A Sparkly Montlake Tee

Every sewist should have a go to t-shirt pattern, mine happens to be the Montlake by Straight Stitch Designs. I love the relaxed fit and the deeper neck, and I love that it goes together in under an hour.

This past holiday season I had been eyeing all of the sequin tops in stores- most of which were too small, all of which were too expensive for me. Let's be honest, my stay at home mama status doesn't give me too many reasons to wear sequins! 

And despite having zero time I picked up some of the perfffect black sequins from Joanns, and sewed myself up a new top! 

And I just love that I took the time to do it! 

Darling Josephine

I have to be honest- I tend to stick to tried and true silhouettes when I sew. When I am sewing for myself it's because I think I have a pretty good idea of what is flattering on my shape, and when I am sewing for the girls it's because I stick to what I know (i.e fitted, short bodices and full skirts). 

I know it's a little lazy of me- and truth be told, I get lazy when I sew sometimes, and that's ok. Sewing is something I do, not only as a creative outlet, but also as way of coping with stress (and when you are stressed, lazy is ok).

However, trying new things is good and exciting and fresh, so when I was given the opportunity to sew up a new to me pattern from Bella Sunshine Designs, I was super excited.  

Just an F.Y.I, this pattern was provided to me for free in exchange for marking images, and this post does contain affiliate links (I'm hoping to support my fabric problem....) But, my thoughts are my own. 

I started testing patterns for Melissa at Bella Sunshine Designs what feels like forever ago, and off the bat I know when I pick up one of her patterns it will be well drafted, true to size, I will learn at least one new sewing technique, and it will be expertly written. The Josephine Dress and Top is no exception to any of this.  The pattern comes in sizes 6 months to 12 years, and features layers and a print shop option. 

First lets talk about the style. The fitted drop waist bodice is something I have never made for my girls - and you do need to be very mindful to get the perfect fit- remember all kids are shaped differently. Melissa made this easy- just make sure you take fresh measurements, check out the sizing chart, and follow her very detailed instructions to blend sizes. 

Adeline's Josephine is a size 12 month in the chest and in length, but graded out to a 2T in the waist/hip.   

Speaking of length, the Josephine comes in three different lengths: Top, Vintage, and Dress. I went for the Vintage length because I can't get enough of Adeline's baby legs- but keep in mind it is short. 

You can only see them when she is moving around- but I made her a matching pair of ruffled bloomers to go with the dress. 

The pattern features a boat-neck (remember to listen when the pattern says to stay-stitch!) cute, tiny cap sleeves (I love the way these are sewn in), and princess seams that are great opportunity for piping- or using coordinating fabrics! 

I just love piping so I couldn't resist that option. The pattern also opts for an exposed zipper- which adds just a touch of funk to the look.

One last thing- today (3/25/2018) you can pick up the pattern for only $5.00! Just head on over to the website and use the code "sunshine sale". Make sure you also join the BSD facebook page so you can keep tabs on future sales. 

Bella Sunshine Design, Rebel Girl Party Dress

Over the years I have discovered that I work better with a deadline- which is why I appreciate the opportunity to test patterns. This dress is the Rebel Girl Party Dress by Bella Sunshine Designs and funnily enough I bought this pattern when it was first released two ish years ago- but never managed to sew it up (I haven't figured out how to self impose deadlines) 

So when the call went out that this darling dress was going through another round of testing, I jumped on it. 

I am always thrilled to sew a BSD pattern, I have been sewing for years but I always manage to learn a new trick from her patterns. Now there are also a ton of helpful videos that BSD has made, in case you aren't familiar with a certain step which make the patterns great for beginners also. This dress is a size 8 in chest and height and is graded to a 9 in the waist- and the pattern includes the instructions on how to blend sizes. I think my biggest piece of advice with this pattern is to make sure your measurements are fresh and you take the time to blend sizes so you really end up with a perfect fitting back.

Cordelia thought it was fun to stand on the heat and make her skirt puff out- just like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Speaking of Alice in Wonderland- this Alice fabric is a Japanese import fabric, made by Lecien and purchased from Bunny's Designs. It is very light weight so I was a tad worried it wouldn't work well for this dress, but since I had it in two colors and I loved the idea of doing a contrast back, I really wanted to give it a go- and it turned out just fine! 

The pattern includes a lot of technical steps to insure the dress doesn't pull or stretch out of shape. I found these extra steps were helpful with my lightweight fabric. The pattern actually has a lot of steps I normally don't the time to do. So often I rush my sewing and I don't take the time to enjoy the process of making something perfect. In the Rebel dress everything is under stitched, the waist of the skirt is reinforced, the skirt is lined, and the instructions for the invisible zipper are some of the best I have read- In fact this is the nicest invisible zipper I have ever installed. 

My favorite detail of this pattern really is that back. I am a tad conservative in what I think is appropriate in kids clothing- kids grow up so fast I want their clothing to stay kids clothing as long as possible. Soo often skinny straps or exposed backs, on Cordelia, just make her look really grown up, but this back has such a nice balance of being fun and different, and not overly adult and I just love it.  I can see several more of these working their way into Cordelia's summer wardrobe this year! 

A Winter Geranium

  

Christmas dresses have become a yearly tradition in our house. 

Oddly enough it didn't start that way- Cordelia's first couple of Christmas' she wore store bought , typically velvet, dresses. Now when I ask if I can buy her a dress instead of making one she says "absolutely not, you always make me one and it is special!"

   

In 2013 I started with the batman dress, 2014 she got matching cat dresses with her doll, 2015 was a dramatic corduroy dress, and 2016 was a spunky my little pony dress with wings. This year she requested snow flakes, sparkle, and fuzzy pockets!   

I used Made by Rae's Geranium pattern - but with some of the extension pack options, and some of my own modifications. I stuck with the original cap sleeves but used the longer bodice and the peter pan collar used in the update. I drafted a circle skirt- but with added side seams for the pockets- for the dress instead of using the original straighter skirt so it was a "twirly" dress.

You can't tell from these photos, but the bodice is a sparkle cotton, the skirt is shiny silver- and the collar is fuzzy!  

  

I thought fuzzy pockets was a strange request- but apparenty it made the dress. 

I hope you all had happy holidays- does anyone else have a tradition of sewing special Christmas dresses?!

Going Batty

Throughout Cordelia's life it has become apparent that I believe all children should wear clothing with animal ears on them- I honestly think it is the cutest thing ever. I was particularity excited when Hayley of Mouse House Creations released a sneak peak of her latest pattern- The Dress Up Hoodie, and put out a tester call.

I knew that even if I didn't get accepted to test this was a pattern I needed to have because there were soo many options! And I absolutely love giving novelty hoodies to kids for birthday gifts.  

The Dress Up Hoodie comes in sizes 6 months to 12 years and gives you the options of making a plain raglan hoodie, or making a dinosaur, horse, unicorn, bunny, cat, mouse, shark, bat, owl, or a butterfly. You can also mix and match any of the pieces to create whatever animal your imagination comes up with. 

I made Cordelia a size 7 bat. The pattern goes together in a very straight forward way, the instructions make sense and all of the pieces fit together well. The fit of the base hoodie is really great too, it's the perfect length for Cordelia, and the hood is nice and large. However, if I were to make this hoodie out of a bulkier fabric I might grade out the forearms a bit more so she could still fit layers underneath. That said, they are the perfect size in this material- which is actually a cut up unisex sweatshirt (size xl, and the pink is a second sweatshirt).

This pattern gives you the base of every animal, but it is up to you to embellish it the way you want. For example, the butterfly markings are for you to put your mark on, and fabrics are suggested for the animal accessories, but there is a lot of leeway for personal interpretation- for the horse mane you could use fake fur, or yarn, or cut fleece. If you aren't sure what materials you want to use, take a look at all the tester photos- it was fun and inspiring to see all the different combinations. I think the pattern is written well for this and I think it really lets your creativity run wild, which I love. 

 I differed from the regular wing construction by lining my wings (so you could get the flash of pink) and I used the split back piece so the wings were attached in the center. I also choose to add pink stitching to mimic the bone structure in a bat's wing. 

I used the same pink stitching on the arms, hood, and pocket. 

The inside of her ears I used the inside of the sweatshirt fabric so they would be fuzzy, and I used very stiff interfacing to help them stand up well. 

Cordelia is so dramatic she was all about this project- and when she wore it to school I was so happy I made a black animal because it didn't show as much dirt as all of her pink and blue sweatshirts! 

This was a fun make, and a good pattern- and I even have three more cut out on my desk now that Halloween sewing is done! 

A once in a lifetime event

One of the things that used to frustrate me about blogging was the delay- It seemed that all of these wonderful mommy bloggers had their posts up the day something happened! However, I think I have come to terms with the fact that as long as my pictures and stories make it to the blog eventually, I'm ok with it. This blog post I actually almost had finished and my computer restarted and deleted it! So to start again- This picture above, is not a cool filter, it is, in fact, the humidity of the south. 

As you might have heard, the United States had the opportunity to witness a once in a lifetime event- a total solar eclipse, with the path of totality stretching from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Originally I figured we wouldn't make a big deal out of it we thought about it because my best friend lives a long the path of totality, but I honestly couldn't fathom what witnessing an eclipse would be like (having never seen one before) and I didn't see much of a reason to spend hours in the car driving to a spot in the path of totality to see something I couldn't fathom. 

Except, as I was sitting through my Uncle's Funeral, one of his friends said something that resonated with me. He said "go see your friends, spend time with people, because often times a lifetime isn't as long as you think". Hearing that changed my mind in an instant, and I walked out of there planning car activities for the girls and making a grocery list of enough car snacks to keep us fed in case the drive took us four times as long as it should have. 

It was a very, very long car ride, but we made it, and I was so happy to visit with my best friend, and to give our girls the opportunity to play together. Through a series of events, some sad, and some lucky, we have gotten to see each other an incredible about of time this year despite living with several states between us.   

On Eclipse day we sat out in the drizzle with our fancy special glasses and were able to watch in awe as the moon started to cover the sun, but we were slightly disappointed to loose totality to clouds. 

That disappointment didn't overshadow just how cool it was to watch the world go dark as night in the middle of the day, and to hear the night bugs come out, and watch the birds fly home, or how much fun it was to be with friends. 

Although it did make this little girl a tad cranky. 

I'm hoping Cordelia remembers this trip, but I figured at least the girls will be able to look at these pictures and be told about the one time they were driven ten hours to sit in the front yard of Mama's best friend's house wearing coordinating outfits! 

It was fun to make a mini eclipse collection, much more fun than making them all the same dress I think. I used some beautiful Rae Ritchie moon phases fabric that I have been hording in my stash, along with a blue and grey galaxy print fabric, and a silver polka dot print from Joanns. The white trim on the little girl's outfits is vintage, and Cordelia's is ball fringe- it made me think of moons!  

I am grateful that this sweet family could host us! 

And I am grateful that my wiggly bunch survived the car trip!