The big reveal: What I did to that polka dot dress.

Zadie got to wear her new very girly, very ruffly, very hijacked polka dot dress to a bunny rabbit birthday party this weekend. I love the final result although I'm not sure it was worth all the hassle. It does fit much better and is a lot easier to get on and off the poor kid. I just love how serious she is in this photo, taking care not to spill the contents of the bag.

I had to cut the dress from the middle of the neck all the way to the waist. There was no other way to make it look intentional. I like the result and the vintage button detail from my stash stands out and adds a nice touch.

I almost didn't post a picture of the disaster that these closures on the shoulder seams have become but I was not about to give up this fight. I started by adding the roundy piece to the original shoulder seam. It was a thick mess so I ended up just covering the whole seam with this wide yellow grosgrain ribbon. Nothing here has been a happy accident but I do like this touch. The dress is still a bit wide but I can reset the snaps next year and have a little tunic.

Other Crafty Endeavors

This summer I took advantage of semi-lax summer hours and a cooler-than-I-ever-remember-it weather pattern, and made a whole bunch of stuff for my kid:
This is a little drawstring bag lined with a shirt I bought at Gabe's just for the print. I appliqued these crazy animals onto it. They're from some fabric someone gave my mom. It's very weird and safari-esque. We put the finger puppets we bought last year at Old Navy into it.





I love this little fabric book. I cut out the animals from the new Eric Carle fabric that my local quilt shop surprisingly had in stock. I appliqued them onto some of my favorite prints from my stash. The facing pages are all solids. The inside of the cover also uses some of the fabric from the Eric Carle yardage. I didn't have a pattern or directions to follow so I just sorta went with it and I think it turned out well. I improvised a Japanese stab binding and it has started to come apart from toddler abuse so I'll have another go at that with some thicker thread or I'll double up the embroidery floss. That number print is Alexander Henry.

This is a travel highchair. If you do a google search you'll see what one looks like in use. I used some more fabric my mom gave me (her church quilt buddies gave it to her -- you can't buy stuff this amazing). There is also some polka dot and corduroy from my stash and that paisley print is a fat quarter I got free when buying from an Etsy shop that was having a sale. Oh, and of course, that Joel Dewberry pink faux boix that I can't get enough of (literally). I like the way the prints work together.

Buy Handmade!

I took the Handmade Pledge this year and so should you! It doesn't mean that you have to buy ONLY handmade items but it means that you're making an effort. I'm about halfway finished with my holiday shopping and most of it has been off Etsy. I'm so glad these guys got together and organized this online event. It's really cool.

I'll be selling my stuff at two major shows in the upcoming weeks (Handmade Arcade and the Bust Craftacular, links to left). I always buy stuff at these types of events, even though I'm always rushing to see all the stuff from the other vendors. I love Etsy but it's really cool to meet the makers in person sometimes too.