Happy Birthday to Bella Sunshine Designs!

I decided to sew up the Gabriella's Winter Coat but as more of a spring coat.

The fabric recommendations for the coat is wool or wool blends.

I used a linen fabric I found at the second hand shop in the form of a curtain for the main fabric, and a flannel for the lining so there is some warmth and coziness to the coat for those cool spring days. 

I love how the inside is put together--there is a back pleat that provides ease of movement and a bit of give in the lining. And, there is not a raw edge to be seen inside--which I love!

 I decided to unpick a different seam so that I wouldn't have to slip stitch the lining shut. I just had to top-stitch around the outside of the coat to close the small opening I made on one of the front panels.

I also didn't open the three inner button holes--I just sewed the buttons on top of those, so that it looks like they're buttoned up, so that my daughter won't have to button up 6 buttons--only 3. 

Since it's not spring here yet, just somewhat spring-like weather as the temperature hovers around 0 degrees, it looks like a rather wintry back drop for a spring coat, but that's all I had to work with, and no kids were frozen in the picture-taking process. 

Make sure to hop over and buy your copy of the Gabriella's Winter Coat! 

Also, see what else people have sewn up today.

Bella Sunshine Designs Birthday Blog Tour

Featured Bloggers:

House of Estrela | Pattern Revolution | Pleats & Ruffles 

Itch to Stitch | Fabulous Home Sewn | Sew Sophie Lynn 

Sewing by Ti | Made By Sara | Candice Ayala 

Seaside Notions | Pear Berry Lane | Made By Melli

Adventures With Bubbe and Bug | Crazy Crafty Haute Mama | Rebel & Malice

Sponsors:

Prize Number 1:

Bella Sunshine Designs - 2 Patterns of Choice 

Once Upon A Yard / Sew It Seams Facebook Group - Grab Bag of 7 yards of fabric

Prize Number 2 (Just for the USA):

Bella Sunshine Designs - 2 Pattern of Choice

  Bethany Lane - 3 Sets of "Cute as a Button" wooden buttons (30 buttons total)

Prize Number 3:

Bella Sunshine Designs - 2 Patterns of Choice 

Sofilantjes Patterns - 2 Patterns of Choice 

Knot Sew Normal - 1 Pattern of Choice 

Muffin Head Patterns - Any 1 pattern up to $12.00 

Itch To Stitch - 1 Pattern of Choice 

Rachel Rossi - Squared Fashion Wrap Sewing Pattern 

FABulous Home Sewn - 1 Pattern of choice 

Seaside Notions - 1 pattern of choice 

Laela Jeyne Patterns - Pattern of choice (excludes bundles)

  Pickle Toes Patterns - 1 Pattern of choice.

Enter the giveaway:

Hurry, the giveaway ends on Sunday, February 28th at midnight!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Celebration Sales:

Mabel Madison - 10% off their website with coupon code BELLABIRTHDAY until February 29th. Sew It Seams - 15% off their website with coupon code BELLASUN until February 29th. And of course, you can get 40% off all Bella Sunshine Designs patterns on our website until February 29th. No coupon code needed! Ready for one more surprise? Check the Bella Sunshine Designs's website on Friday for a new release or two!

Grey, Yellow, Green

Every now and then I get an order--usually it's a pretty general order as in 'I need some burp cloths' or, 'I need a rag blanket' or, 'Can you make me some bibs?'

This time, there was a color request included--grey, yellow, and green.  

I really didn't want to order from a US site right now as the CAN $ is rather poor, so I scoured the web for Canadian fabric shops that carried grey, yellow, and green flannelette.

This was the final choice and I ordered the fabric from Funky Monkey Fabrics. 

The backing of the burp cloth is from a towel I bought specifically to cut up for burp cloths as I've had an other order for burp cloths recently.  

The burp cloth pattern is from So Sew Easy.
I love the color scheme, and the fabrics are super soft--they'll be perfect for the baby they're meant for!

Burp Cloths

A new venture for me--burp cloths.

A customer requested burp cloths, so I researched a number of different shapes, fabric combinations, and decided to use So Sew Easy's burp cloth pattern, and a quilting cotton and terry combination.

 

 

The quilting cotton is cute, and the terry is super absorptive for those messy spills.

Plus, the shape of the burp cloths is designed to cover the shoulder as well.

 

I'll make a confession--with all five of my kids, I've never used a burp cloth. Ever.

I always just used the receiving blanket.

 

When I got a mass produced, store bought 'sample' of a burp cloth from my customer, I was not impressed with how it was finished off, and the shape just looked sloppy.

I love a neatly sewn and finished item.

And, I love a neatly sewn and finished item, packaged prettily, so I wrapped a ribbon around the whole stack and sent it off that way.

 

The quilting cottons I mostly got from a Facebook destash site (some are from my stash) and the terry backing is from some towels I bought specifically for the burp cloths.



Pink Lizzy

*Edited to update links!*

Another Go-To Patterns Brand Ambassador post!

This month I sewed up the Lizzy Dress by Shwin Designs.

It is available in the Go-To Patterns shop.  Shwin Designs shop. 

She's trying to keep her dress from blowing up--it was super windy!

I had planned a different fabric for this dress....a regular quilting cotton, but when I pulled it out, it was just a yard.

Which, I found out is not enough.

I used 1.5 yards of a pretty eyelet that I bought a number of years ago either at Fabricland or Marshalls (not the dry goods store).

The simple design of the dress should have been a super quick, easy sew.

But, I had to take apart the whole bodice after I had sewed, and clipped the seam allowances of the bodice.

Why? Because I was super blonde and used the wrong side of the fabric as the right side.

Yeah and the only reason I clued in at that point was that my super rough, sand-papery hands kept catching at the threads that were on the front back.

I started thinking, if my hands keep catching that, it'll be a hot mess if my daughter wears it anywhere and rubs against anything.

That was when I realized that I had indeed sewn it backwards--the real front had 'normal' thread, not the quick-to-catch thread that the back side had.

So I spent a good bit of time seam ripping.

I'm glad it got finished since my daughter was in love with the dress, and she was in dire need of some longer dresses. This one is a size 4 width with size 7 length, partly because I want it a certain length, and the length for her chart measurements would have been shorter than I wanted.

I would sew it again, but I think I'd make the skirt part a little less wide/gathered, and maybe add some piping or rick-rack to the tabs.

You can buy the pattern here. 

And, if you buy it (or any patterns in the Go To Pattern shop) before February 9, 11.59 PM EST, you can get 20% off your whole cart using the code WINTERWISHES 

Tree Climber Trousers and a Raglan

(This post contains affiliate links--if you buy through the links in this post, I get a small commission. Thanks for supporting my blog!) 

My youngest son's Sunday outfit for the winter has been sewn for quite awhile already--he has been wearing it all winter.

Yet, I never blogged about it, so here it is now that winter is almost over (hopefully).

The top is the Rascal Raglan from Ottobre 4/2013.

It has become a bit of a staple in our house (see here and here.)

The front panel is made with a woven fabric I won a long time ago from Monday's Milk (though I don't think it's available anymore) and the black knit is from Canadian National Fabric.

The pants are the Tree Climber Trousers from Go-To Patterns...again. It is also a staple in this house.

The fabric for these comes from my local-ish Fabricland. It's a denim-like fabric, though I don't remember the content of it (if they listed it...)  

I'm not going to link all the versions of these pants I've made--there's a LOT of them...you can do a quick search through my blog and find them if you want to see my other versions.

Yep, that's green grass there--I took this picture
early last fall...

Go To Leggings Again and Again and Again......

(This post contains affiliate links--if you buy through the links in this post, I get a small commission. Thanks for supporting my blog!) 

Go To Leggings are one of my favourite patterns.

A definite staple here for my dress loving girl.

I thought it'd be fun to do a bit of a round-up of all the different versions of Go To Leggings I've made.

From top left, white, purple, turquoise, brown, grey, brown, and the white
are the new ones. 

I whipped three pair up the other day--they are already all in the wash and I got one of them modeled on my daughter before they were rendered too dirty for pictures.

So, the bottom left picture (the white ones) are one of the three pairs I just made. It's one of two white ones and a grey one, so there should be two more in the collage.

They are also on sale for $7 instead of $10 as well right now, along with a number of other Go To Patterns, so be sure to check it out!



Winter Wear Designs Blog Tour--the Provence Pea Coat

I've never sewn a real coat before.

 Well, other than when I first started sewing and sewed up a size 3 coat for my then 3 year old. I had followed the measurements exactly, re-measured my son a number of times and compared his measurements to the size chart, and was super excited. He had picked out the lining fabric on his own, and I stretched my sewing skills with a zipper and fully lining a coat. Then he tried it on. He was swimming in it. Seriously. Now, 5 years later, he can still wear the thing. I could have made him a 6 month size and it may have fit him at 3. That was one of the paper patterns from one of the big pattern companies.

So, fit wise, my first and only other coat sewing experience was a complete failure.

But, I wanted to stretch my sewing experience and when I had the opportunity to sew up the Provence Pea Coat from Winter Wear Design, I only hesitated briefly, and that was only because I wanted to be sure I could finish the coat by the time it was due.

What a different experience!

I used the size chart and according to that I graded two sizes together since my measurements spanned two sizes.

You can see the results below.

At over $40 per metre at Fabricland, I opted not to go with a really warm Melton wool.

I wouldn't dare to cut into the fabric!

So, I went with a much more reasonably priced wool suiting in a beautiful black and purple plaid.

The lining is broadcloth. I had picked out a different lining fabric from the clearance section that was nicer, but because it had no original price on it, they wouldn't sell it to me. I even asked the manager if he could just make up a price. But he refused.

Rather nervously I cut into the fabric, and then started the process of sewing.

All the different pieces make it a bit of a longer process, but really add to the shape/fit of the coat.

Other than grading the pattern, the only thing I did different, to avoid hand sewing, is to add seam allowances to the sleeve lining and facing, and then to sew the sleeve lining to the sleeve main by pulling the sleeve through the opening and stitching them right sides together. After turning it right side out again and pressing I top stitched to give it a clean finish.

I love the pockets as well, and they were definitely needed while taking pictures. It was -30 C below with wind chill up here in sunny Alberta. And, with the coat not being a thick Melton wool, it's not quite able to keep the cold out in that kind of weather.

Thanks for stopping by!

Be sure to follow along all week and check out the fabulous bloggers!

1/17/16: Larissa from Connected By A Thread

1/18/16: Ula from Lulu & Celeste

1/19/16: Tibeca from Sewing By Ti

1/20/16: Kelly from Handmade Boy & Tameka from Savannah & Co

1/21/16: Essence from Adventures with Bubba & Bug & Teronia from Crazy Crafty Haute Mama

1/22/16: Cindy from Cindy Parrett & Patricia from Sew Far North

1/23/16: Sharon from Sweet Pea & Pumkins & Fenna from Fabulous Home Sewn

Don't forget to pick up your own copy of the patterns featured this week from Winter Wear Designs and save 20% off any purchase of $5 or more through the 25th of Jan with the code BLOGIT20!