Surprises!

We have all been busy sewing for Christmas.  We also have a new student who just completed a beautiful bag.  She is our youngest, only 7, but she has a lot of potential and is excited about all the projects she can make.  And she can sew a very straight seam for a little girl!  

I published a post awhile back but it was only here briefly because Liana did not want to spoil any surprises and asked me to please remove it.  She made some very special gifts for the little ones in our family.  I have a couple of projects too, but we can't divulge our secrets yet! 

We even have projects awaiting us after Christmas.  I have my friend's quilt to finish and then I plan to start my long-awaited project, a quilt only I would like.  It is called Fenced-In Chickens.  My mother gave me some whimsical fabrics a few years back.  They are all coordinated with a chicken theme and probably wouldn't appeal to many.  But I've been wanting to make this quilt for some time.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!  We hope you finish all your projects, right on time.

Christmas Sewing

Liana has been busy sewing gifts for all the little ones in our family.  She made this pod of seals from flannel and still needs to add the embellishments like faces and bows.  Liana is able to get beyond the sometimes tedious task of repetition needed for some projects.  Making quilts is like that too--lots of repetition in doing a pattern over and over when piecing and also in the quilting.  I find it relaxing.

Arielle has been busy with a beautiful baby quilt for the new little one coming in March.  I have two huge projects nearing completion but we can't post pictures of any of these yet. They are surprises!  --Deb

Sewing Students

It's been awhile since we have posted, but we're still sewing!  I had two new students, a brother and sister who wanted to learn to sew.  The boy made a pillowcase and the girl made a cute envelope purse.  Then they each made pillows using a reverse quilting technique.  The girl then went on to learn to read a pattern, purchase fabric and notions, and sew a simple blouse. 

Pillowcase in Native American print

I am completing a project for a wedding gift (a secret for now), making a ringbearer's pillow,  and hemming flower girl dresses and the groom's pants.  It's been a busy sewing time.  Before the big Columbus Day sale at our local fabric store, I like to have winter projects in mind, especially Christmas gifts.  Then we stock up and sew in our cozy, warm house as winter moves in.  That's the best sewing season!


Reverse quilting on pillows





Ringbearer pillow

 

Sewing Bag

Using the same pattern for the owl purse, I made a larger size.  It went together quickly, even with adding a magnetic closure.  The fabric has sewing notions on it, so this would be the perfect bag for carrying hand work or knitting projects.  It is very big inside and the bottom is flat, so it would hold a lot.  I used a heavier fusible fleece, so this bag is very durable.--Deb

Owl Purse

I bought a purse pattern at a quilt store long ago, but like many of my good ideas for projects, I never got around to making it.  But here it is now!  It is supposed to be a 2-hour purse but it took me longer than that.  Still, it would be great for a beginner to try because it is not difficult at all.***Deb

The front of the bag

Inside the bag

Back of the bag

Another Quilt

I sewed two other quilts for my daughters in the past year.  For one of them, I took a class to learn how to make a Perkiomen Valley quilt.  This is a traditional quilt from southeastern Pennsylvania, designed by German Mennonite women in the 19th century.  It is a scrappy quilt using whatever small pieces of fabric a person might have.  In our class we exchanged fabric so we would have quite a variety of colors.  The pattern represents the river and hills in our part of the country.  Liana loves pink, so I call this Springtime in the Perkiomen Valley.

 

Before it was quilted

On the bed!

Back to Quilting

The past few months I have been helping the girls at 4-H complete their outfits by the end of the season.  At home I was busy sewing the wedding dresses.  Now 4-H has ended, except for the fair, and the wedding is over.  What to sew now?

Liana has been making Club Penguin stuffed animals and sewing clothes for them.  Arielle has started a summer top.  I decided to finish a quilt I began years ago. I call it my October quilt because it has all the colors of autumn, my favorite season.  The solid squares are made of hand-dyed fabric I bought in Amish country.  Several other fabrics have special meaning and I remember many winter nights by the woodstove as I pieced it.  This quilt was so near to completion but it has been bumped by other projects.  Today I added the final borders.  Now it just needs to be quilted! 

Deb

The Wedding Dresses

The junior bridesmaids' dresses were finally finished, just in time for the wedding.  What fun to actually wear them!  Here is a picture of the girls with their brother, the groom.  The dresses the girls made for 4-H were perfect for the garden rehearsal the night before.

Regional Fashion Revue

Last Tuesday night was the 4-H Southeast Regional Fashion Revue.  Because Liana and I won at County, we got to go onto Regionals.  After Regionals is the State Fashion Revue, but only seniors can go onto State competition.  The Regional Revue this year consisted of 69 girls all from seven different counties.  Our county sent seven seniors and seven juniors to Regionals.  Liana was one of the eight winners in the Junior division! =) 

 We were all very happy for her. 

At Regionals, the girls spend all day at the place.  We do modeling practice, a sewing craft, and a community service project while we are not being judged.  This year, we made blankets for kids in a hospital.  While doing the community service projects, one by one we get called into another room to be judged.  So, by the end of the day I was EXHAUSTED!  

 It was really fun to watch the other girls model and it was amazing to see what they sewed!  Here are some pics.

♥ Arielle ♥

Junior Winners

Doing hair

 

Finished hair

Liana modeling

♥ Arielle ♥

Southeast Regional Fashion Show by Liana

The 4-H Southeast Regional Fashion Show was so much fun!

We made tiny purses, we made blankets for sick children, we practiced modeling for the fashion show, and we all got judged. There were eight girls able to win in the junior  category and ten girls able to win in the senior category. I wasn't expecting to win so I got all comfortable in my chair as the names were called. Then I heard the announcer say my name. I was stunned! My dad said he knew I would win. It was a FUN night!        

Me, Liana on stage.

Our Latest Bags

Arielle made this to complement her 4-H dress she is entering for competition.  The cotton bag is big and roomy, fully lined with bound seams, and has a nice comfortable shoulder strap and zipper on the top.  If you desired to make this, the fabric and color combinations are endless.  I liked it so much I made one for myself. 

My purse has a seashell print outside and a different one inside.  The girls helped me choose the coordinating colors.  I added a cell phone pocket to the front.  This has been a handy bag I seem to take everywhere.  It is the perfect size and I love the summery prints.  ***Deb

County Fashion Show

Here are the Junior winners

Here are the Senior Winners

Notice all the purple dresses?  We didn't plan it that way.  It was really cool because all four of us had purple fabric, but we all had different shades of purple! ☺

I'll put up more pics later, but for now I have to sew! ☺  I started sewing a summer shirt.  I will write more about that later.

♥ Arielle ♥

My Dress is DONE!!!!

Well, the title says it all.  Remember that purple dress i wrote about back in April?  I finally finished it!   The 4-H County Fashion Revue was last Saturday.  It was very exciting and fun.   I will put up pictures later (=

♥ Arielle ♥ 

Dresses Almost Finished!

Here are the nearly completed junior bridesmaids' dresses.  Fitting issues have been resolved!  We also had a zipper problem.  Our local Joann's had no zippers to match this eggplant color.  I tried the Coats and Clark website.  Nothing.  One of the 4-H teachers told me of a New York on-line store that has zippers of every color.  The cost?  59 cents! Of course, shipping had to be added in, but still, it was worth having perfectly matched zippers.  The website is http://www.sewtrue.com/.  Great service too.  We had our order in 5 days.

The dresses are not yet hemmed and I am also going to add sashes.

Easter Dress

Before she began cutting out her formal dress, Liana completed a cotton version.  She finished it just in time for Easter and wore it to church.  She had a little black sweater that worked well with the purple of the dress.  We try to get a three-sister picture every Easter.  Arielle is a little casual in her sneakers and pants, but that is because she served breakfast for four hours that morning!

Liana had to alter this dress for her tiny frame.  She did a great job and it fits perfectly.

Dress in Progress

Hi, it's Liana. Recently I've been working on a formal dress for 4-H.  I have been learning many new skills in the process of making the dress. I used a serger to finish the edges of the pieces. It was my first time using the serger. It has a big razor blade on it close to the needle which chops off any fabric that comes its way. You need to make sure that you don't let too much fabric get chopped off or else  your fabric piece will be too small. I've had quite a time using the slippery fabric so the teachers suggested doing tension stitching. It helped a lot with the puckering in the fabric. The pattern is a Butterick pattern.This year is my first year making a Butterick pattern. The company Butterick has lots of formal wear patterns. There are even wedding dress patterns. In the future I hope to design my own patterns.  At 4-H there are some girls designing prom dresses! It's amazing to see what they can design. When I get older I would like to teach sewing to my children. 

McCalls Pattern 5033

After all the alterations and adjustments, the dress I made Liana to test out the pattern is complete. It will be a fun dress for her to wear this summer. Besides fitting, the only problem I had with this is the hem. It is a huge circle hem and I cut it out long to determine the length we wanted for the junior bridesmaid dress. But cutting it down for a casual dress was difficult.

Liana is so tiny for her age that standard patterns just don't fit her. I would not attempt to make the bridesmaid dress with good fabric unless I worked out all the issues in a cotton version first. She loves the cheerful, floral print.

Cynthia Rowley Simplicity Pattern 2250

In 4-H this year I am making this Cynthia Rowley dress.

When I first picked out this pattern I thought it wouldn't be that hard. HA!  I was SO wrong!  This is an A-line dress.  The bodice part of the dress is made of TONS of darts and pleats. (AAAHHH!)  In the back, the dress has elastic, an invisible zipper, and a tie.  The dress also has pockets.  I think one of the hardest parts of this dress was the skirt part.  Well, it wasn't that hard, just very confusing.  Usually, if dresses have gathers they are all the way around without stopping.  The skirt part in this dress is not evenly gathered.  There are pleats in some places and gathers others.  Weird right?  With much difficulty, I managed to finish my muslin dress.  I made the muslin dress mostly for fit.  Even though the dress was hard, it looks really cute!  Unfortunately, the fabric that I used for my muslin dress does not show off the darts.  The darts and pleats in the dress just blend in with the fabric.  For my "good" dress,

I picked out a fabric that shows the details better. 

♥ Arielle ♥

Dress - View A

bodice with pleats and darts

Full view of bodice with pleats and darts

Fabric for my "good" dress (the dark purple is the contrasting)

Alterations

Arielle and Liana were asked to be junior bridesmaids in their brother's wedding in July. Rather than spend a fortune at a bridal shop for dresses, we found patterns that echo the design of the bridesmaids and fabric that will contrast with their dresses. The patterns are not difficult, but fitting is! Everything the girls make has to be altered.

Liana also wanted a cotton version of the dress to wear this summer. She chose a pink floral print that suits her perfectly. I made one bodice and realized it didn't fit well. Then after some adjustments, I made another out of the ugliest fabric we had on hand because I knew it would be tossed later. It still needed some tweaking, so I made another out of this same brown. Just right! So last night I made one more out of the pink flowers and it fits perfectly.

So I will complete this dress, making sure there are no fitting problems in the skirt part, and then, FINALLY, I will use the altered pattern to make the eggplant satin dress. By then, I will know this pattern inside and out! Hopefully it will go together quickly because I am also working on Arielle's dress.

Unique Purse

Liana made this project last year. More people have commented on this unusual purse than probably anything she has ever made. Everyone wants to know where she got it. It was not difficult to make and would be good for a beginner. All those little strips of cloth would provide a lot of machine straight-stitching and pivots. This one has boning in the handle, but I wouldn't recommend it for another purse. A softer handle, one with cording in a casing, would be more suitable.

Easy Outfit

Liana's first year of 4-H when she was nine, she started with the pre-requisite elastic-waist project. She made these cute pants with cuffs. But she wanted to make a top to go with it and did a great job. She even learned to put in a zipper. The outfit earned her ribbons at the Fashion Revue and the 4-H Fair.

Learning to Sew

When the girls were younger, they learned to sew on the machine by doing some simple projects that were fun to make. These pillows gave them practice on sewing straight seams with some added curves and pivots. A variety of designs can be used, so the creative child doesn't feel stifled by restrictions. Arielle and Liana made these two pillow that are totally different from each other. Their fabric choices are also a reflection of their personal tastes.

If children want to sew clothing, a simple elastic waist pajama pants or a skirt is a good choice. Arielle made this one her first year of 4-H. The gathered flounce made it a little more challenging, but it was not a problem for her.

The girls made these skirts at home just for fun.

Sister Sewing Day

One cold wintry day the three girls decided they would each make a purse.  Liana had made a tiny one earlier and she knew how to do it.  The rest of us tried to decipher the complicated directions, but in the end, the purses were not that difficult after some modifications.  Marissa got a lot of comments on hers.  Everyone wanted to know where she bought it!  Here is a more detailed view of Arielle's.

Quick and Easy Envelope Purse

We love to make purses!  Arielle and Liana have made several types of bags during their time in 4-H.  The easiest of all and great for beginner seamstresses is the envelope purse.  The girls have made these to match their outfits and we made several to give as gifts.  They use very little fabric and are quick to make.







Tote bag

I don't know why I didn't continue to sew over the years, but I didn't. I remember my step-mom teaching me to sew when I was little. With Deb's help, I made a quilt for my American girl doll bed and a beautiful green and violet floral printed dress to wear to school (Arielle would have loved the fabric). We also crafted dolls out of yarn. Those dolls inspired me to make more dolls out of twigs, flowers, grass and things that I found in our yard.

Now I'm re-learning the basic skills of sewing. I struggle to follow pattern directions and feel victorious with each stitch that doesn't require a re-do. My own patterns, however, make more sense to me and don't require the constant use of seam rippers.

My latest design is a yoga mat tote. I have made it both cute and functional. The liner of my mat bags will always be made out of fabric with some slip to it. The purpose of this is to allow the yoga mat to easily slide in and out of the bag. My Jade Yoga mat was sticking too much in my old, bought mat bag. Problem beautifully solved.