Little Update

Thanks for all your advice, my friends, I finished this shirt of mine and already wore it couple times. Just forgot to show it up here on the blog. I like it much better now and don’t think of myself as a bat with huge sticking up sleeves. Love love the cotton it is made of – it’s very soft and airy.  Too bad it’s getting too cold in Moscow to wear things like that.

In other news I have to start on Emma’s Halloween costume but she cannot make her mind of what she wants to be this year. One day she wants to be a doggy, the other it’s a witch and other days it’s SpongeBob. How can I make something and not have a disappointed girl who decides to be something else while I make her costume?

Let’s Go To The Market

picture is courtesy of my brother Tim 

Another Market Skirt that I sewed months ago but forgot to take a picture. And so when my brother and his family visited us there was a day when Alyssa was wearing it and Tim snapped some pictures. So I had to show it off here. I love the color of the skirt and it looks very cute on my little monkey. The only problem with skirts lately is that they all end up pulled up to the armpits and look quite funny. Hopefully she’ll grow out of it soon as I love putting skirts on this little one. And as usual the pattern was easy and much faster second time around. I am sure I will be making more of these skirts in my future.

Ruffle Fun

My latest project are these cute pettiskirts. Love how they turned out, hated making them. Even with a ruffler I had a hard time making these skirts. Ruffler damaged two needle clamps on my machine and made my life miserable. But I was not going to go to a no ruffler option because it seems to be too much work. If you don’t know what a ruffler is you should check it out on Google. It’s a scary looking gadget, but once you figure it out you can’t live without it.

Back to the skirts. I don’t know how people make them for a living.  I made three in a week and a half and was so sick of them by the end of the third skirt. Too much fabric, too many ruffles. But the end result is adorable that is why I kept going.

 

Picture is courtesy of my brother Tim

As usual I spent a lot of time procrastinating researching the tutorials online and then took a little bit out of each one. Mostly I returned to this tutorial while sewing. It is very detailed and has lots of pictures.

Linen Shorts for Hot Summer

Forgot to show these shorts. I made them before we left on vacation, so long time ago. They turned out a little wonky and weird because I made them out of Russian linen that kind of looks like denim. Weird, right? It is quite stiff when you wash+press them.

However, I loved making these shorts. Pattern is from another Japanese book (told you I have a lot of them), made in 110cm. They fit nicely, but they have a high waist so if I don’t pull them up they hang at the crotch area (as seen on the pic#2). I still love them and sure hope Emma starts wearing them more often.

And I still haven’t had time for my polka dots shirt. Boohoo… I either procrastinate or study, so I haven’t had much time to sew anything lately. But I will probably end up making my sleeves a little shorter and putting elastic so they’re gathered too.

In Need of Advice…

So, guys (which means Rachel and Suzy cause you’re the only ones reading this blog), I made something for myself for the first time. And I had this vision that it would be a cute peasant top with flowy sleeves, but the fabric is a little bit stiff for the flowy part of the plan. And now I have this:

Is it me or the sleeves look weird? Because to me they look like bat wings… short bat wings. So there are two options to fix this. First one is to just insert the elastic in the casing and call it done. The second one is to shorten the sleeves a little bit and then insert the elastic, so the sleeves would be short.

Otherwise, I am loving this fabric that I got from one Russian fabric store. It is perfect for summer. It’s 100% cotton and very light and I love polka dots. I got the pattern from some Japanese book where I had to build the pattern myself from the given measurements. It was fun and gave me some exercise for my poor old brain.

So help me decide on those sleeves, please, because I am itching to put this top on and go try it out :)

Did you miss me?

I am back from a much needed vacation. I did not do a craft related thing while on vacation, mainly because I had no time to do anything there but run after kids. I am back though with a long list of things I need to make. The only problem is that I have to study these days, so I will be showing up here very sporadically till September. And then I hope I’ll have more time on my hands to do what I like and what relaxes me.

Remember this post about the unfinished bonnet for Alyssa? Well, I finished it but it was weird and too short, so I had to make some changes to my pattern and make another bonnet.

It turned out really cute. A little bit big for Alyssa’s small head, but I hope it will still fit her next summer. The only problem is that she hates it. What is with my girls that they hate everything I make for them? I think Alyssa doesn’t like the tying option of the bonnet.  So every time I tie the ribbon under her chin she starts freaking out and tries to rip the bonnet off her head. I still think girls look adorable in little bonnets.

Sunhat

For some reason I have the hardest time coming up with the header. I always sit for a while thinking and end up using something boring. I guess that’s why I like math much better than writing.

I noticed that all Emma’s sunhats are too small for her. She always had a big head which still gets stuck going through a T-shirt and it still grows obviously.  As the summer is getting hotter and hotter I needed to either buy or make a hat for her. As I am going through a sewing phase I decided to make her one. The pattern is from one of the many Japanese books I own. I just love those books even if I don’t understand a thing out of them. But as long as I have a pattern and some illustrations on how to make a thing then I am good to go.

Emma chose the fabric. She said she likes apples and ABC’s. I like how it turned out and I like how it looks on her. It was pretty easy to sew but it took me longer than I would want it. All because of my procrastination.

So Emma is ready for her hot summer days outside. Now I need to finish the bonnet for Alyssa and we’re good to go. Did I tell you we’re leaving to Crimea next week? I can’t wait.