Purple Kappa

Finished up a couple of late summer dresses for the shop.

The aqua floral one is another pinafore from my design, only this one buttons in the back instead of tying with a sash. The other is an adaptation of a pattern from the Spring 2008 issue of Ottobre. There was a third dress, only I asked Ivy to try it on to see how the proportions looked--it seemed wide to me for a size 6--and well, now Ivy has a new dress

I'm hoping to have the dresses on Etsy by later this evening or tomorrow.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Seeing the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric by Andover reminded me of a dress I made for Miranda when she was about five years old. Ivy was just a baby and I think maybe Carter's had done a line of hungry caterpillar sleepers and rompers. She had a few of these, as well as a caterpillar rattle. I decided to make Miranda and dress to match. I'd seen these patchwork hippie sort of loose dresses at craft fairs, the design was easy to duplicate--a simple bodice with a patchwork skirt. I embellished it with applique using more scraps

The caterpillar is on the bodice, and the different foods are part of the skirt, the sun is on a large pocket on the skirt. Looking at the fabric in the dress I realize I probably made it entirely from stash fabric--my budget for sewing was much smaller back then, I bought all my fabric from Joann's or Walmart. If I made the a dress like this again I'd have the privilege of being able to pay more attention to the color scheme but back then it was fun seeing what I could put together with what I had, even with my limited resources --I think I had one bin of fabric back then!

I suspect the Nargles are behind it.

Off to see Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince with her dad.

Earrings made from real radishes. I just strung them on clear thread and looped them over her ears, since they aren't pierced--and actual earrings probably would have been too heavy. It probably would have also worked to just hang them from the wig.

I think I had more fun putting this costume together than she did, although she was very happy with the end results, even if it was a trifle warm. Fortunately the theater was air-conditioned and she reported that a number of people were duly impressed with her portrayal of Luna Lovegood.

Getting Ready for Harry Potter

We have our tickets for The Half-Blood Prince next week. We are skipping the midnight showing because the girls have Zoo Camp next week and it's going to be hard enough getting them up early without adding a midnight movie.

Miranda had requested a robe to wear, she wanted to go as Luna Lovegood. I borrowed a pattern from a friend--Butterick P474, which is out of print and I can't find a good link online. It's a wizard robe with long pointy sleeves and a hood, I adapted it to look a little more like the movie robes.

Oh, the fits this pattern gave me. It's not that difficult, but I hate setting in sleeves. And I wanted to completely line the robe to give it a better weight, so that was two sets of sleeves. Or so I thought--I had the robe almost completely finished and was looking up where to get an embroidered House Patch, when I realized to my horror that Luna Lovegood was a Ravenclaw and wore a robe with a blue lining. I'd made a Gryffindor robe with a burgundy lining. So, back to the fabric store for more fabric, two more sleeves to set in and then--the armholes were too tight. So rip out all the seams in the sleeves, cut them larger, sew them again and this time everything is fine. Ever notice that all the clothing in my shop is sleeveless?

The clasp isn't quite right, it should be plain black but Miranda liked this one. The patch is from Ebay

Charm for keeping away Nargles

I'm driving Miranda a bit mad with all the details I want to be right--I was stressed over the patch not really being the same, and the charm should have a beaded chain, and should I really make earrings out of radishes? And I had plans to hunt down a pleated gray skirt, but after finishing the cloak I was so relieved I hung it in the closet and forgot about everything else. So we'll see. She's happy with the robe so that just might be good enough.

Pinafores and a Wrap-around dress

Finally, some new clothes for the shop. The gray dress is something I finished back in the spring, but was having trouble photographing it so stuck it in the closet to deal with later, then forgot about it. It's from my own design, I was trying to combine a kimono type top with a dress. I was also inspired somewhat by Korean Hanbok, but the finished dress doesn't like much like one.

Detail of decorative stitching along skirt.

Gray linen dress available here

This pinafore is another from the pattern I designed, using Wonderland by Momo fabric. I'm wondering if I should stock up on more, I love the colors and patterns.

And another one from black and white striped cotton. I'm not sure about the red buttons, it seems to give it a kind of eighties feel that I didn't really want

Pinafores available here

New Pinafore

I made Ivy a pinafore out of the animal land fabric Josie sent me. It ties in the back with a blue gingham ribbon. It's open in the back and needs to be worn with pants or shorts.

Crocuses and daffodils are popping up around the neighborhood, even a few tulips, the crabapple next door has tiny green buds and this is what it looks like out my studio window

I've been reminding myself over and over that no matter how warm and sunny it's been, no matter how much it feels as though spring has finally arrived, there was at least one more snowfall lurking. This is Cleveland, after all. I didn't even bother with new spring clothes for Easter this year. But I did finish up these pinafores--these are from the pattern that will appear in One Yard Wonders

All but the green one (I'm having a terrible time getting good pictures of it) are available in the shop

New Camera

My new camera arrived earlier this week and I've been having fun trying it out. It does seem to take sharper, clearer pictures than the old one.

I finally finished up some of the projects that I've been working on--I don't know why I've been lagging so much with regards to finishing these. I still have four more pinafores, each needs just a little more to be done and they are still sitting in a pile by the sewing machine. I think I'll fall back on my usual stand by and blame the weather.

Ever since I bought the brown print I've been playing around with an idea for smocks like these, something I saw in an illustration in an old children's books. The pattern is from ISBN 9784579109968. I adapted it to have a gathered neckline that buttoned in back, rather than elastic, and added the collar using a vintage pattern.

For sale in my Etsy shop here and here

My fabric arrived from Hip Fabric and it's just as lovely as the images online

Ivy however has politely informed me that flowers really aren't her style anymore, she prefers fabric with animals on it. So I've been looking through my stash to see what I can use for spring clothing

Saturday we took the girls to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I haven't been with Brian in a while, usually I take the girls places like this during the week when it's not very crowded, but it wasn't too bad. We wanted to see the new Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton.

Right after this picture, the batteries went dead in the camera so you'll just have to imagine Ivy and Miranda sitting on the back of a stone bear, and an otter frolicking in the icy water, chasing what appeared to be a piece of bark.

I'm trying to get some new sewing projects started. This is what makes it hard--I think of several things I want to make, go to my cabinet and start pulling out fabric thinking oh, I was going to make a dress with this floral, I was going to make a tunic with the linen and trim it with that brown velvet ribbon, and I never used that brown stripe linen and before I know it, I have this huge stack of fabric that's supposed to be intended projects but I get so overwhelmed I don't do any. So I chose four pieces of fabric--trying to stick to ones that had been on the shelves for a while, but actually not actually meeting that criteria when I look over what I've chosen. Plans are for two little smock tops and three pinafores.

These are a couple of things I've actually finished. The gray dress was a pattern of my own I've been working on, combining a sort of kimono top with a full-skirted dress. It really is lovely and I adore the fabric, but I can't seem to get a good photograph of it so I can get it in my shop. The smock is not a color combination I normally would have chosen, but they happened to be sitting on the shelf together and I really liked how they looked. The color on the pocket is a little off, it's actually a linen that is very close in color to the green in the polka-dotted fabric

Little Coraline and Her Cat

The cat yawned slowly, carefully, revealing a mouth and tongue of astounding pinkness. "Cats don't have names," it said.
"No?" said Coraline.
"No," said the cat. "Now, you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names."
Coraline by Neil Gaiman c. 2002

The cat is finished as well. A much easier project than Coraline! I was worried Ivy might want a doll of her own, so was quite relieved when she asked for Cat.

Cat is made from black felt, with embroidered eyes and nose. He is sort of posable--his legs are thread jointed, which is sort of like button jointed without the buttons, which makes for a looser joint which works with this toy. He is about 8 inches from the tip of his ear to his toes. Coraline measures about 15 inches tall.

I feel as though my toymaking has taken a creative direction that I'm really enjoying. I'm considering focusing less on making clothing and more on this sort of thing.