Category: Sewing

My daughter has been asking if she could sew a cloth doll. My response was sure. I love sewing and it’s another excuse for us to bond doing something we both enjoy, sewing. Unfortunately, I seem to have everything but the fabric needed for the dolls skin tone so that means a trip to a local fabric store, most likely Jo Ann Fabrics.

While there are several free patterns available online for making your own cloth dolls. I believe I’ll draft my own pattern so my daughter can sew. Or, if I’m feeling really lazy, I’ll just purchase a pattern when we’re at the fabric store.
Free doll making pattern

Early this morning, I realized that I’d told my daughter that I’d make her a bag for Art Camp. Art Camp starts today. Whoops… and so around 5:00 this morning, I pulled out my Serger, cut out the appropriate lengths of fabric, and started serging. If I was not so rushed, I would have taken photos of the entire process.

1.5 hours later, I completed the above bag. Guess what? I still had enough time to shower, dress for work  and pack her lunch.

Her art supply bag, is fully lined with the same fabric. I do believe I’ll include a pocket, but that will be added after she arrives home this afternoon. This bag was purposely made large to hold all the art supplies that she needed for the camp and the ones she’ll acquire over the course of this week. I must say that it felt great completing this last minute project, and more importantly, I kept my promise and had her bag sewn before Art camp started?

I don’t like doing anything at the last minute. I normally do my projects well in advance, but this one slipped under my radar. Guess what? My daughter accepted my apology, and smiled as she looked at her brand new art bag.

After work, I’ve been busy sewing my daughter’s new dress and I’m happy to say that it is almost completed.

On my hand crafted website (and Facebook) I’ve been documenting the entire process through pictures. Which a brief commentary about what I’ve done.

There are three pieces to the ensemble.

1. Lace bolero top
2. Petticoat with 50 yards of tulle ruffle
3. Dress

There’s a lot of hand stitching in this dress. If I had just machine sewn the dress I most likely would have completed it the same day, but hand sewing takes the dress to another level and some might be surprised that it adds to the durability of the finished garment.

During my down time, which I don’t seem to have much of, but I’m not complaining… I’ve been squeezing in a few moments to do some hand crafting.

I have been making some hand crafted items and of course I’ve been staying on top of my ferments; kombucha, water kefir soda and fermented vegetables.

Oh… I finished that little embroidered bag that I made for my daughter. I decided not to purchase ribbon and chose to crochet a cord for her. See?

I liked it so much, that I decided to make another. Can you see the difference? It’s nothing major. With this bag, I do believe I’ll knit an icord. It appears that my daughter likes it to and has asked to swap bags. She’s already has placed the first bag into her book bag.

This weekend, I created this small project.

I really love how it turned out. It hasn’t been washed (yet) so you can still see the water soluble stabilizer. The white twill tape is temporary. I was all out of ribbon, but will be purchasing more today. I’ll either use dark brown, green or perhaps a dull red. We’ll see.

The holidays are swiftly approaching, aren’t they?

Like many schools, my daughter’s Lutheran school puts on a Christmas program each year. This year, I’m going a bit elaborate with her gown. It’s a Christmas musical. She’s especially thrilled since she and her best friend have been paired up to be dance partners. The fancy footwork deserves an exquisite dress, don’t you think?

And so the hunt begins for the “perfect” fabric. The perfect is all me, of course the fabric will feature at least some of the colors that my daughter loves (dusty rose, lime green, sherbert orange and lilac) but aside from that, she really doesn’t care about the fabric. I can’t take too long, since December will be here before I blink. I want the outfit complete well in advance.

Besides the gown, I’m making items for her classmates. A few years ago I made crocheted bookmarks and yes, most of those classmates are still there. They think of me as the “crafty mom.” This year, I told my daughter that I’d have little bags for her homeroom classmates at her Lutheran school. I’m thinking I’ll sew the bags. This is the first year that they’ve split their homeroom class by gender. Their actual classes are still a mixture of both.

I’d originally planned on having the bags ready by the Thanksgiving holidays, but I’ve extended that deadline until Christmas and while I think I can easily do this by Thanksgiving holiday. I decided to hold off on the big gift for her classmates until the Christmas holidays.

I believe I’ll start on the embroidered design some time this weekend. If I do, I’ll be sure to post a few samples here.

I’m thrilled, that the antique iron I purchased on Ebay, is finally making its way to my home. The iron weighs 16 pounds. I’m also receiving an antique sadiron; it weighs 20 pounds. “Sad” was a term that was used to describe heavy objects. I first read about a sadiron in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

“Then Ma took the sadiron out of the wagon and heated it up by the fire. She sprinkled a dress for Mary and a dress for Laura and a little dress for Baby Carrie, and her own sprigged calico. She spread a blanket and a sheet on the wagon seat, and she ironed the dresses.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder – Little House on the Prairie

Take a closer look at the sadiron in the first picture, it looks similar to the the picture above. That’s my American Beauty iron that I recently ordered. I can’t wait to receive both!

Embroidery – If at first you don’t succeed…

The past few days I’ve been able to machine embroider a bit. I wasn’t thrilled with anything that I made though. When I’m trying out a new design, I always use scrap cloth. I will say that this is the first time that I was not thrilled with any of the color choices that I’d made. I’ll be sure to post pictures of my mistakes.