underground railroad quilt in the works

I recently read a book called "hidden in plain view: the secret story of quilts and the underground railroad" and was really intrigued with the idea of secret messages being relayed in quilts and quilt pattern placements and the like and i do realize that there is alot of skeptism behind those that believe in this idea and that alot feel its just a hoax to up the sales of quilts. Regardless of the reason for the book I love quilts and history and have decided to work on recreating a quilt that might have possibly have been used during the Civil War Era with using fabrics as close to what would have been used during that time as well, this post will be updated as I progress.

upcycling!!

My toddler son is ever growing out of his clothes so to curb the cost of new clothing that he will outgrow in a couple months time I have started upcycling things for him (i had been just upcycling for myself) but I love to upcycle so he gets included also. I was given a button up sweater by my mother in law that was in  great shape except none of my girls wanted it since it wasnt a girly looking sweater and it was also missing a button so I cut it apart at all the seams and drafted a pattern for my son and recut and reassembled it to fit him and I totally  love the results I still need to replace the buttons though.

been a while

well its been a while, back to school had me so busy for a while but I am back to blogging again I worked on many things over the past couple months, from pants to costumes. I even did a sally skellington dress from drafting my own pattern and drafted a pattern to make my daughter a dress to be kitty Cheshire from ever after high.  I have also been working on crocheting again too. Busy busy busy.  lately I have been inspired a whole lot with fashions from generations past, especially the 20's.  I find the clothing is so romantic from that time period.  I especially find the clothing worn by the ladies in the TV show downton abbey and titanic, I find it really elegant and feminine and soft. The dresses in this photo are some of my faves from titanic.  I am hoping to recreate the walking suit and the red empire dress even though I would love to recreate more those are my top faves on the list

Amare top and dress

I had the great honor of testing the amare top and dress pattern. Designed by a very talented woman.  This pattern is such a fun pattern to make and a pleasure for your child to wear. So many fabric combination options, dress version and top version, bow or sash  and just because you can why not do both!! The princess seams make this a very classic and elegant look for girls and since the top is so lined no irrigation from seams to any child with sensitive skin!! A win in my book!!

http://www.sofilantjes.com/product/amare-top-and-dress/

This was a first time testing with this designer, in fact though I have many years sewing experience, my experience to using  pdf patterns is less than 1 year.  I love the fact that this pattern explains how to alter the pattern for a great fit for your child. My child fell into a size 12 for width but a size 10 for length. An issue in patterns w my tall but short waisted daughter I hit that issue a lot and this is the first I have seen it explained how to make the pattern work for my child's measurements. I adore this pattern and will be making many more top and dress form. I did receive permission from te designer to add a slight sleeve to my daughters so that she could wear it to school. That took a few drafts to get right and at moment it's attached once dress is finished. I'm planning on figuring out how to attach to straps while attaching lining so no outward seams are visible to distract from the beautiful garment.

my son was trying to pull the dress off the hanger, he is obsessed with frozen

kbsd wrap top

koerbs brothers designs wrap top is an amazing top!! so simple to make and so many options available with all the knit fabrics available, either solid color, two colors, a print and a color, its endless, not to mention the pattern as several options, modesty panel, sleeves, sleeveless, dress or as a top, plus it is a very nursing friendly top!! you get to choose, you can purchase your pattern at https://www.etsy.com/shop/KBStitchDesign

work in progress

all done and love it!! 

btw, i did have to include a wee bit of upcycle, look close the back is from a sweater

the inner makings of a pair of shorts

My 12 year old daughter approached me and had asked me to make her a pair of shorts for this coming school year, I decided since she is at an odd size that I would attempt to draft the pattern using her measurements, armed with her measurements I sat down and drafted a pattern, used muslin to make it and it was way too big, so I went back to the graph paper and did it again slower and double checking each line and mark and again used muslin to make the draft pair of shorts and this pair fit her perfectly.

once I had a pattern that I knew worked for her we set out to design the shorts and picked a fabric for them

the last drawing in the pic is what we went with as far as design

work progressing great, pocket detail finished

successfully installed a covered zipper fly

well I completely messed up this last pair by trimming the zipper from the top and forgetting to put a stop point on them so ,somewhere the zipper pull fell off and in the process of trying to undo all the zigzagging the fabric just kept snagging and unraveling, so I had to start over and piece the fabric to make enough for the shorts so you will notice that they have a center front seam on them now

and as I didn't have enough fabric to do a regular waistband I decided to try a bias tape finish and it worked

recycled pajama pants into a romper for toddler

As many of you know I love the challenge of upcycling a garment past its prime into something that can be used once again, well I was given these cookie monster pajama pants that the fabric was rather wore in spots but I was able to have enough fabric to make my son a romper (size 3t).  Instead of cutting all seams apart, i used the sides of the legs as the fold of the fabric and used it for my front and   back of the romper. I used some scrap from another cast off tshirt for the sleeves and collar and even salvaged a snap for the collar opening. all in all it looks cute. Now to take pics of my son wearing the romper.  The pattern for this romper is available http://www.kbstitchdesigns.com/product/wrap-around-romp/