Customer Order - Cute!

 

These sweet little outfits were created by one of my best local customers for her four year old daughter.

She always carefully chooses fabrics from the fabric stores, shops around for the perfect trim and hires me to put it all together.  Didn't they turn out great?

The pink and green fabric I think is a Michael Miller fabric by Pillow & Maxfield.

The swirl is an Alexander Henry fabric.

I used the Single Ruffle Pants pattern by Portabellopixie, or Sandi Henderson designer.

Peace, Love, & ALABAMA shirt

This is what my 8 yr. old wanted on her Alabama T-shirt.  Love it!

Great Day in Tuscaloosa

Can't believe it's been almost 20 years since I attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  Seems like yesterday.  I still remember the back roads and places to park for the game, fortunately.  That saved our family time getting to the stadium this past Saturday.  We went to see the Tide play N. Texas at Bryant-Denny stadium.

 

 

This was the girls first trip to a game.  They had a great time!  We walked down towards the field to try to meet Big Al but we were never down there when he was on our side of the field.

Still they had fun watching the cheerleaders close up.

Here's a little clip of them:

My Fave Alabama Dress

Love love love this dress for little girls.

Made exclusively by Sara Says $50.

Available in sizes 2/3, 4/5, 7/8.

This dress will be constructed upon ordering, so allow for at least one week for shipping.

Refashioned Shirt on my Sara

My 8 yr. old daughter in her new refashioned Alabama Crimson Tide tee shirt.

She doesn't like the ruffle!  I am so shocked. She's such a girly girl.

Her dad liked it and told her she would be wearing it anyway.  Bless his heart, he knows how hurt I get when she disses my work!

She didn't mean to be critical, but just didn't know if she liked the ruffle or not.  I told her it made her look like an older girl.  That may work!

I love how it looks on.

She's ready for the game this Saturday.  It will be her first time to go inside  Bryant-Denny Stadium.  Yay!

I decided she should have a new complete outfit to wear to the game so I will be working on that from now until Saturday.  I'll post pictures after the weekend!

Now what will I wear......

Little Girls Game Day Shirt Refashioned

Did you ever wonder why they almost never make cute game day jerseys for women and girls that are a little bit stylish?

We are in Alabama so SEC football is really big, right?  Well so is dressing for game day.  If you belong to a sorority you will be wearing a dress and heels.  If you are a mom you might tone it down a bit.  If you are a little girl you will be wearing either a manufactured cheerleader outfit (god forbid!), a smocked bishop dress representing your team or an otherwise custom made little number.

I always preferred the custom made number.  Since I have two girls I have made probably 11 outfits, one for every year and each girl.

And since my oldest is 8 I am running into a bit of a problem coming up with stylish outfits for her to wear.  It's almost like she is ready for something close to what I would wear.  

Well, I have been wanting to refashion something new forever now so I finally did it.  I found an Alabama jersey of mine that got too small in the dryer but is still a little big for my 8 yr. old.  She has been wearing it to bed but now she can wear it to school on Fridays!

I cut off the sleeves, refashioned them into puffed cap sleeves and took in the side seams.

Then I cut the bottom off to the proper length and used that piece for the neckline.  I cut off the existing ribbed edge around the neck.  Then I shirred the leftover bottom piece using elastic thread in the bobbin, and sewed it around the neckline for a cute little ruffle.

She went to bed and I just finished it, so I can't get her to model it until maybe after school and gymnastics tomorrow.

Here's how it was done:

This is the shirt before we started. 

Then I took a shirt of my daughter's that fits and laid it on top to copy.

I make markings for the side seams on the grey shirt. Then laid the sleeves on top of the cut off ones to 

make markings on those to copy.

 

I gathered the sleeves using a long stitch length and low tension around the top of the sleeves, then drawing up the bobbin thread to gather.  Putting right sides together insert the sleeve into the sleeve opening and pin.  Then stitch around and it is done. If this seems confusing you can get out a shirt of your own, turn it inside out and then stuff the sleeve back inside of the opening and that's this step here.

So I then took the leftover piece cut off from the bottom and shirred it with elastic bobbin thread in the machine.  It didn't gather too too much but that's okay because I didn't really have enough for a lot of ruffling anyway.  I cut the ribbed neckline off and sewed the ruffle piece on top maybe a quarter inch from the very edge of the cut neckline.

 

Much cuter than before! And she will love it that it no longer has a scratchy tag inside.

Like me she looks good in grey, so I wanted to refashion this one especially.

Tomorrow I will try to get her to model it.

Pillowcase Dress Pattern

Summer is nearly over, but the pillowcase dress is a year round favorite!

If you have been wanting to sew a pillowcase dress but never got the chance, you can still do this.

It looks cute with a long sleeve shirt underneath too.

Need a pattern?

I've got one on my Sara Says site. I developed it myself.  It is a lined dress template and instructions for just $7.

It is also reversible!  But don't worry.  If you can't decide on two fabrics now just make your first one with white lining and you will love it too.  This pattern is great for beginners.  Just make sure you read most of it through so you will not be mixed up on why you are doing certain steps.  And if you need to, contact me and I will try to help you.

Pillowcase Dress Pattern

Contact me, Susan:

sbruno701 at bellsouth dot net

Scratch N Sniff!

This book happens to be one of my favorite storybooks as a child.

As I was cleaning out some closets recently I ran across a box of my old childhood storybooks.

This one had lost all of their scratch 'n sniff smells, so I decided to order a new one for my two girls.

It arrived today and it is just as lovely as I remembered it to be.

Besides its wonderful smells, it has such cute illustrations, a great story and is a great book for all ages. It is not a board book so maybe just for ages 3 and up.

I highly recommend this scratch 'n sniff book.

Among its smells are a rose, wonderful pine, a peach, strawberry jam, chocolate cookie, and dill pickle.

Amazon has it for $8.99.

I need to remember this every time I need a children's birthday gift.

Halloween and Turkey Legs too

Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen?  I think so.  This is creativity to the hilt if you ask me.  I mean, come on, how does someone think that up?  I found it on Etsy, of course.  Turkey leg. 

For the shop I am working on some cute pink turkey dresses for little girls on Thanksgiving.  They are cute, but they would be even better if I could use this idea for an applique.  I wish I could digitize! I would digitize this for an applique.  Would it still be as cute that way?  I don't know...

In fact, my older daughter who is 8 would even wear this turkey leg on a shirt.  She loves it! She has such a terrific sense of humor, BTW. 

Love, love, love this Halloween outfit I found on Etsy.  Even if I had the time to sew this I couldn't make myself do all that detail.  It's  something I would buy for sure.  B3 Bling $60.  Well worth it.

Another fave of mine I have been looking at on Etsy.  I'm ordering this soon!  Upon closer inspection maybe I can construct one of my own for my daughters.  This is just the perfect example of my own personal taste for children's clothing.  I love everything in my store but this is really the stuff I go for at the end of the day.  Classic.  Edgy.  Sweet.

Harmony Wear

I'm still new to blogging.  How do I make pictures on here larger?  I clicked on the "large" link when it's highlighted and nothing happens...