you sew up the side seams and ZIP! you have a dress. So perhaps tomorrow we'll make a dress this way for her doll. It's so cute to see her try to figure out dress construction, you can almost hear the wheels in her little head turning. ;)


Here's the pink dress on more time: the collar -with light green ric rac- and the skirt binding.

a birdie dress

This is a small raglan sleeved peasant style dress for Kate, who needed a few "not fancy" dresses:





And I made her a fantastic little pink dress from my still-favorite simplicity girls dress pattern, using pink Swing Toss from Nicey Jane (OMG, gorgous- I wish I was young enough to wear a whole dress made out of this print!!) ... but I forgot to take the picture of it off my camera. It will show up here soonish.

In the meantime, I'm still trying to pack up my sewing room. Yikes... I had NO IDEA how much fabric I owned. I need to do a bit of serious winnowing down, or we will never fit into the new apartment. ;)

a L2 bag

The L2 Bag by Sewing Workshop has been on my to-make list for FOREVER. OK, only for like 2 years or something, but it seems like forever! Last week we signed our new lease, toured my sailor's new ship and had lunch with the current captain, figured out our move dates, and scoped out where the grocery stores, Dunkin Donuts (priorities!! (; ), drugstore, and everything are in our new neighborhood. It felt like we had a checklist a mile long to go through, but we finished it up by Friday. Now we have "the calm before the storm" as we don't actually move for another month, and then he is away for several weeks of training. So distract myself from packing, I purchased the L2 pattern and sewed it up in an Anna Maria Horner home dec weight fabric from the Drawing Room Line.



I really love how it came out! It wasn't too difficult to put together, although I did skip the plastic canvas in the bottom and used magnetic snaps inserted directly into the lining instead of in tabs. I lined the godets in the outer fabric after reading some reviews that mentioned that the lining was rather visible there. The lining is a solid purple cotton which I interfaced with some fusible fleece that I had lying around. I'm dying to make up another one now- it's the perfect size to hold my laptop and lunch for work.

The panel apron

A quick picture of my sister cooking Easter brunch in her apron from the Leanika fabric panel. I swapped the pocket that was on the panel with one cut from a scrap of the Lovebirds fabric.

happy easter

Our table early in the morning, waiting for breakfast:



Don't let the quiet fool you. There will soon be 3 screaming munchkins racing around! At least we don't let them eat candy, so there will be only crazy "it's a holiday and I got new toys" screaming. In their baskets are little stuffed animals, teensy frilly gloves from the Target dollar bin, books, and egg shaped sidewalk chalk. For my sister, I made an apron from a Leanika cut-out-and-sew-apron panel. (This is the same fabric line from Free Spririt as the Lovebirds fabric I used at Valentine's Day) I've never used a "cut out and sew" fabric panel like that before, and it was actually lots of fun!

Here are our semi-DIY easter napkins:



I bought plain cloth napkins at Target, and then downloaded some easter shapes from the martha stewart website's templates section. I used those as patterns to cut out little bunny & fruit shapes, then zig zagged them onto the napkins. The applique is the fun part, not hemming napkins, so this was an easy way to get some cute easter napkins without going nuts hemming so many napkins!!

A spring dress

A very short post to show a little dress I made for Kate...



I found this fabric at JoAnns a few weeks ago. It has bias strips, ribbons, and ric rac sewn onto some cotton lawn. The pattern is McCall 5793, and I used a blue floral for contrast upper yoke.

Here's a not so great photo of it hanging from the door handle, where you can see that I didn't quite get the neckline lined up in the back. Oh well! Her hair is long enough to cover it, so let's pretend I got it even.



The pattern was very simple and straightforward to put together. I don't know about sizing yet, since my niece hasn't tried on the dress yet, but I made a size 6 which looks to be about her size. I didn't use the skirt pattern pieces, since I wanted to just use up the rest of the material - which made me end up with a VERY full skirt. That was fun to hem- I took the lazy route and did a very simple double fold machine sewn hem. ;)

Happy Easter to all!

a birthday quilt

Tom turned 2 last may, and I finally finished up his birthday quilt. Here's a little picture:





On a non-sewing note, last night we had a company outing to the prudential center, which is just down the road from our office. We rented out the Devils rink and got to go skating for a few hours. It's a really nice rink, with floor to ceiling windows facing west, so we had lots of sunshine until it set. Here we are after a few hours of skating around:

One hardworking pattern

Ssshhh... don't tell anyone, but I snuck in a little sewing the last few weekends in the middle of all this chaos. ;) And I got three different holidays worth of dresses from one pattern! The pattern is Simplicity 2989, a project runway girls dress. I love the sweet A-line skirt with the hem band. Soooo cute! Although I have to admit I have my eye on the ice cream dress in the new oliver + s collection.


So here is the Valentine's Day version, from the sweet birdie fabric. On a hanger:



And on my nieces at our swanky (ha!) tea party:




St Patrick's Day- check out the shamrock stitch on the hem! It's so nice to sneak in one of the crazy decorative stitches.



Easter for Ana:



Easter for Kate - (being modeled over PJs over here)




And one more purple dress with an easter bunny, for wearing to school on dress up day



Is it possible to have a pattern crush? Because this one is definitely in the running!

Lovebirds

I've been easing back into sewing with 2 dresses for the nieces for valentines day. Simplicity 2989 with the collar, short sleeves and skirt band. The fabric I'm using is Lovebirds by Freespirit fabrics. Isn't this just the cutest print?



I've finished up Ana's, and Kate's is partially assembled. I just have the zipper in the back, the skirt band, and the neckline/collar to put together.

And how is this for exciting news... my sailor is taking command of a USCG cutter! Being a ship captain has been his dream since he was a little kid. I'm thrilled, but it's going to be a big change. We're moving in May, and then he takes command in July with the months in between at school and trying to settle ourselves into a new home. And plan a wedding. And I'm still getting over Declan... when I make my coffee every morning I have to stop myself from turning around and getting the dogfood out, and there's an empty spot on the sofa where he always curled up in the evenings. We're just a little crazy and busy over here.

Right now I'm thinking of making one of the new dresses by Colette patterns to wear to the ceremony, but it's a little hard to think about summery July dresses when there's white fluffy snow all over the place here. I have the Ceylon dress pattern, but I also really like the look of the Oolong one. At least I have a few months, I'm sure I'll change my mind 50 times between now & then.

Declan

My sheltie Declan died unexpectedly early this morning. He had just turned 10 in September- I'm still in a big state of shock, since he was in good health until he developed a cough two days ago. I took him to the vet early this morning with the cough and while we were in the exam room he had what appeared to be a stroke and passed away within a few minutes. It was very quick, and he was in very capable hands when it happened, so if it had to happen that wasn't the worst way. My dad thankfully works right down the road and rushed to the office right after it happened.

I miss you little guy- you're always my best friend.

Vogue 2253 again

Well, I traced the front, back, and sleeve patterns:


Then I added the 1" in length to the bodice, and increased the arm pattern:


And straightened out the new sleeve curve:



Here's a blurry closeup of the front:


I feel like I need to raise the bottom of the armhole up again, since now it hits too low- but the bust dart hits a little better place. I didn't pinch out the dart at the inner corners of the neckline since I wanted to see just the extra length. I'm wondering if maybe an inch was too much to add and I should fold out a half inch. Hmmmm.




The back definitely needs a swayback fix.



My brain is kind of mush so I'll keep this short, but there we are- muslin #2 of vogue 2253. ;-)

Another muslin...

Here's muslin #2, from Vogue 2253. First I marked the bias grainline on the skirt pattern pieces using a quilting ruler that had a 45 degree line marked on it. I lined that 45 degree line up on the original grain line, then used a marker to draw in a new grainline. In order to cut the skirt pieces out of the muslin, I cut about 6 feet off the bolt for each piece, unfolded it, then folded it perpendicular to the way it had been folded on the bolt. I was then able to cut the skirt pieces out. The front, back, and sleeves were cut out from the extra fabric around the skirt pieces.

When I attached the skirt to the bodice I had to ease stitch around the waistline of the skirt- something I rather expected I'd have to do, since the bias relaxed a little bit while I was sewing. This skirt has a nice little dip at the hem in the very back- sort of a hint of a train- which is really cute, but not long enough that I'd trip over it. It's just enough to sort of pool a little bit on the floor when you're standing still.

Here is the muslin hanging up by my sewing machine with the fitting notes on it- this one is definitely worth tweaking and trying again! I tried it on with my wedding shoes and twirled around the kitchen for a minute. :-D



The fitting notes are:

1. Increase size of arm pattern. I have chubby biceps. ;-) I'll do a slash-and-spread from the base of the arm pattern up to almost the top
2. Add about an inch just below the shoulder- this adjustment my mom always has to make for herself, and she thinks the bodice will look better with that extra space
3. pinch out a dart, in the pattern, at the lower corners of the neckline to bring the shoulders in a little bit. The neckline and armhole need to be "narrowed" to fit me better.

Once those are done, we'll re-examine the bust darts. They looked weird, but it's no use adjusting them before I make the other changes.

I'll likely take out the waist seam and reuse the skirt pattern pieces for muslin #2... I should have written the fit notes on the bodice instead of the skirt piece, but there you go!

Merideth asked how many bolts of muslin I have.... a few! I'm using kona muslin, which is fantastic soft drapey stuff that I always use for quiltbacks. For one, I want the dresses I try on to have a somewhat similar hand to the real fabric, and this muslin is sooooooo nice! I have a special project in mind so I'm saving all the largeish muslin scraps from cutting out these dresses for it. And last, Kate (who is no stranger to muslins- I make them for some of her little dresses to check length sometimes) has asked if she can have the muslins for the patterns I don't end up choosing to play dress up with. She wants to paint & embellish them into princess dresses for dressup. Yeah, they'll be huge on her, but she loves playing with long fancy dresses and these will perfect for her to goof around with.

Carolyn asked what I'm doing with the dress patterns once I've picked one out- besides the one I pick, I'll probably keep a few of the ones with shorter dress options, and then- I have no idea what to do with the rest. Most of them I bought for the directions, which I won't need anymore once the real dress is done. And I really don't have the time to sell them back on ebay, so there will probably be a big dress pattern giveaway here next May or something. I don't want to keep them hidden away in a box forever, so stay tuned! ;-)

2 more vintage wedding dress patterns....

We'll see if I can steal a break from work this weekend and sew up another muslin, because I have a fantastic new pattern. It's *very* simple, but it shows a lot of promise. :-) May I present vogue 2253....



Empire waist, check. Sleeves and scoopneck, check. (I'll shorten them to short sleeves I think). Very simple lines, 1960s-ish, check. And Vogue, which my mom still thinks will fit bette on top. I'm tempted to cut the skirt on the bias to see how it hangs since it's not gathered at the waist.

And its new friend, butterick 5284 which I might make up as just a simple summer dress someday when I have more time to sew. ;-)

Happy New Year!

Here's one more christmas sewing project- a little table topper that I made for my mom. I used a layer cake, and made two toppers- one for my sister and one for my mom. Very simple project, but they came out nice.



I drew a diagonal line from corner to corner on half the squares, then paired light to dark squares. The squares were stacked on top of each other- good sides facing- and stitched on either side of the diagonal line. Then I cut them apart on the line, and ended up with 2 squares made of light & dark triangles. The layout was kind of figured out by wiggling them around on the floor, then sewn together and quilted.

I'm really getting into the free motion quilting with my sapphire- the stitching is a little easier, and I feel like I have a better idea of how to move around the material. Still haven't done anything bigger than a twin sized quilt, but it feels more natural now. :-)

And finally a few foggy pictures from my quiet new years in virginia. I hope everyone had a wonderful new years holiday!

Some dress action!

Well then. I'm still unburying myself from christmas work, but I snuck in the first wedding dress muslin this afternoon!

McCall 8635, an Alicyn design. Empire waist, front princess seams, back darts, gathered back skirt.



You know what the one bad thing about making a dress rather than buying one might be? If you want to try on a style, you have to put a few hours of work in first. ;-) On the bright side, there will be no big ugly "Say yes to the dress" clips wielded around here to hold a dress in place.

This afternoon I finally got a minute of peace so I put on a movie, cut open my bolt of muslin, and got to work....




Tada!




Wait, you want to see it on me not on a hanger? ;-) You have to ignore the silly faces I'm making for that.





It looks OK, but the bodice fit is terrible. I can't raise my arms because the armhole begins so low on my chest. If I pinch out about an inch at the shoulders, the armhole settles into place and I can lift my arm.... I've got a ton more patterns to try, though, so I'll do those first before I perform major surgery on this one. But this is the general look I'm going for, so it was very nice to get to how it looks!

Merry christmas....

Sledding with declan
Originally uploaded by wck

We're having ourselves a tiny little white christmas here- just snuck outside for some christmas eve sledding just as the sun was going down. And yes, that's my dog sitting on my lap there, he looooves to race down the hill.

happy holidays to everyone!

Here's one last little sewing bit, another american girl dress that I whipped up for a niece.