I am a huge fan of artist Heather Ross. If you look at my past quilts, there are more than a few which feature her fabric (this, this, this, this…), whether it be from actual fabric lines or from Munki Munki pajamas cut up for the artwork. When I saw her new line, Nursery Versery I knew I needed some again.

I have a friend that recently moved her family out of New York City. They aren’t exactly in the country now, but I thought the country mouse fabric would be perfect for a skirt for her daughter. This skirt is based on the free Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt pattern. I like adding some fabric to the bottom of the skirt rather than a ribbon. I made a french seam for connecting the 2 pieces together – one less area to fray. This fabric is a cotton/linen blend and has a beautiful drape to it. Perfect for clothing.

As for the rest of the week here… My oldest is starting Kindergarten. I’m a mix of happy and sad. Kind of mourning her preschoolness and getting ready to tackle the next stage in life for her – school years. I’m also finally going to quilt my Solstice Stars Series quilt! (It’s sat around for an embarrassingly long time.)

Hopefully I will have it to share in the next few days.

Happy March everyone! I can’t believe we are nearing Spring. I’m going to go ahead and say it – I think we officially cheated winter here in Chicago. And I’m pretty darn happy about it!

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to receive some fabric squares from FreeSpirit designer Mark Cesarik of his uncoming line, Cosmic Burst. I knew right away they would be perfect for a patchwork skirt for my daughter. I don’t sew a ton of clothing, but when you have a little girl who wants to wear dresses and skirts everyday, you learn a few basics. I really love the Lazy Day skirt pattern from Oliver + S (free on their blog). All you need is about 1/3 to 1/2 yard of fabric and some elastic. I’ve made it several times, but this was the first time I decided to go patchwork with it.

I separated the fabric squares into thirds and sewed them together in long strips, about 42″ long. Then I sewed those strips together, staggered a bit for a scrappier look. There are a lot of seams and I didn’t want them fraying all over the place in the wash, so I did serge them and then also top stitched the rows down so the seams wouldn’t bother her. You could also use your zigzag stitch to finish the seams to help prevent fraying.

As you can see, it has passed the “hop and spin” test. My daughter didn’t want to take it off after we took these pictures, so I predict we will be getting a lot of use out of this skirt.

Cosmic Burst will be available mid April 2012.

My daughter is starting preschool in a month and informed me that she *only* wants to wear skirts when she goes to class. Okay…I haven’t had the heart to tell her that most of the time it will be during the freezing Chicago winter. But I figure for Fall and Spring, skirts will be a good option.

I went back to probably the easiest pattern, the Oliver + S Lazy Days skirt. I had first made this skirt a few months ago. Less than 3/4 a yard of fabric, a bit of elastic, and an hours time and you have a comfortable, playable, and adorable piece of clothing that doesn’t cost much.

I really had to buy the Halloween fabric after I saw it in use during the Ice Cream Dress Sew Along. It’s from Alexander Henry’s The Ghastlies line. The fabric on the right is one of my new favorites by Erin McMorris – Weekends. The little bikes on the bottom trim are too cute.

My daughter approves!

Not too long ago, I was searching online for cute skirt and dress patterns for my 3 year old, Avery. I stumbled upon a fairly easy looking FREE skirt pattern at Oliver + S. If you have any little girl (or boy) to sew for, you must check them out. They have the most darling things. Anyway, I couldn’t pass up something free! So I printed it out and it sat in a pile of patterns at my sewing table.

Today my kids spent the morning at the grandparents house so I had a glorious 4 hours to do whatever I wanted. Unfortunately, most of it was spent grocery shopping at Target and Trader Joe’s. Well afterwards I had enough time to hit up my local fabric stores! I finally was able to see Heather Bailey’s new line, Nicey Jane. It is so cute!! I bought a bit of it, some FQs for a future quilt and a couple yards for a dress for Avery and the free skirt pattern I had downloaded.

After the kids got home and went down for their nap, I decided to try making the skirt. It was SO easy. Seriously, it took me under an hour and less than 3/4 a yard of fabric (1/2 yard of the green and 1/4 yard of the white.) I changed the pattern slightly by using a coordinating fabric on the bottom, rather than a ribbon. I plan on making many more of these, hopefully Avery likes it as much as I do. Here’s the finished product!