a fairy tale in liberty
quick post today.
a few years back i made this oliver + s fairy tale dress for the daughter of some friends of ours.
for the main fabric i used some liberty of london betsy blue tana lawn cotton from etsy. the lining was white cotton lawn from stonemountain & daughter. wanting to try something new, i added some entredeux at the lining hem using the technique from this oliver + s blog post.
love,
aunt maggie
I wanted to recap my back to school sewing projects and share a few photos of the girls on the first day.
this year my back to school sewing consisted of five projects and four patterns, three of which were new to me.
another back to school post!
maya started kindergarten this year and is the third generation in our family to attend the ann arbor public schools. so naturally a new dress was in order.
lets talk fabric selection.
back in may we went up to heldsburg for a wedding. the wedding venue, our Airbnb, the rehearsal dinner venue, and a fabric store were all within 800 yards of one another. combine this with the fact that we referred to the groom as "sargent substance" back in college and what do you get? I'll give you a hint" it rhymes with 'funk maverick bopping'.
today I'm talking about sleeves. sleeves are one of those things that look like they should be really hard, but in reality aren't that difficult.
so lets start with the basics: flat-set sleeves.
before the trick-or-treaters head out i wanted to revisit some of my favorite costumes from the past few years and give a preview for this year.
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.
as previously mentioned maya and neela have beautiful complexions and can pull off very bright colors. where other kids would get washed out or overwhelmed by bright bold prints, these girls look amazing. which means aunt maggie has a lot of fun picking out fabric for them.
when i came across this remnant of amy butler voile (spearmint buttercups from the soul blossoms | joy collection) at gather here i knew immediately it would be perfect for maya.
the birthday dress tradition continued when etta turned three (read about maya's first birthday dress here). she asked for a fairy tale dress by oliver + s (okay she asked for a pretty dress and i decided that meant the fairy tale dress).
however she did specifically request a pink fabric with blue flowers. so while visiting victor i made a trip tostonemountain & daughter in berkeley and picked up this adorable print. to this day it remains one of my favorite fabrics.
did you know disney has an entire movie franchise on the adventures of tinkerbell? in one film 'secret of the wings', we learn about the existence of winter fairies and (spoiler alert) tinkerbell discovers she has a fraternal twin sister periwinkle.
drawing inspiration from this epic motion picture nora and i decided to make her and etta matching fairy sister dresses.
