Dress-Up

I mentioned in some of my I like posts that I recently had to attend a black tie even for work. Since I inherited a bunch of fancy fabric from a friend of my mom (thanks Georgia!) I figured it was a great opportunity to make a dress. I picked This pattern because the princess seamed construction and silhouette is one I've made many times before and the asymmetry adds some interest.

It wasn't a hard pattern to sew, but it did take a while.  One thing I didn't think about is that because of the asymmetry, each pattern piece had to be cut out separately (i.e. not on the fold or on a doubled piece of fabric).  And the pattern did a terrible job explaining how to attach the lining to the outer part.  I've made lined dresses before but they always had sleeves, and the sleeveless dresses I've made previously had facings rather than linings.  In any case I finally found a youtube video (which of course I can't find now) that helped me figure it out.

I also wound up having to make a facing for the black skirt.  In small print on the pattern envelope it said "reverse side of overskirt shows" or something to that effect.  I didn't think much of it until after I'd completely finished an hemmed the overskirt.  I realized that because of the angle on the front (and back) of the black skirt, where the fabric falls into folds you could see the reverse of the fabric.  It was ugly, with seams and visible hem, and the off color that the back of velvet is.  It really made the whole thing look unacceptably crafty to my eyes.  There weren't any skirt facing pieces in the pattern, but I just made my own using the bottom of each skirt piece, so now the reverse side just looks like the front.  It was a lot of extra work the night before the event, but I think it was worth it.

I had a good time braiding up my hair (which is still pretty short for braiding, but I made it work), but sadly didn't get a very good picture.  It was pretty dark at the event and at my friends' house where we were getting ready.  We did have a good time at the dinner though; I talked more about that in my I like post a couple weeks back.  I am especially pleased with the invisible-ness of my invisible zipper- I've had trouble with those before, but this one went in very smoothly!

After scurrying around like a crazy person trying to finish the dress, I felt the need for something easy and low stress.  I've been wanting to make a sewing machine cover for my bernina embroidery machine for a while, but never got around to it.  I don't use it very often and it really should be covered up.  It's a really strange shape, but I pieced up some brightly colored quarter square triangles (hourglass blocks?) and then after some loose measurements came up with this.  It fits pretty well all things considered, and I love seeing the bright colors when I walk into my studio.

Have you done any clothes sewing lately?  I have a bunch of fabric, but I think this might be all the clothes sewing I do for a while!

Sweater for Missy

Missy is a fairly grouchy dog and does not like to be brushed, so we keep her hair cut pretty short.  Sometimes she's awfully shivery in the days after a haircut, and since it's winter anyway, Mike asked me to make her a sweater.  I had no idea whether she'd even wear it, so I didn't want to put too much time into a crocheted one.  And given the way she's especially grouchy about her head, it couldn't be a pullover.

With that in mind, I trawled the internet for dog sweater tutorials, and found this tutorial/pattern on Mimi and Tara.  I didn't need a hood or a santa costume, but it had the requisite front closure, so using the pattern pieces as a base, I whipped up this little fleece number for Missy.

Overall it fit remarkably well for a first try.  There are a couple of areas that I'd like to change next time, yes, some tailoring for dogs, but it went pretty well.  She didn't like it at first, but she seems to like it fine now.  Unfortunately, about three days after I made it, Mike accidentally put it inside a box containing a jacket he'd sold online and shipped it off across the country.  Luckily the kind recipient sent it back to us, but for several days we could not figure out what happened to it.

I was always one of those people who couldn't understand why dogs needed clothes, but she does seem to get chilly in the winter, and she does look pretty cute.  :)

Have you ever sewed clothes for your pets?

Training for the Triwizard Tournament

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!  I was privileged to spend it with my family in New Mexico, and had a great time with my parents and everyone else.  I love the advent season, and after some gentle reminders from Mike about not overscheduling, I'm going to try to enjoy this year without going crazy.

Ever since August, my sister and I have been training to run a half marathon, and back on November 1st, we actually ran our first one!  It was a huge accomplishment for us both.  I've never been a big runner, and I didn't think I could do it.  We had a good time, and Becky has actually decided to train for a full marathon!  I think I'll stick with the half, and our next one will be the end of January.  It's a bit harder to force myself outside to run now that the weather is cold, but I'm trying.

Being crafty people, we decided to make shirts to wear for the race, and being nerdy people, we decided to make them Harry Potter (yay!) themed.  After looking around online for ideas, I put together this design, and we cut out freezer paper stencils using my Silhouette and then painted them with acrylic paint.  I think they came out really cute!

Here we are right before the race with my sister's friend Diana who also ran with us.  It was raining at the end and we were exhausted, so there aren't any good pictures of the "after".  I was really excited to find bright 80s pattern neon-y running pants (it's the small things...).

My parents came down to watch us and keep the kids while we were running, and my mom snapped this picture of me jogging along around mile 9.  I was pretty tired by then, but still going!

Hopefully I can keep motivated to run through the holidays!

Pink Polka Dot Dress and Opening Reception

I was so lucky that my mom came with me to QN15- we have such a great time together and wound up making a mini-trip of it.  Before we went, I sewed up a new dress to wear to the opening reception, and of course it's pink.  I fell in love with this pink polka dot fabric a while back and made this dress based on a shirt pattern I'd made and liked previously.

  

The best thing about the opening was getting to meet so many fabulous artists.  64 of the accepted ~85 artists were at the opening and we had lots of opportunity to talk with each other.  Kathleen Dawson, the QN director, put pictures of all our quilts on our name tags.  It was one of those great ideas that really made a difference when we were all milling around, since it made it easy to put an artist face with a particular quilt and gave us someplace to start a conversation.  I'm so nervous meeting new people, especially people whose work I've admired from afar for a long time, but everyone was super friendly and open.  I spent a fair amount of time scurrying around getting the other artists to sign my show catalog- almost like yearbooks in high school.   It was especially neat to hear each artist talk about his/her piece, both from a technical and artistic standpoint.  Diedre Adams, who had a beautiful piece in the show, kindly took pictures of most of the artists and their pieces which she shared on her blog.  Definitely worth checking out if you'd like to see more of the work.  My friend Barb drove up from St. Louis to see the show as well, and it was great fun to see her.

I'm generally not one for selfies, but I love taking selfies with my mom.

You can see in the next one what a lovely job the Dairy Barn did hanging my piece so you can see the shadows behind it.

On the last day we went to Hocking Hills State Park and took a nice hike.  Even though we weren't on the most popular paths, since it was Memorial Day weekend there were hordes of people everywhere.  It reminded me of the country around Sewanee where I went to school, and was really a lovely state park.  The weather was gorgeous and made a nice break from home where we have had non-stop flooding rains and other severe weather.

Outfit for Anna

An outfit we made for Anna!

Mr. Men and Little Miss Shirts

My precious nephew Alex turned one a few weeks back and my sister threw him a Mr. Men themed birthday.  She sketched and then cut out freezer paper stencils and made these adorable t-shirts for the whole family to wear at the party.  I think they turned out fantastic and super fun.  I loved these books as a kid and am so glad they're still around!

Mr. Tickle  (Dad)

Mr. Birthday (obviously for Alex)

Little Miss Chatterbox  (Mom- and lovingly appropriate)

Little Miss Hug (Anna)

Mr. Busy (Alex the busy Birthday Boy)

Some Stitch Outs

I don't do a whole lot of machine embroidery, but I really love a lot of the patterns from urban threads. When I saw their Arts/Craft ambigram, I knew I had to snag it.  I've alwasy been intrigued by ambigrams, especially ones that read both ways (upside down and right side up) but don't say the same thing.  On an ambigram aside, does anyone remember the ones in the Dan Brown book Angels and Demons?

Anyway, the other day I was burying about a million threads on my quilt, and thought I might just as well babysit the embroidery machine at the same time, so I stitched this one out.  I made two t-shirts, black with gold and purple for me, and blue with blue and green for my mom.  The stitch outs went well as long as I remembered to keep the rest of the shirt out of the way!

And a gratuitous dog shot, because we all need one of those now and again!

Birthday Presents For Anna

I can hardly believe Anna has turned 2!  I wasn't able to go down for her birthday celebration but I think they had a great time.  I took a break from my giant project to make her some fun clothes.

I also made some doll clothes and accessories.  I'm a huge fan of Ikat Bag, her patterns and blog posts are fabulous.  My mom and I bought the Fairytale Doll/dress pattern and my mom made the doll and a basic dress for Anna's birthday and I made a bunch of the clothes (although not all) and the combination bed/carrying case.

This outfit was inspired by a dress we saw while shopping- super simple eyelet-over-bright.  I didn't have a pattern just like this but it was easy enough to adapt from a different pattern.  Hope it fits.  And of course, it had to have a matching dolly dress.

This dress was made of the part I cut off the bottom of my favorite dresses (I didn't like how long it was).  I had just enough cut off to make the dress for Anna and the doll dress, so now we all three can match.  The dress actually originally belonged to Becky, so it's sort of gone full circle!

This little dress is the ball gown from the Ikat Bag pattern, so so easy to put together!  Sadly I don't have the doll for you to see how it fits, but maybe I'll take some pictures the next time I'm down.  I didn't make the fairy outfit or the mermaid outfit, even though those are the two coolest in the whole pattern, I just ran out of time.  Oh well, Christmas I guess!

And then this is the carry case.  The front has a pleated zip pocket into which the clothes and dolls can be stuffed.  The back has an envelope flap and opens to reveal an attached blanket and pillow.

All in all, it was super fun to make some cute things and I hope Anna likes them!