Easter Circle Skirts

This year I decided to make matching skirts instead of dresses like I did last year. I used Casey's circle skirt sew a long and Patty The Snug Bug's circle skirt tutorial to make our Easter skirts. Patty has an easy to use circle skirt calculator! You can even calculate 3/4 and 1/2 circle skirts using her calculator page. I love Casey's longer blue skirt with hand embroidered bumble bees that she made! So cute!

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Casey's Circle Skirt Sew A Long

I messed up my hem and in order to even it out my skirt ended up shorter than I would have liked it to be. The skirt was very easy to put together. I made mine and Amelia's circle skirt in about 1 1/2 hours. I used Heather Bailey fabric for our skirts. She has great fabrics! I am definitely making more because they are so easy. I want to make a half circle skirt next. I feel like it will be more flattering on me than a full circle skirt. Below is Casey in a half circle skirt she made.  Looks great and it has a very vintage look.

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I opted not to wear crinoline or a petticoat. :-)

Matching Easter Dresses and a Tie.

I'm finally getting around to posting about our Easter dress! I followed Casey's Sew A Long to make my dress.  If Casey had not done a sew a long for the Swing Dress pattern I may have never been able to put the darn thing together.  I'm pretty good at figuring out sewing patterns but I think that the hand drawn directions and the way they explained the dress constructions was hard to follow.  I know I'm not the only one who felt that way. Casey did an amazing job explaining different techniques and methods. I will definitely make this dress again. I think a black rayon would make a pretty version.

I found this lovely pattern on etsy at StillSewStylish.  It was very easy to put together.  A lot of the little girl's dresses were shorter in the 70's and I didn't know that until after I tried the dress on Amelia. Next time I will add an extra inch or two to the hem line.

She didn't let a dress slow her down.

Easter egg hunt!

Amelia found the golden egg!

She won a giant chocolate Easter bunny which I was able to sneak out of the house untouched. lol She had enough candy that day.

My husband was such a good sport about the matching tie. I used this pattern that belonged to my Nana and you can definitely tell that she used this pattern often to make ties. It was so easy to put together and the only thing I would change would be to make it longer.  Vintage ties were much shorter than ties today.

We shocked people as we walked into church with our matching outfits.  So fun!

I loved making Amelia's Easter basket!

This was her first Easter where she was old enough to dye Easter eggs.  She loved it.  I'm glad she likes hard boiled eggs because we had lots of them. Maybe next year we will try fancier Easter egg decorating.

Amelia's Easter Dress

I found this adorable pattern from StillSewStylish on Etsy. She has tons of vintage patterns including a nice collection of children's patterns. I feel like it's harder to find children's vintage sewing patterns than adults. I think I will use style B for Amelia's Easter Dress.

 

{Mine and Amelia's dresses will be made out of this Springy fabric by Heather Bailey}

 

I'm way behind on Casey's Sew Along but hope to start soon. I wish I had an adjustable dress form. It would make life so much easier.  Speaking of making life easier! I finally figured out what was wrong with my serger. I was missing a step!  The directions were confusing and the thread hole was in a hidden place. Sergers are amazing!!! I received mine for mother's day two years ago.  It probably sat collecting dust for 1 year when I thought it was broken. Last night I hemmed some pants for my husband and the finished product looked so professional and clean.

{I have this basic Janome Serger}

My First Sew Along

 I am so excited about my first ever "Sew Along" which is being hosted by the lovely Casey from Elegant Musings. Coming across Casey's blog the beginning of last year changed my life. Seriously. Seeing her and fellow vintage bloggers donning vintage fashion and hair styling opened my eyes.  I have always loved vintage style and have always collected antiques and vintage home goods but had no idea that woman and men actually lived the style.  I immediately became interested in including vintage style into my wardrobe (still working on that) as well as period hair and makeup. Finding vintage bloggers has brought out a part of me that I never knew how to express.  I think the late 30's and early 40's style really suits my shape and face. 

Heer is a picture of the Swing Dress being used for the "Sew Along". A classic 1940's cut. The pattern can be found at Sense and Sensibility Patterns.

Casey, in the beautiful red dress she made with the Swing Dress pattern.

I chose this gorgeous floral fabric by Heather Bailey ( Picnic Bouquet - lagoon) for my "Sew Along" dress.  I LOVE her fabrics. Her fabrics have great prices and right now Fabrics.com has some of Heather Bailey's fabrics on sale. I want to use the finished dress for my Easter dress this year and make Amelia a dress in the same fabric.  Yay!

need a napkin?

I am so proud of this creation! I found these beautiful vintage napkins at a thrift store. They were cheap and I knew I would find something to do with them. Right away the idea to re-purpose them into a skirt came to mind. I played with them until I found the perfect way to sew them together to make the most chic skirt! I love the way it turned out and Amelia loves the way it feels. She kept playing with it after I put it on her. So now when I thrift I look for sets of napkins to re-purpose! Yay for thrift store finds!!

dress

I combined two of my favorite colors. Yellow and Turquoise!!! I love polka dots too so this dress is perfect! I used the directions from the sundress pattern on Martha Stewart's website but left the fabric wider towards the bottom by tapering it like an "A" line dress because her butt is nice and plump. (just the way I like it. hehe)



(Excuse the wrinkles. She was in the car seat for awhile)

adding to Amelia's closet

I finally loaded pictures so you all could see what I have been sewing. I took an Asian inspired floral fabric and used the Simplicity 5118 pattern to sew this sweet summer dress with flirty sleeves. I absolutely love sewing for her. I get great joy out of it.

I love the sleeves.

Her Gold sandals were a perfect touch!

I have more pictures of dresses to post soon.

Nana Would be proud

I made another cute sundress. It kinda reminds me of a vintage "sack" dress. I made it from a pattern that I altered to look like this one. I think I might go back and add some elastic at the bodice. I'm working on bloomers for Amelia to wear under this. This fabric is special because it belonged to my Nana. It had a note with the yardage pinned to it in her handwriting.

Amelia's first handmade sun dress

Well I'm back! What a fun and relaxing Memorial day weekend. So here is the dress I have been talking about. This isn't the first dress I have ever made but it is my baby girl's first handmade dress. I am quite happy with it although I will do some things differently for the next one. Amelia's butt and thighs are nice and plump and deserve an "A" line cut. Also, I would move the ribbons over a little and not make them as long as the book asks for. This pattern came from the sweetest sewing book called, Weekend Sewing.

I was amazed at how simple this "smocking" was!

I tried getting a full picture of her but she wouldn"t stay still.

I love this fabric, it looks like a little French village.

This dress really got me excited about sewing again. I have always had the sewing bug since I was a child. My Nana taught me how to sew and I am so grateful to have learned such a wonderful skill. I was blessed to have inherited her many sewing machines and materials.

Me and Nana