American girl sleepover carrier

Hello. The last couple days I have been gearing up for Christmas. My daughter will be recieving an American Girl doll. She is in love with Kit and after seeing her, I am too. I wanted to make a bed for her and it evolved into a carrier that will hold 1 doll with a mattress (2 actually) sewn in. that way she can take her doll to sleepovers easily. I made an extra and it is now in my Etsy shop. It uses snaps on 3 sides to open to mattresses and a storage pocket for the included quilt and pillow.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/plaidpineapple

Quilting

I have been meaning to post about a few of the quilts I have made over the last year. I got back into quilting after looking for a premade king quilt for years. I could not find anything in the colors that I was looking for and I wanted a more modern style than most of the ones for sale. I finally broke down and bought one for $120 from JcPenney. The colors were pretty good and I liked the style bought when I put it on my bed it was too short. I needed a quilt that verged on the length of a bedspread. My husband tends to steal blankets so I was tired of waking up to pull some blanket back from him in the middle of the night. I was disheartened with the purchase and finally became determined to make my own. It took me a month and 4 different fabric orders to figure out the exact fabric pattern I was going to use. I loved the Moda Breath of Avignon Green Treille print. From their I chose out all my other fabrics. The quilt took an immense amount of fabric and 2 months of evenings to complete. It was my first major project using a walking foot so I had some learning time to put in. I also came up with the design myself. I needed a quilt that could be broken up in sections to easily machine quilt. There was no way I could attempt pulling through a king quilt on my small sewing machine work area. I adore how everytime I wash the quilt the raw edges ruffle even more giving it a great textural interest. I ended up spending $125 on the fabric alone but I LOVE my quilt. It makes me smile everytime I walk in the room. Well worth the time and money. It also inspired my to take down my old wall hanging and add draped semi-sheer fabric to frame the bed.

I enjoyed using the same pattern for a quilt for my daughters daybed. I just finished to colorful boys quilts for donating to IRC. Rag quilts have also been a side project the last year. The Wilderness Quilt I made 8 years ago it was my first attempt at applique and it shows ;) I need to go back and make some adjustments to it and do some machine top quilting one of these days.

Hospital Gown is done!

I have been working all day to complete the design of my hospital nursing idea. I kept coming up with new alterations but I think I have it down now. The back neck has 2 snaps for more custom sizing. The nursing panel has two bottom snaps to keep it secure. The overlap in the back is larger then originally planned for plenty of moving ability without showing your rear ;)

A nursing hospital gown in the process...

I have been working on creating a design for a hospital gown for nursing moms. The design incorporates a center nursing panel that is accessed by flipping aside the front panel. or you can access it through the sides of the front panel but I always enjoyed watching my babies while nursing so prefer flipping it to the side or over my shoulder. The back ties like a normal hospital gown except it has an overlap in the back so that one side goes over the other side by about 6 inches to help eliminate accidental "exposure". A border or ruffle can also be added. It was getting dark when I took the photo so the color is off the fabrics are actually a dark and light purple. And the hem is longer than it looks in the front-the wind was pushing it back. Here is the unfinished gown so far.

Ruffle Skirts

Ruffle knit skirts have been my newest project. The knit fabric is lightweight and almost semi-sheer. I have found it is best to line the skirts with a plain knit fabric. For the Waistline I also use a plain knit or the ruffles create a lot of excess bulk and prevent shirts from laying smoothly. Available in numerous colors I have been playing with the white and grey. I am excited to be ordering some prints soon.

Sew much to sew, so little time

I have been busy, busy sewing. But it seems for every 1 project I finish I have 5 more I want to make. One of the items I have been making is a skirt of my own design. Introducing the Frayed Skirt. Frayed skirts are fun and sassy! The bottom fabric section is sewn so that the seam is flipped out then "ragged". A fun edging is created and gets more and more ruffled with each washing.
I posted this one to my etsy shop, and will be adding others soon.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/44950467/tween-and-girl-guitar-frayed-skirt-size