I decided to get a new office chair for my sewing room and wanted to get something feminine.  I am a girl, after all.  Initially I did some searching online for something feminine and was unable to find that, then I did a search for an executive desk chair from pink leather.  I found only a very few, and really no place to purchase them that was anywhere near practical.

Back to the drawing board.  I then started searching for ways to make a chair more feminine, i.e. slip covers.  I did find quite a bit of info regarding slip covers for office chairs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27262540@N03/5671315065/in/photostream/

http://officechairslipcovers.blogspot.com/2011/02/disco-flower-office-chair_11.html,

http://cozycottageslipcovers.blogspot.com/2012/05/anniversary-office-chair-slipcover.html

http://cozycottageslipcovers.blogspot.com/2009/06/office-chair-makeover.html

Cool, I could take this idea and run with it.  It was then that I decided if I was going to spend that much time on a chair, I would just redecorate the whole sewing room.  It was, after all, pretty bland.

And since I wanted feminine and girly, and this room is only for me, I decided I would do “shabby chic”.  YES!

Office chair was the first step.  Great Shabby chic fabric on Ebay, here we go.

There really is no pattern for this, just made to fit based on those photos.  Seat was first, then I took the arm pads off and covered those as well.  That was the easy half, now for the top, a little tougher road ahead.

I think it turned out pretty good, and I added a monogramed “M” on the top part of the seat.   Check back for more on the redecoration.

The strawberry pincushion and the tomato pin cushion are  made from the instructions at Martha Stewart’s website.

Strawberry Sharpening Pincushion

Tomato Pincushion filled with Emery for pin sharpening

I was getting married, for the third and hopefully the last time, and I had no idea what I was going to wear. I did not want to wear some big frilly poufy wedding dress, I had already done the formal wedding on the last go around.

Then I recalled I had purchased some antique linen and lace on Ebay.  I didn’t have a plan for it when I purchased it, but now it fit into this plan beautifully

I wanted to make a fitted bodice and loose skirt, so I started by making a test bodice until I got the fit correct, then constructed the bodice, and lined it with some matching silk charmeuse that I purchased.

I used the laces around the neck edge and on the sleeve edge with some beading. I think the dress turned out just right, fancy but not too formal.

I am getting very close to finished with the dress itself.  Just wanted to share this photo, with the sunlight streaming through the fabric you can really see the detail of the embroidery and how translucent the fabric is.  Looks ethereal.

It is starting to look more like a dress now. I put gathered 1 inch lace edging along the 2 seam lines, but I am not sure about that, it may be too much, but I’ll have to wait until I get more completed to see if it overshadows the embroidery or if it looks out of place.

I decided to make the remainder of the skirt bottom out of panels divided by lace, each panel will have embroidery like the front but gradually tapering down to only embroidery at the bottom. This is one of the panels that will be attached directly behind the front panel.

It will be Teddy’s first easter this year.  I think he needs something special to wear to church.  I have lots of Nelona Baby Blue batiste, so I am going to make a Easter bubble for him.The first thing I set out to do was find a unique embroidery pattern that wasn’t run-of-the-mill Easter bunnies.  I found this pattern and fell in love with it.  It reminds me of Beatrix Potter drawings.

The embroidery in progress.

I decided to make the collars out of white handkerchief linen, they contrast well with the batiste fabric, and the embroidery shows up on them well.

The detail of the embroidery on the collars.

The finished project.  Teddy will be the best dressed baby in the nursery, but then, I am prejudiced.

My oldest son had a suit when he was a newborn that was microcheck red gingham with a white bodice, footed pants to match, shirt buttoned up the back. I loved that little suit for him and wanted to make one just like it for Teddy.

It is difficult to find cute patterns for baby boys but I ran across this pattern a while back and bookmarked it because it had footed pants. I adapted the shirt part to button down the back, and made the top half of the shirt in white with redwork embroidery in a design suitable for christmas.

Detail of Top

It isn’t the exact same suit as the one I had for Michael, but it is pretty darn close.

This silk dupioni christening dress was adapted from a girls dress pattern called Natalie. It was featured in Issue 135 of Sew Beautiful Magazine.

Detail of lace fancy band

Bodice Detail

Detail of embroidery

Completed Dress

I fell in love with this Alice Dress Pattern from Wendy Schoen/Petite Poche, the first time I saw it and decided I wanted to make it for my granddaughter, Hope. I could vision the embroidery in reds and greens for christmas.

I used genuine Irish Handkerchief Linen for the dress in white. Embroidery was worked by hand in red and green.

I think it came out beautifully.