Blast from the Past: A Dedication

Once upon a time when I quilted, I learned the art of the handmade dedication. My friend, my niece, My SIL, and my Son all got handstitched dedications on the back of their quilts. It was time consuming, but I really felt it added a nice, personal touch to the gift.

It's been literally years since I did a hand-stitched dedication (the last one I did for my son took me months), but this spring, we found out our pastor of 8 years was leaving for a different church. And I had a choice: I could let it go without comment, or I could put my skills to use on a handmade gift.

You can guess which way I went :-) Someone else had already put in the work to order a beautiful stole off Etsy, but it was bought and paid for by a small subset of our church - those of us who are LGBT friendly, and supportive of the progressive mission of the church our pastor is going to. I wanted her to remember and (others to see!) that this wasn't just a parting gift: she had our backing for her new mission.

I got seriously cross-eyed trying to sew this in less than two weeks - the same two weeks, I might add, where our fridge died and our kids switched daycares and everything as that could go wrong DID go wrong, but it was worth it.

It's easy to get lost in the day to day, sometimes, but the gift of a handstitched dedication has some staying power. I'll miss our old pastor, but I'm glad I got to hand stitch some love for her before she went.

Process Post: All in the Ohana

Since my process for All In the Ohana was pretty detailed, I have split it into two posts. One for those who just want to see the end product and coo over the selected fabrics, and another that documents the process for any non-quilters who are curious about my method for joining scraps to look continuous.

As a quilter, I learned a pretty neat trick for making non-continuous fabric look continuous. If you're curious about my process, here goes:

1) Start with two scraps that capture different areas of repeat of the fabric, but have some overlap. within the overlap, decide on your "Line of Relative Disinterest:" a line across the fabric that doesn't have much going for it (no faces, or designs that you don't want distorted). This is where your seam joining the two pieces will go. In this case, I picked a line across the sand and as much non-foamy water as I could get, so the seam would naturally be less noticeable.

2) Lay what will be your bottom piece out flat, and fold the top piece to the line of relative disinterest identified in (1). Then lay your FOLDED top piece with the fold along the same line on the bottom piece, so that the two look continuous when placed together.

3) Slide a quilting ruler (or some other straight edge) to the bottom of the fold in the top piece. It should line up with your Line of Disinterest. (see above)
4) Then holding both top and bottom piece carefully in place, open the fold and mark the fold line. This lets you put a "seam guide" at the place where the two fabrics match up.

4) Pin! Pin, pin, pin, pin, pin. Pin like it is going out of style! And, pin without moving the two fabrics relative to each other, because this is where you'e ensuring that your top piece is going to fold back out to look continuous with your bottom piece.

5) Sew along your sew guide line, again being careful not to shift your fabric. (I didn't think to take a pic, but if you can sew, you can imagine this)

6) Open the fabric back out, and admire (or critique!) how close you got to matching the repeats perfectly. When convenient, trim the excess on the side you are not using.

Here's my end result, which allowed me to fussycut the way I wanted to AND squeeze a second dress out of a yard of directional fabric with an 11 inch repeat! Not a bad deal, especially considering it was impossible to buy more fabric.

All in the Ohana

It's been over 2 years since R received her "More Mingoes" dress, but her mom still sends me photos of her in it. It's well loved! R's mom - an occasional reader of this blog, and faithful humor-er when I need to talk about fabric - also reports that R *loved* having a matching dress for her baby sister, but that since baby sis is almost a year old, that six-month sized dress isn't fitting any more. R hasn't received a new dress since I switched to knits. That's one oversight I'd like to remedy!

Fortunately, this little beauty - ordered in January - arrived exactly 5 days before I was scheduled to get on a plane to see R and her family. The schedule was tight, but I was determined to rise to the occasion.

I had lucked out because as it turned out, I already had two Peekaboo Violet patterns traced out in the right sizes from another project I'd abandoned (or more accurately, scaled down to better fit my nieces). I was able to drag those out, and get right to work on cutting. Which... immediately became a challenge, because I had *just enough* fabric to get 3 of the 4 panels I needed cut in continuous fabric. You can read my process post to see how I pulled the 4th together.

It was still a crazy weekend - I think the fabric arrived on Wednesday, I prewashed it Thursday, and I had both dresses done by Sunday; but I was very glad I'd gotten them done. Here they are being showcased before I packed them up:

and here they are on the happy recipients!

I was able to deliver them in person, but it was late when I arrived so the girls did not wear them until later that week. Nonetheless, R's mother tells me that R let every teacher at daycare know that these dresses were made for her and her sister by me personally. How's that for a commendation? Here's hoping these dresses are just as loved as the previous set. So far, all signs point to "yes"!

A Cinderella Mash-Up

The Jack's Back dress and raglan set were a ton of fun, but they did push me out to May without any actual spring (let alone summer!) dresses sewn for my daughter. Oops! Although by May, I had made good on my promise to order more spring-friendly fabrics.

Having learned my lesson from the Christmas-fabric-for-spring selection last time, I more carefully curated A's fabric selection the second time around; this is what she picked. The colors didn't look great when I photographed it at night before starting (working mom sewist, here), but rest assured that this panel (and coordinating fabric) is really an amazing, colorful, stunning must-have in person.

Of course, the panel is also 18" x 21", because that was the only size I could score. Panels, I am beginning to realize, are hard to plan around. No matter what plan you have for them ahead of time, they arrive and the characters are to big, or the panel is too small, or you just HAVE to include some amazing detail in the most inconvenient corner. I mean, these things can usually be solved with pattern changes and additional fabric buys, but they are details that have to be worked out after the panel is in hand and before sewing begins.

At any rate, realizing that the castle and the characters at Cinderella's feet were just too cute to cut off meant my original plan of using the PaB Violet pattern was out. So too was blindly creating a short-sleeved version of the Haven's Hoodie, because putting the panel and the featured print together without any visual break got... really busy. Oh, and both the Haven AND the Violet feature pockets that would have covered part of the beautiful panel. So, that was also out. But... they're all tried n' true patterns for me, and they all had visual elements I liked, so...

In the end, they both got used. Haven became the silhouette of the dress + the pattern for the armscyes, and Violet contributed both the neckline (so I didn't have to make a hood) and the concept for the back. And at the last minute, I realized I could still place pockets in the side seams of a Haven, which I did by bringing the pockets of the SLPco Isla into the mix. Thus, this dress became my first three-way mashup. I went ahead and traced out the entire front of the dress onto some tissue paper so that I could optimize placement of the artwork:

And here it it is, all carefully cut out and ready for assembly. I did use the lines from the Haven for my inner and outer back, adding a 3/8" seam allowance added to both pieces for assembly as I went.

I put the pockets in just where the hips flared out, on the logic that that's where the pockets on jeans go. I also added contrast bands to the ends of the sleeves, because I loved that shade of violet with the fabric, and thought a contrasting neckband would 1) look good and 2) need another element to tie it in somewhere else on the dress. Here's what it looked like made up:

But even once I had it together, I thought it still needed something... like a contrast band on the bottom to even it out. So, totally on the fly I trimmed the bottom a bit, and and added a bottom band using the same method I used for the foldover neckband.

All in all, it made for a very happy customer! I do think the bottom band balanced things out a bit, and A loves to show this dress off. At first she was a little bummed that it doesn't "twirl" like the Isla does, but disappointment quickly gave way to excitement over the panel up front, the colors of the dress, the "cool" silhouette

and, as always, the inclusion of pockets.

The back is a little harder to see under all that hair, but I think it turned out nicely as well. I also think I ended up with enough of the main feature fabric on the back to squeeze out another dress if I have the chance.  A doesn't have a little sister she can coordinate with, but I'm sure she'd enjoy occasionally matching a friend.

This is by far the most unique dress I have made - in pattern mashups, in panel workarounds, and in last-minute modifications. But, when I look at it, I'm pretty proud it is "mine" - and I think kiddo is proud that it is hers as well!

I still desperately need to make little A a shortsleeved dress with a full skirt - an SLPCo Isla or a Paisley would work, and now I am also eyeballing the Solis pattern by Sofiljantes for - but I am very proud of this make, and very relieved to have at least one mom-made summer dress in her closet!

One Good Turn...

My son may have missed out on his own Merry Nightmare Shirt this past Christmas, but he got a second opportunity with the "extra" fabric from my daughter's new NBC-inspired dress.

I'd cut this fabric with an eye towards leaving some big scraps for a raglan for him, and though it took some work, I did manage it. Then of course, I just had to sew it up!

As usual, this is the MBJM Explorer Raglan pattern (my review), made in a size 4 with 2 inches cropped from the bottom. It's an "oldie" at this point, but a goodie!

And my little man is thrilled to finally have his own shirt with the ubiquitous characters, and surprisingly happy to be matching his sister.

... Even if his shirt doesn't "twirl" like her skirt does (believe me he tried).

Both kids had a blast admiring each other's matching outfits and this "matching set" trick is one I'm going to have to try again in the future.

Hooray for two thrilled customers, and hooray for an age when matching is actually fun.

Jack's Back... for Spring

Spring around here was kind of an on-again-off-again proposition. We had a freeze after Easter, and then *another* one two weeks later, and then a week after that the temperatures went into the 90s. So I'm still not sure we ever got an actual "spring" to speak of, but it definitely (and suddenly!) became time for short sleeved clothing, at least SOME of the time.

The only problem? In all my sewing for my daughter, I never actually MADE her a short sleeved dress (or top, for that matter). See Below.

On the bright side, that's an easy fix. I hand-sketched up all my short sleeved dress patterns (so my daughter wouldn't be distracted by color or fabric selection):

And since we had a Disney Vacation coming up, I spread out my shelf's worth of Disney-inspired fabric:

For pattern selection, A went with the tried & true Isla by SLPco. I could have seen THAT coming. But, can you guess which fabric she picked? If you remember how much she loved her Merry Nightmare shirt, that should give you a hint.

Yup, a Halloween/Christmas print! Technically Nightmare Before Christmas IS a Disney related, but... Augh. Next time, I curate my fabric selection more carefully. And buy more spring-y colors, apparently.

At any rate, even though the whole *point* of the exercise was to make A a short sleeved dress, I just... couldn't do it with Christmas fabric. Not if it meant she'd be wearing short sleeves at Christmas next year. But, I've been curious to try the ruffle sleeve option for a while, and this sounded like a good compromise/decent chance to experiment. I could always cut it off if I didn't like it.

Hilariously, when only the bodice was done I showed the results to my husband, and in a mix of (carefully masked, but not well masked) disbelief and horror he said "you're making a Mardi Gras outfit for our daughter?" He relaxed considerably when I explained that there would be a skirt on it, and it wasn't actually a midriff top for our 5 year old. But I think he was still relieved to see the final product.

Here it is! I used the non-drop waist, but lengthened the bodice by an inch without shortening the skirt (oops). I used the small circle flounce option on the sleeves rather than the large one, and took great care to fussycut the bodice so there'd be one moon in the center instead of two across the chest area. On the back, I did a star cutout.

And.. already A is a HUGE fan... I put it on her, and she spun for 5+ minutes, declaring "best dress EVER!!!" until she finally fell down.

I'm pretty excited about that reaction, and I'm pretty excited about the dress itself. It hasn't gotten worn *too* much yet, both because of our 90 degree heat and because those flounces mean it's not wise for her to wear it if there's any chance she might paint.

But she did get to wear it to a Kentucky Derby party earlier this year, and I am sure there will be other great opportunities this fall!

Looks like she cannot wait :-)

King of Pop Cardi

My mother in law is a charming woman, and a faithful Micheal Jackson fan since the days of the Jackson 5. After the Wizard of Oz, Micheal Jackson is definitely her favorite fandom. She collects his memorabilia and DVDs, and loves his music. So when I saw this fabric, the question wasn't should I purchase, it was how much should I purchase?

For the record, I went with 2 yards. I had no idea what I would make, but that seemed like a pretty safe amount. Eventually, based on my MIL's clothing taste and a desire that this should be fairly flexible attire, I decided to make the Women's Fairy Jacket by Ellie and Mac.

Why? Because it's gorgeous, it fits my MIL's free-flowing style and as outerwear, hopefully she'll get to wear it more than once a laundry cycle. Suggested fabrics included any knit with more than 25% stretch,  for which this CL fabric qualified. For this project I paired it with the LUSH Black Cotton Lycra from Snowy Owl Fabrics, which was thick and super wide (70").

Because it's reversible, I figured my MIL would have 2 options: she could wear it black side out - with little peeks of Micheal at the cuffs and the opening, or she could wear it Micheal-side-out, for a full-on statement of Jackson love. She, being a true fan, instantly opted for the Jackson love.

As a pattern, the Fairy Jacket was easy to follow and pretty quick to make. Following the instructions for sewing the cuffs together on the reversible version was a little nervewracking (and I had to pin and turn it several times for "proof of concept" before I actually turned my sewing machine on), and I'm pretty sure you could accidentally sew a twist into one of the arms if you just follow their instructions blindly. That said, I got through that step with some practice, and wouldn't hesitate to buy from Ellie and Mac again. AND...

My Mother-in-Law Loved it!

In terms of Lessons Learned, I think the big one was "don't go crazy and get the heaviest winter-weight CL you can find if you want the top to be reversible," because 2 layers of 11-13 gsm Cotton Lycra actually turn out to be rather heavy. As my MIL put it "this sweater is gorgeous - but it's also WARM."

Also, the requirement for stretch meant that this cardi was hard to get over another set of sleeves (and they showed underneath). Fortunately my MIL is one of the brave souls who isn't afraid to rock a tank top after 40 - so that's what she paired with it - but it does mean she's not going to be taking it off in fall or winter, and she'll have to launder it frequently since she is going to be wearing it with the sleeves next to her skin.

Not that I think she cares, mind you - she's clearly just thrilled to have a unique, one-of-a-kind hand-sewn garment from a beloved Daughter in Law. And the fact that it's one of her favorite fandoms is just the icing on the cake. I did a triple stitch about 1/2" from the edges to help the garment keep its shape, and she's already worn it on several outings.

Not bad for a gift of love that took 2 weeks (and countless hours of custom-fabric site-watching) to make!