Flower Girls Dress

This was a custom order from a friend, she sent pictures of her cousin's (the bride) dress and asked for something to go with it.here's what I came up with.

 Beautiful beaded lace bodice. This was pretty expensive so I only bought exactly what I needed!

This zipper started out as an invisible zipper and it was beautiful, but with all the bulk in the middle it took 3 people to zip so I switched it out for a traditional zipper.

Little Lady Lorelai

This week over on Project Run and Play it's movie week! I chose to be inspired by Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Mansfield Park... well you get the idea.

I was not a Jane Austen fan until I was an adult. As a teenager I was scared away from the movies with the 9 hour mini series of Pride and Prejudice, who had time to watch all that? I did watch A Town Like Alice, it was only 5 hours.  I also didn't read her books, I was much more a good sci-fi/modern novel kind of kid. 

Once I was older and BBC started making new movies, I was in love. The clothes, the parties, the fancy (if somewhat odd) foods, the gossip. Yes, please! I also took the time to read her books, they weren't the boring, snoozefest I had always imagined them to be. Maybe I shouldn't have judged that book by the cover?

I started my dress with a piece of fabric I'd had in my stash since Peter Pan, this is the last piece of Wendy Darling's nightgown and there was just barely enough! It's a crinkly muslin that is light, airy and soft. Perfect for this dress.

I used Janey's Dress from Olabelhe as my jumping off point. I sized it way down to fit Jack-Jack and added the extra details to the skirt. 

Front and back,I loved the cute buttons with loops. It gives it a vintage feel.

 Pintucks and a lace pieced hem, certainly a learning experience.

I added lace trimmed bloomers too, easier to run and play in. This will be another church dress for Jack-Jack. I just wouldn't let her wear it until I got pictures!

 

I'd like to think that the little Darcy or Ferrars girls would have run around in something like this, because you know with moms like theirs, they would have been allowed a bit of fun!

Check out the other at home creations over at Project Run and Play as well as vote for your favorite contestant. My favorite? The Moulin Rouge look by Paisley Roots.

Snowflake in the Desert

My friend Crystal over at Ginger Dimples figured I was wasting several hours a day sleeping so she talked up this home sewing knock off of Project Runway, Project Run and Play. Basically they have people with blogs compete to make outfits that fit a certain criteria. The home sewists get weeks instead of hours to make their looks but it's all in good fun. I am not an official competitor, I am simply participating for fun.

The first week's theme is Winter Wonderland. In the Mojave desert we have to make our own winter magic as the weather rarely ever cooperates in that department.

I really wanted to use the McCalls 5742, despite owning multiple copies of it and two in the right size I could only locate the wrong size pattern, even though I have the envelope for the right size. I ended up altering the McCalls 5793 to look like the other.

I've had this fabric in my stash for nearly 3 years just waiting for the perfect project, and this was it!

I added gems to the fabric to give it sparkle.

She wore it to church and hated every one telling her how pretty she is, she'd rather just play in the dirt!

Someone at church had mentioned a while back that poor Jack-Jack didn't have any hand made dresses like the other 3, well now she does!

Sweet Wrap Skirt

 Sweet Wrap Skirt by LippyAnne Designs

My girls are very excited I've been given the opportunity to do more pattern testing, they benefit big time! This quick and easy to put together, I did have to make the elastic in the back much smaller than she suggested because my 9 year old (in 10 days!) is super skinny. Otherwise it was perfect in length and style. For my less girly girl this was perfect and she happily wore it. She also pelted me with questions about being a model and if I thought it was a possibility for a future career. I told her to keep up the good work!

The Pooka Bean Dress and Hat

The Pooka Bean Dress and Hat
By LippyAnne Designs

Jack-Jack was convinced it was a dancing dress, she twirled and twirled!

She was NOT a fan of the hat, there were lots of tears, and sad faces.

BeBop Top

Bebop Top by Scientific Seamstress 

Jr. was the lucky recipient of this pattern test

She dubbed this top Diamond falls on Midnight

  I also made her a "winter" version out of houndstooth cotton with 3/4 length sleeves. She can't wait until it gets cold enough to wear it!

A New Sewing Experience

I think I spend half my life on the internet. Between emails, research, pattern searching, and a little bit of just playing around I spend a lot of time in front of a screen! I have quite a few friends I've met on the internet.

One of my internet friends made a super cute shirt/skirt/sash (I recommended she add a sash), she thought about making it into a pattern, so she did. She drew it up, turned it into a PDF, wrote a tutorial with great pictures and then went looking for pattern testers! I was lucky enough to be chosen from the giant pool of testers that she had asking to help her out.

I'd never pattern tested before and I've only used PDF patterns on a limited basis. I'm stingy and they are more expensive than mass produced patterns, for all the same reasons my costumes cost more than the ones at Target do. Handmade, good quality, personal attention.  Using her tutorial was very easy and there were only a couple of hiccups in the process, several of which were due to my inability to read...all of them have been corrected.  I made two versions, here is the colorful one I made for my daughter.

She has the pattern for sale here and you'll recognize one of her cute models :) She blogs about her sewing adventures, much better than I do, here. I hope she keeps making up great patterns because I'd love to see more of her work!