Emily_sews_stuff

Guess I’m a blogger now? Figured I might as well write about the test I squeezed in recently—the Made for Mermaids Poppy . I’ve been busy with but this one was so cute and looked like a quick sew, so I signed up.  Poppy comes with dress, vintage, and peplum options, an optional tier, two flutter sleeve options, sleeveless and three lengths of traditional sleeve options. Whew! For mine, I did the tiered dress option, which is actually a half circle skirt with a short tier, more of a wide ruffle. The top is a faux placket—no buttonholes! And I did the long flutter sleeve.  For my fabric I chose a blush floral rib knit from Threadbear Textiles  (it doesn’t appear to be in stock anymore but lots of other rib knits there). Although it doesn’t call for it in the tutorial, I used knit interfacing along the placket. Even though there’s no need for button holes, I found on some other tops I’ve made with faux plackets, they tend to bunch or curl and gap between buttons, so I’m hopi...

 A couple of weeks ago, we had the most beautiful, sunny, 70-degree spring weather. I just knew I needed to make some sundresses. I fall for this cruel trick every year; Mother Nature turned winter back on.  For Juliet’s dress, I wanted to make a vintage-inspired dress with lots of pintucks, and I knew I wanted to use this Riley Blake poplin I bought from Fabrics , Laces, Trims . I started with the Violette Field Threads Oaklyn bodice and moved the placket to the front, made the back solid, and lowered the neckline just a little. It's hard to photograph, but I used decorative stitches along the button placket, next to the pintucks.  To keep the tucks the center of attention, I did a lightly gathered skirt. I added cross tucks at the bottom, and belt loops and a tie belt—and of course I couldn’t forget the inseam pockets.  The headband is the Charlie knot headband, minus the knot, with some decorative crosstucks there as well.  Juliet felt a little left out since...

  The Project Run and Play theme for week one is “pocket full of sunshine” and I decided to go LITERAL! Almost every time I make a new dress for my seven year old, she tries it on, oohs and aaahs, then checks for pockets. I knew she was going to love this theme, and when I recruited her bff Scarlett, she was even more excited.  I have been holding into this rainbow stripe cotton from Joann for about a year trying to decide what to do with it. I thought it was perfect for this challenge since it’s so cheerful. I self-drafted a flat front gathered skirt with a curved slash pocket. I pieced together the skirt panels to create a chevron pattern, purposely mismatching the colors when they meet at the seam. The intention was to reduce fabric waste,  because I didn’t think it would distract from the design on a fabric with this small scale design. Whew, that was almost as much as work as if I had matched them! I added solid colors for the pockets and sunshine appliqués, and a ...

About two weeks into kindergarten, I announced to my mom that I couldn't go to school anymore. She had sewn me a bunch of new dresses to start the school year and I had worn them all once, so clearly, I was done. So I guess I was hooked on handmade clothing at an early age.   Hi, my name is Emily Hartman. I live in Illinois with my husband, two daughters (14 and 7), two dogs and two cats. I've worked as a medical sonographer for 21 years. Although my mother sewed, she didn't teach me--I was more interested in wearing the clothes. I took home ec my freshman year of high school and learned, then didn't think much about it. Then when I was a single mother and wanted to make dresses for my three year old daughter, my grandma asked if I'd like to have her sewing machine.  A few years later I was married again, with another daughter, and while planning outfits for a Disney trip when I discovered the instant gratification of pdf patterns. I was hooked. The following year I...