The Fancy Fancy Dress

Here's another one from the spring/summer sewing spree.

Emma calls Fancy Nancy "Fancy Fancy." It cracks me up too much to correct her. I miss the days when she said that cars go "weeeeee." No need to hurry her along with this one.

So, this dress has been deemed the Fancy Fancy dress. She wants to wear it All. The. Time. That's a win in my book. Once she's in it, she wants to nap or sleep in it. She wants to ride her tricycle in it and play in the mud in it. Unfortunately, its just a little too cumbersome to let her go on too many adventures in. I'd prefer it to stay in one piece for awhile longer.

I used The Cottage Mama's Party Dress pattern, halving the width of the sash. The instructions are well written with very proper sewing techniques. This isn't my first rodeo with Cottage Mama patterns. I've sewn a couple from her book. I tend to be a much lazier sewer and skip some of the "right" ways. This time, I followed her instructions to the letter. I didn't see a lot of difference with some of the things. However, running two gathering stitches may or may not have change my life. Mind blown!

The fabric is Michael Miller's The Little Starlettes in Navy and Coral. Please ignore the crooked line of heart buttons. I'd like to be able to say I've fixed the problem. Not so much...

Lindsay made this party dress into a top. I think I might give that a shot. I figure it will have all the fancy that Emma loves in a much more play friendly length.

A Pretty Little Pinafore

Today is another installment in my catching up on posting past projects. This little pinafore is just so sweet. I wish I had made Emma pinafores each summer! Not only are they great for the 100 degree, 1000% humidity days we have have, they layer well over long sleeved shirts in the winter!

I picked up both of these fabrics from a local yarn shop that experimented in carrying fabric. Apparently it didn't go well. When I stopped in, they were having a 30% off sale to clear out the inventory. Said inventory hadn't changed in more than a year. They even had a little bit of Flea Market Fancy that I was able to snag! I don't have the selvedge from the print, but I'm pretty sure it was Art Gallery. It feels too good not to be. The lining is Kona.

I got the pattern from Etsy. It's sized only for 3t. The 3t is still fitting pretty well. I think I can just print it scaled up a bit to eek out the next size or two. 

How to Yarn Tie a Quilt {or busting out old skills}

I tend to be a lazy quilter. I love the end results, but hate the process. This charm pack and yarn tied quilt is my kind of project. Minimal time, minimal repetitive actions, and pretty results.

Yarn tying is a simple process. It's something I learned to do in high school. The church I grew up in had a quilting club. They would make beautiful, yarn tied quilts for all newborns and graduating seniors. Bonnie, the woman who ran the quilting club, always mentored a high school girl. She set her sights on me, and boy was I lucky. Some Sunday's I'd stay after church to hang out with her and then other grandmother aged women. There was so much joy and wisdom in that room. I'm very glad to have had that experience. 

Bonnie always put me to work yarn tying quilts when I was there. After I dove in head first with no clue what I was doing, Bonnie showed me this simple, fast way to quilt with yarn.

You'll need a basted quilt, yarn, a yarn darner (like these) and scissors.

Start out by deciding where you want your yarn knots to be. Your batting should have a rating of how far apart you can quilt. Mine was 6 inches. Therefore, I made sure my knots were less than 6 inches apart. If it's not a simple pattern (like at the corners), mark with disappearing ink.

Thread your yarn darner with about three yards of yarn. This will keep you from having to rethread too often. Don't knot the end.



Take your yarn down through all three layers of the quilt. Then, bring it back up about a quarter inch over. Make sure you leave about a 4 inch tail with the end of your yarn.



Continue this process through a full row. Trim your yarn at the end, leaving a 4 inch tale.

Repeat the process until you've quilted the whole shebang.



Now, you're going to snip half way between each of your stitches.



Once you're done snipping you'll get to tying. How you knot is important. A simple knot will come undone in the laundry. You'll want to knot right over left and then left over right. Pull tightly. Continue through all the knots.



Now, trim your ends down to about 1/4 inch.

Bind with your preferred method. Then, throw your quilt into the wash (on gentle) with a tinny bit of soap. Dry on low or line dry and then enjoy all the wrinkly goodness that is a new quilt.

You might find me partying at:

Nap Time Creations, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Uncommon Designs, Tip Junkie, Living Well Spending Less, and Tatertots & Jello