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! 

Rainbow Birthday Bash

Yesterday we celebrated Cordelia's 6th birthday with a Rainbow Bash theme. Originally we had planned on a small six kid party, but when we got the news that we would have to move came I figured we would do one more big party - with all of her friends invited. I hope we will be able to keep her in contact with at least a chunk of the friends she has made while growing up here, but I know busy schedules and living in different neighborhoods will make keeping in contact with everyone impossible, so I wanted to give her this last party before everything changes.   

Cordelia's party dress is the ultimate in rainbow dresses- or at least that was the goal. It's a patchwork of some of my sister and my favorite fabrics- Allison Glass, Tula Pink, Lizzy House, and many more. If you look close you can find cats, moons, bunnies, space ships, vegetables, and a whole host of interesting prints.  

The bodice is made from the Bella Sunshine Designs Coffee Shop Dress, with about three inches taken off the bottom. The skirt of the dress involved patching together 140 charm squares into seven rows, red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue and purple. The most time consuming part was cutting out all the charm squares! 

  

Cordelia was very please by the twirl factor in this dress. 

 

Because pockets are very important I hid two little pockets in the patchwork. 

For Adeline I made a simple rainbow romper from a vintage pattern- hopefully I will get more photos of her in it before she grows out of it! 

I think I did go a tiny bit simpler for the invite this year! 

For food we had rainbow jello cups, rainbow fruit skewers, m&m cookies (store bought), fruity pebble crispy treats, a rainbow veggie tray, colored gold fish, princes popcorn, and of course marshmallow pops (they seem to be a birthday party tradition at this point). 

Our Princess party popcorn is just regular popcorn with pink food coloring added to the butter. 

Every year I make one thing that is a little insane and time consuming- first birthday it was candy dots, second it was chocolate fish, third is was pretzel turtles...this year it was jello cups. They weren't hard but they took forever to make. 

Instead of decorating fancy cupcakes this year I made plain cupcakes and had the kids decorate them as an activity! This kids loved it, and I was glad we were outside because it was messy!

 

For other activities we had sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and a temporary tattoo station. We were also at a park so the kids had a blast just running around.  

Our only decorations (besides unicorn tablecloths from Target) was rainbow bunting. My sister found free printable bunting from Carrie Elle and we made tons of it.

  

And a free printable from the crafting chicks for rainbow seeds (jelly beans) for our favor!

Thank you to everyone who came out to party, and thank you to my sisters for their hard work, and thank you to my hubby for supporting my crazy love of party planning!

In the Garden with Alice

Maryland was hit with a bizarrely warm February. It's been wonderful to see the sunshine and not have to drag coats everywhere- but it sure has me worried about the heat this summer might bring- and the bugs! 

We took advantage of one warm Sunday to walk the grounds at Brookside Gardens. I asked Cordelia if I could take some pictures of her in the new dress I made while we were on our walk and she freaked out- she has been very against pictures these days and it kinda kills me!

So I left the big camera at home, but once she caught me snapping a cell phone photo of her she relented and seemed to get into it! I can't keep up with her sometimes! I normally shy away from cell phone photos on the blog, but that might have to change because I never want to make her feel like getting new dresses from Mama is a chore.

  Now, about the dress. The pattern is another great one from Bella Sunshine Designs- I swear I don't work for her, I just adore her patterns. This is the Alice pleated dress in a size seven, with about two inches added to the hem. I saw snippets of this dress when it was in testing and absolutely fell in love with the peter pan collar.  There is an option in this pattern to include bias binding on the collar that I am very excited to try. 

Besides the awesome peter pan collar the dress has really interesting cap sleeves that can be done in a coordinating print - and the way they are sewn in makes sewing kids sleeves super easy. Also the Alice features a pleated skirt which is different from what I normally sew for her. 

Normally I talk about how easy these patterns are to sew up, but this is not a beginner pattern, you want to be familiar with sewing and take your time. The instructions are well written and clear, but there are a lot of details and steps to this dress. The entire dress is lined- sleeves, bodice, skirt- the whole thing, and it has an invisible zipper. I actually skipped the invisible zipper and used a regular zipper because that's what I had on hand, it doesn't look nearly as great as the dresses in the tester pictures but I was ok with that. 

Cordelia was very involved with this dress, I showed her the skirt fabric and she said she loved it, I showed her the pattern for the dress and she was on board, she helped pick the coordinating polka dot fabrics, but in the end I wonder if it doesn't match her personality. She said she loves it, and it fits perfect, but it hasn't been a go to and I really think it's because it's just too sweet.

I know that might not make sense, because what five year old really has a personal style- but I honestly think Cordelia does and I don't think we nailed it with this dress. So I love this pattern, but I think my next one I might go a little funkier with my fabric choice!