Sewing in Grandmaville…

Hi everyone,

hope you had a fabulous weekend!
I sure did! – cuddling with our precious little granddaughter, taking her and her furry brother Oliver on a first stroll around the neighborhood, taking both dogs (Oliver and Marley) on a good nature walk, some gardening and yes – definitely some sewing too! All of it with some gorgeous Buffalo early summer weather – seventies, some breeze and clear, beautiful blue sky – can anyone ask for more??

Saturday afternoon stroll with my grands… (granddaughter and grand puppy – both such cuties!!)

 I can’t tell you enough how happy and full-hearted I felt during this little walk!!

Oh and see that stroller/car seat cover? Yes grandma made that too. Lauren found some good tutorials on Pinterest and I used this one (Cluck, Cluck , Sew blog)  in general, but then added a little window so we can see our little girl – it is covered with tulle to prevent bugs from coming in. It was really quick and easy to make and it is really useful – for wind, for sun…and definitely a great gift for any new mom!

Sunday morning was just so beautiful… This photo was taken at around 6:30 in the morning, while I was enjoying my first coffee and some glorious bird songs…these peaceful moments are something I really cherish and it does make for a good start of any day!

And then it was on to a nature walk with both big boy Marley and grand puppy Oliver! This is Ellicott Creek bike trail, our favorite (and close by) spot to walk. Right now wild Yellow flags (pond iris) are in full bloom!! Hence a rare occasion that my husband took the camera and I am in the photo too…he he.

Aren’t these so beautiful?!

 And Dame’s Rocket is starting to bloom too! I just LOVE when it is in all shades of purple!

A nice little “picnic” after the walk, for pups to have water and cool off. Love this photo of my husband! 🙂

So Marley prefers his water in a stream (or hose at home)…

… and then of course little Oliver had to have the same thing! Ha ha! (he is just too cute!!)

And then, the last part of Sunday – SEWING!! YAY!!
Have you friends ever work with VOILE? I know voile from my childhood, over in Europe, where sewing clothes (rather than buying) was much more common when I was a kid. My mom loved voile and we had lots of blouses and dresses from it. Now, thanks to this lovely revival of sewing, some fabric companies are printing many of for-quilts designed cottons also in cotton voile. Light, breezy, soft..it is really a dream!
One of my favorite fabric companies, Art Gallery Fabric has many beautiful voiles! And just recently, my friend Sandy over at Elmwood Village Fabric got some that I couldn’t resist… I know, I know – I AM on a fabric buying fast, but I did say at the beginning of it – anything for the baby is excluded!! So there… 😉

I found a great idea on Pinterest for the infinity scarf that can double as a breast-feeding cover, specially when mom and a baby are on the go, and thought to myself – voile would be perfect for that!!! Then my grandma-mode brain said – baby girl should have a matching dress when they are on the go!! See where I am going? He..he…
So even though this is not a tutorial, here is what I did:
– got 2 1/2 yards of two different voiles
– decided that 90″ (2 1/2 yards) is a bit too long for a scarf , so I cut off about 12″ from each fabric. The rest of the length I cut along the fold because I only wanted half if the width of the fabric (so I do have enough for TWO scarfs here!)
– I used those remaining 12″ of both fabrics to make my little granddaughter a dress… A reversible one too!! I used little outfit that I bought her (size for a 3 month old baby) as a source of a “pattern” – only to have something for that upper part – here it is all cut:

Time to sew…

I love using my open-toe applique foot when doing any kind of top stitching! It makes things easy to see and in this case, inside of the presser-foot was a perfect guide too.

Tiny little ruffles…these are all of 3″ long!! 🙂 Oh I just love it so much!

Even did some french seams for my little princess…

Yes my friends, this dress was a bit involved and maybe spending several hours on a little dress that can be worn only one or few times is unreasonable…but I loved every minute of it!!! 🙂 And I will do it again of course…

So here it is, all done – one infinity scarf for mom and matching dress for her little princess:

I had so much fun making this, I had to extend it by doing a little photo-shoot!
Hang the dress on the jewelery stand, out on my flat roof, by the flowering Golden chain tree…TA-DAH!! (silly, I know…)

 So one of the ruffled straps is fixed and the other one has a little snap, to facilitate dressing the baby (hence the little flower decoration – to hide the snap)

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And the other side:

I used 50wt Aurifil thread – this beautiful bold fuchsia on the top and gentle gray in the bobbin and the way I was stitching is that appropriate thread color would always be on the right side – pink on the right side of floral voile and gray on the right side of the blue voile – LOVED how that worked out!!

Infinity scarf for mom is nice and big, it will work well as a breast-feeding cover too, I hope!!
Puppy thinks it is a good place to snuggle too…

I have another scarf to make (for my daughter, so ALL the girls will have matching stuff! 🙂 ) and I will try to make a tutorial on how I did it!

So what do you think?
Did you try voile so far? Do you like it?
I have to say I am in love with it…not good news for my budget, but hey… what else is new? 🙂

I hope your weekend was full of sunshine and fun too – tell me what you did!
Have a wonderful week ahead,
Marija

#artgalleryfabric   #voile   #Aurifil   #babylove