Twirl-o-rama

What's that you say? Twirl-o-what'er? Hey I could not resist that oh so catchy title (cough splutter). That's what we have here, a lotta twirliness. My friend Kate (Monkeysbug) and her business partner designed this cute t-shirt twirl dress pattern and I promised her I would give this pattern a go, so here they are. This was a fun design to do and the big plus is that my daughter just loves this kind of style - twirly on the bottom, t-shirty on the top for maximum comfort and fun. This is the perfect school dress and she'll love it judging by her reaction when she saw the first one - she'll love it alot. (ok the apple idea was hers, not mine - but I like the way she thinks!)

As always, I did a few modifications. I'm always tinkering. I had to really eek out the yardage on pink one since I wanted to use up fabrics I had in the stash and avoid buying any new fabrics. I'm on a stash reduction mission. So I used some wooly nylon and serged the top edges of the tiers and left them exposed for added pizazz and added the striped coordinate for the bottom ruffle tier. Same lack of yardage for the black apple dress, so I used a coordinating red corduroy for the bottom ruffle and red ribbon on the tiers for accent. I'm really pleased with how both of these turned out. Way to go Kate!! This is a great pattern. See the big smile on her face?

One, Two, Three

Gumdrop Pillows - one, two and three of them. I had made up this Amy Butler pattern a few months ago and my kids loved the end product. So much so that they pretty much claimed the one I had made for the living room. The first one was used for a few months and is definately showing what happens when you bounce on it - ALOT! It became pretty clear that they each wanted one of their own for their rooms. So after I sourced out some fun home decor weight canvas, I finally got some spare time to sew these up. The pattern is really quick and easy to do. My son loves flag related things, so he got this american themed pillow. My daughter got the fun polka dots. They are both thrilled. The only downfall to this pattern is that it takes a small truckload of fiber fill. I used 10 lbs of fiberfill per pillow. But once you buy out your local store a few times, you'll probably have enough to fill these pillows.

I made the 24" version which is the perfect ottoman-esque size. It's a great place to throw up your tired toes at the end of the day, or bounce around on if you are seven, or even if you are not.

The season for giving thanks

Yup, it's that time of year. Thanksgiving approaches, the holidays fall swiftly thereafter. The thing I love most about this time of year is the assembly of family and the sharing of fun things, like baking cookies together with the kids, enjoying the fall colors, doing family activities and other celebratory events with friends. More often than not the last few years, it seems that life gets busier and busier and I'm always caught breathless with the sheer number of things that dot my to-do to list. So this year I have resolved to enjoy more, take on less and especially to be thankful for what I've got. So it's pretty timely that Mary (Flourishes) posted the thankful for 30 pledge. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. Feel free to join if you like.

I'm certainly thankful for the sewing knowledge passed on to me from my Mother. She has enabled me to make all these fine things and to have fun doing it at the same time.

Some newer finished projects:

Olivia pattern from Farbenmix - comfy and warm for fall.
The cute little birdies are Luiza Pimpinella's designs from Huups - I swear if it was made in Europe I will probably love it! Must be my Austrian genes kicking in or something. These ethnic-inspired little birds just appeal to me and my daughter loved them. Ribbon is from Farbenmix - nice quality stuff to if I do say so myself. Can be had from lots of US-based online vendors if you want to hunt some down. Some more examples of this fun ribbon can be found here and here in Sarah's photos.

Back of the dress - I modified the hoody pattern - it calls for a fun spiral, but I knew my little sophisticate wouldn't go for that plus I could see every kid in her classroom pulling on that thing all day-long. Kids will be kids afterall.


Next up is the Roxy dress which was supposed to be finished in time for school, but hey better late than never, right? I had been itching to do something with Sandi Henderson's Farmer's market fabric for quite some time. This little dress was just the thing that it was whispering in my ear.


The sleeves call for elastic so i used a ruffle edged elastic sewn in so that the ruffle shows and added on the velvet ribbons for trim.
Applique design is from the Helen's friends set at Huups. - yeah there's that Euro thing again. I still need to make some matching leggings to finish up the set.