Penney Candy--Boutique Inspired Sewing Project

My daughter is getting bigger and I have been looking into purchasing some new items for her.  While browsing the Internet I discovered some interesting children's boutique clothing. Some of the boutique children’s clothing designers like Servane Barrau and Matilda Jane have inspired me.  My budget doesn't let me pay some of the prices I see listed for their items so I thought I would try to sew the look myself.

I purchased four fat quarters of organic cotton knits inspired by Japanese fabric design from Spoonflower and decided to design my own 'boutique' clothing for my young daughter.  The four fabrics I purchased were the charcol grey  Kotatsu Floral by toothpanda, the colorful VINTAGE KIMONO PATCHWORK - SWEET AND BRIGHT by lucypatterson, teal and peach Peach puffs by su_g and the peachy kimono - bubblegum pop by monmeehan.

As design inspiration for the pants I used the DIY Mommy blog entry on the double ruffle legging  and modified it to widen the pant leg. I took the basic measurements from a pair of my daughter’s leggings and drew a line straight down from the crotch for the inseam and drafted a line from the hip out at an angle for the outside edge.  I also added extra width to the back of pant leg and narrowed the front pant leg so I could get the wrap around effect.

I began with a sample of my daughters clothing for the shirt as well only this time I used two different shirts to integrate elements I liked from each one.  I then added my own sleeve style and the pocket.

Fun stuff!  I even made a label for my “clothing line;” Penney Candy.

African Inspired Fabric Entry

I have submitted an entry into Spoonflower's current African Inspired fabric design contest.  Below is my entry in the fat quarter view as well as a close-up of the detail.  There are many excellent entries in this competion.  If you would like to add your vote to the tally click here.

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

In honor of valentines day I am posting a couple of small projects with romantic themes. 

First are three small hearts (~4 in.) for a hearts for a Dollstreet Dreamers heart exchange.  Each heart is made with a different African wax print fabric that I hand drew and then machine stitched. I painted each portrait with kissing lips using Jacquard acrylic fabric paints and added detail with Micron and gel pens.  I embroidered X's and O's, the traditional letters representing hugs and kisses on each heart.  I then embellished each piece with beads collected from South Africa and the United States.

 My second project is for yet another ATC swap with a mermaid theme.    The cards are drawn with colored pencils and ink on card stock.  These drawings are inspired by my daughter and her love of princesses.

Proofs back from Spoonflower!

Garden Path Swatch Collection in my Spoonflower Shop

Onogadori Chicken
1 of the Garden Path Chickens

Just got back my proofs from Spoonflower and was super excited by how great they turned out.  The colors are terrific and really strong. My original Rose Argyle designs did not show as much contrast printed as they do now with the revisions.  This is why it is important to get samples.  Also it is much easier to see the scale of the print when looking at the actual swatch. 

My Cape Cod Boats design is brighter on a white cotton woven material than the organic cotton knit print shown below.  I like the earthier colors of the knit.



Cape Cod Boats as yardage in organic cotton knit

More Sewing for My Girl - The African Dress

I may have mentioned in the Shoe post that my daughter is in love with pink and purple.  When I offered to let her pick out some wax print material shortly after we arrived in Senegal she made a beeline to this very pink and purple fabric. 
I decided to use it to make a simple dress, similar to the pillowcase dress I made previously.  My daughter loves a full skirt so this gave me the opportunity to add some box pleats to allow the skirt more fullness. The trim and sleeves are made of white flocked pink polyester chiffon that I had in my stash.  I added turquoise embroidery thread behind the box pleats to help them hold their shape as well as bring a little of the color up from the border.  This dress is about ½ hand sewn and ½ machine stitched. 
My girl says she loves her new princess dress. 

 

15 Days of Senegal

Theme today is Red and my entry....

For those of you curious about life in Senegal, check out the photos posted on the 15 Days of Senegal group on Facebook that started yesterday.  It will provide plenty of visuals about life here in Senegal.