From my studio last week: July 12, 2011

So I skipped last week’s studio recap, didn’t I?  Chalk it up to the 4th of July and my work/play schedule being out whack.

Looking back on what I’ve been working on these last two weeks, it’s mostly all about the American Girl dolls.  I made a pair of 4th of July American Girl outfits for Liv and her friend.  (Actually, for their dolls…)  But of course one dress went to her friend’s house, and the matching one went with my daughter when she went to visit her cousins this week, so no photo to share.  It’s a simple gathered waist skirt from a bandana print red t-shirt knit, with a coordinating gray tee with a heart applique. 

And then a few days ago I made another dress for the American Girl doll.  And again, I made two of them – one for the little girl’s doll and one for my niece’s doll.  It’s gotten to be a little tradition that I make the girls matching doll dresses for my niece’s birthday.  This year Liv picked out the fabrics and designed the dress.  I LOVE her sense of color.  Go, girl!

Also for the American Girl, I made a little  fabric arm cast.  My daughter has the American Girl wheelchair, and I swear, it gets more play than any other doll accessory.  It seems that the poor dolls are always having some sort of accident or another. 

She also has the plastic arm and leg casts that AG makes, but that’s enough for only one dolly calamity – and she has 4 dolls.  So I made another cast out of flannel, cotton batting, and an old pair of tights.  This was a really easy project, and I’m in the process of writing up a tutorial.  Look for it tomorrow!

I also cut off and hemmed a pair of my husband’s old short so I could wear them.  (It’s the only non doll sewing project from the past two weeks.)  I didn’t bother taking a photo because they’re really not that flattering.  They kind of have a bubble effect, and while that’s a cute look for a child – it’s not so cute on a mama with more than enough going on through the thighs and butt already.   They’ll be my everything-else-is-in-the-laundry shorts.  The rest of his shorts will go straight to the donate pile. 

Finally, I bound the doll quilt that Liv made several weeks ago.  She pieced the top with a free form stitch and flip method, and quilted it in a thoroughly random design.  She chose all the fabrics and decided where they needed to be sewn.  I just did the cutting and ironing – things that a 7 year old is probably not safe to do – and then the binding to finish it off.  I was lazy and just used to some prepackaged bias tape to bind the quilt.  It was a bit narrow to go around the layers so there was a lot of tugging and pulling to make it fit. 

It’s not the best binding job by any means, but it works.  While she’s out of town I’ve commandeered the little quilt to sit on top of a little card table in my living room.  It looks pretty there, and the little demon kitty likes to take a nap on it.  He has such a rough life, doesn’t he?

Wow, that was a wordy post!!  My sewing goal this week is to create a princess seam t-shirt pattern (traced from a too-big tankini). My plan is to eventually make a bathing suit out of it, though I don’t know that I’ll get that brave this week.