picture day blouse

Today is the time for spring picture day at the preschool. Miss A happily wore that blouse with jeans. It was sewn last fall, for the fall picture day, but she refused to wear it. She’s in a terribly picky pink and girly phase right now and the blouse is apparently not girly enough. It’s a good thing that I have a backup plan and she ended up wearing an Ice Cream Dress made from purple mermaids by my beloved Heather Ross. I don’t think I ever posted a pic of it! Well, it is certainly loved, because it’s purple and it’s got mermaids.

Today however, I know the trick to get her to wear what I want. I gave her two things to choose from so the chance of a ‘no’ is lessened. The choice is between that blouse and a skull and crossbones blouse from Baby Gap. I looooove the print on that Baby Gap so much! I wish they made it in my size. Sigh… Anyway, either one was a good choice for me and thankfully she chose something Mama made!

This was the first day she ever wear it. I sort of lost interest in it after the initial refusal, I just hung it in the closet without sewing any buttons on. After I got the positive response, I had to sew on the buttons quickly before she went to school. The button was picked long time ago and just sat there on a bookshelf in the sewing room. It eventually was covered with stacks of fabrics and paper, I had to dug up through many things to find them. Finally, I found four out of the five I needed. On the way downstairs, I managed to lost one mysteriously. Now we’re down to three buttons out of five! I’ve already sewn those three before I realiezd that the fourth one was missing.

I had to rummage through the button stash jar to find some more matching buttons. I couldn’t just change it to another set of buttons after I’ve already sewn three! Seriously, I hate sewing on buttons. It’s a good thing that I found one matching button! In the end, four out of five is not too bad. Who fasten the top button anyway?

one

My boy is one! We had his birthday party at a local park last week and it was fabulous. I ordered the food and the cake from my friends who loved to cook and bake, so the preparation is stress-free. I only have to prepare the goodie bags and sew a shirt for the birthday boy.

The cake is specially ordered to match his fishies shirt. I love, love, love it that they went together swimmingly! When we cut the cake, all the kids want a piece of fish on theirs. The small kid on the boat is ordered from here. It totally makes the cake.

The shirt is, of course, from an Oliver + S pattern and Heather Ross fabric. It’s freaking difficult to sew the collar on so tiny a shirt, but I kept thinking, ok it’s only one shirt and it’s for a special occasion. It does have one tiny pucker on the back neck, but with a perfect pair sleeves. I can live with it. And how can you resist those fishies?

Happy birthday to my sweet baby!

jump rope sew along!

Have you heard the news? I’ll helping out over at Sew Mama Sew to host their Jump Rope Sew Along! I’ve had so much fun at Ice Cream Social that I am excited to host this one with Amy and Jeanne.

So, get your pattern ready and your fabrics washed and pressed. It starts tomorrow, people!

pirate dress

Well, it’s really the Jump Rope Dress but my daughter calls it pirate dress as soon as I show it to her. So a pirate dress it is!

I made a bigger size for her, as per my promise, from a fun seahorses fabric by Heather Ross. The placket construction is easy enough to make with the superb instructions, but the collar is giving me headaches. I sewed them on without any basting like the superb instructions told me to do and sure enough I got puckers everywhere. I ripped everything off and dutifully hand basted the collar, then I got just one tiny pucker. After all it’s finished, the collar does make the dress so I will be making this pattern again.

ice cream social

I’m joining The Ice Cream Social over here, and here’s my first project! It’s actually my third from that pattern, I’ve made a dress and another top. Working with Little Folks voile for that pink top has prepared me to make the second one from my precious Liberty lawn stash. This print is called Toria. You may have seen the pink Toria somewhere but I love this black and white colorway much better. I used plain Kona Cotton in Coal for the yoke lining. I’m confident enough for this third try to sew the whole thing without referring to the instructions even once, ha!

I have cut some fabrics for a fourth project, a dress like the first one, in darker colors to prepare for fall. It’s sad to think that it’s almost the end of July and Abby doesn’t get to wear all her handmade summer clothes that often. She’s got too much of them and I’m still making more! So my game plan is to make clothes in fall/winter colors, or trace bigger size of patterns, or make something for the other one, the boy that have only one Mama sewn item. Poor Christopher!

kids clothes week :: the last days

Ok, I didn’t get much work done during the weekend. On Friday, we went to the zoo. On Saturday, we went to the outlet. And on Sunday, Miss Abby had a dress rehearsal for her ballet recital. I’ve been making it up this past three days. I finished a tunic, a peasant dress, and a peasant top. The peasant ones had been started previously and I just needed to insert some elastics and sew on buttons.

Here’s my total tally: 2 dresses, 2 tops, and 1 overalls.   Two of those I started last week and the others are WIPs. Three of those are from O+S pattern and the other two are from Japanese pattern book. Only one is Christopher, all the others are for Abigail. Hmm, I need more boy sewing. Not included in the tally is a skirt that I rehemmed, the trim that I had put on it shrank more than the skirt itself so I had to redo it.

That’s it for Kids Clothes Week!

kids clothes week :: day 3 and 4

On Wednesday, I had to take Miss Abby to her ballet class and do some grocery shopping, hence no post yesterday. I did work for one hour, really. Here’s something to prove it, a finished dress!

Yes, it’s another Oliver and S pattern, what can I say? I love Liesl‘s patterns. This was another fabulous pattern and I was able to breeze through the construction. I’m wondering if it’s because of the new machine or I am getting better, haha…

kids clothes week :: day 2

I didn’t get to cut my fabric yesterday, boo! My perfectly good excuse is I was finishing this playsuit. Also, said fabric that needed to be cut actually needed to be ironed first. I ended up ironing a total of 5 yards of fabric! I washed them all two weeks ago and just shoved them inside the closet without folding it neatly.

Back to the playsuit, it was cut and partially sewn before Christopher was born. I cut for size 6-12 months using regular mattress ticking and Kokka Trefle robots.

I still have one more playsuit to finish, but the baby is cranky from runny nose so my hour for today is up. I’m hoping to steal some more time tonight and really cut some fabrics after everyone’s been put to bed.

kids clothes week :: day 1

First day of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge! This Oliver+S Ruffle Halter was technically made two weeks ago but I didn’t take any pictures until today. I have not use my one hour yet, so no pictures yet. I made the halter from crisp Japanese linen gingham which falls very nicely after I sewed the bias cut ruffle. This is the first project on my new Bernina, and I’m enjoying it. I tried the overlock stitch and it looks like the real serger stitch. And have I told you how quiet it is?

I’m afraid to wash this though, since all those ruffles’ edges are not finished. It’s also going to be a nightmare to iron the wrinkles from the linen after it gets out from the dryer. I think delicate handwashing is in order and I’ll watch Abby closely if she’s wearing this. Ice creams and other potentially messy things are definitely a no!

We just came back from Chicago and I splurged on this and this from Penelope’s. The last time we went there, I was pregnant and couldn’t try anything, this time I made sure I tried everything I liked and these two tops were love at first try. I’ve been wanting to try A.P.C. for a while and they have lots of lovely things in Liberty fabrics. What more could I ask for?

On to today’s real plan: cut some fabric!

spring top vote!

I’m in the top 60 for the spring top week, yay! Please help vote for my chambray top, everyone! You only have this Monday to do it, so please go there and no it now.