I am in love!

Farmer's Market Fabric by Sandi Henderson
Originally uploaded by SandiHenderson

I am so in love I just can't stand it! I have been drooling over this lovely fabric for days now. I can just see little girls in twirly dresses and ruffly pants with these beautiful fabrics! I can't wait until I can get my hands on them! Because my stash needs this in it! It is lonely! This is Sandi Henderson's newest collection Farmer's Market. Isn't it just the yummiest, calorie free eye candy you have ever seen?

She has it in a Spring, Summer and Fall color scheme! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!!

Cherries in my kitchen

Yesterday while talking with a great sewing buddy of mine, we started talking about all these really cute aprons that we have been seeing. So I pulled out all my different cherry fabrics and got to work.

I have the cutest little apron from my Grandmother that has a pocket and shape similiar to this one. Mine, of course, is much larger than her little one. But it still has the same feel as that one does. I can see these as great Christmas presents this year.....hummm....

I love the "frills" on this one. Doubled just to give some fun whimsy to it and extra large and long ties to either be tied in the front in a knot or a large bow in back.
Now, back to the drawing board to make one small enough for Sydney to wear with me. We have to match, you know!

Also, I think I found a way to use up some of that stash! Aprons for everyone!

Stash

I am a little bit confused here. Somehow my stash of fabric is multiplying! It seems to be so packed in there now, that it has moved onto the floor by my treadmill that needs to be used! But today while I was searching for coordinating fabrics and really just playing I noticed how there are pieces of fabrics in there that I don't even remember getting! It was like shopping!
This was just a year ago when I put in there shelves and had it all folded so neatly and by type of fabric and then in colors. Oh, it was a beautiful site!

My fabric must have some bunny in it somewhere to have done this. It couldn't have been me doing all that late night shopping online, now could it?

Inspirations in Nature

It was such a pretty day that Sydney and I went for a walk around the yard. I figured that since I didn't complete an outfit for today, that I would inspire thru colors instead. I love the combinations of colors in flowers and the blues and greens of these hydrangeas is so cool while the pink and yellows of the lantana is so sweet. I love the reds and yellows in summertime flowers, so as the weather heats up so do the colors of my garden.

Now, I am inspired to get in my sewing room and pick out some vibrant color choices and make some summertime sundresses... maybe even a couple for me too! It's time for Mother/daughter dresses in my house!

Springtime in my sewing room!

This is a little pants outfit for an older child. I love this new pattern by Children's Corner. I can see adapting it for a younger child by making the dress version a little more aline. I did pants with this one with a cute ruffle down at the bottom. I love the Nashville Cotton fabric for the top. I have to admit I ended up buying a couple extra yards for my stash. I may have to make something for Sydney with it for next year. She has more than enough for this year.

Aren't the little ties just the cutest thing. I love them almost as much as the pleats. I love my ruffler and try to use it as often as possible. Such a tailored look!

Seersucker sister dresses

If these don't say summertime, I don't know what does! Seersucker apron dresses for the cutest sisters you have ever seen! We let them pick what ice cream scoops they would have and they turned out really cute!

pants

I have had a hard time getting Sydney to wear pants, but sometimes they are just the best choice. These are some of my favorite ones I have done and to show different styles and things that can be done with them.

This first one is a hot pink pique shortened a-line top with a smockbox of a purse. I made pantaloons to go with it and did the band at the bottom to match the bands on the sleeves. My thinking was that if it had a purse on it, then Sydney would love it. It paid off, she did.






Who doesn't love polka dots. This one was made from a soft twill and looked really cute with a white turtleneck under it. It was even cute when Spring came and they were capris. I loved the ties under the arms to gather it up.































This one is totally for my husband. He is a huge Dallas Cowboy fan. So for him I made her an outfit for Sunday afternoons with Daddy. He loved it!

Jumpers

These are some of my favorite jumpers with blouses. I do alot of these. They are great for themed holiday's. They can be made reversible so one side may have a cute Santa on it, while the other side is just the monogram. Then after the holiday is over the outfit can be worn again. And with a blouse it is such a classic look.
These are great for little ones with bloomers and for school clothes for older ones. If I don't put pockets on them I can make them reversible and then if she gets paint or anything on them, I can still use the dress on the other side. Can't beat two dresses in one!























These are great shortened and made into tops for pants or shorts too. This outfit was for a trip to the circus. I thought the swirls reminded me of confetti. Sydney loved the little clown girl and kept showing it off to everyone there waiting in line.

Bubbles

I love little bubbles for babies. They are fun to make and take almost no fabric. These are two of my favorite patterns to make them. I love doing elegant monograms on them and they are great to match to a big sister outfit since they can be made just remnants.
Last summer my best friend was the recipient of many of these for her baby. I always could find a way to have enough fabric leftover after making a dress for Sydney to whip one of these up.





This one with the huge collar was fun to embroidery. I did a dress for Sydney that matched it. The bees busily buzzing around the neck was too cute! The next week after I made this Creative Needle came out with their summer issue and had a little girl with embroidered bees on it. I felt like I was right on target with my bees.

Apron Style Dresses

I think apron style dresses, or a-line dresses are my favorite type of little girl dresses to make. There are so many different things that you can do with them. They can be done with machine embroidery on them, monogramed or as in this cute little pink chambray one, even have some embroidery work done to them.

Also, the collars can be changed to give a completely different look. I love a peter pan collar as much as the next gal, but a square collar with some embroidery work on the corners is quite sweet. I also have a love affair with scallops and love to add a scalloped piped collar to them.

Pockets are a love of all children. They can add their treasures in them and get up and go. I haven't found a little girl yet who doesn't love some pockets to a cute little dress. And their are so many different ones that can be added that it changes the whole look of the dress by just adding different pockets.


This little yellow one is just a soft yellow quilters cotton with a pique collar I piped in pink gingham, but I did some cute little embroidery flowers on the corners of the pockets for some detail, and she loved it. And whenever we were out and others saw it they always picked up the collar to take a closer look.






This really cute Nashville cotton one is one of my favorites. I love the offset buttons on the front and the pleated ruffle is very tailored. The lines of the dress are the same but a totally different look in an apron style dress. Oh, and these have the cutest little loose belt for the back with a button so she looks great running away too!


This powder blue dress I did intentionally short. I made her matching bloomers to show off those sweet baby legs. The touch of smocking is a cute little puppy. I asked Sydney what she wanted on this dress as I was pulling it thru the pleater. She said a doggy. She wore this dress for two years. The second year, it was more of a top with bloomers than a dress, but it is still one of my favorites.

Bathtime

This is for Sydney when she gets out of the bath. It is made from the softest terry velour. One side has those loops like terry cloth, but the other side is the softest velour you have ever felt. I may have to get more of it just to make myself something.

Now, when we wash her hair and while I am blowing it dry, she won't be getting her jammies soaked. Yes, I blow her long hair dry. It is rather thick and would be a long time waiting for all that hair to dry on its own.

I wonder if I could resize this in my size? LOL!

Crazy

This was done in one month! I participated in a stash contest last month. So for one month I only sewed from my stash. The idea of this is to get your stash down to be able to buy more. I know, it makes about as much sense as eating everything in the house just so you can go to the grocery store and buy more. But it is fun.

I am a little bit competitive! So I woke up early and cut out patterns and when Sydney went to preschool or took a nap, I sewed. Then at night, my sweet husband, who understands my craziness, brought me water and watched tv alone so I could sew until I was too tired to see anymore.

All in all, I made 3 outfits for a neighbor, a nightgown for my mother for Mother's Day, and 34 outfits for Sydney for summer. So it was very successful. I won. Oh, and I won bragging rights for winning. Unfortunately, I can't see any difference in my stash.

Dolly

This is Dolly, on the right, and Baby Lizzy, on the left. They are very important in my world. Dolly has a very large wardrobe and now Baby Lizzy is getting one too. This is them Easter morning on our table. I made the dresses for them out of scraps from Sydney's Easter dress. I did this the night before Easter. Sydney was delighted when she woke up and came down to an Easter basket and her babies all ready for Easter.

Purses and Jumpers

This summer I have really made lots of fun whimsical jumpers for Sydney. These are great for cooler days with blouses and then in the heat of the summer cool by themselves.

My daughter has a love affair with a purse. It started when she was really little. She had one on her arm constantly. Now, I make them to match most outfits.

This is a purse pattern that I made up out of all the elements she liked best from the ones I have made before.

Bishops

Bishops have to be my favorite look on little ones. They are practical because of the long time they can be worn and they are just a showcase for beautiful embroidery and smocking. Sydney has bishops I made her two years ago that she can still wear. What used to be dresses are now tops for shorts or pants.
These are some of my favorite ones I have done.





















































This was Sydney's Christmas dress from two years ago. She wore it again this year for Christmas dinner.

Favorite things

these are some of my favorite things I have made. Some because so much time and effort went into them, and others because of the fabric.

Every little girl needs a sailor dress. This was on a cover of a magazine and I knew I had to make it for Sydney.

Easter time

Easter time is so much fun to sew for. I love smocked dresses with matching coats and bonnets for little ones. This year, Sydney's color was purple. She wanted a purple dress and coat. So I found this beautiful purple floral with sage green leaves and also this lilac soft corduroy for a matching coat. Thankfully, it turned off cold Easter morning and she was all decked out for church in her ensemble. The coat was wonderful for the egg hunt we did afterwards.

This was last year's coat and dress. They were both made from the same material. A soft ballet pink pique. I did the same smocking design on both the coat and dress. I will say that I was so sick of looking at this one by the time I finished it. It took me two months to do it with all those roses and I kept laying it down to do other things. But, a portrait of Sydney wearing this hangs in my sewing room to always admire my little one in all pink!

These are fun ones for this year. She met the Easter bunny with bunnies all in a row. I liked that they were for the Easter season, but she still wears these to church and they don't look like they had to be for Easter. I call this "Spring Sewing"

summer fun

These are casual fun outfits that just scream summertime. Sydney wore the sandpails to the Outer Banks and the sailboats was for a trip to Sea World. Who doesn't love theme clothes? Not, I!

Sundresses and smocked short dresses with bloomers are great for hot summer days

Back to school

I love back to school sewing. It means fun plaids and a great theme to work on. Since Sydney is only 4 she really isn't going to school yet. But I had a great time making preschool clothes that looked looked like she would be in school. I even did a couple for others this year. These were my favorite back to school looks I did.

Christmas

Everyone in my house this year got matching jammies. We had a great time opening gifts and eating brunch in our flannel jammy pants and names on our t-shirts. Next year, we might wear jammies for our Christmas picture.
Sewing for children means there are no rules! If it is fun and whimsical then it works for them. That makes it a dream come true around the holiday season. So I make sure that Sydney has lots of fun jumpers and dresses for every party or outing during this festive time. These were hers from this past year. The jumpers were great for school and the bishop was for church. I actually made the bishop last year, but it still fit this year, so I got two years out of it.

I have already begun looking and thinking of fun holiday ones for this coming year. It is so much fun looking and dreaming of these that I have a huge collection already started!

Matching outfits

I love doing sister sets. They are so sweet and it is always so much fun to try and do them similiar, but not exactly like. These are some of my favorites that I have done.

Box of Buttons

Since this is my first post on here, I thought I would give some background of me. Don't worry, it will be short and sweet.

My grandmother was a seamstress and was always sewing. She taught me how to do embroidery work on pillowcases and cross stitch on huck towels. I used to spend the night at her house every Saturday night growing up. I loved playing cards with her and having her show me how to do little embroidery things and I loved playing in this huge box of buttons that she had. She must have had a thousand in this huge wooden box. I would sit for hours organizing these buttons into little piles. I loved everything about them. The different noise they made when they were dropped together to the feel of the plastic or metal.

Flashforward to 3 years ago. When my daughter, Sydney, was still an infant, I loved all the cute little buttons on her sweet outfits and just knew that I could never find all the wonderful ideas I had in my head in a store, so I bought myself a sewing machine and started reteaching myself how to sew. I hadn't done it in so long I was a little rusty.

Once I got my feet wet, I was like a sponge. Embroidery lessons from my grandmother came pouring back into my dreams and I discovered the art of smocking. That opened up a whole new can of worms. Now, I can't sew fast enough to get them all out!

I mainly sew for my 4 year old daughter right now, but I am building up a small business of customers who love the classic children's clothing as much as I do and I am pleased to be able to dress them as well.

I will say, that the largest of my stashes still has to be my buttons. And I get more joy out of seeing Sydney love to sit on the floor for hours with them all playing with the sounds and textures of them all.

So there you have it, how it all started. Now to go sew for the day!

Piper