Issie Top Blog Tour

Yay, another Sewpony blog tour, this time for the very versatile Issie Top Pattern – a sweet knit top, with optional ruffles and the ‘Rose collar’ optional add on. Joining me on the tour today are Pistolwhip & Kneesocksandgoldilocks .

I jumped at the chance to pattern test this top because:

1. I mean how can I not when I have my own ‘Issie/Isy’?
2. Sewpony patterns are gorgeous,
3. I love sewing with knits,
4. Ruffles.

Clearly, I found the sew enjoyable because I ended up making THREE tops (with plans for more!)

For my first one I used this gorgeous Art Gallery knit with Owls and blossom in the short sleeved option with no waist band and double side ruffles. I had meticulously fussy cut the front upper panel to feature the owls (or so I thought – turns out it was the back!) Not to matter, I still had enough for the bottom panel of the front and there’s the added bonus of that interest on the back. Who doesn’t want a pet owl on their shoulder?

I made my petite Isy (almost 7) a size 5 based on her measurements and it fits her perfectly. It was such a quick and easy sew that I was inspired to make more…

I know I’m biased, but isn’t she beautiful? She’s always had a kind of gracefulness/ dignity that’s shone out of her eyes.

For my second Issie, I wanted to sew a striped dress inspired in part by this breastfeeding dress I recently bought from Addison Clothing (as shown in the last photo in this post). I just love the clean classic styling of this dress. At the time of testing I hacked the pattern 2 ways, by making it sleeveless and also by adding the dress length. (There has since been a dress length add on.)

Finally, and in a bit of a departure from my normal (more muted) aesthetic I made my 4 year old, Pipi a My Little Pony (Rainbow Dash) inspired Issie Top. This time I made a long sleeved size 4 with a rainbow ruffle across the front. It is just so Pipi… and she LOVES it! (And can’t you just see the mischief and sunshine shining out of her eyes!?)

Want to sew your own Issie Top ? Now is the time to buy it because it is currently discounted by 10% during the blog tour with the code: ISSIERELEASE10 . 

If you want to follow along with the rest of the blog tour, the schedule is as follows:

MONDAY 23/10: anaaisID//frl.love//naaisgerief//

WEDNSEDAY 25/10: VINK//amore//MeToezie//

FRIDAY 27/10: Beletoile//Flaflinko//Froleintilia//Ariane//

MONDAY 30/10: Riddersenrozen//128//

WEDNESDAY 1/11: WithlovebyEva//ByDagbjort//Stannel//

FRIDAY 3/11: Nah-connection//DoGuincho//Groovybabyandmama//liiviundliivi//

MONDAY 6/11: Pistolwhip//Mendandmakenew//Kneesocksandgoldilocks//

WEDNESDAY 8/11: Creativecatoo//Justaddfabric//Casennina//
FRIDAY 10/11: Enjoyfulmakes//Kaatjenaaisels//Larth//Whileshewassleeping//

Thanks so much for having me and letting me test your pattern, Suz. I definitely see more “Issie’s” in my future!

Jen x

Cosmo Dress Blog Tour

I’ve long been an admirer of Suz from Sewpony’s sewing and patterns, but up until now I had never sewn one! What a travesty! Fortunately when Suz asked me to join in with the blog tour for her adorable Cosmo Dress this was rectified. I feel so honoured to be asked and to be amongst such a great calibre of fellow sewers…. speaking of which, be sure to check out today’s other posters: yaaritg, Knee Socks and Goldilocks, honderdachtentwintig.

The Cosmo is a lovely A-line dress in a classic style that can be made in sizes 12months –10 years. It has three rather sweet collar options or you can leave it plain as I have done. There are also a few different sleeve options and, optional piping on the front and an exposed zipper on the back. Although I’ve put in a few zips in my time, I’d never done and exposed one, it was so easy… and now I want to sew all the exposed zippers!

I really enjoyed the sew despite being a bit under the weather at the time. My little model is sick too, can you tell? She is such a trouper. Despite the fog in my head I managed to soldier on, largely due to the fact that Suz has provided such clear and concise instructions. There is even a video clip which shows you how to install the exposed zipper. Have I mentioned that I’m now in love with exposed zippers?

I sewed a size 6 using a beautiful grey double gauze swan fabric that I got from Miss Matatabi a while back (I think it’s a linen cotton blend), and I also had some scraps of the same print in a blush pink colour way so I used that for the nice deep pocket and the outside of the flutter sleeve. For the lining of the sleeve, piping and facings I used an Art Gallery fabric that I had in my stash – mustard with little white coat hangers. There are little yellow details in the swan fabric (the swan’s beaks and the centre of flowers) which ties in nicely with the mustard, I think.

I had all these grand plans of photographing Isabelle in this dress at the park surrounded my beautiful spring blossoms and magnolia trees… given that it’s the first day of Spring and all… but the weather put an end to my plans, so instead we have a girl dancing around in her bedroom and a few shots from the backyard before the rain set in. Ah well, at least the girl is a breeze to photograph!

Thank you so much to Suz from Sewpony for having me on your blog tour and encouraging me to sew the Cosmo! You too can sew your own – during the course of the blog tour your pattern here with 15% off price with code: COSMOTOUR. You had better get in quick though as today is the final day of the tour and tomorrow at 9pm AEST this deal is off!

Below are the links to all my other fellow blog tour sewers… make sure you check out their lovely blogs/ instagram accounts.

Happy sewing  J x

KaatjeNaaisels//Bel'Etoile//PetiteBoutdeChou//ByDagbjort//Havinsewmuchfun//

WenSJe//GiddyAnts//Flaflinko//Larth//PetrolandMint//DoolittleDesignsCo//Bellevi//

Amore//PimpYourPattern//Cas&Nina//Liivi&Liivi//Whileshewassleeping//

StraighGrain//Kneesocksandgoldilocks//Yaaritg//
MendandMakeNew//Honderdachtentwintig(128)

{Sewn} A Golden Bellbird Dress for Isabelle

This is the second time I’ve had the pleasure of sewing The Bellbird Dress by Below The Kowhai. A couple of months ago I sewed Sophie a size 1 using stunning Liberty of London fabric. This time I made a size 6 for Isabelle out another precious fabric, some mustard linen that I’d recently acquired from The Fabric Store. I’d bought this linen recently along with a blush pink and beautiful teal, with no particular project in mind (more like 100 possible projects), but it was on sale and it was beautiful, so it had to be mine!

Truth be told, although I intended sewing Isabelle a BellBird Dress eventually, this project wasn’t on my immediate ‘to sew’ list… but that all changed when I won a facebook competition for Isabelle to have her portrait taken by award winning and extremely talented photographer, Richard Wood. It was requested that she wear classic, almost old fashioned clothing, so rather than buy/ hire something I thought sewing this dress would fit the bill. The embroidery also added a nice touch I think.

I finished the dress on Thursday and Isabelle had the photo shoot done on Friday night. She was a complete natural, quite excited about the whole experience and I really enjoyed spending the time with her, just the two of us. Richard did an amazing job capturing Isabelle and sent through this amazing photo yesterday… doesn’t it look like an oil painting?

(If you want to get a similar portrait done by Richard then you can get more information and book it here. )

I’m really happy with how the dress turned out. It’s roomy enough to fit a merino underneath on a cold day and I think it should fit my petite girl for at least another year. The style is classic and timeless and the embroidery adds an almost heirloom quality to it.  I lined it with a scrap of light pink Swiss dot fabric, which I think works really well. … And the dress was given the ultimate seal of approval this morning when Isabelle decided to wear it to church. (I took the opportunity to snap a couple of photos by the lemon tree before we left.)

So there we have it, I sewed a dress and managed to blog about straight away. I haven’t managed that in a while! Next on my sewing agenda is a Cosmo Dress (pattern designed by the talented Suz of Sewpony) because I’m part of the Cosmo Blog tour.

What’s on your sewing table/ to make list at the moment?

Jen x

{Sewn} 2 x Playgroup Rompers

While pregnant with Sophie I discovered the Playgroup Romper Pattern by Fresh Stitch Patterns (a company that I’d not heard of before.) Although I didn’t know if I was having a girl or a boy, I knew that I had to snap up this gorgeous pattern straight away! (It also helped that they were having a sale meaning that I got this pattern and the Overnap Bodysuit for just a couple of dollars each!)

Apart from the obvious cuteness of this romper pattern with its bubble/ puffy legs etc, I really love it’s versatility … long sleeves/ sleeveless/ flutter sleeves/ peter pan collar or without … there are endless possibilities! I also have found it a great way to use little scraps of my favourite fabrics with the bodice panel option.

This is exactly what I did for my first one. I discovered that I had a larger scrap of my favourite Liberty of London ‘Betsy’ print and used that for the front and back bodice panel and a lovely light grey linen for the main. I made the 6-9 month size for Sophie to grow into in the Summer, sleeveless with the bubble bloomers (there are 2 bloomer options.)

It was a pretty simple sew and I’m very happy with how it turned out!

After making that romper my mind was awash with different fabric combinations and ideas for other rompers. And then I was sorting through my stash and stumbled upon this perfect shade of blush pink cotton (leftovers from when I made my sister a quilt 6 years ago!)… I knew I needed to make another!

Once again I made the 6-9 month size but mixed it up this time by adding flutter sleeves and attached a piece of lace trim down the middle of the front bodice.

Look at the little deer peeping through from the lining! ^

They were a lot of fun to make (and it was fun practicing my flat lay skills too! ;) ) I am resisting the urge to sew more as I think Miss Sophie might almost have enough Summer rompers now, well for this Summer at least; but I plan to sew some larger sized ones later.

… And now I leave you with my cute photobombing baby (she’s getting big, just over 3 months old now!)

Happy Sewing,

Jen x

{Sewn} A Liberty BellBird Dress

This is one of those projects that I actually sewed a little while back but just hadn’t got around to blogging … mostly in part to the fact that I intended to sew Isabelle a size 6 for her too and blog them together (watch this space.)

Anyway, back to this little dress! The pattern is the thing that inspired the sew. I’m not sure about you, but I tend to get inspired by either a pattern or some fabric (also I sew for pragmatism too, when items are needed – although that’s not quite as romantic!) The pattern is The BellBird dress by my friend, Sophie of Below the Kowhai, and was the first pattern she designed (and she did an amazing job! The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and I just love the end result.) Sophie has since put out the equally as inspiring Tui Pinafore (which I also intend to purchase and sew at some point – 3 matching pinnies for my girls perhaps?); and she also has more patterns in the pipeline – very exciting!

I made a size 1 for my little Sophie to wear next year, perhaps a first birthday dress? (Of course protected by a full body bib if she does a cake smash!) We will see! I opted for the sleeveless option (you can also choose to sew the trademark bell sleeves, I think I’ll do that next time). It also features pockets, that no doubt she’ll fill with smooshed raisins and other ‘treasures’ as toddlers tend to do! Also, there is an amazing embroidery option, whereby you can adorn the front bodice with lovely flowers – however I decided to let this gorgeous Liberty fabric do the talking!

Let’s just talk about that fabric for a minute – isn’t this Liberty print stunning? It was left over from this little vest that I made Pipi, and I was just waiting for the right project to come along. And I’d say it’s a match made in heaven, wouldn’t you agree?

What’s on your sewing table at the moment? Since making this dress, I’ve made a couple of baby rompers… which I will hopefully blog about and share with you soon.

Jen x

DIY Floral Mobile

Oh hey, look! I made a thing!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the current season of life that we’re in, but it’s nice once in a while to break up the continuous breastfeeding/nappy change/school run/cook and clean, with a little creativity. Of course creative inspiration always strikes right when I settle down to breastfeed (the Pinterest app on my phone may have something to do with that) – but it was nice this week to smash out one of those ideas that has been lurking round in my brain for a little while now.

I wanted to make Sophie a floral mobile. If you’re a long time follower of this blog you might remember the hot air balloon mobile that I made Pipi. Man, I’m a sucker for a theme, aren’t I? But I like a theme in a subtle, non over the top way (basically the opposite of the themed rooms in Extreme Makeover Home Edition – if you remember that show?! “Move that bus!”)

Anyway, this time around I seem to have loosely gone for a floral/ bohemian theme for our baby nook area – inspired in part by our Alphabets & Animals prints, Sophie’s Fox and Swan name banner and the Nani Iro floral mat that I made for Sophie. (See photos further down this post for the Alpha prints and name banner.)

This mobile is pretty simple, but I’ll give a basic ‘how to’ for those that are interested. I used the inner ring of an embroidery hoop and bought faux flowers and leaves from Spotlight, my local craft store. I choose the most realistic one that I could find. I went for the less is more philosophy and initially had less, but added some more greenery hanging down to add interest for Sophie to look at. (After all that is the purpose of a mobile, is it not!?)

I wound the greenery around the mobile and tied natural twine at four even points around the hoop in quite long lengths which can be trimmed later. I used the twine to most of the securing but also used a bit of hot glue too. I attached 4 faux peonies using the hot glue gun on the outside of the hoop at each of the four points where I’d wound the twine. (Before attaching I cut their stems off.) … And that’s pretty much it, I attached it to the ceiling by tying the four lengths of twine at the length I wanted and used a command hook to dangle it from.

… This is the view from below…

… And above (cue arsty photos) … peekaboo Sophie!

And while I’m here, I thought I’d share a bit more of our room/ Sophie’s baby nook…

Of course this blog post wouldn’t be complete without a little bit of Sophie spam, so here you go – in the words of Maui, “you’re welcome” – unless baby spam isn’t really your thing, in which case I wonder why you are reading a blog post about baby mobiles, but anywho!

What are you making at the moment?

I also have plans to try my hand at a macramé wall hall hanging and get a bit of sewing done too!

Thanks for reading,

Jen x