Knocking off a Valentino

   So, I found this gorgeous blue sweater online. It’s a Valentino and the price was $2290. I don’t know about you, but I certainly could never afford that much for a sweater. So I decided to make my own!
Butterick 5313 was the perfect place to start!

  I liked the lower neckline of the butterick so didn’t try to bring it up like the Valentino. The Butterick had the perfect depth in the neckline for me. Higher necklines tend to over-emphasis my bust and off balance me.    Secondly, my version had to be pink. Because, well, I’m me. And I do love pink. 
  Alterations made to the pattern:

Added 8 inches to the sleeves, I like a long sleeve on a sweater, so I can pull my hands in if I get cold.

Omitted the skirt panel so it would be the perfect length.

Cut the upper front and lower front as one piece. 

Cut the upper back and lower back as one piece.

Drafted in the little shoulder insets, cut the sweater bit to just above the lengthen / shorten here line, cut the rest as lace. I love how it turned out! My version was under 20 dollars. The lace was a remnant in the remnant bin at Joann’s and the sweater knit was a red tag clearance, on half price, also at Joann’s.
If I were to make it again, I would size up the back piece a bit. My lace doesn’t stretch, the pattern is for a knit, makes for a bit of a squeeze to get into it. But it wears nicely and keeps me warm! Even though the back is very open, it’s polyester, so it doesn’t breathe and I retain heat easily in this sweater

Until next time!

Playing with sweater knit

 For the month of October, pattern review has a sweater knit contest going on. Seems like the perfect time to whip out some sweaters if you ask me!  First up, out of an insanely easy to catch on everything anywhere sweater knit is this soft and pretty striped sweater.  I paid attention to stripe matching and just love the coziness.
  I have already snagged it at least a dozen times… Lesson learned, sweater knits are lovely and soft but if they are open weave? Pass. Too much work to sew something if it is going to snag a billion times and likely become unwearable before one season passes.  Next up, a pattern I mostly made up. You see, I started with the McCalls pattern I pictured at the end of this post, McCalls 6754. Notice the similarities? Yeah there are barely any!
  I opted to remove the peplum, which tend make me hippy – not a look I need help with. 

I extended all bodice pieces by 8 inches, the length of the peplum, and widened from the waist to hem for a total of 12 inches. I extended the sleeves as well.  Then, because I wanted a cardigan, I added extra front panels. The left side goes to the center and is self faced. The right side goes to the left princess seam with a facing to the right princess seam. I also lowered the whole neckline, to the same as the other views, to accommodate the draped collar, which was my final design change.
  Everything is serged and the whole shebang is held shut with three snaps.  Yup, it’s changed a lot! All in all I am quite happy with the new sweaters. I still have a good 12 yards of various sweater knits, so you will likely see a few more by the time October rolls to a close!
Oh and my Halloween costume, that’s coming soon! I just need to finish it’s….

Lederhosen

Last Wednesday the hubs said, “I need lederhosen by next Saturday for an Oktoberfest party.” 

My response was ok I can manage that!

So off I went and made him some lederhosen. 
We settled on black micro suede, I’ve never seen real leather and it seemed an expensive project if I were to screw up on it.

  He thought all the pleather looked like couches so micro suede it was! 

These lederhosen had 39 pieces to put together, not including the ties, hardware, and embroidery. They’ve honestly been one of the most complex projects I’ve made to date.

He’s a fan, I think they turned out pretty well, so we will call this one a success!

Until next time!

Nightmare moon progress!

Nightmare moon is progressing nicely! Miss T just loves it already   I still have a ways to go. She needs a mane, a tail, and wings still.
 I’ll likely finish the wings today as well. They are all cut out and ready to go, I just need to get on the sewing!

   For the mane and tail I actually need to buy fabric. So those will happen… Sometime? I was thinking of picking up patterns at hancock’s tomorrow, so maybe I’ll find the necessary supplies. If I do, this outfit will likely be complete by Monday!
 She’s already super happy with it so I can’t go wrong either way! 

The mane tail and wings will snap on, so she can wear the outfit as above and all glamorous with nightmare moon’s  hair as well.

Until next time!

Nightmare moon work in progress

chugging away on a nightmare moon costume for little Miss T! 

 First up is the pants! I just finished them and she looooooveeeesss them!   Nightmare moon is, oddly, my daughter’s absolute favorite pony
  Such a wicked mare of darkness! The next part will be the shirt! Then I’ll make a mane and tail. The tail will be a belt and the mane will snap on. Lastly I’lol be making wings!
Since she doesn’t need it until Halloween, we have oodles of time!

Fitbit case

Sometimes you use a product and know that there has to be a way to improve it.

That’s how it was for my with my FitBit. I have the FitBit One, which is a little clip one not a bracelet. FitBit says to use this product on your bra or hip.

Neither of those methods worked for me. The bra got too sweaty during a good workout and on the hip it kept popping off every time I picked up my daughter.

So I started clipping it to my shoe. When I wore tennis shoes this was fine, I clipped it to the laces and all was good. But when I wore ballet flats, which is most days, I didn’t know where to put it.

I started attaching it to a stretched out hair band around my ankle but knew I could improve on that.

  
So I whipped out this case. It’s pleather on one side and a fun denim on the other. You insert the Fitbit through the reading hole and it goes into a fully contained pocket so it doesn’t shift down the strap.

It’s comfortable when I work out and honestly just looks like a leather anklet.

I always liked the idea of a Fitbit but hates everyone knowing I had one on. Now it’s a bit more discreet! 

Fairy houses!

On Tuesday I was mopping the floors, and to keep her from wandering all over the wet floor (and inevitably falling on it) I popped the Tinkerbell movies on Netflix.

Miss T hasn’t ever really experienced anything fairy related but she was hooked! She just kept talking about fairies! 

I decided making fairy houses would be a fun project so we scampered off in speech of supplies.   Our backyard haul included some rocks, sticks, pinecones, acorns, bark, and moss. I found a driftwood and some shiny rocks that at one point or another lived in my fish tank to add to our supplies as well.  I thought terrariums would be cool, but all I found were tiny ones… So I popped a little initial and spider plant in it and called this one good. It will live in my kitchen.

Whole not a fairy house it is cute!  The first thing we did was plant out plants. (Our fairy gardens are in large plastic bowls from the dollar store.) then we placed the houses and decor, shiny pebbles and fences.  Once we were satisfied with placement, and after Miss T threw handfuls of dirt in the air shouting “yippee fairies!” It was time to decorate the houses!  First up is the round house above, I used my dremel to cut off the bird perch and open the door up. The roof is shingled with pinecones, and capped with an acorn.   The house is covered in twigs and the door is a random splinter of concrete we found. We painted it with floralish vines on one side and polka splatters on the other.  This house the roof is tree bark. Two sides of the house are painted and two are pineconed. Miss T wanted the twine to be used so I helped her glue it in a couple places.

We set up a pile of acorns outside the ‘gate’ for visiting squirrels and there’s a stack of fire wood next to the front door.

The bird houses and picket fence are both from michaels. The fence was one large section I cut to size and the bird houses were a dollar each.

These little gardens were super fun to make! Miss T is very happy with them and keeps peeking in the windows to see if any fairies showed up yet.

I think the two of us will make a larger fairy garden (outside) when we move next year. I just hope we can keep these plants alive!

Happy birthday!

I love birthdays! Granted, they were much better when I lived near my family and could enjoy them with more people I love, but they’re still fun!   My love of tea has become well known, so when my birthday showed up I was surprised by this lovely tea set! Two cups and saucers and a teapot added to my collection! So pretty! Thank you to my big sister!!

Wild blumes felicity flutter top

So I found a pattern tester call over at Wild Blumes and decided to try out for it!

I sent in my application and was pleasantly surprised to be chosen.

I was smack dab in the center of my vacation when I made this, which is one reason for the very slow posting!  The top went together quite quickly and easily. I feel it is quite flattering and super cute! I practiced my stripe matching and love how it turned out.

My only complaint really is my sisters machine just ate the fabric… I’m going to redo all the seams with my own machine now that I’m home. I love the colors and how soft the fabric is.

Pony bedding!

 As is true for many young children as of late, my daughter LOVES My Little Pony. And I do mean loves. A pony accompanies us anytime we leave the house. 

Well, we decided it was time for Miss T to start sleeping in her own bed. Co sleeping is great and I wouldn’t change the past two years for a moment, but it was time! 

So to make the process go a bit smoother I decided to make Miss T her own set of bedding, in of course, My Little Pony print.  We went to the fabric store (Joann’s) and chose a few coordinating fabrics to make a toddler bed set.  We started with a pillow case and flannel throw blanket, which Miss T immediately took to play with. “Pony blankey mommy!!!”  Happy to cuddle her ponies.  After that I whipped up a quick quilt for her that matched the pillow case.  Et voila! The pony bed was ready! She loves it! She added her Pino doll (rapunzel animotor collection from Disney store) and her Pinkie Pie and Princess Luna plush toys and the bed was ready to go! She’s been sleeping in there for three nights now. The first night was tough. She woke every hour or so sobbing that she wanted to come back to mommy’s bed. We stood out ground though, gave her a hug and some kisses and sent her back to her bed.
Her bed is in our room two feet from our bed. 

The second day she woke once and joined us in our bed at about 5 am.

Last night she slept through the night and joined us at breakfast time. I expect this to be the norm from now on, though we may hit a few snags here and there. She’s doing great!