Monkeys for Lucy monkey!

I found this super cute pattern for the monkey & the crocodile finger puppet poem from HomemadebyJill!

Buntings and pinwheels!

We are hosting my niece Abigail's graduation party in August. I wanted to make something special for her day and to serve as a decoration for the party. ModaBakeShop posted a cute bunting pattern that i modified.

I checked with my sister and the colors for her room before i headed out to the fabric store. Abigail is a bling girl and i wanted to make sure the pennant was "teen enough" so the embellishments took almost as long as the sewing! When I told michelle about my plan she referred me to Julie's efforts~! Her KL bunting is darling-dont miss it! I was super glad to see Julie's link to the teen buntings- they must be cool ;-)

take a look and let me know if you think the last i in the white background fabric is too "white." I am on the fence about whether to change it out!

I really like the pinwheel from ModaBakeshop but it did not stand up alone with just the interfacing... i had to hot glue it with cardboard inserts.

Summer stuff, or, trying to get my bearings...

I finally completed Lucy's little ABC book from the Moda Bake Shop!! I experimented with new stitches on my faaaaancy machine and it was fun!! It is delightfully handmade, i.e. don't look too closely! I will probably use a metal ring for the book as pictured in the MBS but for now i just used the fabric as a self-tie. This was my first panel project and it was pretty simple....challenging in its intricacies but i really love the Luv u charm pack!

I am also working on a new project from MBS- love that website! So far I have the fabric and hope to start cutting today.

Other than that i am totally happy with the hot weather because its just like winter- i prefer to be inside! hah!

I'm in love -

Remember last year's big quilt-a-thon with Alexander Henry's Ghastlie fabric? I had such a great time sewing with that fabric. It's been reissued again and updated!

Meet "A Ghastlie Night" -

I can barely stand it! The knitting women, the hammer girl, the moustached Uncle!

I'm thinking 3 yards, but maybe I should get 5 just in case.....

Deadlines

It seems as if this summer is all about deadlines:

• work deadlines
• house improvement deadlines
• baby gift deadlines

And, with each deadline come numerous potholes -

• software glitches and problem solving
• Village board members who need to expand their thinking
• knitting projects that fail and have to be ripped apart and started again

Along with the aforementioned listings, comes this little item:

I had a good time sewing it on Sunday, I love the little bugs and wording on the fabric. But, it looks a little big for Sophia, don't you think? I made a size 6, Sophia is currently a 5-6, sounded safe to me. But, when I measured the bodice - its 14 inches across! How can that be right? 28 inches in a full bodice for an almost 4 year old? Somethings not right in Denmark er, Spring Grove.

Mccalls pattern 6311. What will Auntie Shell do?

Sewing clothes has always been a frustrating process for me - the clothes never seem to fit right. I'm willing to accept that in grown-up versions but I have found that children's clothing is less frustrating, In this case, should I have followed the pattern per Sophia's measurements and made the size 4? That just didn't seem right to me. And, now that I did follow her "size" it seems too big.

What I am going to do is have Sophia try it on. I haven't sewed the bodice into place and I can cinch it in (side seam) if I need to. However, I want to make this for Sophia AND Majka - http://oliverands.com/patterns/dresses/patterns24.phtml (deadline: Saturday, July 23rd - ahem.)

In the case of the Oliver S pattern, Majka wears a size 5 as does Sophia. The problem is, I don't want them to wear the dresses for 5 minutes. So, I decided to make a size 6 based on the pattern. Looking at the pattern pieces there is less than 1/8 difference in widths between the sizes. The difference is in the bodice length, particularly the placement of the straps and buttons.

What I will do is - make the 6 for both girls, but wait to put the buttons in place until they try it on - buttons can be moved.

Time to go put the fabric in the dryer. With school closed today, I should be able to get it cut out... Updates to follow.

Update: The dress was too big for Sophia, much, much too big. Is it possible I cut out the wrong bodice per pattern? Maybe. What I did do was: insert pieces of elastic in the back part on either side of the zipper. This way, as Sophia grows, Nicki can adjust it. I also made the straps long and tucked them in side of the bodice for the same reason.