One year.

It has been a year tomorrow since our niece came into this world, and although it took me until last September to have her literal "birth day" quilt done (two months late), I managed to get her first birthday present done in much less time (and on time for her party!).

You may recognize the fabric and pattern from the dress I made for my cousin's little girl back in January. The fabric I bought at my favourite local quilt fabric store, Modern Bee, and the pattern is the Georgia Twirl Dress.

Not a ton of changes for this, but I did make the same size as last time, 3T, so that Henley can grow into it. I overheard mom complaining about snaps on baby clothes, so I swapped out the snaps on this one for a nice big orangey-red button that I got from a bunch of vintage notions my sister gave me.

Instead of making the two layers of skirt different lengths, I went ahead and make both layers the same so the dress could be reversible. We really wanted one side to be cutesy.....

....and the other side to be badass.

I used the same Force Awakens First Order fabric as the inside of one of my Portsides.

I finished the dress by basting the skirts together and binding the two layers with some vintage bias binding (also from Jamie). I thought it would be a nice way to ensure that the skirt doesn't fly open, but it would also allow the dress to be put on very quickly and easily with a squirming toddler.

Trev and I are really happy with how it turned out and my sister and brother in law seemed to like it, so another baby dress FTW!

What have you been sewing?
{On Repeat.}

Hey January

Holy cow has it ever been forever. But really, I do have a tendency to fall off the face of the (blogging) earth once school starts up again, so be honest, you're not surprised.

Not only that but it had been a pretty shit end of the 2015. I started a new job which was causing some mental health issues (who doesn't love crying on the way in to work everyday?), and a few days before my birthday in October, Harley got really sick literally out of nowhere and we had to make the extremely difficult decision to end his suffering. So, I had to deal with that too. Let's be real, I'm still dealing with that. :(

But, after making some scary decisions career-wise, and seeking some help, I'm in a much better head space in my job, so that's good! And having Sweet Dee around definitely has helped a lot with dealing with our loss.

Wow, this got really depressing really fast......ON TO SEWING!

I actually have been doing a bit of sewing here and there, I just haven't blogged about yet. Also, I guess I should probably also tell you I'm teaching sewing now too! I am lucky enough to teach beginner sewing through my school board to a wickedly hilarious group of ladies once a week.

For one of our projects, we make a customized reversible tote. I made two to show everyone the process. One went to a local friend of ours, and the other will be going to a friend up north who picked out the purple spotted fabric two (maybe even three) years ago:

Outside

Inside

Inside

"Hangin' with my gnomies" tote

On the topic of bags and totes, I ended up swooping up a bunch of Grainline's patterns during their Black Friday sales, one of which was the Portside Travel Set. I made all of my students their own unique pouch from the set with scraps of fabric for Christmas, then filled them with little stocking stuffers. Excuse the grainy/blurry photos, these were taken late at night:

One of my favs.

I actually had to make this one twice. I ironed the poly on a pretty high heat and shrunk it too much. A shame because the first version was plaid matched pretty damn seamlessly.

Another fav.

Yet another fav. Also my curtains!

And on the topic of Portside, I'll share my full Portside set next week. I'd like to do a full review of the pattern as there were a few head scratches as well as a few proud moments, and I'd like to remember for the next time I make it (or help those of you who are interested in making a duffel bag set yourself).

One last little sewing bit I made. My second cousin turned one two weeks ago, so I made her the Georgia Twirl Dress by Shwin and Shwin and it turned out pretty cute!

I quite desperately wanted to use the same bright orange from the lining for the underskirt but didn't have enough. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the orange was a knit, not a woven and didn't want to cooperate with me (Honestly, I had it in my stash and figured I'd throw caution to the wind. I wasn't expecting it to be easy).

Luckily, because I did this, my buttonholer gave me the middle finger, which resulted in me happily remembering that I have snaps and HEY SNAPS ARE AWESOME. Like unicorn poop awesome.

I also had the opportunity to give my rolled hem foot a whirl for the first time and WOOOOOOO! It is so freaking ON POINT.

I highly recommend getting one as it will up your sewing game.

That's all for now! What have you been sewing lately? I'd love to hear!

{ON POINT.}