Sep. 23, 2008 - Temporary Quarters

It is a touch smaller than my old room, but it'll do for a bit.  My ironing board and cutting mats do not fit in the new "room" so I guess they will only be out as neeed.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 15, 2008 - Hurricane Ike ruined my sewing room =(

OK, I should clarify that we were not in the path of the hurricane proper and by the time it got to us it was really just 2 days of constant rain.  With how parched the soil was, that was enough to cause problems for us though.

The damage was limited to the carpet, a few pieces of furniture and some small misc items which were ruined.  It sure puts a damper on using the space for a bit though.  Fortunately we were able to salvage most of the contents of the room.  We use our basement as a family room.  The back third, where the water pooled, houses my sewing stuff.

Before.......

Well, this is about 1.5 - 2 years ago.  Since then we painted the room a pale yellow and I transferred my fabric to steel shelves rather than the totes, but you get the idea.  I can tell only because DD is a second year brownie now and her daisy shirt is waiting for petals on my ironing board.  You can see her vest in the after pic.  DS in the pic is a Bear this year.

After......

The children and I spent close to 3 hours carrying all that stuff up while my husband tried to control the water.  Here is the space all cleared out.

Looks like the sewing fairy threw up in my den  =(  at least I was able to  salvage most of my stuff.  The living room is almost as bad.  WE had to put everything somwhere.

 Unfortunately I lost a large time consuming project I was working on

All things considered though we lost very little and I have to admit the rain was great for my lawn.

Now, to find a new (temporary) home for at least one sewing machine + my serger and a quick project or two 

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 13, 2008 - Teeny Tiny sewing (Winx)

My daughter talked me into making some more of those itty bitty Winx doll outfits.  Here are some of the better ones.  I am slowly refining the patterns.  This time I remembered to pose one of the girls next to a Barbie to show scale.  My daughter said she thinks the people who make the real clothes do not sew as well as I do because the mom made  outfits actually stay on.     I guess that is a junior sized compliment!

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 10, 2008 - Nautical Strawberry Shortcake Shorts

The shorts that go with this dress are finally done!  yeah!    I forgot which pattern I used to cut these or even which size I used. 

My daughter sewed most of the seams, I did the cutting, pressing, frog stitching and pinning.  I am proud of her for persevering and finishing these.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 5, 2008 - Sparkly Pink Princess 18" doll dress

This is the simplest of the dresses I made from Simplicity 4364 in the last few days, but it is my daughters favorite.  I thought she would prefer the boutique-y three tiered birthday cupcake-ish dress.  In her eyes, simple is beautiful.   

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 4, 2008 - Pink Glittery 18" doll dress

Yep, it is Simplicity 4364 again.  This one is View C without the jacket.  This one went together very quickly and easily.  Baby Crissy claimed this dress too. 

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 2, 2008 - Another 18" doll birthday dress

Turns out I had enough of the birthday fabric left to squeeze out two doll bodices   Simplicity 4364 again; this time with a narrower skirt.  I have more of this pink glitter fabric, but I was trying to use scrap pieces so that I could save my big piece for another project.

The piece I had to use was barely wide enough to gather and looked rather plain with the bodice so I added the double ruffled hem.  That helped too, but the dress as still missing something.  I dug through my stash and finally hit upon the ribbons.  They match the stripes and balloons really well and help finish the dress.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 1, 2008 - Three Tiered Birthday Dress for 18" doll

My grand-niece's dress turned out so cute I thought I would try to squeeze a doll dress out of the scraps.  I used the bodice from Simplicity 4364 again but winged the tiered based on how much fabric I had left.  As a result the tiers vary in fullness, but it give it a bit of a petticoat look.  When Ann Elizabeth is standing up the skirt had a bit of a cupcake shape to it.

The three tiers of the skirt are all separate layers.  I serged the raw edge of the back seam on each layer and stitched each to about 1.5" below where I wanted the velcro to end up.  Each layer was hemmed with a narrow rolled hem.  I gathered them separately and then attatched them to the bodice one layer at a time.  I serged the waist seam and then treated all layers as one when stitching the velcro.

Here is a peek inside.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 29, 2008 - Where did the glittery pink ruffled baby dress go?

Apparently it fits Barbie!  Imagine my surprise when I discovered this!  Her proportions are totally wrong, but the outfit is still cute   

It was fun for a while; then my children decided that Barbie does not really like baby clothes after all.   She still wants her own clothes.  My daughter bought her for a quarter at a garage sale and the only clothes she has is a leotard and a cheesy skirt.  She is about the same size as Pamya (AKA Sally the 3' stuffed doll I made my daughter a few Christmases ago) so we went through Pamya's clothes and found a couple with smaller necklines that do not fall off her shoulders.

While the diaper cover might look like a cute skort, it doesn't fit without being cinched in the back.  Sorry Barbie, this one is flying cross country to the little girl it was designed for!

I do plan to draft some outfits for this oversized Barbie in the near future though. 

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 28, 2008 - Pink Baby Shoes

I think baby shoes are just adorable!   Shhh, once, I even bought a pair at a garage sale because they were just too cute to pass up!  I knew someone was bound to "need" them sooner or later  =)  

The children and I decided that their new cousin's outfit just wasn't complete without shoes.  After all, a girl can never have too many shoes, right?  So here is a pair mde to match the little dress, bloomers and hat!

I used McCalls 6957 again; the same pattern that I used for the hat.

Aren't they just darling?  I was concerned about sewing all that bias tape, especially around such little curves!  I did end up adding a point to the strap as I just coundn't figure out how to round it, but it looks ok.  Over all, it was easier than I anticipated.

The soles are whip stitched to the tops.

I think these little shoes are just the icing on the cake for this outfit! 

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link