The Christmas Dress

It occurred to me on Friday night that if I wanted to get my Daughter's Christmas dress done, it should be done by today - the Sunday before Christmas - so she could wear it to church.

I hadn't even cut it out yet.

And so the challenge was on...

Happily, after some whirlwind sewing, I finished the dress last night at 10:30 pm. Woo!! Dress in a day!!

Bearing that in mind, I think it turned out really beautifully! Here it is!



I used Butterick Pattern #3714, with a few Linzsews modifications thrown in! The flowers on the waistline I reused from my Halloween costume headband. Hey - waste not, want not! :) The green fabric is the same as the fabric I used on my Halloween dress too. I ended up with WAY too much, so it worked out perfectly! The gold I found at Joann's and just loved!

Yea for good projects that come together!! Oh, and here's how I did her hair today...



She feels like a princess.

Baptism Dress

I finished my niece's baptism dress!! Yea! It turned out beautifully, and - thank Heaven above - it fits her perfectly! **sigh of relief** (It's nerve-racking making a dress for someone 100s of miles away!!)

So, here it is!

I used Simplicity Pattern #4647, view D, but with sleeves added.

For the sash flower, I decided to make a fabric rosette. I had never made one before, and my practice attempts weren't the best. However, after reading several tutorials - and tweaking all of them - I came up with this and I am so so pleased with how it looks! I will probably post a "my way" tutorial on this soon. They are actually pretty easy and fun! I will be doing them again. And again... :)

So, yea! to a great finish! It is such a relief to have it done!! :)

WIP Wednesday

Finally!! After 3 long weeks of not having my sewing machine, I am back in business!! She has been home for 2 days now, and I have a few things to show for it! Yea!!

First - a finish!! The Life baby quilt! See the post HERE!

Next up - a maxi skirt!

I love them. I made one in grey too! Tutorial found HERE!

Next - I managed to finish the bodice of my niece's baptism dress! Yea!

Last - Skill builder's Sampler!

Sorted, pressed and ready to cut the sashing! This quilt has been so long in coming! I am glad to finally be moving on it again!!

Be sure to check out all of the WIPs over at Freshly Pieced!!

WIP Wednesday!

This has been a SUPER-FANTASTIC week!!!!! Seriously!

First off, E's King Size

Wow. I think this has been in progress for about 6 months now. I don't think I've ever taken that long on a quilt... but you know what - that's okay!! Because this may just be some of my best work!

So - the king size has been quilted! ON A LONG ARM!!! BY ME!!!! Yes, this past Saturday I learned how to use a long arm quilting machine! But I'll be posting more on that tomorrow! :)

As it stands now, the quilt has been quilted and the binding sewn on, so all that is left is hand stitching the binding down, and then this will be done!! WOW!! I am super excited!!

Wedding Dress Projects

I am currently working on the Cowboy/Western themed Wedding Skirt. Right now, only one word can describe it...

Ruffles!!!!!

It is coming together nicely so far. I would like to have this skirt finished by this weekend, so wish me luck!! Ruffles are fun, but time consuming (also - THREAD consuming! lol!).

That is actually all for now! Tune in tomorrow for a post about my Long-Arm quilting experience!



Be sure to check out all of the WIPs over at Freshly Pieced!

Pictures of my girl!!

I am so excited! My awesome photographer and friend, Valerie Hart, posted all of the beautiful pictures of my little gal in her baptism dress!!! They are simply gorgeous! Please check them out!!!

Click Here!!

WIP Day again!

Wednesday, again!! My WIP list is pretty short right now, but I am having a ton of fun!!

First - Finishes:

Vintage Circus Flower Girl Dress!!

I am really happy with this one, and best of all - it fits her perfectly!! :) Now I am putting together a Ringmaster jacket for her little brother! I'll post on that tomorrow for TNT as I have never done a jacket before!:)

In Progress:

E's King Size:

Currently on hold until I can hammer out one last deadline project. It is waiting patiently! I will probably be able to pick this one up with gusto by the weekend!
Beejeebers:

SO much fun here!!!! I have been getting wonderful packages in the mail over the past few weeks and I am absolutely loving the blocks my girls have made for my game night quilt! Check out some of them:

Awesome, right!?! Yes, you DO see an Angry Bird block... I'll post up close and awesome pictures of all of them when they all arrive!! I'm so excited for this quilt!

Also for Beejeebers, I made the March block and really like how it turned out:

SO colorful!

That's all for now! Be sure to check out all of the awesome WIPs over at Freshly Pieced!

Flower Girl - Circus Style!

Today I finished the Vintage Circus Flower Girl Dress!!! This was quite a project. I took the ideas from her Mom and the Bride and did my best to translate it into what they wanted. I made the pattern for this one! I am pretty proud of my self with this.

So,  presenting, the Flower Girl Dress:

I am excited for how it came together! I KNOW Little Miss H is going to look adorable in it!

The main feature, naturally, are the feathers!

These were a riot to work with. They got sworn at more then once. But I am really excited with how fun and poofy they are!!

So, there you have it! A one of a kind flower girl dress for a totally fun wedding! :)

It's Wednesday?

hahaha, totally missed the fact that it was Wednesday until... well about 10 minutes ago! Also, Happy Leap Day! How nice to get an extra day this year! :)

Anyway, I only have one thing to show as progress this week...

The Flower girl dress

Which is not a traditional flower girl dress. The theme for the wedding is "Vintage Circus" and the flower girl is wearing a miniature circus outfit!! I think it's coming out very cute!!

I am doing a final fitting today, and then I will be adding the feathers on the back! So, I'll probably be able to show this off in a few days!!

Happy WIP Wednesday! Linking up to Freshly Pieced!

Also linking up to TNT Thursday with Happy Quilting!

WIP it up!

Loads of progress this week!!!

Finished: THE DRESS!!!! Yea. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out! I'm pretty proud! :)

Progress:

E's King Size:

I have begun piecing the top! I have decided to get these going in 16 patches.

Because this seems emotionally better. For me. :) Here goes the first round:

(Wow, the color on this picture is really off...)

Flower Girl Dress: the bodice is well under way!

I will be adding the skirt, tulle, and feathers pretty soon! It's turning out pretty cute! :)

Oh... that's all. :) Still, lots of progress!

Be sure to check out all of the awesome WIPs over at Freshly Pieced!

The Baptism Dress

Okay. Okay. Your wish, my command. After several requests (demands) of family members and friends, I am happy to present - the Princess's baptism dress!!!!

There is so much that I am proud of with this dress! First off - it is my own design! I used some pattern pieces on the bodice, the yoke and neck, but the rest - the bodice itself, and the sleeves, I came up with on my own.

The Ruching was really fun to try and worked way better than I expected! It is a beautiful look and I look forward to using this technique again soon! The sleeves I did a tulip design. I love this type of sleeve! It is very forgiving and really easy to put in!!

The skirt is also totally my own design! I knew that I wanted to do the pick-ups from the first time I thought of doing her dress. I searched for how-to's and found very few, and only one that was useful. (It is found here). But even then, most of this was trial and error. I may do a pick up tutorial of my own sometime...

The main thing to remember with pick-ups (and probably all of sewing, really) is to step back and look at the bigger picture. I nearly drove myself mad while I was down pinning them up. It's WAY too easy to over think the pick-ups. Once I stepped back, it wasn't so bad! :)

The fabric - Dupioni Silk. AKA - Heaven. Seriously. Silk is a dream to work with! **sigh**

So, there it is in all it's glory! I know these pictures aren't great, but we are going to get her pictures taken professionally in a few weeks, so when I get those, I'll post really good pictures! :) Needless to say - she feels like a princess!

Sneak peek...

My awesome hubby took the kids out for a Daddy day on Saturday so that I could have an epic sewing day!! I made great progress on the baptism dress. It is all constructed, but we still have some trim work to finish. Here's a sneak peek...

I know. It's beautiful, and I can't wait to show it off when it's all done!! This is the first time I have attempted ruching like this, and I am thrilled with how it came out!

As an aside, check out the Valentine's treats we made for the little man's preschool party...

They're Super! :)

Linking up!

WIP Wednesday - sigh of relief edition

That's it. I'm done. I made all the bags I am going to make, all of the ornaments that I am going to make. My Christmas sewing list has all been checked off. Some crossed off for sanity's sake, but all the projects that needed to be done are done!

What a glorious feeling! And now just for fun... a recap of all the crazy holiday stitching...

Weekender Bags - all three of them!

Dopp Kits + a tutorial - to go with the weekenders

Lego bag

Skirt

Stocking

The Dress

The Dress that didn't work

Bags and ornaments - I didn't end up with pictures of all of them... but you get the point!

So what's on tap for 2012?

I have E's King size Zig Zag as my only currently in progress project. Wow. Only one. Weird.

I am still working on Skill Builders Sampler! I still need to make block 20, but that's going to have to wait until next week.

I have joined in a Quilting Bee for 2012! We are called the Beejeebers, and it is hosted by Melissa at Happy Quilting! I am totally excited!! Funny story - Melissa asked for name suggestions, and I recommended Beejeebers as a joke. I was telling her that this is my first Bee, and it scared the beejeebers out of me. So the next question was about a name, so I put down that. haha! Everyone liked it. I think that is just plain awesome! :)


Other than that - I plan on being a little more reasonable next year. My unlimited sewing budget was, once again - summarily rejected. So, no more than one quilt per month, and I want to do a lot more "other" stuff - like cloths, bags, and things. Should be a great year!!

Hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday season, and a wonderful New Year!!

The Dress

So, sorry about my freak out yesterday. I was feeling stressed! :) BUT! I am happy to say that yesterday proved to be a very productive day! For sewing. But don't look at the state of the rest of my house... yikes.

Anyway - I finished the princess's Christmas dress today!! YEA!!! And it really turned out beautiful. Probably my favorite dress that I have made to date! :) So here it is in all it's glory:

The Princess stayed home from school sick today, but I drug her outside for pictures anyway. Please overlook the lack of hair doing! :)

She picked gold and red so that she could have Griffindor colors. We are currently reading book 7 of the Harry Potter series, and at present, that world has overtaken our lives! :) At least they are Christmas colors too!

She picked out the trim on the over skirt. I wasn't sure about it, but I really like the way it looks! So pretty! The flower was purchased at Joann's. Lovely finishing touch!

Now that this is done, everything else just seems easy! I may even have time to read a book or two! :)

WIP Wednesday - Mah na Mah na edition

Wow. It feels like a LOT longer since last week's post. Thanksgiving will do that I suppose. I didn't get a whole lot of sewing done this week. Some, but not a lot. But a lot of decorating got done!! :)

Over the weekend, we took the kids to see the new Muppet Movie.

Hilarious. If you haven't seen it, go see it. We laughed our heads off!

Anyway - sewing!

{Almost} Finished:

Lego Bag!!

It is sewn and the grommets are in!! Just need to get cord. I don't know how I missed that when I was getting supplies...

Progress:

E's King Size Zig Zag: the cutting has commenced.

That's 360 squares. And that's only half...

My dress: started

Cut out and the bodice has started getting stitched! I really love the color. So, as I was pinning that wicked curve in the bodice, I was reflecting on how different dress making is from quilting. And then I had a fun idea crop in. Would anyone be interested in a "Dress making for Quilters" sew along? I think it sounds fun! :) Let me know...

Princess's Bottled Rainbow:

She decided to make a smaller quilt, so after she finished her 6th block, we sewed it up and quilted it! Now she is pinning down the binding!! She is doing the roll over method and will be finished soon! I can't wait to show you!!

Last - I finally started a Twitter account. I really don't know how it all works, but if you are on there to, look me  up!! I'm @linzsews!

Well, that's all! Be sure to check out all of the WIPs over at Freshly Pieced! :)