well-crafted

Kentucky Wonder

These beans are my first harvest of the season. I may pick up some corn and make this for dinner tonight.

Oliver + S

This is the Birthday Party Dress from Oliver + S. What a great pattern! I love the construction and finishing techniques—they make this dress feel so special. The only potential downside is having to iron those pleats after every washing.

Oh well…I think they’ll be worth it.

Basic Style

So I finally tackled this project for Will—this jacket he had been requesting for so long. It’s not that I didn’t want to make it. I just felt a little intimidated by it. Pshaw! It was one of the easiest things I’ve made. I forgot how delightfully easy denim is to work with. No stretching or otherwise wriggling out of place and this one was not too thick or stiff. This pattern is from Basic Style—chock full of cute jacket designs. I plan to make a matching one for Lauren before school starts. Oh they will be so cute.

He is perfectly happy and so am I!

For the love of it

I so enjoy making clothes for Lauren and Will but I find myself wanting to sew for others too. Someday I may sew again for myself. (I used to do this in college when I was a much smaller lass but I’m not so inspired these days).

Ideally I could open up shop and people would love what I make enough to pay me for it, but I just can’t seem to find the time to design my own patterns which I think is necessary in order for me to sell. In the mean-time I’m offering to make a few items for friends in exchange for a little informal word-of-mouth marketing, or gauging interest. The truth is I’m just eager for any excuse to justify sewing over other tasks, whether it be because money has changed hands or simply because I’ve promised it.

Recently I promised our friend Evelyn I’d make her a couple of  items. She came over with her mom and selected designs from my pattern books and fabric from my stash. It was really cute to see her mulling over her options. She was very thoughtful and careful in making her selections, which I think paid off in the resulting skirt and blouse. Both patterns are from this book. I had to grade them up because the largest size (120) was slightly smaller than her measurements. I love how they turned out and I hope she will too. If I get permission from her parents I will update with photos of her modeling! If not, just imagine a gorgeous, red-headed 6 1/2-year-old girl happily wearing them.

Happy 4th of July

Photo from 2 years ago.
Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Hand-made birthday

For Lauren’s birthday I had some fun making stuff. Instead of a birthday dress, I made her a skirt and sweater set. The sweater is the simple and lovely Girl’s Cap-Sleeve Spring Top from Soulful Hues. What a cute and easy design! This particular version was my third attempt (more on this later) and I finally nailed the gauge with Hap’i yarn, a really beautiful cotton from the Mirasol Project. Such gorgeous yarn and a wonderful cause. Learn more here.

Lauren’s main gift this year was a Götz doll named Jessica so the next logical step was a matching outfit for her. It was pretty easy to figure out the math for the smaller size of the sweater, knit with another Marisol yarn, T’ika. So soft and easy to work with. The little coordinating skirt is slightly too short but oh so cute.

And last—but by no means least—is the traditional Birthday Dress made for my daughter by my mom. A beautifully crafted heirloom Lauren loves and I will always treasure.

Conversation

Will: “The day after tomorrow is America’s birthday.”

Lauren: “Is ‘Merica’ Rock Obama’s nickname or what?”

Will: “No. America is where we live. It’s a whole bunch of States with water around them and one of them is Oregon and its birthday means we say how much we love it.”