Bias tape dress up cape and Superhero costume

Like I mentioned here, we celebrated Purim last week and I made my friend's son a costume. He loves this Israeli Superhero called Mr Tomato and we were looking at the costume you can buy which is very expensive, and made out of that cheap, scratchy costume material. I told her I could make it for him and was happy to take on the challenge.

This is the original costume she was going to buy:

We discussed it and decided that the pants with the tomato shirt, the cape and the mask would be plenty. He could wear his boots with it and it would look great.

So I went to work and this is what came out of it:

Black Apple Dolls

A while back I mentioned that I was doing a lot of "present sewing", and today I am ready to reveal the first outcome.

I stumbled across the pattern for these handmade dolls from Black Apple on various blogs, and thought the dolls were so cute. It is a great basic pattern, and I have seen so many fun ideas that have developed from it. 

I think the doll is great for any age, but I think it is especially good as a "first doll", since the entire doll is soft. Yesterday I gave the purple one to my dear friend who just had a baby girl two days ago. I hope it will bring a lot of joy to her little princess. The other two are for a friend that also had a baby girl a while back (I made one for her 2 year old daughter too). I will be giving them next week hopefully.

I basically followed the basic pattern (which you can find here) and added two things:

1. Hair on two of them (just took a bundle of yarn and sandwiched it between the two head pieces.

2. I made a little circle skirt for all the dolls following this tuturial. I used knit fabric for the skirts and made a lettuce edge for the hem using this tutorial.

I really had fun making these dolls, and I think this is my new favorite present for a baby girl. The next babies due are boys, so I will have to come up with other present ideas...:)

Little Changes - Big Outcomes: How to change your patterns for different looks

After reading all of your responses to my "One Pattern - Three Shirts" series, it got me thinking. I often start out with an already made pattern, but I almost never make it exactly the way the instructions tell you to. I love to add simple extras here and there to get different effects. In this post I want to show you how you can make a few very simple changes to your patterns, and get completely different outcomes.

I have summarized the different methods I use to change patterns. For each method I have linked to a good tutorial, showing you how to do it (some of which are mine, but not all). Give them a try and you will be amazed at how far your patterns can stretch.

Circle Skirt with some Extras

A few weeks ago I was telling my cousin about the clothes I have sewn in the last few months, and she mentioned she needed some new skirts, so I offered to make her one. She seemed excited about it, so I went home and started searching for the perfect material. She has similar taste to me – she likes girly colors, and so when I stumbled across this pink, flowery material in my closet I thought it would be perfect. I imagined something light, lacey and swingy, and remembered Dana's pattern from MADE . She gives great instructions on how to make a basic Circle skirt. I started out using her tutorial and put in a few extra touches.

The outfit that started it all...

You might recognize this outfit, it is the shorts outfit I made for "Shorts on the line" this summer. This is the outfit that gave me the push to start my own blog. I had been thinking about it for a while, but I had the usual concerns, "am I interesting enough?", "is my sewing good enough?", "can i commit to it?"...So I kept on putting it off. Then Melanie, who writes a monthly column for Sew, Mama, Sew! contacted me and asked me if she could use my picture in an article she was writing about sewing trends. She said she would link the picture back to my blog. Of course I was thrilled, and told her she was welcome to use it, but that I didn't have a blog of my own yet. So Melanie linked my picture back to my flickr picture and that was it. I told myself, if she chose my outfit out of the many, then maybe I do have something to offer. And so here I am...

Cosmetics Storage Baskets

Our "new" apartment (we have been here a year - wow the time flies!) is a work in progress. Over the past year I have made a few decorations to make it feel more homely. For example these drapes for the kitchen window, with matching pillows for the couch.

Dresses for Daycare

So Littleheart is in Daycare (which we call "Gan" - Hebrew for Garden) when I am at work, and she loves it. I am really happy with her progress, I feel that it is really good for her to be with other children. She learns a lot of social skills, and her language is really developing nicely.

I have two problems though: