a year in review

It is the time of the year for review, "a best of",

it does sound a little intense,

so I will keep it short, just the 5 projects the most seen.

1) the advent calendar of my 12 days of mittens,

I must say I am really pleased about that one,

as it was all made/thought by me!

2) the doll bed, and the take-over by Bear

I have seen quite a few of these beds in blogland,

very popular tutorial from Anna!

3) the sewing machine cover with appliqued circles

Again I totally followed a tutorial

but the use was a little original,

even if my mom thinks it is too pretty to cover her machine!

4) Miss C.'s musketeer costume

I did not make up that one either,

just sewed it! At least Miss C. loved it!

The doll version turned out quite nice too!

5) the linen-Liberty of London basket

A basket made of my new love combination: 

linen and Liberty of London fabric, and solid,

a little unexpected for me, but the solids totally balance

all the flowers from the Liberty!

This year has been a great sewing/crafting adventure,
complete with a move to the DC area.
Now that we are settled in our new house,
it is time to do some more work to it,
kitchen I am calling your name!
Of course I will keep sewing,
I even hope I can sew for myself,
it will be quite a challenge!
I am ready for the New Year.....

Happy sewing!

my goodies

Santa's visit was good,

once again we must have all been nice!

Instead of writing about the kids' point of view,

I want to share my "loot"!

I have been wanting to read this book for a while,

and trying these patterns from Colette Patterns,

 after all I should try sewing for myself for a change,

it could be hard but that would made a great new year resolution.

And of course I received some beautiful fabric.

I can see some fancy projects been done here,

well at least I will try.

I am now off to cleaning my sewing room,

Christmas sewing has left a huge mess

and I need space to store these cuties!

Happy sewing!

Joyeux Noel

Je vous souhaite un joyeux Noel.

I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Morgane

sneak peek

I wish I could share some more Christmas projects

I have been working on,

but it is still too early!

So here are a few sneak peeks of my busy work:

I would like to make one more outfit for Miss C.'s doll,
to go with her new trunk,
but I am not sure I have it in me!

There are still 2 more days of school,
should I take the time to sew or to clean the house
and make cookies...?
I guess time will tell!

Happy sewing!

mini Rapunzel and a trunk

Yesterday I showed you the 2 outfits I made

for Miss C's dolls,

well the same doll is back to show you what I won recently:

a steamer trunk by The Queen's Treasures.

I rarely entered giveaway, but I was really interested

in this one by Doll Diaries.

I was not disappointed, it is beautiful,

thank you again Char!

So cute, just the perfect gift for Miss C.

Then I realized I had to make more doll clothes,

fancy doll clothes!

I went with a Rapunzel outfit!

After making a big Rapunzel gown, I had everything

to sew a mini version!

Here are the clothes getting out of the trunk,

and Rapunzel in all her glory!

(with Long Nose, Miss C. has a way with naming dogs!)

I made it a lot simpler than the Cinderella dress from 2 years ago.

I used the same pattern than for the witch costume from last year,

the Sew Boutique 4 Dolly Volume 5 pattern from You Can Make This

for the top and corset.

The skirt is just made of a width of fabric, with an elastic at the waist

and some lace at the bottom.

It is a 3-piece outfit, very easy to put on and off,

the fabrics are leftover from Miss C.'s costume,

so exactly the same!

I used the velvet only for the corset, instead of the entire bodice

of the dress.

I hope she likes it,

at least the dolls and I had fun making it,

the dogs seem OK with it too!!!

Happy sewing!

sewing doll clothes

For the past few days, I have been making
doll clothes for Miss C. as a Christmas present.

To make them extra special and fun,

I used some of her old clothes and turned them

into doll clothes.

She has loved her "Paris" outfit from Janie and Jack,

she wore it many years, so it was fun to reuse it!

The print for the legging is the right size,

the difficulty was finding enough fabric for the pattern piece

and not too worn out fabric.

I used the McCall's pattern 5775.

For the T-shirt, I used the McCall's pattern 6451.

The scale is a little off, it was difficult to position the pattern piece

to have the appliques at the right place.

The other outfit is also made from Miss C.'s old legging,
she has a wild print obsession!
I reused the legging pattern,
it is an easy project, and it does not need to be perfect,
have you ever check out your kids' legging?
not perfect at all!

The sweater is made from an old sweater of mine that got washed
too many times, and shrink.
I used the Simplicity pattern 4297.
I was able to use the scallop edge of the sweater for the bottom,
the sleeves and the collar.
I also made a little headband with some leftover, perfect to hold back
the doll's hair.

For the scene, I used a bench that I purchased this summer at Michaels,
it is pretty much the right size for the girls.
During the summer, Miss C and I also "planted" some flowers:

We followed these tutorials for the faux dirt

and the faux plants,
it works out very nicely.

I hope she likes these outfits,
they resemble her very much!

Tomorrow (hopefully) I will share

another outfit and something I won!

Happy sewing!

Ninjago ornament

When it rains, it pours!

I know, I did it again!

I saw it and I sewed it!

I just followed this tutorial from Wee Folk Art,

and make this great ornament!

I am actually planning to use it as a tag on a Lego present.

And like in the case of the Boba Fett ornament,
a kid tagged along: this time Brick master decided to participate.
He made the white ninja, he used the same pattern
and did most of the work himself,

including all the hand stitching.

I did the embroidery (eyes and straps).

He designed the little emblem for the white ninja.

This was a great son-mother project,

it took us a couple hours but we are happy and proud of the result.

Happy sewing!

Boba Fett ornament

This is another one of the project that I saw

and just had to make:

the Boba Fett ornament from While Wearing Heels.

So I did and there it is:

I hand stitched all the felt pieces
I am not a glue person (see more here!)
I used this great idea to cut the felt: tape,
it is such a great help when working on small precise pieces!

While I was working, Miss C. came to hang out.
After a few minutes of watching, she ran downstairs to steal the Darth Wader cookie cutter,
ran back up, and started tracing around it.
She then asked if she could have some black felt (of course she could!),
she used her made-up pattern and cut 2 black head.
Then she decided to do some embroidery for the mouth
and to applique some eyes.
She sewed partially around the face and stuffed it,
then finished sewing it by machine (I did help a little here).
Wow, I am so proud of her work,
she made it for her brother as a Christmas present,
she is quite the artist...

Brick master is going to be one lucky boy!

Happy sewing!

display of Holiday cards

We have started to receive Holidays cards,

and well wishes from Family and Friends.

While we do not have a pretty fridge,

and putting the cards on it would improve it,

I decided to go a more interesting way:

(I used clips from IKEA, originally from our old basement)

I used my tree from the my advent calendar.

I know, you are thinking: wait how about the calendar?

well it turned out that I like it,

but not my kids!

They went the Lego way of course!

Here for a reality check!

At least we are still counting the days!

Just 8 more days!
Oh I better keep sewing!

Happy days!

this year Christmas mug rugs

Last year, I made a few mug rugs as presents,

here and here,

they were cute and successful,

both from a sewing and receiving point of view!

Of course I made some more,

but there are not going to the same people,

no need to worry my friends!

One of my favorites is this one:

little hexagons appliqued to the background.

You might have seen this one earlier here.

This year, instead of stitching the hexagons together, I used wonder under first,

then cut the shape and appliqued them to the background.

With invisible thread, I zigzagged on all the hexagons.

After that I finished the mug rug as usual, and quilted then diagonally.

I also reused the same pattern from last year,

in a very traditional red Christmas/poinsettia fabric.

And it goes so well with the red mittens!

Another addition to the mug rug is of course,

the coffee cozy!

I talked about it during the 12 days of mitten: day 5,

the perfect teacher gift!

And finally, I came up with a simple design:

just bands of background fabric with a print in between.

I think it turned out quite nice!

I am so ready for a nice cup of tea and a slice of panettone!

Happy sewing!

laundry bag

After making the linen lingerie bags,

 hedgehog and mushroom,

I realized it works great to go on a trip/vacation,

but what to do on the way back?

Use a plastic bag, like a grocery bag?

NO, that would not do!

What was needed was a laundry bag,

as beautiful as the lingerie bag!

So I made drawstring bags using this tutorial from In Color order,

like the Christmas one I made earlier.

I made them larger so that there is space to store

those dirty things.

I used the same fabric: linen, print, and kona cotton for the inside,

the tie is coordinated to the button of the lingerie bag.

It folds nicely and does not take a lot of space in the suit case,

perfect ensemble!

Wanna see the hedgehog version?

here it is:

I am not sure which version I prefer,

I guess it does not matter, there are not for me!

One of this day, I will make some for myself...

until then, anybody ready for a trip?

Happy sewing!