All tagged roller skate

five {relatively} easy techniques to make your sewing more professional

i think of my early sewing projects like i think of high school: sure at the time i thought i had it figured out and was doing a bang up job, but man there were some cringe worthy situations.

however unlike my high school experiences i am better for it and am willing to talk about them. so i thought i would put together a list of my favorite techniques and tips that i've found make my sewing more professional. 

polka dots for maya (part 1)

a few days ago i texted my sister and mom asking if they had any picture of maya in a few outfits so i could blog about them. it went something like this:

me: do you have any pictures of maya in that red polka dot dress?

me: what about that orange and purple [polka dot] long sleeved dress?

me: or that orange and white polka dot skirt?

me: also the green [polka dot] top with the purple accent and that purple and white [polka dot] top?

it was around this time i realized i should probably examine my relationship with polka dots.

chevron dresses

beginners luck. that's what i had the first time i made the roller skate dress by oliver + s.

i got this chevron print at the fabric depot in portland oregon when i took nora to pick out materials for thefairy sisters dresses. i had originally planned to just dresses for nora and etta, but realized pretty quickly i couldn't exclude maya. so i planned my cutting and was able to squeeze out an additional dress from my limited fabric.

let me tell you getting the chevrons to match up was not easy, but somehow (let's give credit to the watermelon beer i was drinking and my critical thinking skills, but mostly the beer) it all came together perfectly. 

back to school 2013

let's kick off back to school week with a throwback post to the dress i made two years ago for nora's first day of kindergarten.

earlier that summer i was back in michigan visiting my family and took nora to the store to pick out fabric. we settled on this gradient sprinkle print in pink (for her) and blue (for etta) as well as some accent ribbons.

i came home to cambridge, poured myself a harpoon summer ale, and set to work on two roller skate dresses by oliver + s. since we couldn't find any accent fabric that went with the sprinkle print i made version a. lined in white cotton batiste they ended up being perfect for the first day. 

put a bird on it

maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time in pdx (and love it!) or maybe i'm just their target demographic but i love the show portlandia. i mean 'dream of the 90s', 'she's making jewelry now', and 'dream of the 1890s' really describe my life.

when i saw this bird print at stonemountain & daughter last spring i knew it would be perfect for maya the animal lover.

beatles dresses

given that my parents were hippie baby boomers who joined a tofu co-op in the early 90's, it's not surprising that there weren't a ton of rules in the kempner house. (in hindsight the fact that we were all naturally good kids who liked school, had nice friends, and weren't too boy crazy was probably conducive to and thus afforded a laissez faire approach to parenting.)