Delilah's Matching Dresses

Happy to blog today about some recent sewing projects!

But first....Where oh where have I been?

Ah, just getting to the end of pregnancy and have had lots on my plate. So blogging has not been a priority. I'm not apologizing for not blogging - I think my priorities are in order. But I do miss interacting with the online world quite a bit.

Here's who I have been interacting with. This little girl, who just turned 3. Poor dear woke up sick on her birthday but still agreed to wear a little 3 shirt I appliqued for her and was a sweet and cuddly little one all day. She is the cutest most amazing kid ever. Just sayin'.

I wish I had her hair!

Happily, she was not sick for her birthday party. I made her a cake with princesses on it and we enjoyed ourselves.

I have gotten some sewing done lately! I'm so very happy to show you this Popover Dress for Delilah for next Spring/Summer AND a matching dress for her to put on a doll. I have a prettier doll in mind, but this one was the closest available when I was ready to take a picture.

The fabric is Willow Grove by Alexander Henry and I just LOVE it! (Patterns are available for FREE download from the Oliver & S website)

I alspo recently made Delilah's Halloween costume. I'll try to post pictures after she wears it, in the meantime, here's a clue about what she wants to be...

Oh, the cute! I know that no one finds kids as charming as their parents. These days I am feeling especially in love with my daughter and just can't help expressing it.

I'll be back with more projects. Including a tutorial for some tab top curtains I made.

Take care all,

Janimal

Viewfinder Dress & Icycle Eating!

Hello again!

Here to show you Delilah's newest dress. I have been sewing quite a bit lately. So much, that I am kind of itching to try a craft project that DOESN'T require sewing. I'm putting on my thinking cap for what to do, friends.

Since Ruby Star Rising (By Melody Miller) fabric arrived at my house I've been trying to think of what to make from it. I am pretty happy with the dress I made Delilah (seen here and here) and decided one more dress for her should be in the works. So here it is, the viewfinder dress!

(Perhaps one of these days I'll find a better place to take pictures other than hanging on the side of my house!)

If you could see this dress up close in person, you could read the funny things written on each viewfinder lens. Too cute.

I'm sorry there is no live model to wear this dress right now. It's too cold! Just two weeks ago little Delilah was bundled up like this:

....she's eating an icycle! It's not quite icycle weather right now. But it's too cold to wear a summery Popover Dress. (I think the expression on her face = hilarious)

Ahh, the Popover Dress by Oliver and S. You can download the FREE pattern and instructions HERE and see my tutorial pictures HERE. It's such a lovely simple dress pattern, that is suitable for beginners.

To coordinate with the viewfinder fabric, I had trouble figuring out what to use. I thought about some patterns, some pink cotton, but nothing looked quite right. I ended up using a natural colored cotton/rayon blend from fabric.com.

To get my hands on Ruby Star Rising, I made purchases of it from Whipstitch Fabrics, FabricWorm, and Purl Soho. It was sold by other stores too - I believe there is a list on Melody's site. I think most stores have placed reorders so soon you could have some of this fab fabric too. (And I think I need one more print and color. Greedy greedy!)

In the near future I hope to show you some progress on my camo dress, and am working on a new creative tutorial to share. So please stop back by sometime!

Thanks for visiting!

Janimal

Musical Popover Dress

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I had one more Popover Dress cut out and ready to be sewn for Delilah.

Ready to see my little supermodel in training?!



The fabric is musical notes from Hobby Lobby and the pink is Kona cotton.



The bottom is pink ribbon with a little white stripe. I used the technique from the Lazy Days Skirt pattern. It's pretty easy to make a nice finished hem with ribbon and I love the extra detail and pop of color at the hem.

And one more picture. Do you think this little girl could do no wrong or what?!



I am seriously in love with my daughter.

The Popover Dress pattern is easy for a beginner (and available FREE from the lovely Oliver and S). My photo tute following the pattern is here. If you have a little girl and can sew at all -- this pattern is a really good start at making garments.

Later skaters,
Janimal

Delilah the Runaway CutiePie

My husband took my camera with him on a trip - so no pics of new projects. But I do have this little beauty to share with you from last week.

Delilah looks ready to run away from home with her sad face, pillow, and golf club. She's dressed to roll in a Popover Dress (Pattern by Oliver and S) made by her Mommy in fabric Vintage by Dan Morris from Sports Club for Robert Kaufman (purchased from Whipstitch Etsy Shop).

Don't worry, she cheered up and decided to stick around. For now.

.....and I just noticed the sticker from the paint department at Home Depot. Really completes the look don't you think?!

((The Popover Dress pattern is free and easy to follow, my tutorial to go along with this great easy pattern is here. It's a great pattern for novices, and skilled sewers would go through it in a flash!)

Later skaters,

Janimal

Bowling Dress, Popover Tutorial Update, and a Question.

I think I am addicted to the Popover Dress pattern. I just made another one. Here is the "Bowling Dress".

The retro bowling fabric purchased from Whipstitch on their Etsy shop. I used premade bias tape also purchased from this Etsy seller. Free pattern for the dress is here. My tutorial with pictures following the pattern is here.

I HAVE AN UPDATE to the TUTORIAL! -- The cutting instructions have you fold the fabric selvedge to selvedge, and the main pattern piece on that center fold. BUT - for the smaller sizes, you don't have to waste so much fabric. As it is, you need a yard of fabric, but really, you can just use a half. Instead of placing the pattern along the center fold, fold the fabric again. So instead of it being folded in half, it's now folded into quarters. Place the fabric along the QUARTER folds. So when you cut, the two main fabric pieces are side by side.

I got this fabric in the mail (superfast! I ordered Saturday and received it Monday!) and had to make Delilah a little outfit from it immediately. You see, her Daddy is quite the bowler, and I figured he would get a kick out of this little dress. I do actually own some other patterns now. But I needed some quick satisfaction with this dress. I wanted to get it done, so I could show my dear husband, and dress up my dear child. I know this pattern so well now I think if I were stranded on a desert island with some fabric and a needle & thread, I would occupy my time making Popover Dresses!

There is one other Popover Dress in the works in my sewing room. Then I think I will have to stop making them for a while. To be honest, Delilah spends most of her time in playclothes these days. She's an active toddler and we dress her to move and shake and have fun. She's at an age where she is experimenting with coloring and paints, gets a little dirty in the playground, and she needs freedom to be herself - an awesome constantly moving toddler!

There will be more Popover dresses in the future. The pattern has bigger sizes so it will be in my repertoire for a while! As Delilah grows I suppose I will be using more "sophisticated" prints. But for now, these whimsical prints are just so much fun!

So - now - a question.

I purchased from Embroidery Library a little set of classic cars embroidery patterns for my embroidery machine. I stitched them out on to squares of muslin so I could see how they turned out.

And I love them.

But now what to do with them? I thought about sewing these into little cocktail napkins as a gift for my brother. Perhaps stitching one in hot pink on a shirt for Delilah.

I sure do love machine embroidery, but I have a hard time knowing WHAT I should be stitching on and WHERE to place the designs I stitch.

I would love suggestions!

Later skater,

Janimal

London Dress with Fabric HairClip Tutorial!

Greetings friends!

The World Cup is coming! Now, I love the USA. But when the USA faces England in a World Cup match June 12th, I have to root for England. We'll be watching the game with a group of friends, and I have already started to talk smack to my husband about England winning. As the only Brit in the group watching the game, I may be in trouble.......

For the big game, I have ordered myself an official England Shirt. Since Delilah is a dual citizen, I am drafting her into being an England fan for the day so I have one other person on my side while we watch. Which means she needs an outfit for the occasion. With a matching hairclip of course! Here is the dress, followed by a tutorial on making the matching hairclip.





If you've been here before, you probably recognize the totally free and easy to sew Popover Dress pattern! (My tutorial to follow this awesome free pattern is here.) The fabric I found at Hancock Fabrics. Not exactly England World Cup material, but it definitely screams BRIT to me! (The England Flag is the St George's cross, the red cross in the center of the Union Jack. The Union Jack is made up to represent the flags of England, Ireland, and Scotland.) But although it isn't an "England" flag dress, it's still clearly a very British looking dress!

I made this last night, with this matching hairclip from a scrap of fabric. Delilah was sleeping so I modelled it for you. Blurry self pic - sorry about that. Come back sometime after June 12th and I'll have a pic of Delilah in the dress with the clip in!





This tutorial is not just for THIS fabric! Any scrap of fabric you have, that you think would be cute on a hairclip, can be put together this way.

Ok, to make the clip, I need supplies. Scrap of fabric, hairclip, small piece of stabilizer or facing.



And of course MOD PODGE! I won this sample pack of Mod Podge from Mod Podge Rocks! (Love that site!)

And oops, I also used a glue gun. Sorry, forgot to include it in the pic. But y'all know what a glue gun looks like, right?!!?

My first order of business was to attach a little piece of stabilizer to the back of the fabric to give it some body. I decided to sew mine on along the St George's cross lines of the flag. If I had iron on interfacing handy, that would be cool to iron on. It could also be lightly secured with a swipe of a glue stick, or a few hand stitches.

Here's the back so you can see where I stitched.

Here's the front, can you see the stitches on the cross of the flag?

Now it's time for Mod Podge! Rather than traipse down the stairs for a brush, I used a pencil eraser to apply the Podge. I like to improvise.

I folded each side of the fabric back onto a light coat of Podge.

Before podging down the other sides, I clipped the corners.

Once clipped, those sides get the same light podging treatment to glue down and Ta-Dah! I have a rectangle Union Jack! Not too stiff because it's fabric, but not flimsy thanks to the Podge and the stabilizer sewn in.

Hot glue to a hairclip.

And that's it!

Now I really wish I had stuck this in Delilah's hair this morning so I could share that with you. I promise to snap pictures when she wears the dress with the clip and show off her adorable Britishness.

Now I have to get started on something sweet and patriotic for Delilah to wear on the Fourth of July. I may be British in my heart, but I love America, and all the freedoms this dear country provides. I am proud my daughter is American. Decking her out in stars and stripes will be fun!

Thanks for stopping by! I am working on a bag tutorial and some painting projects - Be back soon!

- Janimal