Zephyr Sundresses: The Dress to Last a Lifetime

I swear when I made the first iterations of this dress, they lasted one MILLION years.  They seemed to fit Camden forever, before we finally passed passed them on to her cousins.

I swear I made two back in the day, but I can't find the other

The Zephyr dress by Figgy's Patterns is a simple-enough make - quicker than the romper version, which I blogged about a couple months ago.

Overall, cute dresses!  I will say that on THESE and the romper, I cut the straps NOT on the bias, which I think it calls for, and I also did NOT make tubes out of the strips before braiding them.  I just braided those suckers.  I was hoping that by not cutting them on the bias, they wouldn't stretch, as was the case with the old Zephyrs I'd made, but they still do stretch, which is kind of sad.

I like this dress for a long look.  It totally works and gets me to use my knits, which I don't often do.

In the last post, I added several photos of our trip to Michigan, but we have been busy since we've been back.  It has been a pretty fun summer so far, though we ARE hunkering down at home during the eclipse, as it will be NUTS here in Central Oregon.

Meeting up with a fun mom in South Dakota!

Camping for the first time in a LONG time!

A little Tumalo time with friends!

More friend times! 

Can't take the heat...so...sleeps in the kitchen

Making daggers, of course

A fun visit!

Blog Shout-Outs!

Today's theme?  Blog shout-outs!

I would like to highlight some fellow crafty ladies out there in this big, bad world.  I look to these blogs, amongst others, for inspiration - and a good laugh!

Ali Cat and Co.

First up is BRIANNE over at Ali Cat and Co.  (FB page here.)

She is a woman of many talents - sewing and baking amongst those.  (Speaking of baking, I REALLY need to try this Lemon Cake recipe some time!)  Specifically, though, she has really latched onto making bags.  She loves her some Swoon bag patterns and is making me quite envious of these bags...probably mostly because of the hand embroidery!  She must have a boat load of bags tucked away under her bed.  

She also has two super cute girls, for whom she also sews - pictured below are two patterns she recently tested - the Norah dress by Mouse House Creations (It's out now, peeps!!!  And....only $7 through today!) and the Saffron dress by Zafarani Designs (shouted out below).  

The Life of a Compulsive Crafter

Next up is MAE over at The Life of a Compulsive Crafter.  (See her FB page.)  She happens to blog so she doesn't drive her non-sewing friends crazy with all her hopes and dreams about sewing, LOL!  She does do a bit of the "selfish/mom" sewing, but mostly, she sews for her little girl and boy.

She has a sweet style, girly (well, not so girly when it's for her son, aha!) and understated, and she followed along with the last Project Run and Play.  One of my favorite looks was this one - her Bubblegum dress!  Also on her blog are posts about conscious living, and I will soon be guest posting on her blog (think deodorant!).

Ginger Dimples

CRYSTAL over at Ginger Dimples is a hoot and a holler.  (FB page here.)  She adds a little zing to her posts with her sense of humor - and has made me envious over the years with her awesome Halloween costumes and great Project Run and Play Sew-Along entries - this one being my FAVORITE...and she knows I want to snatch this for my daughter, LOL!

She's only been blogging for eight months now, but she's been sewing for a long time, and one thing she noted in the last PRP challenge was that she wanted to challenge herself and do something she hadn't done before (not sew with ANY woven cottons!) - I think she covered that!  What a great 80s style her daughter has ;)

I have to say, though, that one of my favorite things about Crystal's blog is that she details fun mom-sewing!  (And word up, if you're reading this - I haven't seen any of that in a LONG time!  No hints or anything...)  Here is one photo of her cuteness in a dress she made!  (And here's a link to a lovely mom-and-me project she did!)

Zafarani

Lastly, we have KARLY from Zafarani Designs.  (FB page here.)  She is a funny lady with a big family!  Most of her sewing is for them, which is fine, as she loves to show of both her sewing and her kids, LOL!

One thing I have to say about Karly is that she is SPEEDY!  She always seems to have a million projects - and seems to finish them super fast!  Because she has her share of boys AND girls, she gets the chance to sew for both quite often.

And thing I'm admittedly probably NEVER going to do is sew up a lovely crib set, which she did!  I give kudos to anyone who does that, as it always seems like an effing lot of work to me, if you'll pardon my French!

Above, though, you saw the lovely Saffron dress Brianne sewed, and it was released back in August.  Already, so many people seem to love it!  I know Camden does, as it's pretty twirly!  Karly will have a new pattern coming out, hopefully later this fall, and having seen the sneak peak, I'm pretty excited!

Karly also joined in on the PRP Sew-Along challenge, and I thought both of these entries were great - her Mad for Plaid for her son (because quite often, we don't see enough BOY sewing) and her Candy entry for her daughter - so fun and bright!!

One other note is that some of these lee-days are over at That's What She Crafted, a blog combining their talents (with another lovely lady) into one ultra-awesome experience!  (FB page here.)

Thanks, ladies, for letting me include you in my blog shout-out post!  I can't wait to see what y'all have up your sleeves in the coming months!

                                         

Pattern Testing!!! Mouse House Creations!

Whew!  I had a long weekend up north, in Vancouver and Portland, visiting my old haunts, like Cafe Hibiscus, Bolt and Modern Domestic.  I'm saving Cool Cottons for two weekends from now, when I head back for the awesome Bolt sale :)  My husband and I had some nice time alone for a bit, too, which was great - while Camden played pool at her grandma's and grandpa's house....

Today, I'm excited to present not one, but TWO test projects for Mouse House Creations.  This is Hayley Crouse's first venture into pattern selling, and I'm excited to be a part of it.  She's been around for quite some time at Welcome to the Mouse House, her fun blog.  Over the years, she has blogged about her family, she has decorated and re-decorated (LOL) her house, and she has also tested for several other pattern designers, so, there are many neat projects to check out.  Also, she has written tutorials for other patterns of her own, and she's designed fun play areas for her children (envious much over here!).

The pattern I tested was the Norah dress, yet to be released, though keep yourself posted on her Facebook page, as it won't be too long before it's out.  The pattern is a quick, fun design.  You can go tunic, dress, collar, no collar, short sleeves, long sleeves, ties, no ties - things of that nature.  For both of mine, I did go long sleeves, ties and collars.  One is for Camden, and one is a fun surprise for her friend!

The first version is a lovely print I picked up 1.5-2 years ago, I swear.  I wasn't holding on to it, all "my precious"-like....I just had no idea what to do with it for the longest time.  And here we have it!  For the collar and tie, I wasn't thinking and did NOT interface, which I'm sad about, but I suppose life moves on.  Also, with this dress, which is Camden's, I did a zipper back, which drove me nuts due to my own silly errors...imagine lots of seam-ripping - though the final effect is lovely :)  Camden isn't a tall child, nor is she tiny.  She is 38.25 inches tall with a round belly.  I usually make things in a size 4 for at this point, though she's more of a 3 in the legs and a 4 in the waist/shirts.  She had tried on a size 5 version of the dress, and for some reason, when tracing and cutting, I went with a size 5, though I'd meant to do the 4.  No worries.  I think the 5 fits her lovely.  I did not lengthen the dress itself, though I had lengthened the sleeves a bit.  The pattern goes together nicely and quickly.

For this next version, which is a gift, I did a size 4, lengthened the sleeves a smidge and DID remember to use interfacing in the collar and tie, aha!  The results are, of course, much better!  Also, as the zipper was not an option included in the pattern, I wanted to make sure to do the button closure, which is also super cute!

Hayley was great to work with, and she busted her butt, helping us out with questions and looking over the pattern multiple times.  It was nice to see how closely she was working with her digitizer, too.  I super appreciate nicely-done pattern sheets in a pdf, and these are laid out beautifully!