Pettiskirt

I made this skirt for my princess' 3rd birthday last year.  I used the instructions from Make It-Love It as my guide.  The instructions say that the skirt is a size 3T/4T, but I would say it would fit a child up to 6 or even 7 easily.  The yoke was just way too wide at 40 inches, and when I make another one, I'll size the yoke down for a better fit.

The pettiskirt involved a lot of ruffling of fabric (2 30-yard ruffles!).  Fortunately the instructions tell you how to ruffle using your sewing machine by setting the stitch length to the longest length and upping the tension to the highest number.  It worked like a charm!
I bought my nylon chiffon (non-fraying) in rolls from AFC-Express, just like the instructions recommended.  Their prices are quite reasonable, and they offer the nylon chiffon on rolls so that you don't have to cut and piece together yards of rectangles.  That is definitely the way to go!
I differed from the pattern in that I didn't use interfacing to stabilize the satin yoke seams.  I serged them instead.  I also discovered that for me it was easier not to pin the chiffon tiers together before sewing because the pinning ended up taking way too long and was off anyway by the time I sewed it together.
I've got plans to make different styles of pettiskirts to see how they turn out.  If all goes well, I may just start selling some e-patterns of my designs.  I have some non-pettiskirt skirts I've made for my daughter that I think will make great patterns, too.  Stay tuned.

Tulle Skirt

I made this skirt for a friend's daughter's 10th birthday.  I made the standard pettiskirt yoke with 2 layers of ruffled tulle attached to the outer yoke and a lining attached to the inner yoke.  I didn't make the lining as full as the tulle overskirt but I think it turned out okay anyway.

Embroidered Blanket

Here is an easy to make embroidered baby blanket I made as a gift for a friend's baby.  I used white fleece and pink striped flannel from my stash each cut to 32 inches by 32 inches.  I embroidered a butterfly design that I had on one of my Janome embroidery CDs onto the fleece.  Then I sewed the fabrics right sides together leaving a 4" opening for turning right side out.  After turning I hand-stitched the opening closed and topstitched all the way around the edge of the blanket.

This was also economical for me because I used fabric from my stash!