tutu (butterick 5545)

Today I got the opportunity to accompany my little niece to her parent/child dance class, since my brother-in-law was unable to take her.  What a fun time we had!  E and Rora were born 6 days apart, and have been good little friends all their lives, so it was super fun to get to do this dance class with them!  (Since E is not mine, I've decided not to post pictures of her here, but you'll have to trust me that the two of them together were simply adorable.)

While at dance class, it occurred to me that I made Rora's tutu more than a year ago, but hadn't posted it here.

I made her tutu from Butterick #5545.

The directions were simple and clear, however it can get a little hairy when you're putting on the 6th layer of gathered tulle. 

Have I mentioned before that I hate gathering? 

I usually love the look it creates enough to power through, but I hate it!

I like how it ties in the back, which means it will last a little longer as she grows:

Just so you have pictures of all angles, here is what the tutu looks like upside-down!

See?  I told you we had fun!

Dance class doesn't get any more fun than tutu's and hanging on the barre pretending to be a monkey!

like it's supposed to be (butterick 4176)

When I made the Bubble Dress, I was completely in love. Turns out, however, that my husband doesn't really like the bubble hem. So, as a part of cleaning out my craft space, I found some fabric that I decided to make into something more his style (ie: straight hem.)

So, once again, I used Butterick 4176, except this time I added sleeves and did a straight hem line.

It's cute, but I still think I prefer the bubble hem on this particular style.

long lost baby pea coat (butterick 4009)

The inspiration for this project sort of came from two places. Originally, I wanted a beautiful coat to go with my daughter's blessing dress.

More recently, I was reading this post on Made by Heidi, in which she talks about living on a student budget and doing all her crafting out of her current supplies in her craft closet. I started to think about the dark corner of the house in which I keep all of my crafting supplies (which is, in all fairness, just the floor space underneath the shelves in my linen closet.) I realized that it was starting to get a wee bit crowded in there and could use a cleaning.

I began pulling out bag after bag after bag of yarn, hair clip supplies, leftover scraps, thread, etc, etc, etc. The floor space in the linen closet started to seem more like Mary Poppins' bottomless carpet bag than ever before. While I'm not crazy enough to try to last a full year using nothing but the supplies in my closet, I also didn't want things to get so out of hand that my children will eventually have to dig my crazy self out of my crafting world to put me in a home for the mentally unstable . . .

One of the things I found at the bottom of the mess were the supplies for this baby pea coat. I had planned on making this coat for my daughter when she was about two months old--she is now 2-1/2 years old (oops.) This pattern is so old that it is out of print. Now seemed like as good a time as any to make it.

It is a beautiful, fully-lined coat. It required a lot of hand stitching (slip stitching,) but when I finished it, I was glad that I decided to sew it even though my daughter is way too big for it now.

Turns out there might be a reason the pattern is out of print. I cut out a size small, which should be roughly a 3-6 month size coat. I followed the directions and seam allowances exactly, yet it is actually the same size as a 12 month coat.

bubble dress (butterick 4176)

Sometimes when I sew, I need an ego boost, so I like to finish a project in just a few hours. That's what this pattern was for me when I bought it.

Just before making it, Sarah and I were talking one day, and she said, "I saw (insert cute friend's name here)'s girls wearing the cutest bubble dresses at church on Sunday!" The wheels in my head started turning, and I decided to make this dress with a bubble hem:

I wanted to make this view without the sleeves, so I cut out a lining in my daughter's size (size 2.)

Next, I cut out my main fabric, which was a silky print from JoAnn's, from this view, except I cut the hem line all the way to a size 5, and widened the skirt area by about 20 inches.

After sewing the side seams together, I ran a gathering stitch around the hemline of my main fabric and sewed it to the lining right sides together, gathering the main fabric to fit.

I then made the rest of the dress as the directions said.

Just like any dress for a little girl, the most important quality is that it makes her feel like a million bucks, which this does for Rora!


I love the three-button detail on the front:

I also like the simple one-button back closure:

And the final perk to this little dress is that I can add a cute colored ribbon around her waist or an adorable sweater to change up the look a little bit.

This pattern gets two thumbs WAY up!