The perfect fall dress

I just made this dress for a beautiful little girl. Her mom picked out the fabric. She was looking for something Fall and I think she nailed it! It turned out so pretty!

A sweet lady in our church, who can no longer sew, gifted me all her sewing notions. I have a nice box of buttons that I pull from when I can. I think these buttons pull it all together!

The fabric: Makower UK Forest Friends and Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry.

Memphis Fabric

We were thrilled to visit one of my BEST friends and her crew in Memphis in July. She is so dear to me. And she also has a love for fabric and sewing. While we were there, we had visited her favorite fabric store called Bumbletees. Bumbletees also just happen to be having a sale too! Woo hoo! She left with beautiful fabric for a quilt and I bought fabric for a dress for Piper.

Piper loves a good twirly dress. I am so thankful she still loves the dresses I make. I used the Flutter Dress pattern I had purchased off of Etsy. And I just love how this dress turned out!

You had me at hello....

Sometimes I NEED to take a stroll through Mary Jo's, this HUGE fabric store in Gastonia, NC. Today, I found this fabric. And, well... it would not let me leave until I bought it. Then I came home and made pillows for my living room. And I LOVE them.

Baby Geranium Dress

I made this tiny little Geranium Dress for a dear friend who was pregnant with her 2nd child. Her first is a boy and she was excitedly expecting a girl. I was tickled to make this itty bitty dress. It is such an easy pattern and yet too cute for words!

Now, the funny story about this dress. This friend also found out a month before delivery that not only was this little girl breech.... she was also a BOY! Big surprises and lots of last minute changes. But she is in LOVE with her baby boy. And the dress, it will just wait for a little sister. At least I am hoping there will be a sister somewhere in the future!

Easter Dresses

For Easter I decided to make Piper a Geranium dress from a pattern that I absolutely LOVE from Made by Rae (click HERE if you are interested in the pattern) And then I ended up making two dresses. I started making this one...

And then I saw a dress with these colors and made this one:

She ended up wearing the second one to church on Easter morning. However, that has been the only time she has worn it. While waiting on Sunday School to start, Piper did a little doodling on the dry erase board. She is not sure how she got marker all over the front of her dress, but the eraser sure does. After much treating, scrubbing, soaking and repeating, I put it in the pile to redo. And it will remain there until it is too small for her. Hey. You live. You learn.

Fall Dress

One of my favorite fabric stores on-line is called Hawthorne Threads. Not only do they have beautiful fabric, they also provide coordinating fabrics on the same page or a link away with the one you are interested in. My hardest part. Plus, there are pictures of dresses, quilts and more included. I actually pinned this dress on pinterest and when I saw it on this website, well... I just had to buy it.

Here is what I ended up with:

And I am in LOVE!

And so is she.

I bought extra fabric to make Karis a skirt or top and possibly myself a skirt. I have been looking forward to sewing something for myself since it has been a while. And I just love that my girls still enjoy getting handmade clothing. Warms my heart!

Flutter Sleeve Dress

I love how the fall season likes to make an unexpected grand entrance. And, of course, we always welcome it. You know there are cool days ahead, but there are some that are cooler than you expect. Time for pumpkins and everything pumpkin. I know, you were thinking pumpkin spice latte, but I was thinking of pumpkin cheesecake and Trader Joe's pumpkin butter. My favorite. The mornings have been getting cooler and I love walking out to crisp, cool air. This past Saturday was the unexpected grand entrance. It was suppose to be almost 70 degrees. But I think it reach a very crisp and breezy 60. By the evening, it was in the 50's and chilly. We were also at a beautiful fall wedding, on a farm where there were pumpkins everywhere! With October showing up so quickly and these cooler days, I realized I needed to get started on sewing some dresses for my girls. Each season I think, "should I sew or just go buy??" Thanks to Pinterest and Zulily I keep pinning all these ideas for sewing. So, I went on my sewing Pinterest board (SEW CAN DO THIS) and found a dress that I have wanted to make for a while. It reminds me of a Matilda Jane dress. It sent me to an Etsy shop for a Antique Fair Flutter Sleeve Dress pattern. With a few easy clicks, I bought the pattern. And I am so happy I did. It came with a long but easy to follow tutorial with pictures for every step. So I went shopping for fabric! I have had my eye on this Amy Butler fabric for a while. I spent way too long trying to pick the perfect coordinating fabric to go with it. I always second guess myself after I buy it, unless it's off a website where they have matched coordinating fabrics for you! I love those websites! Hawthrone Threads does that for you, check them out! My other favorite place (because it is close by) is Mary Jo's in Gastonia, NC. And this is what I bought there:

A sweet lady in my church who could no longer sew and knew I did was so generous in gifting me her sewing stuff- fabric, lace, buttons, zippers, everything. The buttons were a favorite! Before I buy buttons, I like to dig through my stash and find some jewels in there. And I loved these with this dress.

Here is the finished product. I think this is my favorite by far! Confession: I hung this dress visible downstairs so every time I walked by it, I could look at it. I don't have a lot of things that I am good at. But when you practice at one and see your improvement overtime, well it is just rewarding. I feel so proud of this one. Especially when I think back to the first dresses I've made.

Here is Piper at the wedding with her best friend. Piper loves this dress too. It twirls.