sewpony: Christmas

Five minute mini puddings

December 20, 2013

Today I am joining in with Emily from Nap-Time Creations festive series, A Crafty Christmas. Emily asked if I was interested in contributing to her series which includes festive decorating, recipes, gift wrapping and more. Click on the button below to take you to Emily's series.

http://www.nap-timecreations.com/search/label/Crafty%20Christmas

I immediately thought of these little cheat's Christmas puddings that I make with the kids every year to have on hand for visitors of for festive occasions. I think my sister first introduced me to the idea and I can tell you that they impress every time!! Maximum positive feedback for minimal effort = a very good idea.

If you would like to make your own mini puddings, this is what you will need:

1 packet of Chocolate Royals (these are Arnott's brand). These biscuits have a high top and have a biscuit base with a thin layer of jam and then marshmallow, all covered in chocolate.
1 packet of Jaffa's (or equivalent red round lollies)
Green jube lollies
1/2 cup white chocolate buds/cooking chocolate
cooking scissors
microwave

Method:

Prepare your 'holly leaves' by cutting up your green jubes

Place your white chocolate in a ceramic bowl and microwave until melted - stopping every 30 seconds to check and stir.

Dip your chocolate royals into the melted chocolate and then place Jaffa and leaves on top.

That's it!! Five minutes is not an exaggeration!

You are sure to impress with these babies, and the kids love helping!! Thanks for having me Emily!!

Christmas

How to make: An origami collar

December 13, 2013

After I published my dresses in our The 12 Days of Christmas series, I explained that I had photographed the steps along the way whilst constructing Isabella's origami collar. A few of you left lovely comments saying you would love to see the tutorial, so I decided not to delay (just in case you also plan on making this collar for a Christmas dress)!

As I said in my original post, I was inspired by VINK's gorgeous collar that I pinned a while ago here. I have since done a bit of spying over at VINK and found out that she is a Belgian blogger who speaks English and is very friendly. Her name is Linde and she gave me permission to post this tutorial inspired by her collar. She also, at my request, added the 'translate' button to her blog, so now you can read her blog. The translation is very poor (and sometimes funny), but for me, it still gives me an idea of the post content. This collar might look really tricky, but it actually was very simple to construct.

Please note: This tutorial is for construction of the collar and attaching it to the bodice, not for the entire construction of the dress.

Materials:
Paper
Pen
Scissors
Collar fabric - I used white quilting weight cotton and white cotton voile lining
Thin fusible interfacing
Iron
Pins
And of course the dress you are attaching it to!!

Method:

Begin by taking your front bodice piece of your dress (or complete front of dress if it is not separate) and a piece of printing paper. Follow the photo steps below to create your collar template:

Now it is time to cut your collar pieces. You will need your outer layer collar fabric, under layer collar fabric and thin fusible interfacing. Note: when ironing your interfacing to your outer collar fabric, make sure you iron it to the wrong side of the fabric so it won't be seen.

The remaining steps of the construction of the dress depend on your pattern. I used the Tinny dress pattern by Straightgrain which has an invisible zipper at the back and neck facing. I modified the pattern by drafting sleeve facings as I wanted a sleeveless dress. Using this pattern, these were the steps I took to complete my bodice following on from the last step picture above:

- with right sides together, sewed two dress bodice backs to bodice front along side seams;

- installed invisible zip;
- sewed on neck facing;
- drafted armhole facings and sewed on;
- sewed side seams.

Because the collar is secured into the shoulder seams, it is not possible to stay stitch the collar down under the collar as you would with a regular collar. Instead, I sewed several small hand stitches from the back of the dress through the bottom of the collar to hold it flat around the neck opening.

I hope you like my tutorial and I would love to hear if you use it to make your own origami collar! You can see more photos of this dress here.

Christmas

The Third Day of Christmas: La Gang à Nat

December 03, 2013

Today is The Third Day of Christmas, and my second guest here at sewpony for The 12 Days of Christmas sewing series, is the lovely Natalie from La Gang à Nat. Natalie is French Canadian and has been blogging for less than a year. Her blog name translates to 'Nat and gang'... her gang are her family (husband and three beautiful daughters). Natalie has had a blog makeover this past week - I loved her blog before and her new look is also beautiful and so easy to read. Natalie is a busy lawyer but has a passion for sewing which she endulges when she can! I think the first thing of Nat's that really caught my eye was this lovely ensemble. And, have a look at this gorgeous outfit she made her eldest daughter. Natalie also made up my Debbie's Birthday Dress (three times!) here. If you don't follow Natalie's blog, you should!

Over to you Nat....

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Well hello friends of Suz! I am Natalie from La gang à Nat and I am insanely excited to be here today to show you my take on holiday outfits for my girls. The holidays are a BIG DEAL for us and there will be many occasions to wear a pretty dress in the coming weeks. So I made Gaëlle and Alix festive dresses BUT casual enough so that I wouldn't completely freak out if they started rolling around on the floor (which they tend to do... a lot!!!). Here they're looking rather angelic, no? Not always so...

Can you guess which pattern I followed? It's the Tinny Dress from An of Straightgrain. I loved how many options An had injected into her pattern and felt that it allowed me to personalize the dresses for each girl. For Gaëlle, I chose a Peter Pan collar, tulip sleeves, and a gathered skirt.

To bring up the festive factor, I added a layer of tulle that peaks out at the bottom of the hem.

though the pattern didn't call for it, I lined both bodice and skirt in order to ensure that it would be warm enough for Gaëlle. There was a bit of head scratching going on in my sewing room when came the time to attach the lining to the invisible zipper but I figured it out!

This was my first time using piping! I struggled a bit at the beginning (that's putting it mildly... I am sure I made every possible mistake known to sewists) but I persevered and am super thrilled with the result. Oh, there will be more piping in my future!!!

For Alix, I opted for a sleeveless and collarless version of the Tinny dress.

had requested a dress that would twirl so I went for the circle skirt option.

Alix's dress is also fully lined (now that I had figured out how to attach the invisible zipper to the lining!) with a fabric of her choice. I have to admit I wouldn't have matched the outer fabric to this particular lining fabric but it was important to me to make her something that she would love so I didn't hesitate...

To bling up what would normally be a simple dress, I added a beautiful lace ribbon and a glitzy belt buckle. The ribbon is sewed in place so that it doesn't move around or fold over when she moves.

I tried various options for the back but settled on two simple knots. I didn't feel anything more was needed.

And these will be Alix's and Gaëlle's outfit for this holiday season!

Now I feel a bit guilty as I don't have two girls... I have THREE girls! Poor Maïan's dress isn't even started... but do not fret!!! She will get something lovely too and for those interested in sewing for tweens, I'll make sure to post that on my blog shortly.

Our French Canadian Holiday

Suz and Laura asked us to share a bit of family Christmas traditions. Our family does not practice any religion so our holidays are more cultural and are all about family, food, gift giving, outdoor activities, and of course "le Père Noël" (Santa Claus)!

Here's an overview of our holidays: December 1st to 23rd: There will be various parties and celebrations on the weekends; at Chaughan's workplace, the association puts together an amazing Christmas party for the children, complete with lunch, gifts, a magician, bagpipes and of course, a visit from Santa!

At daycare, the girls will be putting on a sweet Christmas concert, complete with dancing and traditional French Canadian songs. We'll also have a pre-Christmas dinner at my parent's condo on the 22nd. December 24th: I am working but will bring the girls in with me as the office organizes a kids party; we are normally told to go home early, around noon. After a quick nap for Gaëlle, we will get all bundled up and head off to my brother Alain's place where we will celebrate with his family as well as with my parents. There will be lots of eating, drinking and gift giving. There is also bound to be lots of traditional French Canadian music being played and sung! (If you're curious as to what that might sound like, click here to see a Youtube video of traditional French Canadian music...) We'll be getting home late that night and once the little ones are in bed, Père Noël will stop by to lay out gifts under our Christmas tree (always a real tree!), as well as stuff the stockings hanging by the fireplace. Maïan will insist on leaving Père Noël a glass of milk and some cookies, as well as some carrots and lettuce for the reindeers.

December 25th: I expect to be woken up waaaaaay too early, as Maïan and Alix in particular will be excited to open gifts. We'll make some coffee and hot chocolate, turn on some traditional tunes, and the gift opening will begin! It will be crazy and chaotic but it is most definitely the best part of the holidays! That evening, we will head over to Chaughan's side of the family and celebrate with them. More eating and drinking and gift giving for sure!

December 26th to New Year: We'll be scoping out the sales in stores and on the Internet; we plan on doing lots of outdoor activities, like skiing, skating and tobogganing; plus there is sure to be more eating, drinking and gift giving, ha! And then it will be back to work on January 3rd! Here are a few scenes from last year...

So with that, I wish you Happy Holidays my friends!!! Natalie

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These dresses are BEAUTIFUL Natalie as are your little daughters!! They really look so sweet! Thankyou so much for sharing!!

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Today over at Craftstorming, you will find Simple Simon's festive creation!!

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On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me,
Three French Hens,
Two Turtle Doves,
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas: nest full of eggs

December 02, 2013

On the second day of Christmas, I am excited to have Rachel from nest full of eggs guest posting today. Rachel blogs from Minnesota in the US and sews for her three children. My favourite of Rachel's recent sewing projects was this amazing dress she sewed for Kids' Clothes Belgian Style series at Straightgrain. Rachel also sews lovely dresses for charity. Have a look at these sweet geranium dresses. Rachel also blogs about fun crafts - have a look at her recent nativity scene she made.

Today Rachel is sharing a gorgeous sparkly dress and lovely coat to match. I love her 24 karat buttons! Thank you Rachel, they are both lovely!!

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Season's greetings! I am Rachel and I blog at nest full of eggs. Many thanks to Suz and Laura for the invitation, I am so happy to be a part of this holiday series, and am really looking forward to reading about everyone's traditions from around the world and not to mention all the Christmas sewing inspiration!

It has been said: "Christmas is for children." My favorite childhood Christmas time memories are playing in the snow, eating Christmas cookies baked from recipes from the 'Betty Crocker's Cooky Book' (I grew up in the same place where General Mills has it's headquarters), and I remember by our Christmas stockings there were always an orange, 3 apples (red, yellow, and green), and a loaf of sweet bread (mine was cranberry).

Now today with my own family we have many Christmastime traditions, foods, activities and other festive things that we do. There are too many to share, so for today I will share just one.

Our lives are very full during Advent, one of the festive days we observe is Saint Nicholas Day which is celebrated on December 6. On the evening of December 5th each of my three children put out a pair of wooden clogs (they came from my childhood when my parents visited the Netherlands, they brought these back for my older sister, older brother, and I). The next morning my children find gold foiled chocolate coins, a clementine, a candy cane, and a chocolate Saint Nicholas.

I am so excited to share my daughter's Christmas outfit for this year with you. It is a gold sequin Christmas dress and a red military Christmas dress coat.

A few weeks ago, a friend gave me a Little Skye catalog. Going through the pages, my daughter fell in love with the sequin dresses. I found some teeny tiny gold sequin stretchy fabric at a fabric warehouse, it was exactly the type of fabric I was hoping to find!

This is the perfect season to wear sequins. Adding *s*p*a*r*k*l*e* to the holiday season. The dress becomes one giant disco ball! Bringing light to our dark winter days.

She thinks the dress is gorgeous :)

I also sewed her a hair accessory to coordinate with her Christmas ensemble, it's a fabric covered headband with a bow, made out of a gold fabric that was found in the special occasion/costume section, I think it's called 'liquid gold.'

Now moving onto the red military coat...

I did another knock-off (modeled photo found here). I used thick red wool and 12 gold buttons (24K plated).

During the winter it gets quite cold where we live, so a nice cozy and warm wool coat will be very practical.

By the way I used Oliver + S sewing patterns (but highly modified) to achieve these looks.

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Merry Christmas from Minnesota, USA!

(Now I have to go pick up all those little sequins that are all over my sewing room floor...)

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Pop over to craftstorming today to see what Mie from sewing like mad has made...I can't wait!

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On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree