"Knot" your average princess dress!

 (and ruffle pants!)

Raina picked out the Rapunzel fabric part of this outfit and asked me to "Sew a beautiful gown!"  It's been bopping around under my table for a while now, and I pulled it back out the other day after buying the Ava Knot Dress Pattern and Ruffle Pants Pattern from PinkPoodleBows on Etsy.  I love the way I was able to use it as a large portion of the dress without having it be the whole thing.  I love the way the purple floral and pink dots pop against it.  

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how quickly this outfit came together!  I expected the dress pattern to trip me up a few times, but it really only did at the final and very dreaded buttonhole step!  :)

Here's a front and back view of the dress by itself:

Very similar, except one side has the knots and one doesn't!

Rapunzel face close-up.  I love the sassy and defiant look on her face.  Very Raina!

Bodice topstitching.  I think my best topstitching over ruffles yet!

More fabric close-up.  I love the message... "Paint the world with imagination"  Raina does this every single day.

Knot detail.  I positioned this so you can't see my amateur buttonhole underneath!

Bodice and straps

Hemline... with no hemming!  I double the width of the skirt trim, folded it in half, and sewed it on to the bottom that way so there would be no hemming involved.  It is sewn on in a way that sandwiches the bottom raw edge of the skirt, hiding it completely.  I like the clean look it gives.


Honestly, the only thing I struggled with was the buttonhole - and that is no fault of the pattern's - just my own inexperience and general avoidance of them up until now!  I looked up a video on YouTube about how to make a button hole with my machine while I was giving Lucca her bedtime bottle last night... making sure of course to have the sound turned off on my iPhone.  I thought I'd just watch the steps in the video and figure it out.  HA!  No one told me that shutting off the sound on your phone does NOT mute YouTube!!  So there we are, dark, QUIET room, sleepy almost completely passed out baby...  (read the following with a southern twang, please)  "HI!  I'M CONNIE AND I..."   Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!  I have never shut my phone off faster. Fortunately it didn't take Lucca long to settle back to sleep, but I learned an important lesson!  :)

And then, of course, pants to match!  The same easy peasy ruffle pants pattern from the other day, just a few sizes larger!!

Noticed at the end that I managed to sew one ruffle on correctly so the design is right side up, but completely failed on the other leg!

I even topstitched the ruffled to make them lay nice and flat.  

Here's sassy Raina-punzel again!

Vie of the bottom half:

I took all of the pictures for this post while holding a baby on my hip.  I'm pretty pleased with them!

My intention was to not write this post until I had some pictures of Raina wearing her outfit to add... but she lives in bathing suits these days, and no bribe or sweet talk could get her to leave real clothes on long enough for a photo-op!  We have finally had to make a rule that bathing suits are not pajamas... but other than that I say it's summer, it's stinkin' hot, she's cute... why not let her wear her beloved rainbow bathing suit every second of every waking hour?  :)  I promise there will be real life picture of Lucca in her knot dress and ruffle pants when I finish those up... she's not old enough to fight back yet!  

Tova, Tova, Tova...

In case you didn't get it, that title is supposed to be chanting like you're egging on a toga party :).

The Tova pattern, previously seen in my starfish dress, is my new favorite favorite.  Basically, I'm going to make 5 or 6 of them and call my fall wardrobe complete!  :)  Kidding.  Sorta.  Or not.  :)

This time around, I made the sleeves, and used the regular shirt length instead of dress length.  It's still awesomesauce.

As we already know, I'm a big fan of using fabric that was possibly intended for children to make my own clothing.  I've got a dress cut for Lucca in the same fabric, and while I love it for her tiny size, I"m going to be honest here and admit that I definitely bought it with the Tova pattern in mind!

I'm pretty much in love with it, from the gathered cuffs, to the front bodice, to the slightly poofed shoulders...

Time to start cutting the next one!  And if you're looking for a preview....  NEXT TIME, on Tova party 2012:  un-gathered cuffs, side seam pockets (!), narrower rounded corner collar.  Are you ready for the excitement?!

Easiest Ruffle Pants

I was going to write "Easy Ruffle Pants" up there, but that would have been a lie!  They were not easy, they were the easiest.  No hem, no real measuring at the waist to create a casing for elastic... easy peasy lemon squeezy!

The pattern I used (mostly) is this ruffle pants pattern from PInk Poodle Bows pattern shop on Etsy.  I rarely use a pattern when making basic pants... but that can turn into kind of a crapshoot.  I wanted a nice easy pattern (with ruffles!) that I could reference in multiple sizes, and that was easy to adapt.  This pattern absolutely fits the bill!

The pants I made are a size 12-18 months, and I cut them for Miss Lucca.  I'm thinking that they would probably also fit Raina as shorts, and it's too bad she doesn't wear shorts this year :)  The leg is a generous wide cut leg, with ample space for Lucca's squishy and delicious baby thighs!

I used 3 fat quarters to make this size:  2 for the legs, one for the ruffles and waist facing.  I *might* have been able to squeeze out the 18-24 month pattern, too, but definitely couldn't go beyond that using fat quarters.  Now, I know I could just buy 1/4 yard of any fabric in the store... but I love digging through the fat quarters to find treasures!  These purple polka dots called my name, and told me they wanted to be pants.  I had to listen.  They were spot on!  (har har, did you catch that pun?!)

The ruffles are foldover, so NO HEMMING required!!  Woohoo!  I cut the ruffle strips twice as wide, folded them in half, and then followed directions from there.  I LOVE using a foldover ruffle instead of hemming.  So incredibly simple.

At the waist, I started folding and measuring, but before I got very far into it, I remembered one of the things I love about the treasure pocket pants pattern:  waist facing!!  So I cut a long strip the same circumference as the pants (and no, I did not measure - I pinned the extra long strip starting at the middle, and sewed the circle closed when I got all the way back around.  Again, no measuring!!), pinned it with the right side of the waist facing against the wrong side of the pants, sewed in place, flipped it over, and sewed it down with a space for the elastic to thread through.  Was that sentence long enough for you?  :)

I already have multiple pairs of these cut and waiting to be sewed up!  Some for Raina, a few more for Lucca... and most with a matching Knot Dress from the same Etsy shop!  I'm waiting to show those outfits complete, which hopefully wont take me too long... but you never know :)   Naptime has been non existent for the big girl, and unpredictable for the little girl.  Most of the time during Lucca's nap, Raina and I spend some quality messy art and science time together... but some days... like today... I let her spend some quality time with Curious George while I spend some quality time with my sewing machine.  No worries, though, we both spent some quality time with the Pirate's Booty, so we still got some bonding time in!  :)

I Liebster You this much!

I think I was supposed to write this post a lot more quickly than I actually did :)  In my own defense... it has been WRITTEN for a few days now... but the text ended up all mixed up somehow, and when I attempted to fix it, I unlinked all the links.  And there are a lot of links in this post.  So I had to go back through, find the lins, and re-link all the un-linked links.  So they would link again.  Because they were un-linked.  Link link link.  Have I said it enough?

But I digress....

A little while back (let's not do the math!) My friend Jen passed on the super-dee-duper small blog award... The Liebster Award to me! No lie, it made my day.  I think what I wrote on her Facebook wall was something along the lines of, "You win the 'my favorite person of the day award!  Woohoo!!'" I've seen a few bloggers get this over the past few months, and I kept wondering if it would ever find it's way over to me. And now, thanks to my fellow sewing addict Jen, it has!

Random fact:  The German word for love is Liebe.  I took German for 5 years, and spent 3 weeks there my senior year of high school.  Most of my friends (all the awesome ones, anyway) also took German, so we spoke it out of class as much as we spoke it in class.  So the fact that the name of this award appears to originate from a German word makes it even more appealing to me.

Wait.  Did I go off track again?  Let's blame it on lack of sleep.  :)


Here's the deal with the Liebster award:

1) Thank the person who gave you the award and link to their blog.

2) Choose 3 – 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and pass it on.

3) Display the Liebster Award on your blog somewhere.


So here I go....  Liebstering away!

1. I was Liebstered (I feel dirty writing that, but I swear it was completely platonic!) by Jen at Sew Frustrating! I've known Jen for so many years that it seems like it just can't be actually possible. I'm not really that old, am I? We were actual letter writing pen pals back in high school - we used pens and envelopes and stamps and sent things at the POST OFFICE! :) My sophomore year of high school, my best friend and I somehow convinced our parents that we should be allowed to take the train 2 states away to visit Jen for a week, and stay at the house of people we had never met. Ah, the good old days. Now, thanks to the amazing internets, we have been able to stay in touch when we probably wouldn't have otherwise, and have both developed a healthy (ha!) addiction to sewing. Once upon a time we talked about boys and beanie babies, now we threaten pattern makers who force us to understitch our pockets! Jen has been chronicling an amazing Breyna costume on her blog that inspires me to tackle things more complicated than I think I can do! Really, it's awesome work. I also love seeing her latest and greatest PJ pants! When all else fails, make some pants!




2. A lot of the blogs I'm a devoted reader of have well over 200 followers. A few have uner 200, but I know they've gotten the Liebster already. So without further delay, here are 3 amazing blogging gals who have no idea I read every post, but totally deserve this award:


Kate's Stopping Spree

The premise of this blog: A woman who loves loves loves to shop decides to take on the challnge of going an entire year only purchasing essentials. I first came across this blog in February... and after reading her (at the time) most recent post, I went back to the first one and read it all from the beginning. My husband wishes I was doing this. Heck, *I* wish i was doing this. I like to shop... a little too much. It's my go to activity when I get some time to myself... but I definitely don't always need to be doing it.  Here's a link to Kate's first post, where she outlines the why part of the stopping spree... a post I can totally relate to...


Painted Butterfly Studio

I first found Julie's blog by way of her etsy shop. Super cute sppliqued tees, and some gorgeous little dresses. On her blog, she shares snippets of her life with kids - 3 pretty darn adorable ones - with her lucky readers. I've loved watching the nursery projects she's been working on this past year - this quilt especially!  Craft projects and cute pictures of babies?  I just can't get enough of either, so it's no surprise I love seeing a new post come up from Painted Butterfly!


Crissybell's Musings

This blog is full of Oliver & S goodness. That makes me happy in that I get inspiration to try different patterns, different color combos, different fabrics. I haven't actually used most of these patterns myself, but someday I will :). Some of my faves:
Ombre Ice Cream Dress
polka dot family reunion dress


...so, ladies... how does it feel to be written about by someone you don't know? It was a little strange to write those, knowing that they would be read by the bloggers themselves! (Probably. I hope. Please?)



3. Button! It's over there on the right somewhere! Woohoo!!

And, because I feel weird writing a post with NO PICTURES... here are a few pictures of my cutie pie daughters:

Sister love, face paint, naps at the fair.  HAPPY.

Blankets blankets everywhere...

Some weeks it might seem like I don't get much done in the sewing/crafting/cooking land.  When that happens, I'm usually waist deep in a pile of minky dot, ribbons, and fusible interfacing.  Baby blankets!!!!

My Etsy shop can go from no hits for weeks to 100 in a day (who the heck knows why - Etsy is a beast that few understand), meaning up to a dozen orders at one time.  Pile on top of that the multitude of baby showers I've been invited to this summer (read: baby shower invite = free blanket!) and I've decided to just start buying minky dot by the bolt!

Some new twists:  different colored minky, flannel backs, some awesome custom color combos, blankets secured with a headband for little girls to be.

I love having loads of blankets to work on at one time.  Once the girlies are tucked into their beds (which is a longer process some nights than others!), out comes the ribbon box, the bag full of fat quarters in every color of the rainbow, the iron I've gummed up the bottom of...  Oh wait, that last one is a little less glamorous sounding.  I really should get my own craft iron and stop making hubs clean the iron every time he needs to iron a shirt for work. (Pshaw!)  Or maybe I'll get HIM a new one! Does that sound as hilarious to anyone else as it does to me?

The only thing that is decidedly NOT fun about making these blankets is that it is SUMMER, people!  I'm spending muggy and hot summer nights swimming in piles of a fabric described as "Soft and Cuddly!"  Can you say WARM?  Slightly.  But worth it, when I imagine all the tiny little fingers, toes, and soft little bums that will enjoy their blankies...

I truly love finding out the name of every little lady or gentleman that is going to receive a blanket!  Names I had never considered, names that remind me of someone, names that are nice and long and allow for lots of rainbow-y goodness, names that have no curvy letters... (Some nights I think I might start charging extra for names with lots of curves in them.  I don't really mean it, but it takes a lot more concentration to sew around an "O" than it does a "T"  Not all blankets get photographed.  Some mornings I'm just putting the finishing touches on one when shipping time comes, so it goes from my hands to the USPS' without ever seeing the flash of my camera!  Some names that didn't make the collage:  Sophie, Madrid, Hollis, Myles.  

I just made this custom order -  a puppy themed blanket for a little guy names Connor.  It came out pretty dang cute (dang = new favorite word), and I'm thinking about adding it as a selection in the shop.

 Speaking of selection in the shop...

These are the blanket colors I currently offer:

light blue, light yellow, light green, pink, and white.

These are the colors I'm considering adding:

light purple, very pale pink, bright purple, bright blue, teal.

PURPLE!

:)

A few orders lately have been sent with hair accessories for little girls... using the headband as a tie for the blanket adds a fancy little touch that I kind of love.  Maybe bowties for boys?  

So yeah.  Go visit my Etsy Shop!  Do YOU have any suggestions for blanket options you'd like to see?

Playing with clouds

Cloud DOUGH, that is!  I found this pin on Pinterest (where else?)  You use 8 parts flour to 1 part baby oil (So 8 cups of flour, 1 cup of baby oil, or change amount to suit your needs!), mix it up with your hands, and you have this moldable, crumbly, powdery, super-soft play stuff to have fun with!

It feels powdery in your hands, but when you squish it together like you're making a snowbal, it mushes and holds shape!  We made little "sandcastles" using teacups, funnels, and other small kitchen items.  And, as you might've guessed, we added GLITTER!  Why not, right?  I add glitter to anything I can, really.  :)

It is, in fact, quite messy.  That doesn't bother me, but be prepared!  It doesn't stick like regular playdoh would, though, so all it takes is a minute or two with the vacuum and you're all set for your next activity!

We put a lid on ours to save it for later - seems like a shame to throw it out after one use!  This is one project we do only while Miss Lucca naps, though.  She will eat ANYTHING... and I'm pretty sure I don't want her ingesting baby oil!  

I love sensory activities!  Anything you can stick your hands right in and scoop, pour, pile up... that's right up my alley.  

Another reason this particular activity jumped out at me:  Raina has been interested in (among other things!) clouds lately.  It started as wanting to know at any given time if it was going to rain.  Then she thought EVERY cloud meant rain... so we started talking about the different types of clouds, weather, all that good misty stuff.  We got a couple books out of the library, inspected the humidifier mist, even found some old Bill Nye the Science Guy (!) on YouTube.  Now, I'm not sure THIS has anything to do with actual real clouds, but it was a fun tie in, and we talked about clouds a little while we did it - mostly what we thought they might or might not feel like.

I'm pretty sure Raina is going to ace science when she's older!

Tank to Twirly Dress

A month or so ago, my boss gave me the day off.

Meaning:  hubby told me to get the heck out of the house and spend an entire Saturday by MYSELF!  Of course, that meant coffee and shopping!!  

In the Gap, I found this cute bright pink flower tank in the girls clearance section.  40% off of $2.99.  Um, how could I leave it there?!  Even though it's still too big for Raina as a shirt, I knew I could make it into a dress easily.

I cut a hugely long piece of fabric, probably 5 times the length of the shirt bottom.  I wanted it to be extra twirly.  This fabric was from the clearance section at JoAnn's, and has been in my stash for a while now.  I love that it is SO bright and cheery.  It goes perfectly with the big bright flowers on the tank.  I ruffled it, sewed it on, hemmed it... and threw my hands up in victory.  

Huzzah!  A twirly whirly dress, all from clearance goodies!