Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Bella Sunshine Designs Birthday Blog Tour


Birthday Blog Tour 2016-03

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:

Sponsors:

Birthday Blog Tour 2016-04

Prize Number 1:

once-upon-a-yard
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):

Birthday Blog Tour 2016-10

Bella Sunshine Designs - 2 Pattern of Choice
  Bethany Lane - 3 Sets of "Cute as a Button" wooden buttons (30 buttons total)

Prize Number 3:

BSDLogo
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!

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!

Monday, February 15, 2016

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!



Friday, February 12, 2016

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.


Monday, February 8, 2016

Pink Lizzy


*Edited to update links!*

http://gotopatterns.myshopify.com?rfsn=125002.a38a

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 



Saturday, February 6, 2016

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...