Stitch Rabbit

Icecream Social

A few posts back I wrote about some late night sewing. I am happy to report that while the Oliver + S pattern I was working on was left half made on the cutting table, it was not forgotten and I finished it last night.

The pattern is for the Icecream Social Dress, and it was a great pattern to work with. I love the little V-cuts in the pockets and the neck, and the extra material on the inside bottom panel helps finish it nicely and make it drape really well.

I highly recommend it for the little girls in your life. I picked up my pattern at Spool Of Thread and you can order them from the Oliver + S website as well. They are on the expensive side, but well worth it if you're going to make the same piece a few times over, which I gladly will.

 

 

Late Into The Night...

Late night sewing.

Late into the night, under the lights. The hum of the machine and the humming of that song. I'm done for now. I've had a lot on my mind, and I needed a night to myself like this one.

 

 

I picked up this Oliver + S pattern at Spool of Thread the other day. I've been eyeing the ice cream social dress for Frankie for a while now and I'm glad I picked it up. The pattern is very readable, the instructions very easy and I like that they include tips and hints throughout the pattern for better finishing.

Check out their website for the rest of their great little collection.

I'm tired now, and happy.

Linen Dresses from Cotton Friend

If you remember, awhile ago I stumbled upon and blogged about a few sewing magazines called Cotton Friend. It's a Japanese magazine, and the ones I found were published in Chinese. At the time I was thrilled, and confident that I would be able to decipher the instructions, cut the patterns and whip up some hot Japanese frocks.

Well, it didn't exactly go that way. Reading Japanese patterns written in Chinese is a lot harder than I thought. I currently have three of these coveted smocks and dressses cut, pinned, and unsure of how to construct.

So while spending a few days clearing out my sewing space, which had become disastrous, I came across the dresses and got working on the girl's dress. Winging it, it turned out like this:

 

There were some sizing mistakes in the complicated straps, so I hacked them off and made some simple straps instead. It messed with the drape of the dress, so a few added gathers and it looked fine. Now I have a better idea of what mistakes I made with the language barriers, and I think I just might get the two garden smocks for Mommy done, just in time for the end of the garden season.

 

 

Reasons Why There is Happiness Here.

I spent my weekend mornings like this.

 

My garden is growing. Slowly, finally. While I can't seem to convince a cucumber or squash plant to make more than a few inches of an appearance, my tomatoes and peppers are thriving.

 

There is sewing in my sails again. In the form of summer nighties for little girls.

 

I hooked my brother and sister-in-law into Friday Night Lights. Now I finally have someone to discuss what's been going down in Dillon with.

I made a big mistake in my knitting and had to rip it almost to the beginning. What made me happy is that it was only one panel and not the entire sweater.

I am caught up on laundry. For today.

 

This is gonna be a good week. I know it.

 

 

 

Hitting The Creative Wall

This is what it has looked like in my sewing room for about two weeks.

Oh, how I loathe the creative funk. The writer's block, the wall. It happens usually when I have about thirty or so projects in my head, and not enough hands or hours in the day to make what I desire. So I spin in circles. Pace the house at night. Water the garden. Drink glasses of wine. Water the garden more.

It has been nearly two weeks since I have made anything, and it wasn't until last night that I felt the gears turning again. Maybe it's been the sun and the long days that have kept me outside and away from the sewing room, maybe I've been mourning the loss of Friday Night Lights and Matt and Tim and Coach. Maybe I just needed a mental break.

But little by little, I sorted through the scrap basket that had thrown up all over the floor, found some pieces I liked together and started cutting.

I'm not really sure what I'm making, besides tiny triangles that I'm sewing together, but it's not the finished product I'm looking for here, it's the act of cutting and sewing that is peeling me off the creative wall I crashed into. The steady hum of the machine, the sound of This American Life, my ever-present companion to late night sewing, the smell of the steam from my iron. The look of my hands while they work, the sureness in each cut. Efficiently happy, finally back.

 

What's Going On...

 

Secret Strips Project.

 

Sleepy Striped Babies.

 

Fancy Felted Birthday Flowers.

 

Five Year Old Flower Child.

 

Spring Projects on the Sticks.

 

There's a lot going on around here, and despite the rainy, rainy weather, it's a whole lot of spring projects bursting with color.

What's going on around you? What spring projects do you have on the go?

 

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And finally... the winner of this May's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway prize is:

Commenter Number 14, Jill!

Thanks again to Sew Mama Sew and all the peeps who participated - such a great way to find new blogs and crafty ladies in the crafty world!

 

 

Pattern Remix is My Steez.

 Over at Me Sew Crazy they are starting the Pattern Remix Series today. All this week and next, and maybe even the next?? there will be guest bloggers showing off their switching up the pattern skills. I'm a major pattern remix kinda gal. Whether it's a short cut I see that will work well, or an entire makeover on a certain design aspect of the pattern itself, there is always something to be changed, your own unique spin.

There is a Pattern Remix Flickr Group that I have thrown some pattern remix photos into of my own favorite remix. I though I'd share it with you.

Let's start with the book. I've written about it before and done some great projects in it, like the adorable smock. I've made about four. The book is called Carefree Clothes for Girls by Junko Okawa and it's awesome.

If you order it, it won't come with the beautiful swirly pink scribble, I had mine custom done by my baby boy. He's great, isn't he?

I took two patterns from the book, the skirt and the bodice of one of the dresses and I sewed em' together as one to make Frankie her most beautiful dress ever, the dress she wore to our wedding. I opted out on the hook and eye skirt closure and went for grommets laced with several types of ribbon. This became the mid-section of the dress. I layered the skirt with vintage slips, some material from my own wedding dress and some tulle. I gathered and ripped the top layer to make it a little messy. I tried the bodice quilted like the book, but didn't like it for the dress so I used the pattern to create two bodices, one a solid rose color and the other a lace layered on top.

The finished dress:

 

 

Tonight.

Listening to PS I Love You and stitching some rabbits.

 

 

Can't Thrift It? Make It!

I can never find king size pillow cases when I'm thrifting. Good king size sheets are a hard find too. I was in the mood for some light, springtime bedding to give the bedroom a lighter feeling after a winter of woolen blankets piled five high on the bed, so I whipped these up using the fabric from a super soft double duvet cover, some white cotton and a bit of mustard colored ribbon.

I didn't use a tutorial, but if you would like to make some of your own pillowcases, here are a few great tutorials from around the crafty web:

Pretty Quick Pillowcases by Film in The Fridge

Pillowcase How-To By Dana at MADE

ZigZag Pillowcases by Stitched in Color

 

My Side of The Room

There has been a flurry of posts lately of new or transformed studio spaces for the crafty blogger. I've been ogling the brand new bare canvas that Anna Maria Horner has been working on, soon to be filled with all of her crafty goods, and Wise Craft's basement turned beautiful with enough cutting table to fit TWO cutting mats. And of course, I am still anticipating the makeover of Amanda Soule's little hidden jem of a studio space, though I don't know when she's ever going to have time to do it with her ten kids and sixty chickens. (Seriously, some days I can hardly handle two kids and NO chickens! She's a superstar.)

Anyways, amidst my jealous pangs and longing for freshly painted walls and empty shelves to transform into my own space - my unshared secret hideaway, I go through the Mommy wants the small house to be a big house envy. And so I have to work through it. Think about the good things that come with this (adorable) tiny little house. Like a great yard, and a huge park two doors down. Like views of the mountains, and of sunsets through giant oak trees. Two minute walks to the garden centre, and to Grandmother's. Extreme coziness amongst the tiny rooms. Not so many bathrooms to clean.

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My (Ahem,) Studio

I do have space, and I call it my studio, or the sewing room. In real life, it's one wall in one room in our little house. It also gets called the art room, the computer room, the craft room, the room with the closet with all of our cleaning supplies/linen/things we can't find a place for.

I share it with my family, and all though it is tiny and tight, I do enjoy being near my family when I get to sneak in and stitch a few. As the kids get older, it will be a lot easier for me to move further from them so that I can work for longer stretches (is this believable? does this happen when kids get oldeR?) We will have to move so there is somewhere further I can go, but we already knew that was in the cards.

In the meantime, I sew with toys at my feet and paperwork left on my ironing board. I blog while trying to answer four year old questions and two year old demands. I share my space with paint and crayons and puzzle pieces scattered on the floor. My dream walk in closet is stuffed with everything but the dream shelves holding the dream fabric stash. Still, it is enough for me, for now.

 

 

Spring Knitting Storage

I've been spring cleaning. The table next to my rocking chair has been piled with yarn and needles and half-finished projects and has stayed that way the entire winter. It used to look pretty, all in a wire basket, but when I sat down to knit I knew it had gotten out of hand.

a. I had nowhere to set down my tea.

b. There are so many projects hanging out on the table that at least one of them was destined to become "toddler-frogged".

c. It's spring, which means new, so let's clear the table and do something fun, like sew up a cute fabric basket.

I've had this project in the back of my mind for awhile now, and after a start to finish time of about a half an hour I'm definitely going to make more, for all kinds of things. I used a great linen and a heavyweight charcoal upholstery fabric and I added an almost cardboard-like interfacing for added stiffness. I like it because it's easy to stuff with a project and transport, it sits nicely on it's own and looks even better full of that sweater I swear I'm going to work on tonight.

A Girl and Her Skirt and Her Dog

I got down to some sewing yesterday - Finally. One lovely thing about spring rain is the mega lazy inside day. Sewing in your pyjamas till one o'clock? Yes please.

I was working on a few skirts for some little girls birthdays coming up and got into a good groove. So much so, that I ended up with a few new skirts for Frankie too. Nice and easy, I used the Lazy Days skirt pattern by Oliver + S. If you haven't seen it before, you can find the free pattern here. I love this pattern, it's free and easy and it takes no time to whip up three or four skirts - I swear - because I have no time, and I managed to make three of them today. I added pockets to them, pockets are a hot item around here these days.

The sun came out in the afternoon and found just me and Frankie at the park with the dog. Have you heard the dog's new name? Bunny. Yes, you've read this right. The 90 pound big boy we adopted is named Bunny. Can you guess who named him?

Yep, you got it. And you can only imagine how silly I must sound calling "Bunny! Come here Bunny!" to the gigantic hound chasing a tiny ball around the field. What can you do? It's about a girl and her dog.

She sure looks darn cute in her skirt though!

 

 

Language Barriers

Reading Japanese sewing patterns in Chinese is really hard. Cotton Friend is not so friendly to me right now. The patterns were easy enough to find and cut, the instructions are pretty clear and there are tons of illustrations - but it's the fine details - the oh so important fine print that is making me crazy. Instructions like how many pieces to cut and what sides are folds and what sides are cuts.

 

I've got the bigger pieces up on the dress form and I'm working on figuring out the four or five pattern pieces that are all strips of different length...it may be a slightly different version of the dress shown, but if I get this figured out, I'll be happy! Anybody have any tips for sewing with patterns in another language?

 

 

 

Spring Bags Are Exactly What I Needed

There is nothing quite like bare bums in the spring (not mine, the wee ones thank you very much) Bare feet on the cold grass and warm sun coloring their little dirty faces. My neighbors think I'm a lunatic for letting my children run around without their pants on but hey - it's spring. Let's DO this.

After a day of turning dirt and ripping weeds, there is also nothing like a cold beer after the freshly scrubbed children are tucked in their bed. Gooooodnight tired babes.

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Now, onto the sewing: I made a version of the Pleated Tote Tutorial by Thimble I posted about earlier this week. It's a great bag. For anyone humming and hawing over what kinda easy, casual spring bag to make - I vote this one. It's super roomy, the pleats are cute and it's a great sling-over-your-shoulder-and-head-to-the-park kinda bag. I've already test-drove it to the park. Twice. Please pay no attention to my rushed zigzag attempt at fixing a mistake two minutes before heading to said park. I didn't have time to pull the bag inside out and fix the seam. So I zigzaged it. Don't tell me you haven't done that before, it happens. It makes it unique.

The pleats are cute, hey?

 

 

Castle Peeps Pencil Crayon Pouches

We've got a set of twins down in Florida who's birthday is coming up (not our twins - we're not hiding twins in other countries) I can't imagine having twins. These twins are the same age as Frankie, and I remember them coming for a visit - all three babes were maybe three months old. And I was stretched and stressed and full of milk and tears over my newborn babe - and then super twin mama comes in with her twins - with double the feeding and double the diapers and double the hours of non-sleeping....wow, what the hell was I complaining about?! I mean - sure, it's hard for all new parents - but you add more babies to that mix? You add more tears. It goes without saying.

Now our girls are all grown up and almost five and we're raising little women instead of wee babies with all kinds of demands like a goblet instead of a drinking glass, eight tiny braids right before bedtime and more art supplies then you could have ever possibly imagined that you would have to buy in your entire adult life. Girls. Sheesh.

 

So I made these little pencil crayon/art supply zip up pouches for the twins in Florida to take with them where ever they go. I used Lizzy House's very cute Castle Peeps fabric and of course I made an extra one for Frankie - I'm no dummy. With the little extra left over, I'm working on a roll-up crayon holder for my main man Char Char. I think he'll be stoked.