Check out what YOU made!

I've been meaning to do a round-up of all the gorgeous items you all have made using a Crafterhours tutorial for awhile.  So sit back and enjoy a LOT of eye candy.

(click on the Crafterhours pictures for the original tutorials)

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Meisjesmama created two Milkmaid skirts.  I love how she incorporated it into a Little Red Riding Hood outfit:

And how she used pleats instead of gathers:

Linda from Drink and Dress made 5 - count them - FIVE Milkmaid skirts.  Except, not being in the preschool set herself, she calls them Milk Matron skirts.  Love it!
Here's my favorite version, but be sure to check out her other 4 here.  I need to go make one for myself now!

Lila Jo from Happy to Craft made this fresh spring-y skirt:

Emily and her sewing group had Milkmaid Skirt night!  I can't decide which print I like best - they're all fantastic!

(A note about Emily: I noticed that her email extension was "America's Test Kitchen" and I flipped out a little bit.  She DOES work there, and she reassured me that it is in fact the Best Job Ever.  Then, because she is super awesome, she sent me a FREE The Best Simple Recipes cookbook.  I've slowly been cooking my way through this book and I have to say, not only is it perfect for my lifestyle and very easy to follow, but it's actually made me enjoy cooking again.  And that's a miracle.  Thank you thank you thank you Emily!!)

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One by One made this soft heather gray version.  It looks so cute and comfy!

And Linda from Drink and Dress made this fun summery version.  She even added a built-in bra top!

Adventures with Alissa used a large T-shirt to make her petal top.  I think the black adds a little drama and fanciness.

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Carrie made this adorable cupcake birthday version for her little girl:

Copycat Crafter (what a great blog name/premise!) made her Dresden Plate Skirt with pretty coordinating orange and blue:

Ashley from A Family of Savages made this bright, fun version, and be sure to check out her coordinating flower and hair clip!

Denise made this cute alternating print version.  She omitted the scallops and added a full lining.  I think this would be a cute idea for a toddler cheerleader costume too!

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Camille from All About Mommies made 2 versions of her girlified puffy sleeve ringer shirt out of shirts she had on hand.  Cute and free!  Check out her blog to see how adorable they look on her daughters.

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Belle + Bee made this beautiful dress, using the Maypole Dress as inspiration for the patchwork strip.  I love how this dress feels "holiday" without being too obvious.  Her lucky little girl will be able to wear it all winter long.

Thank you for sharing all your lovely projects with us, ladies!  If you've made something using one of our tutorials, be sure to add it to our flickr group, or email us a picture or link to your blog.  We'd love to feature you!

KCWC: Autumn Outfit

This is the last thing I made for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge.  Sorry I'm a day behind schedule in posting, but I had to skip last Friday due to uncooperative models :)

The pants are chocolate brown velveteen, made using Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants pattern (in case you haven't bought it yet, do it now - it's great!  They really fit well over P's cloth diapers).  I added bias bound pockets to both sides.

The shirt is yet another variation on the versatile peasant shirt that you've seen so many times here before.  I just cut a slit at the front neckline (I used a small facing), added ties and a little patch.  I did go the extra mile and bind the wrist hems instead of doing an elastic casing though.  Oooooh, fancy!

The pockets are semi-fake.  They open at the top, not at the flap.  This way I didn't have to do two layers, which would've been really bulky.

I just love the way this looks on P.  The velveteen will be perfect for the colder months, and though the soft floral cotton was only €5/meter, I think it looks like a Liberty print.  Gotta love that!

KCWC: Denim-ish Skirt

I originally made this skirt a few weeks ago as part of my Fall Wardrobe sewing series.  Z needed an essential denim skirt, but I wanted something with a little movement, so I chose chambray instead.  Chambray has a denim look, but it is super thin and works more like a linen.  It has the perfect amount of drape for this swingy, half-circle skirt.

It's a very simple design - just two half-circle skirts with a rolled hem tucked into a waistband.  I put elastic in the back of the waistband and left the front flat.

I was pretty happy with the results, but kept thinking something was missing.  I thought about adding bias tape to the hem, but didn't want to add a print or color to the skirt because I need it to match everything in her wardrobe.  This is going to be a hard working skirt this fall and winter.

Finally I decided the answer was pockets.  So yesterday I added these.  I've been wanting to try this pocket style since Alexis from Made by Lex used them here.  Yes, that idea has been sitting in my head for over a year.  This is one of the rare times when the vast store of ideas in my brain comes in handy instead of just taking up space that could be used for more important endeavors like doing math.

I think they are just enough to add a little bit of interest to this otherwise plain skirt.  And, you know, a place to store rocks.

KCWC: Derainbowfication, Part 2

Here are the results of Z's derainbowfication.  Not the girliest of dresses, but with her major map obsession, quite appropriate.   And educational too! (as long as you still recognize the USSR)

I just applique'd the continents around the hem of the dress (-Antarctica, + New Zealand) and added the little compass rose at the chest.

I like how the natural linen makes it look extra map-y.  It's such a simple dress, but I really love it.  I'm a huge map nerd though.  I'm super jealous of my friend Tracy who is an actual cartographer.  Maybe I should name this the Tracy Dress.

(My sincerest apologies to residents of Greenland, Iceland, the Falklands, Southeast Asia, and most other islands.  You were not excluded because of any personal prejudice, but because of space issues.  That and I didn't want to cut around so many tiny shapes.)  (Do people even live in Greenland?)

KCWC: Derainbowfication

De-Rainbow-fication.  Yeah, it's a word.

Yesterday I finished derainbowfying P's dress.  If you remember, the originals looked like this:

And now P's looks like this:

Unfortunately, I had a very uncooperative model, so I snapped these pictures really quickly before realizing I was in manual mode and hadn't changed my camera settings.  So they're way overexposed (random photography tip:  it's much better to under-expose than over-.  Shadows hold a lot more "information" from your picture than highlights.)

These will give you a better idea of the colors:

All I did was shirr the front and back bodice and add floral bias binding to the neck and arm hems.  I really love this dress now.  Today I'm working on Z's dress, so I'll show you the results tomorrow.

Over the Rainbow

First, the best news - Susan is getting all her stuff today!  Wahoo!  I told her to unpack her sewing machine and ignore the rest :)

Also, it's day 3 of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge, and I haven't posted about it yet.  But that doesn't mean I'm not participating.  On Day 1, I began altering my daughters' birthday dresses (we had a rainbow theme) to make them not so rainbow-y.

I've had this style in mind since way back during Brown Paper Packages' Pattern Makeover Month.  But her version turned out so much classier.  These were perfect for the Rainbow Birthday party, but otherwise give off a "clown vibe", I think.  So we're going over the rainbow.  Or past it.  Beyond.  However you look at it, those rainbow strips are coming off.  Stay tuned for results.

Yesterday was spent drafting a multi-sized pattern for the Quilted Swing Coat I made, which I now have some idea how to turn into a pdf pattern, thanks to all you knowledgeable readers.  So thank you for your help and your sweet comments about the coat as well.  I'd tell you it was a breeze to make, but I'm planning on selling the pattern, so that's not great marketing, huh? (It was a breeze to make - you could totally do it!)