Where in the world is Lauren?

Oh my goodness!!!! All I am so sorry I have been MIA!!

 

BUT

 

 I have some exciting news!!!

We bought a house and just put ours up for sale and it has been nuts around my house! I may be taking some time off from the blog world for a few months, and my etsy shop for that matter, to do all this crap to ensure the move goes smoothly!!! Please understand!

I am soooo sad I can't sew right now but I am so happy that our family will be getting into what I hope will be our forever home. Here she is! Until we meet again please pray (to St Joseph) we sell our home quickly and have a smooth transition into the new house!!!

 

 

 

Thanks all! Much love!

XOXO- L

Project Run and Play - Week 4

Wow that was a good run!

I had so much fun sewing along with my first season of Project Run and Play. It was a challenge in some areas, and in others just pure creativity time! I loved it! I am so thankful for the folks I met along the way!

 

 

This final week was all about formal wear, an Easter dress perhaps... I actually had half of this done a while ago, I just had to come up with something coordinating for Emmie....



I knew I wanted the girls to match a bit for Easter but I am not the matchy-matchy type so I just use some of the same fabric for each and used a different dress design for each of them too... I want them to have their own personalities and while I like them to match a little it isn't necessary for them to wear the SAME thing. :)
 

 I am not your typical frilly dress type person either- unless my daughter begs for a huge twirl type situation. I like little girls in dresses but I don't like all the crazy details that people sometimes put on them, just unnecessary in my opinion. I like simple and clean, or boho/trendy. The stuff you can find at your typical department store just makes me ill sometimes. Lace/polka dots/buttons/embellishments make me think, "who would by that dress?" I love having the freedom to sew whatever I want!

 

 

 

So this spring my daugthers would get a few coordinating dresses without the frill but that would satisfy that Easter attire that they needed.

 

Below is Hannah's. I used Anna Maria Horner's Paper Fan Dress Pattern as inspiration on this dress. I used her bodice pattern piece, and then decided to add some of my own details and leave out the paper fan detail around the skirt, (sorry Anna, I didn't have time for that!) then added a belt and a lovely ruffle around the neck.

 

It came out gorgeous, and the pictures were to die for, actually taken on my iphone! My sweetie was so willing to model on this day! One of my all time favs of Hannah!

 

I want one in my size! Well, maybe something coordinating.  And little bitty Emmie has something coordinating that Mommy whipped up too....



They both have Anna Maria Horner and Jennifer Paganelli prints in their dresses but they don't have the same style. They age gap between my girls is almost 5 years... so it isn't like a totally matchy-matchy dress would work for each of them anyways.

I really love the detail on the back of Hannahs, and it was a quick sew! Sorta! My machine got all sorts of mixed up when I did these button holes. Normally she is great a button holes but on this day she was like uh, I forget how to sew a darn button hole! Argh!

 

Emmaline's.... well hers is just a knot dress pattern that I have had forever but instead of a sash, I made her a ruffle around the waist. ADORBS!

 

 

 I don't like the knots/straps hanging down on little babies so I made her straps extra long so they could be tied in the back. She seems happy about that too.

 

 

I just love how they turned out.
 

I am just going to leave you with some baby love.....Emmie had an outdoor photo shoot, and some of her shots came out great... too great, not to share!

Babies are SO hard to photograph!
 

Oh, no you don't,...... not crawling away from me. I am remember Hannah being difficult to photograph too but this little Emmie will take off at 50mph at any moment so you gotta watch out.

 

Ahhhh so sweet.

 

 

Thank goodness for the grass and mulch laying around, perfect distraction, and the cars driving by.

 

 

 

Thank you to EVERYONE who took a little visit to my little old blog the past 4 weeks, and read along as I showed what I came up with this season.

I really appreciate all of your comments and wonderful feedback!

 

XO- L

Project Run and Play - Week 3 - Details

Today marks Week 3 in project Run & Play. It's all in the details my friends.
 

 

We were asked to, "Choose a favorite detail to showcase in a children's wear design. (Such as piping, embroidery, pin tucks, etc.)"

I have to say just as I was about to start a project with piping all over the place I changed my mind.

Instead, I went with RUFFLES, gathers, ...whatever you want to call them!!!
 

 
 

For all the beginner seamstresses out there, ruffles are SO hard to figure out. (When I got back into sewing it took me months to figure them out. Everyone does them differently.) Either they can't get the tension and stitch length on their machine to ruffle the fabric for them correctly, or they just don't get the concept.

Well this week I decided to showcase ruffles/gathers because darn it, ruffles are difficult for some folks, and I am not going to discount that! Amen!

 Now onto my design!

I haven't sewn with seersucker very much in my sewing career, but dude, the stuff it awesome!!! It gathers nicely without fraying too much, and it was perfect for this project.  

Here is the look:

 

The assembly of this dress is quite easy all you do is cut squares/rectangles for the body and the sleeves of the dress. Then long rectangles for the ruffles on the sleeves. An easy way to figure out how to make a full ruffle is to lay your fabric down next to the edge of the sleeve and make you ruffle portion of the fabric 4 times as wide. This way you have plenty of fabric to gather.

 

 

 

Then all you need to cut out is your "j's" on the body and the sleeves: From there you assemble the dress with a simple zig zag stitch or you can use french seams, then attach your ruffles. I have found that gathering is easiest if you put your stich length on the longest length and your tension on the highest level. SUPER EASY!

 

 

 Ruffles at the sleeves.
 

 

Ruffles at the skirt.

 

The neck line gathers its self because there is an elastic casing with elastic in it.

 

I finished it off with two front pockets with pink quilters cotton as an accent on the top of the pocket.
 

 

What do y 'all think?
 

 

I LOVE IT! It can even be worn with this super cute belt! You can find the pattern for the belt in my shop, here.
 

 

This is totally a Hannah outfit too, she would so say, "Mom, can I wear this for the rest of the day?"

Sure you can!

 XO- L  

For behind the scenes photos from ODDS OF PINK, follow me on INSTAGRAM: Laurosario

Project Run & Play Week 2

I had time to do Week 2! Yippee!

The theme was, "The Riley Blake Chevron Week---Create a children's design where a chevron pattern is featured."

 

I have to say, I am a totally little over the chevron trend BUT I was excited to make something other than a dress with chevron in it.
So what did I come up with? Skinny pants and a circle top.

Here is the whole look all together.



I really love the way it turned out, more than anything that you could buy right now in the stores.... Why don't the main stream shops make this kinda stuff? Duh!!?



I really love the look of skinny jeans or pants on a little girl.
There is something so trendy and feminine about it. I took it a step futher by making the pants not only skinny but with a flat front, (sorry, I didn't get a good picture of this but I promise, the front is flat) and a bit of bias detailing at the bottom of each pant leg.

I challenged myself a bit this week too. I used an existing pair of pants that fit her kind of skinny, as a pattern and made them just a tad more skinny on the bottom of each pant leg for this look. At one point though, it was a hold your breath and cut kind of a situation because I didn't really know if my pattern was going to fit her the way I intented.

But, NO WORRIES Y'all, IT WORKED!

Also, instead of just hemming the pants, (which I am TOTALLY over these days- or adding a silly ruffle) I opted for black bais tape to show some contrast. I LOVE how they turned out.

Normally I would have used a little more color in my designs but this was the only chevron fabric I had in my stash and I really like the contrast of just black and white. It's soooooo classy!

We all know I LOVE the classic looks, after all I did win an award in my college sorority for the classiest Kappa! He he he ...

I also wanted a simple top to pair with the pants. I was orignally going to go with something a little more fitted, that could be tucked in, but this is what came out of my creative endevor this week, so I ran with it. I was inspired by THIS , and I have to say it's a super cute little design!

 

I think now that I have the pattern down I could try and make her some in kelly green or something. I am into green these days.



It's so cute, eh?



Thanks for reading along everyone!

 I adore reading your comments, so leave me some LOVE!!!
I know you guys are out there! Wink, wink...

L

PS- I made the necklace too, SUPER easy. I'll tell you about that another day :)

For behind the scenes photos from ODDS OF PINK, follow me on INSTAGRAM: Laurosario