My Fabric Stash!

I have a really huge bedroom - there's the main part of the room, then there's actually an alcove off the room.  The people who built our house were cabinet makers by trade, so we have tons of closet space, and storage space.  Before Julia came into our lives, the room was pretty empty - two computer desks, and our bed.

Now, however, I've moved all my sewing equipment into our room, and we have more toys than we ever anticipated taking up space....

I have a bunch of my fabric that I think I may make something from on cubes we bought from Target.

 

I have some more Tupperware cartons in the garage with large pieces of denim, and corduroy.  I'm pleased with how I've fit a lot of fabric into these cubes....they are semi-organized - which means that I can actually pretty much find whatever I'm looking for.

 I moved my embroidery thread, and separated all my buttons into separate jars - it certainly helps when looking for buttons to have them color coordinated - and Julia was VERY helpful with the separating.  I'm the smaller child in the picture on the left - I loved that picture - looks so old fashioned....

I bought this kind of ugly shelf at an estate sale - it's made of actual wood, and was $10.  When we finally move some big kids out of this house, and Julia gets her own room, I envision painting it and using it for her storage.  In the meantime, it works for keeping my notions and patterns in reach.  Plus, I get to put my Boston Celtics autographed basketball on top....

This is the lovely Ikea table and chair I use for my machines.  It works just fine.  There is a pile of random magazines, etc. on the left of the table that had been ignored for months.....when I went through it just now, there were two $50 Marriott gift cards and a $35 restaurant gift card in the pile. 

So, that's my personal fabric stash.....not too bad!

My Nani Iro Addiction

I had a nice long four day weekend off of work - had all kinds of plans to finish up a bunch of stuff, clean the house, organize and donate outgrown clothes - did I do all these thing?  No, not even.

I got sidetracked in my sewing - I had seen so many nice Oliver + S 2+2 tops in the Flickr that were sewn from one fabric only that I knew I just needed to make one for the child.  And, of course, I used some of my favorite fabric - gauze from Nani Iro's Naomi Ito. This is from her Little Letter line, and it's really beautiful.  Her work is really like artwork on fabric.

If you want to see any of her fabric lines, you can check out their online shop here:  Nani Iro 2013.  I am going to Seven Islands fabric in a couple of weeks to order more for my shop, and I keep looking at all these beautiful designs - I can't even begin to decide which I want to stock....I wish I had enough money to get them all!

I really think this pattern works nicely in all one fabric - gives it a totally different look.  In my opinion, this works especially nice in a muted color scheme.

The child seems to like it....time will tell if she'll wear it!  This is a size 3T with 2 1/2 inches added length.  Hopefully, this will last through the summer.....

A Posy Geranium!

I've been seeing so many adorable Geranium Dresses in the Geranium dress Flickr pool.  So, in spite of the fact that I need another pattern like a hole in the head (as my father used to say!) I broke down and downloaded it.  What I loved is the fact that it is exactly the type of dress my dress-wearing child likes - a gathered skirt, no sleeves, and pockets.  How could I go wrong?

Well, really, I couldn't go wrong.....

I chose some adorable, soft, sweet fabric from Aneela Hoey's Posy line from Moda.  I love the teeny bunnies!

There are a few shades of pink on a very pale lavender - perfect for my girly girl....I did some embroidery around the neckline to add detail and emphasize the really sweet neckline....

So, here's where I went wrong - the front and back are cut from the same pattern piece - one on the fold for the front, and the back not on the fold.  When cutting the piece for back, I laid my front piece on the fabric and cut around it.  Well, I also sliced a hair's worth of fabric off the fold, resulting in a gaping hole down the front of the dress.....I kind of figured I could hide the mistake in the pleats and just sewed a very narrow seam down the front.  Kind of ugly really....and, next mistake, I sewed the pockets too close together and am way too lazy to pick them out and re-do them.

Other than my mistakes, the pattern is wonderful!  Great options for flutter sleeve, sleeveless, and a faux cap sleeve - all great options for my sleeve-hating child!

The fabric is wonderful - very, very soft base cloth, which would be great for girls clothing or an amazingly soft quilt.  This dress is a size 3T with 4T length.  Fits exactly like my kid likes it.

She loves the dress and won't take it off....success!!