Summer Passports

School started a few days ago, which was a big deal for us this year. Louisa is off to Kindergarten and little Leo started preschool. Sadly, my sewing machine spent almost the entire summer in its case with the kids at home, between ballet and swim lessons, beach trips, AJ's long hours as a new intern, my seasonal workload, and our building a new house.

But, we did find time to document a little bit of all our adventures and routines, with summer passports!

This ingenious project comes from elsie marley. Louisa absolutely loved it.

Mermaid Geranium Dress for A Five-Year-Old

My little girl is 5!

This time, for her annual birthday dress, I made a Geranium, in a mermaid print reminiscent of, although much pinker than, her third birthday dress.

This is view B with the side seam pockets, in size 5T.

Virginia Striped Little Boy's Tie

For Leo, on his daddy's graduation, I wanted to make a classic Virginia striped tie—a wardrobe staple for loyal Wahoos. Since blue and orange striped fabric was not to be found, I decided to make it myself (in a moment of over-ambition insanity).

I used the free Little Boy's Tie pattern from the Purl Bee.

Family Reunion Dress for UVA Graduation

This past weekend my husband graduated from medical school. Woohoo! In honor of the occasion, I made Louisa a blue and orange UVA dress. Wahoowa!

This is the oliver + s Family Reunion Dress in size 5 with no alterations.

The fabric is from Jo-Ann, from their "premium quilt fabric" collection, which appears to be significantly higher quality than their regular lines. This is DS Quilts Collection Meadow Lark Circle Tile by Denyse Schmidt. The solids are Kona Cotton in Navy and Tangerine.

Ice Cream Dress

I recently realized that my oliver + s Ice Cream Dress pattern, bought long ago, was still untouched. Since my copy is the 6 month to 4 year size-range—and my little girl will soon be FIVE!—I felt some urgency to sew this one up.

I bought the main fabric, which is from an older line of the Little Lisette Collection from Jo-Ann (also by Liesl of oliver + s), especially for this pattern, so it too had been sitting around a while.

Little Geranium Dress

My sister-in-law is due to have a baby next week, which means I am going to be an aunt for the first time! I'm really excited.

I'm fixing up a package to mail them and of course had to include a Little Geranium Dress. This is the free 0-3 month size pattern of Made by Rae's oh-so-popular Geranium Dress, (which I plan to make for Louisa very soon!).

Unfortunately they live very far away from us, but we will get to meet the new baby girl when they come for AJ's graduation this May. Yay! In the meantime this smaller-than-lifesize baby doll is my model. :)

Birthday Mini Marquee

Today is my birthday. It's one of those milestone ones, too... ;) So, this past weekend we had a party, and I used it as an excuse to make my own light-up mini-marquee sign. The tutorial is from Oh Happy Day.

Their instructions are brief, but it worked just fine. The hardest part was folding the strips that you then glue to the sides, but once I got my system down it wasn't too bad. I used the same lights, and the same quick-dry tacky glue, as Jordan recommended. I found I didn't even need to reinforce with tape, which was nice because the few places that I did add tape were too shiny once spray-painted.

Stuffing the lights in was frustrating, but nevertheless successful.

Velveteen Sunday Brunch Jacket

I've been saving this Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush Velveteen (in "Memory") for a long, long time with another oliver + s Sunday Brunch Jacket for Louisa in mind.

When she was two, I made her a size 2. This time, I made a size 6. She is only four and a half, but I wanted it to fit next year, and now I know this jacket runs small. (It is meant to be fitted.)

Waldorf Style Mermaid Doll

Louisa's number one request for Christmas was "a mermaid doll." I have been wanting to tackle a handmade doll for a while—first inspired by this fabulous one, and then reinvigorated by the Little Amigo pattern in Growing Up Sew Liberated, as well as by recently reading Heaven On Earth (a great book about early childhood by a local preschool teacher and the founder of the Charlottesville Waldorf School).

I didn't keep the doll a secret because I can't usually finish crafts very quickly if I don't work on them a little bit during the day while Louisa is around. Plus it was more fun to involve her in picking the fabrics and yarn.

Holiday Bow Tie

To match his big sister's snowflake Sunki dress, Leo got a bow tie for his Christmas outfit.

Since I was using a Figgy's pattern for Louisa, I decided to try the little boy bow tie tutorial from the Figgy's blog. It is a slightly bigger bow (verging on clownish?) than the one I made for him this summer, but it did keep it shape a little better.

The fabric again is Let it Snow in Eggnog Green from the Dear Mr. Claus collection by Cosmo Cricket with Kona Cotton in Holly for the neck band.