homemade dress love

 A couple of months ago, I wrote this post, detailing some of the projects that were in my future sewing queue. This little smock style dress was one of those projects, and I'm happy to say that I not only have one of these sweet, simple dresses sewn, but two, both in very different styles. Take a look,

Isn't that adorable? After I sewed the first dress, I knew I wanted a second, but I couldn't find the 'right' patterned fabric for what I wanted. Then I ran across the blog of the person who designed the pattern for this dress, and she suggested using one fabric for the sleeves and one fabric for the body. I loved that idea and came up with this,

These dresses are absolutely adorable on Hannah Grace. Not only are they cute and easy to sew, they can also be worn in pretty much any temperature (except, perhaps, for those awful sweltering mid-July temps). Cotton is light enough to be worn in warm weather, and once the cool air hits, I'll just pair the dresses with leggings or tights! 

Pants!

In this post, I gave a sneak peak of what I have been working on for Hannah Grace. I'm pleased to say that I am almost finished with all of her pants (there is one more pair that needs to have the length altered). But here they are, homemade pants!

 I love all of the pants, but this is probably my favorite pair, mostly because I love the fabric so much. The chunky hem on the bottom (inspired by this tutorial) gives the pants more of a 'trouser' look, but I can let it out once Hannah Grace gets taller, allowing her to wear these pants longer.

You may need to click on the photo to get a better look of the print on these pants. I bought this flannel fabric several months ago, knowing I wanted to make pants out of it for Hannah Grace to wear during the fall and winter. It is hard to tell, but I added a ruffle at the bottom. Several days ago I was in Target, and they had a pink shirt with a little dog on the front that looked exactly like the dogs on these pants, so I bought it, knowing they would definitely be worn together!

Simple, green linen-look pants. More than anything I liked the feel of this material and knew they would make a cute, basic pant. They are way too long and will need to be hemmed, but otherwise, I really like them!

Lounge pants, made from a super cute knit fabric. Originally these pants did not have elastic in the legs, but I thought they looked too messy as full length pants, so I added the elastic and now they look great!

I used several different tutorials, one pattern,  my mom’s advice, and my own imagination to make these pants. The biggest issue I had was not making the crotch large enough (I figured out the problem on the last pair of pants I made, but they are not pictured), so they are a tad snug when Hannah Grace sits, but that hasn’t been a problem yet.

I also made the pants (except for the lounge pants, of course) a little longer than Hannah Grace’s current size, because I want her to be able to wear them through the winter. Hopefully she’ll be able to, and if she can’t, then I’ll just make some more pants!

So I can give credit, the tutorials I either used or drew inspiration from were from Sewing in No Mans Land and Prudent Baby. The pattern I used was Burda Easy 9650 (although I did not pay $10 for this pattern!). 

sneak peek

Ta-da!

I've been spending a lot of my time sewing little things for Hannah Grace, and these pants were the first of my projects. I saw this adorable cat fabric on my first trip to Jo-Ann (I won't tell you just how many times I've been in that store in the two weeks they've been open, but it's ridiculous), and loved it. My mom made a pair of flannel pants for Hannah Grace last winter using a cat printed material, and they were so cute on her, see?

I'm not much of a cat person, but kitty cat material is just too sweet to pass up! In fact, I have another kitty printed fabric waiting to be made into matching pants for Hannah Grace and Emilee!

I'm thisclose to finishing my first 'real' dress (i.e. not a pillowcase dress) for Hannah Grace and am super pleased with how it's turning out. I'll definitely be sharing that (and the other pair of pants I've sewn) in a couple of days1

future sewing

A few weeks ago I signed up for Pinterest. For several days the whole concept of the site confused me, and I considered just deleting my account. I'm glad I didn't. Pinterest is chock full of ideas for just about anything, including sewing. I have been inspired by so many projects others have shared, and I'm looking forward to getting started on them.

As soon as I laid eyes on this dress, I knew it would be perfect for Hannah Grace. After purchasing the pattern, I found an adorable fabric that will look great in the form of this dress int he fabric bin at Hobby Lobby! This dress is so cute, and the pattern comes in several sizes if anyone is interested in purchasing it. You can buy a few sizes at once or an individual size (like I did), which is less expensive. The pattern is available here.

Isn't this beautiful? I love it. The bedding pictured is an Anthropologie-inspired duvet that was made for around $30. The retail price of The Real Thing cost upwards of $200. I already have a twin size down comforter (I'm wanting to make more of a throw instead of a full blown bedspread), so all I need are some jersey knit sheets. Wal-Mart has them in a really pretty shade of gray, so those will be on my next shopping list. The tutorial for this bedding can be found here. 

Hannah Grace loves to "read" (and by that I mean she likes to flip turn the pages by herself and jabber about a picture). She also loves to be read to. In fact, she loves books so much that I have been brainstorming on how to turn her room into a mini children's library. These hanging book displays are perfect. Not only do they give Hannah Grace easy access to her books, they also give me the chance to eliminate the bookcase in her room, thus allowing more room. The tutorial for this hanging book display can be found here. 

Okay, how cute is this? I realize that at fourteen months Hannah Grace has no concept of hopscotch, but I think this would be a perfect present some time in the future. The hopscotch mat pictured was made from hot glue, but I think I would use embroidery thread and hand sew it to make the mat a little stronger. This is such a cute idea, and if you'd like to check out the tutorial, you can here. 

I also have a couple of heavy weight fabrics that I'm going to make pants and (maybe) a robe out of for Hannah Grace. Needless to say, I don't think 'boredom' will be in my vocabulary for the next couple of months!