You win some, you lose some.

We had our yearly jaunt to our favorite photography studio today.  Lots of thoughts swirl around the planning of apparel.  Something coordinating but not matchy-matchy.  Something that fits our personalities but still has some current style.  I usually find a piece I love, and then build from there.  This year, I found (or rather my husband spotted) an awesome plaid shirt at Old Navy, in the general color scheme we were going for.  And we went from there.  As usual, I ended up making something for my daughter (last year's dress here).  I wanted our pictures this year to be more casual, so I opted for a skirt rather than a dress.

Unfortunately, this is how little princess spent the majority of the session.

What a waste of a great skirt.  Let's try one more shot...

This is after her daddy set her down and she started running towards me to get a fruit snack...the only way we could get her next to her brother without one of us, if only for a millisecond.

The family shots were better... no smiles from her, but at least no tears!

Anyway, who wants to know how to make that skirt?!  (don't all raise your hands at once...)

We have here a bubble skirt with two layers of lace poking out underneath.  This skirt can be made in seven seams (well, eight if you use the machine to stitch the elastic together).

Step one:  Measure your little one around the waist, and from the waist to the knee.  My daughter was 16 inches around the waist, and 8 inches from her waist to her knee.

Step two: Cut out your fabrics.  My cotton fabric was a 33 by 19.5 inch rectangle.  I got that by doubling 16 inches and adding an inch for seam allowances (33 inches), then doubling 8 inches and adding 3.5 inches for seam allowances and elastic casing.

I then cut out a 33 by 10 inch rectangle of lace (make sure the finished edge is along the 33 inch side), and a 33 by 9 inch rectangle of lace (ditto).

Step three: Fold all three of your rectangles in half width-wise (i.e., fold the 33 inches in half to make 16.5 inches), right sides together.

Sew along the 19.5 inch/10 inch/9 inch sides, using a half inch seam allowance.  Press seams open.

Step four: Turn the cotton right side out, and pull the 9 inch lace over it (still inside out) and pin in place along one of the edges (does't matter which at this point).

Now take the 10 inch lace and pull over it and pin into place.

Step five:  Sew all three layers together, half inch seam allowance.  If you have some excess lace or fabric, just sew right over it, it won't matter.

Step six:  Bring the bottom unfinished edge of the cotton up inside, so the wrong sides are facing together.  Zig zag stitch as close to the edge as you can, all the way around.  This edge will be exposed, and you don't want it to fray.

Step seven:  Measure 2.5 inches from the top of the fabric to the top of the three layers sewn together, and pin into place.

Step eight:  Fold raw edge over, and measure 1.5 inches and pin into place.

Sew along the raw edge, using a small seam (1/4 an inch or less), and leaving about 1.5 inches open.

This forms the elastic casing.

Step nine:  I've read somewhere when using elastic as a waistband to take the measurement and take away 3 inches.  I just guessed by pulling it around my daughter's waist.

Anyway, take your elastic and feed it through the opening (I stick a safety pin on the end to help me get it through).

Once you've got both ends, sew them together (but make sure the elastic isn't twisted!).  Push elastic into place inside casing.

Step ten:  Finish the seam on the casing by closing off that open 1.5 inches.

You're done!

And for your viewing pleasure, our silver lining shot of a frustrating photo shoot:

Red eyes, swollen lips, but sweetly snuggling with Daddy.

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Baby Girl's Sweater Dress, Shoes and Headband

I had an old sweater I hated.  And I've seen lots of people turn old sweaters into cute sweater dresses for their girls.  So I decided to try my hand at it.

Before

After



Because every little girl needs a matching headband

And shoes...

(I do not recommend making shoes out of stretchy squishy old sweaters unless you are not a perfectionist!  Pattern for shoes here.)

Turkey shirts

My kid-lins in their turkey shirts

I have found dozens of adorable ideas for Thanksgiving shirts for girlies, but not many I really want my son to wear.  Until this.  I just finished my own version of Positively Splendid's Butterball Tee.  She has instructions on her blog, but it's one of those things you can kinda look at and just do.  I used four colors of felt, a rectangle (5 inches by 7 inches) of denim, Heat n' Bond iron on adhesvie and white thread.  You can find a template for my shapes here.  (Those are the shapes for the TOP layer...cut about 1/4" around them for the bottom layers.)  I totally love it!!!

Now onto my daughter's turkey shirt!   Her shirts are loosely based on this shirt at The Cottage Home, and this shirt at Embellished Bayou.  I made it specifically to match those plaid pants she's wearing!  Just used felt for the turkey body, and skinny Ofry ribbon for the feathers.

Both my kids LOVED having a special Turkey shirt (even if my daughter just liked pulling on and trying to chew on the ribbons!).

My baby girl's new dress

So, as mentioned in my last post, I whipped up a dress for my daughter to wear for our family pictures.  I LOVE IT.  So pleased with how it turned out!

I used Simplicity pattern 3854.  I made my own bias tape for the little bolero, and I think it really adds something to it.  There is an awesome tutorial here (it's a PDF and won't link directly, so scroll down the page until you see Tutorials on the right sidebar) on how to make bias tape.

Embellished the bolero, shoes and headband with yo-yo's.  Great tutorial here.

As usual, sandwiched the seam of foldover elastic between the decorative part (in this case, the yo-yo's) and a layer of felt and hot glued the thing together.

And the shoes!  Didn't finish them in time for the pictures, but that's okay.  Used a pattern found here.
(This is why I love crafty blogging.  The generous sharing of ideas!!!)

And now my beauty (and her big brother):

 

Looks great, right? :)