Give-A-Way Three! Little Darling

Isn't this just darling? I personally love this look for little girls, particularly when they are under the age of five and can't really complain. I got lucky though, my daughter seems to love the retro looks. I picked this out for those of you that might not like to sew for grown ups but love sewing for children. A daughter, granddaughter, niece, or lucky friend's daughter.  I'm even throwing in some gingham cotton/poly broadcloth in pink with little flowers.  Felicity's not so in to pink these days (so... we may be painting her room soon *sighs*).  The second image even shows the ruler on the back so you can tell scale.

The print makes this weird on the eyes. I blame not thinking about this on being awake 15 hours.

 This is Simplicity 2287 in a Child Size 1 with three views, blouse, jumper,and skirt.  All the pieces and instructions are there in factory folds. This includes the transfers for the applique.  The quilters out there would love this!  Now, this is a fifties pattern and one thing I've discovered about vintage children's patterns is they run LARGE.  When you had to make most of their clothing apparently you wanted it to have room to grow.

STATS:
Chest 20"
Waist 19.5"
Back Length - neck base to waist   8"
Finished back length of jumper 17"
Finished back length of blouse 11 3/4" 
Finished length of skirt 9"



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Entry time will close June 23rd Eastern time (this applies to all give-a-ways) 

Caterpillar Gave Me Mushrooms and This Doesn't Look Like Kansas

You know, I've totally had this photo shoot idea stuck in my head for months now. Desperately needed time/place/help to actually get it done.  First off, I think this dress was initially inspired by Ralph Lauren's Spring 2011 collection. Then it turns out gingham is the surprising IT trend of the season. So for once I'm a bit ahead of the curve. Huh, who knew?  I think pink wigs should be all the rage, too.  A girl can dream, right?  I think this photo shoot officially puts me in the "Mom, you're weird" category.

I gotta say, I love this dress to pieces. Even more than my black floral and lace version.  I like it with the pink bow, but I also made a red belt and I have some lovely red shoes that also work with it very well.

Hmmm, I wonder where I am?

For the record, my coworkers all think I'm batty too. So, whatever.

Such lovely flowers!

Showing off the ruffles and the hand picked zipper. 

TWIRL~

Ok, time for me to go to bed. I think I'm officially done with this dress pattern and now that my cover stitch machine is working I'm gonna go nuts for knits. Later ya'll!

A Slice of Life

Hi everyone.  It seems there's quite a bit going on in Katza Land these days.  Some of it good, some of it not so good. And some sewing, but that I'm saving for last, so if you aren't in the mood for personal updates skip to the bottom half.

 The not so good first?  Well,  our main car is currently in the shop getting an engine overhaul that hit us in the wallet pretty hard.  And one of my best friends had a miscarriage, and what really sucked is I was at work with no backup and couldn't drop everything and be there physically. She was barely eight weeks, so small blessings, I guess.  And its mother's day, which means I'm feeling sad.

But Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms that read my blog!

His shirt says "geek".  He's proud of it, too.

Good news! Well, I was able to go to my son's presentation for his advanced class. They had teams of three build and program a robot. They did really well! Felicity was quite envious so used Simon's physics kit to build one at home.   Then they had their blue belt tests this weekend.  I managed to make it to the test and get photos, though I was running on sheer willpower having been up for almost 22 hours by that point. PHEW.

goofy faces!

Don't mess with my daughter. 

"So bored with these splits" says my son.

Sewing!! I finally got around to it the last night of my weekend.  I spent the other nights cleaning and doing food prep.  Our CSA is keeping me in vegetables, that's for sure!  I'm making another Vogue 8470, but its a sleeveless maxi version.  Nine yards of ruffle to the bottom of a circle skirt! That's a lot of pinning and fussing, let me tell you. The dress itself is from a very light weight flannel in a blue/white gingham. Its deliciously soft and airy, but the loose weave makes it 'grow' so to speak.  What started out as matching patterns often ended up going wonky on me.  Below is photo evidence of the dodgy pattern matching.  I did try, I swear.

Oh yeah, and a hand picked zipper.

I decided the easiest way to get the zipper in was by hand.  I never thought I'd say this, but the sewing details by hand are calming.

Armholes

There was suppose to be a bias facing for this, but I decided to just fold and iron the seam allowance and do a tiny top-stitch.

More zipper and dubious pattern matching

And now for the ones that DID come out just right. The center front!  Everyone stares at that spot anyway.

Center!

And the right side seam. Hello gorgeous!

That's it for  now. All I have to do is sew the ruffle on the bottom and I'll be done!  But first, a long work week. Leh Sigh.