McCalls 6948 modified

My middle daughter was in need of a new Summer dress, and I jumped at the chance to sew one for her. She had a very specific picture in mind of what she wanted - a simple sundress with contrast yoke, waistband and hem.

She picked out the fabrics from our local fabric store, can you tell her favourite colour is blue?  The pattern I used is McCall's 6948 - my modifications included piecing the bodice with the two fabrics, lining the bodice instead of using bias tape, made the skirt shorter, added the waistband, and added the contrast hem.  It was a quick sew and she's excited that her design turned into a finished dress.

Overnight bag tutorial and GIVEAWAY

CONGRATULATIONS LORI! Hope you're enjoying your giveaway prize!

Today I have an Overnight Bag tutorial to share on the Fabri-Quilt blog, and I'm hosting a giveaway for you to make one right here!

This bag is an easy sew, using Fabri-Quilts pre-quilted fabric. They have many prints to choose from; the fabric line I selected for mine is called Who's Who featuring some sweet little owls and butterflies, perfect for my sweet little eight-year old.

So do you want to win three yards of Who's Who fabric so you can make one for yourself? I've made up a little collage of some of Fabri-Quilt's pre-quilted fabrics. Leave a comment below letting me know which one is your favourite, or suggest a project using pre-quilted fabric - I'm thinking of pencil pouches, a new cover for my serger, and a quick table topper.  Then hop on over to the Fabri-Quilt blog and leave a comment on the tutorial post for a bonus entry. Good luck!

Tween dress . . .

I have a hard time finding dresses for my twelve year that fit her properly, but are long enough in length. We googled some styles together and found one we both liked - a high/low style with lace top and knit bottom.

In my sewing room was a lace shirt waiting for an upcycle project, a piece of ponte de roma knit from Girl Charlee's boxing day sale, and the Tara Tank dress pattern from Serendipity Studio.

I went with the XXS size, and the only modifications I made were eliminating the drawstring waistband since she wanted to wear it with a belt, and taking an inch from the top of the shoulder seams to give a better fit. I used a light cotton to line the lace in the bodice, and used the plain bodice pattern piece instead of the pleated style.

She loves how comfortable is, and that it's long enough to wear without leggings. I'm loving how quick of a sew it was, and that it's age-appropriate for her. Still can't believe that I used a ladies pattern for one of my daughters (sniff, sniff) but I guess that was going to happen one day.

Snail trail quilt for JOY circle...

I have always wanted to make a Snail Trail quilt - I love the block design, but making a whole quilt of those blocks intimidated me. But as a quilter for the JOY circle for Do Good Stitches, I get to decide on a quilt twice a year and have nine other ladies sew up a couple blocks of my choosing for it. The quilt is then donated to a local hospital or cancer center.

The quilt block tutorial we used can be found here. It is more simplified than some Snail Trail blocks out there. Everyone was asked to use two main colors per block in choices of purple, dark pink, turquoise, and white. I wanted a finished quilt that would be suitable for a girl or woman of any age. I'm loving the blocks that came back from everyone and am looking forward to quilting this one up.

If you are interested in joining one of the circles from Do Good Stitches, it's a small monthly commitment, and you can sign up here.

Princess dress sewing...

While in Disney, we did a dress-up Princess day. We split up from the boys, and used all our fast passes to meet some royalty and get signatures. It was a lot of fun, and even the older girls got right into it.

My oldest wanted to be Pocahontas, so we used a light cotton for the dress, added some white fringe, and a belt. We also darkened her hair and face a bit. The dress was just a pull-over the head style, so super simple to make. And since it was a hot day, she loved how cool it was.

My middle daughter has waist-length curly hair, so Merida was an easy choice for her. The dress was made from a light cotton, with some lace detail, and we added a belt and a pouch for her bow. We also dyed her blonde locks to orange (which was a hard color to find!).

For my youngest, I cheaped out and bought an Anna dress off of Ebay. Tonnes can be found there for about $10/each and she loved matching her cousin that dressed us as Elsa. Sometimes, convenience and price win over sewing.

still here . . .

So yes, I am alive and somewhat well. Life has been going on not quite like I'd planned over the past few months. We did go on a fantastic family vacation to the most wonderful place on earth. The kids were fantastic, weather was beautiful, and Disney was magical.

During the visit, I ended up in a Florida hospital in pain. And no answers. I have been struggling with this pain for the past couple months, but this was the hardest it had hit me yet. Then this past weekend, it came again, even worse. Thankfully I was home this time, and was able to follow up with a specialist and get some proper answers. Surgery has been scheduled, and I am looking forward to being off of pain meds and back to a normal life.

I have a couple crafty-items to share, a tutorial should be up shortly on the Bear Creek Quilting blog, using the gorgeous new Moda Mistletoe Lane line. Think ice skates, dots, plaids and other sweet small prints.

And I have another set of beautiful fabrics here from the Who's Who line by Fabri-Quilt. One of the prints is in a quilted fabric, which I will be turning into a tutorial for their Inspired by Fabric blog soon.

Riley Blake Designs

Riley Blake Designs has been a favorite of mine for years. In my opinion, they are one of the fabric industries leaders in designs for childrens quilts and apparel, and over the years they have added designers and lines that impress my taste as well. They have also grown their products to include flannels, knits, organic cotton, home dec, laminates, and minky.

Over the past seven years, I have been part of a local group of quilters that host an annual quilt retreat. Riley Blake Designs generously sent us a box of goodies for our participants this year. Every goodie bag will include a fat quarter from them, plus there will be lots of door prizes.

I've also decided to add a little Riley Blake decor to the room - this was a quick project using some of their ribbon, a fat quarter, mason jars, and some burlap.

THANK-YOU again Riley Blake! Looking forward to sharing all your goodies with the ladies at the retreat!

fabric magnet board...

Another DIY project was done around here lately, a magnetic board for our youth group. My hubby helped me with this one. We had to purchase a piece of sheet metal, plywood, trim, and fabric. Piecing it together involved cutting the plywood a bit larger than the sheet metal, painting the trim, grooving the back of the trim so that it all laid flush when finished, lots of gluing, and a lot of screws.

The board is now mounted in our meeting room, and we've already been hot gluing magnets and filling it up.

doll beds and quilts finished . . .

For this past Christmas, my husband and I put in a combined effort for the girls' gifts. He made doll beds for the three of them, and I made the mattresses and mini twister quilts. The girls love them, and they each got to paint them in their choice of color.

The fabric for the mattresses is a heavier weight cotton from my local quilt shop. I used a layer of batting and a thick cardboard, used a spray adhesive to put all the layers together, and wrapped the fabric around the back and used a pretty duct tape to conceal all the edges.

The quilts were made from some charm packs from Fabric Editions, and the backing is scraps of minky from my stash. The pattern uses the Lil' Twister ruler, you can read more about it in this post here.

a new year . . .

Well the new year has begun, and with it a return to this space. Over the past month, we've enjoyed the kids off of school for a few weeks, made lots of memories, fought some illnesses, and fallen back into the work and school routine. I hope to continue to visit here this year to share some sewing and quilting, and continue to connect with other bloggers, shops, and fabric designers.

The pics here are some sewing done for my girls. The Bible/Psalter cases are my own design and made from my stash. The yoga pants are from Sewing Modkid Style and fabrics are from Girl Charlee (their boxing day sale was a-MAZ-ing!). Happy to say that these have all been getting lots of use. It's so fun to have three girls with such unique taste to sew for.