Simplicity 1903 Pillowcase Romper

 

I had been very busy.  I moved to a new home a month ago.  I own two Etsy stores now and I am still umpacking boxes but I am almost set at my new home.  Also, I  have a new sewing room which I am still decorating and organizing.  Trying to accomplish a lot of projects at once.

 

I made a few dresses in the summer that I did not posted about, so I will start posting about them this week.  Unfortunately, I had no time to sew for myself or do any adult projects.  I know I had been sewing to many pillowcase dresses later so I decided to do something different.  I made a pillowcase romper. LOL!  Yeah, I know what you are thinking.

 

For this project I used Simplicity pattern 1903.  I made view B and I used Dana Designs cotton fabrics that I purchased at Fabric.com.  My daughter was using a retail size 3t at the time and I cut a size 3 thinking she will use next year.  It turned out that this pattern runs true to size which is not very common with children pattern in my opinion.

 

This pattern is great for begginer and has very easy to follow instructions.  It took me only about 45 minutes to finish it.

 

 

Gnomeville pillowcase dress

For this dress I used Simplicity pattern 2391.  All right, I know what you might be thinking.  This is not just another pillow case dress I made.  I used a different pattern than the other ones I made before.  The other Simplicity pattern I used on my previous projects does not offer the option of adding binding to the sleeves or the arm holes.  I love how this dress turned out and I love this fabric which by the way was supper hard to find.  I ordered it from Fabric.com and I had to keep watching the availability for three months.  Then when I got my order they did not sent me a continuous cut.  So, all I could do was another pillow case dress.  I did not want to cut the scene of the fabric.

She finally got to wear the Very Hungry Caterpillar Dress

I have been sewing more custom dresses for my daughter.  I will post pictures soon.  I also made some shirts and a dress for me.  I have not been blogging but I have been working a lot in my sewing room and in my craft room.

Here are two pictures of my daughter wearing the dress.    I am working on making a knot top and ruffle pants with the extra fabric from this project.  Hopefully I will be posting pictures soon.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Apron Dress

Once again I used Simplicity Pattern 2171.  I just love this style of apron dress.  It is so easy to make in my opinion.

The dress is not my original idea thou.  I saw a similar dress on another child and I asked the parent where did she get and she suggested an Etsy Shop.  All right, the dress price was $45 and was made with a mix of other fabrics not just the Eric Carle fabrics.  I ended up making a dress that may probably cost more on Etsy because I used Eric Carle fabrics exclusively.

My intention was to have my daughter to wear this for her birthday which is in August.  I tought the sizing of this patterns runs bigger than retail sizes.  It does runs bigger, but my daughter seems to be growing too fast.  It fits just right, so she will be wearing it before August.  I used a size 3. 

I will be posting pictures of her wearing the dress.  I am working on a headband now and I had some fabric left to make another project.

Loving "You Can Make This.com".

If you are out of ideas or just looking for free project patterns, I recommend you to make a visit to You CanMakeThis.com

You will find projects for children, clothes, home decor and adult clothes (not that many thou).
I found this cute stair basket on their website today.

I need to make this.  Isn't this a wonderful idea?

My least favorite pattern brand

Butterick makes great patterns, I know that already.  I just don't want to sew clothes that make me look older.  I only found a pattern that I like from their new collection.

This is the only "trendy" pattern that I found from their new collection.  I like the color block shirt.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Project 1

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle is one of my favorite children's story books.   This book or may I say the caterpillar is gaining a lot of popularity lately.  I saw a girl wearing a knotted dress made with pictures of the book and I started searching Etsy.com and I was amazed about how many "Very Hungry Caterpillar" dresses are for sale on that website.  I was even more amazed when I saw that the prices range from $25 to $50.  I did my research and found the licenced fabric at Fabric.com and I am getting two dresses and one outfit for the price of one dress.  Please excuse me for revealing the secret, but I needed to share.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

My first project is a dress for my cousin's daughter who is currently wearing 2t.  I used the Simplicity pattern 2383.  I cut the dress in a size 2. 

My Vogue Spring Patterns 2012 Review

I am not a fan of Vogue patterns lately.  I did not buy any Vogue pattern from the last two seasons.  I find some of the patterns from past seasons to be remakes of other patterns that were available for sale not so long ago.  This spring I see some "new" stuff but I still find it boring.  This is my review of some of the Vogue patterns I am considering on buying. 

 This dress has an 80's look.  Designers keep trying to bring the 80's back.  I see that this year they want to bring the dressy looks from that era.

This top will be everywhere in the stores.  I think it is very easy to make.



 This dress is my favorite.  Looks complicated for my sewing skills thou.

I am not a fan of this dress.  I just wanted to comment that shrugs are coming back this year. 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Firstable, let me say that it is not that I only know how to make pillowcase dresses. LOL.  It is not that I am turning lazy.  It is just that they are so easy to make and they are such a huge trend for little girls that I just love making them.  I made these dresses in less than an hour.  Not one hour each.  Less than an hour for both of them. I purchased the fabric at Fabric.com. For less than $25 dollars I made two dresses and have some fabric left to make another project. 

Some people are making money doing this type of dresses and selling them on Etsy.  I have considered the idea of selling pillow case dresses but I have so little time to sew for myselft that adding sewing as a business in my life might not be a good thing.

My daughter wore this today since it is Dr. Seuss birthday this week.

Thing One Thing Two Dress

 Cat in the hat.

Another view.  She doesn't wear shoes in the house. 

My Simplicity Spring 2012 review

This year Simplicity spring sewing patterns look very promising.  There is something for everyone.  I picked just the ones I plan to buy to add to my collection.

I wished this pattern came out when my daughter was born.  I will buy it and keep for future baby shower projects.

 Who needs a pattern to make a scarf?  I do :).  It is always better to have the correct measurements even when it looks like a simple project.

 This dress looks like something that Jeniffer Lopez would wear.  I love it!

I love this pattern.  Peplums are such a huge trend this spring and was searching for a vintage 80's pattern but his a more modern approach.  Adding to my MH list.

I am not sure is this is another Peplum style.  I am adding this one to my MH list too.

 The other day I was thinking about making "a wardrobe".  But I was thinking how difficult it is to find patterns that would look good with each other.  This is what I needed.

I can't leave my daughter out.  I love this version of a pillowcase romper.

Blogs I follow

As you can see I stopped blogging for a while.  Having twins have not been an easy task.  I had to cut back on some of my sewing but now I am back to doing some projects.  I have been inspired and bought some new patterns and fabrics and I did some pillowcase dresses for my daughter on the weekend.  No... pillowcases is not all I planned on doing lately but my daughter has taken over part of my sewing room. 

Anyway, I wanted to mention that I was looking at some of the blogs I follow and I noticed that a lot of my fellow bloggers have not write anything for more than 6 months.  I know life keeps going on and people might find other interests.  On the other hand, I noticed some bloggers just keep getting better at the sewing skills and at their blogging.   Here are three of my favorite bloggers:

One blogger I admire is Sewl Sista #1.  She is very modern and I like the way she gets inspired and project her ideas into beautiful garment.  Every time I visit her blog I get inspired to continue sewing.

Another blogger I follow is Sharon Sews who have been sewing for years and have been published on many sewing magazines. 

One of the most impressive persons is Peter Lappin who started sewing not so long ago and has 1503 followers.  He was published by Vogue recently.  I enjoy reading his blog.

I will continue to write about three favorite bloggers each month so that others can get inspired by then too. 

I bought a lot of new fabric

I am not going to post pictures right now but I guess I will back to sewing at my sewing room. I went to Joann Fabrics last Sunday during the Superbowl and I spent 70 dollars in fabric.
Surprisingly, Joann was totally crowded. I guess I was not the only one who decided it was a better idea to go there than to stay at home watching tv.

I also received my first Fabric. com order today. I am super excited. I ordered fabrics for my little daughter. I ordered some Cat in the Hat and the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric. I will be making some Dr. Seuss pillow case dresses for next month and nother apron knot dress. Those dresses are selling so expensive right now at Etsy and I was tempted to buy some but I found out that for the price of the dress I could buy enough fabric to sew three dresses. Yes, that is right.
Good for them who are selling them and making money, but for us in the sewing community paying $30 dollars for a dress I can make myself is a big "no-no". Mmm, I will be posting the details about this project soon.

So finally I found some excitement and I do have a lots of project that I will be posting soon.
I will be washing the fabrics tonight and posting pictures on the following days.

I got some new patterns.

Yesterday I went to my local Joann Fabrics and picked up some McCall's patterns for $1.99 each.

Hopefully, this time I will get to sew all of them because I really need some new clothes that fit.

I picked up some pants, dresses and tops patterns. I ended up buying something for my little girl. That little girl is taking away all my sewing hours which by the way are not that many.

My spring sewing plans

Firstable, let me say that the pattern companies are not helping me out to get my "sewing mojo" back. I visited the sewing store trying to find patterns that I like and lately it is very rare to come home with more than one pattern.

I just checked the Simplicity website to see if the new spring patterns were out and these were my favorites.


Since I had a daughter I cannot look at sewing patterns without thinking about what could I sew for her. It is a trap! I like this Simplicity pattern to make her some summer outfits. Adding to my pattern collection.

It was very hard to find a pattern that would not look like a sewing pattern I already own. This may not be many people favorite, but I like it because it looks modern and easy to sew. I like the one shoulder look.

This is a must have! Finally a pattern for mother and daughter. Reminds me of Matilda Jane clothing.

I hope you like my choices. Now I need to find some spare time to sew.