Reversible Dress

I whipped up this reversible dress for Ava yesterday while she napped. I've had the fabric and pattern for over a year so it was about time I made it! I actually had cut the pieces out a few months back to motivate me to sew it but just never got around to it until now.

I could not get Ava to cooperate for long for photos but here are the best shots. Note: the fabric is some of my favorite from Amy Butler.

The red side (notice the haze in the picture? that is because it was so humid and hot outside it fogged my lens right when we went out)

More of the red, with Ava doing her "sweet" pose.

Yeah for the blue side!

This is a clearer photo of the dress (or just brighter) but not a great pose. Think Ava was not enjoying the wet grass and the dirt.

I thought this dress was going to be hard to sew but really it was fairly easy. Worst part was cutting out pattern pieces (is it just me or does everyone hate cutting the pieces?). I highly recommend this pattern from Frog Legs & Ponytails. Actually all of her patterns are very easy to follow, with great directions & photos and are great for even beginner sewers.

First Birthday Outfit

My sister in NYC wanted a birthday outfit for her adorable daughter Griffin who turns one on April 28th. She knew she wanted a tutu and onesie outfit and wanted it to be blue but other than that did not really have an exact thing she wanted.

So I whipped up this cute cupcake number with a tie-on tutu. I usually do the no-sew tutus that you have to pull on. This time though, I decided to tackle the tieon kind as it probably is easier to get on babies who don't walk/stand yet. It's pretty much like the no-sew tutu except that I sewed ribbon to both ends of the elastic and then after tying on the tulle strips, I sewed them to the elastic so they won't move around.

End result: Super cute, black & blue cupcake tutu outfit! Now I am just wishing I had a time machine so that Ava could have this when she was one. Oh well!

PS. I apologize for the lack of posts recently but it has a been a busy month of surprise parties, furniture refinishing (post on that later), toddler birthday parties and the great sickness of 2010. Needless to say, I've been exhausted!

Twirly Dress

Ava has a thing for her "twirly" dress. I bought a pink dress on sale last year at Target and these days it is all she ever wants to put on. That or her brown and pink polka-dotted twirly dress. So 2 weeks ago, I took a look at it and thought, "I can make that." Essentially it is 3 gathered stripes of fabrics sewn to the bottom of a shirt.

So I found a toddler Hanes undershirt I had laying around as well as 3 coordinating scraps of fabric (that were long enough -- this was key). I took a look at the undershirt and it was not very girly so I added a casing in the armholes and elastic to scrunch them up and I turned down the collar and sewed it so it was a little more girly.

It turned out really cute and I am pretty proud of myself since I made this without a pattern! Can't wait to try this again with a more fitted tshirt for the top part but all in all, it is cute and more importantly, Ava has a new twirly dress that she loves!

Happy!Twirl!

Jump!

Tutus

I have a bit of an obsession lately...tutus. Partly because I think they are so cute & girly and partly because Ava & her friends are a bit obsessed with tutus lately too. I guess when you are 3 and go to dance once a week, you decide that dance class should really be a fashion show for all your crazy tutus, hair accessories, costumes etc. But luckily for me (& Ava's friends), I figured out how easy it is to make these no-sew tutus.

Last week, I whipped up a little purple & black number in less than 30 minutes...

so this week I decided to make not only Ava a new tutu, but also her friends Sydnee (in green) & Sienna (purple).

Needless to say, they were all pretty excited with their tutus and matching hair accessories. And I spent less than an hour making these girls really, really happy. Mission accomplished. Now I can't decide how many tutus for Ava is too much (is there such a thing?).

Another Griffin Picnic Dress

One of my favorite dress patterns...this time done in some nice knit material I found for like $3.50/yard at Hobby Lobby. So girly and cute. Ava wore it layered over a long sleeve tee and leggings but when she got home from school, it had warmed up a bit so she was wearing it as a dress.

Ava modeling...this is what happens when I say pose for me. Although really there were like 20 more of her doing various dance poses for me.

Necklace Inspired Shirt

I've been wanting to try this for a long time now...doing a shirt with a fabric "necklace" on it. I was originally going to wait until I had a stained shirt that could only be saved by doing this but ended up not being able to wait until that time.

I used fabric scraps I had laying around and hand embroidered in between. It turned out really cute, but I think next time I will make sure it hangs more like a necklace. Even with this slight mistake, I still think it is adorable. Ava, of course, had to put it on right away. She sure knows how to make her mom happy. :)

Vroom!

One of my good friends is set to have another baby boy in the next few months. I've been whipping up several onesie/burp cloth sets for him but decided that her older son (who is 2.5 yrs old) also needed a little something.

He's really in to cars and other boy stuff, so I decided to make him a muscle car t-shirt and to make his baby brother-to-be a coordinating van onesie. I think they turned out really well...I love the striped shirt and was happy to find it at Target as it makes the toddler shirt extra cute....now I'm on the hunt for more patterned shirts that can be appliqued.

Ava, of course, wanted to model AJ's new shirt before we sent it off, so I decided to take a quick photo...she told me she wants a car shirt in pink so I'm guessing she'll get one sooner rather than later.

Ruffle Heart Tee

I've been experimenting lately with all sorts of ruffles...and in the process decided to make a simple little heart tee for Ava the other week.

This is not using long ruffles but rather material cut in circles and then folded in half twice and sewn on real close together to get an all over ruffly effect. Turned out pretty cute although I wish it was a bit more heart shaped. But Ava loved it (she declared it "beautiful") and I was able to recycle yet another old shirt that was headed for goodwill.

My Old Shirt = Toddler Tunic

So I've been rummaging through my bag of clothes to donate and came across one of my favorite shirts. I really did not want to part with it. If it had not gradually started to shrink little by little with each wash, I would for sure have kept it since 1) it is super soft 2) it has an owl on it (I LOVE owls - I'm a bit obsessed these days) and 3) it's just a really adorable shirt. So rather than say goodbye I decided to turn it into a little tunic for Ava....during her naptime today.

I simply modified my pattern I use for the Griffin picnic dress and voila! An adorable toddler shirt. In less than 1.5 hours. Woo hoo!

Before (a year and a half ago before it shrunk so much that my stomach showed):

After:

I think it turned out super cute. And Ava, upon seeing it for the first time, said, "My favorite dress! I want to put it on." I think that means she likes it. :)

Hanukkah Shirts

My friend Amira contacted me about doing a Hanukkah onesie for her 9 month old daughter. She had a great idea that she had seen about doing a Peace, Love, Dreidel shirt. So here is the end result. I also ended up doing 2 navy blue toddler shirts for her friends' kids as well. And because these were so cute, I also did a Peace, Love, Christmas Tree shirt for Ava (although I did not get a photo of it...yet).

Rocket Man!

I whipped up a cute rocket shirt for my nephew Ian last month (for his 4th birthday)...the boy loves rockets, outer space and Star Wars. We heard he was excited about it but did not realize how much until Donna (his mom) sent this photo to me today...can you say ham?

What a cutie! He sure knows how to pose for a photo.

Twin Dinosaurs

I made these dinosaur bodysuits for my sister-in-law's twin nephews. They just had their 1st birhtday and one usually wears blue and one wears green. We decided upon dinosaurs and I just based my designs on real dinosaurs but modified them to my liking. End result (excuse the poor photos but it was raining outside where the good light usually is).
Close up of the green brontasaurus-like dino:

Close up of the stegosaurus-like dino:

The Owl & the Pussycat

Whipped these two cute shirts up for my 2 Austin nieces...didn't photograph as nicely outside as I had hoped so had to take them indoors in order to even remotely get the colors/patterns to show. Still not thrilled with the results but maybe I can get some better shots of these in action at a later date.

Close up of the Owl applique.

Close up of the Pussycat applique.

You can see that these were made using scraps from some of the previous items I have made...great way to use every little piece!

Modeling the Griffin Picnic Dress

Ava showing off her version of the Griffin Picnic dress. She paired hers with pink leggings and pigtails. This "Checked Floral" dress was made using Wildwood for Free Spirit fabrics.

Introducing the Griffin Picnic Dress

The Griffin Picnic Dress is much more than just a dress. It's a versatile piece that can be worn as a dress, tunic, or top as your child grows. It also can be layered in cooler months with a long sleeve shirt for year round use. This adorable dress can be made in sizes as small as 3 months all the way to 5T.

This "Snow Flower" version was made for who else but my cute little NYC niece, Griffin. This was made using fabrics by Dena for Free Spirit.

Pink Gothic Arch Ava Pillowcase Dress

I made this dress for Jessie using Michael Miller fabrics (Mezzanine by Patty Young - Gothic Arch and Gothic Flower).

Brothers

Monica wanted some t-shirts/onesies for her 2 adorable boys, ages 2 and 6 months. They like animals and construction trucks so I came up with these coordinating outfits. They live in Colorado so it's actually cool there already so we did some long sleeve shirts -- lucky boys! Don't think we'll be wearing long sleeves for at least another 2 months.

A lion and giraffe...

and an excavator and a bulldozer.

Plum Delicious Ava Pillowcase Dress

Just finished this Ava pillowcase dress for Christi's niece Brooklyn who just turned one. I call it "Plum Delicious." Great dress to transition to the Fall but the coloring really works for every season when layered with a shirt, jeans, leggings etc. This again was made using Michael Miller fabrics.

Family Food Set

I created this set for Donna to give to her friend who recently gave birth to her 3rd child - a boy. Since they already have 2 toddlers (another boy and a girl), we decided to do a fun set involving food in coordinating fabrics. I think they turned out pretty cute and was only wishing that I had more kids so they could all wear coordinating outfits...guess I have that to look forward to one of these days. :)

New Idea!

Ok, it's not completely a new idea but rather an extension of something I already do. After talking to one of my sisters (Gabe) about projects I recently have done, we decided that I should start appliqueing tank tops and tshirts for toddlers. We came upon this great idea since neither of us currently has a baby AND (the best part) our girls could easily be the guinea pigs/models for these new shirts. Plus appliqueing is pretty easy and much faster than sewing up dresses all of the time!

I just recently completed a cupcake onesie which I think would be super cute on a toddler tank top. I love the mixed fabrics more than just one fabric alone and can envision doing ice cream cones with crazy prints and other fun shapes.
I did a dove onesie awhile back for my other sister's (Cortney's) baby and loved it and think it would be cute on a toddler shirt too. Any one have any other good ideas?? I have lots of scraps of fabrics left over from dresses, burp cloths etc. that would be great to use for these!