Twas The Night Before Easter

On February 21, 2015 our first grandchild Cecilia Grace was born and has become the most important person in our life.  So of course I had to make her a little softie bunny for Easter.  Having an embroidery machine allows me to personalize everything and anything for her. I made her a few personalized burp cloths. Then I realized that they really needed functional burp cloths so I brought out the serger and made her a stack of tri-layer flannel ones that I just serged around.

Here she is at one month.  Her expressions are priceless!

Puzzle Bouse

I have recently become intrigued with a pattern for a Puzzle Blouse that I found in the book Simple Serger Sewing by Julie Johnson.  You can also find a variation of it by Suzy Seed on the Alice's House blog.  Basically it is a square piece of fabric that gets 3 serged seams and serged edges on the hemline, armholes and neckline. The finished blouse is on the bias. When I made my first one, the tangerine shown below, I realized that it makes a great bathing suit cover-up. So I proceeded to make a few for friends. The ones I like best are made of silky prints from Joann fabrics; they hang quite nicely.  The key to the size is making the square either your hip measurement or high bust measurement, whichever is greater. However, a 38 inch square makes a nice cover up for most sizes.  If you use the pattern for a blouse, you have to shorten it appropriately.

After you make the first one, it takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.  On the first one, it is truly puzzling to figure out how to make this serged blouse.  I actually do a rolled hem on the armholes, neckline and hemline.  The pink one is made from a soft cotton and instead of using a rolled hem stitch, I just serged around the openings. What I have learned is that I need alot more practice serging curves and probably need to take a serger class.