Costume Number two, Go, Go Diego Go! for Prince C!

Well it is a very sure thing to say that Price C is growing up waaayyy too fast! This year for Halloween he requested to be Diego from the cartoon. I don't mind him asking to dress up as what he wants be it is the "being able to ask" part that gets me! I knew he would start to grow up I just didn't think it would be this quick. *sigh*

Here are the details of his costume for this year. The hat and vest are both form the Little Things To Sew book. I did change the vest a wee bit and added a metal zipper to look more like Diego's vest. I am very glad I did too; it is way easier for his to use a zipper than buttons. He still doesn't know how to use the buttons. {The only thing saving me when he is trying to take his clothes off! I put his dress shirts on him. ;-) haha} The hat is sideways here but there is a "Diego" logo on both hat and vest.

The pants and shirt are both from Oliver + S Field Trip pattern. He has worn both shirt and pants a ton already. He really loves these pants! The are the size 18-24 months. They are a bit big but they should fit for a while. 

The perfect outfit for my explorer little boy. He is off to have an adventure of his very own.

A good friend of mine said that she blinked and her daughter grew up, I think I must have blinked here too.

Happy Sewing!

Sharon

Queen Elsa, Let it Go!

It's that time of year again; costume time! This year I am doing things a bit different though and I am making everything early! I have three done and two to go. The first one I am showing you done is Sweet pea's. She has changed her mind a million times (which is kind of my fault). Her first costume in the works was going to be Pinkalious. I had the whole costume planned out too, a smocked bodice, dyeing lace to make just the right shade of the pink ruffles on the skirt, hand painted wings with hand sewn pink "fluff" around then, well you get the picture. Any way she kept asking for the Elsa dress costume. I know there will be a army of them out on Halloween night so I really wanted her to be something different until I thought about it. (ok, ok she was singing "Let it go" endlessly too)  It's her costume and she doesn't care if every other little girl is dressed the  same. That who she really wants to be. She is only four so really why not? It is a day of fun for the kids and not mommy. So as my friends would "let it go, le it go" so I did. ;-)

I wanted to make her a "real" dress costume. I know it will be worn a lot. Second It had to be little girl like and not, well, improper looking to be polite. Which means a bit fitted but not tight and no slit and the front of the dress had to come up higher. Third, the cape has to come off for washing and play wear. I think we are both happy with the end result of this dress.

Ok now the how and how-to! I used two different favorite patterns I mine to make this look. The Oliver + S Fairy tale dress pattern, Ellie Inspired Sleepy Bear pj pattern and a self drafted skirt ad cape. I traced the bodice of the of the Fairy tale and drew a line for where I wanted the dark blue to be and the see though to start. I then redrew the top and bottom pieces separate and added a seam allowance to them. I cut out the main bodice with the satin and the dark blue see through fabric over lay on top of the satin.  (the blue is a pretty sparkly design to it) I also cut out a satin lining with the see though snowflake fabric as well. I did the very same for the back bodice.





Here is the back of the dress, I have the zipper going up to the top of the satin and then a loop and button for the top. (Do you see the nicely matched bodice at the zipper line?!?)

I have to show you the lovely lining! It slips on Sweet pea so nice and she loves the feel of it.



To give the see through fabric a nice finish I sewn it all with French seams. To keep the seam allowances tighter on the main bodice and the lining bodice I hand stitched them together carefully through all the layers after I sewn the bodice pieces together. The non gathered sleeves are from the Sleepy Bear pj pattern. I really, really love the fit of the sleeves from this pattern! I self drafted the skirt pieces, the cape and the crown.  

I cut the cape out the full width of the fabric and juts rounded the corners out and serged roll hem the edges. I then made a bias (I measured this to the length I wanted the finish top cape to be) with the see through snowflake fabric and gathered the cape onto the bias and stitched it closed. I then added hooks and loops to the dress and cape so that the cape can come on and off.
 

The cape is nice and full too. I so glittery! It looked like I killed a fairy in the kitchen while I was this costume!

The cape is also nice and flowing too. Perfect for playing Frozen.

She really loves the finished dress and didn't want to take it off. She thinks she looks just like Elsa. I am very glad now that I made this dress for her, we are both very happy with it. Now the only problem is Sweet pea is trying to convince me that Prince C wants to be Anna, hahaha, I don't think so my love. ;-)


Happy Sewing!!


Sharon

Autumn Grace smocked dress

I am done with my Autumn Grace dress for the Smock-a-long!! If your in the Facebook group you have already seen it but for those of you who are not here it is!! I cannot tell you ladies how much I enjoyed sewing this dress. It has been over a whole year since I have last tried my hand at smocking and I once again have been bitten by the smocking bug, thanks to Laura Johnson!!  

I love the simple style of the peasant top with the smocked insert and ruffles. I really love this dress!  

This is a close up of the smocked insert I made, yes I really smocked this!! (I can hardly believe it myself) I love the detail of the satin ribbon too. I did have to go back and tack in the ribbon on the smocking. I am not sure if it's because it's satin and slips easily or not but it was rolling a bit when she wore this dress and the tacking fixed that problem right up.

Sweet pea is as smitten as I am with this dress. It's her new "princess" dress she tells me. We have it hanging were we can see it at all times too. ;-)

I love the clever design of the back as well. This dress slips on over the head with elastic gathers in the back bodice to keep that nice well fitted look in the front as well as the back.

This dress looks like the pattern was made just for her! If you are looking for the pattern you can find it here on Craftsy for $4 right now. It includes the smocking instructions as well and the smock-a-long  is still going on till the October 1st if you want to join in.

Sharon

Autumn Grace Smock-a-long progress

The smock-a-long started this Monday and here is what I have done so far! I finished this yesterday afternoon and today I will be blocking this then adding some lovely ribbon! I can you ladies I can hardly wait to have this dress finished so I can see it on my Sweet pea!

The pattern is for sale on Craftsy right now for $4 too. It starts on a sixe 1 and goes all the way to a size 16, can't beat that! You can find Autumn Grace pattern over here.

Now to blocking!!

Sharon

Sleepy Bear Pj's pattern

The weather is much cooler here now, you can feel fall coming in the air. So that means it time to start sewing pajamas for the five kiddos! I always try and sew 3 pairs for each child, that way they have great rotation and last longer. My kids look forward to their mama made pj's every fall now for a few years so when I was able to pattern test the Sleepy Bear pj's for Ellie Inspired I about flipped! The design is so wonderful and the size range is for size 1 to size 16! Yes, all my children's sizes in one pattern!  To make it even better the pattern is a three piece set, pants, top and hooded robe and sews up so quick. It's a dream come true pattern for me! I was able to print out, trace, cut and sew a whole set within about 6 hours time (not bad if I say so) so I am able to whip out several pairs quickly; with five children that is a huge plus! 



The second great part of this pattern is that the bottom and robe can sewn in knit, flannel, fleece and minky. (the top does have to be sewn in knit or stretchy material) This pair here is sewn with a flannel bottoms, a knit top complete with flannel pocket to match the pants and a flannel robe. (this pattern even has a short pattern to it for my friends sewing on the other side of the world so it's prefect for summer time too)

Isn't the robe just darling?! All the fabric to sew both pairs was sent to from my grandmother, thank you so much grandma!! They made the cutest pj's! (sewing runs along way down from generation to generation in this family)   

With all the camping out we have done, this robe sure has come in handy. We have had many cool nights already and it really fit the bill to keep Prince C warm and snug. He really loves the hooded robe the most of this whole pattern.

and the second pair! (like I said, this was a really quick pattern!) Prince C is crazy about animals right now. He loves trips to the zoo so much so this pair really suits him. I have been saving this knit for just the right project too. (the wee pocket just kills me!) This set is all knit except for the robe which is more of a minky fabric with the hood of the robe lined in same knit as the pants.

he ahs even worn this shirt all day too, with his shorts to paly in. I will tell you ladies this is his favorite top right now. I keep telling him it's a pj top but he smiles and tells "no, no, mine" lol. At least he loves it right?? :-)

The robe on this one is super soft! This robe has all the other kiddos requesting one as well. It's so soft and cozy that I want one too in my size. I do have fabric ready to go for the other four kiddos too. Sweet pea's is up next, pink frog fabric from grandmother as well. My grandmother is so awesome that she always knows what fabric to send that the kids will like!

Happy Sewing!!

Sharon

Want to learn how to smock?!

 Well here is your chance! Ellie Inspired is hosting a Back to School smock along this month on her Facebook group. The pattern will only be $4 and you can even buy a kit or even just buy a smocking insert so it's great if you have always wanted to learn to how to smock.

Already know how to smock? Then you will have so much fun with this sew a long!

I bought a kit from Whimsical Fabrics myself,

 Sarah picked it out all by herself. It even comes with e pre-pleated insert for the smocking which is great because I don't have a pleater....yet. ;-)  

You can check out this page to see all the kits for the smock-a-long and even find just the pre-pleated inserts for sale too so you can pick out what ever fabric you like.

Please join along with us!

You can find Ellie Inspired Facebook page here for the smock-a-long join up.

Sharon 



Corduroy, Cotton and knit for Fall

Sweet pea and I have more recently found this very inspirational little girl clothing website, Chasing Fireflies. She loves to look at all the pretty outfits online and in the catalogue.  This outfit pictured below is one of the outfits that she really liked and had to have mama make her. Lucky for me Ellie Inspired came out with a pattern so very similar this past month that worked out perfectly!

For her skirt I used the "School Days skirt" pattern with a few mods. The waist band in the pattern calls for one piece to be cut, I changed this to a four pattern piece part. All I did was dived the measurements by two and add seam allowance to only one side. (The side that would have been sewn has it in there still)  I made the waist band pieces 4 1/2" inched log as well to get this look. Next is to cut the front waist band down to size for a flat front. For this juts measure the waist line and dived that by half and add in your seam allowance. Cut two front and two back pieces, two for main and two for lining. The two sections on the main side is to put the big bow that ties at the back of the skirt. I then cut out the next two fabrics out according to the width of the first ruffle on the skirt.  I also added in flat 1" piping between the cotton and corduroy layers as well and finished it off with w yellow bias bow. (thank you so much Shelley for the advice!!)

I made shirt using the "The Sleepy bear pj's" pattern. I made  a size 4 with a size 6 length for her to tuck the shirt in easier. The only mods made to the top pattern was making it long sleeves and making it a rounded neckline, oh and I added a bias to the neck line instead of the ribbing. I did make the sleeves a little long but Sweet pea grows so quick that this will fit her much longer.

The skirt is full for lots of twirling too. See the two bows?! These are her favorite part of the skirt. This is one of those if she puts it on, she starts to dance outfits. haha!

This is my favorite part of her outfit, the shirt! It's made with an embroidery white knit. I had enough left over to make a matching head band. That was so quick and easy to sew too. I most of it on the serger.  

Here is the lovely back bow. I am thinking Sarah needs a pettie skirt to go under her skirt to give it some more "puff". She will need one for her costume this year anyway so why not make it sooner than later. When did her hair get so long too?!?I was going to have it cut this summer but she doesn't want it short so we let it grow some more.

I would say fall sewing is off to a great start! I have pretty much all of Sarah's sewing done, other than three pairs of pants and Jacob's is all done. Yep, I think I am back to sewing full swing now!

Happy Sewing!!

Sharon