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

Apple for Fall, Another Sugar and Spice Dress!

Ah fall, it is almost here! The leaves are starting to change colors and cooler weather is in this weeks forecast. It is almost time to go to the apple orchard! Yummy apple pies, apple crisps, apple cinnamon rolls and apple dresses! Yes, even a dress! This is the first year I have really sewn "themed" dresses for Sarah but Oh How she really wants them so why not?! 





I used the same dress pattern as the last dress I made, the Sugar and Spice from Ellie Inspired. It's such a sweet pattern and has such a lovely vintage feel to it. This one went together quick than the last one too. I used all French seams on this one so it would be as lovely on the inside as the outside. Ok, Ok I am almost out of serger thread sooo I used French seams, but they do look really, really nice!  I used a chevron for the main dress with the grey trims and the red is scraps from my red chambray dress. I free hand the appliques on this dress too. Not too bad if I say so myself. 

These pictures were taken at the local historical covered bridge. It's so lovely here!  I guess it's is about time I "showed" you lovely ladies around. :-)

Not such a bad looking apple if I say so. It does look like an apple and that is all I was going for! hahaha

I have made myself a promise to make a smocked version of this dress as in the pattern instructions, I know it would be the perfect dress for church.  

Next up is another "knock off" skirt/shirt outfit for Sarah. I am using some very special fabric form my grandmother for it and I am oh so excited to start it! Until then,

Sharon  

Strawberry Bento Carrier, done at Last!

With the Little Things to Sew Cover to Cover challenge just about done I decide that I had to finish this Bento Carrier. I started it well over three years ago when I first bought the book. I messed up on some stitching, I stitched through all the layers instead of only on the inside so I dropped sewing it, which all it needed was bias to finish it. So Sad huh??

Well on Thursday I sat down and really finished it! I used some premade bias I had on hand at the house so it took all of five minutes. SO funny all that avoidance for years for five minutes of sewing time! Any way, lucky for me Sweet pea really loves strawberries still and she was super excited to able to use this. She had to pack green grapes, 9 of them by request, for a snack-to-go and declared it worked out perfect! Yay!

So the details, this one was made out of some of Sarah's fabric scrap fabrics at the time. I appliques' out of some butterfly fabric and sewn them onto the inside for a nice surprise. (yes the middle fabric is wrinkly but at least I know my sewing skills have improved since then) 

I even appliques some of the strawberry fabric to the outside. Which you can clearly see the stitching......which is why it took so long for me to pick it back up. You know what, Sarah didn't even noticed! how silly of me to think that it was a problem.

So do ladies have any of those projects started but not finish yet? There is still some time!!

Sharon