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Princess dresses complete!!!! I finally got the velcro put in them. These were all made using Simplicity patter 5705. I have one three year old who is gonna freak out!!

Daughter’s costume is complete and she is SUPER excited. She couldn’t wait to try it on last night and kept looking in the mirror.

Costume was made from Simplicity pattern 2561. The hat I made from a floppy hat pattern I had found on line. I just tacked up the sides.

You can see better pics of that here.

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I am officially done with my husbands pirate costume. I don’t have a dress form in his size so it looks a little funny on my size 4 dress form. The shoulders are a bit droopy.

The shirt is made of muslin that I tea dyed, coat is made of black velvet and the pants are made of a brown micro fiber polyester. I was in such a hurry to get this done that I forget to take pictures of the costume before I distressed the material.

This pattern calls for 24 buttons. Buttons are expensive. The larger they are and the more ornate they are the more expensive they get. So, because it is just a costume, I decided to make the buttons. They are made out a a 1″ dowel rod. I used a miter saw to cut slivers of dowel rod. I must have cut about 40 of them to get 24 decent looking ones. I sanded them, painted them, sanded them again and then drilled holes in the center. I think they turned out great, perfect for a pirate. $2.00 spent plus my time of making them was totally worth it since it would have cost over $30 to buy buttons.

Coat closed without pistols and sword.

I went to Hobby Lobby last night to pick up some vinyl and red cotton. I decided to search for stuff that I could add to the costume to plus it up a bit. I looked all over the store. I came across these metal keys in the home decor area. PERFECT! I bought them, brought them home and added a leather loop to them so they can slide onto the belt. Looks pretty cool.

While at the Renaissance Festival a couple of weeks ago we noticed a lot of the actors had metal tankards, beer steins, whatever you want to call them, tied to dresses, belts and satchels. No where were they selling these. Bummer. It would have created a nice sound with the keys and a cup clanging around. I did find some nice corked bottles at Hobby Lobby but didn’t get any. I was afraid of something like that getting broken.

Used Simplicity pattern 4923.

I watched the royal wedding today to see not only the wedding dress but to see all the crazy hats. Here are some hat patterns from Vogue that would be fun to make.

Vogue pattern 8052

Vogue pattern 7464

I love ModCloth.com and the vintage style dresses they carry. So I decided to make some vintagey inspired looking dresses. I made two dresses from Butterick pattern 4443. A super easy pattern. In fact I think it says easy on the envelope. I chose to make two sleeved dresses one with v-neck and one with a boat neck. I decided they’d look really nice with some piping on the sleeves and neckline. I added a faux pocket to the turquoise and red dress.

This one is my favorite. All that’s missing is a cute apron and red pumps.

Detail of the faux pocket.

Butterick 4443

I went a little crazy and made three more dresses, like my Navy and a turquoise polkadot dress, from Simplicity pattern 2922.

I really like how pretty this fabric is. I chose to make this one without the sleeve bands. I added mother of pearl buttons on the sleeves above the slits.

This fabric is AWESOME! I want to draw little faces on the raindrops : )

Button detail on collar.

Here’s the last dress in a much larger print, which I think looks great too. I’ll finish this look off with wedged sandals.

My only problem now is deciding which one to wear first. : )

Now on to finish working on the chair rail in the hallway.

Here is a before pic of the fabric. I’ve had some luck with Rit dye in the past but most of the time it fades with multiple washings. The website has a Color Formula Guide which I thought was very handy if you wanted to mix to get a specific color. I have used some better dyes in the past at work but it’s not something I want to try at home. I don’t really have the set up for that. I would like to try Dylon dye, I’ve heard the results are really vivid.

So I decided to do the washing machine dyeing technique. Stove would have been better but that makes me nervous with a three year old running around. I followed the instructions exactly. Before I started I did pre-wash my fabric in hot water. Then I took it out of the machine, got the dye all ready in the machine like the backage says too, and slowly added my wet fabric back into the machine.

I was very happy with the results. I figure if it should fade I can always just re-dye it. The only difference between the fabric I saw and the fabric I dyed was that the fabric I saw had larger polka dots. I think I will be doing more of this.

Here is the finished dress. It turned out so well and fits great. So great I’m working on four others that are variations of the pattern.

It’s not very noticeable in the pic, but I used a teal colored thread for all the top-stitching. It’s a nice subtle detail. This dress also has pockets!. It looks cute with a skinny gold belt too.

I really like the open slit in the sleeves. It’s just one of the variations of the pattern. Decided the sleeve needed a little button too.

I used Simplicity pattern 2922. I bought this two years ago to make the sleeves version. My measurements are between a 10 and 12 based on the pattern info. So I cut out a 10 for the bodice and started cutting a 10 for the skirt and finished cutting on the 12 line.

This is what I mean when I said I started cutting a 10 but ended the cut on the 12 line. I think most people do this. It prevents having to alter after the garment is complete. I actually didn’t start doing this till about 2 years ago.

Here is the dress I finished to match the doll dress. I used Simplicity pattern 9497. Some altering to the pattern had to be made to add the stripe bands at the sleeve, waist, and bottom. I think I’m going to have to get pics taken of my daughter and her doll together wearing their matching outfits.

I also happened to finish up some spring/summer dresses as well. I love this wiener dog fabric.

Cute dress for St. Patrick’s day.

Dress for Valentine’s day. There are actually tiny hearts in the print of the fabric.

Both these dresses are great for the holidays coming up but don’t scream Val. or St.Pats and will work through out the rest of the spring and summer.

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For her birthday my daughter wanted a Dora cake. So we are going with a Mexican Fiesta/Dora theme. A lot of the Dora decorations are kinda yucky so that’s why we’re going Mexican Fiesta. We’ll do cute mexican banners, a pinata, and balloons. I also decided to design the invites because I didn’t like the Dora invites that are available.

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For the doll and all her clothes I made a doll box. I originally was looking to buy one but found they are crazy expensive and that’s when I decided I could probably make one myself. I am very happy with it, however, I wish I had made it about 2″ wider.

This pic shows the wood laying in place before I glued and nailed it all together.

Before paint.

All painted and looking all girly. The outside is painted a cream. The inside is covered in a cream and pink wallpaper. Upper shelf and hanger bar are pink. The chest of drawers is removeable. In fact, I found it at Hobby Lobby in their unfinished wood aisle. Payed 4 buck for it! And it fits perfectly.

Box measures 12″ wide x 27″ tall.

So one of my many projects is complete. I’ve been working on a set of doll clothes for my daughter for her 3rd bday. She’ll be getting this 18″ madame Alexander doll too. She’s not yet ready for an Am. Girl doll and I think they are a bit pricey.

I was able to use up a lot of fabric scraps I had laying around, which was nice. I hate parting with a descent size scrap. Now I have a use for them. I bought a few doll patterns but mostly used the original Am. Girl clothing patterns that you could purchase back in the 90′s. Now not available. I found PDF’s of them here. It might seem really tedious to some to make doll clothing, but I found it really enjoyable. To me it was kind of like mini costumes.

Next project i to finish up the bedding for the doll and make a doll storage box.

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I’ve been meaning to post these pics of how the Santa suit turned out.  I was very happy how my husband looked. We did end up putting a pillow under the coat. And at the last minute I made a bag and stuffed a bunch of pillows in it and then we just put the gifts on top of them.

I have quite a few projects I’m working on simultaneously. None of those are plush related though. I tend to use late winter, early spring to work on other projects I’d like to get done before the big plush show season starts up again. At some point I’d like to make some plushies for myself. It seems like I only make for other people and never myself. I’ll see if I can squeeze that in too.

I just finished up the Santa suit my husband will be wearing Christmas Eve to surprise my 2 1/2yr old.  I used Simplicity pattern 2542, chose option B but shortened it about 5 inches.

Instead of buying expensive Santa boots, I found some cheap rain boots and added fur trim that is removable.

Not to bad of a wig.