sewing like crazy

I have been on a sewing high since I finished the Elsa dress project. I have started making purses and cup cozies. As I perfect my technique I have been giving my friends and family my projects. I am having so much fun mixing patterns and colors. If you would like instructions on how I make these I will be posting a tutorial as soon as I remember. It usually takes me 2 1/2 hours start to finish to make one bag now that I have my technique down. If I am making multiple purses I will spend one evening making the outer shells and sewing in the heavy interface and the next night I will sew the inside pockets and zipper pockets. Here is my list of work to date:

This is my favorite purse!!! I loved it so much I couldn't part with this one.

I made this one for Bunco gift, included two cup cozies around 2 reusable cups

First bag with ribbon border

Mikey bag for my friend who LOVES all things Disney

fun chevron pattern with butterfly lining shown in the next picture

I finished two more bags over the weekend

These are for the reusable Starbucks cups so you no longer have to remember to grab extra cardboard ones and these are super easy to wash and go. I like to use a different patter on each side so it can fit your mood for the day.

The Elsa dress project

We all know Frozen is the biggest thing for almost everyone! One of my closest friends has two beautiful daughters and one has her 5th birthday party in July so I decided to try something I am still a very very amateur at. Sewing anything other then a toga, pillow case, or curtains. So you get the idea on my skill level. I was a month postpartum with my little one when I took the challenge of sewing a fitted velvet Santa suit for my youngest brother to travel in to Germany to surprise his girl friend. It was surprisingly a success even though I threw my sewing machine across the room when I flipped the table it was on. Word to the wise: postpartum hormones, plus huge project with deadline, and a sewing machine that kept breaking..... equals massive amount of pain in c-section scar but on the plus side it got me a brand new sewing machine. Ok fast forward 3 months and I get a wild idea to tackle an Elsa dress for a soon to be 5 year old. It was a great learning experience and I am beyond thrilled with the way it turned out so here is the fun project that took 3 full days to complete. Hardest thing was cutting the satin (huge fear of screwing it up) but once that happened I was sailing through with the help of YouTube on how to do a few stitches. I started with this pattern:

 I found Simplicity pattern 5520 I used dress A the purple on but used the sleeves from the boys costumes since Elsa's is form fitting.

 I made a size 6 dress cut out the paper pattern then cut the satin. I altered the back middle section instead of it being two separate middle piece for the zipper I made it identical to the front center panel. Here I laid out the front pieces so that I can pin the piece.

 Here how it looks after I pinned the front panels.












Close up of the pinning, yes I pinned the right sides up, this is so I could do the french seam, you can look that up on YouTube I found a super easy tutorial that I only had to watch once.

 

 I found sparkly blue tulle to cover the bodice. I sewed it into each panel so it had a smooth look. Not just floating freely over the panels. I doubled over the tulle with glitter sides together to keep it from flying off too much.

I used the 02 setting on my machine for a triple stitch.
 

 I was worried about the material I got for the cape and the sleeves that it would be too itchy and the strength of the material once I start sewing on it so I layered the satin below it.

 I treated the back the same way as the front. However, I sewed on velcro on each side of the middle panel. I am not great with zippers plus it is a play dress afterall.

 Sleeves went easy. Here is the rough dress before collar and the bottom hemmed. 

 Collar was awkward per the patterns instructions so I doubled the collar and sewed the pieces together and then to the the collar. I had to iron the collar so it fell properly.

 Close up of the top of dress prior to embellishments.

 I sewed snowflake buttons on to the satin sash I made, and found a nice big snowflake pendant for the collar.

 The cape had me scratching my head for a couple of days. I had no idea how to make the shape so I laid the dress down spread out the entire bottom and made that my pattern for the dress. Below I took the scrap sating from the dress and used it as the border for the cape. I folded the satin over the sheer material and pinned it as you see below so the seams were clean.

I secured the cape with Velcro so that it can be removed as needed or when twirling in a pretty dress is needed.

 Final product. LOVE how great it turned out.

It was a huge hit! She love love love the dress when she opened.

Built in Kennel

Having a small dog is wonderful for many reasons, I could list all those reasons or show you the coolest benefit of having a small dog. When we bought our house a year ago it was my goal to have a permanent solution to not having to keep relocating Roxy's kennel. The front entrance to the house has a weird corner and once I saw it I knew what had to happen, now it was time to convince my husband.

The above mentioned weird corner.

Bought a base cabinet from Home Depot the ones they have that are unstained which saved us about $100+ per cabinet we bought. My husband stained the cabinets with ease he followed the directions on the can and it didn't take much to do it. But beware that it takes a couple days to a week to stain it properly and put a protective coat on it.

Knocked out the center of the door and picked a decorative garden wire from Garden section $1.88. Cut it to size and secured it in to the door. Below you will see the finished door. 

 The counter top is a pre-cut piece we found that we liked and we cut it at home to fit perfectly. Here is a comparison of the old kennel and the new one.

With a 3 month old at home we have a large supply of baby  safety equipment and used the cabinet door locks as the way to secure it. The upper cabinet was installed as a liquor cabinet.

Final finished project! Dog loves it and I love how it makes the house look. A great DIY for any beginner.