Bunnies and Bows

Its time for the Easter Bunny! As promised here are the big kid's Easter frocks. These were a lot of fun and I enjoyed making them. Except for the seersucker for Wildman's shorts, this was all from stash. How cool is that? Don't worry I made up for it with the little kids.

First for Princess, fabric is Swiss pique. I've used it before for a *Freezing play dress. It is a dream fabric. I didn't realize it when I made that play dress but the more you handle it the softer it gets. The previous dress was a down and dirty so I didn't realize how yummy it would get as I handled it so much.

Children's Corner Inc.

Pattern is Children's Corner Lee. Amazingly enough, I didn't have this pattern in the larger sizes.

Smocking design is "Yummy Bunnies" from Creative Needle Magazine Feb 2008. This magazine is long out of print but many issues are available on both eBay and Etsy. In this particular issue there are two bunny plates. I have stitched them both.

I have wanted to make this dress for a couple of years. The only thing I would change is I would stitch the bunnies closer together than the 35 pleats apart as called for in the design. Other than that, I love the dress. Collar is Spechler-Vogel pique and all is piped with whip stitch piping.

The design in the magazine stated that the belt was from CC Anne. If it is, it was not with my pattern, so I drafted my own. I should have taken a photo of the belt pieces before I inserted them, I whacked off about 6 inches from each one. Not sure what I was thinking when I cut them out. Wasted piping. Oh well.

I used some antique mother of pearl buttons I have had for years. I bought them from Jeannie B at The Old Fashioned Baby. I love them and longed to find the right project. I think they fit the bill perfectly.

She loved it and it fit well. You can't ask for more. Growing into a big girl. She is almost six years old.

On to brother. For Wildman, a monogrammed shirt of Imperial broadcloth and khaki striped seersucker shorts.

Ginger Snaps Designs

I used Cameron by Ginger Snaps Designs for the shirt and my go to CC Parker's Pants for the shorts. The shorts were lengthened by 1/2". A size 4 still fits in the waist but Wildman has long legs.

Monogram is Francisco font from Apex Designs. It stitches beautifully and is elegant without being too girly. Collar and sleeves are trimmed with seersucker piping. I used the alternative to setting in sleeves with a pleat on the sleeve cap instead of easing. I don't like it. Buuuuuut it was after midnight and I was tired so I ran with it. Live and learn.

Getting a photo of this boy is next to impossible. This is the look you get when you implore him to be still.

This was as good as Mimi could get. I love his khaki colored saddle oxfords. I wish I had captured a photo of the moment we discovered he had rolled his knee socks down to his ankles, maw maw style. This was discovered as we browsed the Coach and Tory Burch stores. Geez Louise!  Wildman is 4 and half. I fear this may be momma's last year for knee socks and short pants. She would have loved to have put him in a jon-jon. That ship has sailed.

He was very happy to see the Easter Bunny,

Happy boy.

Tomorrow will feature the little ones Easter finery.

Easter Egg Hunters Part 2

The big kids were coming here for spring break as well as to attend Beauty and the Beast at the Fox. While they were here Momma decided to take them to the UA Easter Egg Hunt.

I have to admit, I had never been to an organized Easter Egg Hunt unless you want to call the ones we did with the kids in the back yard organized. The alumnae association did a great job.

I have had this Fabric Finders bunny pique in the closet for a few years. I initially had intended to use it for the Lucy challenge I spoke of yesterday. I just couldn't make it come together in my mind and was also afraid LG's momma wouldn't like it. I used CC Sara's Skort. A first for me. It went together so easy though it did make me a little sad to realize Princess is big enough to wear skirts now. I would rather she still be in a size 24 mos Lucy like her cousin.

The ruffle and shorts were made from a "hunk" of black/white gingham that was just barely big enough to squeeze the shorts from.  You can't tell but the pleated ruffle is pieced together.  T shirt is machine embroidered with Flower Letters from Fun Stitch. Excuse the dark, shadowy photos, this was late at night and the lighting in my sewing room is not conducive to photography.

As I said, I had no black gingham left for a pair of shorts plus it was stinking cold here that day. I had purchased him a pair of khaki shorts but it was too cold. He has an embroidered t-shirt with a cute carrot totin' truck from Planet Appliqué. Actually I made this shirt twice. Bless his heart he dumped an entire cup of coffee (cold, thank goodness) on himself trying to protect his basket from a perceived interloper. He loved the truck so much, Mimi quickly made him another one and zipped it off in the mail.

This was on the way out the door. They had fun before having to say a sad goodbye to return home. They are growing up too fast.

Easter Bunny has Come and Gone!

Do you see this poor tired bunny? That is this bunny right here! I mailed the little's Easter finery yesterday. Before I show them to you let me tell you a story-

I race into the UPS Store yesterday morning before a meeting, with not only Easter garments carefully wrapped but also a bag of "Easter Bunny" for momma to slip into their baskets. This is a UPS location very near my home and I will admit that I am there too often. Nothing against regular mail but sometimes I trust UPS more or let's be honest, on more than one occasion I have not had time to get the box ready myself and they will do it for me. All that being said, I walk in 👣👣👣

and the clerk who looks about as old as this sweet young man greets me with a warm hello followed up with "I bet you have Easter dresses that need to get there on time!" Said with a knowing smirk I might add. If I were his momma I might have washed his mouth out with soap! Don't go pointing out the obvious young man! I think I may have a reputation. Oh well someone has to don't you think? I will do this in a few posts but here is the first.

I had the crazy idea to make two sets of Easter outfits this year. Ones for Easter Bunny pics/Church and ones to wear for fun to school/daycare/Easter Egg Hunt. What the heck was I thinking?

I kind of know where the thought came from. Our SAGA chapter decided to do a Children's Corner pattern challenge using Lucy and/or Johnny and I wanted to participate. That is where this garment that started it all came from.  This is CC Lucy using a color block method I had seen on another website. The bunny appliqué is from Planet Appliqué.

My inspiration was these shorts came from The Beaufort Bonnet Company.  If my memory serves me right, big IF there, they have offered these in seersucker in the past. I went diving into the stash closet and came out with some seersucker and got to work. 

 I traced, chopped and added seam allowances to the front and back pieces and put them back together again. The biggest challenge was making sure I cut out corresponding mirrored pieces when cutting out the garment. Added piping, of course, covered buttons and we were good to go.

It fit to perfection. I made an 24 mos coupled with a purchased top from RagsLand.

Brother had an embroidered t-shirt to match (minus the bow) and a pair of CC Parker's Pants shorts. Judging by the loot in that basket, I think they had a good time.

Look for the big kid's outfits tomorrow.

No Longer Hopping

That bunny is no longer hopping, he is a speed racer and I am way behind!!

And what possessed me to use rayon floss? Must be outta my mind!

Bad phone pic but almost finished with smocking.

No time to chat.

Hopping Down the Bunny Trail

They are missing their bow yet, but they are smocked and blocking on the ironing board.  My husband walks in the room and says, "why are they brown?" I guess he missed out on chocolate bunnies as a child.

The fabric is Swiss pique that I have am squeeeeezing this dress from. I had plenty but used a large chunk here. It is all good, there just won't be any scraps left and I am a-ok with that.

See?

This is the type of irritation I am dealing with. Went to pick up my blue marking pen and couldn't figure out why I couldn't lift it off of the ironing board. It had melted AND cooled to the iron resulting in the two becoming one. I had to reheat the iron to get it off. No wonder why it takes me three times as long to accomplish anything.

Here is what I am working on. Hurry, hurry the Easter Bunny is coming.

Hang With Me

Yes, I realize this photo is from Christmas. There is a new computer with new software that must learned. So hang in there. Changes are coming. No, I have not forgotten you or the countless friends who lovingly and some not so lovingly have mentioned my absence. As I have said before, it is tough to sit at this desk and sew at the same time. Which I have done massive amounts of in that absence. You may notice that someone is missing in the above photo and that is because Little Girl was having none of it.

As you can see here, it has not gotten any easier to get a kodak moment with all four of them.

Be watching this space for more sewing ( I am frantically working on Easter)  and antics of these four munchkins.

Keep Stitching.

A Year in Review-Backtracked

I am sliding this in with a retrofit post. Lets hope it works. I never got a chance to do a year end review last year. I enjoy having an accounting of the things I make each year. This year was even more impressive. Of course I didn't blog much in 2015, thus more sewing time. Its odd how that works.

So in keeping with each year's review here goes:

• Twenty Button Bookmarks for our Annual Auction
• Twelve Machine Embroidered Napkins, also for the Auction
• Six Dresses
• Five Sew Together Bags
• Five Machine Embroidered T Shirts
• Five Monogrammed Diaper Covers
• Three pair of Shorts
• Four Machine Embroidered Hooded Towels
• Two Shirts
• Two Jon-Jon
• Two Doll Dresses
• Two Ready to Smock Bishops
• Three Blouses
• Two Smocked Bishops, start to finish
• Two Jumpers with Embroidery
• Two Short Sets (2 pcs each)
• Two Embroidered Knit Rompers
• Two Bubbles with Machine Embroidery
• Two Monogrammed Ring Bearer Pillow Tops
• Two Button on Suits
• One Eton Suit (2 pcs)
• One Button on Skirt w Blouse (2pcs)
• One Girls Romper with Machine Embroidery
• One Machine Embroidered Tooth Fairy Pillow
• One Button on Bonnet
• One Skirt/Top set (2pcs)
• One bloomers
• One Trick or Treat Bag with Embroidery
• One multi pocket/page Zipper Tote!!
• One Hand Embroidered Christening Gown!!
• Helping One Sweet Girl make her own Teddy Bear Doll (Priceless.)

For a total of 99 garments/projects and a total of 104 pieces.

In addition to this

• Three Sewing Workshops
• One Twelve Day Trip Abroad
• Three First Days of School
• Hosting One First Birthday Party
• One Grandparent's Day
• One Baby's Baptism
• Purchasing and Learning One New Sewing Machine

Once again I am amazed at how much got done as well as some of the forgotten projects I had done. There is lots of fodder here for some future blog posts. 

Now, there are reviews for each year since 2008.

Its That Time Again-

Time for the Cardinals Home Opener. If folks had their way, it would be a school holiday and a day off work. Judging by the news coverage of downtown, a LOT of people called in sick today. Its a viral sickness called "cardinalitis".

As much as everyone wants to see those boys on the field, they come for these boys as well. If *AmBev ever tries to get rid of the clydesdales, their will be a city wide revolt.

Its not Thursday but here is a throwback anyway. This sweet boy is three and a half now. He still knows what team to root for.

Enjoy another season of great baseball! And lets hope we make it another post season winner.

Let's Pretend

Let's pretend that for the past 9 months that I have been totally on top of things and posting regularly as is always my intention. Don't know about you but my mother always said the road to h*ll was paved with good intentions. I do have the best of intentions. The truth of it is, you can't sit in this chair and sew at the same time. If I could, oh the things I could show you! And the past many months has seen a LOT of sewing done. For my son't wedding alone I already shared it was eight weeks of straight sewing. Since the first of the year it seems to be pretty much the same thing. That is okay. It is what this Mimi does.

If the last several months have seen lots of sewing, the past few days have seen lots of file transfer. When you take as many photos of the most beautiful grandchildren as I do and almost as many of different sewing projects, you end up with an astronomical amount of photos clogging your disc space. Astronomical as in thousands. Suffice it to say, my desktop mac was unable to do anything because I had no room. Another frustration that had me spending less and less time in this chair. For several days now I have been transferring files to free up some disc space. It will take several more days to finish this task. I wasn't kidding when I said thousands. After that is completed perhaps it won't take as long to accomplish something if my computer can run at a more optimum speed.

I have been able to edit some photos, albeit poorly of baby Leighton's coming home dress.

My daughter wanted to replicate the dress that she wore to come home from the hospital. This dress was completely done by hand from Swiss batiste. The embroidery is very "rough" but I loved it and loved my baby wearing it. 

The original was made from this pattern. This is the only pattern by this designer that I have ever seen. There were lots of things I liked about the original and some things I wasn't as crazy about. I wanted deeper pleats on the back and I was never a fan of the sleeve shape.

So I decided I would combine parts from a pattern I love the fit, the back and the sleeve shape. Old Fashioned Baby's "Emma's Smocked Dress".  It has recently gone out of print, so be searching your favorite shops now to find what they still have in stock or resort to eBay or Etsy. It is a great pattern.

This is a pic of the bodice. When necessary, punt. The copy dress is made from Swiss flannel in place of batiste. This inserted entredeux at the neckline was IMPOSSIBLE to accomplish by hand. The Swiss flannel doesn't behave the same as batiste. It frays and won't roll and whip by hand like the batiste does. After three attempts, I decided to take another route. I did the roll and whip by machine. That left a rather unsightly ending to the entredeux in the center. When in doubt? Cover it with a bullion rose. If I hadn't told you, you would never have known that I had modified the original embroidery plan. I am all about full disclosure you know. :)

This is the back I love, buttons all the way down the back and has antique mother of pearl buttons. Also purchased from The Old Fashioned Baby. And you can see that sweet sleeve shape. Also this shows the contrast in color. Pink Swiss flannel is a soft muted pink as seen against a pink cradle sheet here.

I also did the Madeira hem a little differently than the original. The original has you turn the hem towards the front and stitch. Swiss flannel does have a noticeable right and wrong side to the fabric. So to achieve the same look, I added a hem band and stitched it in place with a pin stitch. The hem is also accented with bullion roses all around. Also by adding the hem band that was cut on the bias, it eliminated the little tucks at the hem from trying to ease in the fullness on an a-line skirt.

The finished dress. Soft sweetness in pink with white embroidery. Even better,

on our littlest Princess. Doing what she likes best, to be held. As I catch up on posts, she is going to grow up fast right before your eyes. She is six months old now.

FYI- a friend has a new blog. Berry Hill Heirlooms. Jump over and visit. Tell her I sent you.