Sunki Dress Giveaway

The prize is going to Hannah.
*****
It's May Giveaway Day! A big thank you to Sew, Mama, Sew! for hosting such a fantastic giveaway event!

 The prize: Sunki dress (using this pattern), long sleeves, made out of pink wool, size 4/5, it will fit a girl with 22.5-23 inch chest and 23-24.5 inch hips.

Enter to win:

• Please leave an answer to the following question: Who will you give this dress to/who will wear this dress?
• One entry per person.
• I will pick the winner. 
• I will ship internationally.
• Giveaway will close Friday, May 10 at 5 PM PST, and winners should be announced by email no later than Sunday, May 12 and I will ship by May 15.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the dress or the sewing pattern, I really love the style of the dress, it's just that my daughter is currently into full skirt dresses (twirly, circle, gathered, etc), so she's not wearing short dresses or tunics right now. It was worn one day, the day that these modeled photos were taken. Leggings not included (they ripped apart during the first wearing). It is a long sleeve wool dress, so it would be ideal for a girl who lives in an area where the weather does get cooler.

Sewing Supplies Giveaway

ETA: The prize is going to Sandi T.
*****
It's May Giveaway Day! A big thank you to Sew, Mama, Sew! for hosting such a fantastic giveaway event!

The prize:

• Mini Anorak Snap Tools (along with a couple of mini anorak snaps)
• Pink satin blanket binding 4.75 yards
• .75 yards purple knit fabric

Enter to win:

• Please leave an answer to the following question: What is your favorite thing about spring?
• One entry per person.
• I will pick the winner.
• I will ship internationally.
• Giveaway will close Friday, May 10 at 5 PM PST, and winners should be announced by email no later than Sunday, May 12 and I will ship by May 15.

I won't be using these items, so I hope there is someone out there who can use them.

Whole Cloth Quilt

 Craft Hope {Project 21} Rally for Roma is going on right now. They are accepting (until May 20th) handmade blankets, hats, and scarves; sewn, knit or crochet.
 
I decided to sew a whole cloth quilt ~ my first one :)
This is a great project for a first time machine quilter. I used just 1 yard of fabric for the top (itty bitty berry by Alexander Henry) and 1 yard for the backing (solid cotton), then a little extra fabric for the binding (vintage floral). I'm not very experienced with quilting and I think I may have broken a few rules. I kept it really simple and only sewed parallel lines for the quilting. Also I rounded the corners, to do this I took a circle jar lid and traced it at each corner.

I found these tutorials to be helpful:
Molly's Sketchbook: Windowpane Wholecloth Baby Quilt @ the Purl bee
Whole Cloth Quilt @ Sew, Mama, Sew!

A very satisfying sewing project that I would definitely do again!

Ikat Rollerskate Dress

 

The pattern: Oliver+S Rollerskate Dress, view A, size 5
The fabrics: Kasbah/midnight from Lark by Amy Butler, lining in white cotton.
The mods: I added on-seam side pockets using Freshly Picked's free pocket pattern.

Do you think this dress looks something similar to this Girls Ikat A-line Dress Oscar de la Renta Spring/Summer 2013 ($155)? If so, then I saved a ton of money!

Liberty Rollerskate Dresses

 

The pattern: Oliver+S Rollerskate Dress, view A, size 5
The fabrics: Liberty Lifestyle Stile, blue/cream one: Lowke Pastel, pink/green one: Herbert Pastel; lining fabric was 100% cotton voile in white. The Liberty of London fabric was a dream to work with, it cut like butter and is super soft.
The mods: I added on-seam side pockets using the Freshly Picked's free pocket pattern. The blue/cream dress has cotton twill tape for the ribbon bow detail in the front.

PS One day you're in and the next day you're out… as for the sew off, I took 4th place! Many thanks to all of you who supported my Checkerboard Dress, Pencil and Paper Bedding Set, and Little Black Tunic and Blue Pants. I pushed myself, tried new things, and added new sewing skills to my repertoire, so I was appreciative of the experience!

Little Black Tunic and Blue Pants

 Here we are at Week 3 of the Sew Off. Thank you for supporting my Pencil and Paper Bedding Set last week. I am excited to share this week's look with you! I turned on my sewing machine and made something for moi! A little black tunic with on seam pockets worn over blue sailor pants. Go vote until Sunday night for YOUR favorites, everyone is allowed to vote 1 time for their 2 favorites.

 For the little black tunic I started with the Schoolhouse Tunic pattern, woman's size 2/4. I shortened the sleeves and made them narrower, dropped the waist (and made the tunic A-line), eliminated all the pleats, and added on seam pockets (using the Oliver+S Book Report Dress pocket pattern). It was made with black cotton, 1.5 yards with very little left over. Before I redrafted the Schoolhouse Tunic pattern, I sewed myself a muslin to see how much to shorten the sleeves, etc.

 For the blue pants I used a basic pants pattern NEWLOOK 6171 girl's size 14 and turned them into sailor pants. The idea and some tips for the pants came from the August/September 2012 issue of SewNEWS magazine tutorial of how to take a simple pants pattern and create a pair of classic sailor pants. The pants are made with dark blue chambray, at least that's what I believe it is, it was sold in the denim section of a large fabric outlet and was unlabeled.

I love this modern look, really love the pockets and how slimming black is!

Have a great weekend!

PS Do you know of any good woman's sewing patterns that come in size 2? They are really difficult to come by, let me know in the comments if you do, thanks in advance! 

Pencil and Paper Bedding Set

 First off, thank you to Amy (of Nap Time Crafters) for hosting The Sew Off and giving me the chance to test my creative limits. Next, thank you for supporting my Checkerboard Dress. I'm thrilled to be back for the Sew Off Week 2 challenge which is Home Decor, this Pencil and Paper Bedding Set is my entry. Go vote until Sunday night for YOUR favorites, everyone is allowed to vote 1 time for their 2 favorite projects. 

Instead of patterns/tutorials I have worked with the dimensions of each item, thinking about how I wanted it to look like in the end, and taking seam allowances into account. For this project I have sewn several different items… 1 duvet cover and 5 pillows.

The duvet cover:
I made it look like a loose-leaf piece of paper, I got the idea from the Canvas Loose-Leaf Paper project from the "Improv Sewing" book (my son even made one, too), but I made it in gigantic proportion. So instead of 5 inches by 7 inches it was 5 feet by 7 feet! For the fabric I used 2 white twin size flat sheets. I sewed one red vertical line and 12 horizontal blue lines to create what looks like a loose-leaf piece of paper. Then I hand embroidered "Goodnight" in black on one of the lines. To do that, I traced the letters using the Penmanship Print font (with disappearing ink marker), it was a bit cumbersome doing the hand embroidery with this huge bed sheet laying across my lap. The duvet cover features a zipper at the bottom for the closure.

The pencil pillow:
I took a rectangular pillow: 12 inches by 16 inches and turned it into a pencil pillow. The fabrics used were: light pink cotton, silver ironing board cover fabric, yellow duck canvas, light brown linen, dark gray cotton blend, and the backing is in light brown linen. I also used stuffing to stuff the tip of the pencil. I did topstitching on the yellow pencil part in brown and on the silver metal part with shiny silver metallic thread.

 The pencil pillow features a pocket in the back...

 ...to store pajamas!

 I also sewed 4 square envelope pillow covers: 2 with elementary school handwriting paper fabric {The Pixie Pops by Timeless Treasures Fabrics} and 2 with gold stars fabric {Goodnight, Spot by Andover Fabrics}. The gold stars are kind of fun because they go with both the school and the night themes.

 One thing that is really great is that this bedding set is gender neutral, it could be for a boy or a girl.

I only got a few work in progress photos while creating this project...

The twin flat sheet covered most of my living room floor, this was when I was drawing the 12 vertical lines before I topstitched them in blue on the sewing machine.

 Here I just finished the hand embroidery which consisted of backstitches and one French knot.

 Here are the different pieces of the pencil pillow before sewing them together.

I'll be completely honest with you, I'm a little bit nervous about this Week 2 challenge. I'm not as confident with sewing Home Decor (as I am with children's clothing) because I don't have a lot of experience sewing items for the home. But whatever happens I still plan on sharing next week's challenge which is sewing something for a woman, I'm working on an outfit for myself, and I can't wait to show it to you.

Happy weekend everyone !