Holly hobby

I made sunbonnets for the girls and they love them. They crack me up. They were easy to make, but, as always after I finished them I could see where I should have done things differently. The bonnets are pretty hysterical combined with the feliz dresses. This morning Willa put on her feliz over an orange and pink flowered shirt and topped the ensemble with her sunbonnet. It was a big pink explosion.

Feliz dress without ruffles.

Here is another version of the Feliz dress, this time without ruffles. It's very sedate in comparison. I decided to go sans ruffles because Primrose is only 2 1/2 and has all she can do to keep moving around without fighting a bunch of extra fabric. It was considerably less work without the ruffles and used a whole heck of a lot less fabric.

Sadly felted duck sweater

This was Primrose's favorite sweater. Unfortunately, it went through the washer and dryer before I noticed and it got felted. I'm making her a new one (thanks Wendi for the white yarn). This time around I think that I'll make all of the stitches correctly and I won't have the pockets positioned asymmetrically. If you look closely you can see that half the stitches have a twist in them. This is due to my persisting in twisting either my knit or purl stitches, I forget which. Anyway, I stopped doing it and I like the look much better.

Jeans skirt

Not my most successful project but Willa likes it quite a bit. I started to cut off the legs of the jeans to make a skirt, and then I decided to leave them mid-thigh length and add a bit of skirt. I put the skirt on fairly low so that Willa could still access the pockets. I don't love how it looks and I was definitely half-assed about construction. She can use it until it falls apart and then we'll start again. The added fabric was already in my stash, I picked it up in a thrift store.

Imke Shirt

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This was my first time working with knits. I have since learned how to avoid stretching out the fabric when sewing it, so I'll be sure to use that knowledge on my next knit project. The pattern is very cute though. It is extremely easy to make and looks gorgeous on. The hood can be curved or pointy.

I totally bungled topstitching the neck seams but I don't seem to be bothered enough to redo them. Maybe it will bother me more later. I might try adding cuffs to the sleeves too. It would make it a bit larger so she could wear it longer.

A sweater doomed to never be worn.

I finished the sweater but I know that I will never wear it. It makes me look HUGE. So I'm going to unravel it and remake it into another sweater. Probably one for Wilhelmina. We'll have to see. I have other things to get to first and it is getting warmer. Not the best time for knitting in wool.

The Feliz dress is finished!

And is it frilly! And fabulous!

It took me over a week to make, a LOT more fabric than I had anticipated (ruffles, you know) and I made some mistakes. I learned from them though so that's good.

Willa put it on over her pajamas right before breakfast and spent the entire meal spinning around the kitchen in it.

There is a blue stripped underdress with a panel of ruffles down the back topped with an attached flowered apron.

As usual, I made it way too big so Willa should still be wearing it when she's twelve. It goes to her ankles now and I have to tie the sash as tight as I can to keep the shoulder straps in place.

On the whole though, I would call this dress a success!

Insane pinkness

A successful attempt to make clothes for my eldest! The pants are still a bit funky. I don't love the cut. I have a new pattern that I'm going to try for pants, I'll let you know how it goes. The fabric worked well for this and it obviously can be used when it's hot or cold out which is nice.

Kid aprons

I found a very interesting Japanese pattern site on-line (I will post the link later) and it had a great apron pattern. It looked pretty simple so I just tried to figure it out and I ended up making these aprons for the girls. They're pretty adjustable so little apron fits both of my daughters.

My eldest wears hers all the time. Often over a frilly princess dress.

I love how they cross over in the back. This makes them fit a wide range of sizes, and it holds them nicely in place, and it makes it easy for the kids to put them on themselves.

Fabulous Funky skirt!

My new favorite book is Sewing Clothes that Kids Love by Nancy Langdon and Sabine Pollehn.
This is the best kids sewing book ever! Especially for beginners because they really break it down and give all the basic information on how to get kids clothes to fit, be comfortable, and well made.

Anyway, I made the Insa skirt for my daughter. It took only a few hours and although there are things that I would change next time I use the pattern, it worked out very well and my daughter loves it. She wore it backwards the first day, with the pink patch in the front. This landed a seam right in the middle but she wore it correctly the next day.

The skirt is all cotton, and all of the shaping is caused by piping and elastic.

I am looking forward to my next project from this book!