little dress with roses

Here a little dress from cute rose fabric. I made up the pattern and unfortunately, being a beginner, Alice probably wore it twice or so before she couldn't fit in anymore ...

pinafore dress with applique

This is a very simple dress to sew, made more interesting by adding some applique.download pattern here  I loved the applique from a dress in Brighton so much, that I just copied it. Here the link to the shop I saw it in:

www.bluebelleandco.com

"making children's clothes" by Emma Hardy - baby bloomers

Here the result from following the instructions from Emma Hardy's book "making children's clothes" - the Baby bloomers.

 

 

 

... Alice checking whether I'm on track with her pants ... she loves looking at the children in the sewing book :-)

Good luck!

owl from "The DIY DISH"

My new sewing machine arrived last tuesday, and altough I have plenty of things that I could/ should sew for Alice and our home, I decided on something simple to use up some scrap fabric. I browsed the internet and there they were ... these really cute owls from some American webshow. You can download the pattern via this link: The DIY DISH.

You will need scrap fabric in various colous ... whatever you like, felt (for the eyes), thread, needle & sewing machine. They suggest using walnut shell litter, which I hadn't heard of before and our local pet shop doesn't sell it. I turned them into lavender cushions instead and filled them with toy stuffing, lavender and beans.

1. Start by downloading the pattern here .If you are planning on making more than one owl, I suggest you print the body twice.
2. Cut out your owl body from the paper pattern, lay it on your fabric and cut 2 pieces. Cut out both wings and the beak. Then cut 2 white and 2 black circles from felt.
3. Take one body piece and pin both wings into place. 

 4. Sew the wings on with any thread you like:

5. Take the beak, pin into place and stitch it on:

 6. Place the eyes and sew the black circle onto the white circle. I did this by hand and blanket stitched around it.

7. Blanket stitch the white part of the eye onto the owl:

8. Place right sides of the owl body fabric together and stitch around the outside, leaving an opening at the bottom to fill the owl later:

9. Place a zig zag stitch around the outside seam to stop the fabric from fraying and breaking open later on.

10. Snip into the side to remove bulk fabric which would affect the way the fabric shapes when turned right side out.

11. Turn right side out:

12. Fill with toy stuffing, beans, lavender, rice ... whatever you fancy...

13. Stitch closed and you are done:

14. I gave the feet a miss this time. Made one owl with them, but mine sit better without:

ENJOY!!

Wrap/ Cross Over dress for Alice - free pattern

I have ordered a new sewing machine ... it should arrive tomorrow and I can't wait. I have been thinking about it for a long time, thinking whether I can justify the expenditure ... but, of course. I sew a lot these days and earn my money working part time ... so, why not. I will show it off and review by comparing it to my old machine once it's here.

This morning I carried on with Alice's wrap dress. The straps were far too long as you can see in this photo and I've had to shorten them.

Here my how to guide:

you will need:

1. approx 0.80m x 1m of your chosen dress fabric (I use 100% cotton)
2. approx 0.80m x 1m of backing fabric. In my case this were old bed linnen (100% cotton in white)
3. pattern printed out on 4 A4 sheets of paper and then cellotaped together and cut out
4. sewing machine
5. thread
6. 2 large buttons (mine are 4.5cm in diameter)

Instructions:

1. download and print the pattern:

Here is the pattern arrangement and link to the downloadable pdf file. Print all 4 pages and arrange as per below photo, then cellotape together and cut out.

 2. fold your fabric in the middle, place the paper pattern on the fold, pin and cut out. Do the same with the backing fabric You should now have 2 pieces of fabric.

3. Pin both fabric pieces right sides together, making sure the edges all match up. Stitch around the outside leaving a 1cm seam and a 15cm opening at the bottom of the dress. Turn right side out and press.

4. Try the dress on your toddler to make sure all fits and looks good. Secure with safety pins.In my case the straps were too long as you can see on the picture and I needed to shorten them. The pattern I uploaded is the corrected version, so you shouldn't have to do the adjustment.

I corrected the lenghs of the straps as follows:

 

 

I cut off the excess strap. Once cut off, I turned the dress inside out again, sewed up the ends of the straps and turned it right side out.

I then machine stitched around the outside edge of the whole dress.

All that's left to do is buying some chunky buttons, add the button holes and sew the buttons on. I'm lucky enough to have a fabric and haberdashery shop just 5 minutes walk away, so shall go there once Alice is awake again and get my missing bits and bops :-) I'll adjust my paper pattern and will hopefully be able to upload it this evenning.

... voila - the finished product ... probably needs some sort of puffy underpants to go with it, but vests and nappies will have to do it for now:

Good luck if you are attemting any of this and are just as much of a beginner as I am!! :-) xx

Please don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions! Anything I can do to help encourage you to make stuff ....