A Baby Quilt for Sam

     Sam is a baby who has had a difficult life.  He's been through many medical troubles, but his smile is enough to melt any heart!  I had the privilege of making a quilt out of some of Sam's baby clothes this Fall.  Let me tell you, his loving, wonderful mother picked out some adorable onesies to go on her adorable son!  Dogs, stripes, huggable monsters, giraffes, frogs, ducks - all things cute and boyish.

     I used the Double Hourglass method from Cluck. Cluck. Sew. It went together very easily - the only difficulty was the stretchy-ness of the material, because the clothes were all knits.  I used a basting spray to fix the fabric to muslin, and then cut the double-layered material into pieces.  This made the quilt heavier and slower to sew, but definitely helped with the stretching!

Nordic Mittens

     A family friend from Minnesota showed me how to make these.  The pattern was an original of her Grandmother's, and looks nicely Norwegian.  It's very similar to a honeycomb pattern, and makes me want to make snowballs and drink cocoa!

Ms. Doggy

She's in the shop!

A Doggy Tail

All of him (lots of flowers... maybe her) will be in the shop later this week, but I had to share the cute tail.  It flops so well.  

Jenny Wren

One down, six to go.  Opinions on Ms. Wren's color? Should I outline the next bird in black (like Ms. Wren) or in its actual feather color?

P.S. There were actual bird specimens in our botany room today (don't ask me why)! The pigeon had seen better days, but the seagull and blackbird were really neat.

What I'm Working On...

...You know, in all my spare time.

Molly Gibson's Apron

Earlier this summer, we watched Wives and Daughters again, and I fell in love with Molly Gibson's simple brown apron.  I couldn't find a pattern, but it was easy enough to make - it's a very simple design.  I decided to make it for Kate, who loves to cook and bake, and also likes that era.

Here's the original, though it's darker in this picture than it looks in the actual movie.

Kate wearing it.  I wanted a more modern look that the original, so I skipped the pleats where the "skirt" joins the waistband.  I think I like it better this way.

And the back (a bit askew).  Kate chose the grey fabric for the pocket trim and button.  It looks nice with the linen.

The waistband was the most tricky part - if I make another I'll use way more pins as I'm sewing.

I'm so glad Kate likes it!  Chrissy was a very patient model.  She was wearing a hoodie that evening and whenever she'd put it on I'd need her to take it off again to try on the apron - it must have happened at least three times!

It's in the Shop

Well, I just couldn't wear it.  I'm sure someone will love it, but that someone is not me.  I would like to make it in a different fabric, and now that I know what changes I'd like to make to the pattern,  it should go together fairly quickly.  That was the main reason I made this dress, after all.  So, it's in the shop.  Good bye, dress (and darling buttons).

The Wise Sewing Encyclopedia

The Wise Encyclopedia says aprons are a necessity in the kitchen.   Hmm.   I'm afraid I missed that memo.   I'm glad I know now!  Will my pans be that happy when I wear one too?

You like nightgowns for little kids?  They're here, and they're adorable!

I know you've been dying to learn how to sew this peplum!  You haven't?  Oh.  How odd.

I haven't either.

Curtains of all sorts.  Tall, short, starched, lacy, stapled to a board, fringed or plain.  You name it, they'll tell you how to make it, why it's useful, and where to hang it.  In fact, they'll just gush over the curtains (and everything else), if you'll listen.

They did things differently in the 1950's, that's for sure.  But then, different isn't always bad.  I think that, minus the peplums, ascots and gushing, I like different!

Coming Up...

A 1950's Dress

I used Marian Martin pattern 9295.  It was very roomy, so I think I ended up taking in about 3 inches from the front and back, and it's still really loose!
 

Sadly, the details do not show up very well (and yes, my posture is usually a lot worse than that).  Silly quilting fabric with it's small print.  Actually, silly me for using quilting fabric for a dress...
 

I really like the little square buttons. 

I think I'm going to make this dress again, in a fabric I like!  I did get up the nerves to wear it to the cottage school today.  I got a lot of strange looks - it was really pretty funny! 

What I've Been Doing Lately

Painting. And studying for placement tests. Funny story, that. I studied for months for the math test, but I didn't even know about the reading one until yesterday. When the time came to take the tests, the reading one took about one monotonous hour, but the math test was only about six quick questions long! Aargk!

Sewing.

Listening to guitar.

Marveling at how BIG David's feet are. What's with this? The kid is five years younger than me! His shoes are like canoes!

Missing our kitty! He had to stay a few nights at the vet's (I promise it wasn't because I sat on him). Poor Giddy. He's back now, though, and doing well.

More Cute Fabric

From here.

Cute Fabric

It's from Ruby Jane. I would like to make a dress out of this, if it wasn't so expensive. Definitely something to save for!

Sewing

Well, I've been sewing little things the last couple of days. A spring bunting (sounds like some rare bird) and a little girl's top (both for the shop). I altered a shirt for myself, and now I'm running out of ideas. I like to have a big project going, because for some reason small sewing ideas come to me then. Maybe I'll get inspiration once I start that dress. On a new machine!

Our current sewing machine is about thirty years old. It's a finicky and fragile machine, much like a spoiled child. You can hear it chewing up threads as it sews through them, and unless you have a lot of patience and good muscle tone in your foot, it will either inch along slowly or fly off at breakneck speed. Neither of these speeds are very helpful when you are sewing. The machine will come un-threaded without a moment's notice, and makes you quit sewing until it is willing to cooperate. Mama's been saving up for a new machine for almost a year, so today we're going to visit a sewing machine shop and check out their selection. She has a very specific list of features that she wants written down, so it should go quickly. I'm so excited!

It's Coming...

... in the mail! Just like they used to get mail order patterns!

I have enough of this fabric to sew the dress, but maybe it would look better in something else, since technically that's a quilter's cotton, and rather an odd print for a dress. I not too fond of that fabric much, either. Right now I'm thinking a solid color dress-weight cotton. In green, or perhaps a nectarine or brown. I'm such a wimp when it comes to clothing - I'm sure this would be really cute in a large, bright print, but I'm too scared to try it.

Ah, well. We'll see. Any suggestions?

A Vintage Dress

The vintage bug bit me a long time ago, but late this fall and early winter I actually sewed a vintage dress! I think I have Pleasantview Schoolhouse to thank for inspiring me, and Joanna to thank for leading me to PVSH through her list of blogs. Thank you!

Here's the pattern I used, Simplicity 2617, from around the late 1930's or early 1940's. I made the style on the right. Even though technically it should be too small for me, I had to adjust it so that it wasn't too large!



And here we have the finished dress!





It is sewn in a bright, peacock blue cotton poplin, which was a bit finicky. After making this, I found out that a "slide fastener" is actually a zipper, not the little hook and eyes I used. Even my grandma (who might have sewn a dress from this pattern, back in the days) was confused by the term. Now I know, which is good, as I'm planning another dress.

I really like the French cuffs, and the large collar is fun! Definitely vintage. I did leave out the recommended shoulder pads...

The dress is graciously modeled by my duct tape dress form, which needs a name (maybe). Any suggestions?

The Finished Quilt

At last! My scrap quilt is finished. I started out hand-quilting, but after three days I had very little to show for it. So my dear Mama wisely persuaded me to machine quilt. I'm so glad she did!

You can see a bit of the pieced binding.



Gideon even approved.

A Quiet Day

Not much excitement happening in my corner of the world today. We saw Mom off early this morning (already missing her). I finished sewing my quilt this afternoon, so now it's time to bind the edges. I decided to put together a bias binding from the remaining scraps, which is very colorful and looks more homemade and whimsical than plain binding, I my opinion. I like it!

I watched kids this evening (Chrissy and I regularly babysit for a wonderful family with three boys), which was fun. After the boys were in bed, I folded laundry and read about how not to get injured while running (yes, I'm just starting again, but hey, I might as know how to stay safe!). And they had extremely fragrant pink lilies! I liked those, too.

On a future note, tomorrow night's football game may be turned off mid-way at our house in order to watch the last installment of the Masterpiece Theater version of Emma. It's wonderful!

Snow Day

Today was a snow day! Due to very icy roads , the cottage school at which Chrissy and I take science classes was canceled for the day. This was nice, since I have a cold and didn't feel like going to school. So instead of taking anatomy and teaching art, I spent most of the morning on my bed, reading and looking online at vintage patterns. Oh dear. I guess I'll have to be extra productive tomorrow.

This afternoon I worked a bit on the scrap quilt - I'm basting the front, batting, and backing together, then I'll quilt it. I decided to stay with cream for the border and back, and like Joanna commented, it is a summer quilt, but I'll use it all year long because it makes me happy!

And look at this, there are TWO people commenting on the blog! Wow! Thanks Joanna and Rachel!