A Valentine's Dress

Way back last spring I posted about sewing up some Geranium Dresses for our soon to be baby girl. Fast forward a year later and baby girl is here, growing up and a joy to be around. Those old Geranium dresses can't begin to fit around her chubby growing self now. 

A sweet friend of mine sent me a couple of yards of this adorable Riley Blake print, and suggested that I could use it to make a Valentine's dress for E. Oh how right she was! The Geranium Dress, as I discovered before is such a satisfyingly quick sew and you could easily put together a couple of them in an evening.

Considering how sensitive babies can be when it comes to tags and things rubbing on their skin, I had to finish the seams. I have absolutely no idea what this technique is called, it's so not fancy or technical. It involves me press the seam open, then folding one side of the seam down, stitching it down, then repeating the other side. You do see two lines of stitching on the right side of the dress, but it's easy and functions well.

Just for fun I added some pom pom trim around the bottom hem. 

This pattern is quickly becoming a fave! I think I may give one of Rae's women's garments a go next. I do love how the dress is such simple lines but you could easily dress it up with different fabrics and trims. Also, it doesn't get in the way of a baby girl with exploring to do!

Sandra Saddle Bag

Well Hellooo! It's been awhile. My poor neglected blog is still here, and now after the arrival of Miss E 9 months ago, life is finally entering a "new" normal which means I have been slowly able to start sewing again (YAY). This is Sandra, one of the first bags I have sewn since last spring. 

For Christmas, my amazing husband bought me a new machine (a Janome HD3000, which is a whole post in itself, but I adore her). As this machine is a mechanical machine and much more heavy duty, I was able to start playing around with some vinyl.

Using my walking foot (which is a cheapie from Amazon) and remembering not to pin the vinyl, I was very happy with the results of my first vinyl strap!

I can honestly say it was so much less difficult than I imagined. Isn't that how a lot of things are? Much scarier in your head than in real life. 

The pattern is the Sandra Saddle Bag by Swoon Patterns  she was a fairly quick sew, with fairly straight forward directions. I was able to complete it in about an evening. The fabric is an Art Gallery print from the Jungle Ave line by Sara Lawson and the vinyl was from fabric.com. 

Overall, I was happy with the end result, but I am hopeless at reading the finished dimensions of bags and actually translating them to real life terms. I was disappointed in the final size, as Sandra is at best a medium size handbag, and I am forever a big bag lover.

Now that I've finally conquered some of my fears with vinyl, I am anxious to continue to use it in future projects. Happy Sewing!