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I was not quite as organized as I hoped to be this year, so my plans for all homemade Christmas gifts were scrapped and I only ended up with 3 handmade gifts. This is the third and possibly the cutest...

Since I finally have a baby in my (soon to be) family, I get to make baby things! Like the shoes and diaper covers I made earlier this year...

I knew I wanted to make my boyfriend's sweet nephew a blanket for Christmas and since my boyfriend has a proclivity for travel to Africa, I've decided that gifts from us will be jungle/savanna themed for the foreseeable future. I picked up this cute fleece from JoAnns and because I wanted this to be a smaller blanket that he can use with his car seat, I only bought a yard.

First I lined up the fabric folded in half, trimmed the selvage's and cut down the fold.

Then I created a template for the edges by tracing a large can on a piece of copy paper.

I cut out the circle and lined it up with the edge of the fabric, then trimmed the excess fabric.

Finally, I blanket stitched the edges together with a full (non separated) strand of embroidery floss.

Then I rolled it up and tied it to a cute giraffe I found at Target for my sweet baby Cade's first Christmas! This was a ridiculously simple project that I put together in about an hour. In fact, I was still blanket stitching in the car on the way to Cade's house! (hence the dashboard behind the giraffe below)

I think this might be my new go-to gift for baby showers (along with some shoes and a diaper cover of course!)

First of all, sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. There are a few things in my life right now that are kind of a bummer, so rather than sewing and blogging lately I've been laying on the couch and watching Downton Abbey. I'm hoping to be out of my funk soon, but in the mean time I realized I need to finish up showing you my handmade Christmas gifts!

This is the second gift I made for my sister and now I doubt she'll ever wear anything I make her again since both things I made ended up with a proportion/fitting problem! This is why I'm selfish and don't normally sew for other people. Things that I would just live with on my clothes make me feel guily on clothes for someone else! Anyway, I saw her pin this skirt a few months ago...

Source: flickr.com via Forrest on Pinterest

Coincidentally, I had purchased a really similar fabric from an estate sale a few weeks before so I decided to make it for her using the Sewaholic Crescent skirt pattern. Construction wise the skirt is pretty well made, the only issue is that I think I should have chosen the less full skirt view to replicate the original skirt. (view A instead of view B) This one is a little puffy, due to the thickness and drape of the material and needs to be worn with heels so it doesn't make the wearer look shorter...

This is the third Sewaholic pattern I've made and as always, her instructions were spot on and the skirt was really well drafted. I loved the french seaming on the pockets and the technique she uses for inserting the zipper. I will definitely be using that again!

Hope all is well with y'all!

It is ridiculously late for me to be posting about the Christmas presents I made ~~this~~ last year, but I have been a lazy blogger and a lazy seamstress of late and the cold rainy weather is not helping much.

So here, several weeks after Christmas, is the first of the (shamefully) few gifts I made...

I am relatively selfish when it comes to my sewing and rarely make things for other people, but I got it in my head I would make my sister clothes for Christmas. I'm not sure that either project turned out to be something she would actually wear, but she humoured me and said she thought they were cute, so I'm going to believe her for now...

This dress was based on this dress from Modcloth:

Source: modcloth.com via Forrest on Pinterest

The basic idea was strapless, dark floral fabric, elastic waist. I used Simplicity 2497 which I have used for it's original intended purpose and as a top. It's a great basic pattern and this is yet another example of an easy variation. I knew that my sis would want the dress on the shorter side (because she is on the shorter side), so I just eliminated the waist band and sewed the top and bottom together. Because the dress is supposed to be fairly blousy, I put elastic in the waistline and she's able to slip it over her head without a zippper (yay!).

I was an idiot and put the bias facing on the outside instead of the inside, but I decided it gives it a nice detail.

So here's the issue; my sister is a bit more busty than I am, so I re-drafted the pattern top piece that I already cut to my size and added 2 inches to the center and a half an inch to each side, so that it matched the "finished" measurements for her bust and kept the blousy look. Apparently however, this has made the neckline too big and it's gaping... Ugh. I think if I take it in a bit on the sides, it might tighten the bust up enough to stop the gaping but I'm not positive it will work. Any thoughts?

Sorry for the defective Christmas present sis!

Also, thanks for all the input on naming my dress form! You guys crack me up! I still haven't finalized a name yet but you certainly gave me things to think about!

This might be my new favorite dress. Although until I looked at these pictures I didn't realize how short it is! And I wore it to work today, the day the nuns volunteer at my office... yikes.

Confession: I didn't actually make this dress, my mom made it for my grandmother in the 70's. The fabric is an incredible silk that my grandfather brought back from one of his many business trips to Japan. The dress was given to me a few years ago, in beautiful shape for a 40+ year old dress! (way to make me feel horrible about my sewing skills mom!) It was originally ankle length and I had been meaning to cut it off to give it a more modern feel but I kept putting it off until I decided I wanted a dress for the rehearsal dinner Friday night.

I've worn it twice since then and am officially in love. Luckily my grandmother in the 70's was the same size as me in the 2000's. The colors of this fabric are so gorgeous and vibrant! And, the seams inside aren't finished and they haven't raveled after all this time. I need more fabric like this. Also it perfectly matches my blue heels that matched nothing else in my closet...

Close up of the fabric...

And because I'm an idiot and incapable of taking pictures at events, I only have waist up, blurry, dark pictures from the night of. So here's one of those for you...

One more dress from Thanksgiving to show you!

Happy Wednesday!

I'm on a baby shoe making kick lately! Two sets for the baby shower I'm headed to tonight...

and a set for my boyfriend's sweet nephew who turned 4 months old today! Happy Birthday Cade!

My last two sewing projects unfortunately did not count towards my stash busting goal since they were already cut out when I counted my yardage. Now, however, the busting begins. I started working through the extra green and white polka dot left from my fabulously 80's dress. First I made a Sorbetto (no pleat, plus sleeves) that is a fun, lightweight, easy piece...

This picture doesn't show the shirt very well but I like the way it made my "reading nook" look so I used it anyway. Plus my battery was about to die... Also, I've been getting a TON of wear out of this skirt!

Next, I have a baby shower coming up next weekend and inspired by Valerie I decided to make baby shoes. I was telling a co-worker about my project and she asked me to make a set for a baby shower she has this weekend. I also threw in a diaper cover inspired by the tutorial on Made (the shoes are based on these). I'm planning on making another set in the polka dot, plus one in pink gingham for my shower. Yay for stash busting! (also, I'm not gonna lie, making baby shoes makes me 1% want to have a baby...)