Been crazy busy, but I have some items I can share!
A thanksgiving outfit for my dd:
A Christmas dress
Another one using the Grace ruffle dress pattern
And the shirts I made for Owen's big give:
Beautiful outfits! Great job on the shirts too! I am sure the family will look good in them!
Thanks to everyone for the compliments on my mother's sewing. Someone asked how long it took her to do all those ruffles--she started on a Monday and it was completely finished by the week-end. That was just sewing in her "spare time." All the clothes she made had French seams and bound buttonholes. I didn't know there was any other kind. She was a perfectionist in all that she did. She didn't teach me to sew--she said it was faster to just "do it herself."
I had 5 "formals" including the 2 I showed. The last one she made me was turquoise peau de soie satin with reapplied alencon lace cascading down the straight skirt and lace over the bodice. I also had 2 other "cocktail dresses"--mauve satin for warm weather and red velvet for cooler weather.
When I started high school she made me a unique "little black dress." It was silk crepe with a simple round neckline, cap sleeves and straight skirt. What made it unique was a turquoise and black plaid light wool over-skirt, plaid vest, black tulle full over-skirt on a satin ribbon, a black crepe slightly flared overskirt with self-covered buttons all the way down the front and a black crepe bolero jacket with a shawl collar that tied in the front. There were dozens of ways to make different looks from that one outfit!
Like I said before, I wish I had half her skill.
My goodness, your mom created a lot of beautiful outfits! Only if I had 10% of her skills...
Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that your machine up and quit on you. Fingers crossed that you'll find a good deal on Craigslist or someone will offer to either give or loan you their machine.
Hmm, the first thing that came to mind was burp cloths. I know that's not something super original however it is very useful.
OK, I'll count on you for the patchworks! I will try to get in on the next give, but I'm still so behind on things not sewing related as well. If only I had the $$$ to hire landscapers life would be easier. Patchworks will be a lot of work though without a functioning sewing machine.
For baby gifts I prefer more practical things. I got so many clothes as gifts when I had my kids that they didn't even wear them all. That's why I did the taggie blanket and burp cloths. IMO one can never have too many burp cloths! If you want to do something more special I would make a flannel raggie playmat / blanket. Bibs are good gifts as well -- large ones! Some of the store bought ones are way too small.
I will be absolutely NO help at all....
I usually make quilts for all new babies around here. In fact, if I give something less...well, let's just say they expect a quilt! In fact, one girl that works at the local Starbuck's my hubby frequents (he is a police officer), she heard about my quilts and was asking everyone if they thought I would make her a quilt...hubby had already asked and it was already in the works.
But I like to make something a bit more useful than clothes...they grow too fast and outgrow everything within weeks! I like to make a couple of burpcloths with matching bibs and maybe a receiving blanket (large sized)...all using matching flannel...because you can never have enough burps, bibs and those receiving blankets are always too small!
Good luck and I am sure they will be perfect!
Nini
I had a dear friend that was a Chinese exchange student. Her sis had a child while she was here. They don't give gifts until after the baby is born. The red & gold gifts are a great idea, or even a stuffed panda bear? Also the layette is traditionally provided by the maternal grandmother....so if you want to make clothes....maybe make a bigger than layette size...like 12 mos or bigger. I don't have any suggestions for the dress but it sounds lovely.
Oh I found this when I googled for traditional chinese wrap dress costume....I think its a theatrical reinactment costume...see what you think
http://folkwear.com/122.html
Too bad about your machine. Maybe Santa will be able to save up and send one along after Christmas. Good score on the fabric and I hope you are sewing again soon. Loved all your live reports from DL.
Thanks everyone for letting me vent about my sewing machine. Fortunately I can still sew, I just need to use my embroidery machine (which means switching settings between sewing and embroidery). I was looking at the classified at work today (we have a classifed ad section on our internal web site), but no sewing machines lately. The other thing is that my in-law's will be moving to our city at the end of the month, so I may be able to borrow my MIL's old school Bernina or her new Brother machine if I need to do so.
Thanks for all the suggestions on the baby gift! I think I will go with matching burpies and bibs. Two years ago, I actually made quilts and donated them in each child's name that was born to my friends or family members that year. That was the year with 2 sets of twins! I wish I knew that before I challenged myself to do the donations that year (it was inspired by the Disney volunteer thing - let's just say I wore my volunt"ear" button with pride!) Making a long story short, I am not in a real hurry to do more baby quilts!
Oh and thank you for the link for the dress. It looks beautiful and I am pretty sure it is traditional but I am afraid I do not have the figure to wear that! If I can't find something else, I may need to draft a pattern for my project. At least the line drawings on the site was a good start for me.
QUESTION: I'm going to take that cute Cars flannel and cut a row out and put it across a shirt for my boys. Would you just iron it on and applique, or should I use a stabalizer too? I'm not sure what would be best considering it will go all the way across the chest of the shirt. Thoughts?
I think it depends on the thickness of the shirt material. I would throw some stabilizer under it to be sure though.
Hi!
I made the ribbon turkey desing from applique corner. It comes out pretty cute I think! But it wasnt as easy as I thought to keep all those ribbon pieces in place and put them under the machine!!! lol....Im thinking of making a simple skirt for the girls in the print of the turkey - quickest skirt pattern please??????
Made this one for a friend at work - working with the folded ribbon was kind of a pain for me, and, my machine foot got caught in the loop of a ribbon and EEKS took a while for me to get the machine stitching right again!!
I made these for a friend for her little boy's 3 rd birthday, and a shirt for his little brother too!! I wanted to make dad one with Red the Firetruck, but cant find pattern for it!!
Today Billy and I are practicing brownie recipes for our brownie bake off at church on Saturday as part of our missions conference. We will also give our report on how and what our team did while we were at Camp Promise. Billy wants to make a german chocolate brownie pinwheel, and Im thinking brownie balls??? Any tips on either of these recipes?????
Cute appliques, too bad they caused so much trouble for you! I am sure your friend's children will love those new shirts!
Brownie bake off? That sounds fun! I don't have any suggestions since I only make "healthier" brownies now. I sneak whole wheat flour and apple sauce into my brownies and no one can tell!
Well, here is a simple night gown I made for a friends daughter. I made it a 10 so she would have room to grow...and it fits me!
I'm not real happy with how it looks. Any ideas on how to simply spruce it up?
Here are the pants I fixed today. They were hand me downs that had a hole in the knee, so I decided to save them and eventually patch them. These will go with the shirt I'll make. I did it so it will fray just a bit. Sorry the pic is upside down...my iPad is NOt cooperating!
I tried my first ruffle jeans today to extend the life of a too short pair.
I'll make a matching shirt for
MVMCP, but I thought the green could be worn year round.
Perhaps a simple row of ribbon along the collar, cuffs and bottom for the night gown? I guess you must be a really tiny person to fit into the night gown!
Good job on fixing up the pants!
so i did just fix my dd dress changed it up some hope she wears it now or she is grounded for life
It's great that you were able to change the straps. Hopefully she will like it!
hi Wendy,
I haven't posted here in ages (since before I was sick) and I am now getting well enough to post. But.... you know baking is my first love, sewing second. Can you make brownie pops? Bake a recipe of brownies, crumb it up, add a can of decadent fudge icing. Mush it up, wet your hands, roll into balls. Freeze on a cookie tray. Then get sucker sticks, dip into melted chocolate (wilton melts) and stick them into the cold ball. Then dip the whole thing into chocolate. You can then roll into spinkles or walnuts before it sets up if you want to.
I make these with cheesecake in the middle, brownie on the outside, dipped in chocolate and they go like the wind.
You can look up Bakerella, she has great decorating ideas
Hope this helps,
Valere
Sorry to hear that you haven't been doing well. The brownie pop idea sounds delicious! I was going to do something similar for my office's Halloween party but I ended up making green sugar cookies with almonds as "witches' fingers"
I think the next few weeks will be crazy busy for me. As I mentioned before, my in-law's and my grandparent-in-law's are moving to our city at the end of the month. I am very excited about that as we are very close. At the same time, it will be busy as they try to get settled in. My in-law's new place will be less than 10 minutes drive from our house, which is a nice distance (not too close and not too far). I hope to get my Christmas sewing done before they come so they don't get a "sneak preview" of their gifts!
Any thoughts on this or TIPS to sewing with denim?? 
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