Twinkle Toes and Company

It's not often I test for the Music Man.   He's pretty laid back about the whole process which is really nice!   He is however pretty picky about fabrics, what looks good together, how the garment fits and the overall style.   After he finished "shopping" and made his selection from the fabric I have in stock.  {Who am I kidding, fabric I have in stock?  More like the fabric I have in my stash!} He put the pattern together for me.  I put patterns together on a regular basis and so I often wonder how easy/hard patterns are to put together from a beginners opinion.  I figured if he messed up with it I could always reprint the pattern and put it together myself.   He did a great job assembling it and because it was for a test, he wouldn't put it together without me watching over him.  So, I sat by him as he glued the pieces together.   The only question he had when he was putting it together was "...

Comfortable clothes that look fantastic are what we live for in my house! When I apply to test patterns I typically run it by the person I'm applying to  test for.  I didn't even have to ask for this one.   All I had to ask was which fabric to use. So, she went "shopping" in my fabric stash and came up with this Harry Potter panel, some cozy French Terry and some cotton lycra. The Aspen by Peek A Boo is easy to assemble, and the tutorial was great to follow.  The pictures are detailed and the steps are well written.    Piping is optional and can be replaced by a strip of cotton lycra, which is the option I chose because then everything matched.  I'm a tad picky about everything coordinating...so is she! While I know some people have issues with a raglan sleeve being cut on the fold, I personally don't find it an issue with this pattern.  It doesn't really feel very "raglany" (is that a word??) to me. ...

I have a Little Red Headed Girl.   She's our youngest and therefore a tad spoiled.   She is one of my favorite photographic models and I love to sew for her because she gushes over everything I make for her.   It buoys my self esteem.....a lot.   On occasion though, I stun her. The brand new Practical Princess pattern from Peek-A-Boo Patterns is a dress that gave me the occasion to stun her! Ever since she was little, she has loved Merida from the movie Brave.  She has red hair and it’s curly just like Merida (although not quite as curly as Merida’s), so in her opinion she should always be Merida. The testers who were testing "Princesses" dresses/peplums were given the freedom to "hack" away.  And I did!  I was lucky enough to test the pattern for “Merida”!  (*Note:  if you’d like to read how I hacked the sleeves and the neckline please see the end of the post....I’ve put the instructions there.) I had e...

Only one of my children fits this pattern.  ONE.  The rest of them are begging me to find them a pattern like this that will fit them.  I'm not joking.  It has a hood, it has a kangaroo pocket (that is technically just an "option" but is a MUST in my home).  It's literally their dream shirt.  My 8 year-old is on cloud 9 that she is lucky enough to already have two of them in her closet.  She emptied her closet of all the store bought shirts she had left in her closet, brought them to me and asked me to replace them with the Delaney Tunic from Peek-a-boo Patterns .  Technically she is a size 4 around the chest.  However, she's not very big on wearing tight clothing.  So, I made an 8 in both length and width.  This tunic is the perfect length to pair with leggings or jeans or even Khakis.  As it was 106 degrees when we took the above pictures we had to go digging for pants and she had out grown most of them, so Khakis it...

Sometimes seem rippers are my friends.   Have you ever wondered how much money you've thrown away in wasted thread?  I have.  Especially since I started using nicer thread,  I love Gutterman thread.  It's so much better than other thread which shall remain nameless. As all of the swim suit fabric started rolling out in the groups on Facebook and then cute swim suit patterns started appearing as well, I couldn't help but start buying what felt like all of Zenith & Quasar's swim fabric.  We all know I didn't because let's face it, I don't have enough room in my house nor do I have the disposable income to do so....maybe Heaven will have unlimited fabric storage????  Anyway, back on topic.  I was so scared to sew a swim suit.  About a year and a half ago I had gone to Joann's and bought some swim fabric and the fabric lady scared the sewing fun right out of me.  She went on and on about how difficult it was to sew a swim sui...