It's been a while

The last few months have been very busy for a variety of reasons, including various sewing and embroidery projects, which I'll try to catch up on in coming weeks.

My granddaughter, Emma, showed me this picture and asked if I could make this outfit for her for Book Week. The character is connected with My Little Pony, which having started life as a toy has now progressed to an animated television show and a comic book. Not really my idea of a book character but she did ask nicely and gave me lots of warning - plus it was a challenge - so what else could I do?

Here's my interpretation. Of course, Emma is normal girl shape and size - I think the girl in the picture above would have to be about 7 feet tall and thinner than Emma.

Princesses Anna

Emma and Olivia both asked for Princess Anna (Frozen) dresses for Christmas but for various reasons (mainly my sewing machine being in the shop for repairs for 3 weeks) I didn't finish them until April.

The decoration also caused some problems. I was going to use the applique design that came with the pattern (McCall's 7000) but it was a bit a bit too big and clunky so I bought a machine embroidery design from My Sewing Art (through Etsy I think) and it stitched out beautifully. 

And, finally, here they are in their dresses - still waiting for their cloaks:

What do you mean, Easter is almost here?

It feels like Christmas was just a few weeks ago. In any event, here are the outfits I made for my granddaughters for Christmas.

Olivia was delighted with the Elsa dress I made for her:

But Emma was not impressed with her outfit. "It's pants! What were you thinking, Grandma?" I even had to bribe her to try it on for a photograph.

So, while she was enjoying a holiday by the beach, I made a skirt to go with the outfit. And she was much happier with my second attempt.

Turquoise dress with a peacock

I was surprised when Emma asked me to make her a turquoise dress with a peacock - because her favourite colour is purple. When I asked her why she wanted this particular dress, she replied, "Because I think it would look good!"

I could't argue with that logic, so here's the turquoise dress with a peacock, plus a hat and bag:

Billy B Brown

Emma wanted to go to her school's Book Week parade as her favourite character, Billy B Brown in The Bad Butterfly by Sally Rippin:

I mad a circular skirt with a piece of taffeta that has been in my stash for a long, long time (well, a couple of decades. I then added the blue 'B' and trims to a white t-shirt. She already had the hot pink boots. Not exactly like the original but Emma was happy with it. She particularly likes the way the skirts twirls.

Explorer Backpacks

A couple of years ago, I made a nature bag for Emma. However, I wasn't very happy with the bag - it was a bit floppy - and Olivia didn't have one.

So I have made new bags for both girls. Each bag is lined with the fabric used as external trim and they have lots of pockets, both inside and outside, for all those things that they might collect. They also contain bags and containers, as well as necessary equipment such as binoculars, magnifying glasses, pencils, books and so on.

Queen Elsa - Frozen

Emma had a 'Frozen'-themed birthday party this year and wanted a Queen Elsa dress. I haven't seen the movie but I found a McCall's pattern that fitted the bill. Emma was quite pleased with the result.

I also made Emma some satin nightdresses (silkies), which led me to think about what Queen Elsa would wear to bed. This is what I came up with.

Cloaks

For some time now, Emma has been fascinated by cloaks. She would wrap any piece of fabric she could find (and there are quite a few in my stash) around her shoulders. So I decided to make her a proper cloak - purple, of course. 

And then I remembered the issue with bags at Christmas time, so I found some pink fabric and made a cloak for Olivia as well. Emma loves her cloak but Olivia was less impressed by hers - though she's happy enough in this photo.

Emma had a little lamb

It's fleece might have been white as snow once upon a time but its fur has greyed over the years, having been much loved and much travelled (Abigail has been to England, France, Switzerland and Italy). But Emma still loves her little lamb.

So, when I made a winter "silkie" for Emma, I machine-embroidered a lamb onto it - much to Emma's delight.

This photo gives a clearer view of the embroidered lamb:

Christmas outfits

Okay, it's already March but here is the last of my December sewing bee - I can't remember what I actually made in December but there were dresses, hats, bags, Christmas stockings . . . And it's taken me this long to finish getting photos. 

Emma was reluctant to model her outfit: "I don't wear it every day, you know. It's only for Christmas and special parties". However, after some high-level negotiations involving chocolate frogs, she really got into the spirit of it. I used Simplicity pattern 5540 for the hat, dress and matching purple shorts (not visible in this photo) and scaled down the reversible bucket bag pattern from Lisa Lam's The Bag Making Bible for the matching bag - which is lined with the dotted fabric I used for the dress.

And here is Olivia looking very cheeky in her Christmas dress (Simplicity 7189):

Olivia wasn't very happy when they opened their presents on Christmas Eve. She acted as if there had been a gross miscarriage of justice - or someone had switched the gift tags around. Why? Because she didn't get a bag! So the next day (yes, Christmas Day), I made a bag for her to match her birthday outfit.

Here are the two girls with their hats and bags, posing with Daddy before heading off to the coast:

Both bags are reversible - this is the reverse of Olivia's bag:

Silkies for a princess

My son and his family went to England a few months ago and, while they were there, Emma acquired a tiara and turned into a princess. When she returned, she requested silkies - long satin nightdresses - because, seemingly, that's what princesses wear to bed.

So I made her two silkies for her birthday:

And, of course, I made a dress for her as well:

Dresses by Grandma

I made Christmas outfits for Emma and Olivia but didn't manage to get photos of them wearing them at the time. However, they wore them on the weekend to the Multicultural Festival.

Emma in her dress and matching hat (I love her sandals):

Emma and Olivia posing with their grandfather:

Olivia's dress has cute ladybird buttons on the back:

Christmas dresses

Here's Emma in her Christmas dress (the photo was taken at Christmas time but it's taken a while for me to get around to posting it).

And here is Emma's baby sister, Olivia, in her Christmas outfit. Olivia arrived just a few days before Christmas, so she had to wait a while for her outfit. As for the slightly large hat, she outgrew the small size before I finished it, so I skipped the medium size and made a large one. It's still a bit too big but she will probably grow into it very soon.

EMMA

I made these cushions for Emma for Christmas. She enjoys playing with them and keeps them on her bed.

They have plain purple backs, as you can see in the E and M in this photo.

Pretty in pink

I was given some yarns recently, including a football-sized ball of pink acrylic. The band around the yarn had a pattern for this pretty jumper. Emma likes pink as well as purple and I was looking for another knitting project, so I made it up for her. She was happy to model it but, now that we are enjoying pleasant spring weather, I don't think she will use it much until next winter.

Purple & white

Emma moved into another bedroom on her birthday and was allowed to choose the colour scheme. And, of course, my job was to make the quilt. Each block in this quilt consists of 17 separate pieces of fabric and there are 54 blocks - 918 separate pieces of fabric.

Party time

Emma celebrated her third birthday recently and she loved the dress I made for her. Her favourite colour is purple and the party had a circle theme.


Here's a back view.

Gumnut Baby

I have been organising a conference for the last few months, which didn't leave much time or energy for any textiles (note to self: always make time for playing with fabrics). However, I did knit this jumper and beanie for Emma from a Paton's pattern. I finished them a few weeks ago but she didn't like them at first. Fortunately, she seems to have taken to them now.

Winter warmer

Although the days are mostly warm and sunny, the evenings are getting cooler and winter is definitely on the way and I've been knitting most evenings. Emma liked this cardigan, mainly because she loves buttons. (She also likes sitting on the window sill because it's just the right height for her.)

Penguins on parade

When my son told me that his wife was expecting a baby, we bought the fabric for this quilt but I didn't make it up until late last year.


As you can see from this photo, Emma shares her father's enthusiasm for penguins.