Howling at the Moon

In my last post I told you about the items I want to sew in the upcoming weeks (two dresses, top, cigarette pants, pencil skirt).  The top is already finished: Just a simple top à la Brigitte Bardot, with gathering at the sleeves and neck line and a little rose to make it complete. For the skirt and one of the dresses I ordered some fabric on the internet. I expect it to arrive tomorrow. ~*~ I also did some grannies for my blanket the last couple of days: ~*~ And one of my projects (a project that didn’t work out so good, I think, haha) was featured at MyFavorite Finds , namely the Ice Cone Cake Pops . Thank you, Carrie!

Finally got my yarn, so I started to crochet grannies for my blanket immediately! Well, almost :-). First I had to finish the before mentioned dress of course, the one where I crocheted the flowers for. Here is how it worked out, crochet and sewing in one dress: ~*~ And here are the few grannies I made this week for my blanket : ~*~ I have to say: I got a bit excited about the sewing from last weeks, so I think I will go on a little bit longer with it. I found some nice vintage inspired patterns and want to try them all. Try, because some of the items have things (like the zipper in a cigarette pants, for example) that I never did before. Of course I show you all the progress I make (but only if I had success with doing things like zippers or placing busks in a dress, of course, haha)! Besides the cigarette pants I want to make two dresses, a pencil skirt and a top. Hopefully my enthusiasm for sewing will stay for a while, so I finish all the before menti...

Peacock Necklace by From Paris With Love! Peacock Ring by From Paris With Love! WANTED This necklace and ring would match  perfectly with my green dress !

My dress is finished! And I mean MY dress. I hardly make anything for myself (I rather buy), but because I saw a nice pattern I thought ‘Well, let’s give it a try’. The work description wasn’t very clear, though, so I couldn’t figure out exactly how to apply the lapel collar to the dress, and it took hours and hours of trial and error before I finished the collar. My patience was considerably put to the test. But now that the dress is hanging from a clothes hanger to show off, I’m quite content with how the dress and the collar looks! Only have to sew on some black buttons and then it's ready to wear. So, what do you think? ~*~ Next project has started already: another dress for my two year old. I want to make a crochet/sewing-combination dress. For the crochet I’m using some remaining yarns. The tutorial for the crochet flowers you can find here . For the dress itself I’m using a baby sheet. My little one has a Big Bed now, so the sheet doesn’t fit anymore. Good thi...

Today we had a baby shower of a cousin of my husband, so I made a play mat. Again.  It’s time to think of something else for a present, because I am a tiny bit bored by making play mats now. This was my fifth or sixth in a couple of months. Anyway, for a tutorial , look here. ~*~ I’m still waiting for the yarn for my blanket , which is not available in the yarn shop at the moment, but meanwhile I’m having a good time behind my sewing machine. The dress I’m working on is almost finished. Just the lapel collar (which, I find, isn’t easy at all for a not so skilled seamstress) and the hem. I think I can show you the dress later this week. The fabrics for two other projects are on their way, so I’m not bored at all without the lacking yarn.  ~*~   And… my projects are featured as much as three times this week!! Such an honor!! The Twirly Dress is featured twice: Once by  ‘ We Like to Learn as We Go ’! Thank you, Alexis! ...

Gina Dress by King Louie WANTED Nice 'around the house' dress

Tomorrow my youngest daughter has a Spring Party at Kindergarten. As always they asked the mums (and dads, but for some reason dads never react to such lists) to cook, bake or otherwise make things to eat. You could fill in your name and I was the first to react. Cake Pops Ice Cones I would make.  And now, the night before, as always I ask myself “Why?! Why did you enlist?”. Despite taking time enough for preparation (I started yesterday with baking the cake for the pops, for example), every time I end up with lack of time. The cake pops themselves where finished on time, but for some reason the candy melts didn’t melt properly, so I couldn’t dip in the pops and I had to smear the candy melts with a knife all over the pops myself. Gives not the best result, I can tell you that. And so I’m not very cheerful right now, poor husband of mine. If you have tips on how to make candy melts more fluid, please tell me!! This is the result: ~*~ Because of the lacki...

Hope you all had a very good Mother's Day!! And this is the other dress (if you want to know what I mean by ‘other’ check out my previous post ). The inspiration for it I found at a blog called Luv in the Mummyhood  (the dress at that blog comes with a tutorial), but I used a different pattern, namely the same as I used for the dress I showed you a couple of days ago, but without the upper skirt and with a hole in the backside that forms a heart. I love that heart! And if I make a dress for one daughter, the other one obviously wants exactly the same. So I made the first mentioned dress again, but in a bigger size. I’m out of yarn for my crochet blanket and the yarn shop can’t deliver what I need at the moment, so I have to fill my days with something else anyway. My oldest daughter is four years old and she wanted to choose the fabric herself, so of course it's all pink, pink and pink. Result here:

Capri Dress by Lena Hoschek WANTED Beautiful dress!

Month after month I was addicted to crochet, but this week I rediscovered sewing. The craving for sewing comes when I find a beautiful fabric that I must have or when I see a really nice pattern. This week I saw both, so I started sewing two different dresses. The first one I show you now, the second one is minutes from being finished and will be shown later this week. I used about 3x1½ meters of fabrics for this double dress (will be worn by a two year old), which has a major twirl factor. I love the combination of colors of this fabric: pink, fuchsia, red, orange, lime, aqua and black. And for the readers who follow this blog because of the crochet projects: I’m still not bored with crochet, there’s even a project on the way that involves both crochet and sewing, so don’t drop out yet J . ~*~ I saw two movies this weekend that I can recommend, though both are not entirely new (in fact they are rather old; 2007 and 2008). Jolene – to be true, as a Doll...

Last week I showed you some grannies I was working on, to form an afghan in the end (and who knows when that end will be; could be twenty years from now). In the meantime I have sixteen grannies total now. And the good news is: not bored yet!! Because I don’t want to leave the terrible chore of removing all loose ends until the whole afghan is finished, I already put together these sixteen grannies and got the loose ends done. And now on to the next sixteen… ~*~ And again my  African Flower Tutorial  is featured! This time by The Trendy Tree House. It's so nice to know people like what I make!!  Thanks, Trendy Tree House! ~*~ I found beautiful, beautiful orange gerberas this week:

Oriento SunSo by Irregular Choice WANTED These very, very gorgeous shoes! (Strawberry can be removed and be used as a pendant)

It took a while (writing a tutorial is more difficult and especially takes a lot more time than I thought), but here it is: the play mat tutorial! What you need:  - 20 panels of fabric size 15x15cm (6x6 inches) in colors and patterns that you like - 1 piece of fabric size 80x95 cm (28x34 inches) for the back side - 2 strips of fabric (same color as back side) size 10x80cm (4x28 inches) - 2 strips of fabric (same color as back side) size 10x95cm (4x34 inches) For the above four: this is without seams, so you have to cut some extra for seams - 2 layers of fiber fill size 60x75cm (24x30 inches) - 2 layers of fiber fill size 80x95cm (28x34 inches) Step by step instructions: * Draw  fifteen 15x15 cm (6x6 inches) panels on cotton fabric in colors and designs you like. Cut the panels with extra on all sides for seams.    *Arrange your panels on the flour in a color pattern you like. At the picture below the rows are already pinned. * Pin t...