Clothespin Bag #2

Michael Miller Gnome Dress

I have a confession to make: I love garden gnomes. I used to hate them. I thought they were cheesy. Well, I still think they are cheesy but maybe that's why I love them so much. Over a year ago, I spotted this fabric on fabric.com. I loved it, but it was on back order. Forever. Seriously, it was on back order for about 6 months. When I went back to check, they had moved the date out even further. When they finally got it in stock, I ordered some! I was really surprised that my daughter loved the fabric as much as I did, but she was thrilled to have a 'mushroom dress'. Here it is:

The collar is out of a thrift store sheet and....rick rack! Are you surprised? The buttons are these super awesome green flower buttons that really made the dress. I begged them from Mom for my birthday and have been holding on to them for the perfect time. And the accessories? Brought to you by Fruit Loops and her Sunday School teacher.

Bacon!!

Here she is, ladies and gents...the bacon satchel! When we were waiting in line at Obi's with some perfectly sensible floral print fabric, this bacon print jumped out and called to us. I had volunteered to make my niece a satchel and she asked me if she could ditch the floral and go with bacon. Why not, I say! We found some polka dots to go with it, because if there is anything better than bacon, it's polka dots. I drew the pattern up and got to work. We had seen some bags of the same style (minus bacon) in swanky New Hope shops for $$, and I totally knocked them off and made them better. (If I do say so myself ;) I made it reversible, which gives it a nice weight and more options. One side is embellished with rick rack (bonus points!!) because...well, its rick rack, and it reminded me of the ruffly crispy fatty edges of bacon. That sounds weird, doesn't it? Anyway, on the reverse side I whipped out my awesome 1975 Vogue sewing book (thanks, Shay!) and learned myself a new technique. It is a self faced welt pocket, which is pretty darn nifty. After the mental gymnastics required to figure out exactly how it worked, it really wasn't that hard. And to finish it off, I sewed in a 'Shmegan' tag, because that's what my niece calls me. I used label tape from here: Piggy and Dirt.

Coupon Envelope Clutch

My friend Erin spent the last two weeks or so with us, and did we ever have fun! Erin wanted sewing lessons and I was happy to oblige. Here is one of our projects. This is a basic envelope clutch. Adding rick rack and a magnetic snap added flair and gave me an excuse to show her a few new techniques. I got the idea from Sew Mama Sew's tutorial, although I didn't actually read it. I just figured out a size we liked and went with it.

P.S. I think I might have successfully passed on my love of rick rack to Erin! Woo!

Buttercup Bag: Chicken Edition

This bag was made from the Made By Rae Buttercup Bag pattern (which is free!). A few weeks ago, Mom and I went to an AWESOME fabric store in Lancaster County. It is called Obi's General Store, and the place is stacked to the ceiling (literally) with fabric. It is really quite overwhelming, and I know that despite our time spent there, I probably only saw a fraction of the fabric they had. While there, I bought several pieces of fabric, including this chicken print. Now that I have chickens (!!), I should have something with chicken fabric, right?! I figured I would make myself a cute apron, but plans changed and I made a purse instead. This purse is super-easy to sew up. I added rick-rack for a little punch, and also because I can't find my red piping. No doubt it is off somewhere being used by my children to rig up a squirrel trap or something. I left out the small interior pocket, and added a divider instead. The buttons are from my Grandma Heppner's stash.

Simplicity 2828: I'm In Love!

Several months ago, I bought a girls dress pattern, Simplicity 2828. I've had it in my to-do list ever since. My goal for the next month or two is to sew through my stash! I would like to use up what I have so I can have a little more space. The fabric for this dress was from the clearance section at JoAnns, which I've had also for several months. It was about $1.50 a yard. The trim was also from my stash...two sizes of yellow rick rack (!) and some vintage yellow buttons. The buttons are square shaped and have a little braided border around them. The pattern is awesome!! If you are a beginning sewer, this pattern would be great. Because of the pleats in front and back, there is no gathering to do. The whole pattern is a total of three pieces (there are also 'Designer Additions' you can add too if you're feeling crazy). The pattern calls for a zipper but I did buttons instead, only because I love buttons and I wanted to add a little extra yellow to the dress. Even though my daughter is a size 3T, I made the 5T size. It worked perfectly, because it will be long enough for a while, but the arm holes are not too baggy and the top fits nice. The lining is from a sheet I found at the thrift store a while ago. When it was all said and done, I had used up several things from my stash, and my daughter ended up with a new dress. I'm already working on a second one....

Child-made Christmas Present

This year the kids made a few handmade gifts of their own. For this, my son drew a creature on plain white fabric with colored Sharpie markers. Then we cut it out and I sewed it together. He stuffed it all by himself. He was pretty proud to give his little brother something he had made himself!

Ruffled Pants

I finished another pair of pants for my daughter. Are you sick of seeing pants yet? These were made from a pair of my old jeans. One average sized pair of pants will make one pair of toddler pants, or two pairs of infant/12 month sized pants. The ruffles and pockets are from a scrap of fabric I had left from another project.

Round Two

Here is my second version of the One Yard Wonders house. This one went a little more smoothly than the first, and of course now I have even more ideas of how I would improve it. I used velcro closures for this one as I think it will be a lot easier for little hands to navigate. The rug is embroidered with my daughter's initial. The flower garden is made of vintage buttons from my stash. I kind of want to play with this myself! I am debating whether I will make some sort of little furniture for it. Hmm....

Shhh...Christmas Present Posting!

Here is a play barn I made for my son for Christmas. You'll never guess where I found the pattern...One Yard Wonders. Shocking, I know! I have to say that this is by far the most tedious of all the projects I've made from the book, although now that I am working on the second one I feel that I am getting some of the kinks worked out. The instructions in the book are not the clearest, and I have made a few modifications in the construction of it. The front panel attaches with some vintage buttons from Grandma and Aunt Phylis. Yay for old buttons!! There are handles at the roof line for carrying. I used the blanket stitch to connect all the pieces. Bonus points for working rick rack into yet another project!! :)

Backpack

It all began when I saw a picture of an owl lunch box. I liked it, but I decided I could make one myself. I found a great (free) pattern here for a toddler backpack, and turned something simple into something more complicated. I added a flannel lining, piping and two layers of interfacing for stability. I added the owl's features to the front panels before I began sewing it together. Did you notice I managed to work in some rick-rack? I know what you are thinking....step away from the rick-rack please! I like this pattern because a) it is simple to construct, it takes little fabric, and c) instead of using a zipper which can be hard for a toddler to open, it has a front opening that closes with velcro. This project was made completely with stuff I had on hand: the denim was from old jeans, the lining flannel, felt and rick-rack scraps were in my stash and the interfacing was from a huge hunk we found at a yard sale last summer.

Summer Outfit

Here is the latest addition to my daughter's summer wardrobe. The top was made with a very, very easy pattern (I think it is McCalls?). It has tucks in the top, elastic in the sleeves and a button closure in the back. I added a little rick-rack around the neck because have I mentioned my undying love for rick-rack??? The pants were from a great pattern I bought from here. You should check out this lady's blog. She is a genius and has lots of (free!) tutorials. The reason I love this pants pattern is because it is for skinny kids. I have a hard time finding store-bought pants that stay on my kids. Even the ones with the adjustable waists don't always work. Regular pants patterns for little kids are also very boxy and wide-legged. Yes, I could cinch up the elastic and make them work, but I would have a little MC Hammer on my hands and I'm not really into that. That's why I was very happy to find this pattern. It is only one piece, so a few seams and they are done! For the fabric I used an old pair of my jeans (what was I thinking buying brown jeans??). I cut open the leg seams, positioned the pattern piece and cut it out. I made good use of the already sewn hem of the jeans, therefore eliminating a step! They fit great, and I can tell you I will be using this pattern a lot!

Easter Finery

For Easter I made my daughter a simple skirt and matching headband. The skirt is from...you guessed it...the One Yard Wonders book. Instead of using bias tape to finish the hem, I used rick rack. The piping was made from a linen shirt that was passed on to me, and some cording I inherited from a friend's grandma. The cording was not made for this use but it worked out just fine. The headband was made using this tutorial. I modified it by covering the elastic for a more finished look. I also added some rick rack to the edges. The headband manages to stay on pretty well, much to my surprise! And as you can see, I got to wear the dress I made for myself for the first time! Yay! And yes, I am in desperate need of a little tan.

Quilt

I finished this quilt last week, finally. I don't really think I should call it a quilt because its really not 'pieced,' but whatever. Its something to keep her warm and it matches her room. I added rick rack because, well, I LOVE rick rack. The binding is pieced together with several different fabrics, including a shirt that Rach convinced me to buy long ago. I never could bring myself to sport the epileptic-seizure-inducing polka dots, but it did make a great binding!