Easy 2-hour Sundress

Jenny sent me an e-mail on Thursday asking if I might, perchance, be able to whip-up a sundress for the completely ADORABLE little Anika. It seems that they are having family portraits done and her family chose black, grey & light blue as the colors.  Since the clothes were supposed to be predominantly black or grey, they were having some trouble finding a sundress. Now, how could I say no to that?  Having my own little boy is great and all, but nothing compares to getting to play dress up with this sweet little doll.

I used the standard pillowcase dress pattern that you can find pretty much everywhere (There’s a good tutorial/example at Prudent Baby), except instead of a pillowcase, I used an dark grey, XL men’s t-shirt that cost $3.99 at ACMoore.  There are so many pluses to using a t-shirt!  My two favorites? You can use the hem of the t-shirt as the hem of the dress AND you don’t have to finish the armscyes (jersey doesn’t fray)!  Also, it’s just a comfortable, breathable fabric, perfect for summer.  Why else would they make t-shirt out of it?

I used the dress she was wearing (a little jersey sundress from H&M) to figure the length and the armsyces.  Initially, we were going to use a fabulous polka dot trim on the bottom of the dress but I’m glad we didn’t – I think it would have made the dress too heavy.  I used the serger for the side seams and the sewing machine to make the channels in the front and back for the strap.  We used a stretched out piece of the tshirt to make the wrap around strap and tied it just on one side (like the smaller of the two dresses in the Prudent Baby example).

The flower is a simple yo-yo of light blue linen with a small circle of black felt, a circle of the grey t-shirt and a shell button layered on top.

All told, the dress took about 2 hours, but that includes time for socializing, making decisions about the design, taking pictures and threading my serger. If I’d just been sewing straight through, it probably would have been more like 1 hour!

I case you’re wondering, several years ago I made this type of dress for myself; it’s not only appropriate for wee ones…

Fascinating…a retirement gift

Way back in the Spring, I saw on Craft a post about a totally awesome Spock quilt. Event though there was a tutorial on how to design the quilt, I thought, gosh, I wouldn’t know where to start.  I showed it to some co-workers who thought it was awesome and that it would be a great gift for our boss, who is a Trekkie extraordinaire.  But ethics being what they are, it really wasn’t appropriate for me to make it for him.

Fast forward to Octoberish when our boss announced his retirement in early December.  I immediately thought of the quilt and did a search to find the post again. Lo & behold, not only did I find the original post, but I found that Carol, the brains behind the blog Funthreads, had started a really amazing, simple to follow, quilt-a-long!  It made the whole project a lot less daunting.

Carol’s quit-a-long makes a twin-sized quilt in eleven parts. I thought a wall-hanging would be much more appealing to our recipient (and also easier for me to complete!), so I printed out each week of the quilt-a-long and wrote in new measurements for the pieces.  If you want to change the size of a quilt pattern, do not skip this step!  Have you ever tried to halve or double a recipe without re-writing the ingredient measurements? I ended up having to triple a batch of cupcakes just recently because I thought I could do the doubling math in my head as I went!  When halving quilt measurements, be sure to take into account the 1/2 inch for seam allowances. Remove the 1/2 inch from the original measurement, divide the resulting number in half, then add the half inch back in.  This will give you the correct (finished) measurement and your full 1/4 inch seam allowances all around.  Also remember that when you halve both the width and height you are essentially making a quilt a quarter of the size of the original.

I free-motion quilted my version of this pattern only in the black/dark parts to make Spock’s face stand out more.  I also stuck mainly with white/cream and black/grey for the darks and lights.  I have to say I am exceptionally proud of this project. Not only was my boss thrilled with his quilt, but I really enjoyed making it – always key.  I’m looking forward to designing my own quilt next, using the Funthreads tutorial – I’m thinking a Dr. Who quilt in TARDIS blue next?

Quickening Moon: Seedling Ambition

Quickening Moon: Seedling Ambition
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

Hunger Moon, Wild Moon, Ice Moon stealth,
in quiet preparation I love my self,
Brigit, Persephone, Diana, Kuan Yin,
Help to cleanse and heal what’s within.
-Dallas Jennifer Cobb

In February, I watched for the moon for days before and days after the after the actual full moon event, to no avail.  The sky, for days, was completely shrouded in clouds; not even a peek at a star could be seen.  I imagine before the modern days of electric lights or even the earlier gas powered lights, these nights would have been very, truely black.

The Quickening is when tree sap begins to flow again and the Earth starts to awaken.  Each year, there are seeds that sprout too early while their brothers and sisters sleep just a little deeper down in the dirt.  This quilt is about those ambitious seeds, dreaming of the coming growing season, and jumping the gun, awakening too early.

Three little seeds (apple) are nestled within their own little full moons, but one has jumped the gun, so excited by his ambitious dreams that he popped out a little bit too early. I machine embroidered the tiny seedling onto its moon first, then attached each of the 3 moons to the quilt.  I free motion quilted the piece being careful not to let the quilting lines touch the seeds that were still ‘sleeping’.  Finally, I attached the seeds and tiny glass seed beads to give the impression of stars in the sky.

This piece will be shown at Artomatic 2009, but will not be offered for sale on Etsy—it has already found a permanent home.

Wolf Moon – complete!

Uploaded by alyson_olander

Snow Moon, Cold Moon, Quiet Moon abide,
Let protection and strength grow inside,
Inanna, Sarasvati, Hera, and Sinn,
Sew new beginnings deep within.
—Dallas Jennifer Cobb

In my research about the Wolf Moon, this rite struck me as just perfect to begin my year long full moon journal quilting adventure.

The full moon on the night in question was shrouded in clouds, but the moon shown through, creating these amazing rings of color around herself. This is represented by both layers of fabric and of thread – 8 different fabrics and 4 different threads. The clouds seemed the carry the glow of the moon far beyond what we would normally see. Also, that night, the moon was huge, the largest we will see all year; as she passed on her closest path to the earth.

In years past, this was the time of year when families huddled together for safety and warmth, with wolves howling outside – it was the most difficult time of year, the winter was in full swing; food was beginning to run low; the wolves were particularly fierce in their own hunger.

Originally, I was planning to place a heart, to represent the family, swaddled and protected by the layers of the moon, but it seemed too trite in the end. I liked the starkness of this image, it leaves the story open for interpretation.

Take from it what you will.