50s day at school

poodleskirt, originally uploaded by pearljamfanatic.

Today at the kids' school they are doing a 50s theme. They're supposed to be "twisting out drugs" or something like that. Anyway, I couldn't let this chance go by without dressing my girl up in a poodle skirt. Soon she won't let me do things like that. :)

This is just a simple circle skirt out of purple felt. It's not even hemmed, just a simple waistband with elastic. I went to all the stores around to buy a poodle applique, but being so close to Halloween, they were out of all but the tiny ones. Then I ordered one off of eBay (just me being lazy), but it still hasn't arrived. Luckily, Embroider This! has a free poodle embroidery pattern on their site and I was able to finish the skirt. The embroidery came out nicely and she was thrilled!

A couple of years ago I bought way too many snaps from the Snap Source (love them!). I have more snaps than I know what to do with. So whenever I find a cute and easy project that involves using up some of my snap stash, I'm all for it!

Last night I was cruising the sewing and craft blogs and came across this cute needle book tutorial. I had the perfect fat quarter of some Japanese canvas Little Red Riding Hood fabric that I knew would be great for this.

I love the way it turned out, even if I did have to decide to close it the opposite way of the tutorial. That'll teach me to not pay attention to the direction of the fabric pattern when I'm cutting something out. Next time I'll be on the ball, I swear.



Here is my first version, because I'm definitely making more of these, the Little Letter Needle Book:

Free downloadable patterns

If you haven't checked out the free downloadable patterns at fabric.com yet, do it!

Right now they have several offerings from Hot Patterns including a couple of bags and a cowl-necked top. These won't be available forever, so grab them while you can!

Another thing to check out are the videos that Hot Patterns posts on YouTube. It's pretty cool to be able to see a face behind the company, and get tips and help with your projects. Just search "hot patterns" and you'll find a bunch of videos!

Fancy Nancy costume

Fancy Nancy costume, originally uploaded by pearljamfanatic.

Here is a costume I made on request by a friend. It's a Fancy Nancy costume, for those who aren't familiar with the children's book character. The skirt was a challenge, being costume satin and all. I hate slippery fabrics! Another challenge was getting the applique to stick on the satin, since I couldn't use high heat toapply the iron-on applique. I used fabric glue and it seems to be doing the trick so far. The underskirt is made from tulle - another favorite fabric. /sarcasm One new technique I did with the skirt was to use 20-pound fishing line in with the thread as I was doing the rolled hem. This helps the skirt to stand out a bit more despite the weight of the applique and the fabric.

I hope she likes it!