Autumn Is In the Air For Dolls, Too

I just love sewing for dolls! There is never a fitting problem and they smile at everything I make! Some of the very first things that I sewed as a child were clothes for my Chatty Cathy. (Do you remember her?) I was quite brave as a little girl and tackled dressmaking without a pattern and sewed the little dresses all by hand. I wish I still had those early creative attempts!



This little 4-piece set was purchased with several other sets as a special birthday present for a special little girl. The applique on the front of the tunic top is taken from a larger Halloween print. The smokey pearl buttons match the charcoal stripe in the plaid. The white linen peasant blouse is trimmed with grosgrain ribbon to coordinate with the applique thread and can be worn with the shorts without the tunic. I had fun decorating the tiny autumn shopping/gift bag with little Mary Englebrite calendar pictures. Aren't those little brown suede maryjane's cute?

My Homecoming Sweetie

My lovely daughter, Victoria-Rose went to the Homecoming Dance last night with her friends. Isn't she beautiful? It is hard for me to believe that we were waiting for her almost 16 years ago. It feels like yesterday! She was a wonderful baby, toddler, little girl, and tween and now she is an amazing young woman. My angel-baby is almost grown-up. I keep saying that I wish I could freeze time just a little so that I could have more time with my children. I am so very blessed!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day

The Big Day

Update: We had a wonderful day on Jumpstart's Read For the Record: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day! It was such fun to see my creations enjoyed. Maddie's mom purchased the skort from me and Cassidy wore the dress I made for her birthday.

I didn't have time to make myself a Very Hungry Caterpillar outfit but I pinned some paper copies of the famous caterpillar to my green straw hat and wore a butterfly blouse. My daughter (age 15) and I loved it and I wore it all day. My husband laughed (he's used to me) and my son (age 14) just shook his head and made sure I wasn't picking him up from high school that day!

A simply delightful mom of one of my students went all out for the day, too. She pinned a purchased set of felt story telling props made by Eric Carle onto a green shirt for her son and dressed up her baby daughter as the butterfly! Soooooo cute!

We did lots of special things with the class. The favorite was coloring sequence pictures of the story and cutting them out and gluing them to a large green leaf. Then every child had a story telling aide to use when retelling the story to their parents that night.

Happy children + a great theme = a happy teacher!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Jumpstart's Read For the Record has asked everyone to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle on October 8th (For more information go to http://www.ericcarleblog.blogspot.com/ .) I love Eric Carle's books with their bright colorful illustrations and was delighted last July when I saw on his museum page that he has fabric lines based on two of his books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I quickly purchased several lengths of fabric from both lines with visions of caterpillars dancing in my head! If you wish to see the full lines go to Mr. Carle's museum page at http://www.eric-carle.com/museum.html.

Three of the four Eric Carle inspired outfits are for my sweet godchild Cassidy who turned 6 in mid September.

First in the line up is a shorts set for Cassidy made using a retro Simplicity pattern from 1970 and the Brown Bear fabrics. It tickled me to use this pattern that was designed and printed a few years before Cassidy's mommy was even born! I needed to add a little length to the shorts, though. We were really wearing things SHORT back then!

Back View

This capris set was made using three of the fabrics from the Caterpillar fabric line. There are little caterpillars and the book title all over the white fabric

Back View

This is a little skort I made using one of the sections of the panel fabric.

Back View

I saved my favorite for last. In the following photo Cassidy watches as her father holds up her birthday gift from me. I really had fun with this one! I used five of the fabrics in the Caterpillar line and lots of trims. The white cotton peasant blouse that I made for this dress looks so pretty with it. The dress can be worn without it, too! I am looking forward to October 8th to see this on her!

Back View

I hope that you like these Eric Carle inpired designs. I had such fun making them!

Baby Clothes

I just LOVE to make baby clothes! I have a friend who will be having a little girl in November and I have just started a sweet white smocked infant ensemble for her. While working on this project (and some others) I began reminiscing. I've made LOTS of sweet baby things starting with the christening dress I made my niece 23 years ago. It was pretty but I have come a long way since then! Here are some of the outfits that I have made for little ones in recent years. If you want to see some others, just press on the link to Past Projects.



This one was hand embroidered using a vintage reproduction of a Martha White embroidery pattern and a vintage style Kari Me Away jacket pattern.





The bubble is made using a coordinating embroidery design and a bubble pattern from Children's Corner.

This was my own adaptation of a square joked pattern. I added the smocking.

I just love this little hat! It looks like a baby fairy would wear it while sitting in the middle of a pink chrysanthemum!

This set was made for a baby boy. The sheep on the blanket was appliqued and then hand embroidered. The onsie and socks were smocked over the ribs of the fabric and then hand embroidered. The blanket was lined with cotton flannel and piped all the way around. The jacket is made from the same pattern as the little yellow checked one and is also appliqued and hand embroidered.

I love smocked bishop style dresses on babies! The smocking around the neckline brings attention to their sweet little faces and they are so comfortable for them to wear with the raglan sleeves. They are able to wear them for a longer time, too. This is one I called Ladybug Surprise because I put tiny ladybird beetle buttons down the back, on the smocking, and on the bonnet ribbon ties.

This next bishop has a shaddow worked bow and more hand embroidery at the hemline. It is daygown length (to the ankles) and has a matching bonnet. (Please excuse the white mark on the photo. I removed the baby's name.)

Another bishop set that I loved making was this short one. It is hard to see in this photo (scanned into my computer) but the smocking on the pink diaper shirt and bonnet is lavender. The French lace is gorgeous in person, too!

This is Megan in her pale blue bishop daygown and bonnet. There is embroidery at the hemline of this one, too, but you can't see it in the photo.

This little floral number was made from such a soft fabric!

This eyelet set is smocked in lavenders and embroidered with pink flowers. I even smocked the legs of the bloomers so that elastic would not hurt the baby's legs! Silk ribbon ties with hand embroidered flowers adorn the simple bonnet made from the cotton eyelet.

The outfit above modeled by beautiful Emma.

This next outfit was made using a 1951 pattern for the little dress. It is embroidered in pinks, greens, and baby blue and edged in French Lace. The bloomers are smocked in blue at the leg openings.

The bonnet I made to match the above dress is one of my absolute favorite bonnets I have ever made!

I hope you enjoyed my stroll down Memory Lane as much as I have! Did you like my baby clothes?