I'm Such a Trendsetter!

It's going to seem like I'm jumping on the Pokemon Go bandwagon, but all the hubbub about the game has just reminded me that I never posted my makes from Danielle's Pokemon themed birthday party. Her birthday was in April, so I'm going to go ahead and take credit for making Pokemon huge again, k?

Danielle is getting older (she's 7 now!) and she didn't want "poofy" sleeves. She still likes some ruffles and adores a good twirl, but her birthday dress this year was a bit tamer than previous years (see birthday #4 and birthday #5). I made the Candy CastlePrincess dress pattern with 3/4 sleeves. I used two different Pokemon prints and Danielle *perfectly* accessorized it with a Torchic inspired necklace (one of the activities we did at her party). She also did her own hair, and I think it looked cute :) (We did pictures after the party so it's a bit messy, don't judge)

This is Torchic (Pokemon wikia)

The dress was an easy make and fit well. I bought a Babylock ruffler for my machine (I've had bad luck with the two generic rufflers I bought when I used a Janome), and it got a little fussy with me. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I had a very long strip of ruffle and had to go back and re-gather a few bits. Oh, and I had to squeeze the ruffle out of the piece of white with black polka dot fabric I had, so I may have cheated and gathered it a bit more and a bit less in some places. Besides that mess, everything went together really easily.

Little brother got a custom shirt in the party theme. I used the Mac's Monster Tee pattern from Cole's Corner and Creations and I LOVE how it turned out!

The non-Pokemon parts are plain black cotton lycra

I've seen raglan shirts made for boys with a mix of woven and knits (the front of the shirt is made from woven and the rest from knit), but I didn't want a solid shirt panel. Plus I wanted to find a way to use both Pokemon prints. I made the shirt according to the pattern--the only changes I made were to use a woven fabric for the lower front panel, and to add a woven pocket (piece from another pattern). I don't sew for my boy enough and he was very happy with his new shirt.

Beside the clothes, I also "made" a cake (some poorly frosted cupcakes shaped like a Pokeball) and we played a few games. Girls seem to like activities more at their parties than boys do. It was a fun day and I loved seeing both my kids in mama-made.

My favorite birthday picture is always the "cake face" one :)

Tangled Up in Princesses

Okay, this is the last princess, for now. This ended up being Danielle's Halloween costume that I never got decent pictures of before.

I LOVE this picture!!

This is a pattern that I willingly *gasp* paid for! Me and Mimi took Danielle to see "Disney on Ice" back in October, and I decided about 2 days prior to the show that I should make her a dress to wear. I decided on Rapunzel from Made for Mermaids. Then somehow I waited until the day of to start. Here's what it looked like just a few hours before the show:

I got the dress done in time--not because I'm super mom but because I have a super husband who corralled the kids and gave me a chance to sew without (many) interruptions. I'm so glad he helped, because it turned out great and the show was magical! Now I know why people spend oodles of money to go on Disney World vacations.

Me and my best girl :)

The pattern is a peasant style dress, with a bodice inset with "lace-up" ribbons, center front skirt panel, and ribbons on the sleeves. I added the 3/4 length sleeves using a pattern piece from this dress I made. I don't normally embellish much, but I blinged this baby up with some iridescent lace on the neckline, hemline and at the bottom of the sleeves.  I also added a purple trim around the skirt panel. Those extras took a lot of time, but were so worth it for my girl (especially since we ended up using it for Halloween too)!

We put a few flowers in her hair and accessorized with a stuffed Pascale from the ice show. Thank goodness that was what she picked out--it was definitely the best value at the gift stands! I have a long blonde wig from one of my old Halloween costumes, but it was a little too big for her. Besides, that would have been way too fussy. I'm loving these Everyday Princesses!

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyways

If you haven't seen "Frozen", you definitely should watch it when it comes out on DVD. It was just beautiful, and the music was incredible (especially with Idina Menzel as the voice of Elsa, the Snow Queen). There is an amazing song in the movie where Elsa is building her ice castle, you can see a clip from the movie with the song here:




Isn't it incredible? I can see why Elsa was the standout of the movie for my daughter. Needless to say, I was so happy that Megan from Made for Mermaids got her Elsa pattern out so quickly (following her Anna pattern which I shared in the last post).

I used a sheer white fabric with silver snowflakes on it for the top bodice portion and the overlay and sleeves. Danielle thought it was itchy :( I finished the edges with my serger, so I think she was just being funny about the dress for some reason, but it went home with a dear little friend whose white blonde hair was perfect for Elsa!

The dress zippers in the back and has a two piece bodice, with a half-circle skirt and an optional overlay. The overlay panels are attached where the two bodice pieces meet, and to each other at the sides, but they are split in the front and back which makes for a nice motion.

Goofiness aside, my daughter LOVED this dress (I know, I say that about every dress, but seriously, Elsa is the big hit this winter). I picked up some pretty fabric to make another version for her and I will use a solid woven for the top bodice so that we won't have any comfort issues. This version was actually made using fabrics from my stash (including a turquoise sheer that is hard to see in the photos--it's on the bottom bodice pieces).

I was going to make myself the snow queen costume using Simplicity 5363 (it's the one on the bottom right) and even bought the fabric. But that was about 5 or 6 Halloweens ago and I think this dress was a much better use for the fabric. Plus, there is plenty of both the snowflake and turquoise sheers left to make a few more Elsas ;)

"Frozen" dress -- Anna

I've been making quite a few princess dresses lately. They're a big hit with the 4-6 year old crowd I sew for, and they're just so darn cute. The patterns are from Made for Mermaids, where Megan has designs from her "Everyday Princess" line. They're great because they look like Disney princesses but they are simplified enough to be comfortable, everyday wear for your little girl.

My daughter's first--and only, so far--movie theater experience was "Frozen", so she was pretty excited when I had a chance to make her a Princess Anna dress.

She was super excited about this one :)

Although she's not the princess with "freezing powers" (as my daughter calls Elsa), she was still a big hit. The pattern includes the long sleeve peasant shirt that's worn under the zip-up, sleeveless dress. There's a pointed bodice and instructions for including the gold trim and the floral detail on the front. There's even a template included if you want to paint the bodice design.

Don't be afraid of zippers--the
instructions make it super easy!

Danielle decided to have a growth spurt and not tell me, so this is the size 4 when she's actually a size 5 length now. As much as I measure my kids, you think I would have caught this beforehand!

I decided to take a couple of designs from Embroidery Library and work some Embird magic to cut and paste different bits together to make my own Anna design. I didn't feel comfortable purchasing from the site that offers "Mr. Mouse" and other knock-off designs. It was a lot of fun to put the embroidery together and I think it turned out really nice.

The embroidery placement could have been a little lower though

I was really pleased with this dress and bought some more fabric to make my daughter a dress in the right length. This version went to a dear friend of ours, and her older sister got the Elsa dress which I will share with you next time. (Maybe tomorrow--we're supposed to have snow here in the South which is funny because I am posting about a movie called "Frozen"!)

Cowboy Meets Princess

Halloween was a simple affair at our house--I made Danielle a princess dress out of a satin remnant and thrifted tablecloth (plus some pink sparkly tulle) and Samuel wore clothes from his dresser, with a cowboy hat added to make it a costume.  Definitely not the type of costume effort I normally do, but it was what worked for our family this year.
 

Samuel does NOT stand still, as you can see

I was going to crochet Samuel a hat, and maybe some boots, using this pattern from Etsy, but decided it was too much to attempt 3 days before Halloween and went with the store-bought hat.  I did make Danielle's wand, though, in all it's tacky goodness.

I may not get around to making bows, but at least
my ribbon stash is getting some use!

I used the instructions from Tangled Happy to crochet the stars and make the wand. I gave away quite a bit of my yarn stash so I didn't have the right pink to crochet the stars, so I ended up just embellishing white stars with pink.  Oh, and sewed on about 100 silver beads, just to make it look magical.  My daughter was thrilled with it, and she used her magic wand to turn everyone giving her candy into princesses :) We had quite the night, hope you did too!

Birthday Princesses

My nieces are turning four soon and I wanted to make them shirts for their birthday.  Their mama has planned a fun princess party, where the kids get to play dress up (she's even having capes for the boys to take home as party favors, how fun!).  She wanted something that said "Birthday Princess" and I just so happened to find a very appropriate design at StitchOnTime.

4th Birthday Princess design from StitchOnTime

I like the extras in this design that make it seem complete--there are multiple appliques and cute looking cut-out details in the crown and sparkles and stars scattered about.  I have to say the font stitched out beautifully--it was very well digitized with minimal jumps (I probably could have gotten away with not trimming most of them) and just so nice.

I did split the "th" and the other words in Embird so
that I could make them separate colors

 

The only other design I've stitched from this site is the reindeer I put on a scarf for my mom, but I think I will be frequenting the site more, even if the currency difference tricks me into thinking it won't cost so much (curse you pounds, in all contexts!)

Princess Outfit

I got a few Christmas gifts done this weekend and can share this one I made for a little girl.

Princess Rihonna outfit

The shirt and leggings are a girl's XS from Target, and I embroidered the "R" using the Royal Princess Alphabet from Planet Applique.

Name added with the font "Curlz" from 8 Claws

I made some barrettes to coordinate, using some zebra print felt I happened to have on hand, and stitched on some little silver beads at the crown points.

Princess Crown felt stitchies from GG Designs

It's rather girlie, so I hope little Rihonna likes it!