Christmas Dresses 2014

Christmas Dresses!

This year's Christmas dresses were a fun project.  After all that excitement on my part about not having to sew Elsa dresses for Halloween I turned around and asked the girls if they wanted Princess Anna dresses for Christmas.  Silly me.  :)  I borrowed a friend's Simplicity pattern for Anna/Elsa/Frozen dresses and tweaked them to fit my girls.  Grace's dress was an attempt to be true to Anna's colors with Hancock's limited selection, and Leah wanted the style of Anna's dress but 'white like an angel'.  She chose shiny white for the main portion of the dress, and the sleeves, bodice inset, and hem have a layer of white lace over the shiny white satin.  I was able to use up a lot of gold and silver Clover fusible bias tape as trim on these dresses.

I am pleased to see that every year their Christmas dresses get a little bit better.  They fit better and they are most definitely better constructed.  I still have loads to learn, but the annual ritual of sewing Christmas dresses makes it easy to mark the time and see how far I have come.  Ironically, when I looked back to last year's Christmas dress post, I was so proud of those dresses.  One year later, I see the faults of those dresses and how I could have done better.  Sewing is such a great hobby because you will never be done learning...

Things I like about these dresses:

1.  The overall fit.  These were a mix of a commercial pattern and a self-drafted alterations.  I used size 6 for both girls because that matched their chest/waist measurements.  Grace's was lengthened in the bodice about an inch or so.  Leah's was lengthened another two inches beyond that and I made the skirt longer on hers as well.  She's a string bean, no doubt about it.  It was nice to have armscyes and sleeves from a commercial pattern.   I feel like I did a better job this year of having the right amount of ease in the pattern.  Last year's dresses were well drafted (from scratch) in the sense that they fit but they could have used a bit more ease because the fabric was stiff/nonstretch.  Leah has worn her red dress plenty but Grace's gold one only got worn literally two or three times (grrr).  She loved it in December and January and it has hung in the closet ever since gathering dust.  I understand why - its not stretchy/comfy - but its still a bit annoying.  I think this year starting from a commercial pattern helped me get enough ease in there that they are more comfortable and should get lots of wear.  Of course, being Princess Anna doesn't hurt either.  :)

2.  I can't resist mentioning the sleeves.  First, Princess Anna from the frigid Arendale Fjords is one smart princess - long sleeves and collars.  She's my kind of girl!  Every single store-bought Christmas dress has short or no sleeves.  Honestly, who designs such things?  Clearly not someone who lives in the upper Midwest.  Secondly, I am happy to report that between working at the costume shop and sewing more clothes on my own I am no longer petrified by setting in sleeves.  These sleeves (and bodices) are even lined with a nice soft knit so they are more comfortable on the skin.  I wouldn't have dreamed of lining sleeves a few years ago but this was no big deal and they turned out great.

3.  I like the overall design and have Simplicity to thank for that.  I really like the lines of the bodice - the dropped v-waist and the faux bodice inset is cool and very princess-y looking.   I love the mandarin collars.  The scallops on the bottom are a nice touch on Grace's dress.  I opted for skipping the points on Leah's and added extra silver bias trim.

Things I'd like to improve on:

1.  One set of sleeves (Leah's) went in better than the other (Grace's).  Nitpicky, but true.  Both are still miles ahead of where my skills used to be.

2.  Leah's needs a slip or skirt lining.  The white satin is a bit see through.  Not a problem if you wear white tights underneath but she has to be careful not to wear polka dotted or striped underwear under this dress.  :)

3.  The back of the dress opens with a lapped zipper and the juncture of the zipper and the collar was tricky.  I did a better job on the second dress than the first.

These dresses came together very smoothly and easily.  I made them both in about two weeks time, which is pretty good during December craziness.  I even had them done by Dec. 14 in time for their sunday school program.  

The girls love them, which is what really counts.  

I found these dresses incredibly hard to photograph between the shiny fabric and the wiggly girls.  I'll just put these up here for now and if I ever get better pictures I'll swap them out.

Christmas-y Table Runner

This was a fun little project for a family gift exchange.  I painted a ceramic serving plate at our local paint-your-own-pottery place and then made a table runner to match.  I was hoping the recipient would enjoy a little holiday cheer around her kitchen or dining room.

I forgot to take a picture before gifting it so she was nice enough to send me a photo after the fact.

Simple patchwork in true red and green, with a striped red and white binding.  It would have been fun to cut the binding on the bias and make it candy-cane looking but I didn't have enough of the striped fabric.  Next time, maybe.  The quilting is simple cross-hatching.   If I remember correctly the squares were cut at 3'' so they finish at 2.5''.  

This project reminded me how fun patchwork can be so I am looking forward to doing a few quilts in 2015.  We have two family weddings this year so I'll have at least two big quilts to make and this little runner was a good warm up after all the clothes and bags and other non-quilt things I've been making lately.  Wedding quilt number one here we come....

Olaf Pillow

And.... here we are a month later with a few projects to post.  December just flies by every year, doesn't it?!

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Unless you've been living under a rock for the last fifteen months, you must have met Olaf...

This pillow was a whip-up for a little first grade girl celebrating her birthday with a Frozen party.  I think this might have been our second, if not third, Frozen themed elementary school girly birthday party.  For a previous party, we made this pillowcase, designed by Leah.  The December party was for Grace's adorable little best friend and it was an Olaf party (meaning they decorated snowman shaped cookies).  Grace declared that the gift HAD to be Olaf because it was an Olaf party.  I tried to sway her toward a more neutral/girly gift but there was no budging my stubborn little girl.  Olaf it must be, so Olaf it was.  I did convince her that an Olaf pillow was better (read: infinitely easier to make) than an actual stuffed Olaf.

We took this page from a Frozen sticker book we had floating around the house and I traced it to get a line drawing of the cute little snowman guy.

Here is the hand embroidery - I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The body is dark grey, stick arms and hair are brown, and I had to go out and buy the orange for the nose because I did not have any carrot orange in my embroidery floss stash.  Imagine that.  

The two girls and I experimented and sketched that carrot nose a million times trying to figure out how to have realistic carrot lines on it similar to the shading in the sticker book.  After many goofy looking carrots that we all thought looked bad it was Grace who finally said, "Why can't you just fill it in all orange?"  Bingo - it worked perfectly and looked far better than any of our sketches.  I guess it didn't occur to me to fill it in since the rest of the drawing was just lines.  I did a sort of long-and-short stitch to fill it in because it was a bit big for satin stitch and I thought the texture was cool.  

We bordered it in pink (Grace's no-budging choice as well - she wouldn't let me do Frozen-blue or even Frozen themed fabric).  I just tried to ignore the clash of pink with carrot orange as best I could.  

Its a 14'' pillow (store bought pillow form) with an invisible zipper in the bottom so it can be washed.  

The gift opening at the party was an absolute flurry of craziness so there was no moment of "Oh, how cute" or "I love it", much to Grace's chagrin.  I have no doubt, however, that the little girl loves her Olaf pillow.  

Shockingly, there have been no pleas of "Can you make me one too?" so I'm just going to let that sleeping dog lie....

Our Elf for our Shelf

Meet Elfie. 

He's our elf.  For our shelf. 

I think I'm a few years behind on the whole 'Elf on a Shelf' thing, but once reading about it I thought it would be fun to do with the girls.   I'm not a big fan of the mass market elf I see everywhere - I think he's a bit creepy looking.  So I set out to make one and here he is.  

He's based off Tilda patterns, specifically off a Santa from this book I borrowed from a friend.  I adapted the pattern a bit so that our elf could sit (rather than stand on a dowel/doll stand like the book has them do).  Our elf can't just stand all the time like a decoration - he is a busy little fellow.  

He has an embroidered face and a fun pointy hat with baby ric rack. 

Here he is from the back with his red stripey leggings and green trim.  

I added a circular piece (an elf butt) to the pattern so he can sit.  He's also filled partially with rice so that he has enough weight to sit up straight. 

The girls had fun watching him come to life, so to speak, over the course of a week or so.  I made a 'practice elf' first to test out the pattern.  The skinny legs and arms require careful sewing, gentle stuffing, and lots of hand sewing when adding trim, attaching parts, and closing up seams. Due to the fiddly-ness of some of the steps I wouldn't want to make one hundred elves, but Elfie was a fun sew.  

He's already gotten into some mischief around the house when no one is looking so I think he'll be a fun addition to our Christmas this year.  

The girls are very excited each morning to see what Elfie has been up to while they've been sleeping.   Sneaky little guy... 

Frozen Elsa/Anna Reversible Pillowcase

Leah was invited to a 'Frozen' themed birthday party a few weeks ago.  As soon as those elementary school birthday party invitations come home, my first answer is always "We'll see."  Once we've confirmed that the date works and the party is a go, my second line is always, "Well, start thinking about what you'd like to make the birthday girl."  My rule for birthday party gifts is that we either 1) make homemade or 2) give craft supplies so that the birthday girl can do homemade.  No store-bought dolls, toys, not even books unless there is something homemade along with the book.  Those are Mommy's rules - take it or leave it.  :)

Leah already had her idea before she came home from school that day with the invitation in her hot little hand.  She knew it was a 'Frozen' themed party and that the birthday girl was completely Frozen-obsessed.  Leah wanted a pillowcase that was Elsa colors on one side and flipped over to be Anna colors on the other side.  Pretty creative, I have to admit.  The birthday girl probably had all the other Frozen merchandise available in stores but she likely wouldn't have a reversible homemade pillowcase.  

I took these pictures on a pink background and wish I wouldn't have because it washes out the Anna side, but they'll have to do because the pillowcase has already been gifted.

The Elsa side:

White on white swirly fabric for the snow, two different blues for the accent part, and a few snowflakes hand embroidered in white and silver thread.  

The Anna side: 

Light pink for the main part, dark pink and hunter green for the accents (taken from Anna's dress colors) and some gold embroidery very roughly taken from the details on her dress.

At first I thought Leah wanted the pillowcase to be reversible by having one princess on the 'outside' and the other princess on the 'inside' but Leah corrected me and said, "No, it has to be Elsa on one half and Anna on the other half, plain white on the inside because no one ever sees the inside of a pillowcase."  

Yes, ma' am.  Its your birthday present.  :)  

It ended up being a pretty quick sew for me because time was short.  I would have liked to do more to jazz it up, likely doing fancier appliques in place of the quick-and-dirty-not-the-best-stitching-job embroidery.   Then again, its for an eight year old that we've only known for a few months.  Sometimes quick jobs have to be done.  At first Leah wanted to help with the sewing but when time got tight she said she'd rather 'just have you make it, Mom'.  

The gift was very well received.  As it turns out, the birthday girl is learning to sew so she really appreciated that we sewed something for her.  Once again, hooray for handmade.  :)  

Ruffle Tunics/Dresses

These shirts/tunics/dresses for the girls are made from the leftover ruffle fabric from their Lego clothes.  

These are nothing fancy - just super simple tunic shapes reusing a pattern I have floating around from a previous year's dress bodice.  I lengthened the bodice shape to fit the scraps I had left over (without much flare because the ruffles).  They hit the girls somewhere between mid-thigh and above-the-knee.  Perfect for wearing to school with leggings.  They are lined with the same plain knit fabric as the Lego clothes.

I am happy to report that I am getting better at binding knits - these turned out pretty smooth.  I got a few wonky ruffles on the 'uphill' sewing side, but the binding itself is nice and soft and smooth.

The Sharpie 'x' is because Grace has serious trouble telling the front of her shirts from the back and I forgot to add a tag to this dress.  Many of her clothes have random Sharpie 'x's on their center backs.  :)

Christmas Stockings

One day, people.  One day is all it took to make these four Christmas stockings.   I've only been meaning to do so for...oh... about three years.  Sigh.

We currently have four mismatched stockings that I am not particularly fond of.  Every November I say I'm going to make new ones and every year it doesn't happen.  Two years ago I swore I'd get to it before the holidays to avoid the rush, but somehow it didn't happen.  This past January I VOWED to get them done.  I made them in August and embroidered the names in October.  Whew - deadline finally met!

I think there are lots of ugly or wonky stocking shapes out there - toes too long, sock part too droopy, too fat, etc.  When I saw a pattern with a shape I liked last year, I bought it.  They were impractically gigantic so I had to scale it down but that wasn't too tough.  I am pleased with the overall shape and pleased that they are all the exact same shape (our current ones are not and it drives me batty to see them hanging up there mismatched every year).

The cuff was nicely shaped in the pattern and with a little under-stitching (horray for knowledge gained at the costume shop) they stay nicely crisp and straight.  

The embroidery is by hand using a font I like on the computer as a template.  

I had a really hard time settling on a fabric/design.  Should they be pieced and quilty looking? Classic linen with hand embroidery? What kind of embroidery?  (Way too many secular and/or ugly embroidery patterns out there - will someone please design some simple, clean lined, nativity based patterns?!)  In the end, I went with simple but pretty Christmas fabric.  Hopefully they'll stand the test of time and not look cheesy in a few years.  I plan to make a table topper for a nearby end table with the fabric scraps and that should make for a nice coordinated living room.

So... I can finally cross that job off my 2014 To Sew List.  And while I'm at it I might as well cross it off the list for 2013 and 2012 too!  :)