Tag Archives: Esther

Chevron Circle Skirts

So a couple weeks ago the Project Run & Play challenge of the week was to use a chevron pattern somehow in your design. I got my pictures all ready and went to write my post and…my blog was down. Boo! Christian did get it up running later that night, but the opportunity to write had passed. And now I finally have a minute to post what should have been posted a couple weeks ago…

I had a plan to make cute outfits for the girls to wear for Easter egg hunting, but my original plan was to do something really simple. Like purchased tshirt and simple elastic waist skirt simple. But when I saw the list of challenges for this PR&P season I thought egg hunting would be a good opportunity to incorporate the chevrons.

Riley Blake has a line of chevron patterned fabric and I just loved the colors of one of the patterns. It was perfect and spring-timey.

However, once I chose the fabric I was at a loss as to what to do with it. I didn’t want big, busy, chevron-y skirts, but I had a hard time thinking up something else. My friend Anna suggested doing something with a box pleat with the chevron inset. I love circle skirts for the girls and I thought having the little pleat would be a fun addition.

My other dilemma was deciding what to applique on their shirts…I didn’t want a bunny or an egg or anything that would limit the outfits’ use to only Easter time, but I couldn’t think of anything great until I stumbled upon the idea of a hot air balloon. Christian solidified this by sending me this awesome picture…

So, here are their sweet outfits.

A few details…

The skirts are actually only a 3/4 circle…they have a nice twirl and bounce to them, but they lie a little straighter while being worn.
The box pleat inset is 1/4 of the circle so that is why they twirl so nicely…the inset makes the skirt have a full circle hem.
I love using bias tape hem facing on circle skirts (SO much easier to hem this way) and the chevrons cut on the bias have awesome visual interest.
I used a wide elastic waistband and just stitched the top of the skirt to the bottom of the waistband.
The skirts were actually pretty simple to make…once I conquered the math! You should have seen me…geometry was not my favorite in school and that has not changed. Luckily I found this circle skirt calculator from The Snugbug that is SO helpful.

I just love how they turned out. I wish I had some better pictures of them wearing them. We got several cute pictures of them egg hunting, playing, etc., but not many great ones of the actual outfits. So, here is a sampling of “action” shots of them running and twirling and enjoying the (finally) beautiful spring weather.

And now I am off to relax after a busy weekend. We had Dinah’s superhero birthday party on Saturday. It was “incredible” and I can’t wait to share about the event later this week!

Party for our Willy, Nilly, Silly Ole Bear

Since Esther was only a few days old she has had the nickname of “Esther-Bear.” She was a VERY vocal little baby and was always making growling noises. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but she has always loved Winnie-the-Pooh. As young as 18 months old she would “sing” the little Winnie-the-Pooh song. So, I’ve known for a long time that we would do a Pooh theme for her Second Birthday.

Now, many of you know that Esther’s birthday is actually in December…so, why did we have her party in February? Well, the week her party was originally scheduled for in December all three of us girls got nasty colds that developed into upper respiratory infections. Sadly, the day before her party I just had to cancel. I meant to reschedule for sometime in January, but there seemed to be a lot going on in January and it got pushed back to February.

Okay, first for some party details:

This was our party space…we went to one of the smaller parks in the city so there was just the one pavilion with three tables. But that was perfect for our little party.

I made a little pennant banner for our Esther-Bear. I finally invested in some paper crafting tools, like a corner rounder and a scalloped punch. Making decorations for this party was a breeze with those.

And this was our food table…we served strawberry lemonade (which is one of our birthday party traditions) along with…

Veggies from Rabbit’s Garden and…

Silly Ole Bears (aka Gummy Bears) and…

Hunny Combs and…

some Tigger Tails.

These were really easy to make and you can find a bajillion tutorials online. Basically I got those Wilton orange candy melts, melted them and dipped my pretzel rods in. I let those cool and then I melted chocolate and drizzled that over the orange. I will say this…I totally used the wrong kind of chocolate. I mean, it was tasty, but it didn’t really set up hard like the orange did. We had to keep them frozen/cold right up until the last minute because the chocolate got really sticky. I just used some chocolate chips we had on hand, but apparently that was not the right kind of stuff to use. I suppose I need to use some sort of candy making chocolate. It didn’t really matter…they were a BIG hit. Adults and children alike gobbled them up. So, I declare them a success.

And of course there were cupcakes!

I will say that making these was my best baking endeavor ever. I didn’t really do anything from scratch, but there were still really yummy. I took two different batters (a butter yellow mix and a lemon cake mix) and blended them together. The result was a tasty, moist cake with a slight lemon flavor. For the icing we doctored up the canned butter cream icing with about a half a cup of creamed honey (we found ours at Trader Joe’s) and a quarter cup of cream cheese (just to cut the sweetness some). These cupcakes were SOOO good. They were light and sweet, but not too sweet. Just perfect.

Some other things that contributed to their success: 1) I actually measured out 1/4 cup for each cupcake, so they were nice and uniform. 2) I purchased appropriate tips for piping. 3) I researched some methods of frosting cupcakes so I could get the look I wanted. 4) I purchased the super cute bees from a confectioner on Etsy. They were perfect and added just the right touch.

The other little cupcakes were a surprise from my mom. She knew the theme and made those super-cute little cupcakes. Basically they are little bears in a bathtub. They were very yummy and had the surprise of ha Rolo candy hidden in the center. Thanks, Mom!

For the favor bags, I just got regular red paper bags and I glued this image to the outside.

At the dollar store I found Winnie-the-Pooh puzzles for the older kids and little Winnie-the-Pooh stamp sets for the little ones. Each kid also got a couple lollipops, a bag of Teddy Grahams and a little bee magnet. Of course, I neglected to get pictures of the magnets, but you can see a couple extras decorating the food table in the pictures above.

It actually ended up being a perfect day for a party. We decided to have her party at a park and I am not sure I will ever go back to house parties again. Even with transporting everything there and back, it was just so much easier! We had wonderful weather (although a bit windy) and the kids had a great time playing on the playground and exploring the “Hundred Acre Wood.”

*Note…I feel kind of weird posting pictures of other people’s kids…so, you just get to see mostly mine. But don’t worry…she did have friends there!

Waiting not-so-patiently for her party to begin.

Sliding!

Whee!

Swinging with her little cousin

Just a girl and her bear.

Dinah and her Granny off to explore.

Getting ready to sing to our Bear.

Digging into her cupcake

Post-cupcake frosting face

Dinah “helping” her sister open presents

Happy (late) birthday, little Bear!

Thanks to everyone who was able to come! We had a great time!

Signature Style = Sleep-deprived

So, for the four of you who pay attention (hi, Mom!) you will notice that I did not have an entry for Project Run & Play last week. The problem with sewing on deadlines while you are pregnant and already have two small children is that life frequently gets in the way. Earlier this week both girls started getting congested due to allergies, which of course developed into coughs. This means they do not sleep very well. Poor Esther was up every couple hours on Wednesday night (my usual big sewing night). Our week has been crazy-crazy so no one has gotten naps since Monday. Nap-free days and late nights resulted in an elevated heart rate for me on Thursday. So, I went to bed at a romantic 7:30 pm on Valentine’s night and slept (on my left side) for 12 hours straight! I am feeling better now, though I can really tell when I have over done it at times. I’m definitely feeling older for this pregnancy than my others.

So, here were my grand signature style plans: Up until just before the week of the challenge I was planning on making corduroy pants and cute tops from the Oliver+S After-School pattern. I was also going to finally make them their coats that I had wanted to make way back last fall. And then the weather changed to sunny and warm and I just couldn’t bring myself to make fleece coats for the girls in February. In Florida. It was already almost 80 degrees. I started thinking of spring and sundresses and strawberries and I changed everything at the last minute.

I got fun springtime colors of the “linen-look” fabric from Joann, found some cute accent fabric and decided to make Geranium dresses. I got a great start on them, but then the first paragraph of this post happened. And then the weather changed. Again. The past couple of days have been the coldest of the entire winter! So, they have remained unfinished…for now. I’ve decided that I just love this pattern and the way the dresses are turning out, so I am going to make them the girls’ Easter dresses this year. That means you’ll have to wait to see them in their entirety, but I’ll give you a sneak peak here. (Sorry about the phone pics!)

This one is Esther’s…don’t let the bad phone picture fool you…this is an awesome turquoise-y blue that looks so good on her. Christian picked out the accent fabric…isn’t it the best?? I got as much extra as I could so I could make a top or skirt or something else out of it because it just so cute!

And then this one is Dinah’s…I let her choose between this hot pink and a purple. No surprise she chose the pink. Christian actually picked out Dinah’s accent fabric too. The pinks look like they were designed to be paired…they match so perfectly.

Baby Miriam (have I mentioned we are having a girl??) might get the purple one later this summer…Rae’s pattern goes down to even the tiniest sizes, so I don’t think I can resist!

I had a great time sewing along with Project Run & Play again and I am looking forward to the new season coming up. I do have to change how I budget my time though. Basically, I HAVE to make myself sew at least a week ahead of time. While this seems obvious to those who are better time managers, finishing projects without a looming deadline has always been hard for me. (Ask my costume design teachers in college!) So, that is my goal and challenge for the next sew-along…to finish my look by the weekend before the actual challenge begins. Hopefully I can stick to this!

Now, I am going to take a short break from sewing children’s clothing and switch gears to sewing baby quilts. Can you believe that I have made around 10 quilts and not one of those has been for my own children? I haven’t even made my nephew’s yet! So, that is what they are all getting in their Easter baskets this year…their baby quilts. Dinah’s is only four years too late! Poor, deprived children! I will show those off later next month when they are finished, but in the meantime in my next post I will show off a few of the ones I have made previously.

Polka-Stripe Dresses

I hate missing deadlines! These dresses were originally supposed to be submitted for Project Run & Play’s week 2 challenge: Stripes and Polka-Dots. I was really excited about this challenge too, because I already had this awesome polka-dot corduroy. I got it last fall to make new Fall Dresses for my girls, but pregnancy exhaustion struck.

So, when last week started I pulled out the fabric and fell in love with it all over again. AND I noticed that the polka-dots actually make a stripe pattern…bonus! Many of the folks sewing along with the challenge were doing interesting things mixing up prints and while that is awesome, it just makes me nervous. I guess my style is much less adventurous than that. The fact that I actually was hitting both polka-dots and stripes in one awesome piece of fabric made me even more excited to get down to work on them. And then…life struck. My children were crazy-pants all week and didn’t actually go to sleep until after 9 pm each night…I had to finish up a couple orders for the Shop…I got a wicked headache that lasted 2 days…our pest control company sprayed the house one morning and then 7 hours later the floors were still soaking wet, effectively locking the small children and pregnant people out of the house…it was just one of those nutty weeks. I was able to work on the dresses here and there, but just couldn’t get them done for the Friday at 8:00 am deadline. Boo. But I plowed on and finished them this weekend and the girls were able to wear them to church this morning.

And now that my whining and excuse-making are over, I present to you my Polka-Stripe Dresses!

Polka-Stripe Dresses-4

Since I bought this fabric I have been going back and forth in my brain over what I wanted them to look like. I decided this week that I wanted to do a simple a-line dress to show off the print on the fabric. But because that would be too easy I wanted to give myself a couple challenges.

The first challenge was the sleeves. I took an existing straight sleeve pattern and expanded it using ikat bag’s sleeve adapting tutorials. I wanted a slight puff at the top and quite a bit of volume gathered into cuffs just below the elbows. Esther’s didn’t turn out as big as Dinah’s, but I love the result of both for each of their dresses.

And the other challenge was to do a real button placket. Um…I have to say this was A LOT more daunting. I looked up several tutorials and settled on this one. Okay, in theory it seemed simple enough. And it was…sort of. They turned out okay, but I need lots more practice to get them to look better. Esther’s is slightly crooked and both of them are hideous on the inside. But on moving children you can’t notice any imperfections and no one will ever see the insides.

Each girl had a different contrast color for the lining, underside of the button placket and the hem facing. And they each had fabric covered buttons (my favorite!) made with some of their color dots.

After church today we went to a friend’s house for lunch and I took our pictures there. Dinah was being a good model again…

…but Esther was a wild woman! This is mostly what she wanted to do…

Polka-Stripe Dresses-Silly Esther 3

These were definitely better late than never. I just love how they turned out (though Dinah’s is a bit big on her right now) and I am glad I set myself new challenges, even if it meant I missed the deadline for the contest.

Next week: my little nephew gets to be the star of the show for Boys’ Week!

So, does anyone have tips for making a better button placket?

Infinity Dresses…for Little Girls

This week’s Project Run & Play challenge was to remix the Party Dress from The Cottage Home. I have to admit I struggled with this one. A pattern like this is very basic and yet very specific. A basic, lined bodice is pretty much the foundation for almost any garment. AND I had made dresses almost exactly like this before. (The girls’ Easter dresses from last spring…I used them for my Signature Look the last time I participated in the sew-along.) So…what on earth could I do that would adequately “remix” it?? I was thisclose to just skipping the first week. However, my out-of-the-box thinking, creative-minded husband came to the rescue. He was looking at the picture of the dress on The Cottage Home’s site and said…what if you did it like one of those infinity dresses? Eureka! I loved this idea!

I recently helped a friend figure out the best way to wear one of these dresses for her brother’s wedding, so they have been on my radar. Apparently they are (were? Am I behind?) all the rage for their simplicity and versatility. The idea of one for little girls appealed to me for the same reasons. Although the top did need some tweaking to make it more appropriate for children. (for example…my girls are not going around strapless!)

What I ended up creating is a simple tank dress made of a two-way stretch jersey that I found at Joann.

It has a lined bodice and a slightly gathered skirt.

For interest at the hem I added a band.

Infinity Dresses-25

And instead of a normal sash, I gave the dress two loooonnnnggg sash pieces at either side that can be used to wrap around the little one in several different ways to give the dress a new look every time she wears it.

Except for fighting with the knit, this was a really easy dress to create and I thought I would share a little tutorial with you! These will be super comfy and fun to wear in the spring/summer (although it is 80+ degrees here this week!). My girls loved them and didn’t really want to take them off.

I am so glad that I didn’t skip this week! I just love these simple dresses and they will be a great addition to their warm weather wardrobe! I just wanted to share a few more pics from the photoshoot today…Dinah was being a ham and it was cracking us all up. I promise I did not coach her at all…these poses came straight from her crazy, three-year-old mind. :) Just scroll down for the tutorial…

Infinity Dress Tutorial

Materials Needed:
Stretchy knit fabric (preferably with two-way stretch)
Coordinating thread
Ball point needle for your machine
Walking foot (optional…but I find it helpful)

Step One: Create your pattern, calculate your measurements and make your cuts

The first thing you will want to do is make a tank top pattern if you don’t already have one. This is super easy…just go dig out a knit tank top that fits your child well, fold it in half and trace. Don’t forget to leave a bit of room for seam allowances…I did 0.5 inch for this project. I made the front pieces a bit lower in the neckline than the back, but you could do them the same if you wanted…that is totally a personal preference thing.

Next you will need figure out how much fabric you will need for your skirt and the hem band. Here is the formula I used:

((Waist x 1.5) + 1) / 2 = each skirt panel width (That 1 is added for seam allowance.)

My measurements:
Dinah (4T size): ((22 x 1.5) + 1) / 2 = (33 + 1) / 2 = 34/2 = 17
Esther (2T size): ((19 x 1.5) + 1) / 2 = (26 + 1) / 2 = 27/2 = 13.5

For the length, you need to measure how long you want the dress to be. I did from about 4 inches under the arm to right at the knee. Take this measurement and add 1 inch. Next subtract 3 inches (or however big you want your band). This should be the length of the top panel of the skirt.

My measurements were:
Dinah: 14 + 1 = 15 – 3 = 12
Esther: 10.5 + 1 =11.5 – 2.5 = 9 (I made Esther’s band slightly smaller)

So, to recap my top skirt panels were:
Dinah: 17 x 12 inches
Esther: 13.5 x 9 inches

The band panels should be twice the length you want the bands to be plus 1 inch and as wide as your skirt panels.

My bands were:
Dinah: 17 x 7
Esther: 13.5 x 6

And finally you will need your sash strips. I just cut two strips for each dress the width of the fabric. For Dinah’s I did 5 inches and for Esther I did 3 inches.

Isn’t math fun? Or not…okay, here are all the cuts you need…

Cut 2 of each:
front bodice piece
back bodice piece
top skirt panel
hem band
sash strips

Step Two: Make the bodice

**Note: for all my stitching I used a stretch stitch on my machine, a ball point needle, and a walking foot. The stretch stitch I used looks like a little lightning bolt. You could also use a very narrow zigzag stitch. This just allows your seams to stretch just a bit with the fabric so your stitching doesn’t pop.**

Pin front bodice piece to the back bodice piece at side seams encasing one end of each sash piece at the sides. Leave about 1 inch on either side of the sash in the seam. You will have to gather the end of the sash pieces to accomplish this. Pin together the front and back bodice lining pieces at the side seams, as well.

Stitch the side seams together on both the bodice and the lining.

Place the bodice and lining right sides together and pin bodice to the lining at the neckline and armholes leaving the top of shoulders open.

Stitch along neckline and armholes.

Turn the bodice wrong side out and press well.

Pin the shoulder seams right sides together and stitch.

Finish the seam as you choose…I just trimmed to a 1/4 inch and did a simple zigzag stitch. I also hand tacked the seam down at the shoulder, just so it laid nice and flat.

And now the bodice is finished!

Step Three: Make the skirt

Fold hem bands in half lengthwise, wrong sides together and press.

Place raw edge of hem band along bottom of skirt panel, right sides together. Pin and stitch. Finish seam and press band down and seam up. Repeat for the other half of the skirt.

Pin skirt panels together at side seams, matching the hem band seam lines. Stitch together and press seams open.

Near the top edge of the skirt run a gathering stitch. Pull the bobbin threads to create a slight gather around the top of the skirt.

**And, I apparently was in such a great hurry to finish these up that I totally forgot to take pictures of these final steps. Hopefully this makes sense and you can figure it out. :/ Sorry!**

Step Four: Finishing it all up!

Pin your skirt and bodice right sides together. Match up the side seams and adjust your gathering so the skirt panel width matches the bodice. Finish those seams and press the seam allowance down toward the skirt.

And you are done! Now you can wrap up those cuties however you wish!