sewing for my daughters

Christmas Dresses

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For the girls’ Christmas dresses, I used Oliver + S’s Fairy Tale pattern (the same one I used for Harriet’s baptism dress) and solid fabrics from Piece By Piece.  bIMG_5705Alma got to wear her dress to the Nutcracker, and Harriet got to wear her dress to my dad’s Rotary meeting, but unfortunately, Alma was really sick on Christmas, so we skipped church, and didn’t have the kids wear their fancy Christmas dresses to Christmas Eve dinner at my dad’s.bIMG_5710

Luckily, we’re really lazy and still have our Christmas decorations up, so before we went to Alma’s birthday party, we had a quick photo-shoot with Jesse’s old sled, decorated with some Christmas boughs.

It was Jesse’s idea to make Alma’s dress look like a Christmas tree.  I thought it could be awesome or ridiculous, but I decided to go for it anyway!bIMG_5703I raised the waistline and lengthened the skirt, and added a few extra layers.  I think the tiers of green look really sweet, and I love the petal sleeves in this pattern.  bIMG_5698

bIMG_5702For Harriet, the initial idea was to make it like a poinsettia, but in the end, I decided making petals would be too much, so I just lengthened it, and added the dark red lining, longer than the dress.bIMG_5706I love how the Christmas dresses look Christmas-y, but are plain enough that they can wear them all year long.  I also love how Harriet was totally mugging for the camera.  She seriously cracks us up, all day long.

A New Coat for Hattie

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I took my first sewing class a few weeks ago at Piece By Piece.  In the class we made baby coats, so I made a new coat for Hattie.  I used a cute owl fabric for the main coat, a sweet mushroom fabric for the pockets, and a soft flannel polka dot fabric for the lining.  We followed Olive Ann Designs’ Hoodie Baby pattern, but we didn’t really follow the directions.  Our instructor, Celeste just told us, and showed us what to do.  She was fantastic!  I learned so much about sewing clothes from her.  Now for some photo overload:

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Alma’s New Quilt

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aIMG_4040Alma just made the transition from her ‘baby bed’ to her ‘big kid bed.’  We actually converted her crib into a twin bed and just had to buy a mattress.  Jesse did a great job building the rails and platform for the bed.  I love having such a handy husband!

I wanted this quilt to be special, so I actually bought, and (mostly) followed a pattern.  All my other quilts have just been of my design and pretty simple.  And quite small.  This quilt is a whole twin sized quilt.  Whoa.

aIMG_4043I bought the Atkinson Designs Morning Noon & Night pattern and used the Scrappy Quilt pattern with more of the Sunrise Quilt color design.  I wanted to transition from the aqua color to the coral-pink color.  I bought the pattern and most of my fabric at my favorite fabric store, Piece by Piece.

aIMG_4038As always, I had times where I would get nervous, but it all came together really beautifully, and quite easily.

aIMG_4035I love to make the backs of my quilts fun and interesting, too.  All these fabrics are fun to look at – fairies, goose rides, hiding kids.  I love it.

aIMG_4045This is by far my biggest sewing project, and totally one of my favorites!

Alma’s Backpack

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aIMG_4006This little girl is getting pretty big.  In fact, she’s starting pre-school next week.  We are so lucky to have her nanny be her pre-school teacher.  Talk about the best thing that has ever happened in the history of education.  Rach is Alma’s favorite person (actually, she’s one of our whole family’s favorite people).  I had been worried about Alma going to pre-school, but since Rach will be there, I have no worries.

Well, I have the normal worries of her making friends, of other kids being mean to her, of her learning bad habits, of her getting her feelings hurt, of her getting hurt.  But I’m not worried about who will be there to help her through these things.  Because Rach will be there.

Anyhow, I made her a backpack to take with her.

aIMG_4024I used the pattern in the Oliver + S Little Things to Sew book.  As always, I loved the Oliver + S pattern.  I used some outdoor fabric from a local fabric store.  It’s nice and strong and I think it will hold up well.

aIMG_4013Alma took the backpack on our trip to California, and it was great to have her carry her own snacks and books on the plane.  She really loves putting things in, and taking things out, of the backpack.  I put an extra long ribbon on the zipper, so it’s easy for her to open and close.

aIMG_4014I can’t wait to see what kind of treasures she’ll bring home from school!

Busy Sewing

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Right now I’m working on making a quilt for Alma’s new twin sized bed (!).  She’s still choosing to sleep in her ‘baby bed,’ and we’re not pushing the issue.  Since we got mini cribs for our kids, I was worried that they would outgrow them quickly.  Alma totally fills up her crib, and so I thought she might be uncomfortable.  Apparently she is not, since she keeps choosing to sleep in it.

Anyhow, I’m making her a full twin sized quilt.  I’ve never made a quilt using any sort of sizing guide.  I usually just make a quilt using triangles, squares, strips, or some other shape and sew them together until it’s about the ‘right’ size for a baby quilt.  This time I’m using a real pattern.

I’m using the same blues and pinks and corals that are in Alma’s room and doing a sort of transitional ombre.

Since I’ve been working on the quilt so much, I haven’t had much time to create much else.  Also, I’m trying to get back into the swing of things now that I’m totally not working at all anymore for a few months.  Yay summer vacation!

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the fabrics that are going into the quilt:

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A New Dress for Alma

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The other night I totally had the urge to sew something.  Since I’ve been working, I haven’t made anything, and I’ve been missing my hobby. While I’ve made quite a few dresses in the past, they have all been sort of complicated.

I have been wanting to try to make a simple dress pattern, so I just gave it a shot!  I sketched out a simple sun dress, then drafted up a pattern.  I just took one of Alma’s dresses and used it to estimate the bodice proportions, then made a couple simple ruffle layers.

I’m really happy with how it turned out!  I love the colors together, on Alma.  She is really into foxes these days, so it was fun to include those.

I will definitely be making more patterns and dresses in the future!

And Then They - Sundress 4And Then They - Sundress 6And Then They - Sundress 5 And Then They - Sundress 3 And Then They - Sundress 2 And Then They - Sundress

Easter Photos

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It’s so much fun having a daughter who is old enough to understand Easter this year.  She is starting to get the whole Jesus thing, but she totally got the Easter Bunny.

We had a great day at church, and egg hunting, and eating with friends and family.

I was fun to start a new tradition of making the girls’ Easter dresses.  These got to serve double duty as dresses for Harriet’s Baptism.

And Then They - Easter TraditionsAnd Then They - Easter Chair and BasketsAnd Then They - PeepsAnd Then They - Walking to Rory's With PapaAnd Then They - RoryAnd Then They - EggAnd Then They - RunningAnd Then They - Going for a DriveAnd Then They - Harriet was there too

Book Nook

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I used some of Alma’s nursery decor in her new closet book nook.  The bunting from Katrina, the wreath from Jacque, the quotes, and to mobile I made her came along to the new room.  I also covered crib mattress pads with fabric from her first year photos, made a tuffet using this tutorial out of some of those fabrics, made a book sling using this tutorial, and hung up her special Alma sweater.

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