A Different Kind of Disney

This was a fun little project.  I took my daughter to a fabric store with me, and, in order to occupy her time to give me time to shop, I told her she could pick out a fabric, and I would make her a dress.  Well, as soon as I saw Disney Snow White with Animal Friends on a shelf, I knew it was what any two year old would choose.

I immediately knew the perfect pattern to use and poked around in the store for complementary fabrics and settled on one with roses and Kona Cotton Butterscotch.  I changed the pattern up a bit by doing my own sleeve - a puff sleeve with elasticized bottom.  I used a premade ribbon instead of sewing my own, and I wouldn't recommend doing that in the future.

I found these adorable heart buttons at the store too.

All-in-all it turned out great.  My daughter was thrilled with her "Snow White Dress".  I could see doing some more of these Disney princess dresses but catering to more adult stylistic tastes as far as pattern choices so everyone gets what they want.

Stay tuned to see the next creation made with Judith's second fabric choices.

Happy St. Patty's

After last year, I realized that by making a St. Patty's Day outfit for Judith close to the event she was only going to get to wear it once or twice.  It felt like such a waste of work.  So this year, I decided to make something she can wear throughout the rest of the winter/spring.  I decided to make a pleated plaid jumper.

I used flannel instead of wool because it's what I could find and paired it with a little shamrock sweater I found online.

 

After washing it, the pleats loosened a little bit, but I don't think it's anything an ironing couldn't take care of.

Pillow Talk (February 2016)

I've been a slacker mom yet again.  I said I was going to make pillowcases for my daughter's bed.  She doesn't use a regular size pillow but rather this little tempurpedic travel pillow, and I couldn't find  anything to fit it.  Did I do this when I said I would <cough cough three months ago>?  Of course not.

When I finally did get around to it, I made these cute little envelope pillow cases (one to use and one to wash).  So simple and adorable results.  Maybe I'll try for whole bedding sets next?  I feel like I can never find exactly what I want in stores.

Urban Fawn (January 2016)

For Sheel, the son of our hip urban-dwelling cousins, I made this quilt using fabrics from a fat quarter bundle of Fawn in tulip by Hawthorne Threads.  If I haven't mentioned Hawthorne Threads yet, I've been remiss.  I absolutely love their site.  So much cool stuff and the perfect blend of modern and whimsical fabrics.  Their blog is great for project inspiration as well.  This series is one of their original designs.  I used a large stag panel (I'm planning on using the complementary fawn panel for another project), and then used the FQ to do half square triangles.  I included a bit of sashing to break up the monotony of the white and frame the center.

I used stitch in the ditch for quilting, and tried to keep it very minimal since I was using Minky Cuddle Spa Charcoal Fabric for the back.  I didn't want to press down all the fur with a lot of intricate quilting.  I've never used minky before, and sewing it (and keeping it in place!) took some getting used too.

Especially since I opted to eliminate the binding and instead just sewed the two sides of the quilt together, which I thought looked really good with the minky backing.

The end result was super soft yet sleek and elegant.

Scrappy Hearts (February 2016)

I used some leftover fabric to make this heart quilt.  I wasn't following a particular style or pattern, I just used what I had.

I used a free-motion stipple for the quilting.  I found some interesting thread at our local store.  It's all in a purple color way, but it goes from shades of light to dark.  Since my quilt top was all over the place in terms of light and dark color, I thought it was perfect for this.  I repeated the idea in the quilt's binding.