Better late than never? Pre-school teacher gifts done!

The end of the school year came crashing down on me this year like a freight train. Steve was just getting back on his feet, baseball was in high gear and I just really dropped the ball in terms of thank-you to Ellie and Sam's three Friday pre-school teachers. I knew that we would be seeing all three of them this summer, at least for the first week of summer pre-school- so I put it off a bit.

These first two weeks of summer vacation have flown by and all of the sudden yesterday I realized that today would be the day to give the teachers a little something at the end of week one of camp. So with my feet to the fire so to speak . . . I finally got busy.

Love this gathered clutch pattern from Noodleheads, you can purchase it here and it is full of great information! I cut the fabric, found some zippers and set on the clutch making path. I think aside from the cutting, it didn't take much more time to do three than it took me to make one. So with an assembly line in place, I churned out these.

Cosmo Cricket Early Bird

another Cosmo Cricket Early Bird clutch

Nicey Jane with my all time favorite stripe!

One of the teacher's daughters in hanging out all four weeks with her mom and doing it for free . . . so she had to have a cute little something with her own Target gift card. Anyone who will look after my two little people deserves a rest and a big THANK-YOU!

I love clutches, they are quick to make and lots of fun. We always try and give teachers a gift card to a place we know they love and all three of these ladies we have run into at Target . . . so when they actually peek into their clutch, they will find a little red bullseye goodness ready and waiting . . .

Few notes to myself or anyone making the gathered clutch. You really need to cut the zipper at least a half inch - I like an inch- shorter than the pouch, so when you turn it, the sides look neat. I used zippers I had and didn't trim them down since they were very close to the size I needed. I thought it would be okay and it is . . . but I would have liked the look a lot more, if I had stayed true to how I made them in the past. I also think I like the strap now, but am going to try adding a D ring and making it a little fancier!

Thanks again Penny for starting the Gathered Clutch Swap and Anna of Noodlehead for being so generous with your talents. All your tutorials are wonderful!

Pillow Swap - The Sequel

Finished this up over the weekend, stuffed it and sent it on its way. Not sure why I have to wait until the FINAL days to get it in the mail, but yet again it happened. Swaps are so great for me in so many ways, but I think the best is getting me out of my comfort zone. I should probably practice on a project for my own family, but that never seems to happen. The firsts on this swap are many. First zipper, using this awesome tutorial. Making and adding piping to the pillow. Hand stitching hexagons and then hand stitching them together! Finally I also made a Dresdan Plate for the first time, but have yet to actually quilt it and make it into a pillow. My original plan was to make three pillows and she which one my swap partner commented on. She actually didn't comment on either the hexies or the dresden plate, so I am hopefully it will be a total and happy surprise for her to get it in the mail. That is also why I have actually sent both this swap pillow and the last stuffed and also to make up for some of my first timer mistakes- I figure if they hate the pillow, they at least get a down pillow insert out of the swap! I also am loving the little surprise needle book, I made and sent along. It is a super simple yet fun little project. The first one I made was at my LQS during the end of the month, Mystery Project. This has been a ton of fun and if you are in the area and have the last Friday of the month open for a couple hours in the afternoon, check it out. You leave with a finished item and it is a fun group of women! Big Thanks to Heather, Kerri and Tasha for hosting another fabulous swap! Can't wait to see what I get in the mail, stay tuned! There are so many fabulous pillows, check them out here!

Ruffler Foot- Friend vs. Foe?

Skirt for Ellie, originally uploaded by threedancingmagpies.

What was I waiting for? I decided tonight to break out the ruffler foot and OMG it ROCKS! I have had it for over 6 months and have just been plain too scared to give it a whirl. The foot looks like a torture device and has just had me nervous. I had about a half hour to sew before bedtime and was starting to gather and thought, why not? So from the time I broke it out of the box, put it on the machine, did a test on a scrap and then gathered this skirt . . . less than five minutes. No strings to pull, not strings to break, no gathers to rip out and start again, no swearing, just a very wonderful pleat and EASY PEASY! The skirt is really cute and the pattern was very easy to follow. I have had some Pink Fig patterns hanging around for awhile and think I will have to give them a try. This Tina Givens fabric is very fun. I got both the pattern and the fabric at KC Custom Fabrics in Saratoga Springs and also their website.

I can't wait to try it on her and take some photos in the morning!

Sewing with Elastic - Mad Fun!

I am the person who gets excited over the little things. Elastic thread . . .has rocked my world lately! I love to sew just for the sake of sewing and getting the machine going as fast as possible while threaded with elastic in the bobbin- mad fun! I have made a few of these dresses now and after Ellie came into our local quilt shop with one on, a class to make them was deemed a must. This shop sample was made from the new Erin McMorris line, of course they carry it at KC. I should also mention that my favorite shop, launched its website this week and it rocks! check it out here.

Okay, back to the dress, you sew with elastic thread hand wound in the bobbin and whatever you have in the top. For this I used a lovely variegated pink number . . .love it! This dress from Weekend Sewing, by Heather Ross and can also be found on Heather's site with a link to her segment on Martha. Some other blogs have wonderful tutorials if you search for shirring and sundress. I love this one and also Sandi Henderson's blog with a tutorial and a link to a shirring madness flickr group.

From take off to touchdown this dress should take about an hour. You really only need a few simple measurements, a yard of fabric, a girl age 1-4/5 to sew for and sense of adventure. If you are in the Saratoga Springs area, come on in for the class . . . MAD FUN I promise!

Good Folks and Weekend Sewing

Whooo hooo, I made a dress from start to finish for Ellie on my own!  My sewing skills are starting to get better.  I love this dress and have been wanting to make it since I saw the tutorial here and then further motivated by Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.  

It makes it even better that Ellie wanted to help me sew and then as soon as I put it on her, she ran to show Daddy her pretty sew.  (which I think means pretty dress mommy made for me!)

Love this fabric and I think it is my new favorite - Anna Marie Horner, Good Folks line.  KC Custom Fabric in Saratoga Springs has a lot from the line.  I really have been trying to use other fabric, but I just can't seem to get enough of this print.  It was in the quilt I just finished, a tote bag I am working on and this.  Fabulous, don't you think?

  

The shirring is done with elastic thread in the bobbin.  So easy and so fun!  

Ellie also gave it the play test.  She was up and down the playset, climbing the rock wall, sliding and swinging.  I think I will make the next dress a little longer, but for playing this is a great length!

This last shot is of her running away from me when I wanted to change her back into her play clothes, since it was a little chilly today for a sundress!

Three hours before the shower . . .

I finished this!  I must say I love, love, love it!  

I might even love the back more than the front.  I am pretty sure some more quilts with lots of white will be in my future.  I just love the look.  Clean.  Simple.  Courtney at KC Custom Fabrics did the quilting for me and the intersecting circle pattern matches the peony print perfectly.  In the past I have used colored thread, but on this chose white and again Loving It!

My friend Lauren is a very fun and hip mom.  I knew she wouldn't like anything too babyish.  I think she really loved it.  

Another thing I did on this, that I will be doing again is using solid color for the binding with a strip of a print mixed in.  It came out so fun.  The bulk of the fabric for this was the Anna Marie Horner Good Folks.  The green print is Meadow, the pink intersecting circles are Peony and the wonderful floral print is Azalea.  The solids are Kona and the other two prints are Alexander Henry prints.  

I think that does it for showers for awhile, but I do need to come up with something fabulous for my own children.  They got my first quilts and Max hasn't even got one yet, which he continues to remind me.  So finishing his baseball quilt is next on my list and then something lovely like this for my own little princess!