Projects Lately

I've been sewing like crazy (again) lately, making some things people have custom ordered, making inventory for the Bay Arts shop, and making spring and summer tops for Charlotte. I like that I've gotten to work on a variety of things, sometimes all in the same day. It keeps me from getting bored, it forces me to follow through and finish everything, and (most importantly) it means I have to constantly pick out new fabric :)

I never shared a photo of the items I sent to Bay Arts for their gift shop. I made so many bags in such a short period of time and then they were out the door before I could even catch my breath, but here's a photo before I packed them up:

After that I started working on a custom order for a large patchwork tote. The fabric line is new: Honey Honey by Kate Spain. This fabric is spring. Just looking at it brightens my mood:

As for tops for Charlotte, I've discovered how much I love making clothes for her (except pants. I'm not crazy about making pants and since she mostly wears knit leggings, which are very inexpensive, it's not really cost effective for me to make them anyhow). I've made her several dresses but I've recently been working mostly on tops. I had a hard time finding a pattern for a cute short-sleeved top--it seems like everything I found was either a dress pattern or a sleeveless top. I ended up using Butterick Pattern #B4176:

I'm working on a few of these, but the one I just made is for her Easter basket. I usually stay away from clothing with characters, logos, writing, etc. (I'm picky) but she loves Elmo so I thought it would be cute if I could find an Elmo fabric to use. I found this:

I thought it was sweet, and she was with me when I picked it out and exclaimed "Wow, Elmo!!" in the store so I knew it met her approval.

It was a fairly simple shirt to make, except I wasn't paying attention and ended up with a front that looked like this:

Hmm...upside down isn't really the look I was going for. So back to the fabric store I went and tried again. This time it worked out, and I'm really happy with the finished shirt:

I've got a few more in this style in the works with different fabrics and they're really fun to make. Plus they only take about a half yard of fabric so it's a good way to use up some of my fabric stash, which my little assistant likes to look through and pick out her favorites:

Note: I always put pants on my child, but she often takes them off when she's playing. It must be more comfortable? But don't worry, the pants are always replaced before we leave the house.

Happy Monday. Happy snowy, snowy Monday. Stupid snowy Monday...

~Stacy