7 Hudson (Sweat) Pants

There are only 6 pictured but I made 7 ! Two yellow, two pink, two blue and one pirate. Four of them were for other kids. I have a lot of fabric to get rid of so I used up all this Oliver + S polka dot knit ( I was able to squeeze out one short pair and one long pair from each polka dot fabric). 

The pirate one is from a friend in Germany. She gave me a half yard which after receiving it I thought, what the hell am I going to do with 1/2 yard of this fabric?? Well probably a year later I found something! This pair is for my friend Kristine's son Hans. All of these are size 5 with no changes to the pattern--only the amount of elastic used in the waist.

As you can see, the shorter ones on Emily are too short. They really should start below her knees. And the long ones could be longer but the fit around waist and thighs is perfect (like I said, all of these are size 5). Emily is 9 (25" hip, 52.5" tall) and Ava is 7 (25" hip and 45" tall) for reference.  

for this blue pair above I didn't have enough for the pockets so I used a totally different knit. It's more stretchy and thinner but it worked.

I enjoyed making all of these and they went fast. Soooo easy. The pattern was written well and I can't think of any problems I had...

I did it all on the serger (it took me 20 years or so to realize you can do knits on the serger easily!)Except the waist band channels; those were done on the sewing machine.

Tova Top: Flight Voile

Pattern is by Wiksten and called Tova. The fabric is Birch Organic Voile, Flight in color River Rock. I took a very long time to decide if I wanted to make this top because I'm not a fan of the Mandarin collar. But some of the versions I've seen of this shirt made are really cute so I finally decided to make it. I also was disappointed in this fabric when it arrived. It's a weird grey. More like a putty/lilac/grey. Sooo hard to explain. I have a million colors of thread but I still had to go out and buy a color to match this. Anyway, I think I like it.....I had trouble photographing it (this is two different days and the colors don't quite match. I had my friend Lisa take some of them then went out just now and had Emily take the top photo and the bottom photo. I wanted to show all views. There was a side view too but that didn't come out.

I altered the sleeves to be short (about 3" from the armpit). I made 2 muslin's (because I couldn't figure out what size I'd be) One in XL and one in Medium. I ended up making the Large. If it helps, I'm a 36D and 5 feet 7" tall but that's the only measurements you'll get from me:) "I'm big boned!" 

Oh and the pattern instructions were just ok. I didn't like the instructions being black and white photos and the fabrics used in the photos were hard to see. I researched and everyone I found said they loved the instructions. I guess I'm just difficult....

Quack Pin Cushion

Emily is really really getting into sewing. Specifically hand sewing with felt. With my good expensive wool felt. But I don't mind because she is doing such a good job! 

My friend Deana sent us the book Little Birds (amazon) out of the blue and Emily immediately started flipping through it and landed on this Little Round bluebird below. We had been talking about her making her own pin cushion for her sewing box (see last picture) and somehow it was decided that this bluebird should be made into a Quack from one the girls favorite T.V. shows when they were younger, Peep and the Big Wide World. 

We copied the pattern at a reduced % and I made a pattern for the feet/hat/mouth. Emily cut every thing out and sewed it together. She's at the point where she doesn't need much direction from me. It's awesome! Kelly made the girls these awesome stuffed ones years ago. 

Here she is sewing an Orca whale. I'll post pictures of that soon. She has made an orca, dolphin, dog and this pin cushion.

Above is her very own sewing box from the store Tuesday Morning.