I think I need a bigger jar...

I find myself constantly searching for things to do with my eldest daughter, that will be interesting and enriching for her as well as a fun activity for us to do together.  I found this website, which listed 10 things to do with your kids each month.  One of the things that we decided to try for the month of January was to put a jar out to collect rainwater.  With us living in the south coast of British Columbia, we knew that we would be needing a rather large jar for our collection.  My husband gave us a rather large glass jar from Ikea and we put it out on our balcony the 1st of January.  The first few days were oddly dry (I don't believe we had rain until the 4th).  Here we are on the 7th...and our jar is about 1/3 full.  We may end up needing another jar.

While this may seem like a relatively simple activity, my daughter is super excited to check how much water she's collected every morning.  It's a great way to make the winter rainy blues seem less blah and a little more fun!

Circle Skirt

My four-year-old loves to wear skirts and leggings (often together).  I've been finding that lately, they aren't selling skirts for her size in the stores.  I've decided to make her a skirt (and some leggings) for Christmas.  I figured that a circle skirt would an good way to go.  I found this tutorial at MADE and chose a pink jersey knit to get started.  My daughter measures 21" around the waist and I decided to make the skirt about 11" long so that it comes to her knee level.  I cut out the circle of fabric according to the tutorial and serged the edges.  

I then serged the elastic edges together and fastened them down with a straight stitch.  I covered this up with one of my new fancy labels!  I pinned the skirt to the elastic, being sure to line the front and back of the skirt up with that of the elastic.

I stitched the elastic to the skirt using a straight stitch, being sure to stretch the elastic to match the skirt, as detailed in the tutorial.

I haven't hemmed the skirt, it isn't necessary with the knit fabric and I wasn't sure how long the skirt was actually going to be on my little one.  I will include photos of my daughter wearing the skirt after she receives her present...hopefully she likes it!

Princess Cloak

The weather in Vancouver for Halloween 2012 was 13 degrees Celsius and very wet.  In order to protect our little "princess" from the elements, I decided that she required a cloak to keep her dry and warm.  I decided to adapt the cloak from the Red Riding Hood Cloak from Make It and Love It.
I used a kitchen bowl to form the neckline of the cape.  I then measured 24" from the edge of the bowl and using a string and compass method I cut 1/3 of circle from both the satin and the purple fleece.  I stitched these two pieces together (not including the neckline of the cape).  I left the neckline of the cape open.  I flipped the cape right sides out and basted the neckline.

I cut the hood out, in both the fleece and the satin.  The height of the hood was 12" tall and 11" wide at the widest part.  I sewed the two pieces together down the back, right sides together in both the satin and the fleece.  I then joined the two hoods together and flipped them right sides out.  I serged the hood neckline to the capes basted neckline.  

I cut some of the crushed velvet material on the bias and used it to cover the serged joining seam.  I added the two ties to each end of the neckline.  I had bought some silver decorative trim, that I used to line the back seam and then decorate the two ties.  I wanted to add some velcro to the ties but opted to just tie them for the sake of time.

This cloak was so cute on Isabella and really gave the princess costume the final touches that it needed. It also helped to keep her dry and warm.  The outside of her cloak was wet, but her dress was dry and her hood kept her head dry.

Halloween Princess

This year for Halloween, my four year old decided that she wanted to dress up as a princess.  I was actually really looking forward to making this costume and embellishing it with all sorts of rich looking details.  To begin with I found a tutorial of something similar to what I was going to make.  I chose the Cinderella dress from Make It and Love It.  This dress had enough princess flair to make my little "princess" happy.  I would need to make some alterations, to account for our colder climate.
My daughter and I began with a trip to the fabric store.  She had mentioned she wanted her dress to be purple, so we chose some crushed velvet for the bodice, a bright pink lycra for the centre of the bodice and some blue satin for the skirt.  Once again, I was doubtful that the colours would all work together, but it ended up coming together quite nicely.

I began with the bodice and chose a shirt from her closet that fits her well, traced this onto freezer paper and cut out the fabric for the front piece on the fold.  For the back pieces I added an inch to account for the overlap of the velcro closure.  For the sleeves, I chose to do a puffed cap sleeve out of the satin and then a longer sleeve out of the crushed velvet.  This would keep her warm when she went out trick or treating.  I measured the diameter of her bicep, wrist, the length of her arm as well as the opening for the sleeve.  The crushed velvet sleeve looked like this.  I cut out 2.

The puffed sleeves were made to be 12" wide at the widest part and about and 4" tall.  I then tried to match the curve to the opening of the sleeve.  I cut the band for around her bicep to be 10" and allowed for a bit of gathering on both sides of the puffed sleeve.  I basted both the top of the sleeve and the long end, that would be attached to the band.  

I began by joining the front and back pieces together at the shoulder.  I then pieced in the sleeves, sandwiching the puffed sleeve in between the long sleeve and the bodice.  I cut out the centre pink piece for the bodice and sewed that onto the bodice and used some purple sparkly rick rack to crisscross across the chest.  I hemmed the sleeves at the appropriate length.  After attaching the sleeves, I stitched down the sides of the bodice and sleeves, closing the top part of the costume.

I closed up the back of the costume by folding over the hem and then adding velcro to both the front and back pieces.  

To finish off the collar, I cut some of the crushed velvet on the bias (about 1.5" wide and the length of the neckline.  I then sewed this strip around the neckline, folding in the rough edges.  

For the skirt, I cut two rectangular pieces from the satin, (24" by 45").  I serged the short edges together and basted the top edge of the skirt.  

Turn the skirt right sides together and slip the bodice inside right sides out.  Pin the skirt to the bodice and sew around and then serge the edges.  

Flip the skirt down and hem the bottom according to the length needed for your little princess.  

                   

                   

My little princess was thrilled with her costume.  We were able to put warm pants underneath as well as two long-sleeved shirts to help keep her warm on our rainy Halloween night.  We topped the costume off with a little tiara. 

Library Book Bag

A while back I decided to make a bag that my daughter could take with her to the library.  This bag would need to hold the books that we would take home as well as a place for her library card.  I had previously used this pattern to make a similar bag for my daughter's friend.  I used this pattern again to make the bag for my daughter but rather then put an apple applique on the front, I used various fabrics to write "Books".  The letters were made using interfacing and were stitched onto the front pocket using a blanket stitch on my sewing machine.   I used an accenting colour to each letter for the thread.  

The fabric that I chose for the letters is from various children's classics.  The Lorax, Winnie the Pooh, Richard Scarey, Berenstain Bears and Arthur.

On the strap, similar to the Mo Bedell pattern, I included a small pocket, with an elastic closure to hold her library card.  

Overall, I was really happy how this bag turned out.  The canvas exterior makes it sturdy enough to fill with books.  The pattern is really easy to follow, and the bag looks really good when it's finished.  I love how polished the french seams are inside the bag.  The lining of the front pocket allows you to put any applique that you want.