Haven Acres Blouse turned tunic

Here's another little garment I made for Abigail a couple of weeks ago. Finally getting around to posting my recent sewing.

I had some scraps of this gorgeous fabric leftover from the tunic I made myself a couple of years ago that has been begging to become a Haven Acres Blouse. This time I mixed things up a little and made the blouse into a longer sleeveless tunic with a combined neck and armhole facing. You can find my tutorial for creating and sewing this kind of facing over at Sew So Easy.

And one more photo, just because she's a goof and so cute and I love her!

Janey Jump Around Owls

A little gift for a baby shower I'm attending tonight.

Very quick to sew up. It's the free* Janey Jump Around Dress by peek-a-boo pattern shop.

Details
Pattern: Janey Jump Around Dress
Fabric: Owls and coordinating cotton interlock from Joann's
Size: 6 months
Mods: The neckline trim seemed too wide at the pattern's measurement of 3" so I cut it down to 2" wide instead. Also made the cuffs in the coordinate and an inch less wide than the pattern's 4".

The buttons are some pretty sparkly ones from a "vintage" 3lb bag I bought at Michael's years ago. Love having random buttons on hand for projects! I used a twin stretch needle for the topstitching and hem with wooly nylon in the bobbin. I guess I'll see if Fynnley and her mama like it tonight!

(*with newsletter subscription)

...Twins?

Yep - twin quilts!

Suzanne helped me plan out the best usage of these gorgeous fabrics donated by Fat Quarter Shop and then I pieced them, and then we each quilted one. Such pretty fabrics so we cut the pieces nice and big. The gray is Connecting Threads' solid "Silver Lining" - love it!

Binding is the same gray, and the backing is actually a bright pink, very soft home dec fabric that I think is probably meant for drapes, or maybe jacquard tabling? Anyway - perfect use, straight from the stash, and wide enough that I didn't have to piece it.

The back of mine - I did a small meander with a slight wave in it in each block, leaving that sashing unquilted.

Wanna see my new extension table for quilting?? Woohoo for cardboard, Xacto knives and contact paper!

Suzanne did the other quilt with a larger all-over daisy meander - love it!

Both of these are last quilts we finished for the Pregnancy Care Center sew along. Wouldn't it be sweet if they went to twin girls?!  

And I wanted to show the big stack of quilts, blankets, clothes, bibs, and burp cloths that everyone did for the sew along! More will be joining this stack as it comes in too. So happy we could do this! 

Robots & Pluses

(...or is that Plusses?)

I couldn't bear to cut up these friendly robots (donated by Fat Quarter Shop)...

...so I just backed the whole panel with some soft dimple minky from the stash, quilted parallel lines (my walking foot takes all the pain out of working with minky!), and bound in a bright red/orange splash cotton donated by a quilting friend.

I'm pleased with the binding - entirely machine bound! Such a time saver. I cut it at 2.25", press in half, and then stitch on with 1/4" seam allowance, mitering the corners. Then I press the binding away from the quilt top, flip it, and press the binding down at the back. I got a nice crisp edge on this one because it's not very thick. I only pin the binding at the corners and stitch in the ditch from the front of the quilt. I can feel a little ridge next to the "ditch", which lets me know if the binding is going to be caught in the stitching or I need to adjust a little. On a thicker quilt this is a bit trickier as more of the binding is taken up in the fold, but same idea.

This one was fun too! A Plus Quilt, using the pattern from For The Love of George. The floral was given to me a few years ago - nearly 4 yds! It's a difficult print to work with so I'm happy to have found a use for it. Dimensions: 38" x 52".

The white is Kona Snow and the blue stars and purple foliage-y print are quilting cottons from my mother-in-law (thanks, Mom!) -- happy accident that they coordinate!

The fabric was a bit wider than normal, I think about 44", so no piecing required to use it for the backing! See what I mean about difficult to use? :/

I quilted 1/4" inside each plus with cream thread -- thankful again for my walking foot. I had barely enough fabric to do the binding so had to hand-stitch it down, too narrow for the machine.

And finally a nice stack of bibs! They are all flannel Yo Gabba Gabba print (donated by our local quilt shop, Quilt Essential Co) on the front, lime cotton chenille on the back. I did the first two with bias tape, as called for in Alisa's pattern, which she kindly donated for the sew-along.

The other six I added 3/8" seam allowance to and turned and topstitched. I quilted each very simply along the lines made by the chenille. They all close with a poly-resin snap.

All in all, another good stack to add to my pile for the Pregnancy Care Centre!

Flowers & Sunshine

Finished this soft, pretty quilt yesterday!

Very simple. My friend Annette had cut the flannel squares previously so all I did was chain-piece them, arranging in a basic checkerboard pattern. The backing is also flannel, the batting is a leftover chunk of high-loft poly batting from years ago, and the binding is a striped cotton print.

I quilted it in with straight lines one direction through the squares and wavy lines the other way, just for fun. As with some of the other quilts for the Pregnancy Care Centre, I'm practising machine stitching the binding on - not perfect, but pretty good! First time I didn't have to go back and redo a corner. I think it helps to press the binding away from the stitching on the right side, and then press around the edge toward the back, before sewing it down from the front.

Soft and cuddly, reminds me of flowers & sunshine on this snowy day!

A baby shower, Dino Dudes and Ooga Booga!

Last night I hosted a baby shower for a friend from church. It was lovely out, thankfully, so all 32 of us could sit outside in the backyard instead of being crammed in the (very warm) house.

This was baby Lyncoln's gift from me:

Details
Pattern: #7 Panda hooded jacket from Ottobre Summer 3/2012
Fabric: Michael Miller's Dino Dudes interlock and coordinating ribbed knit that I won from Fishsticks Designs a couple of years ago
Size: 62 (3mo)
Modifications: The only modification I did was to add a little reinforcement layer at the back neck, also perfect for size label. (I love that my set of stamps by Night Owls Menagerie includes birdie tracks, in this case, dino tracks!)

Really enjoying working with knits again! My serger is not though - it really needs a tune-up, but I have a hard time letting it go for 2-4 weeks because I use it constantly. It's skipping stitches and has a tension disk issue. Anyway, I made it work.

Abigail "needed" another dress, so I finally cut into my hoarded Ooga Booga (also from Bonnie's giveaway). She is very pleased with her "pitty dwess".

Details
Pattern: #5 Little Elephant hooded tunic Ottobre Summer 3/2013
Fabric: Purple and Pink Ooga Booga interlock, coordinating interlock for binding
Size: 74 with length cut at 86
Modifications: Same back neck reinforcement/size tag:

The Otto patterns I've sewn so far have been wide and short, so I chose the size that matched her chest and waist most closely, then the length for the size she should be in for her height. Ended up being more a dress than a tunic, but that's ok because the body is a bit roomy still so she can grow into it as a tunic. I think it will be adorable over skinny jeans and a long-sleeve top this winter!

Walking Bitty Baby

The elastic in the hem could have been a little tighter I think. My sewing machine does NOT like clear elastic tape. Took me nearly 2 hours to baste it into the seam allowances. Maybe a teflon foot would help. I love how it turned out, overall! I have some more knits that I've been hoarding - hoping to cut out some hoodies for all three kids soon!