Vote For Us

My husband entered a photo of our dog Lucy in to a contest. The picture has been selected in the top 25, and now we need people to vote for it in order to win.

So what has this got to do with sewing, you may well ask. Well, the prize is a very cool camera and if he wins, I can take better photos of my work for this blog!

Go to http://www.cottagelife.com/topdog and under the nickname 'MuskokaDave' is the photo of Lucy. Select the button and then scroll to the main voting button under the photo gallery to cast your ballot.

Meanwhile, my sewing room being renovated. A baby crib and a rocking chair moved in and now I have to re-juggle everything. Once I have it back in order and the change table returns to being a simple sewing machine table, I'll be back in sewing biz.

Here's the e-mail from the Cottage Life lady in charge of the photo contest............

Dear Top Dog Finalist,

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for entering your dog into Cottage Country's Top Dog Photo Contest.
Your dog's photo has been chosen by our judges to be in our top 25.

It's now up to you to spread the word and get all your friends to vote for your dog. Only 3 weeks remain, so send this link to all your friends http://www.cottagelife.com/topdog and tell them which nickname you used to sign up for the contest.

The photo with the most votes on August 2nd will win the Grand prize- a Canon Rebel XSi Digital SLR Camera Kit from Black’s Photography, valued at $2,000 CDN.
Thank you for entering and Good Luck!

Marissa

Sneak Peak

Just like Sew Beautiful magazine, here's a Sneak Peak at the latest pattern by Judith Marquis.

However, unlike the magazine, my photos are just awful! But you can get the idea how delightful her new pattern 'Autumn Leaves' is.

Judith calls the design plate on the nightie 'Diamonds in the Puff(ing)'. And like every item Judith smocks, her stitches are flawless. I tried to get a closeup but it turned out blurry.

What I love about the pattern, and in many respects it's a hallmark of Judith's designs, is the sleeve treatment.
You can see it's in a square shape and that eliminates bulk from under the arm where smocking meets sleeve.
In terms of sewing the sleeve in place, it's a breeze and no need for rows of gathering threads.

Judith put a hint of piping in the sleeve area but it's difficult to see from my photo.

Here's another close up of the nightie front.
There are openings on either side of the shoulder. You could use, hook & eye, snaps (in Canada we call them domes) or velcro. In the pattern, Judith also suggests that the sewist may want to extend the opening down the shoulder a little further.


She also made a housecoat. My photos simply do not do it justice. Therefore I'll describe it as best as I can.

The opening is down the front and she used snaps for closures. (I call them domes, just as I call a couch a chesterfield. Canuck, through and through, eh?)

She pleated the front panel but instead of smocking, she held the pleats in place by machine stitching and then using lace, stitched over those machine lines.

You could use ribbon, or even strips of a co-ordinating fabric to achieve this look.

Here's another shot of the housecoat, full length. Again, the photo does not do it justice.

Judith used a little piping to accent the sleeve treatment.
I tried it on, and this style of sleeve treatment is much better and roomier plus there is no bulk where the pleating meets the sleeve.

The pattern is at the printers and will be available soon. Her website is www.amberlane.ca
She'll be teaching at the SAGA Convention in the fall and no doubt will have these samples will her.

I had a lovely afternoon with Judith. We had tea and cookies and gabbed about everything from sewing to home repairs. I don't see her often because I live so far away. Thankfully, we have been keeping in touch via e-mail.

I admire and am in awe of her sewing and stitching prowess. And I admire her bravery as she is breast cancer survivor. She is an excellent teacher and if I ever need help on a sewing project Judith is the one to turn to. I consider myself lucky to able to call her a dear friend.

Itty Bitty Fundraising Project

I asked our local quilt shop owner if I could conduct an all day sewing marathon making the Itty Bitty Baby Dresses and donating them to our local hospital Gift Shop. She thought it was a grand idea.

Then I asked Rae, the designer if I could have a workshop (donating my time, of course) and then donate the fruits of our labour. She gave me her blessing to go ahead.

Since I've been pre-occupied lately by deck re-construction and gardening, I haven't been focusing on sewing and the quilt store needs a few samples to advertise the project.

So last night I cut out and started sewing together 2 Itty Bitty Dresses.

Early, early, this morning I was awakened by military helicopters flying dignitaries to the G8 Summit being held nearby, and since I was awake, I got up and finished the dresses.

Not a good photo, I know. It's raining out so this will have to do!

So thanks heads of 8 major nations for waking me up to finish these dresses; thanks Rae for letting us use your pattern; and thanks in advance to the ladies that will make up these adorable little dresses to donate to the hospital Gift Shop!

Dresses that fit.

The Oliver +S Bubble dress I made Caitlin months ago fits perfectly. I made 12 month size and she is 13 months. My daughter loves the dress style and has asked me to make more.
Okay!!

The 12 month size smocked dress I made for her 1st birthday is still a little large. Thankfully it has back ties that can pull in the bulk so it looks like it fits.

Warm up.

I haven't stitched a single thing for almost a month and it shows! I cut out some cute pink coordinating seersucker fabric to make this McCalls 5610 sun suit for grandbaby.

According to her measurements and the sizes on the envelop, she needed a size medium. So I cut the fabric and stitched merrily away.

As good luck would have it, my daughter, her husband and Caitlin, the aforementioned grandbaby, came up to my cabin in the woods to visit for a whole week. I was blessed.

But as bad luck would have it, I tried on the size medium sun suit and it wouldn't even go over her head. The problem was the back opening. It just wasn't deep enough despite following the pattern. Had I been sewing on a more constant basis, I might have clued in that the opening was too shallow. Maybe not. Being in a fog seems to be de rigueur lately!

So I salvaged what I could and shirred the remaining fabric for a sundress. While I much prefer smocking, daughter #1 likes the shirred effect.

Oh, and that started a new battle with my sewing machine. In particular, with the bobbin. Having recently switched from Berninas to Husqvarnas, I haven't quite got the hang of putting a thicker thread into the bobbin-holding-area or whatever it's called, with the right tension.

Mostly, I had trouble hand winding the elastic thread onto the bobbin, again, using the right amount of tension. But with many, many attempts plus a whole lot of swearing (I live in the woods therefore no one can hear me) I got all the tension issues sorted out.

I made up the hat too but it is far too large. It will fit my daughters head! Sheesh.

Warm up. I'm treating this sewing fiasco as merely a warm up. Tomorrow, to quote Scarlett, is another day.

Stitching break......

Just taking a hiatus from stitching to do some serious gardening. While walking in the woods behind our cottage looking for some interesting wildflowers to transplant, this is what I nearly stepped on!
It was just hours old and no larger than a football. Mom was nowhere in sight, as she was out foraging, so we were given the opportunity get a couple of good photos.

If anyone ever comes across a fawn that may appear to be an orphan, it's not! Deer use camouflage to hide their young while they look for food. Sometimes Does leave their young for hours at a time, returning for just a few minutes to nurse.
Another bonus is newborn fawns are scent free making them almost undetectable from predators. The natural predators are coyotes, wolves, and humans who think fawns are orphans and need to go to the Wildlife Crisis Centre!

Shirring exercise

A shirred dress or top, seems to be fashionable right now. I've even seen shirred fabric, ready to cut to size and finish the side seams and hem. So, I figured there is no time like the present to try my hand at shirring.

There are great ideas as well as how to do shirring from a segment on Martha Stewart's tv show.
There are also tutorials on these terrific blogs found here and here.

For my dress, I cut 2 pieces 19" wide and 21" long. Caitlin's chest measurement is 18" in diameter, and since the fabric will shrink by half, plus there are 1/2" side seams, I'm figuring this will fit her perfectly. (I hope.)


I used some ribbon for the shoulder ties. I also found a little blue butterfly to stitch on the front.
Click on the image to make it larger to see the little butterfly.


The problem I encountered was that elastic in the bobbin would not stitch flat. So I used a special bobbin case that accepts thicker thread. It took me better part of the day to get it adjusted properly.

It's supposed to look like this.

So while this was an easy project, it was time consuming in terms of getting the bobbin tension correct. Actually, frustrating might be a better description.

More Itty Bitty Baby Dresses

A neighbour has asked me to make some outfits to donate to the Gift Shop of our local hospital.

The Itty Bitty Baby dresses are cute, fun and quick to make so I thought I'd whip up a bunch and gift them to my neighbour, who coincidentally, is a volunteer at the Gift Shop.


I think I made the solid pink contrast too long on this one.

These are all 4 to 5 Kilograms (9-11 lbs.) sizes. Download the pattern from here.
I plan to make a few more of these for the Hospital Gift Shop.

Iva Leigh et al.

I have 2 meters of this fabric in my stash and it's been calling to me for the past couple of days.

This pattern has been calling to me as well. It's Iva Leigh by Bonnie Blue.

So I used up some of the fabric making the pattern in 12 month size.

I piped the collar in a contrast blue to match the background of the main fabric. Then piped the yoke using contrast fabric from the collar. Therefore, there are two colours of piping. I think it looks okay but not 100% sure. The pattern was easy and quick to make.

However, there was quite a bit of fabric left over.


So I made this little bonnet. The pattern is Melissa, from Petite Poche using size 2. I piped the back opening using the colour from the collar on the dress. I just love this bonnet pattern.

But there was still lots of this vintage inspired, cats with hoola hoops fabric leftover.


I got an idea to make a little cat wearing a matching dress using this pattern. I have had this pattern in my stash for years and years. "One day I'll make it" I would say to myself each time I came across it. Well, today was the day of reckoning!


I used a soft brushed corduroy for the body of the cat and instead of using beads for the eyes, simply made french knots using black yarn. The tail is striped with corduroy and pink velour.

The instructions suggest to make a pleat in the front of the dress, but I smocked it instead. Since I had already made the dress, lining and all when the smocking brainwave hit me, I found some 'Knotts Dots' ironed them on, pleated by hand (how barbaric) and using pale blue perlé cotton, stitched a few rows on to the front. It's difficult to see from my photo.

Oh, and I love the Dudley Dooright chin on the cat!

Here's the ensemble; dress, bonnet and Cat.

As for the cat fabric, there's still about .4 of a meter left. (Sigh.)

Updated Classic

In the Sept/Oct. 2003 issue of Sew Beautiful, I saw this project called "An Updated Classic" by Kris Curtis.
I particularly liked the high yoke version worn by the younger girl in the photo, the pattern being inspired by 1950's style dresses.

The cut out pages have been sitting in my stash bucket of 'to-do patterns' and today, became my 'to do' day for this project.

Actually, I cut it out and smocked it yesterday, but today was construction day. It turned out well and I found the pattern really easy to follow.
I managed to foul up the collar though, and I don't know what I did wrong. However, with a little unpicking and swearing to myself, I made it work.

I was not sure about the instructions for the smocking though. The designer said to base the smocking on multiples of 8 pleats to get the design centered between the points. I couldn't make that work. So if Kris Curtis ever reads this blog, maybe she could enlighten me because I simply couldn't figure it out. Just the same, I managed to make it reasonably balanced and centered.

Here's the front a little closer. I whipped some matching floss on the piping and added lace as well. Perhaps that's where I went wrong with the collar prior to the unpicking and swearing episode.

I added some embroidery flowers on the front, just as in the photo in the magazine.

Here are all the pages in the magazine article, minus the pattern that was also included.


Here's where I got confused with the multiples of 8 pleats instructions.

Here's another method to construct the front that allows the smocker to simply do the whole row omitting the multiples of 8 pleats counting.

It was this picture that grabbed my attention in the beginning. I just love the look of that little blue dress.


Here is my version again. Size 12 months.
Oh, and I put the remaining bit of lace that matches the collar on the double hem.Half of the peach fabric is used up, all of this style of lace, almost all of the white mini-piping, most of the peach thread and I finally got to make up this pattern.

Dottie's Day Dress

Another project finished!

I bought the fabric for this dress back in '01 after I saw this dress in Creative Needle Magazine.

The wind is blowing so the collar looks askew as does the skirt, but it is straight. A good photographer I am not!

The issue was July/August of 2000. The issue included the pattern which was designed by Trudy Horne. I just loved it when I saw it in the magazine and knew I just had to make it one day.

The back has a belt as opposed to a sash. I followed the design plate 'Carlisle" which was also in the issue.

Then in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue the dress appeared again only minus a collar and in white dimity. I just had to get some dimity, which I did and used it last month on the pink baby carriages dress.



In Jan/Feb 2004 the dress appeared again in white Swiss pique and the design plate was by Karen Platner called 'Double Delight" which was featured in that issue.


In the Sept/Oct issue of 2004, the same dress appeared in windowpane dimity and instead of smocking the front it was shirred. At the bottom of the shirring is hand stitched daisies, french knots on a bed of wheat stitches. This article was written by Trudy Horne and included shirring instructions.

The pattern was easy to follow and worked up quickly. Goodness only knows why I took so long to get to this project!
It's size 12 months.

Another UFO finished.

Another bodice style dress finished from the UFO box. I think I can make these in my sleep since I've made so many in the past few weeks!

Matching the colours in the fabric, I made little embroidery flowers on the collar and cuffs.
This dress is size 3.

All of this fabric, (with the exception of a little bit that could be used for piping) is busted from my stash.

Babies on the way

There are at least 4 babies that I know of that will be born in the near future. So I've been busy this week making at least two little dresses for a baby girl that will be born in early May.

I got the idea to make this newborn Bishop dress from an issue of Embroidery & Cross Stitch and the article was called 'Welcome Home' featuring a pink bishop designed by Judith Adams.

I tried to make it exactly the same using the fabric I had available in my stash and followed her design plate.
It turned out well despite not having all the lace required as per the pattern.


Then I made an Itty Bitty Baby Dress. The pattern can be downloaded from here.

This pattern is easy and quick to make. It's so cute too that I found myself giggling while I was sewing it.


I have now used up all the yellow butterfly fabric from my stash and some lace.

Feliz Dress/Muslin/Test Run

Test run using cheapo fabric to make the Feliz dress following the tutorial from Trillium Design and the PDF download from Studio Tantrum www.studiotantrum.com/instructions/FELIZ_Sew-Along_ENGLISH_1_reduce.pdf
Having made the dress quickly and taking photos during the process, I now know how to make it (again) with minor changes and blogging it here because any piece of paper or notes will certainly get lost in my messy sewing room.
This trial run is using the smallest size.

Next time, I would make the ruffles first. That way, I could set the Serger for the rolled hem to finish the edges ( 3 threads RN in, LN out, Lower Looper tension set to 7-9, stitch finger forward, length 1.5) then reset the Serger to 4 threads to finish insides seams etc.

OVERDRESS:

Finish edges of facing for the side panels.

Make back bow/sash.

Next time, I will cut the back sash narrow for the distance of the side panels and then increase to make wider. I would like to see a wider sash when it is tied. It can't be wide from where it gets attached at the side seams because it won't fit through the casing at a later step.

Mention is made of elastic at the end that goes into the side seam. For a smaller size, I don't think this step is necessary.

NOTE: These aren't necessary, particularly on smaller sizes.

Button holders. Cut piece of fabric 1 1/2 inches wide, maybe smaller.


Fold in half. Stitch the length.

Cut to 4 inch lengths, fold to make little tents. Stitch across top to hold in place.

Stitch to side panel of one side of the overdress.


Then pin and stitch the facings to the side panels.

Pin the sash pieces in between the front and the side panels.

At this point, BEFORE attaching front to side panels, the front can be trimmed or decorated.
This is the front panel. It could be decorated with ric rac, trims etc. before attaching to side panels.
Ric rac could be stitched down the front sides.
Or, side panels when attached to front panel could be decorated with trim or piping.

Edge stitch along the top, down the sides and on the front seams.
Hem bottom on overdress. I used lace. Next time I will add very shallow ruffle in a complimentary fabric, or perhaps eyelet lace. This lace was too wispy.

Ruffles. The hems were serged using rolled hem. Should have done this step first. The hems could also be piped with a bias trim.
These were cut 4 inches wide by 40 inches long. Should be longer for larger sizes.
Ruffle could also be 3 1/2 inches maybe smaller?

Ruffler. Easy to use! Should have bought one years ago.



Set stitch length to 2.5 as per instructions.

Great ruffles! Serged the top edge AFTER ruffling, This kept the ruffles in tact and finished off the edge nicely.

UNDERDRESS

On the back panel, marked a line 3 1/2 inches up from bottom edge for first length of ruffles. Then 2 inches away from that for the second length, and again 2 inches away for the third and 2 inches from that for the fourth.
Three lengths of ruffles will do for next time.

Lay the length of ruffles facing upward, and stitch along marked line. Fold down, press.
Four lengths of ruffles. Notice the facing is attached to the top edge of the back panel.

Finish bottom edge of back panel facing. Stitch just along the top of the facing to the back centre panel. See above, but the photo doesn't show upper edge. Ooops.

Mark lines for elastic casing on the centre back 3/4 inch apart, starting just below the curve.

Stitch casing lines through centre back top and facing. Insert elastic. Pull up, pin sides and stitch to hold in place.Stitch back panel to side panels leaving a 1/2 inch of side panel above the curve of the back centre panel at the top edge.


Then sew front panel to side panels so the whole dress is now in a round.

Stitch straps together. Make a frill or decorate with ric-rac at this point.

NOTE: the frill isn't necessary.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

Pin the strap at the edge of the front panel SEE FLAT HEAD PINS, and back edge of strap to back side panel SEE FLAT HEAD PINS. The straps are in a U shape from the front panel to the back of the side panels sandwiched between overdress and underdress.
Then pin the RS of the Overdress to the WS of the Underdress and stitch along the top edge.

Flip, and edge stitch along top edge.

Pin the sash to the Overdress on the inside, then lay it sandwiched between the Overdress and Underdress and mark for casing.

Stitch along those marked lines.

Finished dress. It still needs a length of ruffle around the whole hem of the Underdress.

Critique:

Omit the ruffles from the straps.
Use piping on the front side panels.Use a shallow ruffled hem or eyelet lace on overdress not thin lace as this one has.
Maybe add pockets on the front, or decorate the front bib area.

The button closures weren't necessary on smaller dress.
One less length of ruffle may make it sit better. If the ruffles are 3 1/2 or smaller, then maybe 4 (more?) might be in order.
The sash could be wider, but can't be too wide for the length of the casing.
Elastic may not be necessary for smaller sizes.

Again, a ruffle around the entire hem of the Overdress is needs to be put on, which will make it longer and frillier.

Easy to construct.
Fun talking to ones self.