Kana's Standard for Kids: A-4 Girls' Dress

 Who doesn't love adorable little girls' dresses with Peter Pan collars? I've been suckered in by this dress pattern in Kana's Standard for Kids, a Japanese pattern book with a boatload of delightful childhood closet goodies, albeit only for girls (Kana's Standard for Kids II has a number of items for boys).

Rather than confess how much time I spent trying to figure out how to sew the neckline -- which has elastic in the back (cased in with bias tape) -- and sew in in-seam pockets WITH French seams, I'll just say that I learned lots of lessons. First, it's worth checking ALL the provided diagrams, even if the captions are in a foreign language. Plus, Google Translate can offer some help. Second, don't make things harder than they have to be and when trying sew French seams on curves do this  instead ➢➢ By Hand London Sewing French Seams on Curves AND when trying to sewing in-seam pockets with French seams follow this lovely piece of advice by In the Folds ➢➢ In-Seam Pockets with French Seams

Even though I ended up not putting pockets in, it turned out rather cute, and the Peter Pan collar is wonderfully even. The elasticated back neckline was also a nice touch -- no finicky closures. Now that I know more, I think the construction process should be pretty quick next time. 

I'll be putting this on my new Etsy shop, Heirloom Variety 🍅! 🎉🎉

Heirloom Variety Link

It's small, but growing!

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Happy Birthday, Stephen! 💖🎂 Gentleman's Travel Case

It's a hard thing to shop or make for a man who has everything, but there is just one thing he doesn't have: a toiletries travel bag, or as Present Perfect calls it, "A Gentleman's Travel Case."🎩 He just uses a Ziploc bag for ALL of his toiletries while travel (which I can definitely praise for practicality), but he deserves a little better! My grandmother gifted me the craft book I found this little luggage gem packed inside: Present Perfect  by Betz White (click on title for B&N link). The book is chock full of cute little projects, ranging from iPad cases to felt finger puppets. The instructions were very detailed in the text and only used pictures when it seemed necessary.

Due to the double-whammy zipper/velcro combo, I almost passed by it, thinking, "No way!" as I was looking for something to make for Steve. Even after I decided to go for it, I was dumb and didn't follow all the instructions, so construction didn't go quite as planned (there was an ungodly amount of seam-ripping), but still finished it. 😅 Below are the shots of the finished product.

Happy Sewing!