Grummie's Pillow

My grandmother is 84 today. There isn't much in the way of new and exciting gifts to give her, so I decided I would make her something. Since my latest crafting involves sewing and smocking, I made her a little pillow. It measures about 10'x15' without the ruffle.

I used leftover fabric from Brooke's Dress, which are colors that remind me of Grummie anyway :). The plate is an Ellen McCarn pattern I used for Sadie's first bubble, and also the smocked insert for Jackson's bubble.

I actually had everything on hand, even the blank pleated insert! I literally used every scrap of fabric, because I was intent on putting a ruffle on the pillow. It is made of many smaller strips, and barely was enough to go around, but I like the end result.

Stuffing the pillow was a little tricky. Even though I didn't overstuff, it is difficult to keep the stuffing from lumping up behind the elastic smocked insert. And while I pieced the front quite evenly, I guess the smocking still wasn't perfectly blocked because it seems to be a little wonky still. And the side pieces curve for some reason.

Even so, it was a good learning project--I've never done pillow before. (Well, unless you count the snail!) Also, I've never actually sewn a smocked insert into anything, those baby bubbles were made for me. The other garments I've smocked directly on.

Meet My Friend Sara

My friend Sara has been blogging about her shopping skillz. She, like me, prefers not to pay full price--for anything! I'm learning a lot about CVS from her reports, too. She is doing a giveaway sponsored by a great web business, Girly Girl Bowtique. Look at these great bows to go with sweet Little Dresses!

I finally made the pillowcase dress.

This is the pillowcase I mentioned here last July. I finally made the dress! Excuse this view, which Blogger has once again rotated. This was a simple project--I just trimmed off the top, abd cut out sleeves. There are a couple of versions out there, but I decided to do the one in which the front and back casings are gathered with elastic, and the sleeves are bound with bias tape. I just made 1/2" double fold bias binding from the top of the pillowcase for the binding. Older versions are tied only with ribbon strung through the casings.

I think the elastic gives it a neater finish.

Cute trim, huh? I ordered these from eBay. Probably a craft project from long ago...

This was a fun, easy project. I'll have to be on the lookout for more pillowcases!!

Amy Butler's Sleepy Snail

Meet Amy Butler's design, Sleepy Snail. Isn't it cute?? It is from this book I got for Christmas: The book has oodles of cute things in it. Unfortunately, most of them are too young for my just-turned-two-year Sadie, so I hope to get some good baby gifts out of it. The Sleepy Snail caught my eye immediately, and I just happen to have a good friend due to give birth to her third child in July!

Here is my version:

Look at these great Moda fabrics used on the stripes and the dotted pillow base.

The little cusions are removeable for napping :)

The ruffle part of the pillow is Amy Butler, and is actually the same fabric used on the model in the book. It is a pretty large critter, and will definitely make a statement in the nursery!

I have some great scraps left over, and they are begging to be made into a little kitty (also from this book) for Miss Sadie. Annnd, as long as she's still in diapers, I should probably make the cute diaper bag for myself, right??

The Quilt

Yay! Sadie's memory quilt is finally finished!
This was the inspiration: from Martha Stewart Baby:

First came the cutting. My version is made of 130 4x4" squares of fabric from favorite baby clothes. I was shooting for a 12 square by 15 square quilt, but ran out of fabric and oomph at 10x13, which coincidentally is my birthday :) Then, some obsessive placing and positioning.

I was going for a watercolor effect, with a gradation of bright colors from upper left corner down to lower right. I don't know that anyone else will notice, but at least it gave me some direction!

I got it all pieced together last August, but I wanted the perfect piece of matelasse for the back. That took the better part of a year to find. Thanks fabric.com for finally getting some in stock! It isn't perfectly white, but that's ok.

I did find a wonderful raspberry crochet yarn to tie the quilt together, but could never find the right color binding. Finally, I just made my own:
I even did the nifty continuous binding strip trick, by cutting a square into a parallelagram and sewing it into a tube, then you cut along your measured line, and you have a continuous strip of fabric! And since my nifty bias tape maker is for 1/2" SINGLE fold, I had to use another trick for making 1/2" double fold as seen here: Gotta love sewing blogs for all these neat tricks. It isn't really true quilt binding, but sewn in between the quilt top and backing like large piping.

This is the finished product:

(Ugh--why is it such a pain to load pictures onto Blogger? I must be doing something wrong. And why did it turn all my pictures around?

It was fun to do, and turned out pretty much like I wanted it to. Sadie seems to like it: she tried to go "nigh-nigh" while I was ironing it!

Dragonfly progress

I made some progress on the Butterick baby dress this weekend. Here is Sadie modeling the bodice. This is my first attempt at sewing sleeves, and well, it wasn't so easy. The baby shoe curves I've sewn before are much more forgiving.

I did find some cute dragonfly buttons at Joanns! They are difficult to see, but Sadie and I know they're there--that's what matters :) Pay very little attention to the uneven edgestitching on these pockets...

Here is the work-in-progress. I don't love the bodice--the cut is a little bland and blocky, and somehow it just looks homemade. And that's not completely my fault--it is the cut of the garment. The placket instructions are a little difficult to understand, and I'm left with a very crude blending of the bias and the facing at the back of the neck. Fortunately, it will be hard to see.

Speaking of bias trim, it's my first attempt at that too! Not as difficult as I thought, and I got to use my new bias tape maker that I bought for Sadie's quilt.

The hem and neck are just basted--still need to be topstitched. And of course I lack all of the back buttons. I contemplated using self-cording between the bodice and skirt. I think it might have looked better, although it looks pretty good up close and in person now that it's pressed.
I didn't get any pictures of Sadie running and jumping in the skirted dress. She loves it! It will at least make a very good dress for school and play. Her smocked garments don't get worn nearly enough because they're too dressy.

ETA: I don't know why my pictures don't enlarge when you click on them. They do in my earlier posts, but I'm not uploading pictures any differently. ??

Edit II: Ok, so Sadie's picture enlarges. Wow, what a dirty little face! Pay no attention to that, either ;)

Ok, so I lied.

I can't finish the quilt, so I am starting something new.

I've had this pattern since the summer, but even my tiny Sadie has (presumably) grown out of the NB/S/M size. I should have made something from it by now, but--I haven't. It was pretty easy to extrapolate a 1/4 inch here, 1/8 inch there, to the next size up. So--hopefully it will work out--we shall see.

I've cut out the View A--sleeved dress. My first sleeves--believe it or not! I had this fabric that MIL gave me, and a coworker gave the scraps to her. Fun free stuff! It is a little more teal than the picture shows.

And, cutting is as far as I've gotten because it requires interfacing at the placket (another first), and I don't have any left. Why did Walmart discontinue its sewing department right as I developed this hobby??

I do have this book, and it makes me feel as though I can accomplish anything, even sleeves and plackets.

As for the quilt, I have a backing delimma. I really want a piece of white matelasse. It is harder to find than one might expect, I can only find a couple of online sources. And they are poly/cotton blend. I ordered an inexpensive matelasse bedspread from Walmart and well, you get what you pay for. It is 100% polyester, and you can sure tell it! Ick! It doesn't feel good at all, and doesn't belong with all my beloved cotton baby cloth squares. That makes me a little wary of the blends too. I really don't want to pay more than $20-30, but I may have to break down and buy a coverlet from my department store. Or wait till it goes on sale :(

Any fabric selection suggestions are appreciated!

I'm going to finish this before I start anything else.

This is my first quilt. It is made of 4x4 (finished) squares of Sadie's clothing. Favorites from her first year :). There are some special pieces--her coming home outfit is in the upper left square, her 1st birthday monogrammed bib is in the lower right. In between are lots of squares of her birthday dress fabric. I used lots of pockets, and other details. I also did a no-no and used some knit garments that I just couldn't leave out. And no, I didn't treat them at all, so there is a little pulling and non-matching of seams :(.

I tried to go for a bit of a "watercolor" affect with some gradation from left to right and top to bottom.

This top was completed in August (!) And here it sits, waiting to be sewn to the batting and backed. I first wanted a paisley minky for the back, but it just doesn't have enough structure. Yes it is cuddly soft, but just puddles in your hand. And, it is of course knit, which this quilt has far enough of! This will only be a tied quilt, at each square corner. [My very basic sewing machine and I are a long way from machine quilting. And I'm the mother of a 5 and a 2 year old, so NO to hand quilting as well.] So, I'm going to go with Martha's suggestion of matelasse. I've ordered an inexpensive coverlet, and as soon as it arrives I hope to finish.

I've posted about the inspiration before.

As you can see, mine is very much like the model, in mostly pinks and whites. And I've picked out the best raspberry yarn to tie it with, but every binding tape I've found is a shade or two off. So I guess I'll be making my own.