After the Holydaze-

I took some time off from sewing, crocheting, and crafting during the Holidays to let my wrist rest a bit. It was sure nice, but I did not like seeing my projects sitting around! I have eased back in, starting slowly on a few things. I am impatiently waiting on a package from the fabric store. I hate waiting. Especially when cute cute fabrics are on their way!

I like to have a few slower projects to work on. This reminds me of Eddy on Absolutely Fabulous "Eddy pie-hands"!

One project is for the evening times, when I let my husband have the control of the remote.

When I first saw this vibrant bird & floral print, "talavera" by The Alexander Henry Fabric Collection, well I knew that I had to make something out of it!

I still haven't decided if I'm going to make myself a tote bag, or a couple of pillows for the couch, or even just a large floor pillow. Decisions decisions. Luckily, with tackling embroidering it, I have lots of time to decide just what this piece of material will become. I love the freedom I am giving myself in the embroidery. Just free-flowing and whatever size I stitch it!

Another project that I am working on is creating my own crochet pattern for a market/veggie bag. I like that I can tuck the project into my shoulder bag, for those photo walks I follow my husband on. Or when I'm waiting. You get the idea.

Now for some sewing!

I have dug out some pink corduroy and I have been playing around with a jumper pattern.

Manhattan Dress

I absolutely love sewing the farbenmix girls dress patterns!
The Feliz Dress was so much fun to play around with,
and now I have tackled the Manhattan Dress.

So many options!
I will admitt, that it was quite daunting at first.

You are creating 2 dresses, since the lining is the exact same dress!

Summer Sewing

I have been busy lately sewing tanks, shorts, and summer dresses.
I love all the summery seersucker prints out!

I took a break to try out the applique stitch on my new machine!
I'm so excited to be able to use all these new features.
Our youngest niece has a new nickname from Papa,
so it was fitting to make her a froggie shirt!
It was difficult not to add a pretty pink bow, to tone down the boy'ish colors!

Summer Dresses

Summertime & twirlly dresses!

I finished two more Feliz dresses for our nieces Gracie & Allie.

They sure love the ruffles & twirls!

While I sure loved sewing with these bright fabrics,

especially on the cloudy days!

Loving the Feliz Dress Pattern

I am really loving sewing with the Feliz Dress pattern!

It is SO much fun!
I had some lighter denim, and some pink cotton

that had rows of machine-embroidered detail,

that I thought would be great to cut rows of ruffles out of.

Add lots of ribbons, some crocheted flowers, and viola!

She stood still long enough for two quick photos.....
then it was twirl twirl twirl!

Pretty Dress

I have held onto this fabric for a bit, it matches our china so prettily,

and had originally thought to make some cloth napkins & table runner with it.

But then I decided that it would make a cute dress for little Allie.

Another Feliz Dress

Since Allie took over the Feliz Dress that I made for Gracie,
I thought that I had better tackle another one!
Especially since I promised Miss Gracie one!
I had some light weight denim that I thought would make a great overdress.

After adding a few rows of ribbons/embellishments on the front,
I decided to leave the center row to add some crocheted flowers.
Time to get hooking!

For the underdress layer, I had some pink material with
rows of a machine crochet pattern. Perfect to cut apart!

I have used that to top the rows of ruffles & on the overdress.
It is very quickly coming together. Of course I can say that now,
now that 2 days of sewing ruffles are OVER!

On top of each underlayer of ruffle I had added a ribbon detail.
This took me forever, unspooling as I went along, until a lightbulb
went off-----place the spool of ribbon on the bobbin winder!
I undid as much as I needed, as I sewed along!

Yellow Floral for a Grey Day!

I dug thru my fabric box & found this yellow floral.
Just right for a cloudy grey day!
Now for a cup of tea!

Feliz Dress in Progress

Almost finished!
I'm so excited at how cute this Feliz dress is!
I added some pink daisy buttons to the back,
and I think it really added to it well.
I just have the bottom ruffle to tackle!

Here I go!

I'm so excited to start the Feliz dress pattern by Studio Tantrum!
After scouring the web for different ideas, I decided to try the first one out of pink florals.
After reading the feliz instructions, I decided to look online for any tips & ideas.
I found Trillium's Feliz sew-along !
She gives step-by-step instructions with some great photos.
Between the pattern instructions in the book & this online tutorial,
I should be able to whip this out in no time!
There are so many ways to embellish this dress,
I already have so many ideas for a few others!

Little Pinafore Dress

This morning I finished up a little Pinafore Dress for our youngest niece Allie.
With her blonde hair & blue eyes, I knew this flower & blue checkered pattern would be darling!
I used a simple pinafore pattern and just added the topstitching detail, a pocket to the front, and some ties on the sides.
The ties are a nice way of "just in case" the top is too big.
I reinforced the ties at the sides, knowing how much little girls love to twirl!