a little night sewing

I've spent the past few evenings sewing some extra Barbie clothing for an upcoming craft show. As you can see, I also snapped a bunch of behind-the-scenes photos.

Magnetic pin cushion. This kind is a lot easier to use than the typical tomato cushion (though I'll admit it's not as cute).

My trusty Husquevarna Viking.

Fabric and trims for 2 Barbie evening gowns.

Vintage Barbie illustration.

Barbie, waiting with the scissors and thread for her modeling gig.

Samples of a new bathing suit design I'm working on (these will be debuting in the shop in a few weeks!).

Dress bodices and my iron.

In other news, I tried out a new dessert for an Australian-themed dinner the other night: lamingtons. I'd never heard of these before I started researching Australian food; basically, they're squares or cubes of butter cake coated with chocolate icing and topped with coconut.

Mine weren't particularly authentic, but they did taste great! I used chocolate ganache instead of icing, and toasted up plenty of coconut to sprinkle over each.

My recipe is from a copyrighted cookbook, but here's a few online recipes I that look similar:

• Lamingtons 1
• Lamingtons 2

Also, here's the ganache recipe I used:

• Ganache (it's at the end of the brownie recipe)
  

lucky

I've been giving my sister sewing lessons for the past few months now. This is our latest project: Lucky the Dog/softie.

Lucky's made out of fake fur (it's really cow print, but we decided it works for a Dalmatian). He has a felt face, ears, and collar.

The name tag is a Shrinky Dink drawn with colored pencils.

The pattern's from Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals (which is definitely worth owning).

As you can see, our Lucky is rather unique (compared to the prototype in the book).

But that's how we roll :)

I can't stop sewing...

...clothes for my new Blythe!

Here's what I've made so far:

Gypsy Queen Jacket

Prim White Blouse

It's Hip to Be Square Dress

Edit: this dress has sold. If you'd like to purchase something similiar, please contact me!

Everything's for sale in the shop.

What are you sewing?

breaking the bank

I went on a mini shopping spree over Christmas Break. Most of the packages have finally arrived, so here's what I bought!

Introducing (drumroll please)......Simone! She's my first Blythe doll, a Prima Dolly Encore Ashlette bought from this Ebay seller. My friends are freaking out (one suggested she should play Chucky's girlfriend) but I like her even more than I thought I would. Above is a picture I snapped the first day I got her. She's wearing a dress I sewed while waiting for her to arrive.

Vintage patterns from etsy.com. I've already made a blouse with the pattern to the right, but I haven't gotten around to sewing the buttons and buttonholes yet (I always procrastinate that step). Here's a sneak-preview, and with a bit of self-discipline, it should show up in an outfit post pretty soon:

Tribeca sandals, for an upcoming tropical trip. These are the first shoes I've bought online, and they fit perfectly! Plus, the sale price is killer.

I also bought some boring sewing supplies and few other things. Now I'll have to do penance by cutting out online shopping this month.....we'll see :)

barbie at the movies

I'm currently working on a series of Barbie outfits influenced by costumes from classic movies. This is the first, inspired by one of Judy Garland's dresses from Meet Me in St. Louis (I watched that last week on TCM and I definitely recommend it).

This dress should be for sale in the shop within the next few days.

Edit: this dress has sold! Please contact me if you'd like to purchase a similiar dress.

{book}mark my words

You can only give someone so many zipper pouches. This is the case with a particular friend of mine, so I had to sit down and think a bit to come up with a Christmas present for her. She's quite the bookworm, so I went with a fabric bookmark.
I made this up as I went, and here's how to do it for everyone who may have a bookworm in their lives too.

This particular friend is a feminine, Meg March-ish type, which is why I went with the girly color scheme, but this project could easily be amended to suit your comic-book-loving niece or foodie grandpa.

Here goes....

1. Assemble the following:

+Two 3 1/2" by 8" fabric rectangles (iron stiff interfacing on one of them)

+One 2 1/2" by 7" contrasting fabric rectangle (I penciled diagonal lines 1/2" apart and sewed over them with some fancy machine stitches, but you could do whatever you like: hand-stitchery, applique, horizontal or vertical stripes, etc. Once you're done embellishing it, press the edges under 1/4")

+One 15" long piece of ribbon (loop a shank button through it like I did, or sandwich two buttons over the end and glue in place, or string some beads on it, etc.)

It should all look something like this:

Center the embellished rectangle on the interfaced rectangle and edgestitch in place. Baste the ribbon in the right corner (I sewed it in the left, which I discovered doesn't work if you want the ribbon to hang over the book binding).

Like so (but with the ribbon in the opposite corner):

Pin that piece and your other larger rectangle, wrong sides together, making sure not to catch the ribbon in the edges. Sew around all sides except the bottom, and trim the seam allowances.

Like so:

And so:



Turn right side out and press thoroughly with a steam iron. Turn the bottom edge in 1/4" and press. Edgestitch around the whole thing, and you're done!

Need to wrap the gift you've just created? Check out my posts about Handmade Wrappings here and here.

Barbie Stuff

Pictures of doll clothes I just added to the shop.

I just found out that an article I wrote for Wikihow awhile ago on How to Sew a Barbie Outfit is going to be a Spotlight article! Very exciting (sorry about that link overload). I've been working on perfecting it, so if you have any suggestions of how to improve it, please tell me.

Cinderella's Rag Dress

From this......

...to this!

Cinderella's rag costume was one of my favorite costumes as a kid, so I've spent the last few weeks designing and sewing a version of it for my shop.

If you'd like to purchase this costume, please check out the shop, or email me at muxoriginals@mchsi.com.

The Label Fairy

18 in. Doll Golden Snowdrop Fairy Costume

This is my latest 18 in. doll fairy costume-- I've made a purple and a green one before. While rifling through my 'Fancy Fabrics' stash, I discovered that I had a lot of fabrics in cream, champagne, and gold, so I went with that color scheme. Then, in my button tin, I found that vintage 'diamond' button, which tied it all together.

I'm also making a hot pink fairy costume, and I'm considering doing a custom, pick-your-own color fairy listing as well.

This also happened to be the first doll garment where I got to use my new.........

Labels!

For People



For Dolls

I've wanted professional clothing labels for quite a while, but I couldn't find anything I liked. Then, while browsing Etsy, I stumbled over MommieMadeIt; she makes labels that look woven fabric but feel more like thin plastic. This lowers the price considerably, and I spent even less by buying uncut labels. She was very helpful as I tried to figure out what I wanted, and I'm really happy with the finished result! I definitely recommend her.

New Clothes At the Shop!

Green Plaid Size Small Reconstructed Skirt

Scarlet Whimsy Corduroy Size Small Skirt

Neo-Eighties Black and Gold Sweater

I finally photograhed the new winter items I've been sewing for the past few weeks! They're all for sale at the shop.

The skirt on top is a reconstruct made from a plaid skirt that was about calf-length. I cut it off to above-knee height and added a green ruffle, fraying the plaid edge for a bohemian touch.

The 2nd skirt is MadeFromScratch; I used a great wide-wale corduroy that I picked up at a second hand shop. To make it, I took the waist facing pattern piece from the skirt pattern, lengthened and reshaped it, and sewed it so that it was on the outside (instead of the inside). Then I added the red buttons to pull it all together.

The last shirt is my favorite. I made it from a black sweatshirt. I cut the sleeves off along the seam (since the sweatshirt was over-sized, it created a dolman sleeve effect). Then I cut a circle from the sleeve with pinking shears, turned so it so the fuzzy side is on top, and attached it like an applique. Then I added 3 vintage buttons on top to create a faux 'brooch'. A few random hand-stitches, and I was done!