London Calling - Is Sewing an Olympic event?

I wish it was...this dress would be my gold medal effort!

It is Farbenmix "Ventura" and it has some fun design elements. I liked the curved hem of the skirt.

Plus, this lent itself very well to mixing fabrics (if you have seen my work, you know I love that!) and adding embellishments.

I went nuts with the embroidery machine with this one: I got the "London Calling" double-decker bus, and crown appliques/embroidery from Huups.de - the tiny Tinkerbell silhouette was stitched out in metallic gold from Frou Frou by Heather Sue and the Olympic rings were a free download. Mickey Mouse with the Epcot balloons came from a seller on Facebook. 

For the back, I added to bias loops to feed the halter straps through. I figured that would make it more comfortable for her.

OMG! I won the Super Grand Prize!!

I attended the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Raleigh, NC this past Thursday (and again on Saturday). It was a pretty nice show. I enjoyed some good shopping, meeting lots of other fabric-happy people, classes...and an amazing amount of luck.

When they see "must be present to win," that is what they mean! They did the "Super Grand Prize" drawing first near the end of the show on Thursday (there was one each day), and the first three names they called belonged to people who had left. Oh well...because the 4th name called was MINE!

I will admit that I screamed "That's me!" and jumped up like some fool on "The Price Is Right" being told to "Come on down!"

I won a Brother LB-6800 (a limited edition Project Runway sewing & embroidery machine). It even comes with this nice rolling tote bag. That is particularly handy since this will be my back-up machine and it will mostly live at my mom's house. My mom has wanted to get back into sewing and was going to get her older (late 90's) Singer tuned up, but this is way better. I'm happy to let her have custody of it.

I went back to the show on Saturday as an ambassador and got to sit in on an interesting class with Cynthia Guffey and meet a couple of lovely ladies who read my blog (and made me feel like a rock star - thank you!!).

I did some more shopping on Saturday. I'd share a picture, but I don't want to set up that show while everybody in my house is watching...might disturb the husband! I'll just share a taste - what I picked up on Thursday (Saturday was waaay more impressive).

After the show on Thursday, I managed to finish up the video slide show for VBS, a shirt for Jamie, and Gracie's "Brave" outfit. Just in time - we went to the movie on Friday - loved it!

Give a cheer for Minnie!

 Gracie LOVES cheerleading and she LOVES Minnie Mouse, so this outfit was a no-brainer for our upcoming Disney trip!

The top is from Simplicity 4040. I cut a size 6 for length, but had to take about 3 inches out of it to get a decent fit around. The black briefs are also from the same pattern - cut on a size 4 and lengthed at the waist to account for her height.

The skirt is McCall's 2849 (OOP, but easy to find on Etsy/eBay) - this also runs BIG. I had a 5-6 and shortened the skirt by an inch prior to cutting. I also had to take it in my almost 7 inches at the waist. Luckily, it was very easy to do by removing and equal amount from each panel tapered from the waist to the pleat inserts. Instead of interfacing the waistband, I lined it with one inch elastic only slightly stretched. It stays up without pinching and gives the skirt shape at the waist. I also substituted velcro for hook/eye closures above the back zipper on the skirt.

The applique is actually two layered and stitched out on felt.

After our photo shoot, she didn't even want to take the outfit off - win for Mommy!

For the boys

I will admit that I love to sew for my daughter and myself. Girly things are so fun! However, I cannot leave out my boys - even the really big one!

I used Simplicity 5581 to make both these cargo shorts and the Mickey shirt my husband is wearing in the picture below.

I think they were all a little impatient since I wanted a picture right after we had been swimming, but I was excited to finally have these done!

I think the Mickey faces on each shirt suit their personalities. ;-)

Now that these projects are done, my next projects include an outfit for Gracie (and maybe a shirt for Benjamin) relating to the new Disney-Pixar movie "Brave" opening next week. I am also hoping to tie-dye some tee shirts for matching character shirts for the whole family and I have a London/Epcot/Olympic-themed outfit planned for Gracie that I think will be really cute.

Disney Delights

The school year is winding down and in between the mayhem of standardized testing and end-of-year stuff, I have managed to squeeze in a few things for our upcoming Disney adventure.

I have stitched out shirts for my husband and me. I also made some pirate and Star Wars items for the boys.

  

and Mickey shirts in progress for boys and dad! 

 of course, some character work for Miss Gracie

and lest you think Benjamin is unrepresented:

2 1/2 more days and then my sewing time will increase! Woohoo!

Not just for kids!

I love Disney.

I love Mickey & Minnie.

Appliques do not have to be just for little kids. ;-)

Of course, this applique will be darling for a shirt for my 7 year old:

Don't you just love Bolt? That movie is one of my absolute favorite Disney/Pixar films!

I also want to share one more thing: I scrapbook...not exactly news, but I am making a book (8x8) of my sewing projects. I brought it to Archiver's on Saturday and knocked out a couple dozen pages of some of my earliest sewing projects. It's turning into a really fun scrapbook to make. I love when hobby worlds collide!

Stay tuned for more Disney-trip sewing. I have what will be a knit dress with Minnie as Princess Leia (from Star Wars), a Yoda shirt(Star Wars), a Goofy shirt, and Buzz Lightyear shorts in various stages of readiness to sew. 

Sew Fast without ruffles and gathers...

Boy clothes seem to sew up more quickly - fewer fussy details (unless you are talking about dress shirts...). Last night, I stitched 2 shirts, 2 complete pairs of shorts and half of 2 more pairs of shorts. I finished those up in a brief 30 minute session this evening.

Presenting boy-wear with character!

Four pairs of shorts from McCall's 6548, 2 t-shirts from Ottobre 2/2004 #16 - a lot of blue, but a lot of cute.

I did inform my husband that I have a sufficient amount of the Mickey boardshort fabric remaining to make him a pair...what do you think?

Sleeves A-Flutter

I just realized I started my own trend - well, maybe not started, but I definitely have my own trend. Here are the last three things I sewed for me:

Simplicity 1916

Simplicity 2181

Simplicity 1897

You know what? If it works, it works! I like the flutter sleeve. It's feminine, but not fussy and it's easy to do.

That being said, I think I will sew a different sleeve on the next garment I make myself.

Disney Safari & Under the Sea

This is the newest creation in my Disney trip sewing collection...the Disney Safari outfit - an Ottobre 3/2006 #13 pattern with Pink Fig's Mish Mash skirt and a bunch of cute appliques.

The pink zebra jeep for Donald was her design suggestion! Plus the skirt has great twirl.

It was so fun to make this between all the appliques and the gorgeous little fabrics - love!

I also finally got around to shooting some pics of the Under the Sea outfit all done (and not on the cat!).

This is "Posh Pixie" by Little Londyn. I added the chiffon ruffle to match the fabric used on the back as well.

Of course, this would not be complete with bubble shorts under it - from the newest Ottobre!

My daughter just has an odd way of modeling these!

Next up will be two knit tops for me (both Simplicity) and a "Suede Says" knit dress from the newest Simplicity collection. I might as well make a couple things for work now since I still have a month left in the (seemingly never-ending) school year.

Vintage Vogue...gone modern

I have been sitting on this gorgeous print - the last 4 yard Fabric Mart had of it - for a couple of months and I was dying to use it, but it had to be the right pattern. Vogue 8789, a vintage style from 1957, turned out to be it.

I had 4 yards of this almost 60 inch wide poplin and wanted to take advantage of that. View A, with its ideal design for stripes, took close to that amount. I didn't have much to spare so the fact that I got the skirt to match up as much as I did was a pretty big deal.

With the print having a rather modern feel with the dots and stripes and bold colors, I decided to skip the cummerbund belt. I picked up this black and white belt at Belk's this evening while on a mission to get new eyeglasses for kid #2 who had a broken pair...hey, it take about an hour, so time to shop!

The belt is really comfortable and eliminates the need for the internal grosgrain ribbon belt. Plus, it camouflages the fact that my big bust pulls up the waistline a bit. Win-win! I can wear it with other things too, which I doubt would have been the case with the belt from the pattern.

I also, mainly due to fabric amount, but also due to being not quite 5'5" decided to take out about 4 inches from the length of the skirt. There is a 3 inch hem in the finished garment. Since the pattern was so busy, I didn't want to fuss with an invisible hem and I didn't need to!

The skirt is about 4 yards wide (before gathering) and therefore a lot of twirl.

I would also have to say that this style has a lot of "Southern belle" about it, but the fabric design reins in the sweetness. Plus, it looks quite a bit like a striped dress with a diagonal cut bodice that I saw at the mall tonight.

Mine is cuter, though...just sayin'!