The Strawberry Feliz

Hello Everyone!

I believe that Spring finally may have arrived here in my little corner of Minnesota.  A week a ago we were dealing with a prediction of 7-10 inches of snow, but only two days later it was 65 and sunny.  Gotta love the upper midwest. :)

I was finally able to get out and get some pictures of some of my UFO's that I have finally been able to finish!  These little dresses have been in the works for well over a year.  They were the projects that I never finished before being distracted by something "shiny". LOL

First up is this little dress.

This is a modified version of the Farbenmix "Feliz" dress pattern that was popular a few years ago.  Unfortunately, the individual pattern is no longer in print.  It can only be found in the book "Sewing Clothes Kids Love."  I have to say that this is my all time favorite little girl's dress pattern.  I have made about 15 or 16 of them now and I have it down to about 12-15 hours worth of sewing time depending on if there is any appliqué included or not.  My first "Feliz" took A LOT longer. :)  I have only made one of them which did not include the ruffles in the back.  I think the ruffles are what I love most about it!

For this one I decided to change it up a bit.  I only did a single layer instead of making an underdress and an overdress.  I omitted the overdress.  The original pattern calls for elastic across the back and also has ties that tie in the back.  I changed it up a little by putting the elastic on the sides as well as the ties.

I was able to use trim that I already had in my stash, so that was a bonus, too.  This beaded eyelet was a perfect fit for across the front, and I had just enough eyelet trim for the skirt as well.

I just LOVE how it turned out.  This sweet strawberry fabric makes me think of summertime and picnics!  Both of which I am well ready for this year after such a loooonnnngggg winter!

If you are interested, I do have this little dress available for purchase.  It is a size 4-5.  Being a European pattern, the sizing is generous, so it does run just a little bigger than US sizing.   Leave a comment with your contact information if you are interested.  It is 100% cotton (exclusive of trim).The price is $80 including shipping within the US.  If you are outside the US please contact me for shipping rates and options.  

I am so happy to finally have this little dress finished and to be able to share it with you!  Technically, I didn't finish this this week, but I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday anyway.  I think Amanda would cheer for me for having finished an old project. :) 

What have you been working on?  I'd love to know! 

WIP and one more finished project!

I have made some progress since I last checked in with you all. I started working on the Feliz dress for my niece Mady's birthday. Her birthday isn't until May, but I was really excited to try out this new pattern. I am pleased with how easy it has been so far. The instructions are a little sparse and don't have much detail, but I haven't run into any problems yet.
Here is the overdress so far. The underdress will be a red with white pin dots.

Here is a close-up of the hem ruffle. I love how the red serging looks on this!

Here, also is a close-up of the ricrack I used on the front.


I also finished a project for my dear friend Amanda's sweet little boy's birthday. I won't post pictures of that one yet so as not to spoil the surprise. I am a little late getting it in the mail. Sorry P!

I finished this twirl skirt set, too. It is hard to see in these pictures, but the green fabric at the bottom of the skirt has ladybugs, dragonflies and butterflies and says "girl bugs" on it. The skirt is really, really full. :) This one will be going to Associated Sewing here in town. My good friend, Dawn, is the manager there and she lets me put things in her shop. I haven't made anything for quite a while, so I thought I'd take this one in there.






So, now that I have two "new projects" finished and a third almost done, I am going to have to find some old projects to finish. I figure I finished two older quilt projects that I had, so I finished two new projects. I'll finish the Feliz dress and then I'll find an old project to finish. Maybe my Happy Hour quilt. I am interested to try out my new desk for quilting a larger quilt.

Home sick...

I decided to stay home from work today. I don't feel really horrible, but I am getting a cold and figured that they probably didn't want me sharing my germs. It isn't often that I call in to work. I had some breakfast and a little hot tea. Crimson Berry, I tried it for the first time today. I enjoyed it a great deal. I think I'll have some soup for lunch later.

Since I was home, I figured I would make a blog post and show you some of the things that I have brewing. I have this skirt that i started. It is completely from my stash. It is almost done and I am really excited to see how it is going to turn out. It is going to be really, really full. The bottom tier is nearly 28 feet around. LOL I used two width of fabric pieces with the selvages trimmed off for the top tier, four for the second tier, and eight for the third. It took FOREVER to gather and pin it. Two evenings to just gather the bottom tier. I have decided it might be time for a ruffler foot. LOL



These are the fabrics that I bought for Mady's birthday dress. I am using my new Feliz pattern (Farbenmix/Studio Tantrum) for it. The underdress will be the red polka dot and the blue will be the front of the overdress and the yellow will be the sides. The ruffles in the back will be both the blue and yellow fabrics. I bought the red a while back from Mill End. Because there were some flawed places in the printing, I got almost 7 yards for the price of 4! :)
There are some lovely examples of this pattern finished here, here, here and here
I can't wait to get started on it! :)



I also decided to participate in the Haute Couture for Kids 3rd Annual Runway Launch. I bought 6 yards (the rest of the bolt, LOL) of this fabric to make something for that with.





I love the silver glitter in in. I think I will be making a dress from it. It will be modeled by Whitney from Petite Cover Girls. Her sister Amanda modeled my last set.

Ok, I think I will go and lay down for a while now.
See ya later!