Today was the first day of Little Stitchers summer camp at Intown Quilters and I couldn’t be happier.

This is the first time I’ve offered a camp for kids younger than 11. All my other camps (and the camps done by another teacher) are aimed at older kids. Inevitably, we get calls about things younger kids can do and have to turn them away.

After the fun we had with Miss L’s birthday party, I started brainstorming a camp for younger kids. All the projects involve hand sewing and each project builds on the skills from the previous projects.

Obviously I had to sign up Miss L, who has been disappointed that she’s not old enough for my other camps. She and two other students arrived bright and early this morning for the first three-hour camp day.

And they loved it.

Miss L is showing off the nametag she stitched up this morning. (Isn’t that fabric so cool? It’s by Timeless Treasures and has some great school coordinates.)

It was awesome to watch the girls work, contentedly sewing and then grinning broadly as they finished.

I have the best job EVER.

When I was in Houston last week, the delightful Jessica Levitt razzed me about not finishing up my DragonCon costume posts. Sigh. She’s right; I’ve been really slack in the blogging department for a while now. But I’m reforming my lazy ways and catching up with something that happened on Labor Day seems like as good a place as any to start.

This costume sort of came together at the last minute, in that I had a vague idea that I wanted something Steampunk with a corset but no clear plan for it. The boots were a given (my fabulous Fluevog  Babycakes that I got for a steal at Squash Blossom in Decatur) but the rest of it just sort of fell into place.

And yet I love it so!

I do need to give a major shoutout to the amazingly talented and sweet Ana Aesthetic, cosplayer and costumer extraordinaire. I met her at DragonCon in 2010 and am so happy to call her my friend. In addition to introducing me to some of the better dining spots in the area, she also looked at corset muslin #8 and steered me in the right direction on the fit issues I was having. Thanks to her help, I actually pulled off a wearable corset.

I used the Laughing Moon Silverado and think I may add the hip gores next time to make it fit just a wee bit better over my badonkadonk. LOL! The fabric is by Quilt Gate and such an amazing  Asian stripe. I do wish I’d cut out both sides independently, rather than with the fabric doubled over, just so I could have spread out the stripes a bit more evenly. Still, I had so many people comment on the corset and that just made my day.

The tiny top hat is a pattern from the Quilted Fish. I like it but I will probably make a full size top hat to wear in the future. My hair does not do well with combs, clips and barrettes, so I spent all day trying to keep the hat from migrating even further down my head. It does look super cool, though.

I made just a basic, elastic waist skirt from a purple stretch sateen and dressed it up with some embroidery from Urban Threads. Underneath is a simple petticoat that I whipped up with some lining fabric and layers of gathered tulle. It’s kind of a hodge podge of tulle (I was working my way through my former tutu supplies) but it gets the job done.

I need to add some Steampunk gear to really make the costume work but it’s definitely a great start. And insanely comfortable, in spite of all the steel boning.

If ever there was a question about my geeky-ness, it’s answered with one word: Dragoncon.

Yes, I am exactly that geeky. Not only am I enough of a geek to hang out with other sci-fi/fantasy/comic geeks for four days but I dress up. And now I’m also dressing up my offspring.

Less than two weeks before DC, I found out I was going to be on a panel about making costumes for kids. I was excited and a little nervous, as you might imagine. While I’ve sewn costumes for them, I wouldn’t describe many of them as “quick and easy,” which was the description of the panel.

Around that time, Miss L told us she wanted to attend DC with us instead of spending the weekend with her grandparents. And so an idea was hatched. I had already convinced my oldest and his girlfriend to dress as Dr. Who and Amy Pond for the con. Why not have L dress as a Dalek? She would coordinate with the young adults and I could have her model for my panel. Brilliant!

The skirt is a modified (read: wider) version of the No-Hem Skirt from my book. I used Heat n Bond to fuse 3″ felt circles to the skirt and slipped featherlight boning into the hem band to give it shape.

The headband is covered in the same fabric as the skirt and sealed with Mod Podge. I used battery-operated tea lights and clear plastic shot glasses for the lights, attached to the headband with elastic straps.

All told, I think I spent less than $20 on the whole costume. The felt circles were the most time consuming part but I still managed to pull it together in a couple of hours.

The payoff was definitely in the attention she got at the con. Passersby started complimenting her in the parking lot and the comments didn’t stop until we got back in the car at the end of the day. The three took off for about 90 minutes to hit the photo spots and I’m told they were quite a hit. They’re already talking about next year!

Boy, am I glad they can both sew. Mama’s got her own costumes to sew, you know.

I have been wanting to make the Bird-Watcher Messenger Bag from Cassie Barden’s The New Handmade since I got the book at Market in October 2008. I’ve made so many things from the book but couldn’t settle on the fabrics I wanted to use, so I kept putting it off.

My sweet friend Phoebe had one she made at Market in Pittsburgh and I loudly proclaimed my love for it. But I still couldn’t decide on some fabric.

Lucky for me that Sarah wanted a sample for the shop. I talked her into picking out fabrics she liked, hence the really rocking combination of Echino for Kokka, Terri Mangat’s The Bees Knees and some cool Aboriginal prints. All of which you see when you raise the flap:

It’s so incredibly fun! Instead of using a fabric strap, I used some of the cool Echino/Kokka canvas strapping. Other than that, the only thing I would do differently is interfacing the bag and lining. Because the bird fabric is a cotton/linen blend and thus a little heavier than quilting cotton, I skipped the interfacing. The bag’s a little floppier than I would like but Sarah likes it just fine, so obviously it’s a matter of personal choice.

Now if I can just decide on some fabric, I might actually be able to make one for me.

I have been in shop sample overload lately as we prepare for the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop. Between the sewing and actually working at the shop a couple of days a week, I’ve been pretty occupied. Happy and tired but busy.

This quilt was not actually intended to be used as a shop sample. I fell in love with Pillow & Maxfield’s Gypsy Bandana when the Michael Miller rep brought it in. Could hardly wait to get my hands on it, in fact. And then the Gypsy Bandana booth at Market just about sent me into palpitations.

I knew I wanted to do something with the panel fabric and tried to go through my patterns and books to find a suitable pattern. Debby Kratovil’s Supersize ‘Em had just the pattern: Modern Grace. The only problem was that the center panel in the pattern was smaller, so it meant scaling up.

Oh, and scaling up while doing an on-point pattern for the first time.

Other than chopping off three of the four points (yep, four tries to get it right), I think it looks pretty darned cool. And Sarah* liked it enough to hang it as a shop sample AND kit it, although I had to figure out the changed fabric requirements and write up the new instructions about six weeks after I made it. That was fun.

It sure is pretty, though.

*She also did the binding, which is why it looks so awesome. My bindings? Not nearly as pretty. Or even.