Author Archives: oliver's fancy

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About oliver's fancy

I am wife to a patient husband named Ian and stay-at-home mom to a busy little boy named Oliver. When not running around after him, I enjoy dabbling in all sorts of craftiness. I am a self-proclaimed fabric-aholic and proud of it! I have started this blog to document my journey of bettering my sewing/ crafting skills and show off occasional pictures of my little man and superb culinary creations:).

Washi Dress

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Washi #2 is complete! Have I mentioned how much I love this pattern? This Washi dress was made out of some shot cotton that I picked up while at Purl Soho. I love the lightweight feel of the shot cotton but it is quite sheer. I had a removable lining from another dress that I wore under it, but since that lining is blue you can see it under the dress a little bit. No worries, I will still wear the dress all the time. 🙂 Once Rae puts up a lining video, I will re-do the top and add a lining to the dress

Changes I made to the patterm:

  • Shortened the bodice a bit since I am short-waisted. I ended up not liking it as much this way, so from now on, I will leave the pattern as is.
  • Also after looking at all the pictures from the Washi flickr pool, I realized I was sewing my pleats wrong. (oops!) I say that I will fix them, but let’s be realistic. Most likely I will just wear the dress as-is and hope no one notices. 🙂
  • Added some length to the dress because I wasn’t sure how long it would come out, and I wanted to be able to add a deep hem to help pull the shot cotton down. My next dress (yes I already have the fabric for it) is going to be quilting cotton so I won’t need the deep hem and will use the original pattern length.
  • Raised the neckline about 2 inches so that I could have the u cutout but not feel I needed to wear a tank under it to be modest. Very happy with how this came out!

Overall consensus: I love the feel and weight of the shot cotton, but the fabric feels so fragile that I am not convinced of the longevity of this dress. I will have to be very careful in my washing of the dress. However, this is seriously the most comfortable dress I own! And I am so happy to have a purple dress! It may be a bit nerdy to admit this, but purple is my favorite color and it makes me happy to sew clothing for myself in purple.

With each dress/ tunic, I feel that I am learning more about how to sew clothing for myself so even if they are not perfect, they are all helpful lessons.   If you want to try this out for yourself the Washi pattern is available here. FYI these pictures were all taken last weekend on our family vacation to Hilton Head Island. It was a great place for a photo shoot with all the beautiful scenery!

Couldn’t resist a picture with my little buddy since we are both in handmades…check out his treasure pocket shorts.

Zippered Wet Bags

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I received another commission last week for more wet bags for cloth diapers. This client wanted zippered pouches. I have to admit, I most definitely like the drawstring bags better than the zippered ones. I just do not enjoy putting zippers in. However, I am happy for work: more jobs= more fabric money. 🙂 The first bag is a small 13×16 inch perfect for the diaper bag. The second one is a large 17×21 inch bag meant to be used in the house as a wet pail. Everyone seems to have a tutorial for zipper pouches and I have read many of them and come up with my own way to make them- kinda compiling all that I have read. I did use this tutorial to do the covered zipper ends. I have never done that before and I like how clean it makes the zipper look. I am pretty pleased with how my business both on etsy and thru word-of-mouth is building up and I hope to have some time in the next few weeks to make some more inventory to share with a few different sources. First, I need to stop making these Washi dresses! I can’t wait share my purple shot cotton one with you next week!

Washi Tunic

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Are you aware of the Washi week happening over at Made by Rae? I have been stalking her for a month anxiously awaiting the release of this pattern. And this weekend, it finally was available! Although I had several other projects in the works, I quickly brushed them aside to begin on my own Washi clothing. I was going to begin with the dress but didn’t have enough of this Lizzy House print for a dress so settled for the tunic. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this tunic The pattern is so quick and easy to follow, even for a fairly new clothing seamstress like myself. Who doesn’t love a shirt with no closures? So proud of myself for successfully mastering shirring in this tunic! 🙂

It is a PDF pattern so you print it out and tape together before tracing it onto some sort of pattern tracing paper. That is the most tedious part in my opinion, but I did it while watching a movie which that made it more enjoyable. I traced my pattern onto some quilter’s grid tracing paper that I have. Rae recommends Swedish tracing paper and I have that on my list to buy as soon as I can because I think that would be better and easier to use than the quilter’s grid.

Per the pattern’s instructions, I made a muslin for the upper bust and when I did, the Medium was a bit tight even though my measurements were right on for the Medium size. Because of this I decided to sew 1/4 inch seams on the shoulders and sides instead of 1/2 inch- to give myself a little extra wiggle room. However, after I finished the tunic, I had to go back and add that extra 1/4 inch seam allowance back into the tunic because it was too big! Who knows what happened with the muslin?

I found some purple shot cotton from my Purl Soho visit that is enough for a dress version of this pattern and am already anxiously planning out some time to work on it! I will make a few changes on the dress version. First off, I will add the optional sleeves. Second, Rae suggested I could take a few inches off the bodice because I have a short torso and I think I will try that with the dress. Lastly, the U cutout on the front bodice was a bit lower than I wanted so I will raise the neckline a bit in order to feel that I can wear the dress without a tank under it and still be modest. 🙂

If you are looking for a versatile tunic/dress pattern, this is it! Check out all the versions Rae has made on her site! She even has a maxi version that she has promised to post a tutorial for (as a pattern add-on) soon! Also she has had quite a few pattern testers of varying shapes and sizes who have tried out her pattern and I think the dress looks fabulous on all of them! Hats off to Rae for an amazing job on this pattern. I can’t wait to see Washis begin popping up all over the blogosphere!

P.S. Pink Castle Fabrics is having a huge $5/ yard fabric sale and I scooped up some flea market fancy yardage perfect for another Washi dress!

A Wet Bag for Oliver

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You know the saying about the cobbler’s children running barefoot? Well that happens to be the case in our house quite often as well. I bought some PUL fabric months ago and planned to make Oliver some wet bags for his diaper pail liner and (up till now) had yet to do it. BUT my recent commission for a hanging wet bag put me on a roll, and I whipped one up for Oliver this week. This bag hangs in our laundry room and collects all the diapers until wash time. I like this method better than what we were doing (laundry basket collecting diapers till wash) because it is super easy to throw the bag into the wash with the diapers and all get cleaned at the same time. Ideally, I think I need two so one can be in the wash and one can be in use, but one thing at a time, please. 🙂

I made this bag in the same dimensions I made the previous one (roughly 17×21), and I love the size of it. I also love that it is drawstring so no zippers! If you know me, you also know that I am a big Dr. Seuss fan so this bag makes me happy just looking at it. 🙂 I bought quite a bit of Dr. Seuss fabric when I was pregnant with Oliver and have yet to use it all, so I am happy to have found another good use for it. I have another commission for zippered wet bags and am hoping to get those whipped up this weekend… this is becoming quite the side business for me!

New Pillows for Mom, part 2

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I have finally finished the pillows for my mom’s living room. Here is a picture of her living room with all 4 new pillows. I really like how well they complement the room.

These brown pillows have a long history. Last year for Mother’s Day my sister-in-law had the fabric monogrammed, and I made pillows out of them. In order to save some money, we used pillow forms from some pillows my mom currently had in her living room. Big mistake! These were not normal pillow forms and I had to re-sew the pillows quite a few times trying to get them tight enough to the pillow. They still ended up being kinda lumpy and I had to put button holes in the back of them to make the envelope closure stay closed. Unfortunately, I made the button holes too big so they just looked kinda tacky. All in all, not a very satisfying project, but I had spent too much time and money on them to change them at the moment (plus i had a brand new baby which meant no time for sewing) so they sat in her living room for a year.  With the advent of the blue pillows a few weeks ago, we decided to redo the brown ones (finally!). My mom bought some much smaller pillow forms, and I seam ripped the pillows and cut them down to size…much better now! I was hoping to not have to seam rip since there were about 4 lines of stitching around the pillows, but I needed to use part of the seam allowance in order for the envelope closure to be wide enough, so I watched some Olympics this week and ripped my little heart out.

The fabric used is a brown micro-suede. For future reference, I would not recommend this fabric for pillows because it shows all dirt and sticks a bit funny to the pillow form- lots of static, but I made it work for this project. I wish I had a picture of the before pillows to show you, but I forgot to take one before I fixed them. Just take my word for it that these look much better than the previous ones!

Tova Top #3 and a request for advice

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Well I am finally going to unveil my latest selfish sewing project- Tova #3. I was waiting to show this to you because I took it to New York and thought I could get some cool pictures with it, but,alas, I wore it on a very hot day and got all sweaty so no super cool pics. Here’s what I have though. These are all instagram pictures because it was too hot and heavy to carry the big camera around.

This Tova is made out of a swiss dot that I found at Joann’s. I liked the lightness of the fabric and thought it would keep me cool in the heat. It was nice to wear in the sticky heat up north. It’s a little busier than I was picturing but I still like the fabric. However, here’s my thing with this Tova. I love seeing the pics of everyone else wearing them, but I feel like when I wear one, I look as wide as a house. Look at the picture of me from behind to see what I am saying. The shirt is so comfortable that I want to not care about the fit, but then when I look at pictures of myself, I am not happy with the result. I made the size medium and was trying to follow all the directions this time, but I did end up taking in quite a bit in the waistline as it was too big. However, it fits perfectly over the bust and around the hips. I don’t feel that I can take the shirt in any more along the waistline because it has no closures so I wouldn’t be able to get it off and on. Anyone have any advice for me? It’s a bummer to see so many other cute Tovas and feel that mine is a bit inferior. Maybe this pattern is just not meant for me?

Modern Quilt Guild

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I am back from a whirlwind anniversary trip to New York and have tons of things to share with you including a new Tova top, but it is late and I must get to bed so I am just popping in here to tell you to check out the Greenville modern quilt guild’s new blog– moderated by yours truly. 🙂 Excited to see the unfolding of this new guild and hope some of you will join me!

Will be back tomorrow with New York pics- Purl Soho! and my new Tova…

Hanging Wet Bag for Cloth Diapers

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Remember a while back when I  blogged about a wet bag I made for a baby shower? Well the same friend commissioned me to make a hanging wet bag for the bathroom. Because this bag will hang in the bathroom, she decided that a drawstring bag would be nice instead of a zippered bag. I bought Jeni’s pattern for drawstring bags in order to have easy instructions at hand and save myself the trouble of doing any math. It was fun to get to play around with girl fabrics for a change. The bag is lined with PUL to make it waterproof. If you have never worked with PUL and want to make a bag like this, one tip I would offer is to try to keep the PUL fabric on the bottom (next to the feed dogs) while you are sewing because it is quite slippery and can be a bit of a pain otherwise.

I made the laundry size bag Jeni offers in her pattern with the change of shortening the length from 26 inches to 20. Jeni’s instructions are so great that this bag came together very quickly.  If you need to make some drawstring bags, I highly recommend buying Jeni’s pattern. It is very reasonably priced and includes x-small to x-large sizes. She also gives you license to sell with the pattern purchase. I can’t wait to find a reason to make another one. 🙂  Hmm, I still haven’t made a wet bag for my bathroom which is the reason I bought the PUL in the first place. LOL.

For picture purposes, I put 7 of Oliver’s cloth diapers in the bag. I would say that this bag can comfortably hold between 15-20 cloth diapers.

This Weekend

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It’s been a pretty crazy week over here on the home-front. We had family here for a week and have been super busy cleaning up from that and getting things ready for our big anniversary trip to New York City next week. Whee!!! So excited about it!

Any-who, in my little spare time, I have been so busy filling up my etsy shop with lovelies that I haven’t had much time to sew for myself, but I have fabric waiting for a Tova Top that I really want to bring on our trip so I will try to finish that before Thursday. I had been focusing on embroidery hoop art for a few weeks and decided to work on some onesies this past week to give my shop some variety. I used some of the fabric that I picked up at Whipstitch (business expense 😉 ) and am loving my new creations! I have a few basic designs that I am fine-tuning: vests with ties or bow ties, fat ties, and suspenders with skinny ties or bow ties. Check out the mini houndstooth print I found- so perfect for the suspenders and vests! It’s so silky soft too that it is super nice for baby garments.

I was just commissioned to make a cloth diaper hanging wet bag for a friends and am trying to find the perfect fabric for her and her little girl. I am making something similar to Jeni’s lined drawstring bag here: except I will line the bag in PUL fabric to make it suitable for cloth diapers. I went ahead and bought Jeni’s pattern because she gives you a license to sell and that way I don’t have to do the math by myself- so worth it if someone else has already done math for me! I am excited to see how it turns out and will be sure to show you. I would like to finish it before my trip also so I am sure to be quite busy the next few days!

Last item to update you on. Greenville now has a branch of the Modern Quilt Guild! We had an introductory meeting today with a few people and are planning on meeting the second or third Friday of each month. I volunteered to take over the blog site and will be updating it as we find out more information. I have wanted to have one of these for a while and am quite pumped that it is beginning. Check out the website if you want more details- there’s not much there now but will be soon. I cannot wait to meet like-minded quilters and crafters in my town. If you are local, we would love to see you at our meetings, even if you are a novice quilter!

New pillows for mom

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Yesterday I finished a quick project that I want to share with you. My mom had picked out some fabric for new pillows, and I have let it languish around my craft room for a few weeks. Once I actually sat down to make the pillows yesterday, they came together so quickly that I wondered why I took so long to begin them! I made simple square 20″ pillows with an envelope back and I used this tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew to figure out how wide to make the back panels. It’s a great resource to have when you are making pillows! The change I made is to cut my pillows the same size as the insert (20″ in my case) and sew with a 3/8″ seam so the fabric fits nice and snug on the pillow form. The fabric is a Waverly upholstery print we picked up at Jo-Ann’s. The stiffness of the upholstery weight makes ironing over the inside seams so easy and they sew together beautifully! I really liked how professional the pillows looked when finished. The print and color matches perfectly with my mom’s living room and adds some needed pizzazz. Now I want to buy some more upholstery fabric and make myself new pillows! But first I must redo some other pillows I made for my mom a while back that turned out kinda rough…We used old pillow forms which were not square and it ended up being a rumpled mess with ill-fitting buttonholes. I will take a before and after shot of these so you can see the difference. Hopefully, it won’t take me another 3 weeks to finish them! 🙂