Fancy Dress Up Day

 

It was Fancy Dress Up Day at my granddaughter's school on Monday. Naturally my daughter-in-law took a picture of my DGD and my son.

Pretty in pink, the two of them!

BTW, my seminole patchwork basics tutorial is available here, in my Etsy shop. The band on the bodice of her dress is more complicated than it at first looks, but the instructions are in the tutorial.

A Little Ham...

This is my granddaughter in the Pink Dinosaur Seminole Dress. 

Pretty sure she likes it. 

Seeing these photos (and the others my son sent), reminded me of what his pediatrician said to me during one of his exams.

"There's a little ham in this kid."

Clearly it runs in the family.

Dinosaur Seminole Dress

 

This is the bodice of the dress I made for my granddaughter. I wanted to make a dress that featured Seminole Patchwork. But when I saw the fabric with the dinosaur eyes, I thought my granddaughter would be happy if I could include it in the dress.

I sent the photograph to my California family. My DIL said my granddaughter said, "I think I might faint" because she liked it so much.

This is the back of the dress. I really didn't need to have the patchwork panel on the back of the dress, but I didn't want to drop the ball.

I added a band of seminole patchwork along the bottom of the skirt of the dress.

Here is the finished dress.

I sent a photograph of the dress to my daughter-in-law and her reply was "Woooooow! Showstopper!"

The dress will go to out to California on Monday!!

OH! And the tutorial is almost ready! Stay tuned!

Not a Quilt

 

I ordered some fabrics to make a dress for my granddaughter. The dress will have a seminole patchwork band across the bodice and a strip along the hem. The fabrics are here, but the dress pattern has not arrived quite yet, but it is due soon. I am quite excited.

Have you noticed the eyes in one of the green fabrics? They are supposed to be dinosaur eyes surrounded by dinosaur scales. Because OF COURSE, my dinosaur-loving granddaughter has her Memere wrapped around her little finger!

Another Biast From the Past!

 

WAY BACK in 1988 or 1989, I made my son a pair of shorts and I incorporated a band of seminole patchwork, as you can see in the photo I took back then. I think my son was 8, and I'm kinda surprised he actually WORE the shorts, and not just to humor me. I have pictures of him at school wearing them.

Anyway, I have long thought Seminole patchwork was sixteen kinds of awesome, and I still do. I think the shorts were pretty stylish then, and I think any cool kid would be happy with them now. It was super easy to insert a bit of seminole patchwork into a pair of shorts.

It's always nice to see the recipient of a quilt beam with pride when they are wrapped in a gifted quilt, but quilts are a bit hard to show off in public. One of the nice things about Seminole patchwork is how easy it is to incorporate into things we make for our loved ones.

The new Seminole Patchwork tutorial is in the final draft phase. Now I get to send it to my intrepid editors, which is when the real work begins.

Stay tuned!

Seminole sampler

 

I'm working on the Seminole bands for the new tutorial. I'll sew these into a small wall hanging. I'm pretty sure I've got all my sewing done.

More Seminole

 A few months ago I promised I'd show more information about making simple seminole patchwork bands of on point squares.



These strips are all the same, the outer ones are cut 2" wide, and the inner ones are cut 1-1/2" wide, and sewn together with a 1/4" seam, The seams are pressed toward the outer edges.

When cut crosswise 1-1/2" wide, staggered and sewn together you get a band of on point squares.

If you make the outer strips contrasting colors, you get something that looks different.

But you really get something different when you rotate every other strip when you sew them together.

Of course, you have to trim those pesky triangles and sew straight strips on either side to stabilize the seminole band. Remember, these are all bias edges.

Now let's add two strips...

This symmetrical band has a dark center strip surrounded by lighter strips, then the background.

You knew this was going to happen, right?  But check this out...

This is the same five strip band, but the center strip is the background fabric, and the other two are contrasting.  Cut these crosswise 1-1/2" just like all the others, but rotate every other strip, stagger them and sew them together and you get this:

Pretty cool, huh?  But we're not done yet. We can add two more strips...

and make something symmetrical...

or not.

And no, you don't need a pattern. All the inner squares finish out at 1" square. Cut those strips 1-1/2" wide, and cut the outer ones 2" wide, or wider. Sew the strips together with a 1/4" seam. Cut crosswise into 1-1/2" pieces, stagger and sew together. You can find slightly more detailed instructions here.

And if you think a quilt made from simple strips this way is boring, then check this out.

Enjoy.