Alice in Wonderland Dress finished!

Maura graduates from the 8th grade this year, and it's off to high school already.  I feel like she was just 3 feet tall dragging her blankie around the house.  Parenthood seems to speed up time or something.

I asked her what she wanted to wear for graduation since her usual attire is jeans and a t-shirt.  She hasn't worn a dress in so long, well besides her rennaisance costume.  I came up with the idea for this dress to entice her.  She's always been kind of a tomboy.  I remember making her a skirt with dinosaurs appliqued on it when she was in preschool.  She's my only girl, so I do what I can to sew for her!

She reads all the time, and one of her absolute favorite authors is Lewis Caroll.  She has three different copies of Alice In Wonderland.  She collects anything Alice in Wonderland.  So this dress is perfect.  

This dress is made with the London Peasant Dress pattern  and the adorable japanese Wonderland Awaits Fabric, which Maura helped to pick out for her dress.  We're both totally in love with this print!

The dress was so easy and fun to sew.  I will probably sew this again.  It uses only elastic and has no zippers or buttons.  For the bell sleeves, I made my own teacup fabric by making small iron ons with my Silhouette Machine.  That was after my failed attempt at silkscreening some teacup fabric.

 

I'm so glad she likes it, and now she has a dress as creative as she is!

Linking up here: 

KCWC - Day 5 - Skivs

Here is what else I made for Kids Clothes Week Challenge...

Skivvys.  Or, as my dad would say, Skivs.

These are mostly made from scraps.  I used the undercover boxer pattern from Fish Sticks Designs and also their FREE tank pattern from the Fishsticks Blog.

I made both versions in the pattern.  First the "regular" boxers with the fly.  He kept putting his hand it and telling me it was a pocket.  Next I decided to make the training pants version which makes more sense for him anyway.  They're nice and soft! 

Pardon the gloomy photos, we haven't seen the sun in New Hampshire in about a week I think!

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In other news, I just learned of a new sewing challenge I want to be part of!  This is just what I had in mind.  I have a bunch of skirt and dress projects ready to go!  Check it out!

I also have a dress planned for my daughter's 8th grade graduation and the fabric from Superbuzzy finally arrived today.  I hope it gets done in time!

spring KCWC - little Lebowski bowling shirt

Here's a project that's been in my mind for quite awhile, that I made for Travis this week. 
It's time again for the Kid's Clothing Week Challenge.

A sweet bowling shirt!

Here's the back:

I had to get a little Big Lebowski reference on this shirt, it goes without saying

...The Dude Abides.

The pattern I used is the Scientific Seamstress Bowling Shirt.  It's a great pattern to have, very detailed and specific, with plenty of photos/diagrams.  This shirt took probably around 2 1/2 hours total to sew.  I'm very impressed with my new machine's ability to make perfect buttonholes.  This was the first try!

The graphics on the back were made using my Silhouette Machine.  Then I just ironed everything on.  I also have a name patch I made for the front that I forgot to attach until now!  I don't want to sound like an advertiser for the Silhouette, but I never cease to be amazed at how fun it is.  I think the best part is that since I have a $10 monthly subscription to the online store I get to download 25 designs per month and they come out with new designs every single day. 

So that's all I've gotten done so far this week for the KCWC sewing about an hour a day.  I'm okay with that since that was a bit more complex than my usual kid's clothing projects.  For the next project, I'm going super simple with a shirt for my 9 year old boy.

a few spring tops finished

I didn't know if I'd get the photos in on time, but here are my two entries for this year's Spring Top Sew-Along:

Spring top #1:

My Juliet Tunic in lilac/white shirting.

A little see-through, but I love the style and color.  I wore this out on Mother's Day with a cardigan.  I like the lilac and brown combo.

Spring top #2 

Jalie 2804 in aqua and brown interlock knit

This is so comfortable I want to make 50 of them!  I used the assymetrical hemline on this pattern.  I love how incredibly easy this is to sew!  

So those are my entries this spring.  I realize they're not the most exciting tops around, but I looked in my closet and decided what tops I needed to round out my wardrobe.  I have some pretty crazy looking skirts and needed some basic tops. 

Check out the flickr group to see all this year's entries!

this week's projects

Last week I was busy whipping up a (another) PBF Tee For Two.  Man those are easy and fun to do!  This was the first long sleeved version I've done.  I got this great soft jersey from Fashion Fabrics Club.

I also made this much-needed Sun Hat for my little red head.  I was able to make that from scraps!

Maura made these eggs for Easter, I had to include these guys!  Love the zombie egg.

And last but not least, I made this dress for a soon-to-be birthday girl in our family.

This pattern is the Perfect Little Party Dress from Heidi and Finn.  They are offering a Buy 2 get 1 free so I took that as an excuse for some girly sewing.  I already own all their boy patterns!

I've been shopping for patterns like crazy.  I just picked up the Monique Dress and the Juliet Tunic from Pink Chalk Fabrics.  I love that they always have free shipping on their paper patterns. 

I'm also working on a summer skirt for myself.  I hope to have pictures soon!

2nd Jamie dress

It's amazing to me how you can make two dresses from the same pattern and one is a success and the other not-so-much.  The dress went together easily enough.  Maybe it was my choice of fabric, but I'm really not liking the second version.

I actually took a few inches out of the skirt/gathering this time around, but it looks even more voluminous than the last jamie dress.  After 4 kids I'm a little sensitive about looking bigger around the waist.

This is the best photo I got:

This was the worst:

ICK!!  What happened in the back of the dress?  Still pondering that.  I may have done that when I tried to force the front and back waistbands to match up.  Maybe I can still rescue this dress.

In this one I think I'm holding down the poofiness of the skirt subconciously.  This dress will have to go back to the drawing board if I want to wear it out in public.

Sew Along Dress - finished!

I finished my dress for the Jamie Dress Sew Along a few days back and was finally able to get some pictures, thanks to my favorite 9 year old photographer, Liam. A few days ago it was too dark, and today it was really bright, maybe too bright. But, I'm not complaining!

This fabric was something I had lying around since last summer. It's from JoAnn's, it a "linen look" fabric. I actually like the drape, it's very light. I was a little worried about the large print making me look large, but I really like this funky pattern - good for summer!

The pattern, the Sis Boom Jamie Dress was actually very easy and enjoyable to follow. I have used Scientific Seamstress patterns in the past and I'm always floored at how great the instructions and photos are. I also loved how easy the paper pattern was to assemble on this one.

The only thing I changed from the pattern instructions was adding a ruched waistband to the back to match the front. Sara added instructions on her blog on how to do that. My favorite thing I learned from this pattern is how to use a glue stick to apply a zipper - SO awesome, how did I not know about this before??

I'm very happy with the dress and I'm already in progress with version #2, it's actual linen. Stay tuned for that one!

Than you, Sara, for hosting this sew along! Check out her flickr group of all the dresses.

Also linking up here:

 

 

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