Skirt-o-rama

About a month ago, I started making a bunch of skirts for E with the hopes that spring would soon be here, and that we could finally make a serious effort to start potty-training.  Well hurrah, hooray!  Both have finally come! 

Here are a few of the skirts I've made.  These whipped up very quickly, especially with my ruffler foot. ;)

Here is E's favorite, mostly because it looks like the one that her plush Minnie Mouse wears.  It was the quickest and easiest to make, mostly because I just did a quick rolled hem on the bottom and a wide band for elastic casing at the top.

This is not an uncommon look nowadays:

This skirt was supposed to be part of her birthday outfit, and I even had a matching "3" applique shirt embroidered by Kenzie Kouture, but of course, when the actual day came, E insisted on wearing the Minnie skirt. *sigh*

I did, however, manage to get her to wear the complete outfit to school one day, so here's a pic I managed to snap as she tore around the house like a maniac.  Sorry for the slight blur.  She's fast.

This is probably my favorite skirt so far.  I love the skull fabric!  I think I also realized after making this one that I prefer the drop-waist style.

 

I actually made this skirt specifically for E's 3-year-old photo shoot in Deep Ellum with our favorite photographer.  I also commissioned another embroidered shirt from Kenzie Kouture to match, this time with heart & crossbones.  Here is my big girl, in her "model" pose. ;)

 

And I can't resist including this shot of T and I, with our monkey:

 

Now that we are potty-training full force, I'm anticipating a lot more skirts and dresses for spring and summer!

Are you sick of aprons yet?

I hope not, because here are two more, and I've got at least four more to make!  These were both commissions by friends and I'm absolutely in love with how they turned out, especially since these are two of my absolute favorite fabrics.  As before, the embroidery was done by my friend Chrystyna, of Kenzie Kouture.  She's done a number of aprons and appliqued shirts for me, and they have all turned out absolutely gorgeous!

 

 

If you're interested in ordering an apron, please email me at craftyasiangirl@gmail.com. :)

More aprons, plus a little sewing tip

As I said before, March is birthday madness around here!  Here are two more aprons I made as birthday gifts, this time for a couple of sweet boys.  Just like with the last set, they are reversible, with the backside using the same fabric as the straps & pockets.  I love how these turned out!  It's cool to see how something so simple can have so many different looks just based on fabric choices.  Although I have to say, I never realized just how hard it is to find boy-ish looking fabrics!  Kudos to all you sewing mommas of boys!  I don't know how you do it!  I'm feeling pretty lucky to have a little girl right now. ;)

Now onto the tip:

So topstitching was something I always absolutely hated doing.  I used to just skip it, but it really does make things look more professional and finished, so I felt compelled to keep trying.  I'm a bit OCD though, and I felt like I could never really get an even, straight line, so I spent a lot of time ripping and re-stitching.  Super sucky. :P

But when I bought my new machine last year, it came with a "new owner's lesson" which provided tons of super-useful tips.  One of them was how to topstitch using the blind hem foot that came with my machine, which worked great, but only if I had to stitch to the left side, not the right.  But then I happened to get a stitch-in-the-ditch foot as part of a quilting set, and I now have perfect topstitching every time!  

So I figured it's about time I passed it on: get yourself a stitch-in-the-ditch foot.  It's usually used for quilting and looks like this:

That little ridge in the center is normally used to keep your needle lined up with the seam or "ditch" as you quilt.  But if you put the edge of your item against one side of the guide and then move your needle to the same side (assuming your machine has this capability), you can stitch extremely close to the edge and never worry about veering off in one direction or the other because the guide in the center keeps you sewing in a perfectly straight line.  It's like magic!