Back to School Sewing

On my recent girls' weekend away I purchased my very first sewing patterns.  All this time I've been creating from my mind or hand-drawing patterns, but when I ran across these Portabellopixie patterns at a quilt shop in Vincennes, IN I simply could not resist!  I also was lucky enough to find some gorgeous fabric in their clearance room for $6/yard.

The patterns are well written and challenged me to learn two new techniques - rolled hemming on my serger, and shirring on my regular machine!  I found this tutorial (via Crafty Christina, thanks Chris!) on shirring extremely helpful and honestly the only thing that would work on my machine.  One thing I really loved about these pattern sets is that they are very much mix-and-match. I chose the peasant top and triple ruffle pants to showcase the pretty fabric.

My daughter was in love with the outfit from the moment I put it on her.  Its soft, comfy, and cool, but its the first clothing I've made for her that I'm worried about keeping clean.  White may not have been the best pants choice.  Oh well, she won't fit in it for super long anyway - the girl is growing as fast as the weeds in my garden this summer!

It actually fits even better after washing - all of the shirring tightened up in the dryer, so I guess even if it does get dirty, a good scrub and some Oxyclean and she'll be set to go.   Anna starts Kindergarten in about a week *sniff!* and she's gonna look as sweet as she is in this little number :)

*do you see the little patch on her knee in the above pic?  That's my own printable tag made with this.  Love this stuff!  It may be pricey, but you can print a ton of tags on one sheet and they really do hold up well.  Just sharing in case anyone is interested!