Little Vintage House Coat Pattern

Every once in a while I come a cross a vintage piece of children's clothing that brings back such vivid memories of my childhood. The pieces of clothing that my mother sewed for me are the ones that I recall loving most dearly . This little house coat, though I never had one, was the type of thing I would have loved. Very ala' Brady Bunch don't you think? It is in poor condition, but home it came with me anyway. When I tried it on my almost three year old I swooned (why didn't I take a picture?). I just adored the shape and fit. Now, I don't quilt, but this little coat may be the thing to make me start! It is made from cheater quilt fabric but I can clearly see it made from true quilted pieces. So the little coat sat on top of the wanna-be-sewing projects for a couple of months.
My husband being the most amazing man a crafty gal could be married to surprised me with taking the three little people to the lake for the weekend. Leaving me to my projects and general mess making. While standing around wondering what to do with myself I spotted the little coat and set to work. A lady with more patience and quilting love could probably have fixed this little coat up. Since I am not she, I deconstructed, traced the pieces and scanned them in as a pdf for you to print and make your own. Cheers!

Click here for the pdf

The file is stored on rapidshare. Click free user and then download.
The only piece that I didn't take apart was the lower "skirt" portion. It is constructed in four pieces with gathering along the top edge. For my purposes I am going to use one piece with gathering. The four panels just seemed over kill to me. You folks with good pattern skills can easily recreate the four panels for your own purposes (they are gathered at the top with an Aline shape). The single panel I will use will be a rectangle measuring 40 inches wide by 22 inches. The finished length of the panel is 19 inches once hemmed. This pattern will fit a child wearing a 3-4 T. My Ella has just started to wear a 4t and it fits her beautifully. The sleeve piece is broken up into three pieces on the pdf. I put a 1 inch registration box on each pattern piece. So when you print them you can measure the box and see if the pieces printed to the right scale.

Gathering along top edge of skirt (I know that's not the right term but I am too lazy to search for what it should be called) panel.
Showing bias tape used to finish the neck line.
Zig zag stich along hem
Really nice hand stitches for hemming the sleeve.

I am going to make one out of a vintage chenille bed spread and another with my Flower Power fabric winnings from Sew Mama Sew a few months back. I would love to see what you make! Feel free to ask questions if you have any :)

Blueberry Picking

The Lilliput people and I spent the morning picking blueberries at Rush River Produce in Madien Rock, WI. My dear friend Karen organizes this blueberry picking craziness each year. And i thank her wildly for the experience each year. If you live in this part of the country make your way to Rush River. Absolutely worth the drive.

So what do you get when you combine 3 moms, 7 kids, an 1.5 hour stunning drive through river towns to the blueberry farm and a rather chilly morning. Believe it or not you get 3 relaxed and tired mamma's, 7 happy blue tired children, more blueberries than can safely be consumed by a small village and a 1.5 hour drive home!

I did not take many pictures, however if you click on the farm link above you can see more pictures of the farm. The children, being unaccustomed to this much space and freedom, ran themselves silly tired in the sprawling maze of blueberry bushes. I am impressed by how long they all stuck with the picking. My three picked for a good hour straight. Of course they ate most of what they picked, so there was the motivation :) Fortunately for us the owners of the farm are long time friends of Karen and they happily let all of our children run free and gorge themselves on the blue stuff.
Tracy, Karen & I, being ladies who lunch, fixed a wonderful spread for our delicate pallets. I am joking of course! Karen is the kind of woman that always comes prepared (she prepared lunch for all of us on the spot). I could go on and on about the joys of being friends with this woman. But time is precious and I don't want to give her a big head. So just let me say that if you have ever dreamed of having one more woman around the house to help with the never ending work, This would be the woman you would want. She does it all with the most splendid sense of humor and flair. Back off! I have first dibs.
Karen made this Guacamole in the field from scratch. See what I mean? A real gem.

Around Here....

It seems that this time of year I have really big plans but practically zero follow through. There are so many things that I want to make, sew or redecorate however summer time is not cooperating with me. Wedding Cake Toppers are eating up most of my creating time too.

Remember all those wooden hoops I picked up at the thrift store? Well I finally did something with them. I filled them with Good Folks fabric by Anna Marie Horner and then hung them randomly above the lamps flanking the couch. I am just loving the fresh pop of color they are adding to the living room.

And how about this burst of color? Yellow really is a very happy color don't you think? These are large Lions Mane Marigolds that are very tall (3-4 feet). We had a bit of rain and those big blooms ended up face first in the mulch. The problem with this type of flower is that if you cut enough stem for a regular vase you loose a lot of flower buds that will never open. When I have this problem I use my antique rose bowl to contain the flower clippings. I am so crazy about this vessel that I thought I would share a few pictures of it. It is a Victorian piece meant to hold a mass of short stemmed garden roses. There are many flower varieties that if you cut a long length of stem you are wasting a lot of unspent buds.
If you ever find one of these at a flea market or antique shop pick it up. You will never regret the purchase. The lattice pattern on the top acts like a flower frog making any short stemmed flower cutting stay securely in the bowl. Talk about a quick flower arrangement. Nothing could be more simple. And I love how modern the arrangement feels.

On the sewing front I managed to wip up a couple simple drawstring backpacks for Soren & Dunn's mornings at summer camp.

Dunn wanted a military themed back pack. His first fabric choice was army men with guns but I had to put the kibosh on that. I didn't think the summer camp nature center crowd would be appreciative of this type of fabric. So after much negotiating he decided on this camo helicopter print.

For Soren's I used a vintage gingham pillowcase that had white work (embroidery) along the case opening. I am crazy about this one! And better yet so is she :)

Lake Life this 4th

We are so fortunate to have a family lake home on stunning Deer Lake only an hour from our house. We are even more fortunate to have a slew of cousins to spend weekends at the lake with. I didn't grow up with cousins in close proximity. However, watching my children's relationships with their cousins develop over the years has been a real source of joy for me and them too. I will also say that nothing speaks Americana like a gang of wet, tanned and laughing children running around a watery playground. These are the moments my little people will remember and reminisce about with their own families one day. And these are the carefree imperfect snapshots that I am sure I will be cherishing for so many years to come. Happy Birthday America!