China dolls

When I was a little girl I played with these dolls. I probably played with them more than any other toy that I ever owned. They're a bit grubby at the moment. They could use a good face washing.

I have put the Ottilia dress aside and have gone into high gear making doll clothes. Way too many doll clothes, probably. I seem to be making them all at once too. Usually I work on one project until it's done. Right now I am in the middle of 3 dresses, one skirt, two pairs of bloomers, a shirt and a couple of underskirts. Since the direction and patterns for the doll clothes are pretty minimal ( I have the pattern for a shirt front, pantaloons and sleeves only) my experiences in the past year are standing me in good stead. 

I'll post more about it as I sew along.

Ottilia in progress

How 70s is this going to be! I swear my older sister had a dress in this exact print. Only it was rayon or something slick like that instead of corduroy. 

Anyway, this has been such an exasperating project! I couldn't find the second sleeve cap OR the pattern for it, so I cut a new pattern and a new sleeve cap. Just after I finished sewing both sleeves together I noticed that .....the missing second sleeve cap was actually pinned to the first! How the heck did I miss that!

Anyway, now it appears that I did not cut front or back yoke pieces for the underdress and I can't find the pattern. I will now go and cut new patterns and new yoke pieces. Urk!

Here are the sleeves with the elastic casings visible on the underside. It should work fine, I am alittle worried about the fabric tearing, the corduroy is so delicate.

Apologies

I have been a very lax blogger this month. My cold knocked me out for a couple of weeks and then I cut out carbs which knocked me out for another week. The little energy that I've had since then has been devoted to working out and purging the house. We managed to clear out quite a few books as well as several bags of fabric.

However, I do have a dress cut and waiting to be sewn. It's Ottilia from Ottobre magazine. I'm doing it in a couple of interesting patterns of baby wale corduroy. I don't have some of the needed notions, transparent elastic being one of them. Since I now have some experience with using elastic in legs and sleeves, I think that I might instead use casings on the wrong side of the sleeves. It's just tidier, and no doubt feels better to the skin.

I'll probably get started on sewing up the Ottilia today.

Just too keep everyone entertained, here is a photo of the craft that I am currently working on --boiling the kitchen linens.

I cook with a lot of butter and I cook lots of meat so eventually the napkin and towels start smelling like the sheets in a massage studio --stale oil. Yuk! Boiling cleans it all off and leaves me with sparkling clean linen.

New inspiration!

Lovely! I received three back issues of Ottobre magazine in the mail yesterday! So exciting! Apparently all I was lacking was inspiration because I have already started tracing out patterns from each issue. Now my only problem is deciding which one to make first!

I seem to already have a favorite. I am thinking of making both girls the Ottilia dress below. Although the Oliver pants are a close second --how cute are they!

I also found a pattern at Goodwill for a doll dress with a bustle! How exciting. Just perfect for the china dolls that I played with as a child. If my children are very, very good, one day they will get to play with them too! 

Crocheted lace

Well, this is getting a bit ridiculous isn't it? I haven't done much of anything craft-wise in a couple of weeks. In lieu of actual honest-to-god new stuff that I have been working on, I give you ... crafts from college!

During my last year of school I started crocheting again. I learned to crochet as a small child and learned how to make really, really big granny squares. I generally told people they were baby blankets. I could crochet, I just couldn't start or stop the squares so I just kept going. 

In College a friend's mother was knitting lace. I was stunned. It was gorgeous! And she had patterns for crocheted lace. So I started crocheting again, but this time it was really, really tiny. I made yards and yards of the stuff. I made pillowcase and sheet edgings for several people but only kept one pillowcase edging for myself. Here it is on a satin pillowcase that I made for Willa. Apparently sleeping on satin keeps curls from snarling.

I have been working on another pillowcase edging, I though I would give Willa another pillowcase, but the lace is now too long and I hate ripping out. I'm waiting a decent interval before I take it apart.

Peaks Island Hood

This is the Peaks Island Hood by Ysolda. I bought the pattern on Ravelry.com 


This is the project that I started to keep my hands busy during Thanksgiving. It's pretty straightforward and involves long stretches of seed stitch, so it's great for watching movies.


Other than this I really haven't been making anything. I've been sick (a very nasty cold has been sitting in our house), we had Thanksgiving break which coincided with an inch of snow that shut down the city for 3 days and made sure that everyone was stuck together in the house for most of Thanksgiving week. 


I am singularly uninspired by the projects that I picked out to make for the girls this holiday season. Maybe I'll change gears and make them fun slippers instead. Willa has also requested some mom-made shirts. Apparently when she tries to wear an entirely mom-made outfit she only has one shirt to choose from. I do have one shirt underway, Hermosa from Studio Tantrum, but it's in fleece which I don't think is what Willa had in mind. 


Mostly I just think that I have phlegm in the head from my cold and it's making me all foggy and unable to work. 

St. Nicholas is right around the corner!

And I haven't started cleaning and sewing yet! Eek! I have a week though and I think I can do it. Willa picked out a lovely flowered flannel sheet at Goodwill and would like a lovely long nightgown. I would like it to have matching long pants. Nightgowns are pointless for keeping you warm at night, I like flannel pants and wool socks --through the end of April usually.

My plan for St. Nicholas gifts was to bath and mend the waldorf dolls and make them new outfits. I was thinking of a nice bunting like the one in yellow. Willa, oddly enough, prefers something with a long skirt and ruffles. Huh? Who would have guessed. Anyway, I will make them something and the girls will doubtless either like it or get over it.

Sunday Poetry Corner

The grass is green, the sun is yellow,
Pansies are purple, roses are red,
The sea and lakes are blue and mommy is new .
So what do you say?  Boo Hoo!
What, what?   OOOOooo!

Grass beneath my feet, sunshine in my hair.
Love is beautious though it has no end
Up, up and away.

Willa

Applique mending: a little village.

There was an annoying small triangular tear in this duvet cover. I put some flannel over the hole on the back and darned it in place and then I covered the patch with a little picture. I'm actually amazed at how well this has held up. I did this over a year ago and it doesn't look bad at all, despite being jumped on, thrown-up on and washed and machine dried repeatedly. I didn't have a plan when I started it, other than wanting to make a little house. I just cut freehand and zig-zagged them onto each other and then on to the duvet cover. It made a nice, creative mend for the duvet cover, and used up some quilting scraps.

Holiday Blah?

I'm not feeling terribly crafty. I've been getting stuff done, I made Primrose some so-so fleece socks, they keep her warm at least. I cut both the girls hair, which needed doing badly. That's fairly crafty, isn't it? Anyway, I'm halfway through Studio Tantrum's Hermosa shirt. I screwed up badly, I cut one of the curls the wrong way, and now I don't have enough fabric left. You'd think that I would have known better, having already made up the Redondo skirt. Unfortunately, I bought the fabric at Wal-Mart in Sequim this summer. I don't think I'll be going back there any time soon, although I suppose it's possible that they might have some more left over next summer.  I have a rust colored corduroy cut out in the Redondo pattern, if I can't think of anything else I could just make that up.

I have to come up with a knitting project to do tomorrow during thanksgiving because I don't think I can get away with importing my sewing machine to someone else's house. I started a sweater for Willa last year. I suppose I could give it another go.

Fleece!!!

Well, I invested in some fleece at JoAnn, and not a moment too soon! We have at least a 1/4 inch of snow on the grass and IT IS STILL SNOWING! It might start sticking to the pavement at any moment. If you don't hear from  me it is undoubtedly because we have frozen or starved to death due to a complete breakdown of services caused by the inclement weather

Let's get back to fashion to take our minds off of my impending demise, shall we? For Willa, a Kyoto dress in two patterns of non-pill fleece. It is gorgeous! (imho) Unfortunately, the stitching blows, to be completely frank with you all. I forgot that fleece is a  stretchy fabric and did the whole thing in straight stitch! Urk! Also, my tension was all over the place and I don't know how well this puppy is going to hold together. It's hard to see exactly where the problems are though, because it's fleece. (Yippee?) I made this in fleece because my children don't like wearing warm clothes. They would rather wear bathing suits until they are blue with cold and crying. In February. My devious plan was to make charming clothing that was very, very warm. So far, so good. Willa spent quite a good portion of the day in her new fleece dress.

I have plans for fleece pants to match the hoody and the dress. I did better on this Imke hoody for Primrose. (At least I stitched it all in zig-zag, giving it a much better chance of surviving the first few wearings) I put a pocket on it to keep her hands warm, and because any piece of clothing which includes a pocket has a much greater chance of being worn. I made it long because it will hopefully cover more of her body.

Willa's Poetry Corner

Today, Willa is sharing a story with us.

Once upon a time, a little girl lived with her mommy and daddy. That little girl's mommy said "would you like some hot chocolate?" The little girls said "yes, of course I'd like some hot chocolate." Then the mommy asked if she would like some apples with it. The little girl said yes to the apples. And the daddy asked the little girl if when she was done she would like to go on a walk with her mommy and her daddy.

Next up: Mod Kid's Kyoto dress pattern! In fleece!!

Redondo in motion

Can't stop spinning.

Redondo

\

This is Redondo from Studio TANTRUM. It was quite a bit of fun to make, although I do not have a serger (that I know how to use) and the hem on this skirt goes on FOREVER. Seriously, it's several yards worth of hem. Willa is very excited about it despite the color, she usually likes bright colors best. I think it's the sheer volume of fabric that appeals to her. It comes down almost to her ankles, with the addition of the hem, and she loves long and full skirts. 

Holiday Planning

I'm a bit behind this year, usually I'm working out my plan of attack sometime in July. This year I'm getting started in November. I try to spread out the winter holiday freakiness to prevent December 25th overload. We generally start by celebrating St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. We put our shoes outside our bedroom doors for St. Nicholas to fill up. I think that this year St. Nicholas will bring books and maybe a small edible treat or two.

December 8th is the day for celebrating the birth of the Sun Goddess. This is a day for early rising and sun themed art projects.

Next up is St. Lucia's day on December 13th. The girls get to dress up and serve us breakfast. They're still young, so I get to make the breakfast. This year Willa has been using the toaster so maybe I'll just have her make toast for everyone or perhaps she can help me with some baking the day before. I made Willa a St. Lucia's crown a couple of years ago. The leaves were cut out of felt and the candles were needle felted. I don't love the leaves that much, but the candles were very successful I think. I sewed the wreath to a couple of ribbons to make the hat adjustable.

December 17th is the Saturnalia! Upside down day. The kids get to make the decisions (well, some of them), we all dress up  and have a silly party.

December 21st --the Solstice. We celebrate the end of the dark and the return of the light. I always plan to have a party but it never happens. We do get ceremonially turn off the lights at night and get up early the next morning and try to view the sunrise. It's been raining every year. Then we come home and eat an eggy breakfast in honor of the sun. We also get a Yule tree and set it up for the Solstice. It's a great way to celebrate the return of the sun! We also have gifts on this day, brought by the Solstice fairy. Last year the girls got their Waldorf dolls, this year I think I'll give them all a good bath (the dolls, not the girls), and make them new outfits. Rose has been camping quite a bit this year and has gotten quite gray.

There is a Solstice park near our house with markers for the position of the sun on the Solstices and the equinoxes (or is it equinoxi?) I think we'll try to start going and looking at the position of the sun and watching it get closer.

December 25th--Yule! We exchange gifts with family.

December 26th is St. Stephen's day. Love the birds, make bird art, refill the bird-feeder.

December 31st/January 1st --it's the end of the year. Party hats, loud noise -- except we have small children and I like to be in bed by 9, so it's generally a very loud, very early party.

January 6th is La Befana. Put your shoes back outside your bedroom door for treats from La Befana. She was looking for the Christ child to give him a gift but she was running a tad late. We put our shoes out every year, generally it's just small gifts, pencils, a coloring book, maybe a cookie or two.

Generally we do gifty things on St. Nicholas, the Solstice, Yule and La Befana. But because we spread our celebrations out over a month, we do smaller gifts and get fewer of them at any one time and there are lots of non-gift focused celebrations as well.

New Feature! Willa's Sunday Poetry Corner!

Willa will be submitting a poem each week for our enjoyment.

The roses and the unicorns dance in the spring together
In the moonlight they nod as if they're dancing
The roses, the unicorns, they are dancing
They are nodding and bowing to each other
Sticking their legs up in the air
And going to sleep together

willa

Ummmm. .... Oops!

Effortlessly, I have managed to add a good ten inches to the circumference of the 40s jacket --just by adding in the two side panels that I originally omitted! How amazing!

With all of the required pieces in place the jacket looks good. I need to shorten the back at the shoulders and move the breast dart up several inches. Other than that I like the fit. The waist is in exactly the right place and the overall fit is much better. I do need to make alterations to get rid of poofiness at the back shoulders and the breast darts should be up a few inches.

Regarding my recent shopping, I picked up a great sheet to make up the bustle skirt with. It's the brown one, the grey-green is another knit sheet for muslin use.

40s Dress Muslin Crashes and Burns!

I swear I had the right size! I was wearing the correct bra! But boy howdy, this does NOT fit! I'll try again. I like the way it fits, even if not the actual 'fit' itself. I'm going to have to go back to the thrift store for more sheets though to make another muslin. I added in seam allowances but this is a huge size difference. Look at how it strains across the back --I could hardly get my arms in it. There is absolutely no way that it would meet across the front. Tight all over. It does seem as though it will be a flattering suit though --once I get the size right.

Is a Pattern Diet in Order?

I think I might have just as big a problem with patterns as with fabric. I hit a couple of thrift stores today, on my way home from Trader Joe's, and arrived home with 15 new patterns! (Plus two large chunks of fabric--but we're talking about my problem with patterns right now, not the fabric diet that I'm supposed to be on!) Admittedly, many of the patterns are very cute. I personally cannot wait to make up the Vogue skirt pattern. Not the jacket (ick) but the skirt is delightfully full and has some very interesting ties on it to give it some shape. I want to see how it makes up.

So have a look, did I really need all of these patterns? Or am I just hoarding?

Elephant Insa

I made this skirt this summer for Willa. She wore it camping and did several hikes in it. It was actually a great piece of camping clothing. It didn't show grime and it is loose enough for running and climbing in. What a wonderful pattern! And so versatile! Each version that I've done seems so different.

 Here's another version of the Insa --I had a vision of Chanel when I made it. I just wish I had had enough fabric to make up a jacket, too. Unfortunately, I was working with a scrap of fabric from St. Vincent's that was just big enough to make the skirt. I don't know if it's clear from the photo, but the fabric sparkles!

I'm currently working on stitching together the muslin for the 40's suit. I know it's taken me forever to get back to it but I think I'm a bit intimidated by it. In fact I know that I am. But this is just the muslin so I should just relax already and sew it together!

Purple rain Avalon: collar and cuffs

I added gold ruffles to the cuffs of the jacket with a purple velvet ribbon to hide unsightly ends of the ruffle. I also made a gold flower to pin to the collar. I still need to attach it to a pin base but that's just a moment with a hot glue gun. I haven't made the frogs yet. I found a tutorial for it but I really didn't like how they turned out. I know that I can make them much nicer than that so I've busted out my pirated copy of Irish Crochet: Technique and Projects by the Priscilla Publishing Co. and will be crocheting my little heart out soon.

How my fabric diet isn't really working out.

I did great for almost a week. But then I went to Joann's to pick up some notions. They should keep the notions in a separate store so that I can't see the fabric when I go in for ribbons. So I came out with yards and yards of clearance cottons that I really don't have a project for yet.

 Yesterday I decided to make myself Vogue 2683, only I didn't have any knit fabric to make a muslin out of and I certainly wasn't going to risk my lovely brown knit  on an unproven pattern. So I went south and hit the thrift stores looking for knit cotton sheets. First stop I hit gold, three top sheets in bright grass green, hot pink and neon orange. Only I don't want to cut those up for muslins --they're too valuable for children's clothing. So I kept hunting and ended up buying two more sheets plus a length of green linen with some interesting flower decals on it. Now I have yet another gigantic stack of fabric. My huge bin of knit fabric is already overflowing and I can't think of where to put the new fabric.

Regarding Vogue 2683, I only have the pattern and the envelope. I don't have the instructions. This will, I am certain, lead to some very amusing mistakes. For example, I spent an hour last night drawing seam allowances on to my pattern pieces. This morning it occurred to me that Vogue probably includes fabric allowances just as most American companies do. Oops!  Looks like I get to do more cutting!

I am planning to make view A, with the uneven hem. I had a favorite knit dress when I was in my 20s (I may have mentioned this before), it was from Bloomingdales, cut like this one on top with a lovely uneven hem. It was black. I wore it with black tights and some gorgeous italian crinkly fabric black lace up boots. I don't think that any photos of this ensemble exist. Isn't that sad? I should have taken more pictures when I was young. Anyway, I am obviously trying to recapture my glory days, mid-life crisis and all that.

Abacadabra 75

 Once again, I think that the instructions could definitely be better. I've only made two Abacadabra patterns and both of them needed more detailed instructions. However, the patterns themselves are very nice. I made this up in about 3 hours. The fabric is from Goodwill. I loved the pattern on it but hated the texture. Willa doesn't care about the texture apparently so that's fine. It is a dress. Willa took one look at it and pronounced it a bathrobe, put on her pajamas with the "robe" on top, and wore that ensemble for the rest of the day.

An amusing side story. Primrose was pretending to take my picture yesterday. I smiled for her and then she said "and now the back" and gestured for me to turn around and let her photograph me from behind. I think I should do more photography that isn't all about their clothes!

Puppy costume

Here's Prim's Halloween costume. I just made up the Imke and Riviera patterns in a brown fleece and added ears and a tail. Prim wears it all the time --she loves to play puppy! The ears are too heavy, they distort the hood shape. I didn't stuff the tail, which worked out very well. I think that otherwise the tail might have been too heavy as well. I might make up some more fleece pants for everyday. They're warm, lightweight and quick to make up.

Abacadabra #27

These pants turned out beautifully. The directions were a bit lacking, but except for the 'tunnels' (this is just a very basic pants pattern and not that tough to assemble. I ran out of purple ribbon so I haven't inserted the last piece yet. I am a bit worried that they'll be too full in the hips. I might alter the pattern a bit next time to make the hips smaller. I also would love to try it with contrasting tunnel colors.