The Unicorn Dress

If you haven't noticed, I never made Easter dresses for the rest of my girls. They don't really need more clothes, and I was kinda' burnt out after Project Run and Play. I got fabric for some of them, so we'll see what I feel like making in the future. This is my new underachiever attitude: I will sew if and when I feel like it. Isn't that how a hobby is supposed to be? The day of my youngest child's 4th birthday, I felt like sewing. I didn't have much of the unicorn fabric I had ordered for her, so I knew that I should probably sew something with it before she outgrew the fabric or her unicorn obsession. I had been stuck in that overthinking stage, but I realized that an imperfect dress was better than a piece of fabric on my shelf.

I used the free London dress pattern from Violette Field Threads. I extended the bodice and for the skirt I just used 3/4 yd of the unicorn panel cut in half. It went together really easily, although the top is a little wide under the arms. Maybe she will grow into it? It isn't perfect, but I have a feeling that she will wear this dress until it is completely stained or falls apart.

For pure silliness I photoshopped a horn on our horse, just because my daughter asked me to. Why not?

Bias tape: Joann Bodice: When Skies Are Grey by Simple Simon and Co. for Riley Blake Skirt: Unicorn Parade by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller

The Flower Girl Dress

I actually made three of them, but I don't feel comfortable posting other people's kids'  pictures on my website, so I only have pictures of the one that my daughter wore. As with any sewing project, there is more to the story. My niece asked my daughter to be a flower girl and also asked if I would sew the dresses. I love sewing pretty little girl dresses- especially matching ones- so I was excited about this project! Except, I procrastinated. Yes, I use that "P" word an awful lot here on the blog. Part of my excuse was waiting for a swatch, part of it was waiting for our difficult summer vacation to end, and part of it was other commitments that had earlier deadlines. But, really, most of the problem is my indecision.

I overthink just about every decision. I make things entirely more difficult than they need to be. Finally, when I have no time left to change my mind yet again, I just get it done. (Project Run and Play was a great exercise in this area!) So, after much debating, I went back to my original plan and sewed like the wind a few days before the wedding.

Not everyone has such confidence in my procrastinatory sewing. The bride herself, was amazingly cool about it. A few other people close to me expressed their doubts, if only in the realm of "what if you fall down the stairs and break both arms and can't sew." (Duh! That is why I teach my kids to sew!) For some reason, I was not AT ALL stressed about it. I was completely cool and confident. (A certain someone called me cocky.) Anyway, they really ticked me off!

I know that I am rude and inconsiderate for stressing other people out who may not understand who they are dealing with here, and for that, I am sorry.

But everything went FINE! I only made one, tiny, easily fixable mistake in the entire process. All three dresses were the same size, so I did them assembly line style. All of the tops were finished in about 4 hours Wednesday evening. I leisurely completed the skirts Thursday. I even threw in a bonus mother-of-the-bride dress hem. All of them fit perfectly. So... :p to those who doubted!

My rant went a little long there.

I loosely followed the Cairo dress pattern from Violette Field Threads. I own the tween pattern so I sized it down to a 3T on my own. I also wanted these to be simple, flowy, and short to complement the boots and bridesmaid dresses. So, the skirt is a layer of lining and a layer of gathered eggnog tulle.

The top is made of a satin remnant and lining fabric. I handstitched the linings closed so the elastic back is only sewn to the inside. The lace straps are from packaged hem facing. Finally, I glued a flower from the scrapbook section to felt circles and pinned it to the dress to coordinate with the wedding theme even more.

Congratulations to my niece and her new husband! Thank you for having confidence in me and letting me make these adorable dresses!!!

Stuffed Bunny Ear Transplant

Summer vacation is rough!!! I (laughably) thought it might be easier this year because I actually downsized from being with 20 kids all day to just 5. Hahahahaha! Dealing with 5 of my own kids is entirely different. They aren't used to being with each other all day so they need to reestablish the pecking order. It is taking longer than usual with the hormones raging in this house these days (oh, just a sample of what is to come, I know!) Now we have a heat wave and my car is in the garage. It has been quite the week! So, if you are wondering where I have been, I am probably hiding- locked in my bedroom and curled up in the fetal position with a bag of chocolate chips.

OK. Not really.

I have ice cream.

Every now and then I get ambitious/drink extra coffee and try do something fun. Last week we went on our planned shopping excursion, but it took until 2pm or so to get them to clean their rooms so we could leave. Our first stop was the thrift store for a very specific purpose- bunny ears. The kids are waking up right now so I am going to let my 9yo do a little guest posting and tell you about it!

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I have a stuffed bunny named Twinkle Toes. It is a Beanie Boo that has the same birthday as me. My aunts' dog chewed off my bunnies' ears. They don't make these bunnies anymore so we couldn't get a new one. My mom and I decided to go to the thrift store to find new ears. I found the perfect bunny. It's ears were backwards! We all went home and mom washed the bunny. A few days later, my mom seam ripped what was left of the ears on Twinkle Toes. She also cut the ears off of the 2nd bunny. She sewed the ears on Twinkle Toes. We even added a pink flower! AGAIN, MOM SAVES THE DAY!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for posting for me today, Lydia! I am happy that I could fix your bunny for you!

Field Trip Bag

The past few weeks have been pretty much a blur. Between sports, work, gardening, farming, etc. we seem to be crazy busy all of the time! I am pretty much in survival mode. When that happens, the first things to go are sewing and blogging. I have some things I plan on sharing with you, but I rarely fire up the old laptop or pause long enough to gather my thoughts. This is the season we are in right now and it is exhausting. About a month ago my oldest daughter went on her class field trip. At 9pm the night before the trip, she came to me with fabric she picked out and wanted to make a drawstring bag to use the next day. I am crazy; so we did.

A month later I got to benefit from that late night sewing. Last week I went on THREE field trips! (I am still tired!) Of course my daughter let me borrow her bag and it was pretty handy.

I found a tutorial HERE that we roughly followed. I used fusible fleece and it is a bit thick, so next time I will stick to interfacing. We also added pockets inside to hold deodorant, etc. when she uses it for gym class. The drawstrings are made from some extra clothesline that was in our basement. I would also make the loops a bit wider and shorter next time.

I may not blog again until school is out for the year, but I am still here and I have a lot to blog about whenever I am able to make time to write.