The Infamous Twin Contest

My nieces were going to be in the twin contest at the county fair last month. We knew this for months. My sister asked me to make them very special dresses for their entry and I agreed. We went to the local Joanns to pick out fabric. I was pulling for something with a farm theme, for instance chickens. My sister was resistant to my brilliant stunt dress idea. After a tiny bit of bickering, we decided on a white cotton with a navy floral print. I duly made the dresses up in McCalls 5033. Making the exact same dress twice is a tiny bit boring the second time, though I do admit I worked out some issues with the first one. The issues were mostly due to my inability to read and understand the pretty simple directions for the shoulder seem.


The day of the fair came, I bought my ticket and went to the building the kids contests were being held in. No sister, no twins. Growing a bit anxious, I paced a bit in the back. They announced the twin contest. There were only two sets of entries. After they had started accross the stage my sister showed up with the cutest twins in the county. Alas, she was too late to enter, but the twins didn't care!

baby shower

In August I went to the baby shower of my quilting friend and I knew I wanted to make something for her new little girl. So I waited for a pattern sale on Simplicity and picked up vintage pattern 2629. Charlotte wasn't going to be a girly girl I knew, but I couldn't resist giving her one outfit that tipped the frou-frou scales. I decided on a relatively safe pink and brown cotton shirting for the gown (view B). There were three tucks on each side and for the neck I cut some bias binding, just as Charlotte's mom taught me to do.The back of the dress had some little pearlized buttons and more tucks.
The week before the shower, I decided to go a little crazy and make her a coat too (view D). But not just any coat, the girliest froufiest coat I could make.

Yes, I went for the border eyelet and yes, I added pink ribbon. I ran out of eyelet the day before the shower and had to run 45 minutes south for some more. I broke the blade on my serger and had to finish with french seams. I finished a few hours before the shower and made my photographer snap photos when he should have been getting ready. I was a bit of a mad woman, but we made it. And Charlotte's mom was pleased. So it was worth it, even if my poor serger was out of commission for a few weeks while we waited for a replacement blade.

The Unfortunate Incident...

With the dress for the wedding. Oh the disappointment you feel when something you worked hard on turns out so poorly. And the chagrin when it happens so publicly.


I knew from the very beginning that there was going to be trouble, but no idea how much. This sari fabric I bought at Joanns was going to be trouble. The non-selvedged edge seemed to shred itself at the merest touch. Never before was I so happy to have a serger. The pattern gave me a lot of fit problems, the bust was too small and the rest too big. But I finished the day of the wedding I intended to wear the dress to so I had no time to go back and fix them. I tied a ribbon around my waist to give it some semblance of shape and hoped for the best.


The wedding was gorgeous and I had a great time connecting with old friends from college. I also had a great time dancing. Perhaps the open bar made this activity a bit too enthusiastic on my part for the delicate fabric. Near the end of the evening, I notice a bit of a breeze. The bodice had separated from the skirt at the empire waistline. I appreciated very much the scarf.

Twice as fun

I made up two toddler dresses for the twins in some fun, summery Tutti Frutti fabric in complementing colorways recently. I used Simplicity 3512 View F to avoid having to use the gathering foot from hell (much needle breakage usually incurred). The dresses were a big hit with both Mamma and girls.

Easy to run around in...
Pockets make everthing nice.

Another shirt

So I made another knit top, this one is Simplicity 3624, mostly view C but the length is view D. As you can see, it's still pretty long. This knit was very slippery and fine. Ugh, it was a bit hard to work with! My basting stitches at the front gather fell out. At that point I was so frustrated with the slipperyness I decided to bore ahead and go with it. I think it worked out, but it could have been better. Bah. In comparison, the pink was a dream to work with.

So Knitting....

The whole in-law clan is making squares for G-ma's birthday and this is my contribution. I am learning to knit as we go along, so mine screams "homemade with love and the complete absence of talent". Amos is teaching me on circular needles, which is something that I think I prefer though it may lead to my is this on the right or left needle confusion. This is supposed to be a square and it mostly is. Notice the rows of perling? That was for the most part, intended. I am going to try again and this time the perling/knitting dichotomy will be more pattern-like. Now, I must go buy different yarn this frizzy stuff was a bear to work with.

feathered friends

I think I have a new obsession...
The robin perched on my sewing machine is tweeting happily to the oriole below.

These little creatures were very easy to make. I found the free pattern here, http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/
It's just two pattern pieces and they go together very well. Great for using up scraps from your ragbag which for me at least, is overflowing. The only tough part was turning and stuffing since everything must pass through the narrow part of the tail. I found the best took for the stuffing job was the end of a wooden spoon.
I have a ton of ideas for this to try out, a few more in actual bird colors and then I am going to make some crazy stuff! I will keep you posted.

New Look 6470

Yeay!!!!


I finished the knit top from New Look 6470 this week. I made view B with the sleeves from view A. I love my first knit top, but there are definitely some fit issues. The sleeves want to fall off my shoulders so I need to add some stitches at the neckline to close them up a little.


The sleeve hole is also rather large. Not sure how to fix this.
But overall, I am rather happy with it, and I think I will try again soon with the white knit I bought.

Additions to Stash

I went to Joann's today with my mom and took advantage of their 50% off clearance fabric! It was wonderful. From left to right, brown linen like fabric with embroidery, pink knit, finer cream knit, brown medium whale corduroy, black lining to repair a friend's skirt, and gray fleece to make a scarf and hat-set for Sir Sews a Lot. I have plans for some of this, but the linen was an impulse buy that I figure will sort itself out by summer when I will be wanting to wear the lighter fabric.

New Year's Sewing Resolutions

Things I want to do/learn to do in 2009

1. Sew with knits (bought patterns and knits, crosses fingers)
2. Make a blazer (terrifying, but again, bought pattern and bottle green corduroy. This one may take a while to enact)
3. Make a button down shirt.
4. Make pants (may need to wait for 2010)
5. Organize sewing room (have some ideas, need to make concrete plans)
6. Make a duct tape dummy
7. Figure out FBA