Sparkly Fairy Dresses

We usually ignore Halloween around here, but this year I decided to make the girls new dresses for the dress-up box that could also serve as costumes for the school parade.

They spent the summer obsessed with the Rainbow Magic Fairies series of books, so fairies seemed like a pretty safe bet.  I bought new fairy wings to replace our decrepit toddler-era ones and made these dresses without telling the girls anything.  What a fun surprise for them one day after school to have new dress up clothes!

I made simple bodices with full circle skirts.  The fabric is called 'confetti dot' (I think) and it has shimmery sparkly dots on a stretchy knit.  I fully lined the dress and skirt with a soft white knit so the dresses are very comfortable - no scratchy seams or itchy parts.   It was so stretchy and easy to sew I didn't even need a zipper or other closure - they are easy-on, easy off over the head.

I purposely made them a tad big so that they could wear warm layers underneath to school and they wouldn't outgrow them within a month or two.  Leah has outgrown just about everything in the dress-up bin so its wonderful for her to have something to wear that at least hits her knees.  

The full circle skirt gives them a pretty good twirl too!  

The dresses have already gotten tons of use.  Fairies, princesses, ballet dancers, and anything else that wears a sparkly dress - the girls have imagined it all.  

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I've also been working on a quilt.  I have the top finished and am now embroidering it but I forgot to take a picture before I started stitching so now it'll have to wait till the end.  Probably Christmas or someone's February birthday.  Picture 'pink' and 'cats' and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it looks like and whom its for.  :)  

Flowery Tote Bag

Why is it that we quilters always make cute bags for others (here, here, here, and here, for example) and then we ourselves use 15 year old totes from Fashion Bug to carry our own stuff around?  I don't know the answer to that, but I always find myself admiring other people's cute tote bags and thinking "I could totally make that!"... but I never get around to it.

This week I had a day to myself with the housework completed by 10am.  I declared it a Sewing Room Day and got down to work on this.  I started around 10am and was done by 2pm.  Its a super simple rectangle with boxed corners - nothing fancy, but very versatile.  The flowery fabric is a thrifted bedsheet, the green is a scrap from my quilting stash, and I used a layer of batting and a layer of sturdy canvas on the inside so its very hefty.  The lining is more thrifted sheet and a cotton 'facing' on the top.

Now I  have a cute bag to carry around... should have done it months/years ago. 

Goodbye Fashion Bag bag...

More Crochet Practice...

I am having fun learning to crochet.  

After a few scarves, I have moved onto other things.

This is a little pencil case I whipped up to hold my pens/pencils/yellow highlighter when I go to bible study.  It seems as though I always have too many pens in my purse... until I really need one and there are none to be found.

Its made with variegated yarn, single crochet stitch, with a button and buttonhole.  It only took me an evening to make and has already been very handy.

After that, I came across crocheting in the round and made this market-style bag.  The pattern came from here on the internet (whose solid bright color is much cuter than mine - I don't have a yarn stash yet!).  Its made with the same variegated yarn and a much looser double-crochet-in-the-space stitch, which makes it very floppy/stretchy.  You're supposed to use it at the farmers market and it'll hold an gigantic amount of oranges or something because it'll just keep expanding.  

Unfortunately I can't say I've found it to be very practical yet.  You can't put anything too heavy in it or it just stretches really long and thin, and it could probably use a stretchy lining so smaller things don't fall out.  However, as you can see, its already been confiscated by the girls and is a good stuffed animal pouch, plus it taught me crocheting in the round as well as gave me practice increasing and decreasing stitches so I'm happy.

I already have some ideas for Christmas/baby gifts that might be crocheted rather than quilted/sewn this year.  While making the market bag I found myself toting around a little workbasket everywhere I went so I could 'do a quick round or two' while I waited for something...its very addicting!