Free Christmas Stocking pattern and Tutorial!

Remember the Christmas stocking pattern I was working on this past fall?! Well it's all ready and up! 

Go on over to Whimsical Fabrics to get the free pattern and tutorial!! 

Happy Sewing!!

Sharon 

Free 18" Doll Undies and T-shirt pattern

It's been a while since I have posted any doll clothes on here so today I thought I would share a free pattern with you! This is my 18" doll undies and T-shirt basic pattern. Both top and undies sew up fairly quickly so your daughter's dolly can have lots of extra sets. 

The undies are one piece that finish with fold over elastic. Right now all craft stores has lots of pretty colors and pattern fold over elastic so sky is the limits on this one. The shirt comes in thee sleeve lengths; long, 3/4" and short. You can even leave the top sleeveless as well. 

You can find my free pattern here, 

Undies and T-Shirt for 18" doll 

 If you would like to share the pattern please direct them to this blog post. 

Happy Sewing!! 

Sharon 

Christmas Stockings for the Family

This year I have made my whole family matching stockings for Christmas. Well I really stared these in June and had planned on having them done and posted by July but life got busy! I am sure you know how that goes. 

Now these stockings are not just any stockings but they are from my pattern I made. I am hoping to have it all done this week week and posted up. (I would say for sure I will but life does happen.) The pattern will be completely free and I will post it up on my blog. Sew them up as you would like. Make one for your child, grandma or friend's children. I also ask one thing in return for offering this pattern for free. While you are making one up could you make an extra one and give to a child in this this coming Holiday season? 

Christmas time is a very special time of the year for my family and me. It is first off Jesus 's birthday. The kids of course love the Santa part as well. Santa means home made lovelies on the wall and under the tree to them. 

However, while I was sewing these up I had enough fabric to make two more up, extra ones. I then started thinking how one should have been our lost baby's stocking. It did make me cry....a lot. Then I started thinking how I know he is ok and doing well  in heaven in the arms of Christ and how there are so many children here that do not have a a wonderful Christmas. Sure people do help donate gifts for families struggling but I started to think that these children do not have a nice stocking hung on the wall from Santa. I am sure some do have the the cheaper made store run of the mill stockings but wouldn't it be wonderful for these children to wake up and find a lovely homemade stocking form "Santa" on Christmas morning? This thought made me smile. I know it is something small but it is something that I can do. 

I am planning on organizing with our local charity and fabric store to get our wonderful local quilters and seamstresses together to make as many as we can for this years Christmas. My goal is that all the local children will have have a lovely stocking this holiday season. 

To make 9 stockings I used one Moda JellyRoll, 4 yards backing/top fabric, 6 yards lining fabric and one crib size quilt batting. So be on the look out for the pattern by the end of this week or beginning of next week! 

Sharon 

She finally Wants Shorts!

My Sweet pea only wants to wear dresses. All winter long she could not figure out why on earth I would not let her out to play in the snow in just a dress and stockings. She thinks they are so much cooler to wear in the hot weather as well....that is until she realized in the hot, humid air that you just can't slide down the slide in just a skirt or dress with out getting stuck on the slide the whole way down. (If you can picture this in your head it was extremely funny!) So she finally requested some shorts for play ground wear! 

I decided to make the Picnic shorts from Oliver + S since I have not sewn them once yet. I had bought the pattern about two years ago on sale over half off but it was the bigger sizes, she can always grow into them right?! These are a size 5 in pink twill, a bit big but not bad looking at all. She loves the construction of the front, it lets her run and climb as easily as the dresses and skirts does. I love the constructions on these inside and out! Such a clever sew, I should not have been so surprised.

The top is Oliver + S free Ruffle halter top, yep it's a free pattern! This top went together super quick. I did finish the edges of the ruffles on the serger with a rolled hem but it really didn't take much longer to make it. The fabric is a seersucker that I have had on hand for a few years now. Sweet pea loves this top too as much as her shorts.

Besides the top having these beautiful cascading ruffles it has this breezy open back, I think this is the part of the top that Sweet pea likes so well.

I did top stitch the shorts in a coordinating thread, I got this idea from MC in the flicker group at Oliver +S. I adore all of her sewing!

These shorts are play ground approved personally by Sweet pea herself. : )

Happy Sewing!!

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