stars and clouds

Hi! Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a nice holiday season and start to 2017.

I'm going to play my usual catch up with some show and tell.


First up, is this Liberty of London dress in a stars and clouds print called, Hiding.
I made this for Scarlet because really I haven't been sewing for her and I have whole lot of great ideas and things I want to make her. I knew this print would be a winner for the upcoming Summer.

polka dots and florals

Polka dots and florals in double gauze cotton for a 2-3 year old lucky girl.
Do you dream that this dress was made for women too. Let's just say I am thinking about it!

By The Seashore

Well,  I didn't expect to be gone for a month! I have been letting things slide due to many reasons but, I will try to make that up to you. This girl of mine is in 3rd grade now and her brother in 5th and he has braces! This was a very slow knit I worked on a bit at a time over the summer. I managed to make it in time for the end of summer and she will be able to get a few years out of it thank goodness.

Really sweet dress that I enjoyed and I love how it turned out. I made it drop waisted rather then sitting at the natural waist. The pattern is called: By The Seashore.

polka dot gauze dress

Nani Iro Double Gauze Polka Dot Dress with plant dyed silk ribbon in the shop


Beautiful, simple dress, handmade with gorgeous Nani Iro double gauze cotton fabric. A pretty and easy dress for summer days. Ribbon ties at left shoulder.

Size 12-18 months but will fit much longer and become a tunic, then top.
Length from shoulder 16 1/2"

Machine wash gentle cycle with ribbon removed. Lay flat to dry.

two tone knit dress

I love this dress and all the pleats make it so swirly. It's a mini but will pair super sweet with cropped leggings. It wasn't my favorite yarn to knit with a slubby cotton merino blend but I think the result was worth it and I'm glad I didn't quit it.

seersucker dress

A playful dress sewn for Scarlet in red and white seersucker and muslin.

Imperfectly perfect, made to look tattered and worn, breaking the rules, intuitive, circus theme.

en garden

Nani Iro Sundress sewn with Naomi Ito's 2015 collection for Nani Iro. Cotton Gauze. Spring Flowers and darting swallows. This was quickly claimed by Scarlet and who can blame her!

Nani Iro Sundress

Beautiful, simple dress handmade with gorgeous Nani Iro cotton gauze fabric. A pretty and easy dress for summer days. Ribbom ties at left shoulder.
Length 17"
Size 24 months

can you dig it?

Wow, it has been a really long time. I almost don't know where to begin and end.
So much has been happening! I think this post we will talk about the play.

Since December my friend Frankie and I have been co-directing a skit with 16 first and second graders for the school play. We met once a week but our texts could fill a novel and the amount of times we met to discuss, plan, and choreograph was quite a lot!
Then came the costumes and props with a budget of $12 per kids. Hello, sheets and tablecloths at the thrift store!
It was a lot of work with it's shares of trials and at times was incredibly fun and other times maybe not so much.

First, came the task of agreeing on an idea. When you take two creative people with lots of ideas it is hard to narrow down. Once we did though we picked out a combination of these four songs.

It starts off with the beginning lyrics of

Do you Love Me

You broke my heart
'Cause I couldn't dance
You didn't even want me around
And now I'm back
To let you know

Then this song..

Let's Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNLXxDMxe18

Then

Wipe Out- no lyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p13yZAjhU0M
Ending with..

Then 

"She Loves You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoF-7VMMihA

Then came the task of choreographing it! Interesting! 

Then the props and costume, pattern making and sewing- 11 dresses, signs, surfboards, guitars, drums, tie altering, jacket buying and altering...

The dresses were made from sheets and tablecloths, muslin, grosgrain ribbon and buttons.

Some cute backstage shots!

S practicing at home before we headed out to 1 of the three performances!

Finally, the video of one of the performances which will be added soon.

poppy and daisy sundress

 Here is a dress I've made before but, was surprised to see just how long ago I did. 2012!

It's a modification of Purl Soho's Tiny Triangle dress based on the simplicity of pillowcase dresses. It is perfect for hot summer days.

I have an incredible weakness/addiction for Liberty Tana Lawn which I suppose is obvious to everyone who reads this blog and it is practically impossible not to sew into it over anything else I have in the cabinet.

The sun had just came out yesterday and we had about two minutes to snap some photos before she had to change into her leotard for ballet class. 

This print is aptly named Poppy and Daisy and I do have two pieces for sale in the pastel version in of this print - a pinafore and bloomers.

madder root dress

A dress I made recently to test a pattern in muslin dyed with madder root. I love the shade this turned out. I took this photo in the evening so not the best light but, I like it. I put some vintage ric-rac trim on the edge of the shoulders.

sundress - Nani iro

This print, this color scheme!

It took me almost a year to cut it and yet again another familiar dress that I've made in the past and like to sew again and again.  A sundress that ties at the shoulder in the unmistakable Nani Iro double gauze. That neon! I think I have enough for some small projects and am thinking a few pillow covers. No modeling shots though, it's for her 8th birthday coming up soon.

McCalls 8881 Circa 1967

I'm playing around with 1960's mini dress patterns to see which ones I might like to make for my upcoming skit in which my friend Frankie and I will be sewing 11 mod dresses.

I tried out this pattern and though it's not the winner for the play I do like it and would like to alter it so it would be actually fit my daughter. This is a size 5. I did the version on the far right (the girl with ice cream cone) and used vintage windowpane fabric, navy on cream.