Divided Tote, Divided Socks

I bought Anna's Divided Basket pattern as soon as it was released, I think in February? I immediately printed the pattern pieces and started thinking of fabrics. Then I sewed it up in August. Yup, sounds about right. I didn't really have a purpose for making it, except that the CincinnatiMQG was having a fabric basket challenge thingy that month. Now it has become a holder of kid socks. Mismatched, can never find them where they are supposed to be, kid socks. How lucky am I that I have two kids who wear socks, and this thing is divided into two compartments?? Probably the best reason ever to round it out at two offspring. 

The main fabric is (again) Menagerie by Sarah Watson for Art Gallery. I actually made this project before making the Art Museum vest in the same fabric. And just last week I made a little bag for a CMQG swap with the leftovers. There are still some precious scraps that will be used to the last threads as well. It's just one of those fabrics you can't let sit on the shelf. 

I also used some Joel Dewberry woodgrain for the outside pocket, trimmed with peach Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets. My PB supply is dwindling, probably because I use them in everything. Must fix that problem.

The lining is from Saltwater by Tula Pink. I think I got all three of these main prints at Cool Cottons during my trip to visit Kristin this summer. Didn't really mean for them all to go together to well, but they did. Love it when that happens!

This pattern is fantastic, just like we always expect from Noodlehead patterns. The way the divider in the lining is constructed seems to simple in a way, but it's nothing I would have figured out on my own. It was so fun to see it come together.

But my favorite part turned out to be the handles. I used this burlap-ish ribbon I got on a weekend trip to Columbus at a beautiful shop called On Paper. The store was mostly stationary and specialty gifts, but it also had this amazing little selection of the prettiest trims. For these handles, I just made piping out of the peach PB and sandwiched it between two layers of the cute ribbon. I love the way they look great on both sides and stand up so well. Details, details.

I'm sure I'll be making a couple more Divided Baskets in the near future, as many of my friends are suddenly preggins, and they make great baby gifts you can stuff full of infant accessories. You can get your copy of the pdf pattern instantly right here.

Rocky Mountain Puzzle for Do Good

This is my last quilt finish for the do good stitches charity bee, at least for a while. It's a little sad to not be making fun plans for my next one right now, but I know I can always join the bee again down the road if the time is right. I just needed to simplify some things and make a little more time for my responsibilities as the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild president. 

Anyway, I can honestly say that my 2 years with the Harmony circle was so enjoyable and I would recommend this bee to anyone wanting to learn new things and give back with their quilting. It's really a wonderful project, and you can find out more about joining right here. 

This quilt was completely inspired by Amy of Badskirt's version that I saw here on Flickr. I instantly had a quilt crush on it. It's all kinds of amazing. So I told my group of stitchers to make Rocky Mountain Puzzle blocks using this tutorial, but I changed the measurements to make 12" finished blocks instead of 8." To do that, make the center square and HST units 3.5" with a 2" border around that center square.  I said to use bright saturated rainbow colors, everything but purple. Not sure why I excluded poor purple, it's a color I love. But I'm glad it's left out in the end. You don't belong here purple! This quilt is so cliquey.  Plus they could use black fabrics, and had to use low volume prints for the background of the blocks. 

The most fun part of this bee is when you start to get the blocks trickling in in the mail and you can imagine how they will harmonize in the finished quilt. It's so cool to see a bunch of scrappy blocks come together like this and really work. These two above are a couple of the blocks that I made. Everyone did a really great job at picking something fun to put in that center square.

For quilting I did simple straight lines, following the diagonal direction created by the arrangement of HST's. It's fine enough, but I kind of wish I had done vertical straight lines, or maybe a crosshatch. If I'm being honest, I would do straight lines about 3/8" apart across every quilt I ever make if I had the time. That is one quilting decision I never regret. But in the end, this one just needed to be done quickly. This quilting does at least give is a really soft easy drape, which will be nice for this kid that gets it through Project Linus.

The back has three extra blocks and a nice aqua Art Gallery print from Sewn Studio. I like how the little triangles scattered in it give a nod to the triangle design on the front. For the binding I chose an orange on pink dot by Kaffe Fassett. I loooooove the way his dots feel. It took me forever to settle on the binding for some reason, and I'm a little surprised I landed here. I must be having a hot pink moment lately. 

The quilt is about 60" by 48" and I'm really happy to be done with it and giving it away! Thanks for all your help on this one Harmony Circle, I miss you guys already :)

Ombre Strip Quilt

Wanted to pop in real quick to tell you guys about a quilt I just finished for Sewn Studio. I don't normally share my store samples here with you, but I wanted to let you know about this one because well, I'm excited about it, and because we have kits for this quilt top available for an awesome deal. AND we will ship them if you are interested!

I wish I could say I came up with the simple and stunning design, but that was all the boss, Julie. Brilliant!

The rainbow ombre strips are cut from Klothworks yardage we just got in, and you won't find these kits any where else. The quilt finishes at about 40" x 66". It's nice that you only need 2 yards of backing and 1/2 yard of binding to finish this one up! 

Go to the Sewn Studio blog to read more about the kits and how to order them by phone. 

ETA: the online shop portion of the website is not running. If you want a kit, just call 513-321-0600 to order. 

I'll be back tomorrow with another project of my own to share!

The Oliver & S Art Museum Set, Dressed Down

This 4 year old is too cool for school. And for smiling. He can throw some faces though. 

I made this little look for him from the brand new Oliver & S Art Museum vest and trousers pattern, which is fantastic! It would obviously be the perfect pattern to buy if you are looking to make a dressy boy outfit for church or a wedding or something, and it's even pretty cute on girls, as some O&S fans have already shown. But we don't really get dressed up too often, so I wanted to find a way to dress it down a little so Hendrix could even wear it to pre-k a lot this fall. 

For the trousers I chose a really nice medium-wash Robert Kaufman denim from Sewn Studio. Even with all the details on these pants, the denim really makes them a fall staple rather than special occasion pants. They have beautiful slant front pockets, back welt pockets, a faux fly, flat front, and even belt loops. (I left off the loops on mine though.) 

And after last fall, when all the fashionable slim fit pants I made him seemed to only last a month or two, I am all for relaxed fit pants. I love the fit on these and so does this very active boy. We're leaving the skinnies to the college kids this fall. I made the pants a size 5, but cut to a 6 length just in case. But after I saw how long they were on him, I cut most of the extra length off anyway. 

The vest is a size 6 and I love the way it fits over a Target tee. Perfectly light and comfy. I used a fabric I got on my trip to Portland to visit Kristin back in June from an adorable shop there called Cool Cottons. I could have done some serious damage there, but I showed great restraint. Still, this print called Menagerie by Sarah Watson for Art Gallery had to make the cut. It's just too good. And I think this fun neutral print makes the vest a little more casual as well.

The lining and back of the vest is just lightweight black batiste, but I added a little green contrast on the back belt and inside the pockets and with the buttons. The welt pockets were so fun to make. But, full disclosure, I did sew the inside of the vest pockets a little wrong. Nothing that effects things too much, just misread a part of the instructions and made some assumptions on my own. After talking to friends who were also making this pattern, I realized my errors. Then when I later started on the pants welt pockets, the instructions seemed clear as day and I didn't even know how I had screwed things up before! But really, they are the best welt pockets I've ever sewn, they look flawless on the outside and the pattern does a great job with that part. Maybe just read that whole part through once or twice before beginning.

I couldn't get a great picture of the pockets on the pants though because he only wanted to stick his booty waaaaaaay out for that part. This kid was acting like he was appearing in a Sir Mix-a-lot video, so I thought it best to spare you those pictures.  I had to tell him to climb the wall like Spiderman instead. A bit awkward, but there comes a time with 4 year old boys when beggars (bloggers) can't be choosers. 

Over it. But we'll just say this is his angsty model pose. The most important thing is that he loves the outfit and didn't want to take it off. Always a great sign! 

If you haven't seen them already, be sure to check out the AMAZING Art Museum garments from Cherie, Gail, and Kristin. It's one of those essential patterns if you have a boy you sew for, and a really cute unique pattern to keep around for girls. 

Thanks again to Liesl for letting us sew up these great patterns! I am really in love with this outfit and Elsie's new Playtime dress as well. 

Oliver & S Playtime Dress

Elsie totally looks like a Scandinavian doll you could put on a shelf right? I was so happy to get a chance to stitch up the brand new Playtime Tunic and Dress pattern from Oliver & S. It's a great pattern! The design is classic and simple, but the pattern is well-contructed and super versatile with options to make a tunic or dress, in wovens or knits, as well as a legging pattern. (Which I didn't make here, but I'm sure I will put to great use this fall!)

I actually made a small and simple change to the pattern by sewing the facings on the outside. As the pattern is written, they go on the inside of the neckline and back bodice pieces and the shape of the  front facing goes straight across. But there is a really cute option to topstitch them down with stitching in the shape of a peter pan collar, which you can see here on the O&S blog. Since I chose such a bold solid linen for the dress, I figured a visible "collar" in black would be really striking. (I'm pretty sure you can't call it a real collar if it's topstitched down!)

To make it happen, I simply changed the front facing pattern piece to that peter pan shape, and then cut  2 of them out of the black fabric, plus 4 of the back facing. I decided to still interface one set of the facings, but if I did this again, I wouldn't. It's slightly too heavy, and made it a little more difficult to do the buttons and buttonholes on the back. 

Anyway, you then sew the two sets of facings together around the outside curve, turn it right side out, and then sew the right side of it to the wrong side of the bodice. Then you turn it to the outside of the dress, understitch the seam allowance, and topstitch around the whole thing from the right side. As soon as I finished that part, I realized I should have sewn my shoulder seams differently. In the picture above, you can see that the seam allowances stick out right up the collar. (And I have no idea why I didn't finish them all the way to the edge.) What I should have done is the same thing you do when you sew the outside facings on the Class Picnic shorts. So next time, I'll sew the inside inch of those shoulder seams wrong sides together, then switch to RST for the rest of the seam. That way, the seam allowances will be hidden under the facing on the outside. 

So I just explained way more detail than most of you probably need, but would anyone be interested in a little picture tutorial for this modification? We could probably make it happen.  

Elsie must be getting annoyed with all the technical sewing talk. We should move on!

The fabric is a gorgeous Robert Kaufman linen from Sewn Studio. As lovely as it is, I doubted my choice here more than once. I mean, have you ever seen me use so much pink? I don't use it for Elsie's clothes even in normal garden varieties, much less electric shocking pink. In the end, I love the color. Sometimes you just shouldn't fight the pink. I also worried that it would look too wrinkly, but I love the way it drapes in this dress, especially on that full gathered skirt.

I made mine in a size 2 with the skirt cut to 3 length. I probably could have gotten away with 2 length, but the long skirt looks a little fancier, and she won't soon outgrow it. (I should also mention the long sleeves are rolled up once in these pictures.) 

It needed an extra something, so I added two beautiful ribbons from Sewn around the bottom. We have so many new ribbon designs in the shop and I couldn't wait to use them on the perfect project. I love the way they cover up the stitch line on the hem and almost look like one ribbon instead of two.

The back has three simple white buttons, which I only chose because it's what I had on hand. But the contrast on the black turned out nice. And I love the shape of the those back facings on the outside as well. 

Elsie has strep throat and grew tired of this photo shoot very quickly. But she didn't want to take the dress off! She absolutely loved it, I'm guessing because of the easy shape and super-fun color. I can't wait to sew another one in knits with fun leggings to match. It's such a great staple pattern to have for fall, and I imagine this particular dress will be making an appearance on this year's pumpkin patch portraits. 

To see just how versatile the pattern is, definitely checkout Cherie's adorable knit version of the tunic and leggings. I can't get enough of that Yuki.

You can buy your own digital or paper version of the Playtime pattern from the Oliver & S website. Just like in the spring, Liesl was kind enough to send the new patterns to Cherie, Kristin, Gail and I a little early so we could have some fun with them. We'll be rolling out our results all week, so keep your eye out for more!

Of Late

Just when I thought I was getting back into the swing of blogging, Hendrix stuck a big magnet on our Macbook and we had to get a new hard drive. We lost some pictures. And other things. Don't cry for me though, it's just stuff. We still have plenty of pictures of the important things. (kids.) But for now, I just have a few instagram shots to show you some things I've been making. You can follow me at @alittlegressica if you are on IG.

I've been working on a new scrappy project on and off throughout most of the summer. I've made 30 of these stars, all mostly from scraps and each block with it's own story. It's an adaptation of Elizabeth Hartman's Superstar pattern from her first book.  Now the top is actually all done and I love it so much that I'm fretting about the quilting. Quilting anxiety!

I made this large tote for my mom. She works in a school and is always toting things there and back and forth to church. And she deserved something new and something in her favorite color, just because. The outer and lining prints are from Amy Butler's Cameo line, which I got at Sewn Studio. The contrast bottom is a very nice lightweight denim by Robert Kaufman. I kind of just looked at some pictures of totes and made up my own design. It's nice and sturdy with shapeflex and fusible fleece inside, plus a panel of Peltex in the very bottom.

And I made these zipper pouches for Hendrix's triplet friends that just started Kindergarten. Is there anything cuter than kids starting Kindergarten? No better occasion for cute pouches.


Now that our computer is sorted, I'll try to get some proper pictures of another quilt I just finished and some other projects. And coming up next week, I get to share some really fun things I've been working on along with Kristin, Cherie, and Gail. DREAM TEAM!

A Sleeveless Class Picnic (with mistakes and shoddy sewing!)

I made this little outfit for Elsie back in April during the spring KCW. Obviously, that was a long time ago, and at this point I almost decided to just skip blogging it. But I changed my mind about that because:

 a) It's a pretty cute and easy modification to the Oliver & S Class Picnic top, b) It has some shoddy sewing that you should probably see, and c) It's kind of interesting to see the clothes blogged after lots of wearing instead of in their normal new and pristine state. 

First the changes to the pattern. As you can see, I left off the quarter-length sleeves on the top all together. I sewed up the front and back yokes with their facings like normal, but then I just sewed thin bias tape around the arm holes with lots of extra inches to make cute shoulder ties. I also took in the side seams about half an inch just to make sure the armpits didn't gape too much. The shorts are sewn according to the pattern  (Cutest shorts pattern ever, for sure.) Simple as can be and perfect for summer. You can see last year's version of this outfit here. 

So now let's get to the good stuff that makes you feel better about your sewing imperfections, K? Here you can see on the back that my bias tape tie doesn't cover the entire raw edge and it's visibly frayed. I really should have made the tape a little wider, or just sewn it on more carefully. I even picked the seam out once and tried to sew it on again to cover, but I guess it didn't take. It happens. My home sewn clothes aren't always completely perfect and I think that's probably good to show you! It's still a super cute top on her and no one can notice the fraying under those ties. 

The other problem with my frenzied KCW sewing showed up after washing these shorts a couple times. For the gray denim, I cut up an old pair of my husband's jeans. Then I picked out the trim from my stack of fat quarters on the shelf, which are not pre-washed. I usually pre-wash any larger cut of fabric that I'm going to use for garments, but I don't wash my quilting stash. But I was impatient. Between not being pre-shrunk, and being much lighter in weight than the heavy denim, you can see how the trim got all scrunched up and turned up the wrong side of the denim so it's visible. Again, not ideal, but they are still cute shorts that she wears all the time. It happens.

Both pieces are size 2, and you can get this pattern in paper or pdf versions. The fabric on the top is Lizzy House's Hello Pilgrim and the trim on the shorts are her Pearl Bracelets. (PB's I can't quit you!)

Moral: you are good at sewing. Don't sweat the small stuff.