Paper Fans

For Project Run and Play Season 6 Week 2 the challenge is stripes and polka dots. It inspired me to sew a polka dot dress with striped hem.

THE PATTERN// Paper Fans, size 4. Free pattern ~ gotta love that! I've been wanting to try this sewing pattern ever since it was released in August 2012.

THE FABRICS// skirt: gray with white polka dots, Michael Miller Ta Dot, bodice: yellow with tiny white raindrops, Hoodie's Collection "Raindrops" for Timeless Treasures Fabrics, hem: solid yellow cotton and red grosgrain ribbon

THE SEWING// a little more time consuming than I thought it would be, I like the waist detail and how it is constructed. For the buttons holes I used this tutorial (making a button hole using the zigzag stitch).

Bonus points to me as I only used materials from my stash :)

This dress was made for and will be donated to Dress A Girl Around the World.

Happy Tuesday and see you tomorrow for more polka dots...

Stripes and Polka Dots

striped dress

 For Project Run and Play Season 6 Week 2 the challenge is stripes and polka dots. This is a fun one, don't you think? I went looking around for inspiration and thought I'd share what I found, so here we go…

striped skirt

 Stripes

• when I think of stripes, I think of: nautical, candy canes, rainbows, Cat in the Hat hat
• stripe smocking
• striped fabric is harder to find than polka dot fabric, when I think of striped fabric, the first fabric that comes to mind is seersucker, then shirting
• If you can't find striped fabric, you could make your own by piecing
• or paint stripes on fabric
• so if you can't find the striped fabric you're looking for how about this idea? replace striped fabric with polka dot fabric, like for the sleeves of a Snow White dress

striped bodice

•  Playing with stripes 
•  Summer (vertical) Stripes Skirt Tutorial
• I absolutely love this striped maxi dress
• striped boy's t-shirt 
• horizontal striped bodice dress with vertical striped skirt with pleats
• stripes pinterest board

striped hat

 Polka dots

• when I think of polka dots, I think of: toadstools
• polka dot smocking
• make polka dot fabric
• on white fabric stamp blue polka dots and turn them into blueberries

polka dot halter

•  polka dots for boys: 'LEGO' fabric !!!
• diy polka dot shirt
• love this polka dot dress

polka dot sleeves in place of striped sleeves for Snow White

 Stripes and polka dots

• American flag inspired dress
• super simple sleeveless dress

polka dot dress with striped collar

•  striped tunic/dress with one large polka dot pocket called The Circle Pocket Dress 
• with casual separates the possibilities are endless: polka dot jacket over a striped shirt, polka dot circle skirt with a striped top, polka dot top with a striped skirt, striped dress with polka dot leggings...

handknit striped leggings with polka dot dress

•  striped shirting material and orange polka dots dress 
• rainbow striped dress sewn out of polka dot fabrics 
• striped knit dress with polka dot sleeves and front pocket (polka dots are actually little hearts)

handknit striped legwarmers and hat with polka dot dress

•  half and half: leggings with one leg stripes and one leg polka dots, half of a shirt stripes and the other half polka dots
• completely reversible dress where one side is polka dots and the other side is stripes 

handknit cardigan with polka dot dress

• romper
• for the boys: striped button shirt with a polka dot tie

striped shirt with polka dot lined pants

polka dot lined pants

Happy sewing! Come back here tomorrow and see what I sewed with stripes and polka dots… surprise this week there will be no fancy dresses, shocking, I know… I plan to sew up a bunch of cotton dresses and cotton sundresses, mostly polka dots (I was going through my stash and took out all the quilting cotton fabrics with polka dots)… do you plan on sewing along with the stripes and polka dots challenge? If so, what do you plan on sewing? Also if you have any stripes/polka dot related projects, tutorials, pinterest boards please leave the link in the comments section, I'd love to check them out :)

The 2-in-1 Party Dress

{Part of this post was first posted on the Project Run and Play blog last week, I'm reposting it here in case you missed, plus I'm adding some more details...}

 This was one of my ideas of remixing The Party Dress, a free pattern and tutorial by The Cottage Home. I'm a huge fan of this silhouette! One of my absolute favorite things to sew is a party dress (special occasion, holiday wear, church/Sunday School, flower girl type...) like the: Jingle Bell Dress, Bow Dress, Purple Rose Party Dress, The Little Blue Dress, Purpledicular Dress, Gabriella Dress Knock-Off, Red Christmas Fairy Tale Dress. Party dresses are a super fun way of expressing your creativity. Think of it as a cake and you get to decorate it any way you want to.

Some of the changes I made to The Party Dress pattern/tutorial were...  instead of having the button closure in the back, I installed an invisible zipper and added a hook and eye closure. I sewed French seams for the side seams of the skirt and used liquid seam sealant on the skirt back seam. I went monochromic. And I created a narrower sash, downsizing it to the width of the beaded trim that I found.

I sewed a regular dress in size 4, then also a sheer silk overlay in size 5, making a second look possible, adding versatility to my little girl's wardrobe. By creating a sheer silk overlay The Party Dress becomes The 2-in-1 Party Dress. The silk sash with beaded trim can tie around either version of the dress.

There were a couple of little details that I added to the sheer silk overlay. Since the tutorial calls for a construction where you need to topstitch around the armholes, I decided to make the finished edges prettier since this is sheer fabric and that means all the seams show, so with machine embroidery I added embroidered topstitching around the armholes and decided to continue this same idea around the neckline as well.

 What looks like large polka dots on the skirt band are actually fabric flower petals which I found at the local craft store in the cake decorating section.

 I simply tucked in these fabric flower petals into the skirt band as I was sewing along.

 So I actually made the skirt band an encased hem (like a bias bound hem ~ just think of the skirt band as really wide bias tape) and did the topstitching on the skirt band part. I ended up making the skirt band 7 inches wide instead of 5 inches in order for the flower petals to fit.

I added thread belt loops to both the dress and the sheer overlay by using this vintage belt loops tutorial.

 I also made a cardigan sweater to with it... I bought this white cashmere sweater at a church bazaar...

 intended for me to wear...

 but later discovered this hole in it...

 so I downsized it to my daughter's size, finishing off the bottom and sleeve hems with this lovely Liberty of London bias tape that a friend sent me...

 then I removed the yellow buttons and replaced them with white buttons.

See you here tomorrow when I'll be blogging about stripes and polka dots...

Project Run and Play Guest Post

Today I am visiting the Project Run and Play blog, sharing one of my ideas on how to remix The Party Dress, a free pattern and tutorial by The Cottage Home. Click right here to check out my guest post.

Thanks so much for joining me at nest full of eggs this week !

The Party Dress Remix

Season 6 of Project Run and Play is here and for week 1 the challenge is to remix The Party Dress (size 18-month through size 5), a free pattern and tutorial by The Cottage Home. Looking for inspiration? Well, I did a bit of research and have a ton of ideas (many with links) to share with you...

This is a perfect pattern to play around with and have fun with...

• color blocking
• sew together your own fabric (with piecing) then cut out the dress pattern pieces out of your new fabric
• change the front neckline to a square neckline
• make the back a v-neck back
• instead of a gathered skirt make it an a-line skirt, circle skirt, lengthen the skirt to floor length
• turn it into a princess dress
• turn it into a costume/dress-up dress
• add a collar and sleeves
• sew the bodice section using sequin fabric
• thick stripes
• move the skirt band up and add bows around it
• 3 layer bubble skirt in ombre 
• change the front bodice to be a faux wrap style and have a big bow tied in the front instead of the back

details and nice finishing touches:

• add pleats on the bottom of the skirt
• put in pleats instead of gathering the skirt
• embellish with anything (ribbon, beads, trims, rickrack, lace, pompom trim, etc)
• add piping along the neckline and arm holes
• find some super wide ribbon to use in place of the pattern's original skirt band and attach it to the bottom of the skirt like a French seam as done in the Lazy Days Skirt (free tutorial by Oliver + S)

fabric ideas... how it looks with:

• polka dots
• plaid
• seersucker
• gingham
• and if you can get your hands on some super fancy specialty fabric

Who says it has to be a party dress? To make it into more of an everyday clothing item raise the waistline, eliminate the waist detail, and turn it into a jumper type dress like:

• Oliver + S Music Box Jumper
• Paper Fans (cheek out this lovely version)
• Vintage Tea Dress

There are so many other ways to remix it of course...

I'm excited to see how you remix it and can't wait to show you what I ended up creating… Happy Monday, see you tomorrow.

Red Christmas Fairy Tale Dress

My daughter's Christmas dress got done just hours before it was worn, thankfully my son's Christmas outfit was completed in mid-October (you can find the Patchwork Blazer tutorial here). This was not the Christmas dress I originally had planned back here, that dress will have to wait for a future project.

THE PATTERN// Oliver + S Fairy Tale Dress, size 5, view A: a fitted dress, fully-lined, special-occasion dress with crinoline, a Peter Pan collar, tulip cap sleeves, tubular waistband, and front bow detail. It is given a 3 out of 4 scissors rating.

THE FABRIC//  Deep red/maroon/bordeaux taffeta, although it looks almost purple in some photos, it doesn't look purple in real life. Deep red tulle for the crinoline and deep red cotton for the lining.

THE SEWING// I followed the pattern and instructions very faithfully. The only change was that I used a 9" invisible zipper instead of a 16" one (as I had bought all the materials months ago thinking I was going to sew a different dress), so the dress is a little tight to put on and take off. This is my 3rd time using this pattern. I first used the bodice for the Purpledicular Dress, then used the whole pattern view A for the Gabriella Dress Knock-Off, and now sewing it for the 3rd time I really think it should be given a 3.5 or 3.75 out of 4 scissors rating as all of those wonderful details are super duper time consuming. I'm not a huge fan of sewing collars, this one is OK. I'm also not a huge fan of sewing in those dreaded set-in sleeves, but these tulips cap sleeves are a dream to sew and the end result is absolutely lovely! This is the 2nd time I've sewn this dress with the sleeves and I think I need to adjust the bodice front where it attaches to the sleeves because she is so narrow in the shoulders.

FYI, the curls in her hair were achieved by using Curlformers, one of her Christmas gifts.

It had been way too long since I sewed something specifically for Christmas... way back in 2009 it was a green polka dot peasant dress with red & white striped knitted accessories.

The calendar is turning 2.0.1.3

May it be a year filled with fun sewing :)

Scandinavian Christmas 2012 Guest Post

 Today I am visiting Kathryn at the Pickled Herring for her Scandinavian Christmas 2012 series. Half of my ancestry is Swedish and I am sharing one of my ideas on how to have a more Scandinavian Christmas with a Glogg tote gift bag. Be sure to check out all the posts during the series.

Merry Scandinavian Christmas!