Handmade 52 - Item 5 - Missy's Dress

One of my all time favorite designers, Samantha from Little Comet Tails, designed a dress for a her daughter called the "Spin Around Dress". It has the most adorable sweetheart neckline that just looks so cute on our little girlie. And because Samantha's such a sweetie, it was (and still is) available free from her blog in a size 2T.

Well, recently she went back to that pattern and graded it to fit a sz 4-6 as her daughter, Molly, had outgrown the original size. And what does she do? She offers it as a freebie on her Facebook page! All you have to do is "Like" her FB page (linked above) and you'll be able to download this awesome dress pattern. Trust me, it's well worth it. Plus, there's always something wonderful going on over there!

Anyway. I decided to jump in and make Missy a new Spin Around dress! I'd been hoarding this beautiful "shirting" fabric from Joann for a while now, and decided it was time to use it. Hubby gave his suggestion on what colour to use for the sash (off the kids and I went to Joann for the sash fabric), and then the cutting and sewing began.
On a whim I swapped the skirt portion out for a full circle skirt, cut out based on this tutorial from Dana Made It. I've been wanting to try a circle skirt for so long now, but I keep getting busy with other things, so instead of waiting for another time I just went for it!

The end result:

 Just a quick check on brother mid-shoot. Too cute!

Mia is definitely at the small end of the sizing, but thanks to the lovely sash it stays on beautifully and will fit for a couple years to come! Which is great by the way, because did I mention I LOVE this fabric?! ;) Thanks Samantha! And the next one I make will have the original skirt and probably cap sleeves from her free sleeve pattern to fit this dress.

Handmade 52 - Item #4 - JOE!

Handmade Item #4

Poor Joe. He's been stuck in my UFO pile since about ... well, I'm not 100% sure. I'm guessing around 2009?
Who is Joe, you ask?

Joe started out as a monster, drawn by our son, on paper. I then traced the main lines onto my "Easy Pattern" material so that we could turn him into a stuffie. A special stuffie that my son could say he had designed. We cut him out of the fabric Booger chose.....and then he lay there, being moved from pile to pile, and even to a new house, until this month.

After I finished the crayon bag for Missy I asked Booger who I should sew something for next. After some thought he asked me to finish his stuffie for him. And feeling rather embarrassed that I'd left it this long, I agreed!

So after several sewing sessions, and a surprisingly large amount of stuffing, Joe was finally done! Yay!

So without further ado, let me introduce you the monster of the year....

JOE

as drawn by "Booger"

Joe likes to scale tall...umm..mountains.

And be carted, in clenched teeth, by silly monkeys attempting to climb where they shouldn't!

Joe, as you might have realized, is rather special.

You see, he has one normal arm, and then one arm shaped like a hammer. And his legs and feet are also not even. One big, and one small, just like his eyes. There's several things that are rather unique to Joe...but one of my favourites has to be his hiney "tattoo"! ;)