The Little Dragon Costume

It's been a long time between posts!  Busy, busy, busy.

I spent the day on Sunday sewing for my 5 year old.  He has NEVER in his life worn a costume before.  He is not a dress up kind of kiddie - in fact, he has always run from costumes.  Until this week...

It's his first Book Week at school...and he wanted to go as a character from his favourite dragon book.  Hmmm...how to make a dragon costume...

Long story short - this is how it turned out...

I think he looked pretty adorable!  Plus it was practical - freezing cold winter weather, and easy for him to get in and out of himself.  All in sweatshirt fleece...

What is it?  In reality just a hoodie, and a pair of trackpants.  I took the Tie Dye Diva Hello Hoodie and Snazzy Pants patterns as the basis, in a size 5 - which fits perfectly.

I drafted a set of wings, which I sewed into the arm and side seams of the outer layer of the hoodie (it is fully lined).  I made them full enough so that his arms could go straight up and still not have his movement restricted.

I extended the centre back of the hoodie (both outer and liner) down to include a "tail".  The wings collapse down nicely (helped by the veining detail I added).

And I added a row of spikes all the way down from the top of his head to the bottom of the tail, and a couple of extra spikes at the bottom sides to form the end of the tail

Obligatory tail wiggle photo... :)

You can see he has full movement here (important for little jumping beans like him).  I added three spikes to the front bottom hem of each leg for dragon claws...

Ready to play and fly away...

Little Girl Bedroom Makeover

It's been a while since I posted.  A lot going on in this neck of the woods!  I thought I'd share the final results of the makeover we just gave our little girl's bedroom.  It's just finished and I'm really, really happy with it.  So is she!  Which is the important part right? :)

It took me literally months to design the fabric for the bedding and the decals for the walls, etc.  I kept getting distracted with work.  Unfortunately everyone else's designs were coming before Jessie's, so I gave myself a deadline to get it done.  This is the end result...

I had in my mind an overall image of what we were going to do.  I let my daughter choose colours (purple and aqua blue) and she likes my swirl designs, along with birds and owls - so that was our starting point.  We were thinking a large tree for the wall - and matching branches and birds for the bedding.  So off I went designing...

I did a number of print tests to match and coordinate with the minky I was using for the blanket backing.  I took the final fabric swatches off to the local paint shop to get a colour match for the blue.  The walls had to be blue too apparently!  Big thanks to my husband for agreeing to paint the room.  He did a fine job...

I knew that cutting out a full tree from a sheet of the decal fabric I was using was going to be too much of a mission.  Trust me - cutting out all of those owls, birds and blossoms I had drawn was MORE than enough work!  So after I designed the blanket - I went searching on Etsy to find someone with a plain white tree wall decal that would work.  I got very lucky and found the one in the picture with swirly branches. 

It was a mission to put up - you really need two adults at least - rather than just me and my 7 year old - but it looks great.  I have to say, I well prefer my fabric decals to the vinyl though.  The fabric ones are so easy to reposition - the vinyl is not.  It took about 2 hours to get the base tree up in total...and it was only two pieces!  It's is lovely though - and worth the effort...

Anyway - I used my decals on the door...

On a wooden tissue box cover that I painted the wall colour...

On a "window" for above the bed (see my nice matching decal background/wall colour!)...

And of course the blossoms, owls and birds all over the tree...

I'm very happy with the colour match between the fabric and the decals...it's very very close indeed!

I used a matte satin called "Silky Faille" for the bed covering, the pillowcase, and the little throw cushions.  It's such a lovely fabric.  I backed the bedding in a lovely soft purple minky called "Jewel", which again matched one of the purples exactly.

Here is a close up of the pillowcase, and the matching throw pillows...

Yes - she really does like it!

A School Project

My daughter loves to draw - it's her favourite activity along with reading.  Both of which I'm very happy about!  I had an idea for a little project that I knew she would enjoy - a pencil case with her own artwork on it, but wondered if her classmates would like to join in too.

I had a chat with her lovely Year 2 teacher, and she thought it would be a great idea - so I designed a template for them, and came in to class at art time a few weeks ago.

We showed them some examples of my daughter's art already printed on fabric - and also a finished pencil case.  We also explained the concept of a repeating pattern to them - and that I would take their little drawing, and repeat it over the fabric just like on their clothing!

The result - a bit of a designing and sewing marathon and 25 brilliantly colourful pencil cases!!  They are made of a hardwearing canvas - which can be washed and should last the test of time...

We had them draw a larger design for a centre panel with their name on it - and a small design that would be used as the repeat.  Even my 4 year old joined in - sitting very nicely with the "big kids" - and to my surprise having a go himself!  He never usually participates in anything arty at kindergarten - so I was overjoyed to see him sitting with a drawing implement in his hand!

The class of 6 year olds were incredibly focussed on their work - and very excited that it would be turned into something they could use.  This was my daughter Jessie's finished artwork - her Mermaid Princess:

With her "coordinate"...

And this is the finished pencil case - front and back

I was very very happy at the amount of detail that came through on the fabric - and the vibrancy of the colours we were able to reproduce.

My added bonus - little Mikey's one...will be keeping these both as little treasures I think :)

 

 

I have to say it was one of the most rewarding projects I've undertaken - the sheer delight from the kiddies when I returned a few weeks later with their sewn pencil cases was amazing!  So worth the time I put into them :)

Year 2 is a great age to do them as a project too - they've settled in, can write and draw pretty well by now, but are still super excited to do something like this as an activity.

Here are my two kiddies with a photo Jessie's teacher emailed through from the day we handed them out at school - thank you Mrs Miller!

There is now a lovely big display up in the classroom showing the original artwork, and photos of all the kiddies each with their pencil case - great work everyone!!

I want to say a BIG thank you to the lovely ladies in a Fabric forum I belong to - for helping to cover the costs of the fabric for the class.  I had some spare blank space on the yardage I needed to order - so I offered some personalised pencil case panels up to them.  They were snapped up very quickly - and I am very grateful to you all - THANK YOU!!!

Ombre Hearts Dress

A post for the New Year...best wishes for 2014 to you all!

I did some sewing for Christmas, as usual.  First was a dress for my 6 year old. 

I used the Fair & Square dress from Tie Dye Diva again (it's a favourite of mine), but wanted to change it up a little as I've made it maybe 6 times now?!

There was this one, and this, and this...plus a few more I haven't shared, LOL!

So, I added some little capped sleeves.  I've described how I did it below if you are interested in trying it yourself!

Really a very simple addition - but I love the way it turned out.  In fact, I think this dress is now my favourite of all time.

Some detail pics to show you...






First, the sleeve I added. 

I also chose to bind the lower armhole with some spare white faille instead of double folding the edge - just to be different!

  

Front and back views (very happy I found the perfect matching button!!)

My matchy-matchy seam!  I always make this dress now with one centre back seam, rather than two side seams.  Only one seam to match up!

 

Then some action twirls shots from Christmas Day!  I love the way this fabric design seems to ripple!

I used my own fabric design, printed on Silky Faille - this one here called "Ombre Paper Hearts":

I absolutely love the way it printed.  A gorgeous raspberry red with lovely matching lighter and darker tones for the ombre hearts.  It is such a wonderful soft, draping fabric - and so nice to the touch.  It also has a teeny bit of a sheen in the right light!  Plus it washes AMAZINGLY.  My daughter wore it to the movies - she came out covered in sticky melted chocolate and icecream.  All down the front of it - brown and orange.  My heart sank!  Not only was I able to spot clean the worst of it off in the cinema bathroom (rubbing with bathroom paper towels!) - when I finally got it into the wash every single thing came out.  Awesome!!!


Anyway, for those of you interested...to add the sleeves:

I basically drew an oval that was 7 inches high, by 6 inches wide - then chopped it in half down the longest diameter (so the straight edge was 7 inches long).  That was the template.  I cut two out of my fabric (one reversed) for each sleeve. 

Sewed a half inch seam along the curved side with right sides together.  Clipped the curve, turned, and pressed.  Gathered the straight edge in by an inch, so it then measured 6 inches... 

When the bodice outer and inner have both been completed (i.e. you have sewn the front to back at the shoulders) - and just before you the outer to the inner to complete the bodice - this is where you add the sleeve.  Line the gathered raw edge up with the raw armhole edge of one of the bodice pieces, and centre it on the shoulder seam (right sides together).  Do this for both sleeves.  You will need to tuck the curved edge of the sleeve in so you don't sew over it when you sew the neckline.  Place the other bodice piece on top like normal now, and sew away...

I love the added sleeves - and I'm sure I'll do it again someday...soon!

Happy New Year!



Stars in Stripes Dress

Quite some time ago I created a fabric design - I called it "Falling Stars in Stripes".  The fabric design was inspired by the falling binary code images in the movie "The Matrix"...maybe you remember that one?  I have to admit to it being one of my all time favourite of my fabric designs... 

I entered it into the Spoonflower fabric of the week contest way back in July 2012...  The theme that week was "Stars and Stripes".  To my delight, it was a top 10 finisher - and I always had in my mind to make a dress for my daughter out of it.  Now I finally have!

You can see the detail of the stars a bit better on the closer photos...

You can see the slight sheen on the fabric in this one...



This time - I just embellished with simple silvery star buttons.  No flower or anything fancy.  The fabric was detailed enough not to need anything much.

I chose Spoonflower's new Silky Faille, which is a stunning fabric.  So soft, satiny and prints with SUCH vibrant colours.  She loves wearing it - and the faille washes up brilliantly.  You can click the inage below to see the full repeat on Spoonflower...

The pattern I used was one of my favourites - the Fair and Square from Tie Dye Diva.  I've used it many, many times now...and I'm sure I'll use it again very soon.  It's getting hot here - and it's a great dress/top pattern for the heat.

A few things to note about the Silky Faille.  Use a microtex needle.  Keep the fabric taut when you sew - but don't stretch it - just enough pressure to keep it firm.  It does not hold a crease very well - which is awesome for washing (I'm not a keen ironer!) - but something to remember if you have to crease small double-turn seams like under the arms of this dress.

The end result - a flowy, drapey, soft and very comfortable little dress.