Casual Christmas - a relaxed holiday outfit and tutorial

I know this is coming a little late....but with a busy holiday and a household of sickies afterward,  I finally got the time to edit our Christmas pictures!

I wanted to share the outfits I made my girls this year. Every year I make elaborate dresses for them, and every year parts of the outfit slowly come off so they can run around with their cousins (they usually end up in tights and tank tops by the end of the night :)

So this year I decided to make a really comfy outfit that they could jump around in all day/night! AND still look really cute and 'dressed up'

I made them plaid leggings (fabric from girl charlee) with matching tunics (fabric also from girl charlee) The tunic was a self drafted simple hi-low sweatshirt that I embellished with a sequin collar and cuffs.

Really simple...a bit time consuming...But...SUCCESS - they kept the outfits on the entire evening and no complaints! :)

For the red one I added a little trim of organza (it was a little short after hemming)

I  Love that they now have pieces they can wear again and again, not just for the holidays :)

Here is what I did:

I sewed the neckline and sleeve tops into the sweatshirt but left the sides OPEN. I marked the center of the neckline and drafted a collar piece on cardstock. I literally just cut a rough collar piece and kept laying down on the sweater and trimming it until I was happy with the shape.

Using a white chalk fabric marker (seriously - you NEED to invest in one of these when marking dark fabrics, epecially if you are doing embroidery and don't want it to rub/dry off easily) I traced the collar shape

I cut out some interfacing a little larger than the collar shapes and ironed them on the inside of the sweatshirt for stability

I also drew out my lines for he sleeve cuffs

then I just sewed on the sequins by hand.  It took a few nights, and a few movies and they were done!
 I sewed up the sides and hemmed to finish . You can see more detailed instructions for sewing on the sequins in my tutorial for sparkle heart elbow patches

Hopefully this will inspire you to make your own sparkle top...for any occasion! ( I think this would make a really great Birthday outfit for a very active little girl! )

~ Christine

Kids Clothes Week - Outfit #2 bubble dress

So there was not a ton I was able to share for Kids clothes week - but here is one of them. You may have noticed that I am working hard on updating and expanding all the sizes on older patterns (lots and lots of you ask! :) )

So the next pattern up is the Bubble Dress - one of my first patterns and also one of the most requested in bigger sizes. I have made about 6 different versions this week, but only managed to get this one photographed so far :)

Once again I chose a fabric that is hard to photograph. This is a really soft mid-weight Marimekko satine. It has beautiful drape and the most beautiful sheen (hence, hard to photograph)

It is actually a much deeper red in person with burgundy and wine circles, the purple is actually a deep eggplant color. seriously great stuff and a dream to sew with. I am pretty sure this will end up as one of my daughters holiday dresses this year.

I have this pattern drafted up to size 12y and the pattern will be ready for testing next week, so make sure to follow our facebook page to sign up

~Christine

How to make Elastic Belts x3 - a tutorial PART 2

This is the perfect belt for the upcoming Holiday season...it may be the only thing you need to dress up some of your child's existing clothing

what you need

• small amount of heavy material that does not fray (leather, suede, mico-suede etc.)
• 1/4 yard of fabric to wrap elastic
• 1"-1.5" width elastic (cut 1" smaller then your child's chest size)
• sew on snap (I like 1/2" or larger)
• fabric flowers (I made some fabric flowers using the 'burned flower' technique, there are a ton of tutorials and YouTube videos on how to make these, so I will not explain it here)

take your elastic and material for covering. Cut your fabric twice as long as your elastic and twice the width (plus 1/2" seam allowance)

 fold the fabric in half and sew into a tube. turn the tube so it is right side out

Using a bodkin or safety pin pull the elastic through the tube, with the seam on the tube centered along one side of the elastic

When you have pulled the elastic through so the end is lined up with the end of the tube, sew it in place

continue to pull the elastic through until the end you are pulling  meets the end of the tube. Sew down this side as before

give the elastic a big stretch to help even out the gathering  of the the fabric

Using the template or you can free-hand it, cut out 4 circles from the heavy leather/suede fabric (2 larger and 2 smaller)

sandwich the ends of the elastic in between the circles. One end with the larger two and the other with the smaller two. Pin in place. Sew the circles together. I like to do a spiral stitch to cover the entire circle, this makes sure the elastic is secure and gives the fabric circles a little more strength.

Sew on the snaps, making sure that that they are on the wrong side of the big circle and the right side of the smaller circle (so when they are closed the right side of the elastic is out)

take your flowers and attach them to the right side of the larger circle

All Done! now go dress up some outfits

**these are all variations of our latest pattern - The cowl neck dress and sweater, available in our shop

be sure to post pics of your belts on our facebook page- We love seeing what you create with out tutorials :)

~Christine

Santa's Gift tags - free printable

So my oldest daughter (5) is finally at that age where she wants to know more about where her Christmas gifts are coming from...not just what she gets.
The questions about Santa are coming at me faster then I can answer them...and some of them are getting tricky!

There are the usual ones..

"How does Santa carry all that stuff?"
"How does Santa get to everyone's house in ONE night, and it takes us a whole day to get to my cousins house in the car?"
"Doesn't Santa get full eating on all those cookies?

and some more difficult ones...

"How does Santa get down our chimney if we have a gas fireplace?"
"How does Santa know when I am sleeping so he come inside?"
"Who brings Santa his presents?"

It started last year when she noticed that Santa had the SAME wrapping paper as we did! hmmm?...! what a coincidence
Santa also seemed to write her name the SAME as I did! wow?...another coincidence 

So this year I needed to get more creative...and clever

I bought a secret roll of wrapping paper that will be for Santa's gifts only, a very festive, colourful and covered in cartoon santas paper...not my style, but perfect for the workshop

And for the gift tags, I made some "special delivery" tags to make everything legit....authentic and direct from the North Pole

As long as my writing can be different enough...I am hoping to be in the clear this year ( I will let you know how it goes after the 25th)

And I know some of you are having the same troubles as I am, so to make things a little easier I have made the tags into a pdf for you to download and use!
yay!

Each sheet prints out 8 gift tags, you can download them here

Just print them up on some cardstock, cut, holepunch and your done...

you can even write with your non-dominant hand to make it more authentic :)

enjoy
~Christine