Christmas Picture Outfits

I having been dying to post these!  I was actually prepared this year and we had our Christmas pictures taken the week before Thanksgiving.  Sure, I stayed up until 3:00 am the night before finishing the outfits but it was so nice to have them done!  (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the “how to” on the outfits.)

 

I love how they all turned out!

 

 

 

I love how they got the boys to look like little cherubs.  Don’t be fooled!

 

My little girls, sweet as usual.

 

 

O.K. so here is the lowdown on what I did.
For the girls:  I bought this fabric last year after Christmas from Chez Ami and was just itching to finally use it.  I knew that I wanted cozy yet girly dresses in a Hanna Anderson like style.  Christine at From an Igloo posted this nice tutorial on how to make a cute twirl dress using knit fabric and it was just what I wanted.
Christine used the Lil Blue Boo Hoodie Pattern for her top.  I own this pattern too and highly recommend it.  See my post about it HERE.  However, it doesn’t go up to my girls’ size  and I was being chicken about guestimating up.

I looked through my patterns and found

McCall’s M6157

I like the gathered sleeves and the length of the bodice but I didn’t want it to cross over in the front like it does in the pattern.  I ended up cutting two of the back bodice pieces for each dress and then just cutting down the neckline a bit on the front bodice piece.  Once I had my top, I followed Christine’s tutorial for making the gathered twill skirt.

For the boys:  I wanted to make an applique using the fabric from the girls dresses.  At first, I was thinking maybe a snowman and having the polka dot fabric be his scarf and band on his hat. 

Then I googled boy’s Christmas appliques and found this cute little truck idea.  I like how it’s a bit more “boyish” and I love the button wheels.  I used all knit fabric so that I could just straight stitch the applique and not have to worry about fraying.  (Quick and simple was my goal as this was all happening at about 2:00 am after finishing the girls dresses.)  Go HERE for my tutorial on straight stitch applique.

Happy Holidays!

Lily and Thistle Paper Dolls

Are you looking for a unique and beautiful Christmas gift for a special little girl?  How about these adorable Lily and Thistle Paper Dolls.

I just love them and my girls do too.  Here they are receiving theirs last year.

They are totally customized to look like your little girl.  You choose the hair, eye and skin color as well as the hair style.  Your child’s name is even printed on the bottom.  She comes with a lovely pillowcase dress.

Then the fun really starts with all of the beautiful outfits that Hannah has created.  There are clothing lines for each season as well as Fairytale, Sports and Girls in Literature lines.  SO FUN!

Hannah also shares a great tip on her site about the “Amazing Sticky Strip”.  It is reusable tape that you can place on your doll and just stick the clothes to her rather than using the tabs.  The tape can be used over and over again and if it looses it’s stick you can just wash it and it is good as new!  This made playing with the dolls so much easier for my girls.  It also helped when it came to cutting out the outfits because they could just cut the tabs on the clothing right off.  What a great idea!

Hannah also offers come cute freebies on her blog HERE.  Including this Mabel doll so that your little one’s doll can have a playmate!

Happy Playing!

P.S. There are also boy paper dolls and clothing lines so these would make a great gift for a little boy too.

Pumpkin Applique

(For my more detailed posts on applique “how to”, look HERE for straight stitch and HERE for satin sitch.)


I was in the mood for a quick sewing project so I made up a couple of these Pumpkin Applique T-shirts.  The applique pattern is from Kimberbell Kids and is super easy.

I used Wonder Under to adhere the pieces to the shirt and then I just did a straight stitch around each piece.  It will fray a bit over time but I like that look.  Super easy and super quick!

I also like that the applique isn’t specifically for Halloween so that it can be worn all fall.

Happy Sewing!

No Pattern Knit Pants

My girls only wear knit leggings and I have been meaning to make them some for a long time.  I figured it couldn’t be that hard and now that I have sewn with knits I few times I wanted to give it a go.  For my more detailed post about sewing with knits, please go HERE.


There are several patterns out there for sewing leggings but I decided to try the FREE tutorial on From an Igloo.  I really love this blog and am so sad that Christine isn’t blogging anymore but there are so many wonderful tutorials on there that you should really go check it out!


Anyway, back to the pants.  Christine gives terrific instructions for making your own pattern using a pair of leggings that fit your child.  I have always been a little scared to try this method but knits are so forgiving because they stretch.


Well it worked out great!  You do need to remember to add 1/4” to 1/2” on all sides for seam allowance.  I added a bit more as the pants I used for my pattern were getting to be a bit snug on my girls.

Well they love their groovy knit pants! 

I really like that they have a fold down yoga style top to them rather than an elastic waistband.  Super comfy!

 

I used the same fabric as in the tutorial for two reasons. 
A.) I really liked it! 
B.) I wanted to make sure that the fabric that I chose had the right amount of lycra in it. 
This fabric was found on Chez Ami.  Occasionally , I will by knit fabric at Joann’s or the discount fabric warehouse near my home.  However, the fabric at Chez Ami is far superior and worth the investment in my opinion.
I hope that you give these a try.  They were super easy!

Happy  Sewing!