Birthday party dress, take 2... and 3

I blogged my last (and first) attempt at the Oliver + S birthday party dress last December. I love the pattern so much that I've since made it twice more, once for a friend's little girl and once for my daughter's birthday party.

This time I used satin ribbon instead of the tabs across the pleats and am happy with the results. It gives the dress quite a different feel and is much more girly. I think I prefer the tabs though, they're a bit different and look so cute.

I made the first dress out of fabric from Lecien's Grandma's Flower Garden collection. I'd seen this fabric numerous times online and loved it, and fell even more in love when I saw it 'in the flesh', so just had to buy it. Although the print and colour were even better in real life, I was so disappointed by the weight of the cotton. It was extremely lightweight, almost flimsy. It was so thin that the pins slipped out on their own as I was sewing.

I also should have thought more about fabric placement - lesson learned for next time.

I used an old favourite fabric for my daughter's dress, Fresh poppies in green from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern collection. I adore this fabric and will really miss seeing it in my sewing cupboard, although I only had one yard of it so it really was a case of use it now while my daughter is still little.

I'm very happy with the end result. It's a very fresh and girly dress, and best of all it's NOT PINK! (I love pink, but we have way too much pink in this household). The dress took a lot of punishment at the teddy bear's picnic we had to celebrate my little girl turning two, and washed up beautifully.


The finished Lecien fabric dress. This photo is a little dark as I took it in artificial light.


Close up of the ribbon detail. Still not convinced I shouldn't have used cream ribbon instead.

My daughter's 2nd birthday party dress


I used pearly buttons down the back. I thought about using pale blue but am very pleased with the neutral colour.


Close up. I sewed the ribbon on before I tied it to prevent it from drooping.

Pencil rolls

I own far too much novelty fabric, I just can't help myself. A lot of it gets used to make hairclips and buttons, but the rest just sits there prettying up the cupboard. So I was thrilled to be able to put some of it to good use this week by making kids' pencil rolls using the free tutorial over at Little Munchkins.

It's an easy, satisfying project that you can make up very quickly, and the end result is so lovely and perfect to give as a gift.

I made two - a boyish one for my nephew and a decidedly girly one to give my daughter for her 2nd birthday this week. I used Kokka's Toyland in 'natural' with a coordinating yellow cotton canvas for the boy one, and I have no idea of the fabric I used for my daughter as it was a gift and there's nothing to identify it on the selvedge. It's cute though - a black base with flowers, rainbows, animals, trees etc. I don't normally like black for little girls so used contrasting pink thread to stitch it up.

I made up the boy roll according to the instructions but included a layer of thin fusible fleece to the girl's one. I did this because the black fabric showed up through the pink lining. I was worried the fleece would be too bulky but it turned out really well and the roll has a nice feel to it.

I'll definitely make up more pencil rolls in the future. I had fun picking out the fabric combinations and ribbons (green grosgrain with cream polka dots for the boy, and cream grosgrain with black stitching for the girl) and they're so quick and easy to make.


The end products! I adjusted the number of pockets for the yellow roll as the set of pencils I used only had 10 in the box.


I used Kokka's 'Toyland' fabric in Natural. This photo is a bit dark but you get the idea...


Contrasting pink stitching to brighten up the black basecloth.


All rolled up and ready to go. The ribbons still need to be cut to size.

Sweet and simple bloomers

I have Spring and Summer babies, so they spent many of their early days in nothing but a nappy and a singlet (in fact that's all my son is wearing right now). A couple of friends have recently had babies so I decided to make them some cotton bloomers to cover their nappies and keep them cool.

The pattern is from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing for Baby. The projects in this book are sweet and very basic, so suited to a beginner. More experienced sewers would be able to whip up most projects in an afternoon or less.

The bloomers turned out well, although I think next time I will adjust the pattern slightly to widen the crotch.

I used Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom fabric for the girls' bloomers. The orange boys' bloomers are from a scrap I found in my cupboard (!) and the blue fabric is from Amy Butler's Belle collection. It also happens to be one of my all time favourite fabrics.

I'll use any excuse to make button clips, so I made a couple of pairs to match the girly bloomers.


Just love, love, love that blue fabric. I have metres of it!


Bloomers and matching clips using fabric from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom collection.


Taking them for a test drive! Bloomers by me, cute tush by my son.

Baby blocks

I've had an unfinished project sitting in the cupboard for months and finally managed to pull it out and finish it yesterday while my son was asleep. I'm cranky at myself for not finishing it sooner, but I procrastinated on the hand-sewing.

It's a Christening present for a friend's daughter. I used prints from the Moda Urban Chicks collection with a coordinating pink and green solid. The pattern is from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. The pattern was straightforward, although it took me a while, having never used a rotary cutter before.

The blocks are stuffed with cubes of medium-density foam that I had cut at Clark Rubber. They worked out at about $1 per block which I thought was a pretty good price. The foam is a few centimetres bigger than the fabric 'shell', which gives the blocks a nice rounded look.

Hopefully they'll keep little hands busy this Summer!

Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress

A few months ago I discovered some money in a PayPal account that I'd forgotten about, and decided to spend my 'free' (ie, husband won't miss it) money on some fabric and patterns.

I bought a heap of fabric but my favourite by far was Verbena in pink, by Kaffe Fassett. I'm not normally a huge Kaffe Fassett fan but I just fell in love with this fabric. I think because the print reminded me of my favourite flowers - hydrangeas - but also because I just love the use of colour.

I also bought a few patterns by Oliver + S, including the especially fabulous Birthday Party dress pattern.

I've wanted to make up the Birthday Party dress in the Verbena fabric for some time now, and with a few special occasions coming up I had the perfect excuse to whip one up for my daughter.

I'm pretty happy with the results. The process itself was hassle-free too. The pattern is so easy to follow - it has lots of pictures that help explain each step and I found it easy to follow, even though I am a novice sewer.

Even though I love the dress, I think the pattern lends itself more to a less 'busy' print, so next time I make it I will use a less fussy fabric. I can picture the next incarnation of this dress in a simple cornflower blue fabric with ribbons instead of the tabs across the pleats... Now I just need to find the fabric.



Detail of the tabs and box pleats

The back: I really love the cloth buttons I found

Pyjama pants

I went Christmas shopping early this December and it was H.E.L.L. Seriously. It was 39 degrees, I had a crying 3 month old and whiny toddler in the back of the car and it took 25 minutes to find a car park.

After an unsuccessful shopping trip I vowed I would buy all of this year's present online, or make them.

My brother and his wife live in a very cold environment, so I decided to make them some cosy PJ pants for Christmas. I found some gorgeous flannel by Valori Wells and snapped it up right away. The flannel is deliciously soft and nice and thick.

It took a bit longer to find a good pattern as I wanted to use it for my ultra-tiny friend as well as my brother and sister-in-law. In the end I decided on the Sleep Well pattern by Favourite Things. I couldn't find it in Australia though, which is a pain in the neck.

The pattern itself was great, very simple. The pants are nice and generous, as PJ pants should be.



A close up of the fabric

I now have my eye on some of the other VW flannels and the ultra cute Little Sleep Well pyjama pants pattern to make my two cuties some warm jammies next winter.

Hairclip holder

I reckon my little girl have somewhere in the region of 150 hairclips and ties... It's excessive, I know, but I just can't help myself, especially now that I have started making button clips (and anyway, she loses them so often that I can kind of justify it).

Anyway, I have been thinking about making her a hairclip holder for a while now, to keep things organised and pretty up her room a bit. I still haven't gotten around to making my daughter one but I did whip up one for my friend's daughter's first birthday this weekend.

The design and construction was very simple. I trimmed a scrap of fabric from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market collection (just love the colourful stripes) into a plaque with rounded corners. I then found a font that I liked (I think it's called Harrington) and sketched it directly from the computer screen onto some aqua polka dot fabric. After ironing on some vliesofix I cut out the letters and fused them to the fabric plaque. I finished it off by back-stitching around it using fine silver embroidery thread.





The plaque is backed with the same aqua polka dot fabric and has a medium fusible fleece inside to give it a bit of structure (otherwise the weight of the clips would cause it to sag). It's finished with a topstitch around the edges.

I used pale pink grosgrain ribbon to attach the clips to and sewed a button and buttonhole at the bottom to attach the hair elastics.





Of course I made a dozen or so button clips and ties too!

Now I just need to make one for my little girl.

Hairclip heaven

I have been oohing and ahhing over button hairclips on Etsy for a while now, and last month finally got around to making my own. My 22 month old daughter is now the proud owner of about 30 new clips as I had so much gorgeous fabric to use. I suspect she may well add several more to her collection as I find more cute fabric.

I also intend to make her matching button clips and ties whenever I make her a new dress or skirt.

Mrs Perkins

I bought a couple of Melly & Me patterns last year to make for my daughter and as baby shower gifts. I never got around to using the giraffe pattern (Mrs Perkins) so pulled it out this year when pregnant with my second child.

I didn't know the baby's sex (he turned out to be a little boy!) so chose a fairly neutral fabric - one of Kaffe Fasset's prints in blue with pink, purple and green accents. I found the co-ordinating green fabric in my stash and bought the buttons to match.

The pattern was easy to follow and construct, although making the little horns drove me bonkers. They're so tiny and turning them inside out took me weeks - yes, weeks. I had so many attempts but just could not make it work! Suffice to say I got there in the end and the result is a cute little toy that sits proudly on my son's dresser.

More booties and accessories

Thought I would blog some of the other booties I have made - this is such a quick pattern to stitch that I usually make a pair for every new baby. I also have lots of fun choosing the fabric to use.





This pair was made using the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric based on Eric Carle's book. I adore this fabric and bought a heap of it, as it you can turn it into a nice unisex baby gift. I cut out and blanket-stitched the fruit pieces onto a plain white Bonds top to match the booties.

The next pair of booties were made using vintage Japanese kimono silk, so they're truly a one off. They were for a little girl so i also made a pair of matching covered button clips. Cute!

Booties!

I received Amy Butler's book Little Stitches for Little Ones for xmas 08 and fell in love with it. So many gorgeous fabrics and so many beautiful patterns.

In April 09 my first nephew was born so I decided to put the book to use and make him something. As I didn't have a machine at the time I needed something small I could handsew relatively quickly. I chose the 'cutie booties' pattern.

I think it worked out pretty well - my sister in law was happy to receive them! The pattern itself wasn't too difficult, although like all of Amy's patterns could have benefitted from more pictures. I also found the instructions a bit cumbersome. For example, it said to cut out the main pattern piece in the main fabric, fleece and interfacing, then fuse them together. It's *so* much quicker to fuse them together then cut them out.

I have made these booties several times for gifts since this first pair, and have altered the pattern and method to suit me. Nothing too major, just little changes that I feel work better.