Burda Style PDF Patterns

Hi!  So sorry it's been so long!  That seems to be the theme with me this year.  Things are busy with homeschooling and I'm still working on the house which takes all of my extra energy at the end of the day.  I have found myself too exhausted to even want to sew which is very unlike me! 

I have been daydreaming and planning lots of sewing projects however.  I recently discovered that Burda Style offers instant down loadable pdf patterns!  Lots of them!  They also have a great gallery to view what others have created which is my favorite part.

I purchased this adorable dress pattern and hope to get a chance to make it this week.

02/2011 Dress with gathered rectangle skirt and cap sleeves

I plan to use this vintage table cloth for the fabric. I should be able to wear it for a few months with a little cardigan since we live in Florida.  If I get busy making it that is!

Do you think the green is going to be too much? 

Boys Wallet

Last week we started our homeschool co-op classes.  We joined a homeschool co-op when Nate was just 2 which was very early to get started but I was looking for like minded families to share the journey with.  The group grew very quickly and last year 2 sister groups where started.  We are still a part-time member of our original homeschool group which is a Charlotte Mason group and now participate in co-op classes with one of the new sister groups.  We are so blessed!  Both groups are so amazing and filled with the most beautiful families!  There is no issue of any of our homeschooled kids missing out on socialization!  Sometimes I have to take a time-out from all the fun we have with friends! 

For Nates class they are doing "Math Matters" and learning about money.  I was asked that we provide a wallet for Nate that will stay in the class all year and it needed to hold quite a bit of change.  I new right away trying to find one at a store with 3 kids that would hold change and be "cool" was not going to be worth the effort so I headed to the computer and went pattern hunting.   

I was so excited when I came across this Boys Wallet over at the very purple person.  Fantastic blog by the way!!!  She made this one for her son using this pattern from Napkitten Pattern at Etsy.  I headed straight over to buy the pattern and unfortunately the shop owner was on vacation.  I was so bummed!  It was perfect with the little pocket so I decided to just make it on my own.  Napkitten is back open now. 

The Napkitten Pattern is for a girl's lace wallet and Novita changed it up to make it all boy.  I copied everything she did.  I added the zipper, did velcro for the pocket, and added the elastic strip to hold it closed.  I still like hers a lot better with the cool skull fabric and rustic charm but Nate is happy with his and it works perfectly for what we needed. 

Nate is all about race cars right now so I started with some scrap upholstery fabric I had in my stash and embroidered a race car for the front.  This is the first time I've embroidered in over a year!  I love that I can embroider when I get in a situation like this one where I don't have any cute fabric and don't feel like shopping for any but I have to admit that it's not my favorite thing to do.  It was easy to reproduce this wallet by looking at the picture but I think I'm still going to head over and buy that pattern.  I'd like to make a couple more of these when the boys get older and start to carry library cards and money of their own. 

Oh, and have you seen Patterns By Figgys new sewing for boys book?  Awesome!  I can't wait for mine to arive!

Simple Dress

Here is something I whipped up for Madeline before heading to Nina and Papa's house on Sunday.  It's not much but I was really missing my sewing machine and needed a quick fix!  It turned out really cute for the time I put into the dress. 

It's actually 3 pieces.  I first made a tube and did the shirring but it was way to loose and I wanted the dress to have lots of room for movement so I decided to size down the top and leave the bottom.  I folded 2 rectangles in half, stitched them right sides together, flipped them right side out, and shirred 3 rows after they were attached to the dress.  The fabric is by Amy Butler. 

For the headband I sewed a piece of rose trim to 1/4" elastic.  Super easy.  I'm all about the headbands these days.  She pulls everything else out.  She can't seem to figure out how to get the headbands off yet....

Now I'm hoping to make the boys something to match her cute dress for co-op school on Thursday.  My goal this year was to have them all wearing handmade school clothes and since we only go once a week I thought it would be an attainable goal.  I'm not so sure anymore seeing that it's Tuesday already! 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!