Sketchbook Blog Tour- Day 3

 

Welcome to day 3 of the Sketchbook Blog Tour for the talented Sharon Holland! I'm so excited to participate in the fun this week and see what my sewing sisters have made as well. Yesterday my friend Raedene from Chasing Mermaids did a cute outfit for her daughter with a matching doll outfit.

If this is your first time to my blog, I'm Elizabeth, and I'm addicted to Art Gallery knits. I sew with knits a lot so when I found AGF I fell in love with their soft cotton/lycra. The biggest frustration in sewing knits is finding good prints. Art Gallery Fabrics won't disappoint! They have quite a selection to choose from. Today I'll be using Ink Outburst Atelier and Doodlie Meander from Sharon's new line Sketchbook.

It's still in the 90's here in Georgia, but I'm trying to pretend like fall is coming soon. My daughter loves knit tops and leggings in the fall/winter. I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted the top to look like so I decide to use the Secret Garden Dress from LilyGiggle with some modifications.

 

I changed up several things on this pattern. The original dress has the neck and arm bands sewn a little differently where a raw edge is showing. I love that look and made several last year but I was after a little more of a sleek look on this top, so I did them as you would normally attach a neck band. (Zinnia is a great reference if you need one!) I also changed the ruffle up from being attached on the outside, to being sewn on the inside.

My favorite modification was curving the back pattern piece to make a hi-low affect. Look at all those pretty details on that fabric!!!

My daughter is very thin and petite, so we have a real struggle every year trying to find pants that fit her. The Petunia Petal Pants have been my go-to for her. My one problem is that she is obsessed with boots, so I have lengthened my pant pattern and left off the petals so that she can wear her boots.

This was my first time trying to yoga band option for the waist (as shown in this tutorial) for her. I've made it several times for customers but decided to try it for her since she is all about comfort. Not only does she like the feel better, but it took about 10 minutes off of my sewing time, which probably means all her pants will have yoga bands from now on. :)

She told me that you can't show your belly button on the internet (little does she know!! *gasp*) but you need to see this band so please don't be horrified by that cute little belly button . :)

I think this fabric fits the "sketchbook" title perfectly. It makes me think about when I used to doodle on my paper during math lessons. (Maybe that's why I'm no good at math.) Except Sharon is an artist so her doodles are way better than anything I ever drew! I hope my photography has done justice to the floral because the colors are so vibrant in person.

I hope you love what I did with this fabric. There are many other beautiful prints in wovens and knits that you can check out here.  Thank you Sharon and Art Gallery Fabrics for letting me participate in this blog with all my talented sewing sisters!!

And now for the really fun part--- Sharon is GIVING AWAY 10 yards of fabric!!!!  Did you hear me!!??  10 yards!! I'm kind of jealous that I can't participate. But you can, so go over to instagram and share a photo of your favorite thing in the blog post so far and use hashtag #sketchbooktourgiveaway to enter. You can see all the details and even find some photos to regram on Sharon's Instagram.  Can't wait to see who the lucky winner is!!

Be sure to check out tomorrow's blog stop at Snickerdoodle Stew to see what my friend Jessica is making! Thanks for stopping by!

Back to School

Back to school....
It's time for new pencils, glue, scissors, cute backpacks and new shoes. But a mother's main concern is the outfit that her child will wear. :) Admit it! You've spent a good bit of time looking for that perfect outfit too. Since I'm a seamstress I dug through all my patterns trying to find the perfect one. My daughter is in a phase of wanting to wear lots of knit so when I saw there was a new knit top pattern coming out from Little Lizard King I thought it would be perfect for her. Meet the Road Trip Racerback Dress.

 This pattern features 5 skirt options-- top, tunic, dress, maxi and even a strip-work option. I choose the dress length. There is also an option for flutter sleeves. The size range is 12m- 14 years! The back is a racer back, which was new for me since I had no other styles like this in my pattern collection.

 The pattern contains details on stabilizing your knit, as well as other tricks for sewing with knits. A good steam iron is worth it's weight in gold when you are adding those neck and arm bands! Be sure to use the size chart provided to ensure a great fit. I found it to be spot on!

I decided to add a fun little pocket to our dress. This pocket was not included in the pattern and actually came from the Emory dress from Izzy & Ivy.

That beautiful fabric is from Moda's line called PB&J. It's been very popular the past few years but sadly, it's getting very hard to find. For my bodice, I used a solid navy cotton/lyra knit from sweet Ms. Mel over at The Purpleseamstress.

The best part about this dress is that she wore it until bath time last night and when I finally took it off of her she said, "This is my favorite school dress ever!".  Thank you LLK for this great pattern that is cute AND comfy!

Here's to a great school year for all our children!