jill in wonderland

I never expected to sew clothes for myself. Sewing for kids is, after all, much more forgiving - they still look cute in something obviously handmade, they don't have figures to fit, and elastic waistbands are the norm. But after honing my skills on lots of little projects (and a couple of small quilts), I jumped in the deep end and made this:

Pattern: Souffle Skirt from Make It Perfect by Toni Coward
Size: Medium
Fabric: Wonderland by MoMo (Moda)
Modifications: I didn't add a contrast band at the bottom, as I didn't want to draw away from the main skirt panel. I cut the rectangles for the main skirt a bit longer than the pattern called for to compensate (basically my one yard cut in half, so just under 18"), and simply hemmed the bottom.

It fits perfectly! And my husband gave me the ultimate compliment, saying, "you don't need to buy clothes anymore." Does this justify a fabric shopping spree?

I could wear this everyday and just stare at the beautiful Wonderland fabric. If you don't know about my obsession with Wonderland fabric, then you should read this, this and this.

Of course, I did learn a couple of things to improve on next time:

1. Match the zip to the waistband fabric, not the main skirt fabric - that zipper pull stands out a lot!
2. Place the zipper stops at the top, not the zipper tape! The zip stops about and inch short of the top.

At least I always wear my shirts out, not tucked in, so this gets hidden.

I was so anxious to get this photographed that I had my nearly-four-year-old try to photograph me in it. This is the result:

Not badly composed, but he got the exposure all wrong! Luckily, my husband got home with enough light out to take the second photo above.

Have you sewn any clothes for yourself recently? What did you make?

free as a bird gypsy skirt

I've been resisting the urge to purchase some of MoMo's Freebird fabric pretty much since it was released. So I was delighted to have an excuse to buy some - I just didn't have the right fabrics, or the right quantities of the right fabrics, in my stash, to make a cute skirt for a two-year old. So I was off to a new-to-me fabric shop, where I bought a few bits of Freebird, and whipped up this cute skirt in two evenings:

Pattern: Gypsy Skirt, from Making Children's Clothes by Emma Hardy
Size: 2-3 years
Fabric: Freebird by MoMo (Moda)
Modifications: instead of adding ribbon, I topstitched along the bottom edge of each layer.

Yay! I love how the colours work together (something I'm not always good at choosing). The pattern was straight-forward and easy - just lots of patience and time to get the gathers right.
The birthday girl wanted to put it on straight away. Here she is looking beautiful and pensive:

And holding a balloon. What could be better than a balloon and a new twirly skirt?

Happy Birthday Lila!

Fabric Finds

Is there anything more exciting than finding an out-of-print fabric that you thought you'd never get a hold of? OK, I'm sure there are plenty (a recent example - my baby girl finally started crawling, well, er, moving forward with great effort); but what great finds!

Those of you who know me know that I am a little bit obsessed with MoMo's Wonderland fabric. My first quilt was made using one and a bit charm packs. And I've previously shared my Wonderland stash with you.

I'll try to make this story short - my girlfriend was in a quilt shop about an hour's drive away and noticed some Wonderland fabrics. She excitedly rang me and brought me back a yard of the pink vine fabric you see below. I couldn't resist and drove down a few days later and acquired the rest.

From left to right: approx 2 yards; 1 metre; 1 metre; 2/3 yard; 1/2 metre; 3 x fat quarters and a 1/4 metre remnant of dots.

I was in heaven! It was a lovely shop and very bright and friendly. Mostly more traditional prints but a good selection of modern fabrics and some Japanese too! So if you're ever travelling in Australia check out Berry Patchwork Shop in Berry, NSW, about 2 hours south of Sydney.

I also picked up some great deals on lecien fabric on special...
For my first garment for me:

For Miriam's second Ice Cream Dress (View C - the blouse):

Next project is the Ice Cream Dress - fabric is washed and ready for cutting.

Ice Cream Dress #1 - Finished

I've finished my first Ice Cream Dress (well, I still need to buy and sew on a button):

Pattern: Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress, size 12 - 18 months
Fabric: Panache by Sanae for Moda

It's been a learning experience with lots of firsts - mainly gathers and rounded pockets. I ripped out and redid a number of seams, and performed some major surgery on my pockets - probably not noticeable to the greater public, but definitely to me and other sewing enthusiasts!

Before:

After:

Can you see the difference? I hope so! I ripped the pockets off, repressed the curves after clipping the seam allowance and using a cardboard template, and restitched them on using coordinating thread, with a longer stitch length. Oh, and stitched twice. Phew! Now I'm happy.

I look forward to making my second one, and improving the gathers and the back of the yoke. I may get your help to choose the fabrics. But for now, a big bowl of ice cream for me :).

Ice Cream Dress #1

 

The Ice Cream Social

I've joined the Ice Cream Social, hosted by the lovely (and relatively local) badskirt and One Flew Over. It's a sewalong for the Ice Cream Dress pattern by Oliver + S. I've been wanting to sew an Oliver + S pattern for ages, so this has been the perfect motivation!


The first dress I'm making is View A, in the 12-18 month size, to fit Miriam this summer. I cut out the pattern and fabric about a week ago, and last night I sewed the button loop and the pockets. Yay! I sewed pockets!

In previous posts, I've referred to a 3 pieces of fabric I received as a gift when Miriam was born - I'm using the other 2 pieces for this dress - Panache by Sanae. I think it's going to look good - and i like how the dots sort of look like sprinkles you might put on your ice cream:

The pockets took a while to make, but I'm pretty happy with the results:

I made the 'v' with the one horizontal stitch as suggested by the pattern. Only realised later that I should have done one diagonal stitch at the pocket yoke corners as well.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be making more than one of these, perhaps view C as well, which is a top. The only challenge will be choosing the fabric!

My First Quilt - FINISHED!

Basting...a couple of hours quilting...a day or so of indecision...an hour and a half of ripping out stitches...a few more hours of quilting...machine-stitching binding...hand-stitching binding...a wash and a dry...rainy day photos...

At last, my Wonderland Quilt is finished. It's a 'crib-sized' quilt, about 38" x 50", for my baby girl's first birthday in August.

Here's the front:

And the back:

And a close-up of the binding, made using that first piece of quilt fabric (Tweedle Dee in tomato) I ever acquired, as a gift from a friend:

After ripping out a lot of stitches and then re-quilting, I arrived at an amount of distortion and puckering that I think is acceptable, even to my perfectionist self. I think realism reigned, and I had to accept that there were going to be some imperfections, especially using a normal presser foot.

And, I will do it all again. I've already designed and started cutting for my next quilt - a single (twin) bed quilt for my son, using Riley Blake Wheels fabric. It's been really fun involving him in the fabric choice and design process. But that's for another post.

My First Quilt - Part IV

A Progress Report

I've made some progress on my Wonderland Quilt. I finally stitched the border on the quilt front:

And I've pieced my quilt back (sneak preview below) and prepared the binding (out of that first inspirational piece of tweedle dee in tomato):

I've got the batting, basting pins, and masking tape ready. Now I'm just waiting for a quiet day (preferably without the kids) to baste. But I'm quite nervous to start quilting. I plan to machine quilt but don't have a walking foot (I can't commit to buying one yet). Any tips? I plan to quilt as in this quilt.

My First Quilt - Part III

I've nearly finished the quilt top and I love it!

I was surprised that I enjoyed sewing this so much - not even the pressing of seams was tedious. It was a joy to work with each little square. And I only needed to rip out about 4 seams (when my second strip came out about 1/2 inch longer than the first!). Of course the squares don't always align perfectly but I can live with that. Here's one of the better 'intersections':

Now all I have left to do is:

1. Finish the quilt top by adding the border strips
2. Design and piece the quilt back
3. Baste
4. Quilt
5. Bind

So it should definitely be finished by next winter.

My First Quilt - Part II

Last night I arranged 48 Wonderland charms on my dining room table. They're on top of the fabric I'll use for the sashing, but the sashing will be wider (1.5") - I just didn't have enough room anywhere. Here's what I came up with:

I arranged the blocks quite deliberately. With my minimal knowledge of colour theory and design I divided the charms into 3 groups:

• light - cream background
• medium - green, blue, pale pink background
• dark/bright - red, bright pink, brown background

Next I started to place them one by one (starting at top left and winding down row by row), choosing from the pile I thought best at the time. As much as possible, I also alternated, checkerboard style, between the regularly patterned blocks (butterflies, scissors, dots, etc.) and random blocks (floral, etc.). For the 8 extra blocks I needed from my second charm pack, I chose the blocks that I also have in yardage. A few snapshots and a few swaps of blocks led to the final arrangement above.

I noticed that I'd placed most blocks that were directional right-side-up - as if the quilt had a top and bottom. I randomly changed some to see which I prefer. Here are the two side by side:

So the big questions are:

1.  How's my layout? I want the eyes to travel all over the quilt and not just focus on one part. Are there any squares I should swap around to better achieve this?
2. What about the orientation of the squares? Random or all in the same direction? Can you even tell the difference between the two above?

Remember, this is my first quilt, so I'd love all and any advice!

My First Quilt - Part I

I began writing this post and then realised that I was writing about my process. I've therefore decided to take the Process Pledge:

I've been thinking about my first quilt for some time now (at least 6 months). I've spent lots of time browsing Flickr and blogs and then daydreaming about how I could best use my Wonderland charm squares. Some of my favourite Wonderland quilts are below:

1. Untitled, 2. Autumn Cot or Lap Charm Quilt, 3. Wonderland Jelly Filled, 4. Gingham in Wonderland, 5. quilt front, 6. Wonderland Quilt

Although I love the idea of 1.Untitled (could make with my charms and honey bun) and 5. quilt front, I've decided to do a sashed quilt like 4. Gingham in Wonderland. I think the best part of a quilt made with this fabric is the fabric and that the sashing really frames each little work of art. As for the other two that I like, well, I think for my first quilt I should stick to some basic piecing.

The next step was working out how big to make the quilt and how wide to make the sashing. This is for a cot quilt for my beautiful daughter, and some Internet research said some common sizes are 36" x 48" and 40" x 52". As for the sashing, the quilts I liked the best on Flickr had a ratio of about 5":2" in width, including the seam allowance. Thus the blocks with turn out to be 4.5" square and the sashing will be 1.5" wide. A bit of maths led to deciding on the final size: 6 charms x 8 charms = 38" x 50" quilt.

Next is arranging the 48 charms out before sewing, but I'll leave that for another day.

Adventures in Wonderland

This is the fabric that started it all:

I was given 3/4 metre of this gorgeous fabric as part of a gift when my baby girl was born. This was my introduction to quilting fabric, and the concept that you could use it to make garments. What began as 3/4 metre has turned into this:

and this:

I was so pleased to find the charm packs and the honey bun online, so that I at least own a scrap of each of the 40 prints. Some creative Internet searching turned up some more yardage, but I was overjoyed with the limited reprint and picked up the larger scale prints (below) and the dots. I love these (forgive the creases):

So, what are my plans with all this beautiful fabric? Quilts, skirts, dresses, bags, you name it. In my next post, I'll discuss the quilt I plan to make. It will be my first quilt so I'm trying hard to keep it simple. Then some day soon I may actually start to sew it!