26 June 2013

OUT Chapter 4: MADE

Story time with Dana of Made today!  Anything that Dana does makes me happy.  It could be her bright, beautiful pictures, the cheerful colors she always uses, or maybe that she just seems to celebrate life, but I'm always happier after reading her posts.  I'm not convinced that there's anything she can't do, from home renovations to writing books, she seems to do everything with ease and she shares with all of us!  So glad to have her here today.  Welcome, Dana!


Hello friends! It doesn't matter how busy life is when Katy comes an-emailing.....because I just can't say no to Once Upon a Thread. Yes Katy! It's a YES! I'm sure you feel the same. The books are marvelous, the interpretations are brilliantly fun, and the only hard part is narrowing down the book selection....because there are so many I'd love to tackle. My favorite children's books are those that draw me in artistically, through illustration. So this time I went with an all-time classic because Curious George pretty much sums up my favorite design style. It's a smorgasbord of simple colors and shapes popping on a white background. Lemon yellow, turquoise blue, checkers, dots, and stripes!....oh the stripes! (even the Christmas trees have them. Cute) I had to create something stripey something for my own little monkey. Of course it was hard to narrow down which Curious George story to draw from, since we read these books so frequently and each have our favorites. My favorite page is the hot air balloon race. Too many fun colors. We each take turns picking out OUR balloon. Can you guess mine? Owen and Lucy love the chocolate factory and like to point out all the faces on the machinery. Then we take turns choosing our favorite chocolate pieces as well. But I went with one that the kids seem to choose often since there's inspiration everywhere: The story starts out with George, sitting in the house, just begging to be curious (and hanging out by some pretty awesome curtains) He spies a garden from his window and decides he must know what it feels like to hold a bunny. So he roams through a field of flowers. He tries fishing. And goes head-first into the fishing. And eventually he runs into Bill, wearing stripes, and flying his stripey kite. So I made Lucy a kite dress. She loved it. ...and spent the next 10 minutes running and jumping around the house declaring to everyone: That made me happy. The dress is a simple A-line pattern I've been working on (and have in-queue to share, hopefully sooner than later!) I created the striped fabric first, sewing long 4-inch wide strips together...since good striped fabric is always harder to find that one would think. Please. Please designers. Give us more cabana striped fabric! I sewed the dress with a white lining, gave it little petal sleeves, and a red polka dot button in the back. I must say, she makes a pretty good kite. Thanks Katy for having me! 


See? You're happier now, aren't you?  What a fun dress!  Thank you, Dana! Your little kite is the cutest!

20 comments:

  1. I feel the same about Dana's blog, but yours too, I must say. My two favorite sewing blogs and the only ones I follow on a regular basis. You two make me feel like I can actually sew something and not be a failure. Great post :)

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    1. Well, you just made my day! Thank you for the great compliment, Aline! :)

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  2. Ha! Love it! Totally perfect, my girls would love pretending to be kites too!

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  3. I feel the same way about OUT--one just has to make time! Fabulous interpretation, Dana! Love love love stripes!

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  4. This is really cute Dana! Looking forward to the tutorial. I have another a-line dress on my list. I love the 1 button compared to my six! Also, i have to be on the hunt for some great curious george books! Those look fun!

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  5. Those photos are amazing....I have not quite looked at Curious George like that before - beautiful!!

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  6. Super cute Dana, as always! Love that dress and am looking forward to the pattern. How fun!

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  7. The dress, book, back story, and the model are all wonderful. I Love how bright and cheerful the dress is. It would be hard not to be happy around that dress!

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  8. I love that when Dana can't FIND the right striped fabric, she MAKES the right striped fabric. Delicious!! This dress makes me at least as happy as the books do, and who wouldn't swoon over those petal sleeves? :)

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  9. I am in love with Dana Made as well. I follow her blog faithfully and now I will be following yours as well. So much fun and inspiration. :D

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  10. So adorable! I want my own kite dress!

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  11. hahaha. you're killing me deborah.

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  12. WOW wow wow. This is the most adorable post ever.

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  13. Man this is cute! Love it, Dana! Looking forward to the pattern eventually!! :)

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  14. Love the books and the dress and the presentation. :)

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  15. Adorable dress and post Dana!!!

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  16. Fabulous dress. Can I get one in my size? I love it. We are huge fans of Curious George here even in Australia.

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  17. love Curious George . . . but love this dress even more!! So awesome on so many levels . . . the red button in back, the pieced together stripes, the little petal sleeves. No wonder Lucy loves it so much!

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  18. Oh, Dana, I love it! That book is a favourite here, too, passed along from my husband's childhood. Simply beautiful. Lucky old Lucy!

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