BARBIE'S SPRING COLLECTION

I made a bunch of Barbie clothes for my daughter for her birthday. I was too cheap to go out and buy ugly poorly made Barbie clothes. This is probably the first and last time I make that many pieces. I do not like sewing this small. It makes 18" doll clothes a dream to sew.

I keep lots of scrap fabric laying around which was perfect for making these.





I used Simplicity pattern 5785 for all the pieces except for the dress on the left in the above pic. I chose this pattern because of the many clothing options, the mixing and matching of pieces plus I loved the 1960's clothing.

A MARY POPPINS BIRTHDAY

:::UPDATE 9/4/2012::Almost weekly I have receive  many requests to buy this invitation. I am flattered. However because I work for a large greeting card company my contract states to sell artwork for other card companies or to an individual for card use is a conflict of interest. Sorry I am unable to sell this. I'd kinda like to keep my job. Thanx.

Besides sewing spring clothes for my daughter I've been planning her 4th birthday party. Back in December I asked my her what kind of birthday party she wanted. Her response was a Meet Me in StLouis party. I said try again. She said Mary Poppins. More doable. Both of those movies are her favorites. Meet Me in StL more so but I thought it would be a bit difficult making that into a theme. Of course nothing exists in the way of party decor so I had to create it. I found lots of great ideas on Pintrest and even used some of them.

Above is the invite design.

Only I know this but there are lots of references to 4 in the illustration. 4 flowers in her hat, 4 balloons, and the clock reads 4 oclock.



Saw a Mary Poppins hat cake at cakecentral.com. My first attempt at making foundant and covering a cake in foundant. Definitely a learning experience. Had some cracking issues. Cake topper looked great on top though. This cake is small, 8".





The cake was for my daughter and the cupcakes were for the kids. I made some pinwheels out of straws, paper and brass brads.



Party favors included felt kite pins, cups full of Hershey kisses with spoons that read Spoon Full of Sugar, and mini chalk boards with erasers and boxes of chalk.



A big scene in the movie is when all the characters magical jump in to one of Bert's sidewalk chalk drawings. So I decided chalkboards would be a great party favor. After finding out how expensive mini chalkboards where I decided to make my own. I bought wood 5x7 plaques at Hobby Lobby. Spray painted one side and the edges a teal blue and then sprayed, what is usually the bottom of the plaques, with chalkboard paint. I've been skeptical about chalkboard paint for a long time. I always hear it doesn't work. I was surprised, it works and works well. The key to chalk board paint is that once the paint is dry take a piece of chalk, scribble all over your surface and then erase it. It some how sets the paint and you can draw with chalk just fine.

I made the erasers out of 2x4's cut into 1" sections. Painted those white, glued on two layers of black felt on the bottom and glued 1" ribbon along the sides.

I made stickers for the cups, erasers and chalkboards with quotes from the movie. I designed these in Photoshop cut them out and spray mounted them to everything. I used up a whole can and in the process gave myself a headache. Wear a mask! I could have easily bought scrap book paper and used that but couldn't find anything in the colors I was looking for.



And here is the dress on the birthday girl at the party. Of course she had to have the hat too. I made her leave the umbrella at home.

The hat was bought at Target. I used 2 yards of white tulle to create the bow and glued fake red flowers to the front.

We had 15 kids and 16 adults attend. All had a blast! Now onto party number two for family.:)

SIMPLICITY PATTERN 2238 REVIEW

Simplicity 2238

 

Pattern Description:
Childs dress / tunic / pants

Pattern Size: Size 4

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes

Were the instructions easy to follow?
The instructions were easy.

 What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

The fabric flowers are what drew me to this pattern.

Fabric Used:
cotton – Joann Fabrics
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I only added one ruffle on the bottom of the skirt and didn’t leave the  edges raw. I cut the ruffle twice as wide and finished the edges before gathering.

Only added one flower on one of the tunics.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Yes.

Conclusion:

The tunic is a bit wide if you're making this for a very thin child. As am I.   I probably should have cut a 3 in width and a 4 in length. But at least my outcome wasn't to small. My daughter will grow into it. The tunic looks great with a long or short sleeve shirt under it. It doesn't have to strictly be a summer dress or tunic. I can see making this pattern out of a pinwale corduroy.

I loved adding the flowers. I even added some yoyo flowers to the last tunic.

These too look great with capri leggings.

SIMPLICITY PATTERN 3859 REVIEW

I decided to write my first pattern review. A lot of blogs I follow share reviews of sewing patterns they've sewn so I thought maybe I'd start doing that. So instead of just posting pics of what I've made now I'll be adding a review along with it. Hope they are helpful.



Simplicity 3895

Pattern Description:
Childs dress


Pattern Size:

Size 4

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Yes. Exactly.


Were the instructions easy to follow?
The instructions were very easy. It took about 2 1/2 hours total. A great pattern to start and finish during your kids nap time. It’s a very quick and simple pattern. A great pattern for fun cotton prints.


What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I preferred the V neck dress as opposed to the thin straps, but that is just my preference.


Fabric Used:
Michael Miller Children at Play – (balloons, polka dot, & bicycles) cotton fabric.com

Feeling Groovy Rainbow Blue – cotton fabric.com

Michael Miller Citron – Hobby Lobby


Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
Cut a four in width and a five in length. Seemed a bit short for my daughter if I had cut the length at a four.

Instead of adding ribbon around the waste I sewed strips of contrasting fabric to the bodice before sewing on the skirt.


Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Yes. I made four dresses.

Conclusion:

The shorter dress looks great with capri leggings.

PLUSH POOCH

I completed the Pomeranian this weekend. He's about 12" long and 11" tall.

I should have photographed him on a colored background. He's kind of blending in. Oh well.

When I was finished with this guy my studio looked like I had shaved a small dog. I hate fur!! I should go clean my sewing machine now.

POMERANIAN PLUSH

I'm working on a commission piece of this Pomeranian. I love Poms. I have two myself. This stuffed dog has been quite the challenge. The reason being...the hair. I wasn't sure how to approach it. Do I sew it out of fur or make it out of fleece then cover it with fur? What to do? So I decided to make the body shape out of fleece and add the fur on.



Here's the body before the fur.





So adding the fur was like putting puzzle pieces together. I cut pieces of white and black fur and sewed them to the body. I fussed a lot with the fur to get it to lay in the right directions. After I got the sections of fur sewn on I went back with some wool roving and needle felted long strands of wool in different areas that needed more detailing. This was especially so in the face.





Tail still needs to be added as well as more detailing.