Pattern Review -- Blank Slate's Pristine Swing Dress

(Also posted on Go To Sew!)

I was so excited to get an opportunity to review Blank Slate's Pristine Swing Dress pattern, which is part of the Go To Patterns lineup.  I was especially excited because Melissa of Melly Sews (the designer behind Blank Slate Patterns) is one of my favorite sewing bloggers on earth.  She is a terrific designer, takes beautiful photographs, and is a fantastic writer.  But enough about the designer -- let's get to the dress!

Actually, I decided to take the option of making it a tunic length.  The pattern provides options for either dress-length or tunic-length, as well as three different sleeve options (short, 3/4, and long).  I didn't hem it up as far as I might have because I didn't want the pockets too close to the bottom, but it's a perfect length to wear with some leggings and what five-year-old Charlotte calls her "high school boots".

I bought the medium-weight knit fabric (Button Flowers from the Doodles Collection) at Jo-Ann's and used some green woven quilting-weight cotton from my stash (the designer and name of which are forgotten, unfortunately).  The pattern specified that combo of fabrics, and I'm curious to see how it will wear over time.  (I prewashed both fabrics, of course, but I know that fabrics continue to shrink over time.)

I love the yoke detail and the pockets.  The pockets blend in because of the busy pattern I used, but the cute green trim detail stands out for sure.

Charlotte was virtually unable to keep her little paws out of the pockets, but I didn't like any of the photos I took with her hand stuffed down in them.  With below freezing temperatures and a near constant cloud cover, it's a little difficult to go outside for a fun, extended photo shoot or to get good inside shots anywhere except for under the skylights in our kitchen.

The pattern came together really nicely and everything fit together just like it should.  I sewed facings (front and back!) for the first time ever, and they made the neckline look great in addition to covering up some inside seams that might have been irritating to Charlotte's chest and shoulders.  I do think I made perhaps one size too large in my eagerness to make a garment that would fit Charlotte for more than a few months.  As a result, the shoulders were too broad and I had to cheat the button over a little on the back placket to pull it tighter.  As she grows, I can easily move the button back to where it should be.  I would love to make the pattern again with short sleeves for the summer, and perhaps I would run over to Corey's granny's house to use her serger to finish off the seams inside.

Charlotte wore the tunic to school today and reported that it was "very good".  She said she would definitely wear it again and that her favorite part of the dress was the pockets.  Sounds like a good review if I ever heard one!

Thank you so much to Andrea and Heather from Go To Sew for giving me this opportunity!

Housewarming napkin holder

DAMMIT!  I hate it when I make something for someone and then really wish I could keep it.  This napkin holder is one of those things.

I made this the same way as the berry basket I made last August from the awesome Noodlehead tutorial, but this time I made it a little bigger.  My friend, Kym, saw the berry basket a few months ago and remarked that it would be perfect as a napkin holder if it was a larger size, and so I decided I needed to make her one as a housewarming gift.  They moved into their house a few weeks ago, but better later than never, right?

The finished product ended up a little bigger than I had intended it to, so I put some larger napkins in it to make it look a little better.  I'm going to buy a package of the larger dinner napkins (in white, though, because although Kym is a Spartan I doubt her Wolverine husband, Drew, would be thrilled with MSU ones) to give Kym along with the basket and hope that she falls in love with that size instead of the regular 6" napkins.  The 6" napkins will look fine in there too, but there will be a little more space around them.

The cool floral fabric on the outside is a quilting weight cotton found in the remnant bin.  The red striped fabric is from an old sheet set that Kym gave me, so it was a perfect use for it!  I used Peltex on the inside -- not the kind that is fusible on either side, because that's just what I had on hand.  Every time I sew with Peltex I feel like I'm wrestling with an alligator, but I'm so in love with this finished product that I might just have to go ahead and make another one of these for myself -- AFTER I have finished my Christmas sewing, of course.  Next time I will leave less of a gap between the corners, and I will make the bottom a little smaller.

Rose and Evelyn's African Flower Ponies

A huge thank you goes out to my old high school friend, Val, for commissioning me to make these African flower ponies for her two adorable daughters.  I have seen many of Heidi Bears' African flower motif patterns float across my Pinterest feed and thought they were gorgeous, but I never found the time to try them out.

Each pony took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 hours to make, but that's probably a conservative estimate.  Despite the time invested, the end result was worth it!

I used sock-weight yarn (a mix of Deborah Norville and Lion Brand yarns) for these two little ponies.

Shhh.... Don't tell anyone, but I think the purple one is my favorite.

Here's the pink one!

I don't think I'd use variegated yarn again for an African flower design.  The solid colors showed up a tiny bit better.

Buddies!!  I can't wait to see a picture with Val's daughters holding the ponies.  I love the ears-- each one is made by crocheting a hexagon and then rolling it up.

These African flower designs (made up of triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, and octagons) appeal to the math nerd in me.  Love how you can use those geometric shapes to fashion such a cuddly stuffed animal!  I want to try more of these patterns in the future for sure.

Sonia was very sad to see the ponies go into a box and get shipped across country.  She would have been very happy to keep them for herself!!

Sonia as Princess Leia

Yes, I know Halloween was a month and a half ago, but I have been crocheting like a madwoman (lots of Christmas gifts to make!!!) and have found no time for blogging.  Anyway, here is Sonia's Princess Leia Halloween costume, made by my own two hands!

I free-hand crocheted the wig/hat because I couldn't find a pattern (not free, not to buy!) that I liked.  She wore two versions: one with the buns clipped onto a yarn-covered headband (as shown in the last few pictures), and one with the buns clipped onto the wig/hat.

To sew Princess Sonia-Leia's dress, I used a lovely and easy-to-follow peasant dress tutorial.  Sonia and her neighbor/buddy, Mariana, posed so nicely for me!

Princess Leia and Super Girl also trick-or-treated with the Viking sensation, Enrique. I layered the peasant dress over a white turtleneck from Target and white leggings from Old Navy.

Here are the buns on the headband.  I hadn't made the wig/hat yet when we visited Johansen Farms with our playgroup.  Don't you just love the purple sneakers?  I think Leia would love to wear them if they existed her her galaxy.

Two little princesses.... Val (AKA Sofia the First) told us she didn't know how to make a scary face.

I sewed the belt using this awesome tutorial....  That blogger was the one who pointed me to the peasant dress tutorial!

May the force be with you, Princess Sonia of Alderaan.

Even more ornaments!

Corey decided that the Christmas tree ornaments I was making looked like good gifts to give to his coworkers, so I cranked out 12 more this morning.  That brings my total to 25, I believe.  That's nothing compared to the crazy numbers of ornaments my awesome Aunt Janet makes every year (sometimes from fabric, sometimes from wood and other materials), but I have never claimed to be nearly as amazing as she is.

The Michigan State one at the bottom was only folded twice instead of three times so that more of the Spartan logo could show.  I think Corey is going to give that one to his buddy, Paul, at work.  This time I used embroidery floss as the hangers and it worked really well.

For future reference, a 1/4 yard each of two contrasting fabrics is the perfect amount to make eight ornaments.

Birthday shirts for Alex and Peter

I appliquéd a couple of birthday shirts for a couple of birthday boys this afternoon.  The "1" shirt is for Alexander, the son of one of my sister's best buddies.  Last time we hung out with his family, Charlotte glommed on to Alex and decided she was his baby-sitter for the night.  It was hilarious, and Alex loved the attention.  The fabric for the "1" is from an old onesie that his mom, Toni, was very sad that he outgrew.  Perfect use for such a cute vehicle print!  This was the first time I had appliquéd a knit onto a knit, so I used a tip I had read recently and placed a paper towel on the back side to serve as a tearaway stabilizer.  Worked like a charm!

The "4" shirt is for Peter, whose birthday is tomorrow.  Gotta make sure everyone knows how old he is tomorrow at school!  Strangely enough, every time we remind him that he will be 4 tomorrow, he tell us that the day after that he's going to turn 2 again.  Um, okay.  The fabric for the "4" is from the sleeve of one of Corey's old shirts.

I skipped the stabilizer on this appliqué because I was too lazy to run upstairs to grab another paper towel (I moved my sewing stuff back into the basement before Thanksgiving) and it didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference.  This was a heavier knit shirt than Alex's and the "4" was from a woven fabric, so I wasn't as worried about the stability.

Fabric tree ornaments

When it comes to gifts for teachers, my usual modus operandi is to make them at the last possible second.  Thus, I am absolutely shocked that I am actually sitting here on December 10th with all of my teacher ornaments made.  I also want to make some cookies to send in with the ornaments, and I'm predicting I will be up past my bedtime making all of those the night before the last day of school.  It's not like you can make those very far ahead of time though, right?

Here are the cool little ornaments I made, using a tutorial from Life After Laundry.

No, the kids don't have 14 teachers.  I actually made 15 of them (one has already been gifted to my friend, Ivette) to give to all sorts of various and sundry people.  Peter has three teachers and an administrator, and Charlotte has a teacher plus a teacher's aide.  The other eight will go to other special people who shall remain nameless for now.

Here is a shot of an ornament up close.

The changes I made to the tutorial was to use two different fabrics instead of just one.  This gave the ornament more visual interest, in my opinion.  To make this change, I had to use a half circle that added a bit on the straight side to take into account a seam allowance.  I also added light-weight fusible interfacing to one of the fabrics to give the tree some body.  Then, I used a glue gun to tack down the folds at the tips, as well as to glue in the cord to make the hanger.  I glued in flat ribbon as a hanger for one of them, realized that it would make the ornament hang sideways, and then went to plan b (thin cord and string) for the other ornaments.

I got the cute polka-dotted/striped fabric from my mother-in-law (she de-stashed and I was the happy recipient!), and the rest were scraps from my scrap basket.  I just had an idea to glue on teeny jewels or a felt star at the top, but maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead.