In my cup: Birdrock Roasters Natural Processed Guji Zone brewed in my Chemex

Soundtrack: Nickel Creek’s new album A Dotted Line

I don’t know about you all (you like how I automatically assume I have a following?), but I tend to be a bit of a binge seamstress. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a dedicated sewing room and after a couple of weeks of sewing supplies invading the dining room table the clutter starts to hit me and I go crazy, or because I have 2 kids under 2 and I don’t do much of anything consistently these days. Whatever the cause, it is a bit problematic in that during a “binge” I don’t get anything else done because all of my sacred nap time gets dedicated to sewing. It’s usually the need to sew for someone else that sparks said binge: a friend having a baby, a couple getting married or buying a new home, a kids birthday party. Somewhere around the two week mark I look up from my mountain of projects “to sew” and fabric to match and realize it looks like a bomb has gone off in my house. My little sewing world gets swept up in the cleaning, shoved in the garage, and is out of sight and out of mind until the next binge begins. In an attempt to “regulate myself” my new goal is to sew ONE piece of clothing week. My intention is to only sew one or two days out of the week (kids clothes are small, and quick, right?) that way the other days can be used to keep the rest of my world in order.

Of course, old habits die hard, so my first week has been a bit of a binge. I started looking around the interweb for inspiration. Craftiness is Not Optional has been my “go to” for sewing ideas, so I started there. Jess and Kristin of Skirt as Top had just started Vintage May, which you should definitely check out. I then lost an entire nap and a half exploring Kristin’s blog and their guest line up. What an amazing bunch of seamstresses and bloggers! I may need to dedicate a nap a week just to reading blogs and bookmarking all the cute things I find to sew up!  The lovely ladies of Vintage May opened up their flickr for the public to post so here’s what I dreamed up for my two cuties. (This is where I fell into my old habits and spent significantly more than two days sewing, it’s a process…)

Enough typing, time for pictures! For my two year old I used this honeycomb smocked dress tutorial from Sew Mama Sew. The spaghetti straps felt a bit too modern so I combined the smocked piece with the top portion of the Sunny Maye Sundress from the Cali Faye Collection and here’s what I got.

keyhole back

mom, I’m on the phone

The smocked piece was a lightweight fabric I found in my stash and that cute fireworks-ish fabric is the Felicity Circle Cotton Fabric in Adventure designed by Bren Talavera for Robert Kaufman.

My 9 month old got a new jumpsuit from the amazing Glamping Collection from Willow & Co. I went with separates for easier diaper changes and used the same fabrics I had for the honeycomb smocked dress. This pattern has such clear instructions and so many options, I cant wait to make my big girl something as well. I used the Felicity Fabric for the waistband, pockets (that she has no idea are there) and neckline/armhole facing for a little bit of contrast.

that smile tho

can you handle this cuteness?

 I also whipped up a turban headband to amp up the vintage feel.

I hope you made it through my lengthy soliloquy to the cute cute cuteness that is my girls and enjoyed my take on Vintage May! Thanks for stopping by!