Birthday Dress

In November I had a fantastic time celebrating my birthday! I had a few friends over for a Mexican lunch, we ate yummo food, there was a donut cake, and lots of wine and sunshine. It was practically perfect in every way.

That week I also treated myself to a new birthday dress, with soft and delicious fabric called Tencel, which looks and feels like linen, but is actually made from sustainable wood (!!). It's more expensive than anything I would usually buy, but it was exactly what I had in mind so I splurged and blamed the birthday for it.

You can find the FREE link to this pattern and instructions here if you scroll down:: Free All Dressed Up Pattern

It was a great pattern that needed no adjustment except a little sway back pinch in (usual, for my curved back). All of the pieces fitted together, and the instructions were easy to understand. This pattern comes highly recommended by me!

(Why designers go to the trouble of creating a lined bodice, but then don't give instructions for an enclosed need zipper i'll never understand)

DRESS DETAILS:
Fabric: Tencel, sustainable wood fabric (looks and feels like linen). Navy, grey and cream stripes.
Pattern Links: All Dressed Up - Issue 24
Design Details: Princess seam bodice on front and back, front cut pockets and side zipper.

Happy days!

xxx

READ MORE:

Mexican Embroidered Dress

Jungle Dress

Jungle Dress

Warm spring weather is almost here!

Now I have a fun jungle dress to wear when the sun shines, yipee!

This is a Tilly and The Buttons pattern, from her book Love at First Stitch which I rented from the library. It looks much sweeter on her little petite frame.

I lengthened the bodice by 2cm, and added in some back neckline darts after all was said and done. One of these days I need to try a full-bust-adjustment, because I think I border line need one. Also, sway back adjustment should have been added. I did do an acceptable toile! I swear.

If I was in the Great British Sewing Bee (watch the latest season 4 on YouTube!) I think Patrick would critique that there are some fitting issues, but I've made a wearable garment. 

I've binged the GBSB so much lately that I hear Patrick over my shoulder when I sew now. 

Not such a bad thing, really.

And also, I've sewed the best zipper of my life, so there's that to be proud of. 

That, along with the colours, stretch and fullness of the cotton sateen make it a great dress! I'm looking forward to wearing it more and more, just as soon as the weather decides to kick it up a notch! 

I think I inherited this fabric from Debs stash, along with a free pattern from the Library, and a $8 zipper make this a pretty cheap dress! 

READ MORE:

Sew - Green Knit Dress

Sew -  Mexican Embriodery Dress

More on the Great British Sewing Bee

Scrappy Quilt Complete

2 years in the making this quilt is done!

Phew!

This has been my longest project, and definitely the largest in volume! 

Although I started out with much gusto, spurred on by the quick sewing of Deb and Clare who seem to whip quilts up over night, it turns out that no matter how motivated, sewing little 2.5inch squares in rows and blocks is bloody boring. 

So much cutting, so many tiny seams, so much ironing, arranging, mess.

However, over the years I've been learning perseverance, and also I must be upping my standards.

 What would have been "fine" is no longer "fine", and I found myself unpicking 24 meters of top stitching of the quilt top so that I could hand stitch it again. My machine quilting skills were below par, and after musing over it, I set about with the un-picker and spent another month unpicking and restitching by hand for a much nicer finish. 

 All that to say, even though I cursed and loathed this quilt, and went through the 5 stages of grief over it, I eventually came to love it (stockholm syndrome?), and wanted it to look its best. And, it was really great having a project handy that I could pull out whilst watching tv, or something to sew in the sunshine.

I absolutely love the binding, the backing, the bright colours, the yellow thread, the flowers, the spots, the patterns...

I might even go so far to say, I miss creating it.

But now I have a bright and happy quilt to keep our family warm, and the satisfaction of creating something that has a purpose and is of use to our family is at an all time high.

2 years ago to the day I wrote this Guest Blog Post on Debs Blog, so today I am calling it Finished! Done! 

Thank you for the box of scraps Deb, and for the endless amount of inspiration!

And here's looking at you Clare, for all those tidy rows of squares. Keep on stitching, Sister! 

READ MORE:

Posts about my Scrappy Quilt here

More Sewing here

i Chart You - Our Genealogy Print

For Christmas I organised and framed this i Chart You print and hung it on the wall for Christmas morning for Graeme to unwrap.

As we have been studying te reo Māori this year, Graeme has been very interested in his whakapapa and has been investigating his own family trees.

I noticed he had a few gaps to fill in, so I took it upon myself to send out a lot of emails to fill in the blanks for him! I was able to find everyones middle names too, but unfortunately many of them couldn't fit in the fields available!

Since Christmas all of our visitors have been drawn to look at it in our lounge. Usually the first thing they note is that Graeme's name is a hypenation of his parents (most people presume its from me), and also that Graemes grandparents changed their surname. 

It sparks a whole lot of conversation and is a great art piece and also information piece for our whānau to have! I almost have every person memorised.

I chart you designed this print and they have lots of other colour combos available. You simply fill in the form they have with all of your relations and they design it up and send it to you as a PDF. Take it to the printers and get it printed and framed! I bought a large design in a frame from The Warehouse and took out their "art", and replaced it with my print to be able to get a square frame this big! 

My advice is to choose your frame first, and to have all your info ready to go! It makes the process much faster, and they can design your print to fit your frame.

This isn't a sponsored post, I'm simply telling you this because I love our print and I see real value in displaying (and learning) your genealogy.

Also today while dinner was cooking I pulled off the old fabric from my footstool and replaced it with these pretty feathers! Amy originally gave me this footstool about 4 or 5 years ago. It's had a cow print on it all this time but was SO grubby from all the use over the years; I'm glad it's got another life covered in blue feathers! Thanks Deb for all the fabric!

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you ever get an i Chart! I'd love to see it! 

Our Dresses made it to Cambodia! See The Photos

 Dresses For Cambodia

Earlier this year I shared with you my desire to give my friend Sarah, who is a missionary serving in Cambodia, some little dresses to take back with her so that she could give them to some little girls she meets on her travels.

My aim was for about 20 dresses. As I was sewing alone, I felt like that was quite a lot!

You all responded, and a few months later my sewing room had a mountain of dresses in it ranging in sizes from 1-8 in all the colours of the rainbow! [You can see all of the dresses here]

You all blew me away with your generosity, and so that is the reason I am writing this post. Not only is it important to share about a need and desire, it is also important to report back and share about generosity and good deeds, so the world can see what can be achieved when a few women gather together.

Together with our sewing machines combined we sent over 180 dresses to Cambodia last month!

Ladies, you inspire me to no end. Each of you who sent in a dress were so eager to give and bless. We didn't make these dresses to feed a nation, we made them to bring a smile, and for a small moment let a girl know around the world that she is loved.

180 smiles.

The dresses ended up at the Princess Project, which is an organisation run by an Australia couple called Ben and Cherie. They have been living and serving in Cambodia and raising their children there for 8 years.

They run this organisation by finding children collecting bottles and rubbish for recycling. They find their parents and in return for the parents agreeing not to send their kids out on to the street to make money/rice for the family (one massive bag of bottles equates to about a bowl of rice I have been told) , the Princess Project pays for them to go to school, runs an after school program for the children and provides enough rice for the family for the week.

They believe that prevention is key and education breaks the cycle of poverty, and just last month enrolled 90 children and youth into school!

It seems like hard, emotion, soul wrenching, joyfilled work. Ben and Cherie run their organisation through financial partnerships all around the world. If this is something you would like to contribute to, here is a web page about how you can be involved.

The photos they took of them giving out the dresses are below, along with a little story I have to share about one little girl in a purple dress...

And personally, this is the smile that made it all worth it for me::

Finally, on her return home one of my friends, Sue, was telling me that a few days after the dresses had been given out, she was in a village helping to build a chicken coop for a family when a little girl approached her in a beautiful purple dress::

The little girl didn't say a word, but got up close to Sue and poked out her tummy swaying from side to side.

Can you imagine it?? I can. My daughter does this to me ALL the time when she wants me to comment or notice something she's wearing. 

Sue immediately recognised that this must be a dress that we had made, and asked her about it.

Isn't it amazing? I was so struck by this story. All over the world, girls must be looking down, poking out their bellies and turning slightly, waiting for someone to notice something. All over the world girls are the same. My 4 year old daughter and this girl in her new purple dress are just the same.

My friend Amy spotted this photo on Facebook and was ecstatic to see the smile this girl had while wearing the purple dress she had made.

2 more things before I go:

Our friend Sarah is doing well, thanks to the money we raised she was able to pay off the cost of all of her immunisations, medical bills in Cambodia and back ground checks while she was there. She is now returning to university in Auckland to finish her almost-finished teaching degree and once she has certificate in hand plans to return to Cambodia to love on these Kiddos. She can't get them out of her heart. 

Instead of Sarah taking the dresses as planned, our Missions Team from my church happened to be visiting Cambodia last month to assist Ben and Cherie so the dresses went in their suitcases. They were very pleased to be able to give them out, and wanted to thank everyone for making them. 

Dress a Girl around the World is a brilliant organisation you should get behind if you really enjoyed being part of Dresses For Cambodia! It's like this, except they are doing it all. the. time! There is a chapter of it in New Zealand, or if you are heading to an area in need, contact them to take some dresses with you. They are always wanting to sneak dresses into peoples luggage! 

If you sent in a dress, thank you! Can you see yours in any of the photos? Tell me about it! 

I so loved organising and sewing for this project. Thank you for making it easy for me, and for being a blessing. However, looking at these photos, don't you feel so much more blessed in the giving?! I certainly do! 

Love, Sophie xx

READ MORE:

The beginning of Dresses For Cambodia

Final Dresses For Cambodia and photos of each dress

Modern Mexican Embriodered Dress

If you've been following me on Instagram, you'll know that this dress has been months in the works! 

It started with me discovering the bright flowers in Mexican embroidery and falling head over heels in love. If I could cover myself in pretty colourful flowers every day, I would. 

Although I love the beautiful embroidery, I'm not such a fan of the traditional peasant dress that the stitching is usually done on. I feel much more comfortable in clothing that fits my curves and accentuates all the good bits. 

And so formed this idea of doing my own embroidery on a dress. First I had to learn to embroider! I practiced satin stitch on a scrap of fabric I later turned into a pouch. 

And as it turned out, I was fairly good at it. 

I then practiced making this dress pattern for myself (I had previously used this pattern to make 3 bridesmaids dresses earlier this year, but hadn't fitted one to my own body.)

It turned out the pattern needed a LOT of adjusting for my body. 

These adjustments included::

• Taking in the back neck line so it didn't gape (I used this gaping fix tutorial and it worked a treat) This is a problem I have never had before, and may be related to this pattern.
• Lifting the waist line up by 3cm (it made all the difference)
• Sway back adjustment to avoid puckering in the small of my back.

Now that I have perfected this pattern I think I'll need to make another version at some point. If I had known that the pattern would require such restructuring I would have ditched it and chosen a new one, but once you get started on something it's hard to stop! 

Once I was happy with the pattern, I started to embroider onto my fabric that was marked out in pencil. This took weeks sitting in front of the TV each night stitching away, trying to match up my flowers and neatness on both sides. 

As I was stitching onto a large piece of fabric it was hard to tell how the embroidery would look when it was finished, in hindsight I wish I had brought it downwards a little, and also turned it into more of a V shape with the bottom of the V lining up with my sternum. However, I couldn't have known that at the time.

The dress bodice is fully lined and hand stitched closed, and includes an invisible zipper down the back.

I am super crazy happy and proud of this dress. It fits me like a glove, I love the happy colour, and I am very proud of my stitching.

And also, pockets! Who doesn't love pockets?

Thank you so much for encouraging me in my stitching and dress making, my friends will be very happy this project is finished as they've been hearing updates about it for months! And now they will get to see me in it all summer long!

DETAILS:
Blue fabric: 100% cotton

Embroidery: Hand stitched and designed by me using DMC thread

Dress Pattern: New Look 6223

READ MORE:

Tribal Print Knit Dress

Cinderella Dress

Green Knit Dress

Sewing With Kids

Sewing With Kids - A How To

Yesterday while I was sewing a dress for myself, Milla, in 4 year old fashion, asked what age she would be allowed to sew. 

She took me by surprise, and I suggested that she could learn any time. 

And so, capturing the moment, today we sewed up some fabric that I had purchased for her, with the idea of making her and Katie a matching skirt and dress.

My 4 year old is a concentrator and a rule follower, so I knew that she would ace this. My aim wasn't for her to sew the whole skirt herself, but to introduce her to the machine, how it works, and for her to feel respect, and also a healthy fear, towards the needles, pins, scissors etc.

Here are some easy tips on sewing with Little People for the first time::

Sewing with Little People:

• Keep it simple! A project that can be completed in an hour will bring instant satisfaction, and something they can wear or play with is an added bonus. 
• Think easy: Skirts, shorts, tote bags, peasant dress, pillow cases, head bands, PJ pants. Are you feeling inspired yet?
• Have everything you need prepared before you begin, I had my measuring and pattern piece already cut out and ready to go, along with my sewing machine all set up before I even mentioned sewing.
• If your person is really little, like mine (only 4 years old!) set them up at a smaller table so they can have the joy of pressing the presser foot with their feet!
• Explain different parts of the machine to them, let them have a go at lifting up the presser foot, doing the back stitch button and the foot pedal. Try them out on a large piece of spare fabric first. 
• Breathe and encourage. You may suddenly realise just what you have gotten into! 
• If your Little Person is older and you are leaving all the sewing to them, use little pegs on the edge of the fabric in lieu of pins.
• Change it up at each step. For one part I asked my daughter to be the presser foot controller, another time she was in charge of back stitching, then she had a go at the foot pedal, another time she helped me feed the fabric through, and then she was in charge of taking out all the pins. 
• You'll know based on your own child how to keep them interested, safe and learning. 

We made a circle skirt for our Intro to Sewing 101. Milla had a go at all parts of it, and she tells me her favourite was pushing it down with her foot. 

I clued myself up on the Dana Made It Circle Skirt Tutorial so that when it came time to sew, I knew exactly what I was doing. 

The maths (pi and radius, yikes!) checks out, and fits perfectly! 

Instead of using the wide exposed elastic band like in the tutorial, I made a little casing with some extra fabric and the same waist measurements, and used 3/4" elastic inside it. 

To finish it off we used pre-made bias binding along the edge, which I let Milla choose the colour of. She was thrilled to have some choice and control in a process which is completely new to her. 

As binding is quite tricky for little fingers, I pinned it all in place and sewed very slowly around. I noticed half way through that Milla also had her foot on the foot pedal, ever so gently, just feeling for how I was pushing it down. During the binding step, Millas job was to pull each pin out before I sewed over it. 

She was so careful, and was a real delight to work with! 

We will definitely be sewing together again soon. 

Her twirly skirt is SO whirly! She loves it! 

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog, your encouragement spurs me on! x

READ MORE SEWING:

DIY Cinderella Dress

Tribal Knit Dress

Tunic and Bloomers First Pattern Draft

Cinderella Dress DIY

When I saw the new Cinderella Movie from 2015 I was over come with a need to sew a beautiful princess dress. Aside from a wonderful story line about "have courage and be kind", the costumes in the movie were absolutely stunning!!

With my little girls 4th birthday approaching, I showed her 4 dress options on my phone and said that I could make one of them for her (1950's cinderella (which is her favourite), Elsa, New 2015 Cinderella and a pretty purple princess dress). She choose this blue number and so I went out and bought metres and metres of blue satin and tulle. 

In fact there is about 10 metres of fabric to her dress!

I drafted the dress all by myself, using a dress that she already fitted as a guide for the bodice size. I included bodice lining, princess seams down each size, a triangular dip at the front and an invisible zipper at the back. 

And this poofy thing that wraps around the shoulders and tucks into the zipper seam, which is tacked on at the shoulders to keep it in place. 

And the butterflies. Of course. They required their own shopping trip as I had forgotten all about them. When my daughter saw it half complete she enquired as to where I was going to put the butterflies, so we popped out then and there to get some! 

The skirt part has 4 layers to it; Satin, white tulle and 2 soft drapey tulle layers.

While I was making the dress the girls Nana looked after them for the afternoon so I could get some serious sewing time in. When it was completed, Nana arrived to gift these "glass slippers", crown and jewellery. Camilla and I were delighted, it was such a thoughtful gift :)

I am very happy with this dress, and so is our Little Princess.

We took her and her cousin to Disney on Ice for the first time that week and she was allowed to wear her Cinderella Dress, and then it was put away for her birthday later that month. Here she is at both events:

And now she wears it any chance she gets! 

It fills me with so much joy to see Milla spinning around without a care in the world, we really are so blessed! x

Ps, I found this beautiful free Cinderella printable that we framed and put above Millas bed for her birthday.

READ MORE:

More things I've made here