Our Summer Favorites; Ellie Inspired Summer Blog Tour

Summer is almost here and we can't wait! The hot summer days with the cool summer nights are most wonderful but our favorite part of summer of is the evenings. We love to sit outside watching the sun go down over the horizon playing until the last sun beam has stop shinning and the stars are twinkling over head. It is such a magical time of day!  

This dress reminds me of just that, the perfect summer evenings that never seem to last long enough. I used the Ellie Inspired pattern Spring Lily dress pattern. I adore the back bodice lines of this dress. Nice and cool for the hot days but has these lovely capped sleeves that are nice for when the sun goes down. The sash is perfect length too for playing, dancing and chasing fireflies. 

This dress pattern has lovely box pleats that goes the entire way around the skirt for a nice full skirt but not too frilly. It really didn't take much time to make them either to my surprise and look so awesome when done. 

I also added a bias strip of fabric to the bottom of the dress over the hem line and used the very same fabric as the sash and lined the dress with. Yes this dress is fully lined! You know I love a fully lined garment!! Even the sleeves are fully lined and there are no exposed seams. (French seams on the skirt)*sigh* Yes a perfect summer dress.

The fabric is from Riley Blake, The fine and Dandy Line. It really reminds me of a 1950s print, I LOVE it!! I love anything 1950s myself. I might just have to make myself a  dress. If you are wondering this dress does come in women's sizes too. 

Did I mention it is perfect for twirling in?! Perfect for her to dance in the summer evening sunlight's rays until night has fallen. 

So what is your favorite thing of summer time? 

Happy Sewing!! 

Sharon 

Summer Dreaming

Ah summer days as child, the warm sunny days with the gentle breeze blowing through your hair. The carefree days that have late sunsets watching the sun go down and then waiting for the fireflies to come out.   The early mornings of waking with the sun just to see what adventurer awaits the day. Yes we do love summer break in our home!

With summer days fast approaching I am trying to finish up the last of my summer sewing for my youngest two. (school break starts this Friday for our older ones) Miss Sweet pea wanted a summer frock with smocking and this beautiful fabric from Art Gallery. The Art Gallery is a new favorite fabric brand of Sarah's and mine now. It feels different compared to normal quilting cotton, much like that of the Sarah Jane Out to Sea fabric. It pleats up ever so nicely and is a dream to sew with.  

The pattern I used is Sugar Horses from Ellie Inspired. (you can find the pattern here) I have always loved this pattern but have never made one up until this fabric was calling my name. My friend then had the idea that I make it into a maxi length, oh so clever of her!! Sarah and I both love the length of this dress. It was the only mod I made to the pattern, the rest was in the pattern including the smocking. I love the way the smocking looks on this pattern too. 

As she is growing up so is her hair style choices as well. She loves her hair is gorgeous braids now when fixed up. No more ponytails for her. (Thank you to Disney Frozen and Elsa for making this possible! It is amazing that mama cannot talk her into new hair style but a cartoon queen can, go figure) 

She loves the length of the dress as much as the details too. I kept the dress 1" off the ground leave so there will no tripping on the hem. This dress will be used for our trips the lake beach this summer. It is nice and cool she has told me. 

 I will be most certainly sewing one of these up every summer from now on, did I mention the pattern goes up to a size 16?!? Sarah wears a size 5 so no worrying about her out growing the pattern any time soon. The pattern also has a short sleeve and long sleeve options. I am already working out a fall version in my head for Sarah for her first year in school. 

This is my very favorite part of this pattern, the smocking!! I really loves the add to dress, simple but elegant. (I wonder if I can talk Laura into making this in my size?!?) 

Yes bring on the summer days please! We are ready for all that it brings. 

Sharon 

Come Sail Away With Me

My little girl is growing up very fast, too fast for me. The very first dress I ever sewn Sweet pea was a sailor dress. It is full of mistakes but oh how I still love that dress of hers! I have said for years that I would give another go at a sailor dress for her, one that didn't look, well, like it was sewn in the dark by two left hands. ; )

(warning! There is lots and lots of photos!)

This "Sail away" dress has whipped stitched piping in the princess seams (you know my princess love these seams!!) and has a dropped waist line with an invisible zipper in the back. The dress is not too fitted so it nice a cool for our hot weather here we are now having.  It has the sailor collar with a separate tie that goes under the collar. The sleeves are finished with a navy blue bias to match the collar and piping. Girly but not too frilly. I used some Out To Sea boarder fabric, perfect for a sailor dress and the white is Kona cotton.

I did make a fully lined bodice similar to that of the Fairy tale dress and it has full skirt on the lining as well, 84 inches so it nice full for twirling.

This will be her Forth of July dress this year, I am making Caspian his own little sailor outfit too! I can't wait to see him in his! My attempts this year is to make all five kids outfit for the four, yea I do know it's getting very close but I think I can pull it off, think.....

What pattern is this you ask? It's mine! Yep, I made a pattern and it came out alright! I am pretty happy with this dress and so is Sweet pea. A win, win for the two of us. I not sure if you would call this a size 4 of 5 but it does fit her very well. The collar was the most fun to get the fit right. I think I can still do some tweaking to it. 

After I do finish up on the Forth of July sewing my summer sewing will be done other than a pair of shorts for Sarah. I do have plans to make myself a top and dress for the new Deer and Doe dress.  I have been living in my yellow all week, it so comfy and cool. I did also get two more quilt tops sewn together and I almost have Caspian's birthday sewing done as well, which is a good thing seeing party is this Saturday! (I am cutting it close again!)

Well as far as her dress goes I am thinking of one day making this into a real pattern, maybe I will sell a few. ; ) I'll have to wait and see.

So what are your summer plans?

Sharon

Sun Shine Girls!

The sun is out and shining and the weather is turning hot! Well for where we live any way. Yes 80F is really hot after -30F for the winter we had. ; )
Sweet pea's new favorite movie is Strawberry short cake fun in the sun. She has watched it so many times that she has been singing the "Sun Shine Girls" song  around the house, heck even Price C is starting to sing the song too! Then she ask me if I would sew her a swim suit, I had swim suit fabric on hand so I said sure. I have been trying to decide on a pattern for a bit now anyway so the to of us looked together (way too much fun!!) and we picked out the Tankini pattern from the Peek-a-boo shop. I think the selling point for her was that Ella would get a matching suit. (Although I keep telling her that Ella can't not really go into the water)

If you couldn't tell already she absolutely loves, loves this swimming suits! She was sing and dancing around when I was taking her pictures, and when she wasn't dancing she was practicing her surfing. She really wants to go surfing.

So that pattern and instructions themselves are super easy and quick. Although sewing the arm bands on the wee doll size really was not any fun I tell you. I was growling a bit but it's only for her doll so I tried and let it get to me. I used some thinner swimming fabric so it might have been why but the back of the racer top is a bit wonky. I have some ideas to keep this from happening so I really want to give this pattern another go. I seen some denim looking swimming fabric at the store up the road so I will go back and pick some up on Monday I think. I am pretty pleased with it over all though.

I made her the shorts to go with the top seeing this girl can't sit still and to make sure everything stays covered. I love this pattern for that! The two piece really makes it easier for her to use the restroom on her too.

Well now she wants me to make a swim suit for me, I would love to try it....after the rest of my sewing is caught up baby girl.

 Ella had to wear her swim suit all day too. : ) She is working on her tan. ; )  

I have really wanted to try sewing one of these for a while and it was not as scary as I thought, in fact it was a bunch of fun! I really want to make one more for Sweet pea before mid summer and Make Price C a rash guard and swimmer trunks too. I might try and sew myself one as well too. We will see.


Happy Weekend!


Sharon

Time For Summer, Sewing with Some Free Patterns

School lets out for the summer here in four short weeks and the weather is starting to turn lovely. With the older boys being out of school so soon I really would love to have all my kids clothes sewing done before then so what a better way than to start on than a lovely summer dress?! Sweet pea really needs some new dresses too, she has grown so tall over the winter. She is in love with dresses and who could blame her? I love to wear my sun dresses too, way better than pants. So first up was this Picnic Dress. I used a small scrap of fabric left over from her other Strawberry dress. (Oopps, I have forgotten to blog about that one! I will later this week!) It was maybe a yard with some other pattern pieces cut from it. I squeezed the pattern pieces on this baby and got all but one of the inside facing pieces out of this, yep I am that good. ; )

It his made out of strawberry briar rose fabric so you know she loves it! She was twirling around all da in this dress. I used some of the pink/white whipstitched piping on the bodice of this too. It was a easy quick sew, much like that of Oliver + S popover sun dress. The other great part of this dress? It was a free pattern from the Cottage Mama. You can find it over here on her blog too if you want to make one for yourself.

Here is the second part of her new outfit! Since she loves to wear dresses and plays pretty hard outside I thought it would be a great idea to make her some shorts to go under her dress this spring and summer. I notices that Oliver + S came out with a new free pattern, the Sunny Day shorts, they were perfect for this! I sized down one size since I used a knit fabric. I am in the works on making my four boys some pj's bottoms form this very same pattern too. The pattern size range is 6m to 12 boys! That's is terrific for me, all my kids can have a pair apiece. (The Picnic dress only comes in four sizes) I can see me getting a ton of use of the Sunny Day Short pattern already. I want to make Sweet pea some pj bottoms too but on her I plan on adding ruffles to the pants legs hem. I am going to make her two more knit pairs to go under her dresses once I can find my other box of fabric in the barn.....I know it's in there somewhere.....

She is pretty happy with this dress, I just might have to make her one more this next week.

Here is a close up of the piping, I just love this stuff! I need to order some more very soon. They come in all different colors.

I am also working on Caspian's 2nd birthday party sewing as well. (Yipes he is almost two?!?) I am making him and Sweet pea matching outfits this year. I could resist. Her dolly Ella will even have a matching dress. So plenty to work on for me this week! I am really enjoying it too. : )

Happy Sewing!

Sharon

Day Dreaming of Warm Weather

I was so excited to move back up north, I missed the beautiful white sparkly snow! How fun is it to go sledding in, build a snowman with the kids and even the fun snowball fight. Yes, I sure did miss having a real winter....I am so over that now! It's 8f out right now, oh where are you spring!

So to make it seem a bit warmer I thought I would follow suit as to some friends of mine and sew for the coming summer (seems like a life time away now) months. I broke down with the sale over at O+S and bought the hula hoopskirt pattern. I have been drooling over every single one that Petra has made. I hope to find some great bright summer fabric and Sweet pea a few more up like hers. I am so glad I bought too, it was so much fun to sew! Easy too! I love it even more after I sewn this one.

The top picture is side one of the great skirt!



The skirt is reversible too, how clever of Liesl!

I made a hopscotch top ala Nicole to go with her new skirt. The front of the shirt is simple the same as the back but with just a deeper neckline. Thank you Nicole for the ingenious idea! The hat is the Tulip hat from Cottage mama. I have made Sweet pea two of these hats before and they are her favorite. I did add a wee little bow on the top of it.

So are you sick of all this snow yet? I think I need to go on vacation to visit some friends in warmer weather!

Happy Sewing!

Sharon

Gardening at Grandpa and Grandma's House

 

Since we have been here sewing has been very darn little because we have been outside most of the time. The kids love playing outside and love, love to help grandma and grandpa in the garden. The have helped pick and help plant many things. Prince C was helping until we realized that he was trying to eat everything he was picking so now he has to sit in the stroller as the bigger ones help.

 

Mom puts up a ton of veggies from the garden so as the wee ones have been picking we have been canning. It reminds me of when I was little. : ) In one day we put up 36 jars of salsa plus about 20 of grape jelly. I wish I took a picture of Sweet pea picking these with grandpa, she had such a blast with these! You should have seen her chasing grandpa across the yard so that he wouldn't start without her.  She even helped smush the grapes to make the jelly. (She did give up fairly quickly on this part thought)

 

These are the green beans, the boys favorite vegetable to pick. If only we could get them to eat them now.

 

I love how gardening helps the kids work together as a team. This is about the only time all five of them are doing something together as a big group. It's so cute.  

 

To make things even better, grandpa has a great riding lawn mower with this way cool wagon. Yes, the kids are enjoying this! After grandpa took them for a hour ride daddy took over until sunset. (If you look closely you can even see little Prince C in there.) 

I think moving out here has done the kids a world of good, the older boys love their new school and already have started making new friends. Prince C is becoming more of a toddler than a baby. This makes me so sad. Sweet pea has been a grandpa's shadow. Yep, we have been loving the last part of our summer.

 

 

Sharon

The Happy Hopper Sunsuit

 

This past winter I started to get hooked on the Sew Beautiful magazine. I love the smocking, tips and patterns in them. I have made a few things from the magazines and this is yet another inspired outfit for my baby boy.

(Warning! Lots of photos of a really cute baby!!)

 

This sunsuit is right out of the May/June magazine, the only change is the main fabric to a green plaid.  The pattern is by Michie' #120. The very same one as the watermelon dress. I love that this pattern is for both a dress and sunsuit. I stitched the little grasshopper by hand, I am very surprised and happy that it came out so well. I also made the piping. I prewashed the brown fabric and had no problems with it bleeding through onto any other fabrics but when I washed this it did leak some ink onto the white yoke. It looks a bit of variegated fabric so I guess it's not too bad.

 

I did size up again on this one to a 18 months as well. It is very long on him, like pants long. I know it will fit longer on him but next time I will go back to the 12 months size I think. But it is so cute on him!

 

Over all I love this pattern. I it very simple to make but there is a bit of hand stitching involved so it did a some time to make. I love the fit of this and plan on making more of these little cute sunsuits.

 

And little Prince C? He loves the grass he got to play in while I took his picture. He had a blast.

 

Happy Father's Day!!

 

 

Sharon