a pirate's life's for me....

My baby turned 2 recently!  We had a little pirate-themed party to celebrate.  I found the pink skull knit fabric at Mill-End and made both girls pirate dresses for the occasion.  The pattern is Lil Blue Boo's Racerback Tunic Dress.  I've made 3 versions of this dress, the first one I blogged about here.

This pattern is so quick and easy I've got it down under 2 hours from start to finish.  With leggings or shorts it is the perfect summertime playdress. 

You can tell what a mischievious little monkey she is!

Itty Bitty Baby Gifts

I went to a baby shower yesterday.  After about the 10th time (no exaggeration!) I was getting tired of my usual go-to gift for expectant moms, the Amy Butler Everyday Diaper Bag seen here.  Then I remembered that while pregnant with B, I really wanted to make her Made by Rae's  Itty Bitty Baby Dress, a free newborn baby dress pattern. 

I used fabric and trims I had in my stash.  The hem is actually grosgrain ribbon, not bias tape that the pattern called for.  The fabric is by Liz Scott.  It came together really fast

I also made a peekaboo bonnet to match, another pattern by Rae.  I had made this pattern before, last summer when B was still a baby  .  

Again I used grosgain ribbon for the ties.  I was too lazy to make my own bias tape.  I also stitched in the ditch instead of hand-sewing the two sides together.  The result wasn't too awful.

Here's the reverse side.  The fabric is a purple moda bella solid which I also used for the lining of the dress bodice.

Here's the whole outfit together and below is  a detail of the bodice. 

A Rainbow Dress

I've been building up my stash of knits for a couple of months now, mostly through on-line stores like the Fabric Fairy.  Last weekend, though, I finally made it to Mill End on the West side and found a whole bunch of pretty cute knits.  And they were all 25% off, yay!

a saThis particular rainbow print was only $5.00 a yard plus 25% off.  I found it in the flat folds section and bought a yard and a half of it.  At 60 inches wide, there is plenty left.  A matching dress for B is in the works and who knows, maybe a top for me.  Hmm, would a rainbow shirt be appropriate for someone my age????

Here are the deets: the pattern is the Bloom Dress from the book Sewing ModKid Style by Patty Young.  I left off the flower appliques on the sides and added a tiny pocket and ribbing on the sleeves.  I made a size 4 and as you can see it fits S perfectly. 

Sewing with knits is really addictive.  I have to say that with my serger everything comes together so fast and easy.  And even the top stitching that I had to do on my sewing machine came out looking pretty darn good. 

And on the plus side, S is now claiming that she loves everything I make her.  More knits to come!

Lil Blue Boo Racerback Tunic or How we survived our vacation

 
We just got back from a week in San Francisco and Disneyland, Californina.  Today we are all exhausted and just happy to be back home.

What a week.  First off, we went to San Francisco, one of my favorite cities in the world, I think because parts of downtown reminds me a lot of Portland.  We were there for just a couple of days and nights and didn't get to see or do much this time around, mainly because we had two sick kids with us.  S had a cold when we left Portland, then by the time we hit San Francisco, B had caught it too.  So we mostly hung around our hotel, The Fairmont, which was beautiful by the way.

     
We did manage to spend a brief afternoon in Chinatown, which was only a couple of blocks from our hotel. 

The girls are modeling crocheted owl hats, probably hand-made by someone in China, ha. 














The next morning we walked to Union Square.  The girls and I went to Britex, the huge fabric store in San Francisco.  We were there for about 5 minutes then B decided to throw a huge monumental tantrum as soon as we stepped onto the second floor.  It was with great sadness that we left after a saleslady suggested that B might be happier outside of the store.  After that we decided to give up on sightseeing and holed up in our hotel room for the rest of the time we were in SF, hoping that the worst of their colds would be over by the time we arrived in Disneyland.

We flew to Disneyland the next morning and settled into our hotel.  That day and the next seemed to go well.  S and B still had coughs but they seemed better.  In fact, S's low-grade fever finally broke the first night we were in Disneyland.    We went out the second day, still taking it easy, coming back to our hotel room for long naps in the afternoon.  It wasn't till the evening of the second day that S's symptoms got worse.  It began with coughing and throwing up phlegm and kept getting worse in spite of the rescue inhaler we gave her.  She ended up in the Emergency Room at St. Joseph's in Anaheim.

We were very lucky that our hotel had an in-house nurse and EMT.  They were there within 5 minutes of our call to the front desk.  Then the ambulance came and took her to the hospital while B and  I waited at the hotel.  They gave S steroids to get her through the next few days and we continued on with our vacation without further incidence.

Sooo, anyway, this is turning out to be a loooong post.  In spite of sickness and a visit to the ER, we still managed to have fun.



And oh yeah, before we left for our trip, I made a few racerback tunics from this Lil Blue Boo pattern.

This is now S's favorite dress.  Note the rainbows and stars.  I got the knit from the Fabric Fairies.   They have really cute knits that are pretty affordable.  The pattern is super easy to follow and a breeze to sew with my serger.  The pattern called for serging the hem, which I did, but I think that next time I might play around with coverstitching the hem on my serger instead. 

I'll leave you with one more shot of S and her princess hair.



Gingham Playday Frock

Ok, I actually just finished this dress but I'm still going to count this as one of my KCWC accomplishments.

Here she is modelling awkwardly in the cold today.  And yeah those are yesterday's braids and uncombed hair.

ooh, pockets!

hands in pockets pose.

let's put one hand on your hips and say cheese!

The pattern is the Playday Frock from The New One-yard Wonders.  Fabric is DS Quilts navy gingham from JoAnn's.  I actually really love how this dress turned out.  And it was a super quick sew.

So even though KCWC is officially over, I'm going to continue sewing kid's clothes this week in preparation for our trip to the happiest place on earth.  So hopefully I will have more to show you soon.