An easter dress

easter_dress
Originally uploaded by leahholland

An easter dress with chick and egg appliqué. Fabric is a cotton (possibly with some linen in it) purple plaid fabric, with dress skirt and sleeves cut on the bias.

The Ottobre pattern originally had petals on it that I skipped.

Appliqué is from Ottobre 1/04 which I repeated 3 times.

I also made a pair of shorts/capris to wear under it but she wouldn't but them on.... The photos of the appliqués aren't flat as my 2yo wouldn't take it off for photos :)

My Dancer

Today my daughter competed in her first Highland Dance Competition. She competed in two dances Pas de Basques and Pas de Basques and Highcuts. She did a wonderful job today and was awarded a Silver and Bronze medal!!!

She was so tired, she fell asleep on the drive home.

To make this sewing related - I hemmed her kilt this week. And before the next competition I need to complete her highland dance vest. She'd definitely photograph better on the black stage with a vest on!

And the purple panties I made are a good fit but she doesn't like the tight FOE I used (its a very firm elastic), so I think I'll use different elastic next time....

Sewing and Hemming

A kilt has a huge circumference when you need to hem it :) It is now done and ready for dance competition.

And a pair of purple panties to fit under her purple kilt was made from Jalie 2329 (OOP). I love Jalie patterns as they have so many sizes.... I've made the smallest size for my little one and some of the women's ones for me.

Ottobre 2/07 #20 Cross Front Top - this is the maternity top, but I modified the bottom of the shirt so that it wasn't maternity. It not bad, but could do with a little more ease in the lower part of the shirt probably because I lighter knit with not a lot of stretch.

Painting

Fabric Painting at a birthday parth

For dd1s birthday the girls painted shirts. This is her t-shirt. She was excited because the t-shirt had dried long enough so she could wear it today.


I didn't get pictures of the girls painting (as I was too busy helping), but was glad I had extra help as having six 4-6 year olds painting was a busy time.

Recent Sewing.....

Calendar Cover and Card Holder


Made to match my new leather purse

Fleece 2-in-1 Ottobre Tshirt for me


A new fleece shirt for me. I used a straight front underlayer/camisole like the Burda WOF 1/2008 pattern 116, but its a little wide a long the top of the camisole. so I think I'll take it in...

Frog Pants - Ottobre 1/08 #25
These I did modify! I added some width as my son needs the plus sized patterns, and increased the rise as it seemed really short. I should have only raised the front 2cm instead of the 4cm I added at front and back. These fit well, but are a little long. I don't like this method of back elastic waistband, so for the next pair (without the embroidery), I have changed it to have a front waistband and the back elastic is attached to the back yoke. There is some growing room in length, as most of his pants now are "perfect" length.

I made a tutorial for bellows pockets earlier this month.

Photos originally uploaded to flickr

A few more items sewn

Items completed in the last week

Tutu - Ottobre 1/07 #28


Swimsuit - based on Jalie 2317


"Frog" pants - Ottobre 1/08 #25... photo coming soon

Leather bag
Inspiration from a triangle bag tutorial on craftster.org - I changed it to use with the leather I had and to add accent pieces, an exterior cell pocket and inner pocket.

Pink Stretch Velour Leotard

Pink Stretch Velour Leotard
Originally uploaded by leahholland

Made from Ottobre 1/07 #29/30. I used the short sleeve pattern and spread it as my daughter wanted ruffle style sleeves. I lengthened it about 1" and straightened the side seams. I used some stretch ric-rac on the neckline.

Bellows Pocket Tutorial

On the ottobre-english list there was a question on how to sew the one piece bellows pocket pattern, as in Ottobre Design 1/08 #35 "Frog" pants Views A & B.

This is how I did them....

First I cutout my pattern with 1cm (3/8") seam allowance (SA) on each side, including the top so I could turn my edge under.

Topstitch the hem along the top edge of the pocket.

The Ottobre instructions have you add velcro here. I didn't have any velco, so I will add snaps later. Because of this I interfaced the top hem. Press fold on pocket piece as marked on pattern. These lines are marked on the pattern sheets in dashed lines.

Folding the fabric right side together, stitch bottom corners of pocket.

To give a defined look, edgestitch along pressed fold on pocket piece.

Turn and press seam allowances on edges of pocket to wrong side.

Place Pocket on pants front (for these pants you are to put it on the left front) and either secure with pins or I used Steam-a-Seam to hold the pocket in place while you sew around the edge. After securing, you will edge stitch around the pocket to secure it to the pant.

Topstitch pocket onto pants.

Fold and press pleats at top corner of pocket.

With the pleats folded stitch the top corners down to secure to the pants

Finished Pocket

Skirts in action

Originally uploaded by leahholland
They were a hit this morning....

Valentines Skirt and Birthday Dress

I got to my sewing room tonight! I got three items completed - 2 matching skirts and a dress.

The larger skirt is Ottobre 1/08 #13 "Misty" in size 116. The smaller skirt, I used the yoke from a skirt pattern in 4/04 in size 86 and estimated for the ruffle and lower panel. It is all in "heart" quilters cotton with white underskirt and added a ruffle and both have elastic waist.





The dress is Ottobre 1/08 #20 "Rose" Dress for my daughter's birthday gift. It is in a light pink embroidered poly cotton, with the floral appliqué and a beaded trim instead of the ribbon. I put the ribbon on the wrong side to hold the gathers and added the trim once the side seams were sewn in and before the zipper was inserted. The hem is just a simple rolled hem on my sewing machine.