Maia Dress by Peek-a-Boo Patterns

I am so glad that Amy of Naptime Crafters and Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop is including moi in the 2012 Holiday Tour!!!  What an honor to be sewing along with these super talented blogging and sewing ladies!  I have been following the blogs by Amy and the other girls in the tour for a while and I am so inspired by their creativity!!  The best part about me being part of the blog tour is that I can also offer all my readers a coupon to Amy's patterns!  Enter code: hohoho to receive 25% off your total order!!!  (Valid through 12/8)

Amy is also giving away a pack of 12 patterns!!!  Click below to enter!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The pattern I chose to sew is the Maia Dress!  I fell in love with the cute ruffle panel in the front and all the piping!  It's been a while since I did piping -
I think the last outfit was Christian's Easter outfit in 2010!

The fabric I chose is a burgundy corduroy that was on sale for cheeeeap at Joann's last month! I love it when I can find deals like that!  I think it was $2-3 a yard?!  I've restricted myself from buying any more fabric until I can make my way through my stash! LOL!


I love how the white piping makes the corduroy pop!  Again, I used my stash....I thought about covering the piping with some homemade bias tape but I couldn't find any fabric that I loved enough to accent the corduroy.

I am a SUCKER for big Peter Pan collars!!!  I have several other patterns on my to-do list that use them!  I'm glad Eva Mae still has many more years to wear hand sewn outfits!

 

 I actually cut out a size 2T since she's in 18 months now.  I wanted it to be roomy enough that she can wear it for the next 3 months and I just took off some length at the bottom and waist.

I didn't do so hot of a job on the button placement - I think it gives that "My mommy made this for me" look!


She is all ready for the Holidays!!!  Thank you Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop!

 

 

 

 

 

And thank you so much for visiting my blog!  Click the "subscribe" button at the top of my page to keep up with my future projects!!!  I love following other sewers/crafters - if you have a blog, comment on my post make sure you leave a link to your blog address so I can follow you!

AND.....make sure you check out my dear friend Veronica at SewVery tomorrow!  

Guest Post at Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

Come check out my guest post on Stacey's blog "Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!"

*reposted on 6/22/13*

I had two brothers growing up and although my mom didn't allow us to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles there was no escaping the pretend play that my brothers and their friends would do in our backyard!  I think there were always fights on who got to be the "Blue One!"

My husband did watch the TV show and when Nickelodeon started up the new series last month my 3 year old son wanted to watch it!!!

I still don't know how I feel about it - I'm not one to promote violence!!!  But, as in the case with my brothers - boys will always be boys! LOL!  Hubby thinks it's fine and he watches it with him whenever Christian asks! 

I saw a birthday applique design for machine embroidery with the eye mask over the number and I thought it was so cute!  It gave me the idea for this t-shirt!  And it's super easy!!!

What you'll need:

Green t-shirt (my son wears a 4T but they only had 6-8 at Joann's.  That's why he's swimming in it!)

1/8 yard knit (you pick the color - orange, blue, purple or red)

Scrap of white knit for the eyes

Double needle (optional)

Thread (2 spools for double needle stitch)

First, trim the width of the colored knit. I trimmed mine in half width wise.  You'll want to measure around the shirt to see how much length you'll need.

Cut out the shape of the eyes and center them where you want the band to go

 

Pin in place and sew with a straight stitch all around the eye (single needle)
Don't backstitch when you are attaching the eyes.  You can bring the thread up to the back and tie in a knot for a clean look on the front!  Just make sure you give yourself enough of a "tail" in the thread!

Place the band back on the shirt and center.  Pin all around the shirt leaving a spot about 3 inches from the side seam.

Because I'm working with knit, I like to use a double needle to give the fabric some stretch.  Sew all along each edge on the top and then repeat for the bottom.  Again, don't backstitch and leave a tail so you can bring it up in the back and tie off.

 

 

 Here's a view of the back! 

Tie a knot to complete the look!!!

The cutest thing is that my three year old doesn't say "Ninja Turtle" - it comes out as "Winja Turtle!!!"  He has no problem with making N sounds but I can't bring myself to correct him!  It's so adorable!

He's got his nun-chucks!

The next time we visit cousins in Idaho I will make a purple one and blue one (or red - depending on who is their favorite!)  

 

 "Watch out, Mommy!

5x7 Folded Card

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Shutterfly coupons!!! :)
I ordered 35 folded cards for only $19! (shipping included!)
It was a great way to show off Christian and Eva Mae's Christmas PJs!  Stay tuned for a blog post with more of our photoshoot pics! :)

Our Moments Christmas Card

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5x7 Folded Card

Our Moments Christmas Card

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Blog Features Next Week!

I just wanted to mention that you'll be able to see my work on two different blogs next week!

Stacey at Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!  Will be featuring me on Monday, November 26th with a tutorial I made on how to make a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt!!!

And Amy at Nap Time Crafters will have a link back to my blog on a pattern review I did of the Maia Dress!  You can buy her patterns at http://www.peekaboopatternshop.com/ and I'll have a coupon for you!  Come check it out on Tuesday, November 27th!

Show and Tell Saturday

First, here are the projects for my own children!!! LOL!

So excited about this one!  This will be Eva Mae's smash cake outfit!  I can't wait to strip her down and have a cute little necklace and bow on while we snap pictures!

I'm going to have another blog post in a few weeks with Christian's matching pair of PJs!  I just bought an adorable boutique bow to go with her pajamas!  Won't they make the cutest picture?!  I plan to do the same design for Christian so they match!

Here are the matching Thanksgiving shirts!!!  I can't wait to take pictures of them next week!  We are going to a state park so there should be plenty of great outdoor photo opportunities!

SO EXCITED about my first Disney shirts for a friend in gymnastics!  I love the way these designs stitched out!

 

And after a friend saw the pictures of Christian and Eva Mae's Thanksgiving outfits she asked me to make a pair for her kiddos!  So sweet!  I love this design from Planet Applique!
 

Hopefully I can be a little more creative and get some things actually sewn in the next few weeks!  Stay tuned for some guest post announcements on Monday!

Repost - Ruffleump tutorial from Train to Crazy Halloween Series

Below is the tutorial I had featured on Andrea's blog The Train to Crazy - this dress could be so cute with red and greens for Christmas!!!


Hello Train to Crazy readers!!!  My name is RaeAnna and I blog at sewingmamaraeanna.blogspot.com!  I am mommy to 3 year old boy Christian and 9 month old girl Eva Mae and we live in the Nashville, TN area!    I am so excited to guest post - I've been following Andrea and several other sewing blogs over the past year and I've learned so much from such creative bloggers! I'm excited to hopefully contribute to the craftiness - especially at costume time!!!

I call this tutorial my "Ruffleump" costume because I was trying to think of what I wanted to dress my baby girl and her brother for our fall festivities in October! :)  The circus came to mind and I thought my boy could be some sort of circus animal trainer or ringmaster and baby girl could be an animal!  I LOOOOOVE ruffles so of course I had to include lots!  And then "elephant" and Winnie the Pooh's "Huffalump" came to mind and I thought that would be the perfect word to morph with "ruffle".......and there you have my etymology of the word - "Ruffleump!"  LOL!

I envisioned a dress with ruffles on the sleeves and a back with layers of ruffles.  To design I thought kind of an a-line would work best.  I saw a dress on SewSet that helped my inspiration!  Below you'll see how I drew my pattern out on paper.  The piece on the left is the front, the little triangle type piece up top is the sleeve, the long triangle and other piece are how I designed the back to have the ruffle layer openings.


I then cut 8 long strips to gather and pin as ruffles on the back

Here you'll see everything cut out (minus the ruffle strips) for the dress.  You'll see that the front was cut on the fold, the sleeves were cut on the fold, the center back was cut on the fold and the other back pieces were cut to make 2.  I also cut the center back a little shorter - there may be better ways to piece a dress like this together.  Since I didn't want to button on the shoulder I needed to have room in the back to put a loop button closure.  There are probably a million better ways that experienced seamstresses will do this - I'm a self-taught mama who likes to wing it! lol!

STEP ONE - take the center back piece and hem the bottom and top edges

STEP TWO - take and gather each ruffle piece and pin it to the center back.

STEP THREE - sew your ruffles to the center back.

STEP FOUR - hem the inner edges of the back

STEP FIVE - pin and sew your center back panel to each hemmed back piece.

STEP SIX - attach shoulder seams and side seams.  I have a serger to finish the raw edges but you can finish them any way you like - french seams, pinking shears, zig zag stitch, etc.

STEP SEVEN - hem the curved edges of the sleeve ruffles -
then gather the straight edges to ruffle.

STEP EIGHT - pin the sleeve ruffles to the armholes right sides together and sew.

 

STEP NINE - this is a long process.  You'll need to use bias tape to finish the armholes and neck hole on the dress.  There are a TON of tutorials out there how to do it and practice makes perfect!  For this project I ended up just ironing the creases in my fabric to make bias tape but I do like using my bias tape maker tool.  I've included several pictures of what the armholes and neck look like during this process.

 

 

STEP TEN - hem the bottom of your dress and add a button and loop!!!  You can add all the embellishments you want now - applique, embroidery, etc!  For my little girl, this cute elephant hat will be the perfect finishing touch as we attend our costume parties this fall! :)

 

Thank you for checking out my tutorial and I hope this will springboard into other cute dresses for your little girls!

 

 

I haven't bought the elephant mask yet but here is the outfit on my sweet girl! :)