Neapolitan Ice Cream Dress

Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress in Neapolitan. Vanilla/strawberry/chocolate cotton. Size four. Plastic bunny button.

Gold Dot Top

Oliver + S Class Picnic Blouse in metallic gold dot cotton. Size four.

Cricket Clover Dress

Simplicity 8064, in Heather Ross Briar Rose Cricket Clover. Size four.

This pattern should be straightforward, but even by big three patternmaker standards, it's a little rough. If you follow the directions as written, you will sew the elastic casing opening closed before you insert the elastic. It could have used a copy editor. Armed with that knowledge, it's not a bad pattern. 

I made the straps adjustable by adding buttonholes to the straps and buttons inside the dress. 

Islid

Citronille Islid jacket in size four. Russian blue cotton twill, repurposed uniform buttons. Cotton + Steel lining.

Swan Geranium

Made by Rae Geranium Dress in Cloud 9 Organic Park Life Royal Swans by Elizabeth Olwen, size four. Fully lined in cotton voile.

Repurposed ombre buttons, knicked from an old sweater of mine.

Marie, Marie, Albertine

Two Citronille Maries in  Cotton + Steel Lucky Strikes Clothesline Floral, size four.

And a Citronille Albertine, in radiant orchid solid cotton, size four.

Lemon Drop Geranium

A dress for our lemon tree in our old California backyard.

Made by Rae Geranium Dress in Cloud 9 Organic Corduroy Lemon Drop, size four. Worn and washed a few times before I got around to photographing it.

Worn & Washed

These have been around for awhile -- worn and washed several times before I got around to photographing them.

Made by Rae Geranium Dress in Cotton + Steel Mochi Hot Cross Buns. Repurposed buttons from some old pants. Size three. Full lining in cotton voile.

A few dryer wrinkles, but fine.

Oliver + S Playtime Tunic in Lizzy House Cattitude for Andover Fabrics. Size three. Pockets were a hit.

More repurposed buttons.

Fun with photo gels

This is a relatively quick and easy toddler art project that makes a burst of color for your windows.

 Materials needed:

Photo color gels -- I bought mine inexpensively on Ebay. They can be had all over the Internet at various price points. This would also be a good project for a swatchbook. Photo gels are nice for their durability in small hands, but tissue paper will do in a pinch.
Contact paper
Cutting tool and straight edge, or scissors
Masking tape

Cut your shapes. We went with triangles. Whatever's clever.

Peel your contact paper and place adhesive side up on your work surface. Ours has a faint traced pencil circle because I originally planned to affix the triangled contact paper in a wood embroidery hoop. I later abandoned that plan as unnecessary. Also, the decorated contact paper didn't really have the give to go in the hoop cooperatively.

Hand proceedings over to your small artist for decoration. 

After things are arranged to suit everyone, affix another sheet of contact paper to the exposed adhesive side, sandwiching your gel shapes in between. Trim the edges as desired and enjoy your beautiful stained glass-esque masterpiece.

Everyday partying

Made by Rae's Geranium dress in Birch Organic Everyday Party. Size 3. Strawberry buttons. Lined in cotton voile.

Toddler tops for summer

Oliver + S Class Picnic blouse. Size 3, in Heather Ross Briar Rose Strawberry.

Oliver + S Ice Cream dress. Size 3, in lightweight cotton found at a garage sale. Strawberry button.

Ice cream for summer

Another always good Oliver + S Ice cream dress. Size 3. Kona red and Moda Ruby for the middle. 

Milk jug skeleton

There are a lot of milk jug skeletons rattling around the internet for Halloween. This one is mine.

Some tutorials recommended saving eight milk jugs for this project, I think I could have gotten by with six.

One for your skeleton's head, one for the rib cage. Turn one upside down for the hip bone. Two handles make the shoulders, two jug necks form the waist, and the arm and leg bones are all cut out of jug corners. Secure neck and waist with hot glue, use fishing line everywhere else.

Hang up somewhere where the wind won't cause too much clattering -- or do, if that's what you're into.

I do think he would benefit from the addition of a bow tie and a heart.

Halloween Peach

Rockford Peach costume for the little. Home-drafted pattern in Kona cotton Iced Peach. Patches purchased from Etsy.

Freezer paper stenciled numbers and velcro belt.

Rabbit Skins ball cap and home-drafted red shorts.

How to: Plasti Dip Sewing Pattern Weights

I've been looking for pattern weights for quite awhile, but I found the ready-made options to be either too expensive or not what I had in mind. I wanted something like old-school Wonder Weights -- rubber-coated metal and hefty.

These are easy to make and each weight should cost less than $2. My washers were 40 cents apiece and my can of Plasti Dip was $5 and change. The tube of glue, as you can see by the pliers-worn cap, was already on hand.

Parts List:

• One can spray Plasti Dip (comes in several colors)
• E-6000 or other strong glue
• The largest washers you can find at your local hardware store

Optional, but helpful:

• Milk bottle caps

Glue your washers together. I used stacks of three. Two is probably sufficient, but I wanted the extra heft. Don't go crazy or the glue will squish out of the sides.

Milk bottle caps (or similar) will make it easier to spray your weights. This is something you will want to do outdoors on a piece of cardboard or newsprint.

Follow the application directions on the Plasti Dip can (30 minutes in between coats.)

And you're done. Rubberized pattern weights for less than $2 a piece. Quicker, easier and less destructive than pins.