The Summer Project - Two Dresses Finished ... and One T-Shirt!

Two happy girls in their new dresses, ready to visit their grandparents and uncle yesterday.

Little boy was shown his sisters' new dresses on Friday night and said "why haven't you made me something special to wear, Mummy?" Oh no! Huge Mummy-guilt! I told him to choose some stretchy fabric from the drawer and I'd make him a t-shirt. Here is the result. I used the Imke t-shirt pattern from the "Sewing Clothes Kids Love" book. The neckline is a bit wobbly as I accidentally stretched it a bit while sewing, but otherwise I'm pleased with it. Little boy was very happy.



Just to prove that I have inherited a crafty gene. Here is a train that my grandfather made for my little brother (now that big bearded chap in the photo above) over 30 years ago. It's still in amazing condition and the children all had lots of fun playing with it.

The red dress is finished! Big girl loves it, and enjoys twirling around in it.

Summer Sewing Project Update

Dress 2 is coming along nicely. Here's a preview:

Freezer Paper Stencilling

Having seen several tutorials and examples of other peoples' freezer paper stencils, I couldn't wait to have a go. We love fabric painting in this house, and I have a box full of Dylon fabric paints that the kids couldn't wait to use during the school holidays. We bought a few blank t-shirts, and I located some freezer paper (not easy in the UK, but some online quilting shops sell it).


It's a roll of white paper, with one shiny side. To use it for stencilling, you cut out your stencil and iron it onto the fabric with the shiny side downwards. Then you simply paint over it, wait till the paint dries and peel the stencil off the fabric. Dead easy!

Note: You need "Freezer Paper" for this, because the plastic-coated side sticks to the fabric when heated. Baking paper, greaseproof paper, wax paper and other kitchen papers do not do this! (I mention this because I've seen this question asked a lot on other blogs.)

The children each chose the picture they wanted. A fairy for big girl, a train for boy and a butterfly for little girl. Daddy wanted an England flag on his.

This is what we came up with:








We'll definitely be doing this again.

Here's the small dress, nearly finished! I just need to sew in the threads and hem the underdress.

Elasticated back of the bodice.
One ruffle, with fancy trim hiding my horrible stitching.

I decided to only put two ruffles on the back instead of the planned four.

The nearest I could get to a photo of the front.

The back.

I'm pleased with it, and big girl can't wait for her red version!

Progress on the Girls' Dresses

All the pieces for the dresses are cut out, and big girl and I laid them out to see roughly what the finished dresses would look like. Here is the back of the size 7 - 8 dress.

... and the front.


Here is the back middle section of the little dress.


and the front.



So far I've only sewn the front of the tiny dress. It's looking cute though, and I think the completed dress is going to be lovely. I only hope I've made the right size!

I decided to take the advice of the tutorial and add elastic to the sash, so little H can get it on and off without undoing the ties.


I do love these fabrics! The trim looks good with them too.

The overdress so far.

Fabrics for our summer project

My 7-year-old and I were planning to make pretty dresses for her and her tiny sister last summer. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during the first week of the summer holidays and spent a week in hospital and the rest of the holidays adjusting, recovering and learning how to deal with her condition.

This summer we are DETERMINED to make them, and we'll keep you up to date with our progress.

Here are the fabrics we have chosen.

Tiny girl is having pink ...


Big girl is having red ...


We're using the Feliz dress pattern by Farbenmix and adding a few ruffles at the back of the underdress.

Watch this space!!

End of Year Teacher Gifts

It's becoming a bit of a tradition in our house to make one of these little concertina books for the children's teachers at the end of the school year. The child chooses the patterned papers, ribbons and embellishments, does all the sticking and glueing, and writes little messages on squares of coloured paper to stick inside. I think they're nicer than giving a shop-bought card.

Front:


Back:


Inside:


This year, because the teachers have been absolutely wonderful, and have looked after my two diabetic darlings so brilliantly, we also made them a little handbag each, using theApril Bag pattern at Sew Mama Sew. http://www.sewmamasew.com/store/media/blog/SMSAprilBags.pdf




Less fattening than a box of chocolates, and will last longer. :-D

Some of my sewing from June

I haven't taken photos of everything I made, and some of it has been sent off to other people, so it's too late.

I have a pile of old baby clothes sitting upstairs waiting to be quilted or turned into something useful. As we were having a birthday party in June for our littlest girl, I decided it was a good time to try making some bunting with it. I didn't manage to get much made in time for the party, but it's a start, and I'll try to make some more ready for the next party. :-)



It's a great way of keeping some of your favourite fabrics from the childrens' clothes, without ending up with a houseful of useless tiny outfits!


I also cut out some letters freehand and appliqued them onto a dark red towel.


Not the best photo, but you get the idea.

Starting a New Quilting Project

I found this tutorial recently

Cathedral Window Tutorial

Years ago my gran showed me some beautiful examples of cathedral window quilting that she had done; some of them very tiny. They were all perfect and amazed me. I couldn't imagine how she had made them.

As there is a pile of old baby clothes waiting to be quilted, I thought this might be an ideal way to use them.

My first attempt turned out quite well, but I discovered that doing the "window" part with my machine isn't very practical. The stitches turned out very messy and I broke two needles in the process. I think I'll try by hand next time. I like the overall result though.