Camera sling and Rag doll Nurse!

The past two weeks I have been working on two fun projects in between sewing kids clothes.

A friend of mine from high school told me they were going to be in San Francisco for two weeks over July. We haven't seen eachother for 19 years but recently connected on facebook again. Her beautiful daughter will be having heart surgery on Friday and we had them over for a bbq for a wonderful time  on Wednesday. I wanted to make something for her daughter that she can have with her in the hospital. I made one of these dolls for Isabella a year ago and she seems to love them. I added a little nurse apron and left the name to the little girl to name. The little skirt are made from south African fabric called sweswe ( we are both born and bred South Africans and I wanted to add some of our roots to the doll) I hope she is going to love her!

 

 

 

A friend from Upstate NY had asked me a couple of weeks ago if I would be interested in making a camera strap for her camera with a pocket or two. I have never done on of these and also no pattern. She gave me the measurements and picked this fabric for it.

 

Don't you just love my little model?

 

 I hope you love it Nicole, and that you will get lots of use out of it.

 

 

Penguin outfit.

Ready, Set , Sew........

Its that time of the year - Time for KIDS CLOTHES WEEK - a seasonal sewing challenge  This is my first time joining in on the fun. It is a wonderful website with so many ideas for children's clothing handmade by amazing people who love to sew. Yesterday was day one and I made two outfits for Bella. ( We are getting visitors on Wednesday which means today will be mostly cleaning house but I will make time for some sewing inbetween)

 

This post will be about Isabella's new Penguin outfit. Isabella loves moveable and colorful which this outfit is both!

 



 

Don't know why but my kids NEEDS pants . Both of the outfits I made I used DANA's KID Shorts Pattern. Staple in my sewing room I tell you. If you can sew and don't have it yet go get it HERE - Go on you cannot go wrong. It is versatile and in all sizes for boys and girls.

 

These pants was inspired by THIS PIN. that led me to the 3D Pleated summer dress tutorial - so beautiful. I loved everything about it. I wondered if it could work on Dana's kid short pattern. I first made the pleats and sewed them together with a bead attached and then cut the pattern.They turned out pretty cute, don't you think?

 

 



 



 

I was just going to stencil on a white t-shirt but then saw my blue chevron knit fabric from Girl Charlee matches perfectly and set out to cut and make my first t-shirt. I just used a plain t-shirt from Bella to outline her size and then everything fell in place. We found a cute little penguin when I googled penguin clip art to make a stamp and used fabric paint to stamp it on.

 

 

the stamp was done late last night so there was no way I could get the picture without the camera shadow - oops.

I added some blue rib fabric and there you have it.



 

 

 Bella wanted to try it on immediately when I took some pictures.

 

Details:

 



not much keeps her busy for a long time but she loves to sit and play with my buttons for quite some time. She doesn't tire of it and will play with it making her own games everyday when I sit and sew.
I LOVE the creative mind of a child.
 





 

Ok, I am off to clean the House -  UGH!!!!

Roller skate JUMPSUIT!

 

 

 

 

 

so I clearly am a sucker for this month's flip this pattern over at Frances Suzanne - sewing with sisters

for a few reasons

 

* I Love flipping

* I absolutely Adore Oliver + S Patterns

*Isabella can do with a few more good looking clothes that fits an ACTIVE lifestyle.

 

and she sure seems to love this one.

I saw a little girl in town a few weeks back with a little jumpsuit that had shirring at the feet and also the middle so it was already in my mind's" I want to sew that " list and had already pictured the outfit with this yellow with blue flower fabric. After doing the roller skate dress I thought that the tunic will work perfect for what I had in mind.

 

 

 

 

My flip consists of 2 of my favorite patterns. The The Roller skate tunic which I shortened the pattern by 2 inches and brought the sides in about 1 inch and then the most awesome shorts pattern called the KID shorts which I lengthened.

 

 

This is how it looked after I assembled the whole outfit. I followed the tunic pattern completely and then made two rows of stitches at the bottom and gathered it. I then attached the completed pants to the bodice( when I cut the pants pattern I took some off the top of the pants where the foldover for the elastic would normally be) The lining of the bodice I also gathered like the floral print but ironed it inwards on the top row of stitches and hand seamed it to the suit as you can see on the picture on the right.

 Here's how the buttons turned out.

 

 

I have a thing for shirring lately and like to do it on shirts of mine at the bottom as well as Bella's shirts.

 

 

 

 

 It really is a very nice suit for a active little girl and she was able to run around in the garden and have fun at the library.

 

 

I had so much fun to participate with the sewalong for FLIP this Pattern for July and Miss Bella is 2 outfits richer. a WIN WIN I would say.

 

 

How I flipped the "Roller skate Dress"

 

this post is accompanying my original picture post of my flip of Oliver + S Roller skate dress. Go check it out HERE

If you want to buy the pattern go HERE

If you want to look at all the sew along creations go HERE

 

 

Here follows a picture tutorial of the flip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it. This is a nice addition to our Sunday/Party dresses.

 

 



sewalong for Flip this Pattern - Roller skate dress

 

 

 

 

 

Over at Frances Suzanne - sewing with sisters they are doing this wonderful series called

Flip this Pattern. Every month for the next few months they have chosen a Pattern for each month to flip. Read more about it HERE

 

 

If you want to see how I did the flip go to the Picture tutorial by clicking HERE

For the month of July they have chosen Oliver + S - Roller skate dress + Tunic sewing pattern

which has so many possibilities. I immediately had a color block combination with some pockets for Isabella in mind.

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this is my drawing when ideas came tumbling around

then I found my fabric

Construction followed soon - I was too excited on getting started and might have let the kids run around in their jammies most of Monday - oops. That said it is summer break so a few hours on the wii u playing Smurfs dance Party cannot hurt , now can it?

The collar I made some hand embroidering with navy blue, white and orange (different thickness) for a textured effect.

I did this on my navy blue fabric tracing the pattern and then the hand stitching before cutting out my pattern.

 

I quickly made Isabella some cute hair accessories to go with the outfit.

 

 

Look how cute she is on her skates destroying my garden.

 

 I have lots of pictures with assembly so hopefully a more detailed post on that later.

I loved how the color blocking on the skirt part turned out. I added pockets as well and she is in heaven.

 

 

 

Thank you for looking and make sure to go check out all the other sew along pictures over at Frances Suzanne -July Flip this pattern sew along