Tag Archives: gifts

Notice Anything Odd?

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Last Wednesday, we went to Birmingham (UAB’s Kirkland Clinic) for my 6 month MRI and doctor visit.  We have been going every 6 months since my first hospitalization in 2010.  They have done CT scans, MRIs, and even a liver biopsy.  Since diagnosed with Caroli’s Disease, in 2010, the visits have all been focused on making sure that the spots they were seeing on my liver were not cancer.  This visit, the doctor was comfortable enough with the “non-change” of the spots that he has now moved my MRI appointments to once a year.  Yay, no cancer and less time at the doctor.  It was a good day.

While we were in Birmingham, we dropped off 6 quilts to be quilted by Scott’s aunt, Barbara.  Five of these I have already shown you, but here is the one I finished the day before we left as a present for a friend.  I hope to have it back in June to give to my friend as a housewarming present.  I am calling it Bubbles.  There is a post upcoming about it’s construction…stay tuned for that.

Bubbles

Today, I was assembling another UFO started by someone else and could not understand why the pattern pieces were not quite fitting together properly.

Dress #2 - UFO

There is a front yoke, back yokes, Peter Pan collar and facings…all the usual suspects were there.  They just weren’t clicking together quite like they should.  So, I decided to take a closer look at the pattern pieces.  Lo and behold, I found the problem.  Can you spot it?

What is wrong with this picture?

Problem now solved and pattern pieces altered, the dress should be complete in the next day or two.  Photos coming soon…

Fen’s Sherlock Coat and Hat

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I made this coat and hat for my grand-dog Fen about a month ago.  He lives in Colorado and is a big shivering baby Great Dane.  Anyway, I sent the coat and hat to Fen and it never arrived.  Then about a week ago, we received it back in the mail.  So, now I feel kind of bad that I griped about the Post Office losing my package, when I actually put the wrong address on the package.  Oh well, after paying twice to get it to the right place, Fen now has a new reversible fleece Sherlock Holmes coat and hat.

On one side of the coat I put applique letters spelling his name and the other side is plain hounds-tooth.  The hat came from an adult costume pattern.  I shortened the sides of the hat, since his head is as big around as a human’s but is much more shallow.  The only thing I did not like about the coat is that the neck opening is too large for him.  I will fix that the next time I can get a hold of the coat.

Houndstooth Side

 

Personalized Side

Fen in his new outfit

Aunt Barbara Is Going To Be Busy

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Just a quick post to show what I have been up to the past week or so.  Still working on things that have been in the works and in the attic for years.  Scott’s Aunt Barbara has been doing the machine quilting on the tops that I have been finishing.  Well, now that I have her and one other source for the quilting part of the process, I now feel free to complete the tops that I have been dreading quilting.  Here are a few that are ready to be quilted.

Tops to be quilted

I have an MRI coming up in March and we will be delivering these to her in Birmingham.  Aunt Barbara, I hope you are ready to be busy :-)

Dress Completion

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In the last post, I completed the skirt portion of the dress.  In this one we look at the bodice, bonnet and shoes.  Details make all the difference in sewing children’s clothing, especially little dresses and heirloom clothing.  I prefer to make my own bias binding and piping for my dresses, so, as you can see around the neckline, I used the skirt fabric to create piping edge.

To create the piping, cut 1″ fabric strips on a 45 degree bias.  Using a thick cotton crochet thread, fold the fabric strip lengthwise over the thread and sew a 3/8″ seam down the length of the strip, encasing the thread.  Perhaps I should do a tutorial on this next time…

Custom piping on collar

Following the directions, I attached the skirt to the bodice and then made the button holes.

How to open a button hole (my way)

I just happened to have two flower buttons in my stash that worked perfectly for this dress.

Dress Back (complete)

See, aren’t they pretty?

Back button detail

The bonnet directions state that you should leave an opening at the back edge and, after turning right side out, you should slip stitch the opening closed.  This seemed counter-intuitive to me, since there was a scalloped lace edging that could easily be slip-stitched shut after turning the bonnet right side out.  The way the pattern shows the finished bonnet, there are raw edges exposed where the scalloped edges are, inside the bonnet.  It seems to me that this would not only be unsightly, but would not feel very good to the baby either.  See the photos below to see the directions and to see how I did it instead.

Bonnet Pattern 1

My method: I basted the edge of the lining along the scallop, clipped and pressed the edges.  Then I removed the basting and turned the bonnet right side out.  After that it was easy to line up the pressed edge with the scalloped edge and slip-stitch it shut again.

Bonnet (my method)

Right side out, lining side:

Bonnet (closure)

Outside of bonnet:

Completed Bonnet Lace and Brim

Completed outfit:

Dress Ensemble

The shoes I will cover in a post sometime down the road.  This dress ensemble will be going on the Etsy shop as a custom order, so if you know anyone who would like this outfit for their child or as a gift, please send them my way :-)

Dress Ensemble Side View

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the progress through the assembly of this outfit.  Let me know what you would like to see next.  I would love to use this blog as a way to demonstrate techniques, if I know them.  Just give me a shout.

Finally, here is a quilt that I have pulled out of the past projects pile.  It is going together quite nicely.  I can’t wait to have this one under my belt and on to the recipient.

Gift?

Moving on with the Dress Construction

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In this post we tackle the skirt assembly.  Sewing the lace or any other edging, like piping, onto a garment is easier if you draw the pattern outline on the fabric and pin the edging along the line, rather than a raw edge.

Applying edging

Here are the two together for comparison.  The one on the bottom is way easier to pin and to stitch than the top one.

Different ways to apply lace and edging

Below you can see how, by using a 1/4″ foot on the machine, I am able to stitch  with the seam guide right on top of the drawn line.  This ensures that the lace is applied uniformly and that the fabric is not pulled out of shape.

Stitching on edging with 1/4" foot

When I assemble my dresses, I prefer to use a french seam whenever I can, especially on the long side seams.  This type of seam allows you to hide all the raw edges along the seam and makes a more professional looking garment.

To make a french seam (on a 5/8″ seam allowance), sew a 1/4″ seam with wrong sides together.  Clean up the edge, removing any stray threads and turn the garment with right sides together and press the seam.  Go back to the machine and stitch the seam again using a scant 3/8″ seam allowance.  See two photos below.

French seam first edge

French seam second seam

Remember in the last post that I was confused about the hem band and that I thought there might be an error in the pattern?  Well, like I said at the time, I could be wrong and I usually am about those things.  The problem, after lots of rereading the pattern directions was not the number of hem bands to cut (2 vs. 4), but rather the poorly written directions for assembly.  The drawings are fine, but the directions are for several different dresses and they skip back and forth frequently, which really makes the whole process more frustrating than it should be.  This finally led me to break out the sticky notes and cover up the portions of the pattern that did not pertain to the dress I was working on.  After that, the dress went together quite quickly and smoothly.

Here was the precise issue.  In all the time I have been making girl’s dresses, I have always done hem bands with facings, meaning that I would need to cut 4 pieces (2 bands and 2 facings).  On this pattern, the hem band is sewn in such a way as to use the skirt as the facing for the hem band, so the pattern was correct in stating “cut two.”  In the photo below, photo 28 and 29 are NOT the dress I am working on.  However, they are right below the photo (27) of the dress I am working on, so EVERY time you look at the pattern for reference, you get confused as to how it should look.  Photo 27 and 28 are NOT the same dress…

Confusing skirt instructions

In the photos below, the hem band is sewn with the right side facing the wrong side of the skirt.  Then the hem band is flipped around to the front of the skirt and top-stitched in place.  Adding to my confusion, the hem band on this dress has scallops that face upwards when finished, rather than down (see photo confusion above).
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Finally, we have to have a placket in the back of the skirt.  This is the opening just below the buttons on the back of yoke (or top).  The directions in most patterns are pretty clear about how to do this, so I will leave you with a photo of mine for reference.  Note how the split edge of the skirt is not lined up with the edge of the placket facing, but drops down to the edge of the seam allowance and then back out again.

Placket

Baby Dress Embroidery

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Last post I determined the pattern and fabric that I would be using for the baby dress I am making as a gift for a friend.  In this post, we look at the embroidery.  The pattern called for Lazy Daisies, but I opted for bullion daisies instead.  Really, any flower could be used here, but I just like making bullion knots, so this was my personal preference.  If you have never done this type of knot, here is a tutorial from one of my favorite needlepoint and embroidery sites.

Embroidery in progress

As you can see, I have not cut the piece out, but rather drawn the outline of the pattern piece on the fabric.  The reason for this will be clear in the next post.

Embroidery Close-up

Close up of the embroidery unit.  After completing the embroidery, I read and re-read the  pattern for assembly.  I could still be wrong, but at this point, I have decided that this pattern (Simplicity #2392) has an error in it.  The pattern tells you to cut 2 of the hem band.  This is what I did.  One piece for the facing and one piece for the actual band that I then embroidered.  From what I can tell, the pattern actually needs two bands and two facings in order to accommodate the entire hem.  So, I cut another band and embroidered it as well.  If, somehow, I don’t need it later on, I will just use it for another dress, or something.

Smocking on Sleeve (from the movie Impromptu)

Finally, here is a quirky thing that I do while watching period dramas (my favorite type of movie, tv, etc.).  When I see a costume or a part of a costume that I like, or would like to recreate, I pause the film and take a photo with my phone of the screen.  This dress (above) is from the movie Impromptu and I really love the smocking detail on the sleeves.  Cool, huh?  Am I the only one who does this?

Christmas 2012 on The Farm

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This year culminates in a long awaited visit from Bryan and his family for the Christmas holiday. We have been looking forward to having them visit for many months. Unfortunately, the visit will only be for two nights, so there won’t be a lot of time to just hang out together and visit. It was nice to pull out the decorations, many of which we have not seen in years. In fact, the last time we hung stockings was before Bryan was married, so this year I had to make a stocking for Sara and William. I ran out of time to make one for Luke, due to the flu bug, but he will have a filled store bought one this year anyway.

They should arrive sometime tomorrow and we will be attending Christmas Eve service at our church tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is the day we are taking our filled food bank boxes to the church for the drive. We decided to fill three boxes and I really like the way the church is doing the distribution this year. Last year members of our church took the boxes out into the community in January and delivered them directly to people who were deemed to be “in need.” This year, all the boxes are going to the community food pantry and the food will be used to stock their shelves for quite a while. Nice!

Some Random Completed Projects

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This week, we found out that a friend is having a baby girl. So, I made a little welcome gift for her.  I have also put this outfit on the Etsy shop, for anyone who is interested.

 

Having leftover scraps, I made a shirt for this week’s game.

Then, there is this that I actually made several months ago as a present for my daughter in law.  Today is her birthday and so now I can reveal it.

That is about it for now…just wanted to throw these up there for historical record and to make note that I am still alive over here.  :-)

Nana’s Birthday Handkerchief

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Now that the day has come and gone, I can post about the gift I made for my Nana’s birthday.  The handkerchief is made from a white piece of fabric.  I’m really not sure what the fiber content is.  I embroidered her monogram on the corner with a spray of roses on my machine.  Then I tatted a pink edging to go all the way around the border.  If I tat an edging like this again, I will probably attach it as I go.  On this one, I made the yardage and then attached it to the fabric.  It was quite easy to do, but took some real planning and adjustment to make the corners end up where they would line up with the fabric corners. Here is the result.

 

Wee Care Gowns

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Here is a photo of the preemie gowns that I recently sent off to a hospital in South Miami.  These gowns are for families who have babies early that generally don’t survive.  The gowns are for burial, or for keepsakes for the parents.  To read more about the gowns and to see more photos, visit Scott’s blog.

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