snowflake pjs

snowflake pjs

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

last summer while in jackson hole for a friend's wedding i visited a local fabric store and picked up materials to make victor a flannel shirt, the scraps of which became the lil' man flannel. 

at the same time i came across some pretty awesome snowflake flannel. so i got a few yards with every intention of making holiday pj pants for the girls. however a month before the holidays my sister abby informed me that her girls (nora and etta) didn't like to wear pants to bed, preferring nightgowns. 

so like any good liberal arts graduate i had some iced coffee and came up with a plan b.

so very retro (part one)

so very retro (part one)

Maggie Kempner

a little while back vic's mom asked if i would like some vintage sewing notions and patterns. you see the mother of one of her friends had passed away and the friend could only part with her mother's things if she knew they were going to a good home.  

well i was happy to provide said home, and today i'll share some of the wonderful things i received.

baby gift

baby gift

Maggie Kempner
baby apparel, gifts and accessories

i'm the youngest of three girls and each of my two sisters has two daughters of their own. also my mother has a sister who also has three daughters (spaced similarly to us) and three of their four babies them have been girls.

so i guess you could say there is a lot of estrogen in our family.

100 hours dress

100 hours dress

Maggie Kempner
women's apparel

because of our age vic and i go to a lot of weddings these days. because we meet in college (same freshman dorm) a lot of these weddings have the similar guest lists.

last fall we had three weddings, three weekends in a row, all on the east coast.  by the time we got through the second (our fifth of the year) i was so sick of all my dresses i couldn't bear the thought of wearing any of them the next week, especially when half the guest list would be the same.

so i did the logical thing and decided to make a dress 100 hours before the ceremony.

a belated thank you (part one)

a belated thank you (part one)

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel, gifts and accessories

as previously mentioned my hippie parents didn't enforce a lot of rules. 

however there were guidelines they, well really my mom, believed everyone should follow: always drive slower and more carefully than you feel is necessary (especially in bad weather), perform at least one random act of kindness each and every day, don't leave candles or anything that burns unattended (better yet just don't burn anything inside), and always say thank you. 

toy tea bag tutorial

toy tea bag tutorial

Maggie Kempner
sewing tutorials, gifts and accessories

sometimes it's the simplest and easiest projects that bring my nieces the most joy. 

my sister sammie is exactly the kind of mom i, as the biggest recipient of her nurturing instincts for 26 years, always knew she would be. that is to say she's amazing. she's warm, caring, disciplined when need be, and most of all really fun. so when i see maya idolizing her, hanging on to her every word, and wanting nothing more than to be like sammie, i can totally relate.

croquet dresses

croquet dresses

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

a few years ago when i was just discovering the glory that is oliver + s patterns i went to visit vic's family in pennsylvania for the weekend. now i've already talked about how i find hand sewing to be a great way to bring your sewing when you travel. but another thing is pattern tracing.

when done right pattern tracing is time consuming, especially if the pattern has a lot of pieces. add into that doing the same pattern for multiple sizes and you're looking at hours and hours of work. fun work, but work. so i brought along the croquet dress pattern and traced both versions for all three girls that weekend. not a small task.

thankful for polka dots & music box dress

thankful for polka dots & music box dress

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

my third oliver + s style was the music box jumper, making all three girls grey polka dot versions for thanksgivng. 

the fabric is a quilting cotton from gather here. at the time I didn't know it was quilt backing (and thus 120 inches wide, more than double what normal fabric is) so i had a lot of it!

i probably should have started with this style, it's simple (a one scissor pattern) but most importantly, easy to get good results with, which is essential for beginners. 

i would also recommend using snaps for this dress if you are just starting out. button holes are really tricky (i was never able to get the hang of them on my old machine). however i found snaps to be a great alternative during my first year of sewing. 

birthday bunting tutorial

birthday bunting tutorial

Maggie Kempner
gifts and accessories, sewing tutorials

when vic and I did long distance for 819 days (but who counted) one of the few things i didn't like about visiting him in california was that i couldn't bring my sewing with me.  then i discovered you could do entire projects by hand. game changer. 

one of the early hand sewing projects i did was birthday bunting for the girls. when i referred to them as bunting vic was incredious, insisting they couldn't be as that was something baseball players did. #allboysfamily 

everyday love

everyday love

Maggie Kempner
women's apparel

sometimes aunt maggie needs to sew for herself. now in general i prefer to sew for kids over adults for a few reasons: 

  • kids clothing doesn't have to fit precisely (it's more about drawstrings and elastic waistbands, less darts and zippers). because this part is easier, i can focus my energy on trying new and different techniques, patterns, and fabrics. 
  • i'm not really a clothes girl, seriously if i could pull off that whole steve jobs uniform thing i would.
  • adult clothing takes a lot more fabric and time, which is tough for me to commit to. maybe i should explore that in therapy.
sunday brunch 1.0

sunday brunch 1.0

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel, baby apparel

fresh off my awesome introductory experience with the duggar dresses i was itching to try another style.

after consulting the internet and reading this queen of the flies post and this probably actually post i decided on a pattern for my second oliver + s adventure: the sunday brunch jacket. 

so armed with green canvas-esq fabric from gather here, some purple polka dot fabric from when I had gone to meet month old maya in north carolina, and a harpoon ginger wheat beer i set to work.

recent happenings

recent happenings

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel, gifts and accessories

for the past two months all but one of my blog posts have been about old projects. (i guess is the blog version of stash busting?)

while I still have a fair amount of posts lined up i wanted to end the month by sharing more recent pictures. some updates of things you've seen before and some previews of projects i've been working on.

my first class picnic tunic

my first class picnic tunic

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

oh man i love the class picnic tunic from oliver + s. more specifically, maya loves the class picnic tunic. it's perfect for her casual and comfortable style. i've made it for her second birthday, her third birthday, and her winter wardrobe. but this top came before all of those. 

fall 2013: after seeing gail's version here i had to try this style. so one friday night in boston armed with a dogfish head pumpkin beer and stash fabric from nora and etta's dolly's ergos, i dove in.

bubble tea dresses

bubble tea dresses

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

have i mentioned nora and etta are quite girly? well they are. i however am not. so it's a constant struggle to find fabrics that are sweet enough for them but not too saccharine for me.

when i saw this amy butler lark print at stonemountain & daughter i instantly knew two things: a) nora and etta would love wearing it and b) i wouldn't mind sewing it. so i picked up a few yards and waited for the right inspiration.

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