3 More Magnolia Tops

I finished sewing three more tops yesterday. They are all size 14, with short sleeves and no modifications. This is definitely a favorite pattern as I have four more Magnolias (3 dresses and a top) on my sewing table that I'm working on. They're for the two youngest girls and hopefully I will finish them in the next day or two.

Three More Magnolias

I finished sewing three more Magnolias yesterday evening after working on them in my spare time throughout the weekend. Using a very lightweight floral knit for the tops, I made a size 6 and a 14.

I cut the long sleeves into 3/4 length for one and short sleeves on the other top. The top has a really pretty fit and both of my girls loved them.

For the dress I made a size 4 with long sleeves and made it from the same mid-lightweight striped knit from the first dress so the littlest girls can match each other.

For the dress I made a size 4 with long sleeves and made it from the same mid-lightweight striped knit from the first dress so the littlest girls can match. I just adore this pattern. I especially love that I don't need any knit ribbing for sleeve cuffs or a neckband. The fact that this pattern uses a lined bodice is ingenious and makes it so I can use really lightweight knit and still get a lovely result. I'm already planning to make more dresses and tops, this pattern is wonderful!

The Magnolia Dress

I finished sewing this cute dress quite late last night because most of my sewing gets done late into the night. I will admit, once I was done, it looked nice on the hanger but not all that spectacular. That is, until my daughter put it on...then it looked simply beautiful on her and I instantly knew I wanted to sew a whole bunch more of these gorgeous dresses. The style of the dress itself is quite simple looking but the look of it when worn is perfection. And let's not forget the twirl factor! My little girls love "twirl" and the circle skirt on this dress delivers. I am off to sew more of these beauties :) This is the Magnolia dress by Little Lizard King from their new collection 'Into the Meadow'.

First Submarine Pullover

I finished sewing this pullover last night and I'm very pleased with the outcome. It's the Submarine Pullover by Shwin Designs. I made it it a size 8 with a very stable knit fabric in a. Normally I would have sewn a size 10 for my 9 year old son, but this pattern only goes up to a size 8 and the measurements listed on the pattern that stated that the finished pullover would fit a chest size 1 1/2 inches larger than my son's, so I trusted it and went forward. and happily it was right! I struggled mightily with the placket on the front of the pullover, it was not very cooperative, although it might have been made more difficult with the knit fabric. The pattern is written for a woven fabric but has a hack posted on the blog showing a sweatshirt version sewn up by the pattern designer. She does mention it can be a bit fiddly to use a stretchy fabric when sewing this so I knew going in that this might be an issue, and she was most definitely right. But it has not discouraged me from wanting to sew this pattern again, I already have several more planned in both a stable knit and some wovens for both my 9 year old and 2 year old boys. I truly loved the final outcome I got with this handsome pullover and I would love to make more of them.

A Simple Flannel Nightgown

Last night I sewed up a nightgown for Jensen using the 'Matilda' dress pattern by Violette Field Threads. I used a soft flannel fabric for warmth and left out the elastic at the waist for comfort when sleeping. This is the 6th nightgown I have made using this simple and yet versatile pattern. Love it!

Dinosaur Quilt and Pillowcase

My 2 year old son is obsessed with all things dinosaur and I thought it would be fun to make him a dinosaur quilt of his very own. I had to hunt this fabric down on ebay and managed to get 2 yards of it for only $12 shipped to my door. I divided the fabric into two pieces, using the largest one as the quilt top.

I backed it with an aqua colored flannel print for an extra snuggly feeling and I used Warm & Natural cotton batting. I quilted it on my machine and bound the edges with a solid cotton in a darker aqua. Using the smaller piece of fabric,I made him a matching pillowcase, trimming it with matching cotton fabrics for the cuff. He loves it and it's the perfect size for him to use in his crib each night.

From Duvet To Quilt

I bought a lovely king size duvet cover off of Amazon for the crazy price of $15 (with Prime). It was made of 100% cotton and was very soft and well made. How could I pass it up at that price! I bought it intending to turn it into a lightweight quilt for my bed, which I did! First I laid it out to make sure it laid flat, and it did. I unpicked the stitching for the flange all along the edges, turned it inside out and laid it out on the floor.

Once I had it as flat as I could get it, I sprayed basting spray in sections and placed cotton batting on it, working my way from one end to the other. Once the batting was as secure as I could get it with the spray, I flipped the duvet right-side-out and again, spread it out as flat as I could. Then I pinned it all over with jumbo quilt safety pins to baste the layers together and keep everything in place and decrease shifting as much as possible. Then, using a simple whipstitch, I sewed the duvet opening closed from end to end (it was an evelope opening that ran the width of the duvet, on the underside of of it about 12 inches up from the bottom edge). Once that was done I put the whole thing up on my sewing machine and, using my special quilting foot, I did free-motion quilting all over the entire thing. I did it in sections as much as possible to try and keep it manageable.

Because I was using a classic cotton batting and not a fluffy polyester batting, it made the quilting process much easier and I was able to quilt the entire king sized quilt by myself on my home machine. I can't say that using a duvet to turn into a quilt will yield easy results every time, but this duvet happened to be quite well made and everything was squared up and it laid very flat, so for this project everything seemed to be in my favor. And it was a fairly quick project too, I started it this morning and I was able to finish all of the quilting and sewing in the evening this same day.
**The second picture was taken several days after this was posted and added later. It shows the quilt after I washed and dried it to get it to shrink up with that classic soft, crinkled look I love on quilts so much. I added this second picture at a later date.