Rayon Challis Roller Skate Dress

An Oliver + S Roller Skate Dress unlined and in rayon. My inspiration dress is at the bottom from H&M. We have about 6 or 7 of them from H&M but they are a cotton challis. It's a beautiful drapey cotton that had me fooled. I really thought it was rayon. Anyway, I found ONE rayon challis at Joanns. Everything else was crepy or silky or really ugly. I searched two Joanns and finally found this one. It's not a great print but I was anxious to try this dress out. The Roller Skate dress pattern was the closest I could find to the style of the H&M dress. The H&M dress has pockets, cap sleeves and the elastic at the waist is actually at the waist. But this is close don't you think?

 I didn't line the dress like the pattern calls for but instead I made bias trim for the neck and arm holes. And I added a little opening in the back (I omitted the back seam and cut the fabric on the fold). I made a size 7 and added about 3" to the length. Emily is almost 9 and the 7 is a little loose on her tiny frame.

Below are a couple of the H&M inspirations. 

Cute right?? The girls love to wear them and it's nice and cool for spring/summer

Double Gauze Hippo Top

Another Simplicity 2193 Double Gauze Top. Here is the 1st one. They both are getting lots of wear here in wonderful weather California:) If you've not felt Double Gauze before let me tell you, it's lovely. Super lightweight and soft. It's two pieces of gauze sewn together or something like that. Perfect for summer. I again lined only the bodice in batiste and no interfacing. It makes it perfectly stable. The hippo fabric is by Kokka.

This is the 1st thing I sewed the minute I could get in my sewing room and sew! 

Felt Woodland Mobile

 

In 2012 I was pregnant for a 3rd time...then wasn't. I miscarried very early in the pregnancy but not so early I didn't have time to make or buy stuff for the baby. This is one of the items I made and even though there will be no baby #3, I will keep this and hope one day my girls can use it for their babies.

 

The mobile use to be a pottery barn one that both girls used but I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it because they have much cuter ones for sale or I could have made my own! Here is a photo where you can see the old one (sort of). I used animal/bird/mushroom/tree shapes from varies books and googling. All is wool felt and the tree has poly beads at the bottom of it and poly fill in the rest. It still plays the same music as the original.

Leaf art

Leaf art is soo cool! I love it. Here are our inspiration pins:

here, here and here are just a few.

The girls and I collected leaves and after showing them the inspiration pictures they painted them. I put them too close together to draw legs on Emily's so she made hers sea animals.

I glued the leaves down with hot glue and they painted with acrylic paint and sharpies.



How stinking cute are these? I want to frame them. I might take them someplace and have them scanned in then printed and framed. Those leaves are going to become brittle and fall off I'm sure.

Thorner Peg People

Let me start by saying: I am not an artist. I can't draw or paint to save my life (It's true Corinnea! I can hear you in my head right now!). My talents lie elsewhere..blah blah blah. But I really wanted to do these for my friend Steffi in Germany before I left. I should have finished them way before they packed up our stuff instead of the week before and I should have bought the bigger ones. These are tiny but I have since ordered and received the large 3.5" ones. Much better (these vary from about an inch to 2 inches)

Steffi has 4 kids and a big dog named Zoe. I am very proud of Steffi's outfit because she's German so she ALWAYS has a scarf around her neck and she has a tank top like this and cardigan. She wears her hair to one side a lot and loves flowers in her hair. 

Left to right: Zoe, Mia, David (twins) Hailey, Tara, Steffi and Josh.

The above picture is how I packaged it for her. Josh didn't have his pockets, button or fly drawn on yet.

These peg people were bought on Amazon (link here) but the new ones I got are from this etsy seller and they are nice and big. I used one doll to practice on a lot, trying different things. I also used a black fine tip marker when I needed to outline in black and a white pen for the white stuff.

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In other news, we survived our move from Germany to San Diego! Jon is in school in another state but other than that we are enjoying being home. Feels like a vacation though and I'm eating like I'm about to leave again:)  I'm staying with my parents for a while till my apartment is ready. The weather has been unbelievable. I left Germany mid January wearing a jacket to my knees, ugg boots, beanie and gloves. I get here and immediately put on shorts.

And one other little tiny thing. Ava turned 6!! We flew here on her actual birthday so we had a little party the following weekend and my sister flew in from Sacramento! Best gift ever (even though it wasn't my birthday).