Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Gumball Outfit


I've been wanting to try my hand at a vinyl design. The gumball design was the perfect choice. The applique is from Planet Applique.
Now, what better to go with this shirt than a........................BUBBLE SKIRT!
The pattern is McCalls 6276. The pattern may look familiar to you. I made the ruffled skirt several months ago for my niece.
My niece loves this outfit. My sister sent an email that she wore it all weekend. She had two parties to go to and she wore it to both parties.

The Branding of Kayla

 Every fashionista deserves to have a brand, right? I've been thinking about this for maybe a year now. I wanted to experiment with making a brand for my niece. So off and on I've been playing with fonts and putting letters together and working on names. Of course I didn't bother to get my niece's input or my sister's for that matter! I tried working with Kayla's last name and the monogram just wasn't quite right. So I had to venture down a different path. I had to give Kayla's brand a name. So Kayla Couture (and so much more!) it was.
 My goal is to use her logo on more of her dress garments, not so much her play wear. The font that made the final cut was "Just Another Serif" from 8 Claws and a Paw. Too, too bad that Chanel has the best logo around and I couldn't use that. Drat.

Alright, let's look at some of Kayla's garments and accessories. I think every couture house has some very basic, chic black and white ensembles. This outfit was one of the very first that came to my mind. I got this fabric in the clearance bin. Quite honestly, I get a lot of Kayla's specialty fabrics in the clearance bin. Cottons cost a fortune but nicer garment fabric I can get for cheap. Too bad for the industry that people don't use the fabric but I luck out with some steals. Back to Kayla's outfit. I immediately thought she needed a pencil skirt to go with this t-shirt. I spied the fabric at Joann's I think. It might have cost me $1 or $2 to make. The pattern that I used is McCalls 6274. If you look at the pattern, the skirt kind of has a safari feel to it. Well all I had to do was to omit all the pockets. Viola! Pencil skirt!
Here is my version of the pattern. What do you think?
Notice her logo at the bottom of the skirt?
Doesn't this dress look huge? I made it a size 8 so it will work for back to school. This pattern is New Look 6018. This pattern is now out of print. I'm grateful that I purchased it when I did.
Now for some accessories. A sunglass case.
A summer hat.
A beach tote.
Finally, this is for Kayla's mom. I figured my sister needs a lingerie bag to wash Kayla's shirts in.
The Frame is the Mia frame from Planet Applique.
Well, that's it for now. I have a few more ideas for Kayla Couture. Stay tuned!




A Patriotic Tank

 This month's challenge over at Applique Forum was the design had to be "red, white and blue and a little sparkle too." I'm still catching up with not being home much in April. I wasn't planning on doing the challenge but the $2.00 tank sale at Old Navy changed my mind. Now my challenge was to figure out what I was going to do. I wanted to incorporate a fireworks design. But what to put with it. Certainly there were a lot of great patriotic designs to choose from. The design chosen is from Applique A Day. The fireworks design is from Lynnie Pinnie.

I think the shirt meets the sparkle criteria. I used sequined fabric for the star, metallic thread for the fireworks and rhinestones.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Poodle Girl

When I saw this design from Hang To Dry, I immediately thought of finding some French or Parisian fabric to make a dress or skirt to go with it. One day in the sewing room, I spied the leopard print knit and immediately thought about pairing it with a bright pink. So I made the skirt (without a pattern!). I wanted to put curved pockets on the skirt but then decided that that might make the skirt a little bulky.





Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ugly Fabric Challenge

I'm a sucker for cheap fabric. I always walk by the clearance sections when in a fabric store. This ruffled fabric was calling me one day. It was pretty cheap, maybe a dollar so what the heck, let's take a chance. My original thought was to run ribbon on the front bodice. I decided to forgo the ribbon and leave as is. The bodice is large on my niece. I made the bodice instead of cutting off a tshirt. It almost looks adult size but it's a size girls size seven.

Flip Flop Summer Outfit

I purchased this fabric last year for Kayla! I finally got around to making the outfit. The flip flop design is from Lynnie Pinnie.




April Design Challenge


We started a new challenge over at Applique Forum. Every month, it's a different challenge. March was the first challenge. We all received the same design. There were three groups. Hobbyist, Mentors and Professionals. I'm a mentor/moderator so that's where I was placed. The moderators had an additional task of adding dimension to the design. Here is the original design from Hand to Dry Applique.
The bunny design is actually like a crazy quilt. It is made up of maybe seven or eight pieces. Crissie from Hang to Dry used vintage pillowcases, towels, etc to do up her design. 

I took a drive to Joann Fabrics to see what types of trim and fabrics I could find. I spent about an hour in the trim isle. I bought tulle. I bought sparkly fabric. I bought sparkly trims. I decided I was going to go Prom Barbie on this little bunny design. However, once I got home and started pulling out all my purchases nothing jumped out at me anymore. I ended up omitting the scalloped background. I did one whole piece of fabric instead of the crazy quilt design. Then my dimensional aspect was the marabou and the rhinestone bunny eye. 

Friday, May 4, 2012

My First Try at Ruffled Bloomers

Here is my first try at embroidery on baby bloomers or diaper covers. It is a tad difficult to get these little things embroidered. You are working on a small area and the bloomers have two layers to them so that can also be tricky. Lauren and I thought we would see how these looked underneath her tutus. I still need to tweak the 4th of July design. I'm not quite happy with it. For one, there are more stitches than I'd like. The more stitches, the longer you're sitting at the machine. You can see it's a little bit wrinkled. I even used starch before I started the stitch out. The little Miss Independent design came from Stitch on Time.
This design is from Just Peachy Designs. The cupcake looks a little bit wonky right now but it's not finished. I shipped it off to Lauren to add a korker bow to it. Do you see the half circle at the top of the design, that's where the korker will be placed.
The font is from MCA Applique.


Pillowcases for Connor

 Here are a couple of pillowcases I made for my nephew Connor. The superhero fabric was found at Fabric World down in Stone Mountain, GA. I had the good fortune of hearing about a truckload sale there and as luck would have it, I would be vacationing in the area. Yeah for me! Anyway, all the cotton fabric was $2/yard. Yep, can't beat that now can you! The polka dot fabric I bought at Hancock's last year during their summer clearance sale. Since I really didn't know any super hero sayings, I decided to not embroider anything on the band.
The fabric for the Star Wars pillowcase was purchased at Joann's. I WISH it cost me $2/yard. Unfortunately, it was a lot more. I really don't understand why Joann's feels their fabric is worth more than the quilt shops. Enough of that rant!
Both the light saber design and the font were purchased off of Etsy. Can you see the metallic threads that were used? I had a minor problem with shredding but I was able to get the project finished without too much frustration.