My Love Affair With Love Adore

2017 seems to be shaping up as the year of buying fabric from new-to-me sellers.  I joined several fabric selling groups on Facebook last year, but didn't buy much aside from things for our Disney trip.  This year, I have discovered a couple of more affordable options and have been very pleased with the quality and designs so far.  One of these options is Love Adore Knits.  I bought a yard of this floral and a yard of this stripe and have made six pieces of clothing out of those two yards so far!
I have three of them to show you today.

Mine first.  (Sewing room selfie, here.  Unless I get my husband involved as photographer, selfies are going to be par for the course for the foreseeable future of the blog.)  This is another Halla Slim Dolman.  I'm voting this Most Useful Pattern in my stash at the moment.  I've made a dress, this tee and I just made a third version with ruffled sleeves which you will see as part of upcoming Me Made May posts.

This is the Bimaa pattern from Lou Bee Clothing.  

 I love the cowl neck.

 She does too...

for various reasons.

And here is a basic tee for my oldest daughter that I had to modify with a triangular piece in the front because I chose too small of a size and it was too tight.  Then I added the little bows because the edges of the fabric curled up into these tight rolls when I cut into it.  They weren't long enough to be saved for a drawstring, so I decided on bows.

Simplicity 1916

I have two favorite shirts from Target that are faux wrap t-shirts.  I've had them for at least 9 or 10 years and I finally decided if I can love something that long, I might need more.  When I received my amazingly vibrant knit from Opulent Monsters (available here), I knew I wanted to make something special that would get a lot of wear and see more than just my closet.

I started looking at all the Simplicity and Vogue and McCalls new Spring releases, hoping to find the perfect knit wrap top pattern, but all to no avail.  Lo and behold, when tidying my sewing room (which I almost never do), I came across Simplicity 1916, already cut to my size and ready to go.  I honestly can't even remember purchasing this pattern, much less cutting it!  I usually don't cut a pattern size from the tissue unless I've got the fabric and I'm ready to sew it, but I really don't think I ever sewed this one up.

Little did my past self know that she was doing my future self a great service since I have very little extra time these days.  It was meant to be.

I was pretty concerned that I had sewn the two crossing pieces of the shirt in a mismatched way after I finished because the shirt will not lay flat.  It looks completely distorted on a hanger or on the floor, but once it stretches over my body, all is well.

I could do without the little detail on the side.  I'm pretty sure it's not even noticeable when I'm wearing the shirt.  It doesn't add that much time or extra difficulty to the pattern, though, so I don't have to be mad at anyone for not noticing. 

This fabric is not a lightweight, drapey knit, so the two layers on the front with all the gathers feels pretty thick and a bit stiff, but I like that it masks my three-baby pooch.  This would be a great pattern to use those thinner, cheap knits on that don't really seem to be good for much else.  In fact, I might venture to buy the next cute, lightweight, $5 a yard knit that strikes my fancy since I have a pattern that could make it look good.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE nail polish and I paint my nails almost once a week, sometimes more often.  This past Christmas, I asked my husband for nail polish.  That's it.  Specifically, nail polish from KB Shimmer.  I picked 6 or 7 polishes and I haven't been disappointed in any of them.  This one is called Neon Me and you can find it here.  Go look at the pictures on the KB Shimmer website.  So.  Pretty.  

Model in the Making

Aren't these fabrics adorable?!  A few months ago (all of the last several posts are saying "a few months ago" aren't they?  sigh.  That won't keep happening once I catch you up to the present.  It's coming.  Hang in there.) I discovered Rocker Bye Destash custom fabric designs.  She does some really adorable artwork and definitely has her own style that looks different from all the other custom fabrics out there right now.
  A size 2-3 seems to be just about the perfect size to fit a whole panel design on a shirt front, without having to piece fabrics and without cutting off any of the panel design, so I'm using them while they are easy to use.

Here, as promised, is my little mister's first honest-to-goodness attempt at modeling the clothing I made for him.  His tennis ball is keeping him sane and he actually followed directions and stood how I asked him to and where I asked him to.  I was really surprised.

He had his new kicks on and he seemed to know he was lookin' good.

I used a pant pattern from an Ottobre Magazine and the shirt is the plainest version ever of the Halla Stardust Shirt pattern.  That pattern has a cool star-shaped inset on the front which I used several times for shirts for our Disney trip, but eliminated for this basic tee.

The only complaint I have is that I didn't have my nice camera with me, so the photo quality isn't as good as it could have been, but I was pleased none the less.

  

More coming soon...

February Makes

Just a couple notes today about a few things.

Back in February, I made special dresses for the girls to wear to daddy daughter date night at 

Chick-fil-a.

I used the Hourglass pattern by Rabbit Rabbit Creation and I let the girls pick out all the fabrics, which are a combination of some I already had and some we bought at Hobby Lobby.

Also in February, I made myself a knit dress using the Halla Slim Dolman shirt pattern.  I don't really like the batwing look of dolman shirts, but this slim version eliminates most of the batwing action, so it's just my style.  It's a satisfying, super-quick make with only 5 pieces to cut and 9 seams sew.

Panels have gotten easier to use now that he's bigger, but not too big for the panel to act as the front or back of a shirt.  He likes owls and hubby likes Dr. Who, so it was a fun panel choice.

iPhone quality photos are not helping you out, but each little owl in the tree has a different accessory to represent the different Doctors. :)

Next time, I'll show you this little stinker's first decent modeling session with Mommy-made duds.

Queenie Jeans

Many, many months ago, I discovered some pairs of designer jeans at Goodwill for only a few dollars a piece.  I bought them without trying them on and found them to be too tight when I got home. 

 After a few months and a fitness challenge and diet change I tried, I did actually get slim enough to fit into them, but then discovered that they weren't really the right shape for my body anyway, a typical problem I have when pant shopping.  I then put them in a pile in my sewing room of garments that I hope to eventually reuse for projects.  

Most of the garments in that pile don't actually get used, but I was inspired to use the Queenie pattern by Farbenmix to make my girl a new pair of jeans after she outgrew some.  

The denim color mixing was not planned, but it turned out that there wasn't enough space available on one pair of jeans to cut out all the pieces needed.  

She loves them!

I really enjoy the fit and shape of Euro patterns (like Farbenmix) and have some of my best looking sewing results with them.  You should try some if you haven't before.

Sewing for Disney

In my last post, I told you I got my hair cut a little shorter and colored it back to red.  Some variation of this is how I've been wearing it from then, which was in the fall of last year, until now.  

In between then and now, we went on another Disney vacation and, since I made all the clothes we packed for the girls the first time around, I felt I needed to make it a tradition.  Here is the sewing I completed for the trip this time.

For my older daughter and myself:

For myself and the little boy:

I did one of these for each girl.

One of my favorites was this "mine" shirt and we just had to get a picture in front of the seagulls outside the Nemo ride.

These skirts were fun and colorful and comfortable.  A win all around.

One of the few completely coordinated sets I made.  The fabric is "It's a Small World" theme.

Peter Pan shirts for me and the little boy.

Our Star Wars themed day at Hollywood Studios.

I included this one because there's another little me-made in here that I don't have another picture of.  It wasn't made for Disney, but its her favorite, so she brought it.  It's the fleece University of Georgia jacket my younger daughter is wearing.  I haven't made jackets for my kids before, but following Brindille and Twigs pattern made it pretty easy and the results were great.  

I stumbled onto the Sew The Year challenge over at Straight Stitch Designs and I think I might join once I'm done with all of these posts to get you back up to speed on my sewing projects.

I can go ahead and give away a couple of things that are up my sleeve.  I have lavender stretch denim on it's way in the mail with the hope of making some jeans from Mimi G's Simplicity pattern.  eep!
AAAaaaaand, I want to tackle swimwear again.  I tried it two summers ago and never ended up with a suit I loved.  I'm hoping this will be the summer I have success with swimwear.

I need lots of fingers crossed for both the jeans and the swim suit.

A Lot of Random Sewing and More...

Last Summer, I decided I would tackle swimsuits.  I made swim bottoms for my girls using an underwear pattern and I made rash guards using a free raglan shirt pattern.  I wasn't super-thrilled with the results, but the girls liked them and they didn't fall apart in the pool, so, good enough for starters. The only one wearing her Mommy-made suit in this picture is the one on the right.

Another scrap of Euro fabric leftover from a previous project was the perfect amount for this top using a dress pattern from LilyGiggle.  The curved band across the front and back are supposed to be interfaced, but I was lazy and skipped that step.  Well, it only got through about three washes before it was deformed, so I'm glad I happened to get a picture the first time she wore it.

Cute fishy shorts to match a RTW tank.

I am slowly starting to recognize that different weights and drapes of knits are more or less suitable for certain patterns.  It's taken me long enough, right?!  I've only been sewing for, like 5 years and I'm just now learning this.  So I used some bamboo cotton knit in grey with another soft, drapey, mystery knit scrap for the sleeves to make my new favorite v-neck raglan.  I didn't make it skin-tight, for once, and it's something I've been wearing just as much as any of my RTW tees, which has never really happened before now.

(no makeup, dark roots an only 1/4 of the garment showing... I'm telling you, my blogging photos ain't what they used to be.)

We go to Destin every summer.  Last summer, I made some things I really loved for my little dude and I still think they are some of my cutest makes for him.  

 

This superhero knit is so squishy and soft.  I'm so glad I have plenty more of this left in my stash. I think the print is definitely something that I can make a new item from each time he grows out of the last one, without fear of him disliking it.  Superheros are a classic.

I mentioned two posts ago that I was loving my pink hair but that maintaining it was costly and time consuming.  I had already decided before I even bleached it and colored it pink that I would only keep it a few months and then chop it off.  Here it is after the chop!  

I told my stylist she could do whatever she wanted with it and I felt SO not myself after this.  Like I was pretending to be that girl that can rock a pink crazy pixie cut...

but I was feeling mostly like a clown.

I ended up dying it back to red and also getting my stylist to trim it a little shorter, but I did learn to love wearing it swooped up.

I'll show you that next time.