Twirly Skirt: Navy, Pink & White

Finished sewing this skirt last Friday morning.  The fabrics are from Jo Ann's (last Spring), isn't the navy flower print with dots so cute!  I think the pink ruffle is a Heidi Grace fabric.

 

It'd been cut out ready to sew since last Spring when I taught a class on how to sew twirly skirts for girls.  Glad I finally got around to sewing it; just in time for a church Easter activity and egg hunt K* went to.

Pintucked Corduroy: Take2

Last year, I made K* a red corduroy skirt with pintucks.  This year, she has another shirt that I thought would look nice if she had a red skirt to go with it, so I went with pintucks on corduroy, same color even, again.  We attended a nativity exhibit last week that she invited her teacher to.  I sewed it up during the day Thursday so she could wear it that night.

 

Corduroy is from JoAnn's and the skirt is based on pinkfig's girly skirt.

Pintuck inspiration from craftiness is not optional.

 

I didn't really get a good picture of her wearing the skirt, but here's my little cutie.

 

And, these two skirts from last year still fit, yay!  I even found a fun medium/bright pink shirt to go with the Christmas Candy skirt.

 

Christmas Candy Skirt

Haven't decided yet how I feel about the slightly more dropped waist this year.  It looks a little better since she's taller than last year.

Penguin Skirt

Fall Clothing Repeat

Luckily, the Fall outfits I made for K* last year still fit {and may next year too} so we got another year's wear out of them, yay!  I'm guessing the Christmas/Winter skirts do too, I know I want to adjust the Christmas one though, will have to pull those out soon.

 

 

 

 

There are so many projects I'd like to do and there's just not time, sometimes it's hard to decide what I really should/want to work on.  I think one of the problems is that I like to work on crafts "in season".  So I come across all sorts of fun, cute ideas for a certain season or holiday, but don't end up with enough time to make what I want before it's time to move on to the next season.  If I could just get on the ball just a little bit ahead of  time.... Oh well, there's always next year, right ;)

Farmdale Blossom Skirt

Here's the skirt I started a little over a month ago.  I finished it up Saturday night and wore it to church Sunday.  I love this fabric, I bought it at JoAnn's last year.  When I was in line to get some other fabric cut, I noticed it sitting in a cart with the plastic still wrapped around the bolt, it hadn't even been put on the shelf yet. Little did I know I should have bought more.  It's Farmdale Blossom in Turquoise by Alexander Henry.

I used a favorite skirt in my closet and the book, Sew What Skirts, to draft a pattern.  I thought all was going well until I tried it on and it was 8+ inches too big!  I guess when I was drafting my pattern, all pattern and math sense left me.  I was worried about making it too tight and was a bit too generous with the pattern ease, obviously.  Adding two inches onto my pattern, really meant I was adding, you got it 8 inches.  I tried to fix it by adding the middle, pleat, making five pleats instead of the four I had so carefully, evenly space.  I also took the sides in.  I thought all was well, once again, and even though it was a little loose still, I decided to leave it alone and finish it.  It then took me a few weeks to get around to the lining.  Not that it really needed a full lining, but that was my plan to make finishing the top of the skirt easy.  I just was a bit deflated at the sizing issue and didn't finish the lining up quickly.  Well, after wearing it to church, it's still too big.  A bit too big to just leave.  And I don't intend on growing into it.  So sometime this summer you may see my "pickiness" at it's "best".  I have thoughts of unpicking it all and starting over, I guess I like the fabric that much.  I would just turn it into a skirt for K* if I could find some more for myself, but that print in turquoise is hard to find now.  Looking back, I should have unpicked the pleats when I first realized it was too big and not tried to just make it work.  Oh well.

Yellow Sunshine Skirt

I'm calling this the yellow sunshine skirt.

I love it, it's just so happy.  My bathroom is a happy, sunny yellow too.

The fabric is Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda. I love that fabric line and have more of it in my stash.

I used the PinkFig Girly Stripwork skirt pattern; it is probably the fullest skirt I've made for K*.  Definitelyy twirly.

I bought the fabric last Spring and I got around to it finally in January, mainly because I wanted to use my new serger.  It has a lot of seams to serge between the strips, making it the perfect first project to try out my new serger.  But then, I couldn't decide how to finish the bottom so I set aside for almost two months.  Just a yellow or yellow print strip wasn't working for me.  And white alone wasn't either.  So, I ended up using the same solid yellow as the waistband and white 1 3/4"  lace.

 

 

 

And look at this super cute wooden chick my mom is working on.

The wooden chick is from the wood connection and the paper is from a paper pack called Sweet.

For April Fool's Day today, I got the kids at breakfast.  Last night, I poured some milk and cheerios into two bowls and put them in the freezer.  Before breakfast I pulled them out & added a little bit of unfrozen milk & cheerios on the top of the frozen stuff.  After the prayer, the kids went to dig their spoons into their cereal and couldn't.  Nothing incredibly fancy, but S* said it was, "the best April Fool's ever!"  And that may also be because I've never done something fun like that to them before.

I got the idea from the book The Happiness Project that I read in January.

Too bad I didn't snap a photo.

Bunny Tee & Skirt

My SIL made K* a cute bunny applique tee with her new embroidery machine for Easter this year.  And so, I made a skirt to match.  The light purple fabric has sweet little, purple flowers with yellow centers.  I bought it at Jo Ann's.  I may add some ribbon to the skirt or bunny later, I just can't decide.  I was thinking yellow, but the yellow ribbon I have is a tad brighter than I want, so I might go with purple.  Or just leave it and move on to the many other projects I have going/planned.

She also made her daughters cute skirts and tees.

Projects

Today I finished straight line machine quilting this quilt.  I started the quilt last May as a gift for a family member.  I'm so glad that I got going on it again and all that's left is the binding.  Yay!  I used Make Life fabric by Sweetwater and modified a pattern from Camille Roskelley's book Simplify.

This is a peek at the dress I finished up for K* last night.  All I have left is to make a sash/belt of some sort for it out of the white fabric.  She requested there be a bow on it too. The fabric is Pam Kitty Buttons and the pattern is Onion 20026.  I'll post more pics later when it's totally done and the lighting is better and it's not raining.

And this is a quilt I'm ready to get back to.  I started it just over two years ago for K*.  I love the fabrics, they're just so sweet.  The blocks are all pieced and sewn together, now on to the borders.   I've had some trouble finding the right solid pink for the border, but I'm feeling like giving it a shot again since I last tried last summer.  Wish me luck in finally finding the right pink.

Fabric is Supporting Cast by Northcott and the pattern is Sweet Sixteen by Black Cat Creations.

On Tuesday night, I showed a group of ladies from church how I make skirts.  11 people showed up, which wasn't everyone who signed up, but it might have been too many had there been more.  I hope I was able to explain things clearly and not scare anyone away from making skirts for little girls.  I have three or four sample skirts that I left in various stages of the construction process for that night, so I hope to get those finished soon, along with all the other things I'd love to sew before summer.  How many skirts is too many for one little cutie??  I have not only the sample ones but a few others planned for Spring.  Why does there have to be so much cute fabric!?!  Maybe some friends and nieces will be getting new skirts too. 

I was a little stressed out about writing up the fabric requirements and sewing instructions, making sure all my math and cutting measurements were correct, I hope in the end I got things mostly right. 

Pintucked Corduroy

Whipped this up last night after the kids were in bed.  I saw a post on probably actually with a corduroy skirt a few weeks ago and started thinking I'd like to make one for K*.  Then, I saw this post on Craftiness is not Optional this week with pintucks and knew that's what I wanted to do.  So, 21" of fabric later, this is what I have.  I had a cute polar bear shirt from last year that still fits this year (yeah!) in mind when making it, but I can see it working for V-day and July and all sorts of other times too.  This is the easiest skirt I've made yet.  No gathering.  Not that I mind gathering, it seems most things I make for K* involve gathering though.  Sewing some seams and inserting elastic is just quicker.  I think I'll have to make some more in the near future. I also have some other things nearly finished, oliver +s bedtime story pj's for K* and  pj pants for S*.

Christmas Candy Skirt

Made with Riley Blake Christmas Candy fabric.  I was so excited to make/put the pink ruffle on the bottom.  It's just so fun!  And I haven't made a ruffle like that on anything for K* yet.  It won't be the last either.  I planned to make a gingerbread girl tee to go with it.  But, now I'm thinking it looks great with the pink tee plain (it's the same pink as the bottom ruffle).  If I do make an applique tee for it, I think I'll go with trees instead though.  I made the skirt to fit more than one year, so maybe I can just make a tee next year.  The pink and green are fun together.  I wasn't sure I liked the green ribbon after sewing it on at first, and thought it was either too thick or I should have left it off, but I'm liking it now.  K* is going to wear it to school tomorrow, so that will help me decide about the tee.  I laid out white leggings (it's actually cold here this week) and she came out and asked why she couldn't wear the bright pink leggings she has instead.  We'll see how things end up in the morning I guess....

Penguin Skirt

Penguin fabric from JoAnn's.  Black fabric from Riley Blake Trick or Treat.  There was some cute black swirly fabric at JoAnn's but I decided to be good and use up the black I had that I didn't use for Halloween.  I was on the ball and made this skirt (and another one) beforeThanksgiving.  I plan to make a pengiun tee shirt to go with it, but we'll see.  I'm eager to get on to other projects I hope to have done as Christmas presents.

Orange Polka dots & Turkey

Orange polka dots fabric from JoAnn's; Turkey shape from silhouette; Skirt pattern based on the pink fig girly skirt

I love how the white ribbon looks with the orange polkadots fabric.  Orange seemed to be the color of the week last week when I was sewing.  I love Autumn colors.  The turkey applique was quick & easy and I was able to sew it all on with my sewing machine (unlike the candy corns for Halloween last month). I had K*wear this outfit for some pictures I took of her & S* over the weekend.

AND, a peek at some of the latest fabrics to join my stash (as if I needed more....)  About half I hope to use before Christmas to make some things for my kids.

Halloween skirts & tees

I made these two Halloween outfits  (candy corn & spider) for my daughter and a skirt for my niece in Utah for some Halloween fun in their wardrobe selection.  Earlier this year, I came across Riley Blake's fun & really cute trick or treat fabric line and knew I wanted to make some things out of it.  I also have some of the fabric for a Halloween quilt, but I might not get to that this year.  It's a cute line for kids, but in the future I can see myself using a nice, "softer" orange, cream and black to sew with/decorate some things (I want to make fabric roses in those colors, but probably won't get to those this year either).  I enjoyed sewing these, and it was fun sewing with colors I wouldn't normally make something out of for K*.  I made the outfits big so hopefully they'll fit for a Halloween or two (or three).  Although it wouldn't be the worst thing though if I had to buy cute Halloween fabric again soon. 

I used the Pinkfig girly skirt pattern for the two green  black skirts and studied a few patterns (mainly Pinkfig's nie nie pattern and a free tutorial from Izzy & Ivy) to make the orange & yellow candy corn skirt since I don't have a pattern for a two ruffle layered skirt.  I'm happy with how the t-shirt appliques turned out, I was having a bit of trouble with the candy corns at one point and had to cut new ones out, but in the end it seems to have worked out.  My original plan was to use a bat, but I'm glad I went with the spider dangling down with a bow, so fun.  Another fun thing I've never done before: tags.  Last time I made some skirts, K* told me she couldn't tell which way was the back and that I should put a tag.  I think they look cute out of Halloween print ribbon.

DETAILS Yellow fabric: what a hoot by exclusively quilters; Orange fabric: scrappy and happy baby #3530 by Jane Selck; Black & green Halloween prints, green dots and tag ribbon: trick or treat by Riley Blake; Black fabric: from my stash; Spider and candy corn shapes: silhouette shapes; Tees: target and the children's place

And a wooden witch hat:

This wooden witch hat is from the wood connection in Utah.  They don't ship, but fortunatley I have family who is willing to send things to me. 

I used black paint, some Halloween paper I already had in my stash, purple paint for the moon, green tulle for the "bow", black glitter over the black paint on the bottom of the hat, a plastic ring spider {since I misplaced the one that came with it} and three gems from some Halloween stamp packages my mom sent me.  I spent the good part of one morning start to finish.  I also kept bugging my sister over the phone about how did she make hers.

Rapunzel is finished too!  Thanks to the school trunk or treat on Friday, I'm ahead of schedule for Halloween as far as having costumes done.  Yay! Pictures soon.  And {hopefully} my tips for braided yarn Rapunzel hair after some trial and error.

Monkey skirt

My niece A* turned two in the beginning of July and had a monkey themed party. While at Jo-Ann's I noticed this cute monkey fabric and decided to make her an outfit. I used the PinkFig girly skirt pattern that I've made for K* a few times and bought a white tee shirt at Target to embellish. In the beginning I was going to make a monkey applique, but I was nervous about it not turning out, so I went with something simple.
Which reminds me, I still need to make a flamingo applique for K* to go with her pink skirt......

PinkFig Girly Skirts

I made some skirts using PinkFig's girly skirt pattern.

The skirt on the left was for Valentine's Day. I made it with an under layer and sewed the pink hem band to the under layer to give it a layered look. The middle skirt was the first one I made; followed the pattern exactly for it. The skirt on the right is for St. Patrick's Day. It sort of looks like green flowers in the photo, but they are shamrocks. I made an under layer for it to add a bit more twirl, and I thought the white might be too thin. Happy with how they all turned out, will be making this pattern again. It was easy, basically sewing rectangles together with straight lines. I'm sure you can find a free tutorial online somewhere if you're interested, probably no need to buy a pattern like I did.

I also attempted my first applique tee to go with the Valentine's skirt. A shamrock tee is next.

Valentine's heart stripe fabric from JoAnn's. All other fabric from Hobby Lobby.