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.