Doll Mini-Wardrobe and a Play Sling

A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from a friend's not-quite-four-year-old (I think?), asking if I would make her doll a dress.  Obviously a request like that must be taken very, very seriously.  The dress turned into two outfits for her baby and one for her older sister's.


I found a bunch of patterns here and got to work.  I made her sister's doll a reversible cross-back dress and bloomers.

Back View

Then I went for a poofy party dress!  This one has a hook & loop closure in the back.

I think my favorite, though, is this casual outfit, a knit peasant top and jeans!  Hee hee.  I used some pants that E. had outgrown so the hems and side seams would look authentic.

I've never sewn doll clothes before -- although I did once knit several pieces for my older niece's American Girl dolls -- and I really had fun putting them together.

As I was working on the doll wardrobe, another friend asked me if I would make a play sling for her daughter as a gift for when her new sibling was born.  Surprisingly, I didn't have any long enough pieces of girly fabric, so I was forced to go to the fabric store.  It was rough.  ;)  I got enough extra to make a dress for E. as well, so you'll be seeing this print again, hopefully soon.

I make doll slings almost exactly the way Jan Andrea shows here.  I used to sell them on Hyena Cart in my one-child days of leisure and even emailed Jan to see when she had put her instructions up, since they're nearly identical.  I'm a big fan of her site and wondered if I had read them, forgotten about it and then subconsciously made mine the same way!  Turns out I made my first one right before she posted her tutorial.  Nothing new under the sun, right?

Knitting Project Bag

We had spring break this week, and despite being practically snowed in (17.8" of snow.  For real.  Some spring.), I only crossed off one thing on my to-sew list. 


I have a friend who works at a local yarn shop, and a couple of years ago I made her a Knit & Go Girl Project Bag.  She said she uses it all the time and asked me to make another one.

I love the fabrics she chose!  The outer is a home dec fabric and the lining is quilter's cotton. Isn't the cupcake print adorable?

The only change to the pattern was to make it 2" taller, so she could more easily fit a pattern sheet inside.  I love how it turned out!

I think I need to make one for myself too. 

A Miss Molly for Miss S.

More birthday sewing!  A friend's daughter turned six last week, and when I asked what she wanted or needed, I was excited that a summer dress was on the list.  I've had the Handmade Dress's Miss Molly pattern for a couple of years, but despite E. having a super cute one made by my friend Stephanie, I've never sewn it myself.  After digging around in the stash a bit, I found two coordinating fabrics and got to work.

The pattern says it's a two-hour project, but it took me closer to three.  If I'd made the version without the ruffle on the bottom, it probably would've been quite a bit quicker.  I kind of hate gathering.

 

The only change I made was to cut the body of the dress 2.5" shorter than the pattern.  It's meant to be long, but I was concerned it was going to look more like a nightgown than a dress if it was nearly floor-length.  I held it up to O. for sizing, and it fell about mid-calf.   

I wasn't sure how clothing would go over as a present at this age -- the boy is usually less than enthusiastic about receiving clothes, unless it's something super specific that he asked for -- but the Birthday Girl and her female party guests were really funny oohing and aahing over the different cute outfits she got.  O. seemed a little befuddled watching them.  I heard him say to his dad, "Wow, these girls get really excited about clothes!"  Ha.

I'm not sure what's on deck next.  The birthday frenzy is over for a while now, so I should probably get started on spring/summer clothes for the kids, and I have a few things planned for myself too.

Itty Bitty Owl Hat

I'm so in love with this little guy.

 

Our family photographer is expecting her third child in a few weeks and asked me to knit a newborn-sized owl hat.  With my love of owls and penchant for crafting for wee ones, I was thrilled.  She specified the color palette and asked for ear flaps, but otherwise left it up to me.  I looked around a bit on Etsy and combined some inspiration from there with my newborn hat pattern and some crocheted details.

I've been thinking that E. needs one too, but feel like making one this late in winter would be admitting that spring will never come.  Maybe I'll revisit the idea this fall.

The Girl's Birthday Dress -- and a Poncho

There was much agonizing over E's dress for her third birthday.  I'd decided weeks ago to make a Modkid Kyoko, but after several shopping trips, I couldn't find just the right fabric.  Hate it when that happens.  On to Plan B, which involved some turquoise velour and my handy-dandy collection of Ottos.  I settled on the "Pine Green" Jersey Dress from Ottobre 6/2008, in neither green nor jersey -- although I did line the skirt with jersey.  E. is in a 3T in RTW, but really only for the length, so I traced a 92 for the width and 98 for the length.

Skirt lining

It went together pretty quickly and easily, which was fortunate, since I sewed it up the night before her party -- of course.  It does seem to run a bit short, but it's hard to tell for sure, since she can't stand independently.  If I were to make it again, I'd add 2-3" to the skirt portion.

I may or may not have made the dress just to go with these tights.

I really like the shirring detail on the bodice.  I was intimidated by shirring for much too long.  It's so easy!  Don't fear the elastic thread.

I tried to match her bee cake to her dress and came pretty close!

She was also in need of a bigger poncho, so that was one of her gifts.  The Sew Baby Poncho Pizzazz pattern is easily my all time most-sewn pattern (excluding diapers).  As I've mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the poncho as outerwear.  This one is made from some yummy Windpro -- love that stuff! -- with my usual mods of adding elastic the hood and overlapping it at the neckline.  I made it a size too big, but it's still wearable, and I know she'll outgrow it soon enough.  *sigh*

Limitless Strands Necklace

As soon as I saw this tutorial, I knew I had to make one for my sister's birthday.  She's always wearing super cute jewelry when I see her, most of which she makes herself.  In fact, most of my jewelry is from her.  Lucky me! 

Reading through the instructions, I thought it would be simple enough to make.  Simple perhaps, but I vastly underestimated how long it would take, as is typical for me.  Turning the ribbon tubes right side out took what seemed to be a ridiculously long time, the satin ribbon kept snagging on my fingernails, and I was concerned about some pulling at the seams.  I used a 70/10 universal needle to sew them, but maybe I should have used something else?  It's far from perfect (Sorry, J!), but I'm hoping this is a case where the problems are only noticeable if you really inspect it closely.  So if you see her wearing this, don't get all up in her face to check it out, okay?  Thanks.  ;)

A HeartFELT Valentine's Day

Nothing like waiting until the last minute once again, huh?  I finally finished up our Valentine's Day bunting this afternoon, after having the pieces cut for weeks.  O. chose the glittery felt for the hearts.  I'm so not a glitter person, but it turned out cute.  This is the first time I've made a bunting with felt for the backing.  The others, for the kids' birthdays and Halloween, were turned and topstitched quilting cottons.  Those hang better, but this was so much faster!  I think it would be a great no-sew project too.  I wanted the added texture of the visible stitching, but you could whip one out pretty quickly with a hot glue gun!

Look, we covered up that weird outlet above the mantel with a clock!  Much better.  "Bee Mine" is a printable from here and the owl is from here.


While we were stocking up on glitter felt, O. also found some felt bookmark blanks, so we decided to get some felt letters and hearts and make personalized bookmarks for his classmates' valentines.  Grandma stepped up and helped him work on them over the weekend when I was knee-deep in prep for E's birthday party (dress details to be posted in the next few days), and we finished the last five or so last night.  He really enjoyed choosing which colors and hearts to use for each friend and did the majority of the work himself.  He only needed help finding the letters in the pile and putting on the ribbons.