Oliver + S Bubble Dress

Today's post is by the lovely Regina who blogged for Crafty Bird not long ago about her experience with Jane Richmond's Elsie Cardigan pattern. Today she shares her thoughts on the super cute Oliver + S Bubble Dress pattern. Don't you just love that fabric? Be sure to jump over to her sweet blog, Cardigans and Kids for more inspiring projects.

The Oliver + S Bubble Dress pattern: I have been eying it since it's release quite awhile ago. Alas, it has buttons, worse than cute buttons, it needs button holes! Now, I can handle—most of the time—different sewing tasks that include elastic, snaps, even a zipper now and again, however, those button holes put me in a sewing conundrum so I really try to avoid them.

I'm here to say this dress is worth the button holes. It is as adorable in real life as on the pattern and there are only 3 buttons and button holes, and a clever plan with elastic and making the built-in cap sleeves.

The most time-consuming part of the dress making process is the tracing and cutting of the pattern pieces (which is worth taking the time to be exact.) Once I began sewing, I was happily surprised with how quickly the dress went together, and how cute it is.

Notes: I made the size 0-3 months with the scallop. I used muslin for the lining and a vintage sheet for the dress.

Thanks so much Regina!
Happy sewing everyone!

The Elsie Cardigan

This is my favorite kind of post. I got a lovely note the other day from Regina, a Crafty Bird reader, letting me know that she had knit some of the patterns from the shop and wanted to share her pictures. When I saw her lovely, lovely work, I asked if she would be willing to write about her experience with the Elsie Cardigan (a beloved Jane Richmond pattern) and she agreed. Yay! Hopefully this is only the first post she'll write for Crafty Bird!

Be sure to visit her blog, Cardigans and Kids, where she writes about parenthood, knitting, sewing, cooking, baking and other joys of domestic life.

The Elsie Cardigan

I love to give a handmade gift, however this spring a whole lot of friends are all expecting new babies.  This has caused a bit of a dilemma due to limited amount of time for crafting. Needless to say, I have been on the search for the perfect pattern for gifting. The Elsie Cardigan is it.

I love the Elsie pattern because the knitting is simple and straight forward, and the crochet edge is just as simple, but turns a cute cardi into an adorable cardigan.

The Elsie is written from the top down so you can easily see what the outcome is going to be. The sleeves are written to be 3/4, but since this one is going to fit late spring early summer, I knit less rounds and chose to bind off early. I also  made just one button hole instead of three. The only other  change I made was to add the crochet border to the neck line as well.

I also made the cardigan for a really good price. I used Lion Brand Cotton in Orchid and  didn't even need the entire skein to make the 3 month size. Like I stated earlier, the Elsie is a winner.  Now all I need to do is decide what yarn to cast on with before I begin the next one.

Thanks so much Regina!
Happy knitting everyone!

Amélie's Tour of French Sewing and Knitting Blogs

Today we are so lucky to have a guest post by Amélie of My Daruma, a fantastic French fashion blog (conveniently translated for English readers in each post) who recently posted a lovely interview about Magpie Patterns. Amélie had the fabulous idea of introducing us to the world of French sewing and knitting blogs, so this is our first (but hopefully not last!) peek at all the creativity that France has to offer.

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Hi, my name is Amélie. I'm a french blogger living in Lyon and I'd like share with you a humble introduction to the French sewing and knitting blogosphere.

First, I really should mention that the French online crafting community has grown tremendously in the past couple of years. There are so many talented people out there that it is sometimes difficult to keep up with the newcomers. Another characteristic of this community is its collective spirit. There are several very active collective blogs. Some are centered on sharing experiences on a given pattern company like Citronille (Fans de citronille), C'est Dimanche (C'est Dimanche Addicts) or the numerous and resourceful Japanese pattern books (JCA). Others focus on specific challenges, like J'ai rien à me mettre with its semestrial challenges on a given theme like "the little black dress" or "the holiday season."

But let's get back to the individual talented French sewing and knitting girls out there and let me share with you a few of my favorite craft blogs.

Octobre Rose
Satine's world is graphic, poetic, vintage and slighlty eccentric. It's the blog that got me into sewing three years ago. Her beautiful daughter Elle gets to wear the most beautiful outfits with ruffles, incredible hats and glittery shoes. It's kind of like living in Alice in Wonderland...but in real life. Very inspiring!

Les petits grains de Maïs
Ivanne's sewing is just beautiful. It's got that French touch many of us are after—subtle colors, thoughtful details, and a classic and modern look at once. But be warned: do not expect daily or weekly posts. It's not that kind of blog. But when Ivanne does post, it's a whole collection of clothes she's sharing—with sometimes as much as 10 pieces, all beautiful and all matching. One last thing, Ivanne loves Liberty fabric but has her own way of using it—with "classe"—and it's really worth a look. Even if you don't read French, the pictures will get your imagination rolling.

Dis bonjour à la dame
Carole is a friend of mine living in Lyon. A very good friend to be exact. Her blog has a big audience in France. She's a prolific and very generous blogger and has produced several tutorials to share her practice.  Carole likes Japanese pattern books for their endless resources but also favors C'est dimanche patterns. And she can knit, which is quite mesmerizing to me because I simply could not knit a row for my life. She has agreed to teach me next year. How cool is that? Carole is also co-founder of Bik Nok, a foundation whose motto is "A little sewing for big achievments." Bik-Nok particpates in funding a school in Vietnam relying in part on the French sewing community. Check it out!

Henri et violette
Hélène has a style of her own. Her sewing is all dark or block colors. Don't look for bold prints or designer fabric at Henri et Violette. But trust me, it's just as well. I think Hélène has a "roaring twenties" look. Maybe somewhat of a retro parisian look. She often alters Japanese patterns and the results are very unique.

The sewer cat
Delphine can sew and knit and her blog is of the aesthetic kind. I love her knits and the colors she carefully selects. Everything looks soft and comforting on the Sewer Cat. It's definitly a nice resource even if you don't read French. I'm sure you'll enjoy her pictures and craft.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of France and rememeber not to let the language frighten you.
The pictures are sometimes enough for our crafty minds, don't you think?

A bientôt!
Amélie

Henri's Flags

I would like to welcome Erin, Portland mama, writer, crafter, and designer, as a periodic guest blogger on Crafty Bird. Erin answered the Call for Crafters (see the bottom of the page!) and has agreed to share her experiences in using the various patterns we sell to make lovelies for home, family, friends and self. For her first post she chose a pattern from Amanda Blake Soule's book, Handmade Home. I'll let Erin take it from here...

For my first project, I chose the One-Word Banner which is featured on the cover of the book. I decided to make it for my son, Henri, since I have been wanting to put his name above his bed (like his big brother, Oliver's) since we moved in 3 months ago.

I had plenty of cream felt on hand from my handbag supplies and many, many scraps. I sorted through all my scraps to find the perfect fabric and color combination for my sweet little man. In the book Amanda suggests either drawing your letters out freehand or using your computer. I chose the latter as I wanted consistency and perfection with my letters. I printed them out using Word with the font at about 500pts. It took a bunch of experimenting to find just the right font and letter size, and in the end, I changed them up a bit while cutting my fabrics.

Next I wanted to tackle the end pieces. The author had sweet little birds framing her word "Dream." For Henri I wanted owls. I spent a bunch of time drawing out how I was going to do it and finally found inspiration on my neighbor's etsy shop, Little Mama's Designs (she makes owl appliques that I have been drooling over), and Henri's owl bedding.

This is where I added a step. The instructions tell you to place the letters one inch above the bottom of your flag, center them and pin. I went a step further and used some Stitch Witchery to fuse my letters and owls to my felt (you MUST use a press cloth here or your felt will melt...). This step insured that my letters wouldn't move on me during my stitching. Next, I took all of my pieces to my machine and stitched around them with a 1/8" seam allowance—allowing for some natural fraying to occur over time.

Once I had all the letters and owls stitched onto my flags, I grabbed my tub of bias binding and found the perfect chocolate brown binding. I chose to make a slightly longer length for my banner, laid it out and placed all of my pieces, pinning them in place. At this point, I stitched all along the open edge of my bias tape and across the top of the folded over banners, securing them to the binding, and Viola! It was finished! The next morning I was so excited to hang it on Henri's wall, that it was the first thing I did.

I am so proud of how it turned out, and I would have NEVER thought of making a cloth name banner if it wasn't for the book. I am thrilled with the experience and looking forward to my next project out of Handmade Home.

Many thanks Erin!