End of the year teacher gifts!

I can't believe that I never blogged about my end of the year teacher gifts before now!  I was really excited about them, and the teachers seemed to enjoy them, too!  I got the idea of a summer relaxation tote from The Lovely Cupboard via Craft, Interrupted.  I sewed my tote bags, of course. :)  These are two layers of Symphony Broadcloth from JAF - I figured that would be lightweight but sturdy and easy to wash, so perfect for the pool, beach, wherever.  The pink tote is for Thing 1's classroom teacher - I knew her favorite color, so that was an easy pick.  I didn't know favorites for the other two, so I used the Things' favorite colors.  Thing 1's gifted teacher got green (with blue, because it just looked great that way!).  I had choices other than lime, but I thought that would be very summery.  Thing 2's teacher got orange, and since I'm an Illini, it had to be a blue contrast!

I adapted the suggestions from the blog posting and put in a beach towel (from WM, chosen to match the tote colors), plastic tumbler (WM), a pair of flip-flops (K-Mart), spray sunscreen (WM), jar of strawberry lemonade mix, and Barnes & Noble gift card.  And I had the Things make thank-you cards for their teachers, with Summer Subway Art on the front of the card.  I was super excited to see that I could print colorways that went with the tote bags.  In the end, these went over really well, and I even made another for a friend who needed a cheery package in the mail. :)

More applique

So when I made the previous dinosaur-appliqued onesies, I thought to myself that my niece really needed a set, too!  So I got a set of 18 month Child of Mine onesies and enlarged my dino appliques a bit.  I really like how these turned out!  There's just something about dinosaur shapes in girl colors that is unexpected and really fun, I think.

And then I decided that my niece also needed some girly Star Wars shirts (since my brother is, in fact, the world's biggest Star Wars fanatic).  So I got 18 (white) and 24 (pink) month Garanimals shirts (WM) and appliqued a Tie fighter and an X-wing fighter on them, using leftovers of the dress fabrics. I think these turned out pretty awesome, too!  :)

A baby dress!

My sister-in-law sent me a link to a baby/toddler dress probably a year ago and asked if I thought I could make something like that.  I said, sure, probably, let me look for some patterns I can Franken-pattern together to get it.  Then a few months later, I saw The Ava Knot Dress pattern by Pink Poodle Bows.  It was almost exactly like the dress she had wanted!  So I downloaded the pattern, but since I am multi-fabric-matching-impaired, I gave her the yardage requirements and told her to buy the fabric she wanted and send it to me.  Here is the result:

Not anything I would ever have put together, but it was what my SIL wanted, and she is thrilled.  When I made this, my niece was about 16 months old, and I used the 18 month size.  The feedback I got is that it fits her perfectly right now, but the bodice will likely be too small in the fall.  So next dress will be 24 month size, I think.

This was a fairly quick sew.  There are no pattern "pieces" - just cutting measurements.  (There is a template to cut the armholes out of the bodice pieces.)  Everything fit together perfectly, and the instructions were easy to read and follow.  I did get confused on one spot, but that's only because I misread the directions.  I emailed the designer for clarification and was surprised to get an email back within an hour!

Like I said, my SIL was thrilled with the dress, so I will definitely make more.  (The next version is one that I bought fabric for, so it will be more sedate.)  I've told her already that I'm happy to make whatever she wants - but she needs to get the fabric, because this multi-fabric-matching is not my style. :)