More of the Maria Dress

Sometimes I find these patterns.. where one is not enough. The Maria dress is such a dress.
I showed you before the first items I made out of this dress.. right here
But since then I made it again.. and again.. and again...
For both girls for Shavoot. My 7 years old dress if from the white lycra and lace I got two months ago. I think her dress is wroth the 45 NOS I paid for the fabric!!!

Them my sister, 10 years younger than me and I guess about 20 kg less... asked for a dress too. I was happy to make her. I used size 14 of the dress and expanded it just a bit. How pretty, right???

I guess it makes it more than just a great tween pattern, it's also a slim women pattern!
So I decided.. so what if I'm so fatter then I should be.. I also deserve a dress. It doesn't look so nice on me as it is on my sister.. but what the hell..

Will I ever be thin again?
Now, just so you don't think I'm making only dresses.. I actually make a lot of stuff... but most of them are not worth a mention, juts simple leggings and shorts for the kids, I don't really have the time lately to challenge myself with new patterns, with complicated projects. I know it'll get easier, in 1-2 years.. but at the moment between work and kids...
so I'll just show a little of what I've made recently.. From the floral pink Jersey fabric from two months ago. two Olivia dress to use as night gowns, and legging for my three years old. again - worth the money I paid for it.

And last for this post - the cakes and muffins I prepared for three years old for their birthday last week... I wanted to make more.. but I didn't have the time...

On another note.. many cities in Israel are under the non ending missile attacks.. I wish us all a quiet night, and hoping to have piece as soon as possible!

Birthday again...

Hi all
I'm still trying to catch on with the stuff I made and didn't upload... One of these old debts is my 7 years old birthday.
For the dress I made her the Modkid bubble dress... I've done it before many times... and I like the results each time...

I made her a size smaller than the size she's supposed to be according to her height. Because I remember this pattern is a bit long and baggy...
What do you think?
This is one of the cakes I made for her (no photos of the other ones...)

It was for her birthday party at home. We invited all the kids from school (she's first grade, and the teacher doesn't like it if only some of the kids are invited). Let me tell you something, I have a new appreciation towards teachers! I thought I'll manage the kids just fine... I prepared some craft materials... some party games, but.. they didn't even listen to me... they were busy doing what they wanted...
It turned out fine however, because a friend of mine brought her daughter over and stayed, she's a kindergarten teacher and when she talked.. the kids listened. she saved me!!!
But I think this was my last attempt to host a birthday party for young kids on my own... I learned something! If you wish to see more of the Modkid bubble dress look here and here. Love this pattern!
This is it for now! Have a good week!

Many finished items

I thought I'm done with the blog... I don't really have the time to manage it, and on top of that a month ago my computer, with all the pictures on it, stopped working. I'm not sure it can be fixed!!! I hope to get to that soon.
However, I realised that when starting a new item, I often refer to my blog for comments about fit, changes I made, etc. even when starting with a new pattern, I like to document lessons learned from it...
So, I'm keeping the blog. I'll do my best to display the relevant items here... by that I mean that if I make 3 items of the same pattern, identical other than size or fabric... no need to document them.
I have quiet a few months of items to display.. but many pictures are in the old (coruppted!!!) computer. So this is from the last month.
So, first, I want to show pictures from my dd's tenth birthday party!

and the birthday girl.. (I bought the dress, she really wanted and since I didn't buy her clothes for years.. I thought it was a good time :-) )

I'll use this post to just display an Henrika I made for my soon 7 years old...
I already reviewed this pattern... right here so no need to say more. A great pattern!

Will be back soo with more!!! Good weekend all!

I thought I could have it all...

four kids, a husband, full time job an haour and a half away from home, and time for crafting too...
I guess I was wrong. This past month since I returned to work has been really busy.
At night, when all the kids are asleep, I took a few minutes each day to work on my 5 years old birthday cakes (yes, as always, 3 different cakes), so I had no time to sew at all!
I did manage a few items before all that...
one is 11-2008-125


Here's the way mine looks


It is part of my pattern stash sewing.. I'm trying realy hard to buy nothing new... (OK, a friend of mine baught some Jersey fabrics for me, but I really didn;t have enough of those).

The pattern review:
I made size 40, and it is wide... I think it runs big.
it is pretty simple to make. The instructions were simple.
I like it a cute simple summer top, but I don't know if I'll make it again, it's not special in any way...

I also made many cakes this month...




I need more pink edible color!!!

Last evening, once we had all the parties over, I placed my sewing machine back on the table..

My plans for the feture (note, I don't plan for the 'coming month' anymore... )
- A new winter top for myself
- summer dresses - four of them, two my 8 years old and her best friend, and two for my 5 years old and her best friend..
- two dolls...
- two quilt cushions
I wonder how long it'll take me...

Ok, now that I have a couple of minutes (little ones are playing near me, two big girls and husband all a sleep, no work today..) I;m going to see what change on blogland this past month I was not around..

Tennis skirt and some cakes..

My girl turned 8 today!!! what a young lady!
Lately she has displayed signs that maybe these dresses I love so are not always her first choice... I mean, she still loves them, but she sometimes prefers wearing more 'adult' clothes (can you believe it??? I don't remembr myself at that age caring so much about my outfit...). I do not always approve... I wouldn't let her walk around with clothes that are too revealing, but some clothes I do approve of.
So, when I so the tennis skirt (see here) in the new Israeli fashion magazine, I thought this is something we'll both like.
Now... I had a problem. The second issue of the magazine is great. really great. It has plenty of girls patterns that I will make. Not so great for me for women' patterns, as I am not pregnant and since the styles there just don't fit me.
But -as girls clothes go, the sizes are given by numbers, and not by height as I am used to. So I chose size 8 for my 8 years old girl.
After I cut the parts, I realized the belt is about 5cm too short for my girl... I should have chosen size 10 probably. But since I already cut it all, I decided to cut only the belt again... longer this time, and make it work.
SO I have a cute skirt... but sinze it is the wrong size, it is too short.
Here's the outcome..



I need to make it again, size 10 this time... because I think it's a great little pattern with a great potential! I'll report back on that!

Tomorrow is the party, and for the past week, every nap the babies had - I made some progress with the cakes..
Here are the birthday cakes...





My wonderful big girl - Happy birthday!!!!!

hardly any sewing going on here...

Well, I am starting week 37 now. I am very heavy, tired, huge and moody. I hope this pregnancy ends really soon, with two healthy babies...
So this month... I really did almost nothing, despite of all my plans.
But some things I needed to do!
First of all, in 4 days my daughter finishes the first grade. I remember her first day of school, how excited and scared we all were... She had a great year!
To celebrate the end of the year her class had a 'Torah party',each child got a Torah book, and they had a nice ceremony, really nice.
I was asked to bring the party cake, here it is..

as always, the inspiration to the cake is from the really great magazine by Taltalim right here...


Then I decided on a very simple dress for my 4 years old... I decided on 'Hanna Suterday's dress' from the new Israeli pattern Magazine, World Fashion.
Here's the catch... I wasn't sure which size to choose... I finally chose size 4, but decided to add to each side of the front and back top parts one cm. I'm glad I did... it would have been too small otherwise. I chose a simple fabric that I bought long ago as a leftover. It has some stretch to it, and this was not a good choice...
I made some changes to the original design -
1. I added to the lower (skirt part) another pattern piece, to make the dress a bit longer and to be able to play with fabric combination.
2. I only traced the skirt front piece, the skirt back piece looks really similar except it isn't placed on the fold. These days I trace as little as I can, since even this is a bit diffcult for me :-)
3. I added a riboon beteen the top and the skirt.
So, why do I say I chose the wrong fabric???? because when I finished the neck opening (with bias tape) it got stretched and lost its shape. If I make this pattern again I'll have to try it on before finishing the neck opening and make sure it fits.
This is the photos of the dress.. please ignore the neck opening... I fixed it later..



The day after I fixed the neck - I add two darts in the back and now it looks much better. I don't have a good photo pf that just yet, though...
Just this picture...

I'm not sure... Can you see from this picture that the neck is much more fit? It really is...
Basically, it's a cute and simple dress. not much work involved.
I found the directions pretty good, but then again, I didn't really need them.
My daugther likes the dress. And I just need to remember, for times to follow, to check the neck opening before I finish it with bias tape, just to make sure the problem is the fabric, not the pattern.

I have more to share, but it'll have to wait.. too tired now,
Good week all!

many issues...

Its been a big week here...
My little one turned 4 and we celebrated her birthday. I have to show some pictures of her in her new Feliz dress...





Here is the birthday cake... two more are planned for the coming week for the kindergarten...


Here is another type of cake I made for my sister in law... she's due any day now.




In the disper cake I hid the romper and jacket I made right here...



and the blankie I made here...


And the last pictures for today is a muslin I made of a pregnancy top for myself... I'll get to the final version soon I hope and post about it...



This is it for now :-)
Happy week to you all!

Chef's set

My 4 years old asked ro be a chef... so I made her. She loves to pretend she is a chef, making tea parties or birthday cakes for her dolls...
I had to make two sets, also one for my 7 years old... though I know it's not likely that she'll play in it...
here it is...





I used this great guide to make the chef's hat...
For the aprons, I used the measurements from the Burda 01-2011.. But I think I may have took the sizes wrong because the aprons are very small...
Anyway, I didn't bother with the instructions... I just looked at the pictures and made the easiest thing possible. It Still looks cute, right?

I also made one cake, first of many due the coming month...
It's Henzel and Gretel. The instructions are from this great, amazing book by Taltalim (Tal Zafrir). I love this book, and use of often.



For next week I hope to manage two items - on the sewing part - pants for myself... I really need some pants!
On the cakes part - a princess cake...
Then I'll start preparing for my 4 years old birthday party...
SO much to do!!!