#TSNEM Quilting

Scroll down for english, please.

O ano passado acompanhei, enquanto espectadora, as experiências que a Stephanie to blog Swoodson Says ia fazendo todos os meses, uma vez que se propôs a fazer algo novo/pela primeira vez todos os meses. Este ano, juntei-me ao grupo no facebook e aceitei o desafio. Existe um tema para cada mês, que serve como motivação, mas não precisamos seguir à risca. Podem saber mais aqui.

Last year, I have followed Stepahnie's (from Sweoodson Says) experiments, as she completed her challenge of trying something new every month. This year, I joined the facebook group and accepted joining in the challenge too. There's a monthly theme to be used as motivation, but you don't have to follow it. You can read more about it here. 

O tema para Janeiro era quilting, e eu levei a maior parte do mês só a tentar decidir o que haveria de fazer. Ainda pensei pegar num individual que fiz há algum tempo e terminá-lo, mas depois dei uma oportunidade ao english paper piecing e saiu uma pequena amostra que fiz, só mesmo para experimentar, para ver como me saia.

January's theme was quilting, and it took me nearly all month just to decide what should I do. I thought about finishing a placemat I started long time ago, but then I gave english paper piecing a chance and I got a small sample, just to try it out, and check how I do. 

Não me sai lá muito bem, acho que não é suposto que se vejam os pontos. Mas achei piada à coisa, embora ache também que não será algo que farei muitas vezes ou em grandes peças. Requer muita paciência e isso está mais do que provado que não é o meu forte. Fiz o meu molde, o que também foi uma primeira vez e isso sim, correu muito bem. Já estou com o próximo tema/projeto delineado, e pronta a começar, vamos ver se não enrolo durante muito tempo. E sim, consegui publicar antes que o mês acabasse, pois andava a adiar e adiar.

I didn't do that well, I don't think the stitches are supposed to be visible. I kinda like it, althought I think it's something that I won't be making too often or in a large scale. It requires a lot of patience which is proved not to be my strong point. I made the pattern, which was a first time too, and that, well, that did in fact go pretty smooth. I already have the next theme/project lined, and ready to start, let's see if I don't chew it for too long. And yes, I did it, I posted this before the month ended, I've been postponing over and over. 

Sew Geeky Episode 9 TIM BURTON

Have you hear of Sew Geeky already? An idea brought to live by two super creative and talented ladies: Kat from Sew Chibi and Ari from Max California. If you need to know more about it read it over here. I can't consider myself a geek, but when those ladies allowed us to sew along to Tim Burton's inspired episode, I couldn't resist, because I just  L o v e  l o v e  l o v e  Burton's stuff. Besides, I had been wanting to use Sweeney Todd's beach outfits as an inspiration for a long, long time ago. This was just perfect!

And I knew just what to do. Let's start with the girl. Just a little disclaimer first: a couple of months ago I was offered a free pattern of the Peachy Dress & Playsuit from Felicity Sewing Patterns to review. All opinions are my own! That said, the girl's dress then. 

ok, Jack is in the wrong movie here, but he's perfect to host this post, right?! RIGHT?!!!

Would you like to take a closer look?!

I didn't want to do a dress just like the one in the movie, instead I wanted to get inspired by its colours. I also wanted a fresh dress and so the Peachy Dress & Playsuit pattern was just an obvious choice. This is the perfect dress (or playsuit) for the warmer days, too bad it's freaky cold outside and we couldn't do our own photoshoot in the beach too. Anyway, this pattern comes with six styling options (Basic Dress; Basic Playsuit with long or short pants; Dress, Playsuit or Romper with shoulder frills & elastic neckline; Dress, Playsuit or Romper with neck frill; Pillowcase Dress or Top; & Separate Shorts). Besides, it includes 2 cute pocket options, with a total of 4 tutorials on how to sew all possible combinations, with detailed photos and easy to follow instructions. I had zero problems sewing this up so I think it is a begginers good choice too. I am not a very ruffle person, but I'll admit these frills look just too cute on my little miss. She wasn't so happy about me pulling one of the shoulders down for the photo. 

I did the shoulder frills and elastic neckline option for the top, and the patch pockets option for the skirt. The skirt twirls beautifully because it is made out of 4 panels. Besides the elastic on the shoulders, it has a waist elastic too, which makes the top a little puffy and just adorable. I can't tell if I did size 2 or 3 anymore, but I followed the chart and it fits just great. Not to mention this little lady adored her new dress. Even though it was so cold when we did a very quick photoshoot indoors, she didn't want to take it out after all. She covered herself up with a blanket and said it'd be fine like that. The pattern comes sizes 2-14y and I've got the bug, I believe this is one of those patterns I could sew for myself and match my daughter! I love being small... at times!

I love it when I am surprised by a pattern. I was afraid I would end up doing something I didn't like because of the ruffles in this, but when picking carefully from the pattern pieces, and with your right choice of fabric, this became girly enough and pretty much satisfying for me. Having the girl's approval makes it even better. I believe this is the kind of dress every little girl loves. The blue fabric was in my stash. I made 2 dresses with it before, one for me and one for G. when she was only 1 year old. I can't believe there's still a piece of it left. The polka dots fabric was just a scrap, just enough for the pockets and to make the exact amount of bias that I needed. The small white flowers on black fabric, is actually a refashion from an old romper that was hanging in my piles for too long. 

So, what about the boy?! His was a very quick project. I looked through my stash, and I had a women sized striped t-shirt. The stripes were thinner than the inspiration, but the model was much smaller too, so it's porpotional. I didn't use a pattern for this one. I just used one of his 9M shirts (he's 6m now) to trace and cut the armholes. 

I kept the original hem, and only made a round shaped cut to turn it into a romper. I hemmed the seams of this cut and closed with metalic snaps (sewn to it). They were bad quality though and keep opening when my baby boy wears the romper. I will have to change it. Because I reused most of this shirt, and I kept the original neckline, I figured it'd be too wide for S. That was simple to solve though, I picked the neckline from another (white) shirt and sewn a patch inside, so it could cover the wide neckline and make it appropriate for my son. It turned out perfect. To match, I finished the armholes with bias made out of the same shirt. 

For the five minute photoshoot, I layered his romper with a white long sleeve shirt and tights He was looking so cute, but he kept on crying all along. I believe I've got like one or two photos where he's not crying. I also thought the romper would be bigger on him, because I was planning this to be a spring/summer piece, but I am not sure it'll fit 'till then. 

The Quilted Chevron Dress - PR&P week 2 (and sew-vivor week 3)

If you've been reading my blog, you surely know that all I've been sewing lately has been created with fabric and supplies that I already had. I made a commitment of using what I have, before I buy any more. Why am I talking about that again? Well because it is The Riley Blake Chevron Week at Project Run and Play, and I didn't have any chevron fabric at all. 

My first thought, was turning this fabric into a chevron pattern, but then I had the last week of Sew-vivor sewalong in mind too, which theme is quilting. Well, I'm not a huge quilter, I don't even own a rottary cutter for sake, but I thought it was an excellent idea to combine those two themes into one project to allow me to sew along both challenges, saving me some precious time. Now even more, since I am competing for The Sew Off. 

I kept this dress pretty simple on the pattern. I used Emma Hardy's book cover pattern, but I had to adjust it to what I wanted. I really like the book, the good pictures and instructions, but I'm not so happy with the pattern sizes, just as I mentioned here.

What is there to mention about my dress then? The chevron quilting, of course.

This time I used left overs from a blue cotton sheet that I used in the past to make baby slings, and also a scrap of floral printed cotton too. I created a single chevron line all around the bottom of the dress. I choose not linning it except for the strap of patchwork. This was my second time quilting, I am terrified of doing it. 

Again I completed the look with non-mommie-made pieces. White tights, a simple white sweatshirt and a blue cardigan were the pieces I used to complete the look. We tried to get some pictures without the cardigan, but it was getting windy and cold again and we didn't want to risk it. Nothing's worth my kid getting sick, right?!

Again I went with something that already fits and might fit for quite a while still. The straps are adjustable and quite long to grow as she does. She looks terrible cute in it!