My June finished projects

Hi everyone, 

This post is all about my June makes. I made a few garments in the month of June.

My first make is this Walkley Vest by MIY Collection. This striped top is made from a remnant I bought at Fabricland for $3.00/meter. This was my wearable muslin. I just love this top. I did make some adjustments to the pattern even before my first try. I made the large and added 1.5 inches to side seam from the waist down to the hem line as my hip measurement was bigger than that of the finished garment size listed on the pattern. This worked out perfectly. I've worn this top so many times. It's one of my favorites this summer.

Since my striped Walkley Vest turned out so well, I decided to go ahead and make another. I had a left over piece of this Art Gallery knit called Bon Voyage Lumiere in my stash. I thought it was perfect for this top. I love how it turned out. I also wear it all the time. This pattern is definitely going to be a staple for my wardrobe. It's easy and very flattering on me. I've gotten lots of complements on these two tops. 

My daughter wanted me to make her a dress. I had purchased the Betty Dress pattern by Sew Over it.

I made two muslin's for the bodice for her before I made this dress. I had to make a lot of adjustments to get it to this stage. It is still not perfect. It's a little loose at the waist, it needs to be taken in. For this dress I used fabric that I had bought at a garage sale last summer for $1. It's a rayon, which is perfect for summer. But I only had enough to make a half circle skirt and not the full circle like the pattern called for. Even though its a little loose, she loves it. She's worn it at least once a week since I made it. So, it's still a win. I haven't attempted this pattern again, but I will. I do have fabric set aside for another one for her. 

This next photo is another wearable muslin. The pattern is the Pinot Pants by SBCC.

I used a really cheap jersey knit that I bought at Fabricland for $3.00/meter. It does not have the 4 way stretch required for this pattern, and the recovery is not great. But, I knew this before I made these. I just wanted to test it. I thought these would make good PJ bottoms, and they do. They are super comfortable. I made these XL and they are too big. I need to size down for my next one. They are not very flattering on me, but like I said, the fabric is not the best choice. I will make these again though. 

So, that's all my finished projects for June.

I did work on some quilting projects, like my 365 challenge quilt.

But I will show you the progress on that in my next post.

Have a great day.

Hugs

Ariane

Me made clothing!

I'm not participating in "Me Made May" this year, but I'm hoping to have enough me made clothing by next May to participate. Before May, I only had 4 tops, and 1 dress that I could wear that I made myself. Not enough to get through the month. But I do wear my me made clothing regularly. The only one I don't wear much is the Sutton blouse I made. I lost more weight and it's too big on me. I need to take it in. But it's a pain because of all the French seams. Oh well. On to new makes. 

I made two Eucalypt tank tops, pattern by Megan Nielson. I used beautifully soft rayon remnants that I bought at Fabricland. 

Both of these fit me really well. I made the XL and had to add some width at the waist down to the hem. So I added a 1/2 inch to the front and back pattern pieces grading it to nothing at the arm hole. Other than that no other changes were made. I used store bought bias binding to finish the neck, arm holes and hem. I love both these tops and will wear these often in the summer. 

I also made the Brumby skirt by Megan Nielson for my daughter. This pattern runs too small for me and I will have to grade it up if I want to make it for myself. I used a stretch cotton sateen from Fabricland to make this skirt. I made the XL for her and had to use 1/4 inch seams at the waist for it to fit her. I also reduces the width of the waistband as it was really wide and she found it uncomfortable. Once I reduced the width it was much better. This was my toile ( practice piece) in order to get all the fit issues resolved. It's cute and will make it again for her. 

Don't look at the pattern matching as I didn't do it. Lol! And this was my first time putting in a zipper in clothing. I struggled a bit to make this skirt because I made a lot of stupid mistakes. The instructions were excellent. I just should have followed them better. Lol! Oh well, next time I'll do better. 

I also made my daughter a vintage style bikini. 

I used a swimsuit fabric remnant from Fabricland to make it. The patterns I used are the Scarlette bralette by ohhhlulu patterns on etsy, and the high waisted pantie also by ohhhlulu. I added a four inch band to the bralette to make it into a long line bra. It worked perfectly. I recycled the bra hardware and straps from an old bra that didn't fit anymore. The suit fits her just right. The patterns were easy to follow. I will definitely make these again.

I made two Jalie dolman tops!

I'm in love with this pattern. The pattern is Jalie #3352 Dolman tops. The first one I made is from an inexpensive stripped knit I bought at Fabricland.

I love how it turned out. It's a very thin knit and drapes really well. It's so comfortable. I found it easy to sew. I didn't use the neck binding piece, as it was optional. 

The second one I made, I used Art Gallery knit fabric that I bought from 

Intrepid Threads last year. This knit fabric is much thicker. But it still went together really well and feels amazing on. 

I love both of these tops. It took me less than an hour to make the second one. It's definitely my style and I will probably make a few more. 

I made a Sutton Blouse by True Bias

I've been wanted to make myself clothing for a while. I've tried a few garments before. But I still consider myself a newbie at sewing clothing. I purchased the PDF pattern for the Sutton Blouse last year. I figured it was something I could tackle. Well, I finally decided to make it today. It took me about three hours to trace my pattern, cut it out and sew it. Now that I've made it once, it would probably take a lot less time.

I made the size 18. I didn't make any changes because I thought that it would fit as prescribed. It did. I used a cotton lawn by Cotton and Steel that I bought last year. It's a loose fitting top. It's very comfortable. I'm not used to wearing loose clothing anymore. I lost 85 lbs this past 6 months as I had a gastric bypass. I've been wearing more fitted clothing since then. But I still like it. I'm sure I will make it again. I hope you like it!!

Hugs

Ariane

The dress and apron are all done!

Hi everyone,

I had to make a costume for my daughter's play.

She needed a dress and apron for the play "Alice in Wonderland".

So, I took the challenge and made her a dress.

This is probably the most complicated piece of clothing I have ever made.

But, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

It fits her comfortably, and is decent.

The original pattern has a really low neck line.

So, I had to make that adjustment.

I used the Burda pattern 7556.

I used a polyester to make this dress.

It did have a bit of stretch, but it worked out.

I hope she likes it.

I put a lot of hours into it.

Hugs

 

I made myself a top!!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well.

Today, I felt better.

Yeah!!!

This afternoon I was ambitious and decided to make myself a top.

A couple weeks ago, I bought some really soft cotton lawn from Fabricland.

It was a buy 1 get 2 free sale.

So, I bought 3 fabric for $10 each and got 3 metres of each fabric.

That's a steal.

My intentions was to make myself a few summer tops.

I just want to let you know that I have tried to make myself clothes several times without success.

Commercial patterns don't fit me.

I'm a plus size, and take a size 2X or 3X depending on the brand.

(Did I just write my size on my blog? Yup!!! Ughhhhh.......just go with it)

Anyways, I'm not an average plus size.

I usually have a hard time finding tops that fit properly.

I have a small chest and I'm bigger in the middle.

I'm sure there are many plus size ladies who have the same problem as me.

Most tops are way to low cut and not fitted enough at the chest.

But, I have to go up a size to fit my middle.

It can be very frustrating to shop for clothes.

So, after making a top last week using a commercial pattern and totally blowing it....

I decided to make my own pattern.

I got my freezer paper out, grabbed my favourite tank top, and made myself a template of the front and the back piece.

 I sewed the pieces together using French seams.

This fabric frayed a lot, so I thought this would be best.

I made some bias tape out of cotton fabric to decorate the neck line. 

I can't believe it fit.

The arm holes are not too big. The neck is not too low. It's not too tight around my waist.

I did it!!

This is not stretchy fabric either.

I'm so proud of myself.

The best part though, was my husband loved it!!

He said I should make a few more.

So. I had a happy day!!!

Hugs

My Mom's Italian Wedding Soup recipe and a little dress!

Alright!! Since so many of you asked for my Mom's Italian Wedding Soup recipe, here it is:

Note: It terrifies me to share recipes on here. I don't have exact ingredients. You just kind of make it, and put it all together. Taste it! add more spices, taste again. Then, it's done!

General ingredients

Meatballs

1 lb fresh lean ground beef

chopped garlic ( I use the chopped garlic that you buy in little jars. I use a teaspoon.)

Bread crumbs

salt

pepper

Mix all the above ingredients and make little tiny meatballs. Once your meatballs are made, you want to cook them in a pan. You may want to add a bit of olive oil so that they don't stick. Cook all the meatballs until they are fully cooked.

Soup Base

1/2 cup Concentrated liquid beef broth

water

bag of baby spinach

oregano

basil

salt

pepper

dry onion flakes

noodles (orzo, ditali, other)

Use your big soup pot and fill it 3/4 full of water. Add you liquid beef broth. Bring to a slow boil. You want to finally chop your spinach into tiny pieces and add it to your broth. Also add the oregano, basil, salt, pepper, & dry onion flakes. Once your meatballs are fully cooked, add them to your soup base. Then you want to add about 3 or 4 hand fulls of your noodles of choice. I like to use orzo, but for my sons soup I used a bigger noodle like Ditali. Any small noodle will do. You let this cook on medium heat until your noodles are fully cooked. Check that it tastes the way you like it. And if it's just right, then serve.

This is a great soup for those cool days or when you are not feeling that well. It's not very heavy to eat and it also doesn't have much fat. If you don't like to put too much salt in your food, you can just omit it. There is already salt in the concentrated beef broth.

Well, let me know how it turns out, if you try it.

On another note, I made my daughter a little up cycled dress today. I used an old t-shirt and added some knit fabric that I had bought at a yard sale for 25 cents. I used this tutorial from Make it and love it.  She really likes it and didn't want to take it off when I was done. So, it's a winner. This is a very comfortable dress. The tutorial is for an adult size dress, but can be made any size I think. It only took me about 1 hour to make this. I hope you like it.

Hugs

Ariane



A little spring top

Okay, so I tried to make another spring top for my daughter. I made it one way, then took a few seams apart and did it another way. This is what I ended up with. It's really cute. It will look good with the denim jeans or capri's my daughter likes to wear. It is pretty loose fitting. I keep thinking I should bring in the seams, but she likes it the way it is. So it will stay that way. I hope you think it's cute.

Hugs

Ariane

Spring Ruffle top for my daughter!

Tonight, I decided to make a Spring Ruffle Top for my daughter using the tutorial on Sew,Mama,Sew blog. I used some fabric that I got for next to nothing at a thrift shop. I didn't want to use really expensive fabric incase I messed it up. But I really like the fabric I used and the top turned out so cute. The nice things about it is that I used the length suggested for an adult. Since all the kids are wearing long tunic tops this summer with leggings it works perfectly. She is all excited about it because blue is her favorite colour. Now she wants me to make her another one. She had fun posing for the pictures. She's so cute!!

Little dress for my niece

I made this little dress today for my 6 month old niece. My brother was dropping by at my sisters house this evening, so I wipped up this cute little dress using the pillow case dress tutorial found here. It turned out so cute. I made the strapes a little short so I just stitched them together instead of tying them. I love how it turned out. I hope you like it.

 Hugs

Ariane

I am back!!! My computer is fixed!!!

Hi everyone! I am so glad to be back. My computer is finally fixed. We do need a new keyboard though. But we will get that after Christmas. Thank you so much to all of you who have left comments on my pictureless posts. Thanks for hanging in there. I have added all the pictures to those posts. So if you did not go over to my flickr account, I posted them.

I made a Christmas table runner as a teacher gift. My daughter claimed it for her teacher. I have started a second one. But I am not done that one yet.

I also made a skirt for my daughter. It is going to be part of her Christmas outfit. I wanted to make something out of the material I had. So she will be able to wear this one into the summer. I just have to finish the top to go with it and get matching tights. I plan to make a headband to go with the outfit too. I made it using the Pink Fig pattern, The Mish Mash skirt and top! I love this pattern. The instructions were great and it goes up to size 12. Very cute pattern. I will share another picture once the whole outfit is done.

I am so glad to be back online. Christmas is fast approching. Ahhhh! Well I hope you are all well.

Happy Stitching!

Hugs Ariane

Happy Halloween!

The kids went out for Halloween tonight. It was cold, windy and a bit wet. But my two youngest got lots of treats, while my oldest helped hand out candies. Above is a picture of my daughter in her Vampire costume. I made the little dress. It was more difficult then I expected. But I love the way it looked on her. The middle picture is a plaster mask that my second oldest made out of plaster at school. The third photo is of my second oldest. He is giving a fierce look in this picture. But when he gave his smily eyes, he looked more like a comedian. The wig and mustache made him look older. They all had fun even if the weather wasn't great. Wishing you all a safe Halloween.

Hugs Ariane

Shop Hop Purchases & still chance for giveaway!!

Hi everyone, On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the quilting shops in the region had a shop hop. I went to all the ones in town on Thursday. That's Quilter's Choice, The Perfect Stitch and Garden Thyme Quilt Emporium. All the shops were selling a kit in order to make a log cabin quilt. If you went to all six shops and bought the kits, you would have enough material to make a log cabin quilt top. Each of the quilt shops provided a different log cabin quilt pattern with there kits. So six new pattern. I went to the Quilter's Choice first and bought a few fat quarters, the kit and a wonderful pattern by The Rabbit Factory called Patchwork Cottage. I just love this pattern. They had a finished quilt in their store and it was beautiful. I just couldn't leave without the pattern. Then I went to the Perfect Stitch and bought more fat quarters and a log cabin ruler. They had a deminstration of it and I thought it was perfect since I would be making a log cabin quilt. It's also handy to precut scraps so that I can eventually make a scrappy log cabin. As soon as she mention the word scrappy I was sold. I then went to Garden Thyme and bought the kit and more fat quarters. It was a good day. Fabric always helps to make me feel better. I think I would love to work in a quilt shop surrounded by wonderful fabric all day.

On Friday, I decided to go to the other 3 shops. These were out of town about an hour. I had to really plan out my day because I had a doctors appointment with a specialist that afternoon so I had to be back in town for that. So I went to Taylor's Sewing Centre and Picket Fences which are in Brockville. I bought the kits at both stores and some fat quarters. Then I had to quickly drive back for my appointement. Then, I went to Wilton Creek Fabrics and bought the kits as well, some fat quarters and a new Tri-recs tools to help cut triangles.

I enjoyed going to all the shops. The ladies all help to cheer me up. I ended up buying a lot of pink because I had a plan to make a dusty rose and pale green quilt. So we will see when that gets done. Regardless I had fun.

I also made a pair of shorts for my daughter on the weekend out of the quilting cotton I bought at Fabricland. They are really cute. My daughter just loves them. I still have enough material to make a matching top. So that's next on my list. I hope you all have a good day. I have more doctors appointements today. But it's nice and sunny out and hopefully I'll get to work outside in my gardens which have been neglected lately. I love to garden so that will be fun. Take care all of you. Thanks for all the happy thought you have been sending me. I think I should start writing my happy thought everyday. That will kept me in good spirits.

P.S You can still enter the giveaway. You have until Wednesday night. So go leave a happy comment.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

A pillowcase dress!

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. The other day I made this little pillow case dress for my daughter. She uses it as a nighty. It's made out of two pillow cases that my mom had bought at a yard sale. They were like new and had a cute orange lace on the edge. I decided to use both pillowcases in order to keep it from being see through. I used some orange and purple fabric to make the ties. I got the fabric from the SewMamaSew fat quarter swap. I think it is really cute. She loves it. She likes to lounge around with it on. It's a decent length and really comfy and soft. I may make her a couple more nighty's like this. She really seems to like it.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane :o)

A sweat birdy appliqued t-shirt!

Hi everyone, I had bought an aqua colored t-shirt for my daughter. I decided to do an applique on it this afternoon. I had printed off a free coloring page from the Tricia-Rennea Art Blog for my daughter on valentines day. I just happen to find it today amongst some papers I was cleaning up. I looked at it and thought the picture would make a nice applique on a t-shirt for my daughter. So I traced the picture on fusible web and then got my pieces of fabric cut out and ironed onto the t-shirt. Then, I did a blanket stitch by hand around all the pieces and VOILA!!! I have a great looking t-shirt for my girl. I also spent some time outside today. It's beautiful outside here today. It was nice and sunny. I decided to do some raking of leaves in my back yard. It was nice to get some spring fresh air. The snow is all gone here now. We usually still have snow on the ground at this time of year. I'm not complaining. It's nice to have some nice weather where you can wear a sweater and be comfortable outside. No more bulky winter coats. It's so nice. I hope everyone has a great day.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

Another Cute little outfit done!!

Hi everyone, I just finished the applique on another t-shirt....and the outfit is done. I made another little skirt for my daughter. I used pink this time. I bought two Lila Tueller Woodland Bloom fat quarters and another pink stripe. I used the left over fabric from the skirt to do the appliques on the t-shirt I bought at Walmart. I decided to just do some simple hearts for the appliques. It didn't take as long to hand blanket stitch them on. I think this outfit will be a nice addition to my daughter's summer clothes. It's casual and cute at the same time. She just loves it. I hope everyone is well.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane

Aqua outfit complete with appliqued top!!

Hi everyone!! I finished doing the appliqued top to match the skirt I made for my daughter the other day. I bought the plain white t-shirt at Walmart, then used light fusible web to adhere the appliques to the t-shirt. I then did a blanket stitch by hand around each applique and added a bit of embroidery to finish it off. I didn't feel comfortable using my sewing machine to do the blanket stitch. I really like the way it turned out. I love this little outfit. She is so happy with it. I just had tiny pieces left of the material from the skirt. I had bought three fat quarters and that's what I used to make the skirt. My daughter is a size 10. So I had just enough material to do this project. I bought everything on sale so this whole outfit cost me only $15.00 to make including the tax. Now that's a bargain. That doesn't include all the time I put in. But it was well worth it. Now she has a one of a kind cute outfit.

Today was a long day for me. My husband was really sick. I had to take him to the emergency room this morning. I spent all morning and afternoon there. It was long. But he is home now, and got medication and should be getting better in the next few days. He works too hard. He needs to take a break. I hope he really rests the next few days.

I brought my hand stitching with me to the hospital. I was able to make 6 stars for my hexagon quilt. I've made 95 stars for my hexagon star quilt. 40 of those stars have the white border around them. So, I'm doing really well with this top. I only have 160 stars left to make and 215 white border to put on the stars. The numbers are getting smaller. I'm getting there. Well, it's late and I have had a long day. So, goodbye for now.

Ariane

A cute skirt!!

Now I have made a skirt for my daughter. I also made the pattern myself for this skirt. It turned out really nice. This is my favorite, so far. It fits her perfect. I still have to get her a nice top to go with it. But I think I will make a few more using this pattern.

Ariane :o)

A little peasant dress

Okay! I'm not that great at making clothing. But, I do my best. I made a peasant dress for my daughter today. It's cute. She really likes it. It's something that she will be able to play in and be comfortable. It's decent. I really like the fabric. I made my own pattern for this. I did okay considering. So here it is. I'm just learning as I go. I never took any sewing classes. I will get better as time goes on. It does takes practice.

I made my first piece of clothing!!!

Hi everyone, I decided to try my hand at making a piece of clothing. I decided to make something for my daughter. I purchased an easy pattern to make a peasant style blouse. It's Burda pattern 9573. It turned out pretty good considering it was my first one. I made it a bit big. So I had to add tie backs to sinch it at the waist a bit. But it looks cute. I bought some fabric that was on sale for $4.00/metre at Fabricland. I didn't want to spend too much in case it didn't turn out. But she likes it. I like it too. It's cute with jeans.
I'm going to try to make a skirt too. I bought a different fabric for that. It's a more difficult pattern, so I don't know how it will turn out. But I'll try my best. I hope everyone is well. Have a great day.

Ariane