A Birthday Skirt

Did you know that all the best patterns for baby and children's clothes are made by moms? I recently discovered Pink Fig Designs. Mama-made patterns that are SO CUTE. Pink Fig patterns are designed to be made from woven fabric, which is great. Knits are fantastic, but sometimes it is really hard to find good prints at a good price. 

The first thing I made was the Nie Nie Skirt. I love how it turned out. Gathering ruffles isn't my favorite task, but I love the result. I'll have to look into a gathering foot for my machine.

Addy is modeling the skirt, though it isn't for her. It is for one of her friends who is just a couple weeks younger than Addy. The little girl needed a birthday skirt, and this will be it! 

I used my serger quite a bit for this skirt. You could get away without one, but I love my serger and use it at every opportunity. I did a serged rolled hem on each layer instead of a sewn rolled hem. It makes such a nice finish to a ruffled look. 

The only modification I made to the pattern was to use 5 ruffled layers instead of the 6 outlined in the pattern. The smallest size in the original is a 2T. This being for a first birthday, it needed to be a little smaller. I didn't want the strips that make up the layers to be any more narrow than they already are, so I went with omitting the sixth layer to make it a little shorter. 

The skirt was to be "Cupcake Themed." And so there are a couple of cupcake prints. I also think the tiers add to the theme, bringing to mind layers of piped icing. 

I love the fullness of this skirt. It bustles with that little toddler toddle and just adds to the cuteness. Addy will definitely need a couple of these for herself!

Cushions Complete!

All twelve of the cushions are now finished! The whole pile is pictured just below. They certainly look better than they did dressed all in orange vinyl.

The cushions on the bottom of the stack have wooden undersides. I'm not really sure whether these are the seats or the backs, though I think they are the backs. The seats, it seems to me, are the thinner ones on top.

The cording on the edges of the cushions was my least favorite part. I removed the cotton cords from inside the original material and resheathed them with the new fabric. That takes time!

This is the wooden side of the taller cushions. The original fabric being vinyl, it was just nailed down. But an unfinished edge of this material would have frayed, so I cut these out with a larger seam allowance than the originals and tucked about a half inch under before nailing them down with upholstery tacks.

I have made the process of old (pictured in a post below) to new look much too easy. Perhaps I should have photographed the messy part of dissecting the original cushions and cutting out these ones. No matter: the project is complete! On to the next one!

Upholstery is not my calling

Around Christmas, I was asked if I would reupholster these cushions:

Well, no one could argue they needed it. But it wasn't just these two. There are six like the ones pictured (seat cushions) and six that are a slightly different shape for the seat backs. All twelve were the same lovely vinyl material. I agreed to do the work and am now just two cushions away from finished.

This project has reminded me that upholstery is not my favorite task. It's really the cording that I find distasteful. The cording goes around the edges and is quite typical for any upholstered item, which is why upholstery as a genre is low on my favorites list.

Really the cushions have not been as bad as I dreaded when I took the job. Though I am being slower at finished than I anticipated. My goal is to have the last ones done by the end of the week! The church is probably starting to miss their chairs.