well-crafted

Handmade Kids Clothing Swap

Thanks to Robin’s kind invitation, I’m lucky to have participated in the first Handmade Kids Clothing Swap. The challenge was to create a garment or outfit inspired by something on our swap partner’s Pinterest Board. Robin matched  us up and threw in a nice bit of mystery; we only knew who we were sewing for, not who was sewing for us. While I sewed for Delia’s son, Vanessa was sewing for my daughter, Lauren.

Vanessa really nailed it with the outfit she made! With the ultra soft stripey  t-shirt and bright aqua jumper-dress, she managed to strike the perfect balance  of feminine, playful and comfortable. Lauren absolutely loves it.

In Vanessa’s words: My inspiration pin was a rust colored dress (it had ruffles on the bottom back) with a stripe-y tee underneath. I used Hey June’s Narita dress pattern which had a similar look to the “pinned” dress and Rae’s Skinny Tee pattern :) I added some decorative stitching to the dress bodice to break up the solid color a bit. I was hoping to make something that was comfy and wearable in a pretty shade of blue! Fabrics: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Broadcloth Turquoise for the dress and stretch rayon jersey knit from Fabric.com + ribbing for the top.

I think I will be buying that pattern.

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Here’s a sneak peek of what I made for Delia’s son, Owen. Get all the details here.

And to see what the other participants made, click on any link below:

cherie from you and mie

danielle from my sparkle

delia from delia creates

gail from probably actually

kristin from skirt as top

meg from elsie marley

robin from nested in stitches

sanae from sanae ishida

vanessa from lbg studio

Fun with plant dyes

I spent all of last weekend learning how to use natural dyes. Mackenzie Frère (whose residency at MOCC begins this week) was an excellent instructor. The whole process was fascinating, particularly the stuff about pre- and post-mordanting. What a huge difference this makes in the variations of color you can get from one dye! We used logwood, madder, cochineal, marigolds, carrot tops and turmeric and ended up with about 30 different colors. I think the logwood and marigold were my favorite. I would love to see what combining those two would look like.

Books on my wish list now include: Wild Color, The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing and The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes. This summer, Kirk and I are going to transform the former laundry room in our basment into a really simple dye studio for me. Really exciting!

Full set of images here.