Little Christmas Dresses

I'm so happy I finished the girls' Christmas dresses! I wasn't sure I'd get them finished in time (I'm pretty slow at sewing actually) but I got them done with about a week to spare before Christmas. These actually went a lot faster than I was expecting. Since I've made the pattern once before for the girls for Easter, I was already familiar with it so I knew they wouldn't be too challenging but they do have a lot of steps, and I needed to make two, so there was that to consider time-wise.

Sewing Jeans!

My head is a flurry of Christmas to-dos and excitement right now. So much to do, so little time! This week I want mail our Christmas cards, most of which go to the US so need to be mailed soon, make stockings, start the the girls Christmas dresses, which will be a Christmas version of the Oliver + S fairytale dresses I made a while back, and wrap lots of presents. The girls and I have been having fun making some Christmas crafts and are looking forward to getting our tree this weekend as well. Soon I'll post photos of our merry making. But now, I'm happy to have finished my most ambitious sewing project that I tackled solo, which is a pair of jeans! They are Jamie Jeans, a pattern by Named Clothing. When I saw the the pattern on the web site, I thought, woah, those are some great looking jeans! And how amazing do they look on their model? I love the contrasting piping on the pockets and the shape is great too. I wanted to step it up this year and challenge myself with some more ambitious sewing patterns and this was one of them.

Back to Sewing

For the last few months my sewing machine has been collecting dust. That's not to say my head wasn't completely immersed in sewing. I was actually more involved with sewing more than ever while working on London Stitch and Knit. I have never been to so many great fabric and haberdashery shops in such a short amount of time or written about so many all at once. My head has definitely been deep in fabric, thread, needles, patterns... I've just not been on the actual sewing machine again until last week. I really have not had any extra time. I completed photos in more than 45 shops and wrote features on all the shops, including chapter introductions and a resources section for my book in 3 months, mostly working on it after our girls went to bed and on the weekends (when I wasn't visiting the shops taking photos). If Ellie had been in school full-time that would have been a bit easier, but I had her two full days a week and she can't watch Peppa Pig all day after all. But now the book is just about finished and I've had time to do some actual sewing. One project that's been on my list for about a year is the Sew Over It Betty dress. I have some vintage curtain fabric that used to be in Lois's room that reminded me of fabric I saw on Mad Men, so I thought it would make a good Betty. It was really easy to make. I didn't get the zip to the top well the first time, though, so I re-did it. Other than that, the fit was good and I didn't need to do too many adjustments. Here's to getting back to sewing!

Stardust

This past week has been a bit tiring. Lois was out of school for half term and Andrew and Ellie have been ill most of the week. Lois has two speeds: high and off, so between her energy level and their colds, it was not the easiest of weeks! We did make our ice cream sandwiches on Monday, though, which was (mostly) fun. We made this recipe again. They are quite tasty and really cute too! 

Sewing Goals

Sew many patterns, sew little time! In my last post I didn't mention just how many things I want to sew this year. I had a goal in mind of 2 wearable garments a month, either for myself or for our girls, but now I'm thinking that was quite ambitions with all the other things in life I need and want to do, and I don't want the pressure of the goal to take the fun out of it. So now I'm thinking 1 wearable garment per month is more realistic for me. I know some people are able to knock out more than a few projects a month, amazing sewists like Fiona and Katie, for example, whose blogs always inspire me. With the two little ones dangling from me half the time, I'm not sure I can devote enough time to two garments with life's other commitments, but I will still try!

Cambie Dress

Since we've sort of turned our house upside down re-arranging some rooms, I haven't sewn anything in a few months, but I'm looking forward to hearing the hum of the sewing machine again soon. The last thing I made was the Sewaholic Cambie dress. I've stolen Ellie's room as my craft room since we turned my craft room into our grown-up sitting room / library / game room (not sure what to call it really!). But our old dining table that I wanted to use as a desk wouldn't fit up the stairs and the legs don't come off, so rather than chopping it up to fit, I ordered a simple table from IKEA to use as a sewing table and will accessorize it with some cute things. I have quite a few patterns in mind to make on my new sewing table, including making another Sewaholic Cambie dress. I made this dress in the summer and I love it.

Oliver + S Happiness

So here are the girls in their cute Easter Dresses! I'm really happy I finished in time for Easter. The pattern, as I mentioned before, was really clear and easy to follow.

An Easter Dress for Little Miss

Here is Ellie's finished Easter dress! I'm so happy with it! I think after this dress I can now consider myself an intermediate sewist. I've been sewing since 2006 but only recently pushed myself in garment sewing. When I've gotten frustrated in the past, Andrew reminded me that sewing is not a linear learning process and not to be so hard on myself, which I've probably mentioned before. One thing at a time! For this pattern, I did just that. I took it one step at a time and tried not to read ahead and get overwhelmed by the two separate huge pages of instructions front and back. The pattern was actually very clear and easy to follow despite the lengthy number of steps.