uncle jonathon's shirt remix

Months ago Jonathon donated a couple of shirts to whatever use they may be needed - he was over them. They were very nice shirts. Victorinox in fact. Wonderful, wonderful soft slightly stretchy fabric. Incredible details. They begged to be used by someone but there were no takers. So I bundled them away in my fabric stash waiting for a minute and a little inspiration. The two elements combined a few weeks ago and I had more fun than you can possibly imagine making these things for my three favourite little girls. 

The pictures are a bit lacking because I wasn't thinking of sharing them on this platform - they were iPhone snaps to share with the man who donated the shirt. I figured he aught to know what he had contributed to. The decision to share the project here was motivated by the ease and fun of the project. All the hard work is done - the collars and plackets and shirt-tail hems - and the fun is in deciding how to best use those details. It just takes an hour or so for each dress and much less for the funny little pants. I wish I had thought to do a simple tutorial for the dresses but honestly they are so easy that these pictures are probably just about enough. The funny little pants are the left-over sleeves with a crotch-curve cut into the top and stitched together. I added a waistband/casing instead of simply turning the top down to make a casing just because I liked the change of direction for the stripes. The tie is strictly faux.

I had so much fun that I am now begging all the men I know to contribute the shirts they don't wear anymore to my sewing room atelier. I have all kinds of ideas for more 'grandy couture'.

a dress for Frances

This is the wedding dress - the one I was busy making early this month. The one I didn't take any pictures of. The one that Eden did. 

Frances knew she wanted a dress that was all lace. So we embraced that and made her a dress out of the most gorgeous, rich lace - one with a lovely hand and soft sheen. Draped and softly gathered, with pretty little details like the 'diamond' button followed by a row of silk-covered buttons, the dress is romantic and pretty with a nod to wedding dresses of another era. Making the soft, cathedral-length veil was a last-minute decision but it was a very good one and lots of fun, both to make and (apparently) to wear - Frances ended up keeping it on all day. Her mother's string of pearls added another layer of soft glow and kept that memory close. 

Soft, pretty, glowing -  Frances. 

photos courtesy of Eden Lang Pictures. Thanks Eden!!! 

p.s. if you want to see some incredible photos of the beautiful bride in the other dress I had a hand in (alterations only - lol) check out Eden's most recent post. 

free

I'm free!!! Unchained. Finished the dress. And I can breath. It feels so good to have that project complete. Although I have made other wedding dresses, with the exception of the first  (made when I was a tender 19 and pretty clueless about how important an item it was) they have all been for for near and dear. Someone that I have loved to the moon and back. Although I think the world of the bride for whom I made this last wedding dress, she is a friend not family. Strangely that made the creation of this dress considerably more stressful - intimidating even. As I worked on the other dresses I imagined them as heirlooms, something to be a reminder of the relationship, the hope, and the love - not only of the wedding couple but between myself and the bride. Those thoughts made the tediously careful work that I consider an essential part of such a special garment seem light work. Ridiculously this time I fretted over what others would think of my effort - was it good enough, should I have done this or that in a different way? - and fretted enough that I spent several night dreaming uncomfortably about the silly thing. In many ways I ventured well beyond my comfort zone and often had to spin the mental wheels pretty hard to figure out what or how to do. In the end, the dress is beautiful and the bride thrilled. The wedding was yesterday. The atelier is in order once more. All is well. 


I meant to take some pics of the finished 'creation' but didn't. Bah! Wishing I had.

in my atelier

My sewing room has been temporarily elevated to 'atelier' status. On account of the wedding dresses. One down and one to go, I should be firmly entrenched in creative mode. I should be and I think I want to be but I have been dragging my feet. Next week, come hell or high water I no longer have even a tiny bit of choice if I don't want to disappoint a lovely bride and  reveal myself to be a heel of large proportion. I like the whole wedding dress creation thing - the fabrics, the design possibilities, getting lost in the creative moment, and of course the romance. I enjoy the challenge of the "how" as well as the "what".  


I should be firmly entrenched, happy as a pig in mud but I get distracted and side-tracked by new babies, and school concerts, and trips, and weeding gardens, and planting, and books to be read, and recipes to be tried. I am happy to be distracted because as happy as I am in my atelier ....weddings and new babies are all tangled up in my heart with Merin and sometimes those memories are still very tender. Tender but not painful, fresh but - thankfully - no longer raw, cherished. I work in my little room and take out memories of other dresses as I listen to the playlist I started when I made Hannah's dress and added to as I made Merin's. I remember Eden's insistence that I make her dress - and I am so glad she won the day. I was afraid of the project - emotionally laden and with the potential for terrible disappointment on both our parts. Her faith in me gave me faith in myself, the dress was beautiful and she in the dress, and we have yet another bond. When I made Hannah's dress I knew her so little - it became the start of a cherished friendship and mutual respect. And Merin's dress relieved and delighted both of us.


I have made five wedding dresses and altered several more. I have felt honoured and privileged to be involved with each. A wedding dress is more than just a beautiful garment, more than a special dress worn to the party of a lifetime. It represents a full and trusting heart given with faith, joy, and love, looking forward with hope to a wonderful shared future. It is what a woman wears on the day her marriage begins not just at her wedding. It is a unique symbol.


My nose will be pressed to the grindstone next week and the threads will fly. Fingers crossed the next creation will be all that someone hopes it will be. 

photo courtesy of eden lang pictures. Looking through the bridal shoot again, so many dear, dear memories - of Merin, of the morning of the shoot, of my girls laughing together. So rich.

owl costume for aubrie

Eden reminisced last week that her all-time favourite costume was the dinosaur costume I made when she was five. I think that was just about the last big, over-the-top costume making year for me. That was the year that I was pregnant with Mark (our fourth child). Up to that point I had always had a blast planning and making extravagant Halloween costumes for the kids. That year I felt like I was pushing a boulder uphill all the way - way, way too much going on - the result being... after the sewing spree was finally over I became The Scrooge of Halloween. No costumes that required any amount of sewing or purchase were allowed. Miraculously the costume box always revealed enough treasure to disguise the littles and what was lacking there my personal wardrobe and ingenuity supplied. 

This year I appear to have finally recovered from the trauma (a long, long recovery to be sure) and I have found my costume-making mojo again with Aubrie as my muse. Eden suggested an owl mask - an idea too cute to be ignored and my imagination slipped the leash. From one simple concept to another this costume was totally, totally fun to make. Really simple too. I used cheap (I don't use that term loosely - I hate polyester felt but it worked for this application) felt for the top of the wings. The rest of the fabrics are all quilting cottons. The wings have unfinished seams with the raw edges of the cotton contributing to the idea of feathers. The tummy patch on the pinafore is simply made of rough circles with unfinished edges (more feathers) that are overlapped and stitched on. The mask is made from some felted wool sweater fabric I had left from an earlier project and a bit of cotton quilt batting. I sewed elastic loops into the seam near the wrist of the wings so that she can flap her wings as all good owls can.

All in all, I am very pleased with the result. The sad thing? - that Aubrie's beautiful eyes are behind the cute mask. The best thing? - (aside from her pleasure) that the pinafore part of the costume is so cute she will simply wear it daily. Being a grandy is the best job ever!!!

To see some beautiful pictures of Aubrie (and siblings) in costume check out Eden's blog. I love Eden's work. She is incredible!

Ysa's Quilt

Babies grow so fast and Ysa has outgrown the pretty little quilts that Merin made with such love and anticipation - which gave me the opportunity to make her a new one. When Eden suggested the project I knew immediately which of the fabrics I would choose from the stash in the sewing room closet. Merin had wanted to make a larger throw-quilt and we had chosen fabric for it but never got around to making it. The fabric was just sitting there wanting to be used and this was the perfect thing.

I gathered those fabrics plus a few more that had significance*, got a bit inspired with a design, and had the most wonderful time creating a quilt that I must admit I am very pleased with. In fact, I think it is one of the very best things I have ever made. I love it! (laugh at me!)

The design and process are both very simple. I used a linen/cotton blend for the background fabric and hand appliqued the fabric circles onto that. To make the fabric circles nice and round I sewed featherweight iron-on interfacing together with the fabric, right side of the fabric and iron-on side of the interfacing in. I sewed around the entire circle, then cut a slit in the interfacing and turned the circle right-side out. Simple finger pressing of the edges made the line nice and clean, and then it was time to experiment with placement.

When I was satisfied I pinned the circles in place and ironed them down. Sadly, as great as the iron-on concept is it is not good enough to stand multiple washings and constant wear (which I really hope this quilt gets) so I hand-stitched each circle in place. Next step was to layer the backing fabric (Merin's first choice of fabrics for her quilt and her favorite of them all - a lovely soft, satiny rayon/cotton blend), the cotton quilt batting, and the top. I hand basted those together and finally got to the quilting - around each circle as well as a few "shadow" circles in the negative spaces. A simple binding with the same fabric as the backing and the quilt was complete. Simple....but I must admit it took me a while.

Making this quilt was a real labor of love. I can't decide exactly who I am expressing love for - Ysa, Eden, Merin... so perhaps it is a hand-stitched statement of my love for all three. Certainly I feel like it is a bridge of sorts. Lots of unfocused thoughts here that I am not sure I really want to articulate but they are good, positive, pleasant thoughts that look back as well as to the future. Most likely this quilt will not mean nearly as much to anyone as it does to me but that is just fine. I have gotten my money's worth and I am happy.

Happy snuggling Ysa and Eden.

*There are bits of fabric from Japan, scraps from Merin's old pajamas, a piece that was leftover from an apron making project that Merin did one Christmas, a piece from a skirt that I made Aubrie last summer, bits from the baby quilts Merin made, and you might recognize the voile I used to make the up-cycled baby romper for Ysa. Lots of pretty color, texture, and memories.

Blouse to Baby Romper

Last summer I saw a blouse on a clearance rack - size XL... much too big for me but XL so.... lots of pretty fabric. I bought it, brought it home and showed Merin. She loved the fabric and we planned to use the lovely cotton voile to make something fun for her after Ysa was born. As is often the case, I had more ideas than time and so the blouse got bundled up and put in the closet in the sewing room. 

A better idea was born last week when Eden asked me to make a few summer things for Ysa. I thought of that pretty fabric and pulled out the blouse. I had already cut off one of the sleeves and used the fabric in a quilt top. My initial thought was to just use the fabric as yardage but when I got started there was such pretty pleating at the neckline, and sweet little buttons, and the self-fabric belt....well, the wheels started turning. It was so much fun to make this little outfit and even more fun to see how absolutely adorable a cute round baby makes it look.

It looks even cuter when the elastic at the bottom is pulled up around her chubby little legs - kind of like a soft, sweet bubble. Super delicious!

Felted Wool Heart Scarves

Valentines's Day is coming. Perfect motivation to be creative - and with two sweet, sweet little girls in mind - the wheels started turning. I decided to make scarves for them out of felted sweaters. So off to Value Village to buy a few previously loved sweaters for the project. I was amazed at the apparently large number of people who wash - and dry - wool sweaters. By machine. In hot water. Seriously interesting. (There was even a lovely pink cashmere sweater from BCBG that I don't think had started life sized to fit a 2 year old.) Anyway, a stranger's loss was my gain since this was exactly what I was looking for. I chose six sweaters in shades and patterns that seemed roughly "valentine's-ish", carted them home and got to work.

Felting sweaters is easy and ... fun! (You get to do what you really shouldn't and it works out well. How often does that happen?!) Just toss the 100% wool sweaters in the machine with a healthy amount of detergent and run the cycle with hot water. Put them in the dryer on hot. Repeat. And voila! perfectly miniaturized sweaters that are nicely felted. I cut the sweaters apart at the seams, pressed them lightly, and cut out a bunch of 3" hearts from one sleeve of each sweater.

Next I lined the hearts up in a way that appealed to me and sewed them together using Pearl Cotton. I use 'sew' loosely because really I just made a couple of stitches and then tied a knot leaving the ends showing. Just for fun I embroidered an initial on each scarf.  Done! 

I would like to be all "Oh this old thing?" - kind-of-cool about this project but really I am pretty tickled with how it turned out. More "Look, look, look!" than cooly uncaring but, what's the big deal with cool?I love how the hearts look a bit like flower petals. I love how the little girls played all afternoon wearing their new scarves. More magic.