I Sew For Fun Blog Tour

When Deanna Springer, VP of Marketing at Nancy Zieman Productions, LLC. and long time friend of mine, contacted me about participating in their upcoming Blog Tour to promote Nancy Zieman's new book, I Sew For Fun, and coordinating line of kid-friendly sewing notions for Clover, I had a full range of emotions. I felt honored to be asked, excited to participate, and nostalgic about the thought of Nancy not being here with us to witness this momentous occasion. Nancy passed away last November after a long battle with cancer, but her memory will live forever in the hearts of her family, friends, and the hundreds and thousands of people she touched with her unending creativity and unmatched kindness. I was lucky enough to be able to film a couple of episodes of Sewing With Nancy back in 2014, and it is an experience I will never forget.

One of Nancy's last projects, and I'm sure one of her most favorite ones, was writing this book, I Sew For Fun, which is dedicated to her granddaughters and focuses on adults and children sewing together. The book includes 20 DIY projects, ranging from small quilts, to garments, to bags. She takes you step-by-step on how to create each projects and which one of her I Sew For Fun sewing notions to use. 

After much deliberation, Sydney chose to make the Drawstring Bag, which is project #13, because she always needs new bags to carry her dance shoes and accessories. She quickly ran to the studio to choose fabrics and trims for this project.

She chose a Teal Dot from an older collection of mine, Textured Basics (no longer in print) and paired it up with the Gray Scalloped Dot from Flit & Bloom, my newest fabric collection for Riley Blake. We used 3/16" cording instead of ribbon for the drawstring.

Since Sydney has been sewing for a couple of years now and knows her way around a sewing machine, I let her take the lead on this project. 

She loved using all her new sewing notions, with fun colors and shapes, but said she found this Seam Gauge especially helpful in helping her keep a straight line when stitching and topstitching, which is something she often struggles with.

Sydney thought pinning the outer pocket on her drawstring bag was extra fun with her new heart-shaped pins, which come with their own heart-shaped magnetic holder.

Just check out how pretty these I Sew For Fun sewing notions are!

This new book and kid-friendly sewing notions certainly take sewing to a whole new level for kids! I know Sydney will want to go through the whole book and make a few more projects with her friends!

Hope you'll check out the I Sew For Fun book and coordinating notions for your child! And don't forget to follow along with the full blog tour dates here.

Monday, February 5

Nancy Zieman Productions, LLC

The Sewing Loft

The Cottage Mama

Tuesday, February 6

Fabric Mutt

Diary of a Quilter

Wednesday, February 7

Amy’s Creative Side

Thursday, February 8

Simple Simon and Company

SewHere.com

Designer Joi

Friday, February 9

Stitch This! The Martingale Blog

MODKID

Saturday, February 10

Transient Art

Sew Positively Sara

Lindsay Sews

Halloween Retrospective

This is the first year since my two daughters were born that they are not wearing a mama-made costume. I've been dreading this day. Halloween is a favorite holiday around the Young household and I've always truly enjoyed not only the designing and sewing of costumes, but the photoshoot and editing that comes with it. I've been lucky that up until now, my girls have gotten as much into it as I have, indulging me with all my crazy over-the-top ideas. So, since I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, I thought I'd share some of my favorite creations through the years... (I'll include links to patterns for those that used them).

2009

Sophie was a witch. I used the Penny pattern (or what would eventually become the Penny pattern, as it had not been released yet), lengthened to the floor and roughly cut the bottom hem into peaks. All other accessories were purchased.

Sydney was a fairy. I used what eventually because the Bubble Dress from Sewing MODKID Style and added a faux corseted panel in the front (the ribbons were just sewn onto the fabric in a criss-cross fashion). Wings and other accessories were purchased.

2014

Sydney was Wednesday Addams. I used the Avery pattern for her dress and I modified it as shown at the bottom of this post. I made a Potty Girl from my Playdate collection and a matching dress, free printable pattern found here. Sydney and I went to two local cemeteries to shoot these pictures. One of them had graves as old as the 1700's. See more photos and details here.

Sophie was a zombie. I used the Melanie Misses pattern to make her dress. Lots of details including the fabrics are found here. We shot these pictures just down the street from our house in front of an abandoned barn.

We even did a little movie to celebrate the occasion...

2015

Sophie was the most perfect "Dorothy" from Wizard of Oz along with her own "Toto" (er... our Miniature Schnauzer, Duke). I used the Avery pattern for the blouse and the pinafore dress was self-drafted. But if you want to learn all the details, look here.

Sydney was a "Broken Little Red Riding Hood Doll" (her own costume mash-up idea after not being able to decide between "Broken Doll" and "Little Red Riding Hood").  I used the Charlotte pattern for her dress. The Hooded Cape tutorial can be found in my newest book, Patternless Sewing Mod Style. If you're interested in learning how we did the make-up (including full product details), check out this post.

2016

Sydney was "Eleven" from the Netflix series "Stranger Things". I used the Elle pattern for the dress. We used tempera paints to paint in the green and yellow stripes on plain white crew socks because we could not find the right color combination anywhere! All other accessories were purchased. Read all the details here.

Sophie did not want to dress up in 2016, so I got in the game and dressed up as Joyce Byers to go along with the Stranger Things theme. Sydney and I attended a costume contest at a local Record Store and we won! :)

I hope these have provided some inspiration for upcoming costumes. I am still hopeful that at least one of them will ask me to make something for them between now and then... I have been known to pull all-nighters before for a great costume!

Halloween 2016 - "Stranger Things" style

My family and I started watching the extremely popular show, Stranger Things, one Friday night last month and by Saturday afternoon, we had completed the series. My youngest daughter, Sydney, and I proceeded to watch it again in its entirety a couple days later because we were so hooked and wanted to catch things we may have missed the first time around... yes, it's that addictive!

So, it's no surprise to me that for this year's Halloween, Sydney wanted to be Eleven. Not only is she her favorite character in the show, but she has a very distinctive look that I knew we could replicate with a little bit of effort from both of our parts. For those of you who are not familiar with our Halloween series, here was Sydney's costume from last year, and the one from the year before that. And even her big sister, Sophie, has gotten into the Halloween action. Yes, I guess you can say we take Halloween seriously in the Young household. And it also doesn't hurt that I am a sewing pattern designer and I LOVE a good challenge!

I set out to design and sew a dress that would be as close of a replica to the original Eleven wore as I could. Upon completion, Sydney and I hit the stores to try to find all the accessories:

• White Converse high-tops: we got those at Von Maur
• White crew socks with green-yellow-green stripes: We never found those, so we got plain white ones and some tempera paints at Walmart, and Sydney painted on the stripes.
• Blonde wig: Party City
• Fake Blood: Party City
• Eggos: Walmart

Then the fun began...

In the above photo, believe it or not, we only had 1 box of Eggos to work with. So, since we wanted to replicate the scene in which Eleven is eating *all the Eggos* after she steals the boxes from the grocery store, I shot the first picture of Sydney with the box in her right arm, then she had to sit very still with her arms and legs in the same position, while I moved the box to different locations around her and ran back to my camera to reshoot the photo. Later on, I imported all the separate photos into Photoshop and merged them together. Yes, I know, in hindsight it would've been much easier to run back to the store and buy more Eggos, but, like I mentioned, I love a good challenge!

It took several shots to get her expression just right in the photo above. Either she was too angry-looking or half smiling in most of them. I told her she had to look like she was really concentrating on something. This was supposed to replicate the scene in which they are walking towards the "portal" and Eleven is messing with the compasses.

In the above photo, she is replicating the scene in which she breaks up a fight between Mike and Lucas by throwing Lucas across the junk yard with her mind powers. This was the look on Eleven's face after she realized what she did.

Just another Eggo photo because those were fun to shoot, and Sydney was really enjoying eating all the Eggos.

And lastly, we shot this one to replicate the scene in which Eleven wipes the blood off her nose after she makes Troy wet his pants with her awesome mind powers. Yes, I know, this would've been better shot at a school with bleachers behind us.

Hope you all enjoyed our newest Halloween creation. Want to steal this look? Get the PDF pattern here.

#quiltsforpulse Kid Style

A couple of months ago we told you a little bit about the #quiltsforpulse project that the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild masterminded to help bring some much needed love, support and comfort to all those affected by the June 12th Orlando Pulse massacre. My 11-year-old daughter, Sydney, took the challenge seriously and went from creating a couple of blocks to wanting to sew an entire quilt top. I supported her fully, not knowing if she would give up halfway through and I'd have to jump in and finish it for her.

Well, lo and behold, she surprised us all and actually completed a 20-block quilt top with borders and all! She even filmed a YouTube video documenting her process and trying to encourage other kids to do the same.

After the top was finished, we put out a call for help on Facebook and Instagram. We asked the community if anyone out there would be willing to quilt & bind this for us if we provided all the materials necessary and covered shipping both ways (provided the quilter was out of town). Because the sewing/quilting community is AMAZING, we had several offers, but the first offer that came through was from the awesome Melissa Kirk of @tensionissues. Within a couple of days I had cut the binding strips and Syd and I had packaged the whole kit and shipped it off to her in Sterling, IL. Melissa quilt and bound it in record time and shipped it back to us for final photography before it went down to Orlando.

In the meantime, while the quilt was en route back to us, we got contacted by our local newspaper, The Pantagraph. They wanted to do a story on Sydney and the quilt and they said it would appear in the front page of Friday's paper. The email came on Wednesday, and the quilt was not due back until Thursday (the day after). The reporter agreed to come by and interview Sydney sans quilt, while the photographer would come on Thursday afternoon and photograph the quilt after it arrived.

The interview went off without a hitch and the reporter left to write up her story, not before leaving me the photographer's cell number with explicit instructions to call her as soon as the quilt arrived. I went back to my computer and refreshed the tracking screen about a hundred times. Each time, it said it had arrived at our sorting facility and would be delivered that day (Thursday, August 11). Except for the one time I refreshed and all of a sudden it said it would be delivered on Friday, August 12. I literally screamed! I called the Post Office 5 times with no answer... not even a way to leave a message. I printed the tracking screen, grabbed Sydney and drove as fast as I legally could to the Post Office. The first time I showed the lady at the Claims & Inquiries office my paper, she said there was nothing she could do because the package wasn't physically there... it was at a sorting facility elsewhere that is not open to the public. Tears welled up in both mine and Syd's eyes and I tried to explain to her as calmly as I possibly could why it was so important that we got the package TODAY and not TOMORROW.

She somehow took pity on us and called the sorting facility. The woman who answered the phone didn't even ask for the tracking number, which worried me greatly. She just asked for my zip code and told me my package was on the truck and would be delivered TODAY. I went home reluctantly, and Syd and I proceeded to wait for hours for the truck to show up. Outside... in the heat... because we didn't wait to chance missing it! It was the longest and most excruciating 3.5 hours of our lives!

I called everyone I knew for comfort and just as I was getting ready to hop back in the car and go beg at the P.O. again, the truck showed up with our quilt. I almost fainted in my own driveway. I gathered myself enough to call the photographer, who said she'd be there in 20 minutes. She must've had all her gear packed in her car already with one foot out the door, because she did show up in 20 minutes and did the shoot in record time.

The story came out the next day and it was as fantastic as I could've ever wished. My little girl grazed the front page of The Pantagraph and we are all so proud of her!! Here is the story, if you'd like to read about it.

I did manage to take a few photos of my own before sending the quilt off to Orlando...

We both hope this quilt brings joy to someone who needs it. That whoever gets it knows that it was made by a child who barely understands why anyone could do something so hateful and desperately wanted to do something wonderful to counteract the horror of the situation.

#lovewins #loveislove #weloveorlando

Quilts for Orlando

Patty has some very strong ties to the Orlando community. She not only lived there for many, many years, but she went to college there (at the University of Central Florida), worked there, got married and had both of her children down there. So, as you can imagine, the Orlando tragedy is very near and dear to her heart. 

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is collecting rainbow heart quilts and/or heart blocks to donate to the surviving victims (many of which are still in the hospital fighting for their lives) and the families of the deceased. Patty and her daughter, Sydney,  will be sewing up some quilt blocks and they are inviting you to participate as well. 

You can find all of the details for the Pulse Donations here. 

Sydney even created a great video tutorial for creating the quilt block!! Sew with them for a great cause!!

Broken Little Red Riding Hood Doll

As my kids get older (Sydney just turned 11 and Sophie is turning 14 soon), I worry about them losing their childhood and not being into some of the fun things we used to enjoy.... Halloween being one of them. Luckily enough, they still seem to be very much into it. It's just a little different now. They still love the process of dressing up, but now they have more say in what they want and it's often really involved. Last year, Sydney and I had a blast dreaming up, creating, and photographing her Wednesday Addams costume. She was very involved in the hair, make-up, and staging of the photos. Sophie was also very involved in her zombie costume last year.

This year, Sydney and I sat down and looked at tons of inspiration photos online before she decided on two ideas... "Broken Doll" and "Little Red Riding Hood". Since she couldn't pick a favorite, I pitched the idea of a costume mash-up, and she loved it. Here was the result...

For the dress, I used the newest MODKID PDF pattern, the Charlotte Dress & Jacket. This is View C, which features long bubble sleeves, a two-tiered skirt, inset pockets and a double-breasted bodice with 6-button placket. I chose dark cotton fabrics, purchased a Jo-Ann Fabrics, to resemble a Vintage Doll dress.

For the Hooded Cape, I used instructions from my upcoming book, Patternless Sewing, out in Spring 2016. This is one of the 24 projects included in the book, and it was perfect for this costume idea! I know this doesn't help you any right now if you are looking to create your own Hooded Cape. But luckily there are plenty of tutorials online that you can use to get a similar effect. I used Fleece for the outer cape and satin for the lining. The cape is fully reversible!

The make up was quite the process! We started out by covering her face with the palest foundation and pressed powder I could find at Ulta. Sydney has an olive skin tone, so we applied this make-up with a heavy hand. We used Revlon Colorstay Base in 110 Ivory and NYX Blotting Powder in BLP01 Light. Make up was applied over lips, eyelids and eyebrows too for full coverage.

Next, I applied blush on her cheeks, again with a heavy hand. I used Ulta Sweet Cheeks Blush, which has a warm tone, but when we do this again this weekend, I will use a pinker shade, as I thought this was a bit too 'warm" for my taste.

Next we whited out her bottom eyelids to try to create the illusion of big doll eyes. Sydney already has really big eyes, but we wanted them to look exaggerated. I used NYX Eye and Eyebrow Pencil in SPE906 White.

Next, I applied eyeshadow in a pinkish/purplish hue to her upper lids. I used Elf Flawless Eyeshadow Party Purple, which I had already, but any pinkish/purplish eye shadow would work for this.

Next, it was time to start drawing! I used Elf Liquid Eyeliner in Black to outline her eye, above the eyelids and below the white eyeliner to create the illusion of a large doll eye. I drew in the bottom lashes using the same liquid eyeliner and I began to draw in some of the "cracks" on her forehead.

I used the liquid eyeliner to draw in more "cracks" on her cheek, then came back in to add highlights with the white eyeliner. This gives the cracks a bit of a 3D effect. We applied mascara to her upper  eyelashes and this made her eyes look even bigger. You could also use fake eyelashes, but since her natural lashes are pretty long and full already, I felt the mascara was enough. We used ULTA Voluptuous Volume Mascara in Black.

Lastly, we used Revlon ColorStay Ultimate in 095 Royal Raisin to draw in the doll lips. I love this lipstick because it does not smear, so even if she drinks something or accidentally rubs her lips, it stays put and does not fade at all! These lips need to be much narrower than the actual human lips and "button shaped" as you see below.

Here is Sydney applying some finishing touches herself. She gets a bit freaked out when I get near her eye with my eyeliner, so she prefers to apply it herself.

We put her hair into low pigtails, put on her costume, grabbed her bread basket, and off we went to the forest...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!