The "Eating Me Alive" Shirt

When I made THIS top for myself I knew I would eventually make one for Evie. It was just to easy not to! I don't know if it is Katy of No Big Dill's "orange" theme lately or the fantastic spring fabric my mom sent me but I knew I would be making it in the fiery orange jersey that a fantastic reader sent me. I followed the exact same method that I laid out in THIS tutorial except I added a second ruffle that was thinner then the first...this second layer may have been overkill.

While I think it turned out pretty cute it does sort of look like it is eating Evie alive, hence the name :)

I was soooo excited to take pictures of Evie in the new Button Up Bloomers I made to match the shirt (pattern can now be found HERE). I thought it would be a cake photo shoot since she loved wearing her first pair. Unfortunately Evie was in NO mood to wear anything I made for her this morning. When I finally wrestled her out of her jammies she ran to the little pile of clothes I had made, picked all three items and threw them while yelling "NO!!!!!" Then looked at me and added "Ever!" I didn't even know she knew that word! I should have seen it coming, she did poop herself awake at 3am then demanded to watch Shaun the Sheep and spent a good half hour crying in her crib yelling "Sheeeeeeep!" She literally screamed so much about putting on the bloomers and head band that I finally bagged it and thus I only have this very poor picture to share of the would be outfit (taken as Evie bolted down the crumbling Dili sidewalk and I panicked)

She gladly put on her skinny jeans that make her adorable diapered bum look mammoth ha! We crossed the street to the beach to snap some picks. Evie immediately plopped down and started shoving sand in her mouth

I thought maybe if I moved her onto a rock it would curb the dirty item eating, but then she just switched to eating rocks

When I took the rocks out of her hand she decided she was done

On the walk home I tried to take one last full body pic... it didn't come out well

I was REALLY excited about putting one of my new labels on the shirt though!!! While I was in Jakarta we of course frequented the Myestic the HUGE fabric mecca I talked about previously. One of the notions shop made them for me in two days for a insanely affordable price.

I love that they are satiney and fold over so they have no raw edges. I am really interested to see how they wash up :) Hope if you make a cute little "Eating Me Alive" top and "Button Up Bloomers" outfit your cutie is more obliging then mine was this morning, but hey we all have our days right? :)
(PS just in case, Evie's shoes are Salt Water Sandals and her skinny jeans are Zara)

Butterfly Dress: The Pattern & a Tunic

I feel badly that it has taken me so long to get this pattern up. Especially since it is one of the simplest ones of have done lately ha! I wanted to share a second outfit that I made for Evie using the pattern though and that meant another photo shoot ;) I have been really influenced by Asian fashion since moving here... Balinese styles in particular. I noticed the last time I was there that aside from their flowing light cottons and loose fitting clothing that they really used trim and bias tapes to the MAX. I thought it would be fun to use the Butterfly Dress pattern to make Evie a tunic where the bias tape plays a major role. The pattern can be found HERE on scribd.

I grabbed some Amy Butler Fabric and some soft grey cotton and went to town.

I made it in the exact same way I got through HERE except I added the large bias on the sleeves and the bottom of the dress.

I LOVE the flowing loose sleeves.

The easy on and off with only a single button closure in the back

I also added oversized pockets on either side.

With her comfy leggings she can do all the jumping, stooping and rock eating her little heart desires

The pattern is for a 24 month old and is the length you see in these pictures. If you would like it more dress length like the Butterfly dress seen here:

Just add a few inches on the bottom :)  Happy sewing!

Back in Timor-and so excited

We made it back to Timor! I must admit after getting up to go to the airport at 3 AM I kinda went into hibernation ha! Thank heavens I have a husband who can totally function on little to no sleep. I had to get sleep though because the month of May holds A LOT of fun posts. Not surprisingly they will mostly be  based on my "Evie's wardrobe" theme except for the first, which will be on the cute blog "Be Sweet"

I will be sharing a maternity dress that I made to go a long with her week long theme of projects for Moms. It is super easy and pretty cute :) Next up I will be oh so nervously posting over at my all time favorite sewing blog Grosgrain!

Kathleen is debuting her whole new blog and I am THRILLED to be part of an AMAZING line up. Each contributor will also provide a free pattern! How fantastic is that! This is exactly the reason I started sharing blogging was to get more free digital patterns out there. Now there will be an entire month of free patterns from some amazingly talented women. You won't want to miss it!

Then I will be heading over to Me Sew Crazy to take part in a Sewing Remix. I was so excited when Jessica emailed me. I think of her as a kindred spirit of sorts since we are both sewing fiends who are dealing with the fun of being preggy too! Although she is ALOT closer to the finish line then I am :) Each participant will come up with a twist on a pattern they love and share it! I have to admit it was kind of nice to sew with a pattern again ha!

I am soooo excited for this! The ladies behind KoJo Designs are so wonderful. I love getting emails from them, checking out their fabulous creations and I LOVE how many fabulous guest bloggers they have. Hasn't The Sincerest Form of Flattery been fun to follow? I was pretty inspired and am totally psyched to take part in their next line up! I am going to be doing the color RED!! 

There are one or two others that might be in the mix, but like I said a busy month! But that's the way I like it, I work better under pressure ha! I also have plenty of my own posts to share and lots of Spring patterns from Evies closet to get published. 

I also thought it would be fun to share some of the fantastic outcomes from readers creating projects from Sewing in No Mans Land:

Meagan sent me a picture of the gorgeous headband she made for her adorable daughter:

(Seriously how lovely is that picture! Such a beautiful little lady!)

Terra over at Mama Says Sew made a super cute springy version of the Couture Cutie or "mullet" dress:

Sarah got together with some friends and they knocked out a bunch of the easy now sew tutu's! 

Laura from Day Of Grace made her own Razzelberry Apron:

I hope I didn't miss anyone! I LOVE seeing creations you make so if you happen to snap a pic and don't mind taking the time to send it to me you would totally make my day! I hope you all had a very lovely Easter and spent lots of time with your family. I spent most of mine in awe at how overwhelmingly blessed I am, and I pray you had that same wonderful feeling!

Button Up Bloomers

UPDATE: Pattern link is working wooo hooooooo!!!! 

Ashley is the fantastic lady behind Lil Blue Boo... well she is half the fantastic team, Boo is pretty amazing herself! I had such a great time competing with her during Project Run and Play and was positively thrilled when she asked me to be part of her "What would you make challenge". Ashley asked several bloggers if she could send them some fabric (a kind they usually wouldn't use) and they would have to created something with it. I thought this would be awesome to be a part of and such a fun creative challenge. As readers you then get to enter for a chance to win 2 yards of the very fabric she sent us! I anxiously waited for the package. I received it the day before I left for Singapore and thus spent every night of the trip trying to come up with a cute enough idea for Lil Blue Boo! In the end I came up with an outfit I love, that I hoped fit the requirements to grace Ashley's cute site ic. cute, comfy and doesn't interfere with a child's playing.
 
The top is just a simple tie tank but the shorts, I am sooooo excited about the shorts.

It is kinda hard to see them because of the cute floral design of the fabric but they are all one piece!

They wrap around the back and then button with four buttons in the front

Since they are all one piece there are no seams to tug or hems to choke around a little chunky girls thighs,  lots of comfort :)

Evie, who never wants to wear anything I make, loves these shorts, it was so refreshing to have her help me put something on her :)

She also apparently thought fists full of sand would be refreshing

I wanted to make sure you could make your own comfy summer Button Up Bloomers so I made a pattern and tutorial.

Before I launch into it though I wanted to say thank you to Ashley, this was such a fun challenge and it was great to stretch the creative muscles. I hope you guys like the shorts as well! They are insanely easy, even brand new sewers can make these! I hope you read more and make your own!

Kids A Go Outfit

This next outfit is one of my favorites, it is made as a copy cat from a boutique outfit I got Evie in Bali. The store was called Kids a go go :) I really wanted to share it before Easter because I think it would be so cute at an Easter egg hunt, maybe in a soft yellow color? The pattern I am sad to say is super small. Poor Evie was stuffed into this one ha! Fingers crossed we have a girl! I would defiantly enlarge it if you have a chunky babers or a child older then 12 months. I don't know exact rules for enlarging but I try to go 10% for each year. But really I just take a random guess, copy it then see how it looks. I know, not the best method ha! Anyway, this outfit it sooooo light and comfy and when ever Evie wears it she looks so cool and relaxed... well she did before it got way to small ha!

I used some pre embroidered fabric for the top front. I think this makes it look a little less homemade.

I just love how comfy those little pants are!

(I forgot to mention in the last post and got some emails, Evie's shoes are from Target.com)
This time Evie's reward was a strawberry milkshake.

Although to be honest I just REALLY wanted one of the restaurants Choco-Hazlenut milkshakes-- YUM! But she guzzled that strawberry one like crazy

While the sewing of this outfit is fairly straight forward and simple, I must warn you that the seam allowance on the top pieces is really small. If you would feel more comfortable you could always enlarge that page of the pattern and sew with larger allowances. The pattern is available HERE on scribd. 

What you will need:

1 Yard fabric

Thin pieces of elastic

2 Buttons

Optional embellishment for pant legs

Iron

Sewing machine

Scissors

Needle and thread

How to make GOOD looking pants

Alrighty day one! I am PUMPED! Especially starting out with this tutorial. I have been wanting to share how to make Evie's green pants for a while.

The problem is that I cannot find the correct material ANYWHERE. To make a good looking children's pair of pants there are a few crucial steps (that I will share with you today) the first being the right material. If you make pants with a flimsy cotton they are not going to look nice. They are going to billow and wrinkle and not hold shape. You need a thicker cotton like Poplin or Khaki that is stiff but still soft and washable. While the fabric shop here has enough polyester to fill your every odd desire it has nothing like this, and keeping to my own rule of not ordering fabric I have been a bit stuck. Thankfully I received a package last week from my Mom and sister. It has some sweet fabric in it and luckily it had a thicker cotton. Now it isn't really as thick as it needs to be and you can see in the pictures it doesn't lay quite as nice BUT it was a far cry closer then anything else I had (so thank you Mom!). So today I will be showing you how to make the green pants... in purple!

Now for my green pants I did take the extra step of lining them with a super light thin white cotton and I did make actual pockets, but for this tutorial to be more useful to more people I took those steps out :) Again I would stress that to make these just like the green pair use stiffer fabric. Now, even if you don't plan on making these pants I would totally suggest reading through the tutorial because I share some tricks on how to make your pants look less home made :)

Oh and by the way there is no way I could have done this photo shoot without the help of our "sponsor"

Even when I thought we had lost a few to the grass, Evie proved me wrong

Thank heavens for candy ha! Hope you read the rest!

Evie's Wardrobe Series

I am reallyreallyreallyreally excited about this series. I had been hesitant to do it. I didn't want to sound pretentious or all "oh I make all my little girls clothes" -ey. But after seeing how much fun Jessica over at Me Sew Crazy has had with her spring collections I thought I would just go for it and share tutorials for all the items I have made Evie for her Spring/ Summer wardrobe. There will be a step by step tutorial and usually a pattern to go with it for a total of 14 items. Now don't get me wrong, the majority of Evie's clothes are purchased, these are just the fun little "signature" items I made to spice things up... in the end maybe I should be more embarrassed of how much clothes this one little girl has ha! I am so excited to get started tomorrow that I had to give you a sneak peak of what is first in line. They are my most requested item but I have been putting off sharing a tutorial For-Ev-Er for a few reasons but I finally got my act together and will be sharing how to make Evie's bright green pants!!!

That, sadly enough, finally fit her... six months after Christmas ha! I hope you guys think this will be fun as well and not think "girl we see WAY to much of Evie round here!" Maybe I will enlist some of her cutie friends as models just to mix it up? A few of the items will be incorporated in with guest posts at other blogs like Lil Blue Boo, Kojo Designs and oh my goodness just wait for it Grosgrain. See you tomorrow!!!

Guest Posting

We have been having torrential, I mean insane, rain here over the weekend, which means a long string of power outages and no internet. While I was attempting to create a post from my hubbies phone I got so frustrated and was having a minor temper tantrum when I thought about how absolutely ridiculous I was being and how grateful I should be that I was in a home that barely leaked and had plenty of supplies to last a long crisis needs be. This is miles away from the majority of those that live around us here in Timor. So, I put down the phone and decided the post could wait and spent the rest of the day cooking muffins to giveaway. But Monday is here and the sun is shinning! So, have ya'll been following the "DIYers Big Ticket Item" posts Kathleen is doing over on Grosgrain? I follow everything Kathleen does ha! One of the items she talked about was Photoshop. I am obviously a huge fan of Photoshop and am constantly learning something new about it. It's price tag does make it prohibitive though, but today is your lucky day! Shauna over at Schwin and Schwin is GIVING AWAY a Photoshop suite! I know! It is huge! When she emailed and talked to me about it I was pretty floored. This is a huge opportunity for a lot of photographers and creators to take their work to the next level. She asked if I would be willing to teach a few tricks I use in photoshop and I said "heck yes!" (even though I fell 100% inadequate to be teaching anyone to do anything in photoshop ha!) If you would like to know the quirky ways I sometimes soften skin or brighten eyes subtly taking a photo from this:

to this:

Then hop on over! And HELLO! Do whatever it takes to get yourself entered into this giveaway!