tiniest mary janes

It has been a WHILE since I made a pair of my favorite baby shoes... I had to sit and scratch my head for a minute to remember the steps in order. There was a time when I was making quite a few!

A friend of mine is having her third baby, but first girl... so of course I had to make her some absolutely, adorably girlie tiny shoes for her Sprinkle. In our group, you get a Baby Shower first go 'round and a Sprinkle for subsequent babies... I love a Sprinkle. We get together for dinner on a weeknight and eat yummy stuff (more often than not a baked brie is involved) while we share birth stories, and laugh over potty training disasters, and then settle down to finding out what is weighing most on the soon-to-birth mother's heart and then pray for her and her family. It is such a very sweet and treasured time.

But, back to these little mary janes... they are wonderful... they stay on, they are cute, and they are lined with the softest felted cashmere from a recycled goodwill sweater.

I took a few pictures (some very poor quality) of my process... I can write out a full tutorial (and maybe add a few more pics even?) on this if you want me to, but you are going to have to sweet talk me into it ... just kidding, really all it takes is just commenting that you are interested ;-) sometimes I feel like I'm sending this out into oblivion.  And if the pictures are enough to get you started on a pair of your own, I would LOVE to see a pic... tiny shoes just make my day!

delicate details

Here are some of the promised detail shots of the flower girl dress I made for Anna. It is so fun to look back at my first blog post about this project and see it could to life from the inspiration and laid out fabric... I worked on it for so long and tried it on her so often that I didn't have that Ah ha! moment when it was completed, but looking at these two posts back to back I am enjoying a little "wow! it really became what it was supposed to, and it is lovely" moment. Thanks for sharing it with me ;-)

an 'all the way big girl'

Guess who turned three today?!
Elisha has been telling Anna that she is kind of a big girl, kind of a baby until she turns three-- then she will be a big girl all the way.... Oh my! that day has arrived.

Our tiny dancer will have a casual little back yard dance party to celebrate (She is quite the entertainer- dancing and singing most of the time). Parties are nice... but, I think this little girl is going to grow up feeling like a birthday is not a birthday without a mama-made birthday dress. I have been so busy that I decided that I wasn't going to bother with a handmade dress this year... but it turns out I can't let go of this little tradition. This year I even let Anna help pick out the fabric- a darling Moda print by Oliver+S ( it is in the Cape Ann collection).

I originally thought I would do a simple smocked (with elastic thread) top, but then decided on a sleeveless yoke. Well, I was winging it and it just didn't lay right.  So, I moved right on back to plan A. If at first you don't succeed chop it off and move on;)

The elastic smocked top is so easy to do and very wearable. Before I sewed the elastic thread onto the top, I attached the pink skirt... I am so pleased with how the little box pleated gathers turned out with the rick rack peeking out! The criss-crossed straps work so well to keep them from sliding off her little shoulders.

I was going to use those fabulous peach buttons on the back of the yoked top that was scrapped and I just had to find a place for them on the new version. While they are not functional in the least, they are mighty cute.

Here is a little glimpse at how our tradition started: The two year old birthday dress, and...

...the first birthday dress.  Time flies!

Nothing says "all the way big girl" like a big girl bike. We had a nice little pajama ride this morning after she was thrilled with this birthday surprise.

And then we had a little celebrating with her preschool class. And with that our marathon birthday month has officially been kicked off-- one down, three to go!

ten minute shorts

The following is a post from summer of 2008... with the seasons changing these shorts are great! PERFECT for beginners or those needing some instant gratification:

this is sooo easy ... you've got to try!
this pic doesn't do them justice-- they are extremly cute! a light weight denim w/ a little scrap of quilting fabric for a pocket.

i found this post { http://madebypetchy.blogspot.com/2008/06/tutorial-10-minute-trousers.html } on a crafty blog i like to read. i took the 10 minutes (plus a little extra b/c i put a cute pocket on them) to make darling pair of shorts. she has a whole tutorial including how to pictures. check it out and make a pair.

i don't know if y'all have seen the pledge to 'buy handmade'... these were so easy, i'm tempted to take the handmade vow and make elisha's clothes next season... maybe i'll vow to make half, and buy the other 40% at consignment sales... we'll see...

village cardigan tutorial

There may a cool spell yet... But, at the very least this cardigan is perfect for the chilly mornings and evenings during spring.

I have a passion for demystifying 'art'. I want to show my inspiration so that you can see how you too can find things that make you happy and then copy the parts you like ;-) As Mason Cooley says," Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation." I'm pretty sure I like the originals more than my version, but at least I can wear something close enough! These next two pictures are my darling darling inspirations!

from here

from here

I had to decide on a coastal village because I couldn't choose which inspiration to go with ;-) 

I photographed my process so that you can follow right along. I give a little more detail about the applique process in this tutorial.

I started with the water by cutting out a piece of Wonder-Under in the size and shape I wanted and then sketched with pencil the divisions between the waves. I was afraid that if I cut the waves apart and ironed them to fabric all at once they would get switched around and it would be a pain to fit them together again. So instead I cut out one wave at a time, ironed it to fabric, cut the wave out of the fabric and then placed it back in it's spot.

Once I finished the water I started on my little hillocks. I laid my Wonder-Under over the area I was going to cover and sketched it out while I could see through the paper exactly what size and shape would work best. It is important to remember lay the paper out with the rough adhesive side up or else everything will be mirror image when you iron your fabric.

Land and sea are ironed on-- now it's is time to add a boat and some homes...

See how I got the boat the right size and shape? It is really great to utilize the transparent nature of the wonder-under.

Adding rick rack ups the cute factor ten fold ;-)

Everything is laid out, now the pieces need to be stitched into place so that they peel off in the wash. I also added some finishing details like button windows, embroidery stitch doors, smoke coming from a chimney, and a tree trunk for those floating green tree tops in between the houses. I did all of that with my machine, but I like to add some hand stitching to give it a handmade presence.

You can see the washable maker I used to draw my clouds and primitive birds.

I stitched along the lines with embroidery floss....and...

Ta Da! All done!

*** a point to note when sewing a lot of woven fabric (i.e.-quilting cotton) onto stretchy knit: enough gaps need to be between the areas of applique to allow for some stretch and give. at first I was going to have my land and water pieces touching each other with no spaces, but luckily I tried it on before I sewed it down and realized that having all the woven fabric took away the stretch and I could no longer button it... it was too tight.***

Insta-Friday

Just a little peek at what my Instagram feed looks like  lately.

first salon experience

hobbitish lass

prelude to a peach

makin plans for makin

warm 'leave the door open' days don't mix with free range chickens! 

???

Twin egg: enormous with double yolk--- our first!

one hundred twenty-five holes to dig

... And this last one explains why my sweater tutorial isn't ready yet. I have been planting until after dark... up to my elbows in dirt and giddy with excitement over enjoying these chlorophyll filled friends over the years.

Stay tuned...

I'm working on something darling... Tutorial coming soon!




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something old...

I have a new sewing challenge... I am trying not to get scared and intimidated, but even saying the words: heirloom sewing. yikes!! I know myself, and the kind of skills required for this fine detailed perfection, neat and tidy... well, let's just say that I'm not naturally gifted in those areas.

Pic by Fish and Raven on etsy

My sister is getting married in a few months and my dearest children will be the ring bearer and the flower girl. Elisha informed us that he learned everything he needs to know about both jobs from a Calliou episode. He seems to make a pretty good flower girl coach ;-) Elisha will be wearing the seersucker suit I found at the consignment sale (hurray!) and carrying a ring pillow that I will make... As you may have figured- Anna's dress is my challenge. The picture above is the inspiration picture my sister sent me.

 I have moved boldly ahead and worked up a muslin from the measurements I have taken of Anna and estimated pattern shapes. She barely consented to stand somewhat still enough for me to try it on and adjust the pins for a better fit. I will probably go through several more rounds of recutting the muslin, basting it together and trying it back on for adjustments. But when the muslin is just right...

 ... though it will feel a bit like sacrilege, I will be cutting into this old dress fabric. This was my Great Great Aunt Maud's dress. She came from a wealthy family in England and didn't have any children, so my mother inherited these dress pieces.

 It is so amazing to think that this lace was hand-sewn one hundred years ago. It feels wrong to cut into it, but then again it seems like a wonderful thing to give it a new life. Instead of staying in a box until it completely disintegrates it will be transformed into wedding day apparel, to be used for such a special occasion. I think Maud would have been pleased to know that her great great great niece was wearing her reincarnated dress in her great great niece's wedding.

There is lots of visualizing, mulling, measuring, and probably some hand-stitching to be done... and then we will be holding our breath that it won't get ruined while my 2 year daughter wears it ;-) Ah, the joys of making functional art-- so much goes into it, and then you have to send it out with open hands to be used... only when you think that being used is something very worthy can you attempt this field of work. I'm thinking of the words from The Velveteen Rabbit that discusses that value of 'becoming real' through use... sometimes isn't pretty, but it is undoubtably good.