Yay Homemade!

A few days ago, Janey picked out and put on this outfit all by herself:

And guess what? I made all of the clothing you can see on her. I'm so proud! :) I wouldn't necessarily have paired them together, but still. Pretty darn cute. The model helps though, for sure.

I made the baby legs a long time ago--like 1.5 years ago... and they're still going strong. The skirt is made from pre-ruffled fabric (there's a store just a few minutes from my house that sells it for $5 a yard!! I need to go back there), and is a super simple elastic waist skirt. I didn't even hem the bottom, thanks to the ruffles hiding the edge (which is some sort of knit that doesn't fray... hallelujah!). Love that stuff.

I haven't shown the shirt here before, but I thought it deserved a mention too.

I made this shirt a few weekends ago. I've been lucky enough to be a pattern tester for Shwin and Shwin lately, and I LOVE it. This is Shauna's basic bodice, which hopefully she'll release at some point, because it's great. I've also used it for cutting out both Breanne and Janey's costumes, with some modifications. I love having a good solid place to start for clothing--it definitely has helped me figure out how to make the stuff I sew look more decent. Now if I could just take decent pictures... one thing at a time though, right?

Gauze Skirt

Man do I need better names for the stuff I make.

Anyway, a week or two ago, I (re)found this white eyelet gauze fabric I'd bought for round one of the flower girl dresses, which didn't end up making the cut. It's funny how sometimes I think a fabric will be perfect for one thing, then a while later, I see it again and come up with a totally new idea. As soon as I saw it that day, I knew it was destined to be a flowy skirt for Breanne. And thus it became.

Disclaimer on the photos. I just wanted a nice, sunny picture in our front room of Breanne wearing the dang skirt. Instead, I got about a million of these:


Thanks so much, barbie.com, for teaching Breanne and Janey the importance of "posing" in front of a camera.

And then these:




Where at least you can see the skirt. No luck on a picture of her happy face while wearing the skirt, but I guess I'll take what I can get. It's just a simple skirt, three slightly gathered layers, elastic waist, just a zigzag finish on the bottom to keep it from fraying, but not even a hem. I like the flow of it, without the hem to weigh it down. Has many imperfections, but I really do like the way it came out. And so does Breanne, which makes me happy.

KCWC Day 4

This makes me want to make clothes only for Cailin...

(sorry, this pic was taken last night after I finished, in the dark. The rest are better, but I didn't feature this side of the skirt).





We were able to get outside and play with (new) friends today, and it was so wonderful! I'm always grateful for a few hours out of the house. Thanks Tess!






PS. If you've been around a while, you might recognize the fabrics I used for this--the skirt is made from the leftovers from Cailin's carseat cover, and the top is the same as I used to trim the 4th of July skirts. I promised Cory (or mostly myself, really) I wouldn't buy more fabric for a while, at least until I used a bunch of what I have. So all my projects this week have been stash-busters. It's surprisingly hard to part with some of them, even though I know they're better used in stuff than on my shelf... :)

KCWC Day 1

Remember Janey's skirt I made for Christmas? Well, now Breanne has an almost matching one.


Not perfect, but I like it. I think I'm going to topstitch the seams, just above the gathers to make it a little smoother, but other than that, I really like it. Breanne thinks it's ok, but wishes it was pink or red. *sigh*

Also, I used a new stitch today, I'm so proud! It's the one that looks something like this: /\__/\__/\. Apparently, it's meant for an invisible-ish hem. Can you see the hem on the skirt? Well, I can, but I think that's because my tension was a little bit off. Live and learn, right?

Two More Skirts

Did I mention that Janey is obsessed with skirts and dresses lately? Cory asked her if she likes pants, and she said "No, pants look kind of funny." So there you have it. Due to her obsession, I decided to just make her skirts this year instead of buying her pants like the other girls. First was yesterday's denim number, today I have two more--

A purple twirly skirt,

The flowers peeking through are the inside, which can also be worn as an outside, as it's reversible--

And then there's this purple knit skirt. I'm pretty proud of this one, as I actually got the gathering to work right, and the skirt came out just as I envisioned it. Now if only I was a better photographer... Oh well. Maybe in another lifetime. In the meantime, just believe that this is much cuter in person than on the hanger. I'm excited for her to try it on.

Question for You

If you made a skirt like this for a certain skirt loving two-year-old you knew,

Would you add a flower or something to it, maybe on the side? Or leave it as-is?

New Skirt

So one of my most favorite creations... a skirt I created pretty much out of my own head. I saw a tutorial months ago on doing a knit waistband, and thought it was kind of genius. When I saw this fabric, I knew just what I wanted to do with it. Because of the thickness of the skirt, though (the fabric itself is actually quite light, and so definitely needed to be lined), I couldn't do a twirly skirt type (tried it, and totally failed, believe me!), and so ended up cutting an A-line based on a skirt I already have and love. And I love it. Maybe someday someone will take a picture of me in it, and I'll post it. But I'm not taking a picture of myself. Today, at least. :)

Linking up to The Train To Crazy's blog party this week.

4th of July Outfits

So... even though we won't be going anywhere this weekend due to the chickenpox, I still wanted to make the girls festive outfits to wear. Maybe Cory will take the older girls to the parade on Monday or something, we'll see.

Anyway, I saw these adorable shirts over on Make It and Love It, and knew I wanted to make them... and then I remembered the Reversible Twirly Skirt Tutorial my friend E. did over at PinkSuedeShoe, and decided to pair the two. I've only made one skirt so far, (because I was trying to change up the pattern, and apparently the way things work in my head is not how they work in real life, so when I tried to take some shortcuts, it.. uh.. did not work and I ended up recutting some things and resewing a lot...) but hopefully by the end of today, I'll have a couple more done. Still, I love the one skirt, and if I don't end up making any more, it'll go on Cailin, with her onesie and baby legs (as long as they don't bother her poor chickenpoxed legs... :( ) and the older girls can just wear some jeans.

My very silly older girls (with Janey sporting the skirt I made):


And Cailin's onesie (she's sleeping a lot today, and I'm not up for waking her up just to show off a shirt, sorry):


And baby legs:


And a closer-up of the skirt--there's a tiny white polkadot red side, and a navy gingham on the other side, very fun and patriotic. The white bottom trim also has tiny white stars. I really love how it turned out, thanks E.! :)


I'm linking up to Amy's Sew and Tell, and to Skip to My Lou's Made By You Mondays. They're part of the reason I was still excited to get these done, even when I realized we probably wouldn't be heading out anywhere to celebrate. We'll just have to come up with some great activities for our house. :)