Today dawned bright and lovely outside and so I decided to get some good pictures in of my finished projects. Last night I got it in my mind to make Ayla some dungarees. Dungarees are basically a type of overalls. Well it didn't work out as planned. I got one of those books for Christmas called
Crafts for Baby by Alison Jenkins and basically all of the patterns are in the back of the book but they need to be scanned and enlarged to the proper size. I have problems with books like this because if you get the urge to start crafting in the middle of the night then you're kind of stuck with small patterns that you can't really do much with. Anyway, I got it in my head that I'd try to enlarge it on the computer and then work with it from there. Needless to say that I didn't get the sizing exactly right (surprise surprise) and so I had some major tweaking to do. Basically I had to cut away the pants part of the pattern because it was just too small and so I made it into a skirt.
I'm quite happy with the outcome. I had some buttons from I have no idea where but they went perfectly with the outfit. I decided to outline it in pink instead of using the same fabric as a bias because people always seem to think she's a boy when we're out in public. I just love bias tape it's such an easy way to finish projects if you're feeling too lazy and don't want to do any rolled hems or what not. Mind you I have a serger but I have yet to use it.
I also had an idea kicking around in my head about mounting some fabric on these stretched canvas boards I had bought at the dollar store way back when. Well it seems as if the cards were all lined up because I kept stumbling on blogs showing how to make silhouettes with fabric on canvas and I thought that would knock up my idea a notch.
I'm pleased as punch with how it turned out. I still have to add a finishing coat on top of it but it's so lovely. I just adore this fabric so much and I knew I wanted to do something special with it where I'd have to look at it everyday. I still have another canvas and I'm thinking of doing another one with the same fabric but this time make the silhouette be of the fabric and the background be black. We'll see, I'm not sure I want to paint that much over the fabric design since I like it so much.
And finally here are the finished products of the gift I'll be sending out to Alex's sister for her new baby, Lucas. I tried my hand at a quilt again and I have to say it's definitely a learning process. I'm thinking I should have quilted over the middle square because there's a rule out there about how far apart you should do quilting so it doesn't pucker the fabric. Well I disregarded that rule when making this quilt and of course my fabric puckered in the middle. I still like it and think it's still perfect for a gift. I had loads of fabric left so decided to make two bibs to go along with it and then because no baby gift is complete without a toy I decided to make another of my felt block squares. They're so easy to put together but this time I used colors that went with the theme of the gift.
I bought some flowers (I think they're begonias) earlier in May in the hopes that with my limited amount of sunlight I could still have a balcony garden. I'm happy to say that they're blooming nicely and so I think I'll be buying some more the next time we're out.
As promised here is a picture of the skirt I made for Ayla for the birthday party on Sunday. When I went shopping for fabric to make Abigail's gift I couldn't help myself and bought half a yard of a nice Amy Butler fabric my quilt shop had on display. I had exactly the skirt I wanted drafted up in my mind when I bought it so it was just a matter of cutting it out and sewing it up. As you can probably guess there was no pattern for this. Completely ad lib. That's what I love about making clothing. Sometimes you can do that and not screw up too badly. Take this skirt for instance. I measured Ayla's waist and waist to knee length before making the skirt. Then put it all together and sewed it all up and voila! Too big! Ugh! For some reason I measured her waist as being 2 inches, yes 2 inches, bigger than it really is. I think it was that slightly pudgy belly she's still carrying around.
In any case as you can see at the back of the skirt I had to add 2 darts and take in the waist. I guess this way I can always take them out when she does actually grow those extra 2 inches in the waist. The only drawback about this skirt is that I didn't finish the inside seams with my serger. It was late and I really wanted to finish it in time so I skipped that part. But now it's all unravelly and I hate that. So I'll have to think of something before I lose the hem. I also made a bib to go with it at the last minute.
Unfortunately, this is the only sorry picture I have of her in the skirt at the party! Shameful, I know, but you get the picture. (PS. She's calling Nana.)
