Quilt Top!

All of the cooking and cleaning and things that have been keeping me from sewing are now over (for now at least), so yesterday I ran to my sewing room and worked on this:


I have been itching to sew, but I didn't want to bother with laying out a pattern or cutting it out, or making adjustments, so I decided I'd work on Dolce Bento blocks.

Imagine my delight when I laid them all out and discovered I had enough to make a quilt top!

I'm not 100% pleased with this top. I'm not sure that using two prints in each block was a good idea. I'm wondering now if I should have just used one per block. But it's too late now. It's going to stay like this.

I still plan to add a 2" white border around the outside, and maybe a pieced border made up of 2" print squares around that. The backing will most likely be plain white, or perhaps a coordinating solid. I would love to use one of the prints in the top, but I've been unable to track down any more of this line for sale online. At least not the prints I really like.

The princess is very impressed with this top, however, and has claimed it for herself. Now I just need to start practicing machine quilting again so I can get it (and the other three tops folded up in a box in my sewing room) finished.

Happy Sewing!

The No Sew Zone

There has been no sewing going on around here in almost two weeks. I think I am starting to go into withdrawal. I itch to go sit down at my machine and sew something. Anything. Even just a straight seam.

Work has been really hectic lately, although the worst is over now and things should start slowing down for the holidays. Every spare moment here at home has been spent giving the house a thorough cleaning in anticipation of the holidays and my youngest brother coming to spend Thanksgiving with us. And I'm not done yet. And you can see from my NaNo widget that I'm hopelessly behind on my novel writing with no way to catch up by the end of the month. (It's okay, NaNo is all for fun and it has been effective in getting me to write more consistently.)

So the only sewing I have to show right now is the turquoise and brown version of M6065:

Once again, I used a corduroy print I found at Walmart, and I lined the bodice with some quilting cotton from my stash. The piping is made of the same fabric.

I really like this version better than the black/pink one, but the princess prefers the other one. She will wear this with a white t-shirt underneath (short sleeve, or long sleeve turtleneck depending on the weather) and brown ribbed tights. I have my eyes open for a turquoise/aqua turtleneck, but I haven't found one yet.

Two weeks ago, before the epic housecleaning battle began, I muslined a pair of "tall" Burda Style pants. There's a story to go with the experience, which I'll share soon. I am hoping to have some quality sewing time during the Thanksgiving weekend in which to make a wearable pair. I'll be off and the house cleaning will be over, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Happy Sewing!

McCalls 6065- I Really Have Been Sewing

You may have noticed the posts have been few and far between lately. I've been taking a semi-blog break and trying to get things done around the house and spend time with the family. I have been sewing, just not as much as I'd like.

In addition to all the everyday stuff that is going on, I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year. You can click on the NaNoWriMo badge in my sidebar if you want to go to the site and see what NaNo is all about. And you can check out my wordcount widget right below the NaNo badge if you want to see just how far behind I am in my writing. Real life not only makes it hard to find time to sew, it makes it hard to find time to write, too. There's also a link (in the sidebar) to my other blog, where I talk about writing. Just don't expect too much blogging over there this month- I'm trying to work on the novel, not the writing blog!

But back to sewing.

Here is my latest finished project, McCalls 6065:


As you can see, the pattern is actually for a little summer dress or top and shorts. But I figured, why not make it out of corduroy and put a tee and tights under it? So I did. And it makes an excellent cool weather dress.

Here's the back.

This is a super simple pattern. There are no buttons or zipper- the dress is loose fitting and goes over the child's head. The bodice is fully lined. I used a hot pink dot quilting cotton. The corduroy was a lucky (and totally unexpected) find at my local Walmart. It's lightweight and very soft.

It's kind of hard to tell in the photos, but the empire seam is quite curved in front (the pattern drawings are accurate) and that's my favorite feature of the dress. The pattern does not call for piping the seam, but I just couldn't leave well enough alone and added a strip of mini-piping for a little extra pop.

I cut a size 10 with size 14 length. It turned out just right. If I had used the skirt lining with attached ruffle, I would have cut it shorter, but I wanted a plain skirt.

This is actually the second dress I've made from this pattern. The first is a chocolate brown corduroy with turquoise and aqua medallions on it. I like that one even better, but the princess prefers this one- probably because it has pink in it.

Now that the time has changed and darkness falls so early, my photo sessions will be mostly confined to weekends, so it will probably be a few days before I can get pics of the brown version. Yet another excuse for the sporadic blog posts.

And now I'm off to work on the NaNo novel. Happy Sewing!