Kids

Snooping

Rachel — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:33:19 GMT

Now that the kids are older I have them clean their own rooms and organize their own stuff. Today, however, we are having a new friend come over and as I walked into Rosemary’s room…well, let’s say I could barely walk. I started folding laundry and putting toys to one side and I saw this.

There were scraps of fabric everywhere, thread knotted up, pins scattered and a needle just waiting to be stepped on. I saw a little book nearby and I just had to flip through.

My daughter, the secret designer! I have to say, as I sat in the middle of her mess, tears of pride came to my eyes.

Sometimes you have to sit back and ignore the mess around you to be able to see the gem right in front of your eyes. Have a fantastic day.

Love,

Spoonflower Green Flower Tent Dress

Rachel — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:42:13 GMT

Finally! I’ve had a chance to whip up this little thing. This is my design from the Spoonflower Children’s pattern contest. I will show you the pictures and then share my comments at the end of the post.

We actually received the fabric on Christmas Eve and here is Eleanor with it. I don’t think she actually “got it” of course. She just loves the green flowers because green is her favorite color.

My 2 eldest girls holding up the fabric. I don’t know why Rosemary is making that crazy face.

I sewed up the dress last night and it went together very easily. Here is Ellie modeling this morning.

This mountain is in our backyard. Can you believe it? I still can’t.

My sweetie pie. Finally one girl who got my crazy red East Coast hair. Enough of the California blonds!

All in all, I’m satisfied with the dress. However, for those of you that know me, satisfaction just isn’t good enough. There are things that definitely need to be modified.

I had the dress printed on the upholstery weight fabric. I liked the idea of having a sturdier feel to this dress, but after sewing it up I realized it was a mistake. This dress is a tent dress and is supposed to flow nicely. The dress doesn’t flow at all—it kind of holds it’s shape. When I get it printed on the quilter’s weight, the cloth won’t be so white, which is kind of a bummer. I like the contrast between the colors.
The armscye is too tight. In general I feel that children’s garments go way overboard with the enormous arm holes but I need to let the bottom down at least a 1/2”. I also would prefer for the straps to be just a little thicker, maybe 1/2”.
The dress fits too perfectly. I need to add an extra 1/2”-1” for a little growing room.
I also need to lengthen the dress an 1”. I did the tiniest of hems, so I kind of faked it.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell! Eleanor couldn’t be more pleased with her dress and this is just the beginning for me with designing garments on fabric. I am so fascinated with digitizing my patterns and getting them to a place where I am completely satisfied and proud of my work.

Love,

Loving The Elephant

Rachel — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:18:58 GMT

Thank you everyone who voted for me in the Spoonflower Challenge. I didn’t win but I am very excited none-the-less. I received my fabric with the dress on it and I quickly cut it out to see if the sizing was good. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!!! I pinned it together and put it on Ellie and it just looks amazing. The printed fabric is so much better than the computer image file. I will write a separate post on that once I sew it up.

Today we are going to talk about ELEPHANTS! My new elephant dress for my little Ellie Belle:

I am also going to have a sleeve, but I’m going to work on that tonight.

Love,

A Vintage Journey

Rachel — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:40:38 GMT

School is upon us—we have four weeks left of summer. It’s crazy how quickly time goes by. After sewing my bag and getting my quick creative fix, I wasn’t really thinking about sewing again until we were settled in our new home.

I changed my mind when I was perusing the designer Amy Schimler’s blog Red Fish Circle and saw this:

Oh my goodness! Pink hippos! She only had one fat quarter left for sale in her shop and I grabbed it up. I didn’t even know what I was going to make with it yet, but I had to have it. This is the beginning of my vintage journey.

I had to find the perfect pattern for these hippos. All of my pattern-making stuff is tightly packed away in the garage and I have no desire to dig through and find everything right now. I headed over to ebay to peruse the vintage children’s patterns and I found some gems!

Project A – Eleanor Grace

This pattern is so adorable! It’s from the 40’s and all the pattern pieces are pretty solid and complete. This will be the hippo dress. I am going to sew View A and the hippos are going to be the yoke and the top half of the skirt (ie. all the white parts!). The dark pink fabric is going to be the main dress and I’m going to use the green fabric as the ruffle trim around the hippos.

The dress is very straight forward, so I don’t see any real problems surfacing. The only thing that might need adjusting is the neckline. For some reason a lot of the older patterns have really really high necklines. So high they look uncomfortable. I’ll keep you posted.

Project B – Rosemary Elizabeth

I was so excited looking at the vintage children’s patterns, that I decided that although finances were a bit tight, I could make my big girls a “back to school” dress. This is what I found for Rosemary.

My 8 year old is such a 50’s girl. She loves to tuck her shirts in (even when they are supposed to blouse out over leggings) and wear belts cinched tightly around her waist on all of her pants. The styles today are mostly casual and flowing for children, but she will make an unstructured outfit structured. I gave up and just let her do her thing. She is just more comfortable. She will love this dress with the fitted bodice, pin-tucks with ruffles, and very full skirt. Here are the fabrics I found for her:

Project C – Esther Marie

I can’t make a dress for one and not the other! I found this really sweet dress for Esther. This pattern is also from the 50’s. She loves dresses but isn’t quite as girly as Rosemary; I thought this design was just right for her.

She immediately knew that she wanted View 1 (that’s my girl!) so that she could have two different fabrics playing off each other. Here are the fabrics I found for Esther:

So begins my vintage journey. I also had to track down some one-piece slips for the girls to wear under these dresses so they would get the desired fullness.

Some things are easier and cheaper to buy than to make. Plus, I really dislike making crinolines. If you do it right (and my mother always made me do things the right way), it’s a lot of work.

Let the fun begin!

Love,

My Caterpillar Girl

Rachel — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:11:44 GMT

Eleanor, my 2 year old daughter, has become fascinated with caterpillars. I don’t get it. She just loves them. Because we are in the process of moving, we are being extra tight on finances and one of our favorite family outings is to go to the bookstore and just read and play for hours. On one such evening, Eleanor spied a pile of stuffed animal caterpillars (they are celebrating 40 years of Eric Carl books) and of course the caterpillar looks just like the hungry caterpillar.

She grabbed about 5 of these monsters and just walked around the store. I could barely see her face, but she was in caterpillar heaven. It was so sad when we had to leave; Jon held Ellie while I grabbed the caterpillars and ran. He held on tightly to her and ran the opposite way. Did you know that they cost $20? Sheesh. I was holding $100 worth of caterpillars!

My Mom and Dad came to California to visit for a couple of weeks and my Mom decided that it would be really special for my Father to give her the caterpillar as a gift. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I had printed out a picture of the stuffed caterpillar and she carried it around with her wherever she went. She even slept with the picture. So, my Dad (or Paka as my girls call him) gave her the stuffed caterpillar and I think that forever he will be her best friend.

One day I went to Etsy and just browsed the site. I love to do that and see all the handmade items. Just for fun, I typed in “caterpillar” to see what would come up. Ellie was hanging out in the room with me and when I browsed to this item, she refused to let me look at anything else.

This caterpillar hat is made by Pink Alligator Designs.

Sooo….I proceded to print out this picture of the little girl in the caterpillar hat and Ellie started dragging that around, along with her caterpillar of course. She is such a hoarder! Hmmm…wonder where she gets that from. (Jon!) Finally, I broke down and just bought her the little hat. It was so very reasonable for a handmade item! I really have no idea how she made any money at all. So, then we wait…and wait…and anxiously wait.

Today was the day that Ellie received her caterpillar hat. I love that when she smiles, her eyes smile too. The hat does look cuter with the brim down, but she had a hard time seeing so we flipped it up.

Here is my caterpillar girl!

Love,

More Lion Overalls

Rachel — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:45:29 GMT

I never get tired of seeing overalls (or anything for that matter!) made with this lion fabric. Mary Brewer of royalforest has made an adorable little pair for her nephew. Yay, Mary! Can’t wait to see them on him.

Here is my version on Peter Leo.

Love,

Well, I Guess Easter Is Coming

Rachel — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:11:29 GMT

I have been busy. We are getting our house ready to put on the market. I have put the sewing machine “away,” which for me is still close by (in case of emergencies) on a very clean table. I confess, I am a messy seamstress. Ah, we all have our things.

So, I haven’t been sewing lately. I’ve traded my machine for a paint brush and roller. Creatively, I have been working on the fabric design with Mary, but that is not the same thing. There is nothing to touch. Last night I realized that Easter is around the corner and that I have three girls to sew for this year. I had better get moving. There are so many beautiful new fabrics out there that I really want to buy and make beautiful things from, but this year I decided dig through my stash and use what I have.

I love this fabric. It’s Kaffe Fassett Verbena.

I think I have enough to make my 8 year old and my 2 year old a dress each out of the pink and enough to make my 5 year old a dress out of the green. I started working with the green because I didn’t have any bright white quilting cotton on hand for contrast. I did, however, have a nice creamy cotton that looked beautiful with the green. I made a quick sketch and started going for it. Here is just a sneak peek because it isn’t finished yet.

Do you have an Easter project you are working on? Share your links!

Love,

Moose Dress Monday

Rachel — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:49:52 GMT

What? That is crazy. Well, I am participating in a Handmade Swap that Bird and Little Bird is putting together. It might not be too late to sign up if you would like to join in. Each person is given a swap partner and mine is Cheryl Heughins from SewingHaven. The ruling of the new CPSIA law is going into effect on February 10th, so that is the day that we must mail out our handcrafted items. Since I make children’s garments (mostly dresses) my handmade item is going to be a dress for Cheryl’s daughter. Here is the information I received from Cheryl:

I sew a size 6 for her. She is 441/2" tall, waist 23" and chest 24", she has broad shoulders.
She likes pink and purple. Her favorite thing in the entire world are moose...

A Moose? Interesting. A moose it is. I had to contact Mary and ask for a little help with this challenge. She did not disappoint.

My idea was to use embroidery and/or applique for this image. I’m going to have a very simple dress and let the moose dominate and be the focal point. I may or may not add some more random flowers. I just have to see how it comes together. This week I will be blogging about the process of this creation.

If this sounds like a fun swap to you, don’t delay and contact Annie. Everyone involved will be blogging about their creation and posting pictures on “Celebrating Handmade: The Swap” on flickr.

Love,

The Cutest Lion Baby

Rachel — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:13:58 GMT

Remember these? Roaring Lion Fabric printed by Spoonflower.

Here is Lukas Leo in his Roaring Lion Overalls.

I think he’s pretty darn cute. I don’t think it’s just because he’s my nephew either.

Love,

Help We Are Loked In

Rachel — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:47:36 GMT

I am the mother of three children ranging from 20 months to 8 years old. My children do like to sleep in, but maybe until 7:30; 8:00 at the latest. Last week I opened my eyes, stretched, and looked at the clock. It was 9:00 am and no sight or sound of the children. I saw my husband Jon walking into the bedroom and I asked him if he saw the girls and he said no. I thought I should get up and see what’s going on. This is what we found:

My eldest daughter Rosemary had shoved this note of desperation under the door into the kitchen. Somehow, they had locked the door from the playroom to the kitchen and were stuck. Jon and I laughed so hard. The drawings of the kids faces were so hilarious to us. The kids were fine and for being locked in, it was the right room to be locked in. They just turned on the TV and were watching it quietly until we found the note.

Lesson to be learned.

If it’s 9:00 a.m. and you haven’t heard from your children, SOMETHING IS WRONG!

Love,