by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 9, 2017
Never in a million years would I have matched these fabrics. Teal and red were not on my radar, but I’m glad it happened, because every time I see this dress it makes me happy.
My youngest chose the teal fabric from my sponsor Fabric Spark at the spring Creativ Festival in 2016. I was a bit at a loss of what to match it with when she decided to use it for her Easter dress this year. I had been saving the red and navy (Elizabeth Olwen print from Joann’s) to match with a royal blue, but it had the same teal – maybe they’d match? Turns out it’s a fun mix, perfect for my fun-loving little one.
The Annabelle maxi dress pattern is one of my favorites. I love the maxi length, and the chevron skirt allows for a fun mix and match of fabrics. It is a bit tedious sewing the skirt panels together, and you must be VERY careful when cutting and sewing them or the lines won’t match up. Trust me, I learned the hard way! This skirt got taken apart and re-sewn several times… That said, it’s so lovely when it’s finished!
I’ve made this dress three times in the last few years. A teal in chambray, and two in embroidered white. The bodice is so forgiving, the back can be made to fit very easily by changing the elastic length. I also love that it is easy on and off – no buttons or zippers to install!
Since I’m usually procrastinating until the last minute, I keep using patterns that have been made before. It’s simpler and they are already sized to fit. Plus I know the girls will like them, and wear them, which is super important!
Do you have a go-to pattern I should check out? Would you be interested in a post with links to my go-to patterns?
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 6, 2017
Today is the day – I’m finally posting my oldest’s Easter dress! Hooray!
The Violette dress pattern has a classic shape. The low back and wider boatneck front neckline have looked amazing in every fabric I’ve used so far. The first versions I made were full tulle versions, and (as referenced in the title) this fabric version is so much simpler!
This dress is sewn from two florals we purchased from Canadian online fabric shop Country Clothesline. My oldest picked them herself at Creativ Festival last spring and I was happy to get it off of my to-sew list only a year later! The exposed Lacie Zipper was from Border Creek Station, another lovely Canadian shop.
Since I rarely make the same thing the same way twice, I did change a few features on the dress.
- Lace ruffle underskirt
- Exposed Zipper – the original is made with a button back
And there’s usually an Ooops… Having the original (already-fitting) pattern pieces traced from the first round of these dresses seemed like a good place to start – but once it was cut the back was way too small. Not sure if I drafted the zipper incorrectly – but I had to add in two side back pieces, similar to the curves on the front – to make it fit. After a small heart-attack, it wasn’t too terrible a fix!
The ruffled lace underskirt (I’m sure there’s a proper name for that…) was made by piecing together some sample fabric pieces. They were squares ranging from 8-12 inches across or so, and the piecing is pretty much invisible unless you know it is there. They came from the same sample box my friend gave me to make these Annabelle dresses.
Speaking of Annabelle dresses – my youngest’s is coming up soon! Maybe even this week… You can get a peek in our Easter-day photo.
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 2, 2017
You ready for some super-old photos of my youngest? These are from fall of 2015 – and she was so tiny then! Crazy how much they grow up in two years…
I have lots of project photos in the vault, and figured this fall is a good time to start digging some out – so I’m hoping to start posting them leading up to this Christmas. Always a good time to dig out old projects, since I’m usually making new ones as gifts and can’t post those until January!
This skirt is the Potato Chip Skirt pattern and I’ve made it twice before. This popular Very Hungry Caterpillar skirt and a My Little Pony/Avengers mash-up in a post about sewing with licenced fabrics. Funny thing, in that post I wrote ~ Quote: “One day soon I will post about the other two skirts.” ~ end Quote. Hmmm…. soon, eh?! At least I’m posting the last one now!
I will spare you the review, since it is in this post already, but I will take time to say (again) – definitely this is a great pattern! It turns out very professional every time and looks so cute. I have in mind to make a jean skirt for my oldest with it, since it has a tween vibe and the pattern runs up to size 13/14.
The kitten and gold fabrics are from my local shop and the first-generation Cotton and Steel is from my sponsor Fabric Spark.
Truth be told about this particular skirt – despite the very ADORABLE KITTENS – she didn’t wear it that much… I made it a bit on the small side and wasn’t very practical for my very active 5 year old. She loves her comfy track pants!
Just out of curiosity – do you think someone would buy this if I put it in a de-stash? I’ve got a lot of lightly worn handmade dresses that the girls have outgrown and I’d love for them to see a happy home again!
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 26, 2017
My youngest is hilarious. I have no idea how or where she saw this costume – but she has been wanting to be a cookie since September. Which is super-fun and requires me to make a “working” milk carton treat bag – of course!
This costume is surprisingly simple to make, thankfully – because I had a lot of doubts before getting started!
Cookie:
- Felt outer, appliqued with felt chocolate chips.
- Brown Broadcloth inner, 1″ smaller all around than the outer felt cookie.
- The felt outer was hand-pleated and pinned to fit the smaller broadcloth. Then sewn around, leaving an opening. When it is turned right side out the felt bunches out at the pleats, giving it depth.
- I added a bit of stuffing, and then “quilted” it between the chocolate chips to help the stuffing to stay in place.
- The straps are double-thickness felt, sewn only to the broadcloth.
- The sides are about 4″ wide and sewn to the edges of the felt and broadcloth.
- She wanted a bite out of the cookie, so I cut that out of the original circles before sewing. Top-stitching it afterwards helped it to stand out.
Milk Carton:
I contemplated taking tutorial photos – but since my time was limited, here are a few quick details.
- The whole thing is white felt on the outer, with white broadcloth as a lining, to prevent the felt from stretching once it gets filled up.
- I started with a flat rectangle and appliqued the blue and red ribbon onto it.
- The sides were sewn together by flattening the fabric and sewing up the edge.
- The bottom is a square, each side is sewn on separately.
- The top is folded like a carton of milk – I used one from our fridge to get it right. The fold lines are top-stitched and I added Velcro around the top as needed for it to fold properly. Surprisingly this worked really well! The felt was stiff enough to hold the shape.
Cup and Straw Headband:
- The cup was glued to the headband, with a piece of felt underneath to hold it on.
- A round piece of cardboard, covered in felt “milk” was glued in. Before gluing, we added a hole for the straw and hot-glued it in as well.
Unfortunately, we have a lot of photos of the headband (being top-heavy) falling off. So we’ll need to augment our strategy before next week. Even if we don’t find a fix, the Milk Carton makes a great place to hold the headband!
On our early trick-or-treat trip to Niagara Falls, we went to the Hershey Store – it’s our family favorite MUST STOP for the kids – and they were so pleased with her cookie costume that the manager gave us a free personalized extra-large chocolate bar! It pays to dress up early, I think!
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 24, 2017
“There’s no place like home… *click, click* There’s no place like home…” *click, click* Unless, of course, you can trick-or-treat at other people’s homes and get free candy!
This year, we watched The Wizard of Oz with our girls, probably in the spring or early summer. They LOVED it, and my oldest declared she should be Dorothy for Halloween. Of course, I LOVED that! (lol)
This costume is so fun to make, and like most years, I used a simple elastic-back bodice (as in Anna and the Pirate Princess) since it will fit more easily. This costume was pretty simple – and I have a good base of knowledge (read: lots of practice!) for making these now, so I could concentrate on making the fun details.
A few things we took from the original costume:
- Bias-cut bodice details and hem detail
- Rounded bodice top
- Straps and buttons on both front and back
- Puffed sleeves! (though we chose to make them long for our chilly Canadian weather)
- Bias-cut neckline detail
- Red ruby slippers
- Toto (flat, more details below)
Notes on the sewing/glittering:
- Dress and Shirt:
- Dress: Annabelle pattern – bodice sized-up a bit for a longer fit, simple gathered skirt
- Shirt: Vintage V-Neck pattern with puffed sleeve variation, self-drafted the length for the sleeves
- The buttons are sewn-on without working buttonholes.
- Ruby Red Slippers:
- We glittered some old ballet flats with regular glitter. (It will stick well enough for Halloween, but not much longer!)
- Toto:
- I made a “Flat Toto” (similar to Flat Stanley) with a fabric printout on the front and felt on the back.
- To print on fabric: Cut a piece of freezer paper to letter size. Adhere it to a same-sized sheet of (in my case) broadcloth. This will allow it to go through your printer. Print the image.
- It will be a bit light in colour, and won’t withstand washing – but it is a quick alternative to buying a stuffie.
- We sewed a metal loop to one side and attached a toy leash, so it could be attached to the basket.
Extras:
- I found actual Wizard of Oz fabric on sale at my local shop and bought enough to hide a border of it underneath as the dress lining. It’s fun that she has the actual characters in her costume!
We went to Niagara Falls (very near to us!) and did an early trick-or-treat run last weekend. My Dorothy had so much fun being recognized and the photo-shoot was impromptu at a cute picnic area we found to eat our lunch.
As my “little” girl gets older it’s fun to note what things she’s excited about. This year, it was thrilling to get to wear real pink lipstick as part of dressing up, and important that the costume was as perfect and “real” as possible. I am imagining that soon I will be hovered over as I sew – just to ensure each part of it is exactly right!
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 10, 2017
Halloween Sewing Tip #10:
Use all the fun and unique machine settings. Embroider, add text – be creative!
If you are anything like me, you default to what you know best. Using straight, common stitches and expanding to zig-zag when the need arises! With this last costume tip I want to encourage you to try out some of the fun stuff your machine can do.
Costumes allow you to be creative, even a little silly! Too much embellishment is never a problem. Use the opportunity to try out something new. Add a row of that decorative stitch you’ve been wanting to try or some Halloween text if your machine has a built in alphabet.
I recently found some glow in the dark embroidery thread at my local fabric store (on sale!) and thought it would make a fun Halloween themed project. The embroidery function on the Skyline S9 made quick work of the simple text I wanted. It has yet to turn it into the candy-basket I’m envisioning. But, how fun is it that it glows! And I’m pretty sure any child would be over-the-moon about glow in the dark on their costume. Plus, did you know, embroidery thread isn’t only for embroidering – you can use it for any decorative stitch as well!
Most of all, be sure to take lots of photos and have fun creating a costume you and your kids can treasure (and maybe enjoy laughing about!) for years to come. I hope you’ve found lots of inspiration in these Halloween Costume Tips. Thanks for coming along on the journey!
P.S. You can read more about machine embroidery in last fall’s series of posts.
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Disclaimer: I am a Canadian Janome Artisan. Janome provided artwork (with my photos) for this project and the Skyline S9 on-loan machine I am currently using. As with all the products I write about – I always tell you my own honest opinion.
