I made this for a friend whose daughter was born last week, 5 weeks early and weighing just 3 lbs! But she is healthy and doing well, and I’m sure she’ll look beautiful when she’s big enough to fit in this tiny dress! (The picture makes it look big, but it really is itty bitty). The pattern is from Made by Rae. I didn’t have any piping or bias tape on hand so I skipped the piping and did a blind hem on the bottom. I’ve had this 1/2 yard of fabric for at least six years and never had just the right project to show off the fun print.

We had a very casual party on Saturday to thank all our friends who were so generous when our son had his tonsils out last month. It really made us realize what a wonderful community we live in. Two of Parker’s friends used the same local gift basket company to send him some treats a few days apart, and the owner realized that and made sure to include different items, and even added a little picture drawn by her 6-year-old son (and fellow tonsillectomy survivor!). We decided to have an outdoor ice cream party, since now that some time has passed, Parker is enjoying ice cream again. (within days of his surgery he was sooo sick of ice cream. Poor thing was begging for crackers. (Our deck used to be a car port for an RV, but since we we are not planning on ever owning a Winnebago, my husband and a friend built a low deck under it a few years ago). We were lucky we had perfect weather, sunny and in the 80s (this, just a few days after snow flurries!).

The only decorating I did consisted of a very quick and easy garland made of felt circles cut with the Olfa Circle Rotary Cutter I bought a few months ago and hadn’t really tried out. It made cutting the circles a breeze, though it took some getting used to. It’s a bit pricey, but I waited until I had a coupon and got it on sale online at Joann’s. After I cut out a bunch of circles, I just sewed down the middle with my sewing machine, leaving a few inches of stitches in between each circle.

We bought A LOT of different ice cream flavors and set out little bowls of toppings. I made homemade hot fudge and butterscotch sauce, both from Epicurious.com. Yum!

Just in time, I finally finished my entry for Spring Top Week at Made By Rae. I made Simplicity 2922 out of a linen/cotton blend and then dyed it. This is the first top I’ve ever made for myself (or anyone for that matter), so you’d think that would be enough of a challenge, but I had to make it about 100 times harder. That might be an exaggeration, but you know how sometimes you get to a point in a craft or sewing project when you consider just throwing it out? This project was full of such moments. Here are but a few:

1) With “These are a Few of My Favorite Things” running through my head, I cut out the front, yoke/sleeve, neckband, armbands and facings out of some fabric I had leftover from making curtains, only to realize I didn’t have enough fabric for the back.

2) I somehow managed to sew the neckband to the ARMPITS. I know that’s hard to imagine, but the pattern calls for sewing  the yoke and sleeves first, then adding the neck to the top and the rest of the shirt to the, so I accidentally flipped the yoke over. And sewed it even though it didn’t quite fit. And then trimmed the seam and ironed it. THEN noticed the mistake.

3) When I tried it on before hemming it, my husband poked me in the belly and said I looked pregnant.

4) I realized I should’ve dyed the fabric first, because I didn’t use cotton thread, and now the white stitches show up on the bright pink fabric. They’re not neat enough to look  like I did it intentionally as decorative topstitching.

BUT… on the bright side, I successfully used the blind stitch function on my sewing machine for the first time! (Of course, the “blind” stitches are blindingly WHITE, grrrr) And I figured out a cool way (I think) to keep the edges of the fabric flower from fraying and give the petals a bit of stiffness. I’ve seen several tutorials that call for using some kind of spray, but I don’t have any and didn’t really like the idea of spraying some kind of chemical sealant on the petals. Then I saw this project in the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living, which calls for printing out little clipart flowers onto iron-on transfer paper and then transferring them to fabric. So I figured, why not use a flower outline (Martha has a bunch of templates on her site), print it on iron-on transfer paper and go from there? The transfer paper leaves a clear coating on the fabric but it’s barely visible. The great thing about this technique is that you don’t have to trace the pattern because you’re printing it right on the fabric.

I really want to be the kind of person who can pull off wearing a huge flower pinned to a shirt like these lovely poppies at Grosgrain. But apparently I’m not quite ready for that, since I didn’t dye any big scraps of fabric, so I went with a small-ish bloom instead. But it’s on a pin so I may remove it and re-do it.

Would I make this pattern again? Maybe, slightly smaller or in a different fabric. I’m not crazy about the slits in the sleeves, but the pattern also includes gathered or plain flat sleeves. I might try the dress version. I ended up chopping about 4 inches off the bottom of the tunic because I’m short, and it just didn’t look right. I also took Amy Karol’s advice and made pleats along the yoke instead of gathering.

**UPDATE: I wasn’t surprised at all that my top wasn’t a finalist because there were so many amazing tops. But I was thrilled that Carolyn at Sycamore Corner Crafts took the time to list it among her personal favorites! It really boosted my spirits after such a frustrating sewing experience, and I now have a new blog to read!

I realized at 9 p.m. last night that my son has a playdate today with a friend who 1) sent him a very nice gift basket after his recent surgery and 2) turned six last week. So my husband suggested I “craft something up” to give her.

I quickly settled on this stuffed pig from “Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.” (Look for my AP review/article next week). I’ve been saving this pink thrift-store sweater I felted for a while and figured it would make a cute pig. It did, though I found it pretty hard to work with since the sweater is so thick. The directions call for a 1/8″ seam allowance, which was all but impossible given how thick the wool is. I would’ve been better off cutting around the pattern a bit wider and then trimming the excess later. There also was no way I could sew the extremely narrow tube to make the tail and then turn it right-side out, so I just kept the seam on the outside.

I love the fuzzy wool, but I think this project also would be cute in fleece or even cotton quilt fabric. Or maybe a thinner sweater.

I’m not quite sure why, but for the last few years my family has not eaten much breakfast cereal, so I was always disappointed when I saw awesome crafts using cereal boxes. But recently my husband (who does all the grocery shopping, lucky for me!) started buying cereal again, so I’ve been squirreling away the boxes in my son’s craft drawer.

First up was cereal box journal based on this tutorial at The Long Thread. I decided to adhere the fabric to the printed side of the cardboard to leave the inside cover blank. I didn’t have any spray adhesive, so I used strips of Stitch Witchery fusible webbing to iron the fabric on. Obviously a sheet of webbing like Steam-a-Seam would work better, but since I had the Stitch Witchery on hand, I went with that. It seems to be holding pretty well!

I’ve been trying to do a few “schoolwork” projects with my son while he’s home from kindergarten recovering from getting his tonsils out, so I asked him to draw a picture and then try to write the word to go with it. He drew this nice steam shovel, and then threw a huge fit about writing it, which escalated into him screaming at me “YOU’RE MAKING ME YELL AND CRY AND HURT MY THROAT.” Sigh… surely others have faced this scenario of lovingly making something for a child who doesn’t quite appreciate it?

Just when I was about to get discouraged though, I discovered that a blog in Hungary had written a post about the mini treehouse my husband and I made. And thanks to Google Translator, I now know how to write

” Holly Ramer, is more than brilliant, creative and imaginative. I can not find the words to it really, just staring at the pictures jaw dropped.” in Hungarian.

Ha. I will try to stay humble.

My son’s surgery went well, and we are home after a rough night in the hospital. He likes his new robot very much and is still thinking about what to name him. I’m too exhausted to do any sewing/crafting today, but have been meaning to post a picture of a work in progress, the Paintbox Quilt-a-long at Oh, Fransson! It started back in January, so I’m getting a late start and have done 26 of the 80 (!) blocks so far. I really don’t know why I am taking on this project because for the first time ever, I am starting a quilt without a recipient in mind. I want to keep it for myself, actually, but it really doesn’t go with the decor in any room of my house. I am doing the scrappy blocks, which will require 160 different prints plus 40 solids. (I’m pairing four prints with each solid. The directions call for 5 but there is no way I could find that many). I bought the Kona roll-up strips for the solids and am trying to see how many prints I can get out of my fabric stash. Luckily, there are a lot of blues in the solid strips and I have a lot of blue prints leftover from my son’s colorwheel quilt, but I already know I’ll have to buy some yellows and purples. But I think it will be pretty neat to see the finished quilt come together using so many different scraps from so many different projects.  Some of the scraps I’m using are close to 10 years old!

I had a definitely “duh!” moment in starting these blocks. This is the first quilt I’ve started since getting my new sewing machine last year and using the 1/4″ foot. My seams still were more than 1/4″ though, until I finally figured out I can move the needle position just a tiny bit to make the seams come out just right. I still have some blocks that are a bit wonky, but overall, I’m finding I’m not having to stretch or persuade the pieces to fit together like I have with past projects.