Sewing For A Royal Baby

It came!!

I am so honored and excited to share with you

that I was a contributor to this beautiful book.

This book was the "baby" of 

the amazingly gifted

 Kathy Barnard and Amelia Johanson.

The lovely dress on the cover

was created by my friend Janet Gilbert

who just launched her own smocking website!

 Janet-Gilbert.com

I get chills seeing my name printed there.

I really do not feel I belong in this group of designers.

The contributors to this book are the most 

gifted in the field of heirloom sewing!

Do you see whose names are also there????

This book is filled with gorgeous designs,

complete with patterns on a CD-ROM in the back.

My tiny contribution was drafting a pattern

and writing instructions

for a pair of antique lace booties from

this photo.

These were my samples.

I made them from lace and cotton batiste.

But the original antique lace boots in the book

photo were made from a lovely silk.

The pattern for these little booties is included

in the CD-ROM in the back of the book,

and includes 3 sizes.

I am just so very thrilled to have been 

a part of this book. 

You can purchase it 

at the 

Martha Pullen Company 

and

Amazon.com

There are patterns for several dresses,

little boy suits,

bubbles,

booties,

bibs,

bonnets,

coverlets and other accessories,

and even 2 christening gowns!!

 

The patterns ,

 embroidery designs,

and heirloom construction techniques

alone are worth much, much more than the cost of this book. 

But the photography and inspiration are priceless!

I have only taken photos of the pages,

so the actual book pages are not blurry like

my photos. 

All the photos on the pages here, 

except for my two bootie samples,

 are from the book,

and are the property of Sew Beautiful and F&W Media, Inc. 

I hope you purchase this gorgeous book

for yourself and enjoy every lovely detail.

Happy Sewing!

Sivje

The Martha Pullen Love Of Sewing Retreat

I finally got to meet Martha Pullen !!

And she is wonderful and hilarious 

and I almost cried because I am 

such a giant fan!

I asked her to sign my my article in

Sew Beautiful magazine

and now I am going to frame it.

If you ever get a chance to 

attend any of her retreats

or seminars,

I hope you get to hear her "Spanx" routine.

OH MY!!!
So funny!!

But more importantly than her hilarious stories,

she generously shared her business philosophy

and love of heirloom garments.

I was so happy to take a serger tote class with

Kathy McMakin!

I am smiling so hard, 

my eyes are almost completely invisible!

She taught some incredible serger 

techniques and was so friendly!

The next class I took was for a wallet

made completely "in the hoop".

I love my sewing machine,

but oh my!

We all created these wallets on the Babylock Ellissimo Gold 

Embroidery and sewing machines.

What a blast!!

These are amazing machines!

 

Martha taught the class on lace shaping.

It really is so fun and much easier

than it looks. 

I met Alicia Welcher,

one of Martha's licensed teachers,

in this class, 

where she was assisting.

I was beyond thrilled to find out that

Alicia is practically my neighbor in my new town!

I also was so excited to take a serger Hipster Bag class

with Missy Billingsley.

Oh my goodness!!!

Missy is incredible!!!

She has fabulous patterns and videos

and she completely got 

me excited about sewing with sergers.

I have two older sergers but have been

pretty unimpressed with them.

I am definitely going to save up for 

a new Babylock serger now!

This is the Hipster Bag we made

in Missy's class. 

She taught us how to make a "Fancy Band" 

and even how to put in a zipper

on the serger!

Ahnalin has already tried to snag this little bag from me.

This is a table folder we made using

a "Sashiko" machine. 

I love it!

I didn't finish the serger tote, 

but I am almost done with it.

This event was sponsored by

Meissner's Sewing Center,
which has 3 locations in the Sacramento area.
The Meissner staff is incredible!
I signed up for their mailing list
so that I can hear about events in the future.
I plan to attend a Janome seminar
at Meissners  this summer.

All in all, this retreat was a fabulous gift.

My parents and my Hot Rockin' Hubby knew

how badly I wanted to go to this

retreat and they worked together to make it happen

for me. 

 I am so incredibly grateful!

I have never been to anything like this retreat before

and it was a treat from the second I arrived

until the last second. 

I think I am hooked. 

Now, 

time to get back to the real world!

I have to make a costume for

Ahnalin for "Pioneer School" by Wednesday.

And pictures will soon be up 

of Ahnalin as "Jane Austen" 

for her 3rd grade history project.

I had better get busy.

Happy Sewing!

Vintage Rose Smocked Natalie Dress In Sew Beautiful Magazine

I squealed with excitement when

I received this in the mail the other day!

That's my name!

You see, I love the "Vintage Natalie" pattern

that Janet Gilbert designed for Sew Beautiful.

You can order the pattern on the Martha Pullen website. 

I made this version for the First Day Of Third Grade.

And I made this version for Ahnalin's 8th birthday.

I love this pattern!!

So, I had the idea to add smocking

to the waist. 

It combined my passion for smocking 

with my love of this amazingly versatile pattern.

I designed the smocking and wrote the instructions

and you can find them in the May/ June issue of Sew Beautiful Magazine.  

You will also receive the pattern for this 

darling romper designed by my favorite designer,

 Janet Gilbert!

This is my favorite part of the whole magazine.

This is the page that made me cry.

You see, I learned how to smock through

reading Sew Beautiful Magazine.

The talented artists on this page, 

and others who have contributed to the magazine,

have been my mentors over the past several years.

They have been encouraging and so willing

to share their knowledge. 

To see my photo next to these photos

was a dream-come-true!

And now, enough of my teary gushing.

I had better get back to setting up my new sewing room

and work on my next designs! 

Happy Sewing!

My First Sew Beautiful Story- A Giveaway!

Look! Do you see my name?

That is my name right next to 

 Janet Gilbert's name!

 Yes, much screaming and jumping up and down

was done by me when I saw it!

You see Sew Beautiful

is my very favorite magazine.

I have learned so very much of sewing,

smocking, 

embroidery,

construction,

design,

and inspiration 

from this magazine

and it's writers.

Janet Gilbert is my favorite!

(Yes, she knows that I was a stalker fan before

we finally "met" and now we are friends!)

And look!

Our story is even a "cover story"!

So Janet and I worked on this article together.

It features 3 of my skirts

and 3 of Janet's skirts.

One of the skirts is my 

Monkey Girl Bloomer Skirt pattern.

You can buy the pattern here from my blog,

or "You Can Make This.com"

Or from my Etsy store

Sivjegoose

Or from Fairytale Frocks And Lollipops

The corduroy A-line skirt with zipper trim

is featured in the article as a free pattern!

My photos are awful but the photos in the magazine are 

much better!

And the free tutorial for my "Math Skirt"

pattern are featured on the 

Sew Beautiful Blog!

There are many, many more

wonderful articles,

ideas and patterns in the Back To School issue

of Sew Beautiful!

So to share my joy and excitement,

I am giving away a copy 

of this issue of Sew Beautiful Magazine!

If you would like to be included in this giveaway,

please leave me a comment 

with your email address.

Thank you for sharing my joy!!!!!

Happy Sewing!!!

Sivje

The First Day Of Third Grade Dress

Today is the first day of third grade.

And Ahnalin had definite ideas of how she wanted to look.

The first item in building her look

was the saddle shoes.

You see, my father loves saddle shoes.

So when Ahnalin saw these in a store window,

she told me to take a picture of them 

and send it to her grandpa.

Minutes later, a text came saying

Grandpa John John would buy them for her.

Ahnalin was ecstatic!

So the decision was made that 

she must have a black and white outfit

for the first day.

My friend Janet had sent me

this fabric from her stash

and Ahnalin had been eyeing it

since it's arrival.

I had already made the "Vintage Natalie"

dress pattern that Janet Gilbert

designed for

Sew Beautiful

earlier this month for Ahnalin's birthday dress.

Have I mentioned that I love this pattern?

Well I do!!!!!

So Ahnalin negotiated for what she wanted,

and the design was sketched up!.

She wanted puffy sleeves,

so of course she got those.

And she wanted the collar to be in black

with red trim.

I had this red whipstich piping

already in my stash.

She also wanted one of my 

Mary Engelbreit scottie dog

buttons on a belt style sash,

instead of a bow this time.

I liked the whipstitch piping for the whole

dress, especially the panel down the front.

She thinks it looks like candy canes.

This photo is blurry,

because she was swinging the skirt.

But I made a banded hem 

and added the piping at the top and bottom

of the band.

I cut the skirt at the "knee" length of the pattern.

And I cut the dress a size 6, 

which is perfect for her.

She is 8 years old and very thin.

I adore the back on this dress.

It is so classic!

Ahnalin is crazy about it.

She said she feels like a 

"50's diner girl".

We have to have a "Classic Ahnalin" pose

every time.

Ahnalin bought this black and white

polka dot trench coat at "Forever 21" with her

birthday money from Grandma Barbara and 

Grandpa John John. 

She definitely had a theme in mind.

Happy First Day of Third Grade

Ahnalin.

This is going to be an exciting year.

I pray that my darling girl 

grows and learns wonderful things.

I am so proud of her.

Happy Sewing!

My Math Skirt Featured On The Sew Beautiful Blog!

Oh My Goodness!

My Math Skirt Tutorial is featured today on the

Sew Beautiful Blog!

I am so very excited!!!!!!

(Can you tell from the extreme abuse of my exclamation points?)

The post explains how to make

a simple skirt using just math!

Ahnalin loves math so much

that she insisted this skirt must be named as such.

This is the same way I made her corduroy skirt

shown above.

So, go check out the 

Sew Beautiful Blog

and make a Math Skirt for 

"Back To School".

And I want to wish a very wonderful
birthday to my darling mother
Barbara Jean The Teenage Queen!!!!
(hint, she has been out of her teens for 50 years. Shhhhhhhh.)
I love you Mom!

Happy Sewing!