Three times the fun...

 

Just wanted to share a couple quick photos of the dresses I made for my three girls for my brother-in-law's upcoming wedding.  I usually steer clear of making 'fancy' clothes for my girls--satin, crepe, chiffon--all those fabrics scare me!  But I was determined to tackle my fears and make three beautiful dresses for this very special event.  I am so glad I did too!!

The pattern I decided on was the Maddie Dress from Lily Bird Studio.  I spent a lot of time deciding on fabics--the main wedding colors are teal & black. Dustin is the best man, I'm a bridesmaid, and Braydon (our oldest son) is a groomsman as well--so I knew I wanted the girls' dresses to at least coordinate with us.  I couldn't find anything in the right shade of teal, so decided to go with this eggplant-purple color. The purple and teal really compliment each other, and will look great in a fall wedding (I think anyways!).  All the fabrics are from JoAnns--I used purple glitter satin (the poly stuff) for the bodice, black satin (again, poly), and three layers of crepe (poly) for the skirt.  

Overall the dreses actually were not that hard to sew up.  I used my walking foot, and the fabrics were pretty easy to work with.  I had a little trouble hemming the crepe--and I'm not totally happy with how they look...but I doubt anyone but me will ever notice!  Ashlee's dress is a bit shorter than I would like, and if I had any extra crepe I would probably add another layer to her skirt...but I don't so it will just have to work, since the wedding is Saturday! :) I'm really happy with how they turned out, and even prouder than I overcame a "fear" that I had.  I definitely don't think I will start making dresses on a regular basis out of these fabrics, but at least I know I CAN do it!

Happy Thursday!
 
 

A couple of pouches...

I can't believe Sewing Summit is only a week away!! I'm so so so excited to be going!! I've been working on a few things this week for the summit, and wanted to share.

I joined a swap group on Flickr for the summit--we are each swapping a pouch/mini quilt/cushion.  It's a secret swap, so you know who you are creating for, but not who is creating for you! So far the finished items that have been posted are AMAZING! There are so many talented seamstresses out there--which makes me even more excited for Sewing Summit--I can't wait to learn and see new things!

For my partner I went back and forth in my head about several ideas, and finally decided on a Hexagon pieced pouch.  Specifically the no. 236 The Melinda Zipper Pouch from ithinksew. I was a little wary of the hexagon piecing, but it actually went together very smoothly, and pretty quickly!  I spent the most time cutting--I really tried to be meticulous when cutting out all the hexies. And it paid off; sewing was really easy.  I also marked the 1/4" seam allowance on the wrong side of all the pieces using a fabric marker, which really helped too.

The only thing I added were the little zipper tabs on the top--I just think they look cute, and a little more finished.

 It turned out a bit smaller than I was picturing, so I decided to make a second pouch for my partner.  I made a little business card wallet using a pattern from Michelle Patterns.  I love her patterns--they always turn out great and the directions are easy to follow.  

It turned out really cute, and was really fun to make--plus easy and fast! Win win! I made two in less than an hour (I made them assembly line style).  I needed one for myself of course too! 

And of course I needed some business cards to put in it!  I made some up in photoshop and had them printed at OfficeMax, and I'm super thrilled with how they turned out! I didn't want to spend a ton, and I needed them quickly, so OfficeMax was the perfect choice.  It cost me $16 to get 100 cards, and they had them printed and cut faster than I could even drive to pick them up!  That's service!

Have a great rest of the week!