The Sew Bossy Initiative

How Exciting!!! I'm paired up with the lovely Anna from 64 Color Box for the Sew Bossy Initiative!!

 
What's The Sew Bossy Initiative you ask? Well, let me enlighten you! Its one of the most fun thing about having a blog! Basically two people are paired up (Anna is in Florida!) and they each select a pattern, and the fabric to make it, and post it to the other person then boss them into making it! (Click the Sew Bossy button to read more!)
Everything needs to be included to make the pattern, so if the pattern calls for zips, interfacing, etc, then it needs to be there!
I'm already pulling on my bossy pants and looking for patterns that I would like to see Anna sew! 
We wont be kicking this off till the start of November due to commitments, but I'm really looking forward to it!

Enthusiastically,

Jessica

Summer Skirt

I've had my eye on a sewing tutorial on Pinterest for a while now. Its a really cute skirt pattern. You can check it out here. Ive been wanting to make one for a while, but I hadn't seen any nice fabric (I hadnt really been looking either, but thats beside the point).
But when I went into my local craft store yesterday to get some thread, I saw the cutest fabric on sale! 
It asked me if it could be a skirt, so I obliged and took it home. 

A few hours later and Viola! Skirt!

This skirt was so simple. To be honest, I started following the tutorial, but realised it wasn't exactly what I wanted, and it is such an easy skirt I ditched the tutorial and made it myself.

I decided to add a lace trim to the hem, because everything looks better with lace :) In the above photo, I've tied the sash a bit tighter so I could wear the skirt higher up my waist, but it can also be worn on my hips too.

I wore this skirt for the first time last night, and I'm not completely happy with it. I had trouble seeing where to hem it, (*hint hint* I'd LOVE a manikin!) and it ended up just a little too long for my liking. I like my skirts to sit just below my knee, and this one sits about 1-2 inches too long. Fussy much?

So I'm going to modify is slightly. I'm going to cut off the lace, and some fabric, then hem the skirt, then sew the lace panel on underneath, so it is like a ruffle. Make sense? No.
Well Ill fix it up in the coming days, and post what I did.

Overall I'm not completely convinced. I might try to fix it, or I might chop it up into something else.

Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.

Jessica

Second Oliver + S Music Box Dress

As promised here is the second Oliver + S Music Box Jumper dress. I blogged about the first dress here.
Little Miss I had been asking me to finish her dress ever since she saw her twin sister's. 

Just like the 1st dress,  it turned out really well.

 I used some cute red flower buttons on this dress

I think the back looks so sweet with all those buttons!

I really like how the denim keeps the pleat nice and sharp on the front. I'm really looking forward to using one of my other Oliver + S patterns now. I have learnt so much just from making these two dresses

Have a nice day!

Jessica

Sew Nesting!

Last year in July, I was heavily pregnant with Little Mr Z. As my due date loomed near, everyone kept telling me that I would soon start nesting.

So I kept waiting and waiting for the time when I would have so much energy and motivation to make my house really sparkle before the baby arrived.

IT NEVER CAME!

I was so so disappointed. I really wanted to make my home perfect, but it was such a chore! But then what did happen was I woke up with an overwhelming desire.......to sew!!

I remember I took over the whole kitchen table with my sewing machine, cutting board and fabrics! When I woke up, the first thing I did was sew. I pretty much sewed solid for the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy :)

I wanted to make my baby a quilt, so after searching high and low i decided that I wanted to use Moda pure by Sweetwater.

But do you think I could find it anywhere?!  It was an older line of fabric, and no where to be found!
Just when I was about to give up on finding any, someone listed a charm pack on Ebay. Just what I was after :) I bid like crazy and WON! (and paid a lot more than I normally would for a charm pack!)

Because this fabric has really relaxing earthy colours, I wanted to keep the pattern nice a simple too. I decided to cut 2 1/2 inch strips of my background fabric (that I found at my local craft store), and just surround each charm square.

You cant really see it in the photos, but the background is a lovely polka-dot fabric :)

Don't you just love the crinkled soft look/feel a quilt gets after its been washed several times?

I bound it with a solid dark brown, and backing it in a blue fabric. I wanted to keep the quilting fairly simple as well, so I just echoed each seam with 1/4 inch quilting. It was such a relaxing lovely quilt to make! 

Just don't look too closely at my wonky stitching :)

This was also the first quilt I used bamboo wadding instead of cotton, and I LOVE it! So much easier to use, with the added benefit of being hypo-allergenic and eco-friendly too! I found that the bamboo wadding didn't slide around like cotton does when its in the 'quilt sandwitch' (the top, wadding, and backing all basted together).

 And here's an adorable photo of Little Mr Z enjoying his quilt today in the sunshine! (Last day of winter!! YAY!)

Take it easy!

Jessica

Oliver + S Music Box Pattern!

It seams that I never realise how fast my twins are growing until their clothes don't fit any more!

I like them to have some nice dresses for when we go to church, weddings, etc... However, they have both grown so much lately that their dresses are getting too short! (Sob! My babies are growing up. I already have a sick feeling whenever I think of them going to Kindergarten next year!)

As my girls are quilt tall for their age (they have no choice in the matter as I'm 5'8'', and hubby is 6'3''), I find it really hard to find dresses that are long enough (by long enough I mean past their knees.....gotta love a modest girl).

So why not make them one?  I thought to myself.

I had this pattern in my cupboard, Its Oliver + S Music box jumper pattern. Just look how sweet that paper doll looks :)

There are two versions of this pattern, A and B.

I chose B. I really love the little pocket and button detail on the front (and it had less pleats......anything to make it easier!)

This pattern is only 1 out of 4 scissors in difficulty (Oliver + S's way of indicating how hard a pattern is), So I thought it would be a great one to start with.

I went shopping for fabric at Spotlight (Australian craft store), and picked up some cute denim with red flowers and an adorable green corduroy with white hippos and pink birds *love*.

I just have to tell you, Oliver + S patterns are so professional. They give such clear instructions and the end result is so finished and neat, it hardly looks like something I have made. Seriously!I can hardly rave about them enough! Even the inside of this dress has all the seams tucked away. Little miss E could wear this dress inside out and it would look as neat as the front!

Another thing I loved about this pattern was they explained WHY. When a pattern tells me to do something, if I think I can get away without doing it, I will.
Not so with Oliver + S!
Every step that I would normally skip had a description as to why it needs to be done. Needless to say, I followed every step completely, and the dress really has a professional look :)

 

I picked up some really cute little pink bird buttons from my local craft store , and VIOLA!! One adorable dress! (not as adorable as the model though, of course!)

 

Now for the second dress for Little miss I. I'll put up so photos of that one when I finish (which will have to be soon as we will have one jealous twin if its not done by Sunday!)

 Take care!

Jessica