What You Will Find Here

I love to sew and craft and I love to teach others to do the things I know how to do. I love seeing someone's eyes light up as they see what they have made!
This blog will feature the things I am working on personally and professionally and will also feature tutorials for various projects.

You will also occasionally see items I've made to sell at Wonder Unders and Lewis Family Mercantile.

Enjoy browsing and please send me a note if there's anything I can do to help you in your sewing and crafting adventures!

Dana

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Perfectly Practical Quilts

The Perfectly Practical Quilt
I love quilts! I love everything about them. I love fabric. I love coordinating prints. I love Quilts!

The Story of the Perfectly Practical Quilt
I have a friend, Katie, whose daughter was in the hospital fighting cancer (she won! Praise the Lord!!). Katie noticed how comforting it was for Jillie to have her own special quilt to take to the hospital for each visit. Children on the oncology floor make lots of trips to the hospital. Some of these are very short trips and their parents don’t have time to decorate their rooms for each short visit. Katie got the great idea to organize a Quilt Drive so that each child that was on the floor could have a special quilt to bring with them each time they checked into the hospital.

Katie said that these quilts needed to be sturdy and very machine washable (as all kinds of things happen to bed covers in the hospital). I made several quilts for the quilt drive and the Perfectly Practical Quilt was born. These quilts are sewn completely by machine using all machine washable fabrics and quilted with polyester batting.

Perfectly Practical Quilts are fun quilts and are designed to be Used! These aren’t hand-pieced, hand-quilted heirlooms made by some sweet Amish woman in Lancaster PA ;-) that you spend so much money for you are afraid to use! They are not made with $12 a yard quilting fabric -- they are made with fabrics from my local fabric stores. The fabrics are almost all cotton but a 50/50 cotton/poly piece may sneak in every now and again.

PPQs are designed to be used and enjoyed and -gasp- even abused!



Crocheted Headbands



Dishtowel Aprons



"The Emily" and "The Amber"

"The Emily" is a 'peek-a-boo panel skirt', made from coordinating lime and hot pink plisse'.

And here's the PeekABoo aspect...

"The Amber" is a basic yoked A-line with a ruffle in the same fabrics.

Twirly Skirt Tutorial


My friend Angie over at Cornpatch Creations has graciously allowed me to share her Twirly Skirt Tutorial here.

Isn't it cute!

Sewing Class: Gathering 101

Sewing Class...
Time for Gathering 101

TUTORIAL HERE

Patternless A Line Skirt

Tutorial Link Here

Jean Purse



More photos and tutorial here

Jean Book Bag



Jean Book Bag Tutorial Here

Peasant Blouses and Tier Skirts



A JumperAll



Tutorial coming soon. For now you can see the Jumperall Tutorial Here.

Baby Pillowcase Dresses

Some ladies asked if I could scale down the pattern for their little girls. Here we have four baby girl sizes. I'm still measuring and trying to determine sizes but I think they are Newborn, 3 mo, 6 mo, 9-12 mo.
When I get them properly sized I will make the patterns available. Yep.



Pillowcase-Style Dresses

oohh... I am so addicted!


,


More...
Length is adjustable, they are approximately 20 inches from shoulder to hem.







And More...
Length is adjustable. These are approximately 24 inches from shoulder to hem.








And MORE!!!
Length is adjustable, they are approximately 20 inches from shoulder to hem.





Little Girlie Peasant Dress and Circle Skirt

It's Alexas's fault... really, it is. She said "Are you up for some little girl sewing?" An innocent enough question but my brain went "Ooohhhh little girl sewing...oooohhhhh" and I went straight to the fabric shelves and pulled out this fabric. I made a peasant dress (size 2-3ish). And I found a 360 skirt that I had cut out last year and never made -blush-
Here's the dress! Molly is trying to convince me that it needs a matching hairbow!


And here's the skirt. It's the same fabric as the sleeves on the dress.

See? It's is a 360 skirt.

My little boys are such sports. I couldn't remember what size I cut it out to be so they all tried it on for me. Don't tell them I told you. Anyway, it fits Joseph (3 yr), Isaac (5 yr) and Elijah (7 yr). Isn't it cute?

Welcome...

to my little sewing and crafting blog.

I have recently concluded that not everyone who reads my family's blog is really all that interested in my little projects! LOL

Sew... so... that brings me here. I hope you enjoy perusing!