Inari Tee Dress

So, I recently purchased a remote for our camera and this is my first attempt at taking my own pictures.  I apologize in advance for the super awkward arm placement. Anyway, this is my version of the Inari tee dress by Named.

The dress is a lovely slight cocoon shape, side vents, and a high low hem.  The dress is super simple and comes together in a snap.  I used some Cotton + Steel rayon for this and I couldn't be happier.  I love the drape and simplicity of this dress.

A cropped version is also included in the pattern that I'm thinking of trying out soon.  I've seen some really cute versions of it floating around on Instagram. 

This was my 'helper' and I getting the camera set up hahaha! Also, a little sneak peek of a post I'm working on for Friday :)

Going Away Open Wide Pouch

Happy Weekend everyone! Hope its a good one.  We are in a bit of a heat wave here in the desert.  We have a high of 108* today!  Anyway, on to the sewn goods :)  We recently found out one of our friends here was going to be deployed for six months.  It all happened rather quickly and his going away party was yesterday.  I decided to whip up an open-wide pouch by Noodlehead.

I made the largest size using some Cotton + Steel for the exterior and some Bonnie and Camille for the interior.   If you haven't made this pattern I highly recommend it.  It comes together pretty quickly and really does make a wonderful gift.  Hopefully this will be useful to our friend in his upcoming travels.

Kids Clothes Week

Hi there!  I have been meaning to write this post up for a couple of weeks now so here we finally go.  This wasn't my first time participating in Kids Clothes Week but it has been a few seasons since I had.  If  you aren't familiar with KCW it's where you sign up to devote at least 1 hour per day during the challenge week to sew for your kiddos.  There is always a theme and you may or may not choose to follow it.  I usually don't and try to use that week to sew up a new seasonal wardrobe for my daughter.  This challenge I wanted to be a little more relaxed about things (not let my house get too awful messy lol).

The first thing that I made up was Simplicity 8101 .  Its the kids version of the Dottie Angel Frock.  This is view C.  I used all Cotton + Steel from the cat lady line.  The only changes I made were to not bind all of my inside seams with bias tape (I just thought that'd be too bulky).  I will note that the frock does run large.  This is a size 3 made for an almost 5 year old.  I would suggest if you make it to look more at the finished garment measurements than the size chart measurements (really I do this with any pattern and especially any from the 'big 4').  I made this for a friend's little girl for their family pictures.

This next one is the Rosemary Pinafore and slip by Violette Field Threads.  I used some long hoarded Heather Ross (Far Far away II) for the pinafore and a Robert Kaufman cotton lawn for the slip.  This is seriously cute on, the pictures don't do it justice.  My daughter absolutely loves it.  She even loves just wearing the slip by itself.

The last dress I made was the Persimmon Dress by Mousehouse Creations.  I used some even longer hoarded Heather Ross, Far Far Away double gauze.  I bought this before I was even pregnant with my daughter (she's 4.5 now).  For the middle I used a scrap of shot cotton I had and pre-made bias for the ties.  This dress came together so fast and is so cute!!  I will be making more for her for the summer!

Thanks!! Hope you have a great day!!

Maker's Tote

Hi there!! In case you haven't noticed I am a huge fan of Noodlehead patterns (by Anna Graham).  This one is the Maker's Tote in the large size.  This size is huge!  It has so many great details!!  The inside pockets are divided on both sides and the tote is self is nice and deep.  Oh, and it opens up nice and wide to see all of you goodies!!  

I knew I was going to keep my hand stitching and appliqué projects in here so I thought it would be a little funny to use this sloth fabric by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel.  You know, for my slow stitching!  Sorry bad joke there. 

Anyway, I am super happy with how this came out.  The pattern is pretty involved and a few parts are time consuming (hand stitching the binding) but in the end it is so worth it!!  

I hope you all have a great weekend! I know I'm looking forward to following all of the quilt market feeds on Instagram!!!

Mini Quilt Swap

Way back in the fall (October I believe), I participated in the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap.  I think I have done almost every round now except maybe one the summer we moved.  Anyway its a secret mini swap hosted by Kristi of Schnitzel and Boo on Instagram.  It's really a lot of fun and I highly recommend it.  My partner loved rational styled quilts out of traditional reproduction fabrics.  This was a fun and interesting challenge since I mostly work with modern type fabrics.  I found this fun layer cake from French General (the collection name is escaping me at the moment) and I used my Farmer's Wife Sampler book for the blocks.  The Farmer's wife blocks finish up at 6" so I chose 9 different blocks to make up the quilt.  Since the blocks are so busy I added some sashing with corner stones.  

Here I was just getting started,  You can tell it was October since I have my daughter's costume pattern out too ;)

This is what I chose to be my final layout. I did some machine quilting on it around the blocks and sashing and then a little bit of hand quilting to accent the blocks in a cream colored perle cotton.

One of the most fun part about swaps is choosing a few 'extras" to surprise your partner with!  Here is the mini along with some treats.

And a few final pics for fun :)

Have a great day!