2 Blue Beans

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

2010-08-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

This nutty face is SO HER.

Today my baby turns 5. It's hard to believe that she's so big, although she acts so much older a lot of the time that sometimes we forget that she's not the same age as her sister. She's such a smart girl who is also a total nut. She's very funny - and a complete ham; if something makes you laugh, you'll definitely hear it again. She loves to tell jokes, although she doesn't actually understand punch lines yet. ("Knock, knock. Who's there? Otter. Otter who? Water! Like otter, water!") She loves to read - chapter books, picture books, signs in front of her, anything in front of her face, really. She thinks anything she writes should be spelled correctly, but she rarely puts spaces between the words. She is extremely precise (and expects you to be precise, too). She loves to dance, listen to music, draw, play pretend. She spent the afternoon being a horse riding detective super spy (a change from yesterday's princess detective super spy), and she told me an elaborate story about her laser that could freeze the bad guys. She loves to travel, but when we're home, she'd just as soon stay in the house and play. She wants to go to Rome, New York and Paris. (Apparently Rome "is pretty". I believe the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower are the reasons for the other two.) She plans to be a world traveling horse trainer when she grows up. (Although she is pretty much terrified of most animals.) She's either silent or really loud when she talks, with not much middle ground. She's sweet and kind, and I love her to pieces. Happy birthday, baby!

Pajamas

2010-08-12T16:32:00.001-07:00

For some reason, my kids are convinced that you can only wear pajamas once before they need to be washed. I think it's a remnant of A's toddlerhood, when she would eat breakfast in her pajamas, and they therefore were immediately disgusting. At any rate, we have to have lots of jammies around here. I'm a big fan of Carter's super soft cotton jammies (although A is about to be too big for the sizes they make, sadly). M has recently outgrown most of her sets, so I went digging in the hand me down box. Rather inexplicably, there was only one pair of PJs in the next size up. So what does someone with a lot of fabric decide? I should make jammies, of course!

I actually ended up being totally lazy, though. I was at Target right after making this decision, and I discovered they had tanks and a couple of t-shirts on clearance for under 1.75. Clearly I can't make t-shirts for that price (well, if you discount the fact that I already own a fair bit of knit). So I picked up a couple of tops for M and one for A, and then I just had to make shorts. I also decorated the t-shirt (it was plain and boring). I hit my beloved Burda shorts pattern and voila, three sets of pj's:

Eventually I'm going to have to buy or make more, but these will do until it gets cold. And at the present rate, that doesn't seem likely for a long time!

So far both girls are enjoying school. M can't wait to be the "special helper" in class, and A is busily collecting "cents" (by being good) to earn the privilege of reading a story to M's class. As always, the bus is the most frustrating part of the experience, but hopefully that'll get better after this week.

Sniff, sniff

2010-08-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

My babies are both off to school. I can hardly believe that my little tiny babies (well, okay, kind of big, fat babies) are both in elementary school! Here they are in their new outfits:

They were pretty excited, so hopefully the day will be excellent!

School outfit

2010-08-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

M's wearing her polka dots for the first day of school, but A wanted a dress. (Also, I figured they didn't really need to match on the first day of school.) She picked out some ballerina fabric that came from my haul from Iestyn's trip to Japan. After some pondering, I decided to go with the Frida pattern from Modkids, and I found some pretty pink that would match with the ballerinas.

Of course, being me, I couldn't possibly follow the pattern precisely... Actually, I really couldn't, because the sizes only go up to 6-7, and A is more of a 7-8. So I had to enlarge the bodice a bit. And I didn't really like the sleeves - the sticking out bit is cute and all, but it was way too much. Oh, and it's supposed to have ties on the side, but then quite a lot of the side is just open, and that's not very appropriate for school. So, there were changes. And seam ripping (and mild cursing) and then more changes. But in the end, it's pretty cute:

Action shots will have to wait until Monday, when school starts. (Yes, Monday. August 9. It's absurdly early this year. It's hard for me to believe that summer's essentially over, even though it's still 90+ degrees outside.) I'm really happy with the way the dress turned out, although I'm not entirely certain I could replicate it. And I need to make a pair of comfy black shorts to go underneath, but that won't take long. (I'm procrastinating because I don't want to change the serger thread...)
I thought M wanted a skirt from the rest of the ballerinas, but now she tells me she wants a "kid purse", whatever that might be. So we'll see. At any rate, I should have more sewing time once the kids go to school, so there may be a big increase in posts here!

Disney

2010-07-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

We went on our Disney vacation a couple of weeks ago, and it was awesome. We had such a great time! I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the girls in their Disney outfits:

The Goofy shirts for breakfast:
We had so much fun with Donald that morning! He was hilarious. :) And Goofy was quite pleased to see the himself on their shirts. (I also whipped up a quick Minnie shirt for myself, so the girls had fun pointing that out to Minnie.)

They decided to wear their princess dresses to the Magic Kingdom the first day. (A: "Can I wear my princess dress when we meet the princesses?") Here they are with Mary Poppins and Bert, who were super nice:

The bad part was that it was really super hot, so the dresses were probably a bit much. They wore less the rest of the week! Despite the heat we all had a wonderful time.

And now (amazingly) school is going to start very soon. Of course I have to make first day of school outfits, especially for M, who's starting kindergarten this year. I had ordered some dots from the new Michael Miller knits line to make the girls Minnie outfits, but it didn't end up making it to me in time for the trip. However, I had an idea for an outfit that M liked, so this is what she'll wear for the first day of school:

She's very into ruffles at the moment, so I made up a ruffle skort pattern for her, and then I made her a matching shirt with carousel horse. (They were totally obsessed with carousels on our trip. I'm not even sure how many times we rode the one at Disney!) I finally figured out how to use my serger to do a rolled hem for the ruffles, so I went ahead and lettuce edged the shirt edges. I think I need to work on my skillz a little more with that, but you can't really tell unless you're looking at the inside. I also think I should have made the t-shirt a wee bit shorter, but oh well. I'm not re-doing the lettuce edge now!

A hasn't picked out fabric for her outfit yet. I do have plans for a less ruffly dotty skirt for her (she's not a ruffle girl), but I don't think that's what she wants for the first day. She better pick soon, though - we don't have much time left!

Cinderella, Cinderella

2010-07-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

This summer, M has taken to wearing her princess dress ups a fair bit. So she dressed up for the Renaissance Festival (which was adorable), and while we were there, she got ice cream all over the dress, which is of course satiny (and originally a Halloween costume), so a little hard to wash. Then she wore a different dress up somewhere else, and in the process, I had an inspiration. I thought the girls needed everyday princess dresses. Dresses they could just wear as clothing, made of soft fabrics and easily washed. So, after conversations with the girls and a couple of trips to the fabric store (with and without them), I had a plan....

I must admit, I got a bit carried away with the trims, so I'm not at all certain how easily washable these dresses are, but they're pretty!

I shirred the back of M's dress so she could easily get it off and on:
Today is the trial run of how comfy they are, but it seems that they're fine. Yay for comfy (yet beautiful ;) ) dresses!

I also made myself a not at all princess-y dress recently, which is super comfy, but I have no pictures of that at the moment. I had the same problem I always have in making the bodice (I really do need to learn how to change the pattern, rather than the dress, since it takes *forever*), but for once the actual dress turned out really well, and I think I'll get a lot of wear from it.

So all in all, I'm a bit less frustrated with my sewing at the moment. :)

Grrrr...

2010-06-24T08:32:00.001-07:00

So, I was all excited about the shirring, right until the moment that I tried it on M, and realized I had cut off too much fabric before starting to shir it. It will go on her, but it's clearly much too tight. Then I was frustrated, and I really haven't been in a sewing mood lately. Plus it's much harder for me to do much in the summertime, with the girls both home all the time.

But the girls have been needing sun hats, and I finally got interested in making some. Last year I more or less made up the patterns that I used, but I decided it would be easier to use a pattern that I already had. Got all the pieces cut out and interfaced, which actually took quite a while. Today I started sewing the first one together, which was a huge pain, actually. (And all I did was attach the top to the crown! But it was super annoying to put together.) So, I took that piece after it was all sewn together, and apparently my children have big heads or something, because it doesn't remotely fit. It should be the right size, but apparently it's not. ARGH!!! So now I have all these hat pieces cut out, and I can't use them. I'm super annoyed right now!!

Woo-hoo!

2010-06-13T08:28:00.001-07:00

I don't normally post work in progress pictures, but I'm very excited about this. Look what I finally figured out:
Shirring!

I tried it a couple of times last summer, or maybe even the summer before, but I never could get it to work correctly. I have no idea what I was doing wrong, but the fabric just wouldn't gather. But M loves the shirred sundresses, and the pre done fabric is super expensive, so I decided to give it another try. I read a bunch of tutorials, and this time it worked! Of course, the first attempts were so long ago now that I don't actually know what I did differently. Oh well, I'm just glad I don't have to pay $17.99 a yard! (Well, minus 40%. I refuse to pay full price for it.) Plus I have so much cute fabric already - this gives me another way to use some of it!

Under the Sea

2010-06-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

A's birthday party theme this year was "Under the Sea". As it turned out, the theme was only VERY loosely followed - usually I make a thematic cake, but this year she wanted the kids to decorate their own cupcakes. So the decorations were about it, really. However, I did have to make the girls their own under the sea dresses (which I figured could do double-duty as Seaworld outfits this summer). I had found a cute, comfy knit dress pattern in one of my Burda magazines a while back, but I hadn't been able to decide what fabric to use with it. Eventually, I came up with a plan: use one color for the dress, another for the ruffles and ribbing, and to do a sea related applique. It turned out a lot more 80s than I'd really planned - good thing that's kind of in style at the moment! ;)

I ended up going with the girls favorite colors - blue for A and yellow for M, and I just did them opposing so that they could coordinate. My original plan was actually slightly different colors (and maybe would've been a wee bit less 80s, although I think the ribbing is the problem! Next time I'll just be using the coverstitch machine, I think....) However, there was some confusion about the price of the knits at Hancocks, which was maybe just as well, since I ended up with the girls' favorites.

I'm pleased with the appliques - these were more complicated than anything I've done before, and they worked out pretty well:

An orca for M, who loves whales:
And a dolphin for A - her favorite sea animal:

I'm all into the idea of applique at the moment - I wouldn't be surprised if more shows up on these pages, lol!

Oh, and I showed the girls their Goofy outfits from a few posts back, and the very first thing A said was "Those look like jammies." And darn it if she isn't right! Now I can't even look at them without thinking that! So... I had the girls use the shorts for under these dresses, as they're the same blue, and I'll be finding something else to wear on the bottom of the Goofy outfit. The tops are just t-shirts, so I figure that's fine - it's really the combination with the shorts that looks so much like pajamas. I thought it was pretty funny, though - my first reaction was more or less"Hmmph!", and then I thought gosh, she's so right. Hee-hee.

Anyway, it was good day - everyone had fun at the party, and the girls like their dresses. And now I'm off to collapse! :)

Seven!

2010-06-10T18:10:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure I say this every year, but when did this baby:
turn into this great big SEVEN year old girl:

Today, that's when! Happy Birthday to my sweet girl! My first baby - she loves frogs and the color blue; swims like a fish; constantly fills up paper with her imaginative drawing and writing; is sweet to her sister (but definitely thinks she's in charge!); likes to wear dresses while she's climbing trees, riding bikes and splashing in puddles; is quite an athlete, but can spend hours on complicated (often inexplicable) imaginary play with M; and is sweet, loving, funny, and the best big girl I can imagine having. I love you, baby!

Hiya, Mickey!

2010-06-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

The girls were on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse kick a while back, and apparently in the course of this, they decided Goofy was their favorite character. So, while we're in Orlando, we're going to have breakfast with Goofy. (And I think Donald and Minnie, too, but Goofy's the one I'm sure will be there.) Anyway, I figured they needed Goofy outfits, so I made these:

The shorts are a Burda pattern I picked up a while ago. I like the pockets, but they ride really low - I think I'm going to have to adjust the rise a bit. Plus I broke two needles making them - one on each pair - so that's definitely not a plus for this pattern! My girls love pockets, though, so we'll see. They were quite easy to sew up, at least, aside from the needle breakage.

Then I made matching shirts and used freezer paper stencils for Goofy:
For some reason I'm a little surprised he actually worked - I really don't know why. Maybe because it was rather complicated to cut out. Anyway, they'll be all set for breakfast now. :)

You can fly, you can fly, you can fly....

2010-06-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here are the girls in their Tinkerbell shirts and matching shorts:

The presmocked fabric is totally cheating, but they're awfully cute! And M loves this kind of smocked top - she wears the one we bought in Hawaii all the time.

Hawaiian Shirt

2010-05-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

(This is the project I was excited about in my last post...)

So, when we were in Hawaii, of course I had to indulge in my fabric addiction and visit a fabric store. Iestyn went along, and while we were there, he actually picked out some fabric for himself(!) He asked me to make him a Hawaiian shirt out of this very busy fabric:
Naturally I said yes, although I hadn't ever actually made that sort of shirt before. I found Simplicity 5581, which had pretty good reviews on patternreview.com and gave it a whirl. I've actually had it cut out for quite a while - I just hadn't gotten to the sewing together part. (I tend to go on periodic cutting sprees, and it takes a while to get it all sewn together.) I'm really happy with how it turned out:
and so is he. :) However, I have to say that I don't think I could have followed these directions if I hadn't already sewn collars and sleeves. The collar instructions were just confusing. (Although to be honest, most of the collar instructions I've ever seen have been fairly confusing. But the ones in my Vogue jacket are clearer than these.) And then they actually had you do the sleeves flat, rather than as a regular set in sleeve. While I think this is probably simpler than the other method, they didn't actually give any instructions on how to ease the fabric together. If I hadn't done it before, I think my sleeves would have been a puckery mess! I do think the pattern pieces were pretty good, and it's a nice fit, so I'd use the pattern again myself, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it to a garment sewing newbie!

Oh, and I also finally put together a tank top for myself that I cut out ages ago. I found this beautiful knit well over a year ago at Gail K Fabrics, but I'd never been able to figure out how to use it. It's lovely, but it's also completely see through, and I never could find any equally soft lining fabric. I finally gave up and got some not especially soft/nice knit lining so that I could at least use it! I modified a New Look tank pattern (a lot. Clearly not the tank top pattern for me.)
I'm not completely in love with how it turned out - I think I messed up the straps a bit because I was having to pin it on myself - but it's certainly wearable. And I finally used my lovely knit!

I've also just about finished a couple of fast outfits for the girls. I found some super cute pre-smocked Tinkerbell fabric at Joann's, so I made them tunic tops from that and some of my favorite Burda bike shorts to match. (I love that pattern. SO EASY. I don't follow their instructions for assembly, but I swear they only take like 10-15 minutes to put together. And as a bonus, they're A's favorite style of shorts.)

I think this means that I'm about ready for a new cutting spree - I only have one project currently cut out! It's a dress for me, which means lots of fiddling with the bodice, so I'm kind of procrastinating on it at the moment. As always I have lots of patterns I want to try, though, so I just have to decide which ones I want to try next!

Little boxy bag

2010-05-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

I remembered to take a picture of the last little boxy bag:

Cute, no? I really do think they're adorable, but definitely a pain to make. Next time I want to make a number of gifts, I need to make a sample *before* I cut all of them out....

I've also just about finished another project that I'm quite pleased about. Pictures coming soon....

No more teachers, no more books...

2010-05-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

We're in the end of the year busy-ness at the moment, so what sewing time I've had lately has mostly been teacher gifts. I decided I'd make lined boxy pouches for the 4 main teachers (M has 3, and A has 1.) Unfortunately, I gave M's teachers their gifts this morning without even thinking to take any pictures, and I haven't actually finished A's yet. Possibly there will be a picture of that one! They're very cute, but I have to say, they're a real pain in the butt. I love the way they look, but I'm not at all certain I'll be making more once I've finished these. I think they'd be easier if they weren't lined, but I hate exposed seams. (Although I do think I might make a couple of unlined ones for the girls - we've just started giving them allowances, and they don't really have anywhere good to put their money at the moment.)

I do have a picture of the bookmarks that I made for the preschool art/music teachers:
Super cute and easy-peasy - I'll definitely be making more of these. Plus they're a great way to use up scraps. A bookmark and a Barnes and Noble gift card, and I've got a great teacher gift!

Spring Purse

2010-05-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

Actually, I suppose I can't really say spring - in Atlanta we're headed right towards summer! But at any rate, I was ready for a new bag - much as I like my old purse, Andalucia Mod Dots in Fire are NOT summery. Plus, possibly even more important, my Kindle doesn't fit inside my old bag. Summer means a lot of time spent hanging out at playgrounds and the pool while the kids play, and I need entertainment if no one's around to talk to! I made my sister a wristlet for Mother's Day from some of my Par Avion in Ocean and remembered just how much I like that fabric, so I decided it was the way to go for my purse.

Random aside: I often buy my fabric from a co-op, so I pick up things that are pretty, and then they sit in my stash until I think of a good use for them. So sometimes they sit for quite a while. Or, you know, sink to the bottom of the stash. It's kind of a fun bonus when I rediscover something beautiful. I think that might mean I have WAY more fabric than I need (or, um, could use up!), but hey. Fabric makes me happy!

Anyway, I knew I wanted a messenger/cross body style to tote around my stuff. I have a standard pattern for those that I made up years ago, so I altered that to the size I wanted and sewed it up. Only to find that the strap was all wrong, and I couldn't actually quite close the magnetic clasp with the kindle inside. Eek!

So, I ended up having to take the entire thing apart. Grr! The strap was easy enough - it needed to be a bit narrower and a bit longer. I decided the only way to fix the snap thing was to make a new flap, and then (since it was all apart anyway) I added a couple more pockets to the inside. (I'd put in one small slip pocket for my phone, but I realized the bag was big enough that I needed something for my keys as well. Then while I was at it, I added a pocket for my sunglasses and chapstick.) OH, and then I ran out of the thread I was using! But I found a piece of ribbon that I rather liked on the flap, and I had thread that matched that, so I ended up redoing the topstitching on the strap with a new thread color. The whole process was a major pain in the neck - I actually took apart probably 3/4 of the seams, along with all the new topstitching - but I'm quite pleased with the end result:

It fits what it needs to fit, the pockets are perfect for organizing my stuff, it's comfortable to wear, and best of all, the fabric makes me happy. :) I do think the ribbon could use a bit more decoration - a flower or pretty button - but I'm working on that.

I also recently made myself a new hat. I like to carry a bucket hat around in my purse in case I need it, and I'm a little bored of my old one. Also, I love hats, so it's nice to have a variety. (Please ignore my expression - I hate timer pictures!)

I love it! Except that I used twill for the lining rather than quilter's cotton, and it doesn't actually fit very well in my purse. :( I think I'm going to pass it along to someone and make myself another with a lining that *will* fit in my purse. Because I really adore the fabric. I actually have quite a bunch of it. I'm thinking that I might make myself a skirt with it as well, but I haven't quite decided yet. It can go into the never ending project pile!

Edited to add: Here's the flower decoration I came up with:
I used the same ribbon, a button from Hawaii, and a random button. It's just the touch the bag needed!

Mother's Day Musings

2010-05-10T07:18:00.001-07:00

Generally, Iestyn and the girls make something for me for Mother's Day. One year they made a beautiful giant heart that's on the wall in my dining room. This year, A had a whole plan, apparently, and it turned out very cool. It's got something of a StoryPeople vibe, which is perfect for me. (Now what exactly it's supposed to be is a question I can't really answer, but it's cool.) I think I might hang necklaces from it, although it may just be artwork.
There's also a poem on the back, which is sadly pretty much illegible because A wouldn't wait for the sharpie. She knows it by heart, though, so I think I might print it out and attach it to the back. It goes like this:
Roy G Biv
Roy G Biv is an odd name for a fellow
But what its name means is red, orange, yellow
The G stands for green, which as you may know
Comes in the middle of every rainbow.
Next: blue and indigo, more pale than dark
Then V is for violet, and that completes the arc.

I just love how incredibly creative my kids are (even if it means that I can never find printer paper... I finally started buying them their own packages so I'd be able to print!) They're constantly drawing and writing things. A made herself a paper TV at school recently, and then she made paper DS's for herself and her sister. Which they "play" - "Move up. Now right. Now punch!" You can tell we restrict their electronics access, lol. I felt bad that they didn't have a DS for about three seconds, and then I realized that I much preferred their ability to entertain themselves with a piece of paper!

Then there's this card that M made me, which totally cracks me up. One side is decorated with hearts and flowers, and this is the other side:
"Yes M
Dear Mommy
Your the best mom! I'm sorry I didn't come when you called. I could not tell you the thing"

What thing couldn't she tell me? I have absolutely no idea, lol. She tends to say that what they did at school is a secret, so maybe that's it, but really, I'm not sure.

Anyway, it was a lovely Mother's Day - I had a soccer game, then after I had brunch with Iestyn and the girls, I went over to my mom's for some fun crafty time. And in the evening we had a lovely picnic with my family, my mom, and my sister and her family. I finally got pictures of the owl dresses - sort of. M was in nutjob mode, so she was running away from the camera. Notice A dutifully smiling, and M running:
Then A tried to restrain her sister for me:
I love these girls so much!

M.I.C.K.E.Y.

2010-05-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

M.O.U.S.E.

We're going to Disney World this summer, and I've been busily planning some cute outfits for the girls. I got a wee bit carried away and bought some Mickey Mouse fabric from Hobby Lobby, and it turns out that I really didn't need it. So I decided to make the girls some Mickey jammies:
I tried to get a better picture, but honestly they were total nutjobs by this point in the evening, so I gave up after a while. I should have made the shirts a little longer, but oh well. (I just extended the pattern from the top of a dress, and I didn't add quite enough length.) The girls like them, anyway, and I used up some of my fabric!

Actually, I've been busily sewing this past week. Soccer's FINALLY over for the girls, thankfully, so I'm a little less tired. I also made them each a round neck dress using Robert Kaufman On a Whim owls in aqua. The girls claim that the dresses are "beautiful", but I don't think M has even tried hers on yet. Harumph. :) I also made some shorts to match - Burda 9615, which is a great pattern. The shorts are very reminiscent of the Hanna Andersson bike shorts, and I used a super soft knit from Gail K's. I'll definitely be making more of these. Plus they were extremely easy to make, which is a definite bonus!

It's getting harder and harder to tell apart the girls' matching clothes, so I'm working on a new system so that I can figure it out. In the new jammies, I used scraps of knit to make tags - A's are blue, and M's are yellow to go with their favorite colors. For the bike shorts I used different buttons, which is probably the system I'll continue with. Plus it helps them identify the front of the shorts. I have to get some more shaped buttons, though - apparently they have to have the same shape. (If I could roll my eyes in print, I'd do it now!)

I also tried to make myself a tank top from a New Look pattern, which was a gigantic fail. The straps got really stretched out when I was trying to sew them together, so that part was my fault, but also the pattern itself apparently didn't fit right. Oh well. I guess I'll be doing some alterations if I try that again!

Dancing Queen

2010-04-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

I have no idea why she wanted to pose all disco :), but here's a view of M's version of the colorblock dress. I'm so pleased! It makes me kind of want one myself....

Soccer

2010-04-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

We're a soccer family in my house. Which is generally fun. However, this spring, I'm coaching both girls in soccer and playing on a team myself. That kind of moves things beyond fun and into the realm of insanity. Last weekend we had 5 games between the three of us. Someone has some kind of soccer 4 days a week. It's a little nuts. Oh, and I'm also training for a sprint triathlon at the end of May. All of this is to say, I've been tired lately, and so there's not been so much crafting going on. Actually, I have been doing things, but I haven't been photographing them. I'm SO looking forward to the first weekend of May, when the girls are done. My season doesn't finish for a while, but it's fine if it's just me! But all the games were canceled this weekend due to rain, so I have a little catch up time!

So, here's a sampling of (some of) my recent craftiness...
I finally finished a skort for myself - I started it before Hawaii, but it required some reworking:
I like it, although the skort part rides up a bit. Considering I pretty much made it up, though, I'm certainly happy with it!

I also made the girls a colorblock dress similar to this Hanna Anderson dress. Mine are much simpler, though. A's was really too big (I should have used a different size on the bodice pattern), but she likes the length, so I just fixed the bodice yesterday. This picture is pre-fixing:
She looked SO sweet in the big mass of azaleas in our front yard... I also just finished a yellow/orange/red version for M today. I love it, but she hasn't had it on yet.

And then, I also made two sets of matching girl/dolly "puffy sleeve" dresses. The girls put theirs on yesterday, then promptly went out into the rain to play, so I have no pictures before they got soaking wet. I did set up a photo shoot with the dollies, though:
So, imagine similar knee-length child versions of these... :)

I have about a million other things planned to make. We'll see how the progress is, though - the triathlon training is taking up a lot of my usual sewing time when M's in school. And once that's done, they'll both be out of school for the summer, so I guess I'll just have to see how it goes. Annoying when life intervenes in the craftiness! ;)

Long arm quilting

2010-03-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the cute dress on vacation:

Hawaii was fantastic. It's taken me a bit to get back into the sewing groove, but I'm finally there. The big project I've been working on (since before Hawaii, actually) is a baby quilt for some friends. I finally got it all pieced, and my friend with the long arm machine offered to let me try it out. So this is my quilted almost final product:

Pieced back (because I didn't realize how much wider the backing needed to be to go onto the machine. I like it, though.):

The long arm machine was SO COOL! It takes quite a while to load, which I didn't realize - the top, batting and backing are all on separate rollers, and it's some work to load it all on - but the actual quilting was really fast. I just stippled it - very meandering, but I'm really pleased with how it came out. And it's way better than doing it on my machine. Not that I've even tried anything but stitching in the ditch on my machine, but I really don't like that at all. Shoving all that fabric around on my machine isn't at all fun for me. This was fun! I even put a little heart (more or less) at the bottom. And the best part is that my friend told me I could use it again if I have more to quilt. I'm definitely doing that! It's much better. I'm thinking next time I'll try spirals or something. I still have to square this up and do the binding (soon, since the new baby girl came this past week), but I'm super happy with it!

And now it's time to start back into the little girl clothing factory. I actually made a dress/matching dolly dress for a birthday present this week, so I'm kind of in the mood. I have a bunch of fabric calling out for spring outfits for my girls - gotta get on that!

By George, I think she's got it!

2010-02-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

I actually managed to make a dress! A cute dress! Which I will wear! Ta-da:

It's a Burda pattern (which I altered. Of course. Why do I feel the need to do that every time??) And it's made from a super cute knit that I got at my beloved Gail K Fabrics. I completed it in time for my trip to Hawaii next week, and I'm quite excited about it! Plus it's super comfy. So yay! I'm inspired to make more dresses, but we'll see... ;)

I also completed another hooded shirt from the Burda WOF pattern from a few weeks ago:
The original version of this picture had a head, with an admittedly slightly goofy smile. However, my six year old started laughing like crazy when she saw it, so I decided it would be better to just show the shirt!

I have a bunch of other projects I'd like to do in the next little while, but we'll see what I get done in the next (busy) week!

Productive

2010-02-21T12:43:00.001-08:00

Well, after my horribly distressing day of sewing on Friday, I decided I needed to stick to more basic projects for a bit. Plus I'm feeling a need to finish up things I've been meaning to do. And I've done a fair bit of that so far this weekend, so I'm feeling a bit better! :)

After my Project Linus experience a while back, I decided that I should do more crafting for charity. I'd also read about the One Million Pillowcase challenge, so I decided to make a stash pillowcase. I cut it out a while ago, using some cute birdies and hearts, but I finally sewed it yesterday. Here it is, neatly folded:
I still had some leftover bad sewing karma, apparently, since I had to use my seam ripper while sewing a pillowcase, of all things, but it seems to be working itself out. (I did French seams, and I messed up on the band the first time around. It could've been worse.) I'm planning to make some more pillowcases; I have plenty of stash fabrics that would be fun. And I found out that Intown Quilters, my favorite local quilt store, is accepting the pillowcases for the challenge, so that's easy enough.

The next quick, easy, lately postponed project was a baby gift. One of M's friends has a brand new baby sister, and I've been meaning to make her something. I've thought of a number of different plans, but in the end I made a simple little taggie toy from some fun Japanese jungle canvas:

I have absolutely no idea why these pictures are sideways, because on my computer, they aren't. Anyway, very simple little circle - maybe 4ish inches diameter - but I like it. Although the next one I make will probably be a square or triangle - I wasn't able to make the circular stitching very neat.

Since Christmas, I've been meaning to applique a little birdie on a t-shirt for myself, and I finally just now got around to it:
I'm a little photographically challenged today, so the colors are off, but I like him. Although wow, I'm about the worst embroiderer in the world - I'm apparently completely unable to make my stitches even! Good thing it's only his legs!

And lastly, I completed the skort I mentioned the other day, and I LOVE it.

Here's a closeup of the flowers.It's pretty much exactly me, and I'm so happy!

I have other projects sitting on my table, but this was pretty good progress for one weekend!

Grrrr...

2010-02-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

I'm so frustrated!!

So, this morning I fixed up the dress I posted a few days ago. All I ended up changing was making it a keyhole sort of neckline. I decided it really didn't look bad, after all. I also finished up a denim skort, which I'm very pleased with. Especially since I totally made up the skort part. It was from a Burda pattern, but I altered it quite a bit. I'll post pictures another time - I'm planning to do some applique on it, and I haven't gotten to that yet.

So all that was good. And then. Then. I had made a shirt from a Burda pattern a week or so ago - I don't think I mentioned it. It was fine, but it turned out to have a very wide boat neck, and that's just not something I'm likely to wear. (Very Flashdance.) So, I spent the day fixing the shirt. I pinned and tucked and basted and stitched, and I got it to a point where the neckline fit well. Looked good, aside from being kind of boring. And I played with ruffles and fabric flowers and all sorts of embellishment ideas. But the neckline in the end was a little high in front, and really needed a facing. So I attached a facing, and I completely destroyed all the work I'd done. The neckline looks awful. I mean, awful. Gaping, and too wide, and just weird looking. ARGH!!!! I'm so frustrated, and I'm not even sure I want to try to fix it. Just grr, grr, grr! I guess it's time to put it away for a few days and work on other things. But BAH!

I have a list...

2010-02-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

a mile long of projects that I want to complete. I'm halfway through two skorts for myself, I have a couple of dresses cut out for the girls, I have a shirt cut out for myself, so what did I do today?

I made potholders. Not, I might add, something on the list. :) But they're pretty cute, all the same:

They took longer than expected - for some reason, I had a lot of trouble with the binding tonight. I don't know what the deal was. (And yes, they are different sizes. Oops. They started out the same. But like I said, the binding and I were having some issues....)

Anyway, I like them, and my old potholders are rather gross, so they were actually quite a useful project to sidetrack myself with. Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow to get back to the projects I shoved over to the side of the table!

On the plus side

2010-02-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

At least I can successfully make things that aren't dresses, lol!

I made another Burda pattern for myself, and I have to say that I'm enjoying making things from the magazine, now that I've finally started. There's always at least one point in the process where I have NO IDEA what they're talking about, so I sometimes have to fudge things a bit, but the end results have been worth it so far.

So this time I made pattern 122 out of the Dec 2009 magazine. It's a corduroy skirt with a cute little flounce in the back, and I really think the end result looks close to ready made. I don't often think that about my creations!

Front view:
Back view: (no, it's not actually crooked - it's just sitting weird. But I'd been trying to get the pictures to work for a while, so I decided crooked was fine. You get the idea, anyway.)
This skirt involved a new skill for me: the front fly zipper. I read instructions, which I thought I understood until I started the process! Then I found this great video from Threads magazine, which I highly recommend. It made the whole process very clear. And it turns out that it's not actually that difficult, despite my fear of the whole thing. I did skip the welt pockets which were supposed to be on the front of the skirt, though. I really didn't understand the instructions, and I didn't feel like figuring them out. I actually like the way it looks without the pockets better anyway.

I was unimpressed with the waistband instructions, but I more or less already knew what to do with that. And the belt carriers made my needle explode (literally - there were at least 3-4 pieces!) because there were so many layers, so I ended up having to turn the wheel of the machine by hand, even with a jeans needle on there. But at least they look nice. ;)

So now I'm thinking I should just give up on dresses for a while and focus on other things... Actually, now I'm all in love with my Burda magazines, so I have a bunch of options available. I have a baby gift to make, too, so we'll see if I do that first or try some more patterns. I'm thinking about trying some shorts. And I definitely want to make a couple of skorts. I've more or less already figured out my plan for that. (Did I post about the failed skort? I guess it's not a total fail, but it's not quite right, either.) Busy, busy... In the brain, whether I'm actually at the machine or not! :)

I really am dress-cursed

2010-02-04T05:54:00.001-08:00

So, I did finish my dress yesterday. It's Burda 7696, and it's quite comfortable. However, it looks a lot better on the model than on me:

It's not terrible, I guess, but it just doesn't look that great. (Interestingly, it looks better in this picture than it did in the mirror.) Obviously, it wouldn't be hurt by some Spanx, but really it's more the neckline that just doesn't work. And the gathering seems like it should be closer to the bust, maybe? I don't know. I'm not loving it. (Except for the feel, which is lovely! It's that same super soft knit as my hooded shirt.) So, I'm going to have to fuss with it and see if I can fix it up somehow. One idea I had is this:

I think it's a little better, but I'm not sure. I need to play around with it. And I might shorten it a touch. I don't know. Any thoughts? Obviously I'm cursed! Although this one went a little better than usual, so I guess that's something...

And at least I can usually manage cuteness for the children:
The skort I mentioned in my last post. A was on her way to school, so I didn't have time to take a picture of hers. That's McCall's 4762, and I've had it forever. I did make the girls skorts from it once before, but these seem to have turned out better. I think I'll probably adapt it for some twirly skirts, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Skorts are just so much more practical for kids who are constantly doing handstands and climbing trees!

Handy

2010-02-03T06:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the sewing skills can be very handy. The other day, M had a birthday party to attend. The plan was to go over to Target that morning and pick out a present. Only when the girls woke up, A was sick. So, since going to Target was out, I whipped up a quick present:
(There's a weird glare, but I was hurrying to take a picture before M's ride took her to the party.) It's a slightly larger version of the puffer fishes that I made the girls last year. I was fairly happy with the way it turned out, especially since I just whipped it up in a couple of hours.

Another recent project was the girls' Valentine's dresses. (They were the next project completed!)
I got the fabric ages ago and I used shirts we already had, so it was also a very cheap project. (M's shirt fits better than it looks in this picture.) And they're happy. :)

Yesterday I spent a bunch of time sewing. I was working on a dress for myself, but halfway through, I discovered I'd cut one of the pieces out wrong (argh!) and I didn't have enough fabric to fix it (double argh!) So I sidetracked to make a couple of denim skorts for the girls. I spent some time the other night cutting out a number of different projects, so it was just a question of sewing them together. With the serger it didn't take long at all. I already had some cute new tight to go with the skirts, so I thought I'd make a quick shirt to match. Pictures to come later. But first I'm going to finish my dress - M and I made a Joann's run to get another piece of fabric for it. (And, of course, fabric for some spring dresses. M is perfectly happy to go to fabric stores with me, but it's very hard to leave without letting her pick out a fabric! She cracks me up!) So that's this morning's project. Well, hopefully - my mom says I'm cursed with dresses, and she's got a point! We shall see - first if I can get it finished, and second if it actually fits right.....

Burda

2010-01-27T09:03:00.001-08:00

For Mother's Day last year, I got a subscription to Burda World of Fashion magazine. And I love getting it, although it seems as though there's an every other month pattern of including patterns I'd actually wear. Or make, I guess. There were a couple of coat patterns that I adored, but the likelihood that I will make myself a nice wool coat is low, mostly because I already have one. Anyway, in all this time, I've never actually made anything out of the magazine, even when I liked things. No real reason why, I guess, other than that tracing the patterns (and figuring out which lines to trace!) seemed like a pain.

But in the last few days, I finally made something! It's from the December 2009 issue, and it's a hooded shirt (pattern 122). I used a super soft jersy-ish knit from Joann's, and this is how it turned out:
(There aren't any weird horizontal lines on the shirt, by the way; the camera was doing something funny.)
Back view, including the hood:
(Oh, I finally figured out how to use the timer on my camera, so these are timer shots. Ignore the goofy smiles.)

I quite like how this turned out - it's comfy and casual and cute. It was kind of a pain to make, though - there were supposed to be bands along the opening in the front. However, I read the instructions for that part literally 15-20 times and couldn't figure out what they were talking about. I finally gave up, folded that bit over, and sewed it together. My plan was just to make a dart there, but I had trouble getting it to lie flat, so I finally stitched a line down the entire front of the shirt. I may re-do that, because there's still a funny little bubble in that area, but it's much better. If I make it again, I'm just going to do a placket there - it would be much easier, and I think it would be more successful.

The sleeves are quite long, but that's mostly because I forgot how much seam allowance I put on there. And I actually kind of like them long with this anyway, so it works for me. I think this will be a great top to take along as a cover-up when we go to Hawaii in March!

And now I'm inspired to try some other patterns from my magazines. :) There's a skirt in the same issue that I think will be next, although it's probably a bad choice, because I think it's probably pretty tricky. So cute, though! Although I should really make the girls' Valentine's Day dresses first - it's coming right up! At least those go together pretty quickly, especially since I got a bunch of the good clear elastic from my co-op. In fact, maybe I'll get to work on those now, since I have a bit of time before M gets out of school....

Blankets

2010-01-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

A while back, I saw a link to the Disney Give a Day, Get a Day program. If you haven't heard of it, Disney has set up something where you can get a free ticket to Disney if you volunteer for a day with various organizations. We've been talking for a while about going to Disney sometime this year, so I figured that it was a good opportunity for us to get a free ticket while doing something good. Win-win. And then I discovered that one of the volunteer groups in our area was a branch of Project Linus, which gives blankets to children who are ill or otherwise in need. Even better!

So, I signed up the eligible members of the family. (M is too young.) I got gray fleece for Iestyn to fringe - it's very plain, but I thought it would be good for a teenage boy. I had some super soft white fleece that A did the fringe on. (I didn't tell her about the Disney thing at all, just that we were making blankets for kids who needed them. And after she did the fringe, she said "I like making things for people who need them. It feels good." Such a sweet girl!) Then I added some appliqued hearts, since I thought the white was a little boring. I like the way it turned out, and it was a really easy way to make a plain blanket a little more fun:

And last (but definitely not least!), I made a quilt. I really love it:

Certainly there are plenty of flaws, but it's fun and colorful, and that's exactly what I was hoping for. I made disappearing nine patch blocks in the rainbow colors plus pink and brown, then I put borders on them and made the rainbow center block with all those colors as well. The backing is a black fabric with rainbow colored music notes, and the binding is a purple dot. I didn't actually do the binding the "proper" way (I machine stitched it), but honestly, the sewing by hand just wasn't going to happen.

Tomorrow I'm going to ship these off to Project Linus, and theoretically we'll end up with Disney tickets. But even if we don't (or never use them), as A said, it feels good to make things for people who need them.

Christmas part 2

2009-12-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

In addition to the huge puppet theater project, I made a few more things for Christmas this year. I made lots more fabric bags for wrapping, although I need to make more, since we totally ran out before we were done wrapping.

I made a bunch of birdie ornaments like this:
They were my version of this pattern from the Purl Bee. I stuffed the body with stuffing, rather than a layer of batting, and it worked way better to use heavy interfacing on the wings and then just sew them together from the outside, rather than trying to turn them. Obviously I made them a little smaller as well. Oh, and I used upholstery thread for my hanger, rather than ribbons. I preferred the look, which I discovered after I forgot to put in the ribbons after the first set! I made a bunch of birds - teacher gifts, stocking stuffers, and gifts for random people I wasn't expecting to give presents to! I especially like the fact that they take such a little bit of fabric, because it's a good use for some of my favorite fabric scraps.

I made everyone lip balm as a stocking stuffer, too, which was a hit. I have enough left over that I'm going to make myself some more sometime, although I may do a higher beeswax concentration so it's a little more like chapstick - the recipe I used was more lip gloss than lip balm.

My last major Christmas project was an outfit for each of the girls, and I'm quite thrilled with them. Although they make A in particular look really big! I think it's the jeans.
I had the shirt with hood pattern from Burda, appliquéd a flower on the shirt, then added them to jeans as well. (Which was actually rather a pain - I ironed them on, but then I did hand stitching to secure it, because the location on the jeans made using my machine impossible, and boy, am I BAD at making nice, neat, even hand stitches! It's a good thing no one will be looking too closely at that stitching, lol!) But they look awfully cute. And A has already requested more of the shirts (not a surprise, really; she loves those shirts with hoods.)

Our Christmas itself was very nice - busy, but it's always good to see everyone. And now that the Christmas crafting is done for this year, I can make myself something - I have a few projects in mind, but I may take a short break first! I hope everyone has a happy holiday season!

I finished! Christmas part 1

2009-12-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

Happily, I finished everything in time for Christmas. :)

A while back, I posted about some finger puppets that I made. After I finished them, I was inspired to make my big Christmas project for this year - a puppet theater and puppets for my kids:

I used (more or less) this pattern from Don't Look Now, and I really liked it. I made a few changes - no backdrop fabric, only one clown, and I renamed it to a + m theater, which took some creative lettering. Christmas Eve night we almost had a total disaster, because it turned out that we had the wrong dowels, but thankfully Iestyn had things in the garage we could use to make do. Anyway, I love the way it turned out (which is good, since it was hours and hours of work!), and the kids seem to like it pretty well. It's a little hard to tell, since they have so very many new presents to play with right now! But I'm sure it'll get use over time.

I took the ideas from the original puppets and made many more, as well as a bag for storage:
(The little birdies from the theater are so stinking cute, I'm going to have to use them on something else!)

The gingerbread man and the fox:
The Little Red Hen and her "friends":
An unpictured polar bear and monkey, and then my personal favorites, Tacky the Penguin, and his companions, Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly and Perfect:
If you've never read Tacky, you really should. He's hilarious. And my kids like to play Tacky anyway ("What's Happening?"), so I figured they'd have fun with the puppets.

I also made a few more doggies for my nieces and nephew, but I took no pictures of those.

Crazy Christmas Craft

2009-12-11T07:54:00.000-08:00

Normally every year I create something known as the Crazy Christmas Craft - some crafty goodness that I make for just about everyone that I know, and often something that takes up quite a lot of time. Like the hand-made, stenciled t-shirts last year. Or the polymer clay animal ornaments. There have been many. This year, I'm apparently not doing that. I've made crafts for people (and have more to make!), but there is less of an overarching theme. Or at least a little less stress. Although actually, I don't really find them stressful normally - sometimes a little nuts, but not stressful.

However, I *am* making my kids something that I suspect will end up in the Crazy Craft realm, because it's taking a lot of time. Not bad time, but LOTS of it. Here's a little sneaky peek - it involves this guy:

(who will have a face at some point). And I'm super excited about it!

I heart my husband

2009-11-15T16:47:00.001-08:00

Iestyn spent last week in Japan on business. Before he left, we were talking about how I'd like to go shopping in Japan because they have such great crafts and fabric. And he is such a sweet man that he offered to buy me fabric while he was there!

So I found him a branch of Yuzawaya to visit near his hotel, and some, well, honestly, totally vague guidance about what sorts of fabric I like, and he went and got me this fun haul:
2 yards of the yellow one, which is frogs (adorable, and A loves it already), 4 yards of the pink with daisies, and a yard of the other three - ballerinas, dinosaurs, and some Kokka Trefle fabric(!) - look how cute:
He has a pretty good eye for things I'd like, especially for someone who's a little afraid of the fabric store, lol!

Plus he got a sample package of a bunch of different quilting fabrics - like a selection of fat quarter blenders, except they're not fat quarters. Maybe fat 1/8ths? Anyway, there are a bunch of different things in there. And he also got this great kit:
Stuffed chickens! Hee-hee.

I haven't had time to make the chickens yet, but I did use some of my new fabric this afternoon to make this needlecase for all the hand-sewing I've been doing lately:
(The button looks better in person, although I may ultimately decide to switch it for another one.)

The inside has felt for the needles, and two pockets - one for my embroidery scissors, and one for whatever else I need:
I basically read the Tiny Happy housewife tutorial and then made my own version. I totally love it. Now I need to get back to my lengthy list of things to make for the holidays, I suppose, but I'm glad to have a fun pincushion (see next post) and needlecase to use for all those projects. And I already have plans for quite a lot of the fabric Iestyn got me. :)

Gosh, I'm whiny lately....

2009-11-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

I have yet another project that I thought was a big pain, even if it turned out really cute. I made the Portobello Pixie cupcake pincushion pattern, and it took me about four tries before I had one that I'll be able to actually use. First I made the "high calorie" version. It actually went together fairly easily, and I really liked my fabrics, but the thing was HUGE. I think the top - just the top - was 6-7 inches across. Much too big for the space I have available for a pincushion! (I couldn't really get a grasp of the size from the pictures, but it' svery big.) So, then I thought I'd just make the smaller one. And that one is much harder to put together. Plus I made my life difficult by deciding to do two colors for the "wrapper" part (why do I do these things to myself??). Only then I realized it needed an additional ruffle to tie the colors together, and then I realized with an additional ruffle, the bottom was just too small. So, I took it apart, made the bottom wrapper part a half inch taller, and sewed it all together again. But because of the way I'd done it, I had to attach the wrapper to the top by hand. It took forever. I feel like there was another version in there, too, but maybe not. Anyway, I *do* really like the final result, but it wasn't the easiest project I've ever done:

But hey, at least I have a cute pincushion now!

This is cute, too, but....

2009-11-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a pain to make!

Sew Mama Sew had a month of tutorials for using your scraps, and I came across this tutorial for a fabric colors book for babies, and I thought it was adorable. I have a niece with an upcoming birthday, so I thought it would be a good project to make for her. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Now, I'd like to point out that my problems weren't actually the fault of the tutorial. It would have been easier if I'd followed the tutorial a little closer. In that version, you do the iron on transfers onto a piece of white fabric, and that's one of the squares used. *I* thought it would be cooler to have 4 colored squares, and so I ended up appliquéing the color names to the middle. That was a huge pain. I also didn't square up my blocks well enough, which was just laziness. Oh, and the cover page looked awful at first - something went very wrong with the appliqué, and it was completely crooked. So I had to salvage that without starting over (also laziness). And I added a layer of batting to each page so they would be a little thicker, which was actually fine, but did add a step and some thickness.

Anyway, here's a terrible picture of the cover (and one of my favorite of the inside pages):

Sorry about the picture quality - I never get good pictures at night, but I wanted to go ahead and get the post up. (The jacket post is still coming. The only picture I have is really unflattering, so I'm going to be vain and wait until I can get a better one!)

So I do quite like my final product, but it was a lot of work. And I caused myself problems. I hate that. Oh, well, hopefully the recipient will enjoy it! :)

So cute!!

2009-11-05T09:24:00.000-08:00

A while back I found a link to these fairy tale finger puppets from somewhere. I thought they were adorable, and M has a thing for pigs, so I bookmarked it to make them for the girls for Christmas. I finished them yesterday, and they are SO DARN CUTE. I really want to give them to the girls NOW, but I guess I'll probably wait until Christmas. Actually, I have ideas about my own variations (other animals I could make), so there may be quite a collection by the time Christmas gets here! The funniest part is that even though the pigs were my inspiration, I don't like mine all that much. The others are much cuter. Ah well.

The three little pigs:

The Big Bad Wolf:
Goldilocks:
Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. (They're my personal favorites.)
They required quite a bit of hand sewing, but apparently that's what I'm in the mood for these days, because I quite enjoyed it. Plus I can carry it with me and bring it along when I'm waiting around for various activities to be done, so that's nice.

I'm also going to have another post soon about a jacket success (to make up for the huge fail of the last one!) I actually finished it last weekend, but I haven't had a chance to get pictures yet. I'm very happy, though. :)

Ribbit!

2009-11-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

I finished this a while ago, but I was waiting for Halloween to have a good action shot. This year A wanted to be a frog for Halloween. (I'm a little surprised she hasn't done it before, honestly - it's long been her favorite animal.) So, here's what I came up with for her:

I made a green shirt and pants, then modified a hood from a pattern that I had. Then I made gloves and spats (with attached feet). I made approximately a million stuffed yoyos (okay, maybe more like 22) for the little balls on the hands and feet and then also for the eyes. We were both quite happy with how it turned out, although the hands and feet didn't make it very long in the trick or treating process. But at least I got some pictures. ;)

I like this mid-jump shot. And the adorable monkey. (Although she forbade me from making her costume this year. I don't think she's over last year's ghost costume disaster yet, lol.)
Happy belated Halloween!

Bah!

2009-10-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

For the record, Simplicity 3628 is not a fun pattern to make. Not only did I have a LOT of trouble with sewing the panels together (I don't know if I did something wrong while cutting, or if they're just really hard, but the fabric just didn't fit evenly together), but I could not for the life of me get the sleeve caps in flat. Not that I'm very good at easing the sleeves anyway, but usually I can manage it more or less. Not with this one. And to top it all off, when I tried it on (before lining and all that, but after most of it was together), it doesn't even look good! Argh! It's very cute on the models, but it looked rotten on me. So, I'm abandoning it, and I'll use a different pattern to make my intended jacket. It's a good thing the corduroy only cost $4 a yard! Now I have to get some more.

I also put together some shirts for the girls (no pictures, I'm afraid) which went awry. I'm not sure what I did, but M's shirt was absolutely enormous. I had to serge it smaller for it to even go on her body. But A's fits fine and it doesn't look like it's small enough to have mixed up the bodices, so I really am not clear what happened. Oh well, they like them, and after re-sewing, M's isn't too bad.

And I did finish these dresses, which I absolutely love:

(A's is the same except the flower applique is a different flower.) This was some super sale clearance fabric from Hobby Lobby, and I really hope the colors don't fade too much, because I love them! I do think I'm going to take a break from the twirly dresses, though - I'm a little weary of all that gathering!

And the next project that I have to complete is a frog costume for A, anyway. Halloween's coming soon - I gotta get going on that!

Fall Fun

2009-10-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well, today, for the last day of fall break, we mostly have heavy rain and sick kiddos, unfortunately. But we did have lots of fun over the weekend!

Friday, the girls and I went to the Botanical Gardens to see the scarecrows, which is always neat - people make these very elaborate "scarecrow" sculptures, and they set them up all over the gardens.
The girls really liked all the lollipops in this one!

Saturday we managed to fit in our second annual fall fun day in the mountains. The weather forecast wasn't very good, but our current all soccer, all the time* schedule makes weekend planning kind of tricky, and Saturday was basically the only possible day. As it turned out, despite the threatening skies, the weather was fine for us all day.

We and some friends went up to North Georgia to:

visit a corn maze:
pan for gemstones:
(such an intent look... You have to make sure you get all the pretty rocks!)

and visit Burt's Pumpkin Farm. I love Burt's.
(note the Halloween dress)

We went on the hayride at Burt's this year, for the first time ever, and I gotta say that it was totally worth it! Plus we bought a bunch of pumpkins, of course, and a piece of pie. It was really a lovely day.

Now it's a rainy Monday, and that's way less fun! Although I think I'll get another dress finished for each girl today, and that's a good thing. I have many more projects planned, so I need to finish the ones that are already cut out!

*Not only is A playing on a team (which I'm coaching), I'm playing on a women's team. Old lady soccer, woot! :) But it does mean that there's a soccer game almost every Saturday and Sunday for a couple of months. And M wants to play in the spring - I don't know what we'll do then!

I really do have crafting ADD

2009-10-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

It's a little ridiculous, really. :) A month ago, I was completely obsessed with quilting. Buying quilting magazines, reading quilting books, buying fabric for quilts, planning to make a quilt for my bed, etc. And then in the last couple of weeks, I haven't considered quilting once. Instead, I've been making clothes. I don't know what prompted the switch - change in the weather, maybe? - but it's been all clothes, all the time. Since my last post, I've made the girls each another dress (for Halloween) and each a cute little corduroy skort. I made myself two shirts (although I don't like the one I just finished at all) and a skirt that involved a great deal more swearing and seam ripping than it ought to have required. I also have another dress cut out for each girl, fabric for shirts waiting to be cut, and plans to make myself a jacket. Or maybe two, if you count the brown cord that I bought last year to replace my lost jacket.

Ah well, I suppose the thing about the ADD is that I'll eventually work my way around to the quilting again. Hopefully in time to make the new advent calendar I was planning on....

Flower Garden

2009-09-27T16:49:00.001-07:00

Despite the lack of posting on the blog, I've been slowly working lately. I have a number of things cut out, although this past week I was greatly slowed down by the two unexpected days off school due to flooding. But I'm working on winter clothes for the girls. I've even done some hand sewing. I don't usually, because it makes my wrists hurt after a while, but sometimes you have to hand sew to complete the vision! ;)

Anyway, I ran into a bit of difficulty with clear elastic, but I finally finished the first two winter dresses, and I'm quite happy with them. M picked out the pink fabric for her dress in the clearance section of the "pretty fabric store", and I got A the blue and green version of the same fabric, since those are her favorite colors. And this way they can coordinate without directly matching. (I'm not sure if that'll count in their eyes, but I'm hoping it does.)

Close-ups:

M's is more of a bouquet, and A's is more of a garden, but I like them both. No action shots as yet, since it hasn't actually gotten cold yet. Although it might be cool enough to wear them one day this week, so maybe soon.

I have 4 more similar dresses cut out and ready to make, plus some other stuff in process. I had a disaster with a skirt for myself - I got it almost entirely cut out, only to realize I didn't have quite enough fabric. Which I bought at Joann's sometime last spring, and they no longer have. Grr. (It's just denim, but none of the current denim *quite* matches, so it'd look weird in a panel skirt.) So I got more today to start over. Hopefully there won't be any more unexpected "inclement weather" days, and I'll get more done this week!

Sweet

2009-09-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

My model wouldn't smile, but look how cute this turned out!

I saw this tutorial for a baker's hat the other day, and thought it was very cute. I was inspired to make a baker set for a birthday gift for a little girl we know. M is modeling for me since she's closest in size (although the hat's about to fall off. I hope it fits the birthday girl!) I'm very pleased with how it came out! I only had a fat quarter of the pink to do the binding etc, and I just barely managed to squeak out enough. I had some issues with the hat but I like it well enough. (My first try went into our own dress-ups. It has some problems, but the girls will play with it.) And the apron is basically like the ones I made a while back, except I used velcro for the back fastener rather than ties. I think the little oven mitt is my favorite part, though - it's quilted and everything! I traced one from our play kitchen to get the right size. I ran out of batting, though, so I have to buy more before I can make another mitt. Or I might make a potholder instead. I haven't decided yet. Today, though, I have my first official soccer game in the league I just joined, so I'm going to be a little busy! :)

The second day of school

2009-09-09T16:15:00.001-07:00

didn't go as well as the first day, unfortunately. Apparently my poor baby was exhausted (and hungry, I think), and so she was laying on the floor half-asleep during free play time. :( They were worried that she was sick, so I went and picked her up. She came home, downed her lunch, and took a two hour nap. I'd say she was tired! This is a child who stopped napping when she was 2. And she's never ASKED to nap in her entire life! The whole "sharing a room" thing is really not my favorite in terms of the children actually getting enough sleep..... However, changing it would be very difficult at this point, so I'm just going to have to come up with a new sleep plan or something.

However, since she had naptime and then was cheerful, I actually managed to do some more sewing. I finished the new dolly quilt, and I'm really quite pleased.

I appliqued the star shape on top of the dots. Then when I quilted it, I stitched around the star and then did some lines. I don't think you can see them in the picture, but they look kind of neat, if I do say so myself.

The backing is the same letter fabric I used in the other dolly quilt:
It's not a spectacular match to the front, but it looks nice with the binding. I used my last little bits (I think) of my Park Slope birdies - I only had a tiny bit, so I had to do a really narrow binding. I machine stitched it. I realize that's not the official way to do it, but honestly, hand stitching is just too hard on my wrists - it's not going to happen on anything bigger than a doll quilt, so I might as well practice my machine binding now!

All in all, it went a lot better than the first one - although Mistakes Were (probably) Made, they're way less obvious than in the first, so that's progress. :) And M told me that it was a very pretty quilt (for A), so it's got at least one child stamp of approval. Now onto my next project... just have to pick one of the many!

1st day of Pre-K

2009-09-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of pre-k, so both girls are back to school now. Despite the pictures below, M was very happy to go back to school. She just won't smile for the camera anymore, so you have to trick her to get anything remotely like her actual face. Here she is with her giant backpack:
(And that was the smaller one!)

Here's a better shot of her first day of school dress (although possibly the most ridiculous face):
I spent a few hours yesterday whipping up a "puffy sleeve" dress for the first day. For some reason, both girls are very fond of puffy sleeves. Well, particularly A, actually, but M was expecting it for this dress. The fabric was the one she picked out a month or so ago. It's SO not my taste, but she looks cute in it. I didn't really do anything exciting with my time - but I exercised and went to Barnes and Noble with no one complaining! Come to think of it, that actually is pretty exciting, lol!

I made more progress on my next attempt at a star since my last post:

I'm actually quite pleased with it - the center is still a little funky, but it's a lot better than the first try. (I found a good tip about making the seam allowance a little more than 1/4 at the center points so they wouldn't be bumpy.) I think I'm going to applique this onto something for a dolly blanket. I'm feeling too lazy to figure out the angles on the outer triangles. ;)

So in theory I should have lots of sewing time now that both girls are in school. Let's see if it actually works out that way!

Playing Catch Up

2009-09-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've written a ton of blog posts in my head in the last few weeks, but somehow none of them actually made it onto the computer. So, this is going to be a catch up kind of post.

First (and most important):

My baby is 4! (Okay, she's been 4 for a couple of weeks now. Like I said, catch up! ;) )

The birthday girl and the birthday doll in their birthday dresses:
She's such a big girl now - four seems to be the age where they really just don't seem to be babies anymore. She's funny and smart and goofy as all get out. She's often a little parrot of her sister, but she certainly knows her own mind, too. If A wants to do something that M doesn't, she definitely won't do it! She's starting to read, which kind of blows my mind - I always joked that she was going to teach herself to read, but I didn't really think she actually would. (The Leappad helped with the letter sounds, I think, and A sometimes likes to play teacher, but she's doing a surprising amount of it on her own.) She's a total ham - if something makes you laugh once, depend on hearing it again! ;) She's also very sweet - she loves kisses and rubbing noses. (And squishing her dad's face, but I'm not sure I'd call that sweet.) She likes to color (fascinating shapes and color combos) and can play ponies forever. She's my lovely, wonderful girl, and she's growing up so fast.

Let's see. Oh, A has settled into first grade now, thankfully, and she seems to be enjoying it. She gets very upset when she has no homework, which cracks me up. (Especially since she really only has papers to do a couple of times a week.) But I'm glad she likes her class, and I think she's going to learn a lot.

In more crafty news, I've definitely been bitten by the quilting bug. I'm having some trouble with my wonderland quilt for the guest room - my intended layout is just not working for me. I've cut up approximately a million charm squares (give or take ;) ), but I'm not getting anywhere with it. So for the time being, I'm working on other stuff. I made a dresden plate dolly quilt. There are so many flaws in it that I can't even list them all, but luckily my children won't care, and it's pretty cute:
With the backing:

I learned that the blades on the Dresden plates are quite easy to make, but the center circles are kind of a pain. I haven't quite worked out a way that they really look nice. I also learned that satin stitching didn't work AT ALL, because the blades were way too thick for my machine to be neat. So, I still suspect that I'll do a big Dresden plate quilt at some point - I really do love them - but first I have to figure out the circles. There may be more dolly quilts!

In the meantime, I started working on an eight pointed star. Love the look of those! But not so much the look of *mine*:
The outer points actually aren't so bad, especially for a first try, but the center is completely cracked out. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but it looks terrible. This is partly because I wasn't careful enough when sewing the diamonds together, and partly the fabric I used. (Yes, I realize strips would probably be easier, but I didn't actually have enough of the blue for that.) I was just using stash fabric, but this one is just not very good quality, and it stretched and warped a lot. Ah well, live and learn. I may still put this on a dolly quilt (since again, my children really don't care), but I may just toss it and try again. We shall see. M is going back to school on Tuesday, so I should have lots and lots of sewing time pretty soon. Maybe I'll actually complete some of the many, many projects in my head..... (Although I need to make a back to school dress before then - gotta get moving on that!)

First grade!

2009-08-14T07:44:00.001-07:00

This great big girl of mine started first grade on Monday. This is her waiting for the bus on the first day. (She's wearing the first day of school dress that I made - we have a tradition of the girls picking out the fabric for their first day dresses. I love the snails she picked.) I guess first grade is going okay so far. It's a little hard to tell, because she'll only sometimes talk about her day. I think it's a big adjustment, though - for one thing, she doesn't get to play all day long like in the summer, and for another, I think it's probably more work and a little less fun than kindergarten was. Plus her beloved best friend isn't in her class this year, so she's bummed about that. At least she still gets to sit with him on the bus. Consequently, she's been pretty grumpy in the afternoons this week. This is a picture of the girls together before school started:

After school now, this is NOT what they look like. Imagine those two adorable children screaming at one another, and that's more like it. A is tired and cranky after her long day, but wants to play, and M has enjoyed eight hours of playing anything she wants with no one ordering her around ;), and wants to continue. Hopefully their moods will settle out over the next few weeks....

I've made good progress on the new room this week, though. I made the curtains, which I did not enjoy at all. They really aren't my best work, either, but they could be worse. The fabric's cute, anyway. I don't have any pictures, but it's this turtle fabric.

But the way more exciting thing is that I completed my quilted wall hanging. It took me a very long time to come up with a plan that I liked, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's all fabrics from the Clothworks line except for the binding (which was something random from Joann's). So this will be hanging on the wall soon, and the redecoration will be complete!

And I've totally been bitten by the quilting bug, and I'm thinking about making quilts for the guest room and our room. I'm not sure if I'll actually quilt them myself, though - I have a friend/neighbor with a long arm machine, so I might do that instead. It's fun to plan things, anyway!

Room Redo

2009-08-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned before that my girls have decided that they should share a room. So, we're in the midst of a room rearrangement and redecoration. I have all the fabric to make curtains and a wall hanging (although that's driving me crazy - I decided not to follow the pattern, and I'm having trouble coming up with a pattern that I really like). Anyway, I haven't made any progress with those yet.

But yesterday, my mom and I spent pretty much the entire day painting sea creature murals on the wall, and I absolutely love it! It turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. ;)

The biggest mural:
(Ignore the mattress - there are bunk beds coming at some point, but until then M has to camp out on the floor.)

Smaller one next to the bed:

Another by the closet:
We stenciled with freezer paper stencils, and then Mom freehanded the sea grass, coral and sand. (Very impressive, I have to say - all I did freehand were the jellyfish tentacles, and that took absolutely forever! The coral especially was a huge job. Thanks, Mom!!) I've never really stenciled that much in a row before - I had no idea how exhausting something so seemingly simple could be. But I really am happy with the results - and so are the girls - so it's worth it. And once the curtains and wall hanging are made, and we get the bunk beds and a little dresser, it'll be all done. (Of course, then I'm going to have to work on the new guest room - what was M's room - but hey, one step at a time, right?)

A quilt!

2009-07-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well, like I said, I've gotten interested in making a quilt lately, and I did!

I didn't use my Wonderland fabric - I thought I'd start with some random fabric from my stash. So I made this spaceman quilt:

Here's a closeup including the sprockets I used for the backing:

You can also sort of see the letters on the orange fabric.

So, mistakes were made (many of them!), but for a first quilt, I'm quite pleased with myself. And I learned some things so I can make improvements the next time. I actually didn't have any purpose for this quilt; it was just meant for practice. Which is just as well, because my kids have claimed it as their own. I don't know what they're planning to do with it, but apparently it's theirs, lol!

So next I'm actually going to make a little wall quilt. The girls have decided they want to share a room, so we're redecorating A's room with an ocean-y theme. I found some super cute sea animals fabric from Clothworks, so it's in the mail to me now. I got enough to make curtains, and then an assortment to make the free pattern in the link. (Well, more or less. Mine's going to be a bit smaller, with less edging.)

I'm all excited about quilting at the moment. We'll see how long my crafting ADD keeps me on this! ;)

2009-07-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't been very bloggy lately, although I have made a few things.

A couple of weekends ago, my mom and I took a trip to Savannah, which was lovely. I decided we needed water bottle carriers, since we were going to be walking a lot. So, I made myself this:
(Wow, what a terrible picture!)

I made my mom one as well, which I actually think is much prettier. However, my camera freaked out on Saturday, so none of the pictures I took were actually there. So I have no pictures. But it's cute! I did find that we didn't really wear them quite the way I'd intended - I had a messenger style purse, and I didn't like slinging the water bottle around my neck the same way as the purse. So I used the strap to tie it onto my purse, and that worked fairly well. It was nice to have something to stick water into, anyway.

Before that project, I'd been working on the Portabello Pixie Gracie pattern for the girls. I found the bodice annoying, so I had to put it aside for a bit. (For the record, it's probably my own fault it was annoying, because I misread the directions at first. But that didn't stop me from being annoyed!) Anyway, I finally finished the dress, and A really likes it:

Twirly!

I didn't actually follow the pattern for the tiers at all; I just did my usual tiers. I don't love the way it turned out, though, because I think the bodice is really too small for the tiers - it looks a little disproportionate to me. But A likes it, so whatever. Sometime I'll make M one to match - it's all cut out; I just haven't felt like sewing it together.

(As an aside, I made the dress M is wearing over 2 years ago. It was a gift for A on her 4th birthday, only she was in her blue phase and refused to wear it. Ever. It's nice to see it on one of my kids! :) )

I also made a purse that I don't love (seems to be a theme at the moment, lol!)

It's an attempt to make the Buttercup bag a little bigger and therefore more useful. I didn't enlarge the entire pattern; I just made it taller. (Oh, and it turned out a little narrower at the top.) Something about the proportions is off to me, though. Maybe it would be better with a longer strap? Or maybe it's that I prefer the brown version of this fabric, and that's coloring my opinion. I don't know. For the moment I'm just using the slightly too small one I made a few weeks ago, until I decide what I want to try next.

I did get some pretty new fabric, though - a yard of My Secret Garden from Alexander Henry (so pretty!), and an assortment of Wonderland by Momo. (I realize I'm very late to the party on that fabric, but I like it a lot.) I think I'd like to get a few more fat quarters of it, and then I'm thinking maybe I'll make a quilt of some kind. I'm thinking about it, anyway. We'll see. I might do something simpler first, quilting-wise. Or not. I'm sewing-indecisive right now!

4th of July

2009-07-03T07:22:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July dresses are done. I hadn't gotten around to doing anything about dresses until the beginning of the week, and A mentioned that she wanted one. I, however, didn't really want to go buy anything. (Amazing, huh? Usually I'll take any opportunity to buy fabric!) So, I dug around in my stash and came up with some red, white and blue knit. (The red was actually a failed shirt from my wrap around shirt attempts earlier this year that I cut up. It's good kids are smaller than me!) Then I got a vision of a tank dress, and made up a pattern for it, using a t-shirt pattern I already had to get the sizing (more or less) right. I think the next time I'll make the armholes a little smaller on M's, but I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. M ran away from the camera this morning, so here's A alone:

(She was being kind of nutty, so it's not a great picture, but you get the idea.) They seem to like the dresses, although A's first response was "Why is it only stripes? I was thinking of something with more stars..." Hee, hee. I thought about stenciling some stars on, but honestly, it seemed like too much work. Plus I like them the way they are.

I actually managed to get a sewing project for myself done this week, too. I made a buttercup bag from Made by Rae. (I'm a bag addict, in case you haven't noticed. Iestyn is continually amused when a new bag shows up.) It's cute, but not really practical for me for everyday, given that it won't close when my normal wallet is inside. It'll be a good going out purse, though. And I'm using it right now even though I can't close it.

I changed a couple of things - mostly the strap, and I added a little interfacing (although I think I'd prefer more interfacing, actually.) I had some trouble with the pleating, but it was apparently user error, because it eventually worked the way it was supposed to. Oh, and I didn't follow the final assembly instructions, because I prefer doing it my usual way, and that worked fine. And I love the look of the original curved button flap thing, but my attempts to make a curved one all went really badly, so I went with straight edges. ;) Anyway, it's cute, and I love this fabric (Amy Butler, from Daisy Chain), so I'm pleased.

Uncrafty stuff ;)

2009-07-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

We've been very busy with swimming since school got out, but last night was the last swim meet, so we're done! I'm really glad we did it - A had a blast, and she learned *so* much - she went from just barely doggy paddling to swimming full on backstroke and freestyle. I'm so proud of how she's worked! She really loved it, too. It's exhausting, though (just SO busy), so I'm glad we're done for this year. (A isn't, though - she told Iestyn the other day that she wished swim team was every day forever! I'm sure M is pleased she doesn't have to go to the pool every day and NOT swim anymore, though, lol.)

In other news, we just got a Roku box, and it's super cool. It's a little box that hooks up with Netflix to allow you to watch movies instantly on your TV. Not everything from Netflix is available for instant watching, but there's a bunch of stuff, and it's really nice to be able to just watch it on the TV rather than the computer. Plus the quality of the video was really quite good. I'm very taken with it, so I've been busily adding things to my instant queue. (Such a very random selection, but there are plenty of things that I want to watch.) This is vaguely craft-related, in that this will give me more to watch while I'm sewing, since all my shows are currently off for the summer! :)

The only actually crafty thing I've done lately is work on 4th of July dresses for the girl. They aren't done yet, though. Somehow summer has not been very productive for me, probably because I tend to find it hard to sew when the girls are running around. But I'll post the dresses when I finish them!

Quiet week(s)

2009-06-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

This is a post of kind of old stuff. I managed to finish up the portfolio thingys for A's party, without much trouble, actually. There are a few changes I would make if I did them again (mostly with the spacing), but on the whole they turned out well. The kids seemed to like them fairly well.

I also made A her froggy cake:
And some froggy cupcakes (which were my favorites):

They remind me of Keropi. :)

The cake was a round cake with cupcake eyes and legs cut out of a sheet cake. (I think the leg pattern came from the Wilton site, and then I just enlarged it.) And the cupcakes have marshmallow eyes, which I saw somewhere online.

The party was fun - lots of splashing around in pools, etc. Unfortunately, I had started into a rather bad case of bronchitis (probably allergy related, possibly even asthma. Joy.) So I've been sick and not sewing anything lately. I'm finally mostly better, I think - still coughing some, but I feel okay - so hopefully I can return to my machine. I have a lot of things I want to make - now I just need some time and energy to actually make them!

I'm a nut.

2009-06-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Or possibly just a glutton for punishment, I'm not sure. ;)

The background: as previously mentioned, A's birthday is coming up this week, which means that A's birthday *party* is also coming right up. We tend to have pretty big parties around here - just at our house, and nothing crazy, but generally a bunch of kids are running around. Which means, at least in these parts, that I have to provide a bunch of "goody bags". I have sort of an aversion to goody bags, but my kids like them, so I provide them, more or less. The thing is, I know *I'm* neurotic about how much candy the girls have, so I don't want to give a ton of candy out at parties. And we have SO MANY little plastic toys, so I don't really want to give those out, either. And my kids are also convinced that no birthday party is complete without a pinata, so really, I do give out candy and little plastic crap already at the party, and I hate to add more with the goody bag. So. Generally I try to find something a little nicer (although still cheapish) and use that instead. Last year, we tie-dyed shirts at the party, and the kids took them home. One year we did bubble guns, and another year was Schleich animals. Or maybe that was with the shirts. They all blend together in my head at this point.

Anyway.... This year A's party has a frog theme. She has a great love of frogs. So I've been pondering the goody bag issue, without really having any fabulous ideas. Then we were at Joann's earlier in the week, and we found some cute frog fabric, and I bought a couple of yards with the idea that I could make something for the goody bags. Not actual bags, probably, because I wasn't sure how all the 6 year old boys who were coming would feel about that. After some thought, I had an idea! Little portfolio-things! Sort of like an older version of a crayon roll, with space for paper and pencils, maybe some scissors or a ruler. (I drew some inspiration from pictures of Craft Apple's patchfolio, although that's much fancier than I had in mind. Also, all the various crayon rolls and knitting needle holders floating around.)

Here's a sample of what I came up with - closed:

And open:

What fun, especially since A is very into art! Except that now I have to make up to 15 of them.... Gack! Actually, what's worse is that I really don't know how many I have to make, because I'm still waiting on SVPs. I'm working on them in an assembly line fashion. I've got 12 in progress (actually, 5 completed, yay!) And I have enough materials to make more if I need to. That's just going to have to do!

Despite feeling a little crazy, it's not actually that bad - kind of time-consuming, but I'd probably be sewing *something* during that time, so it's not such a big deal, really. But it would be much easier if I knew exactly how many to make!

Busy days

2009-05-31T19:27:00.000-07:00

We've been awfully busy around here lately. My great big girl (who's turning SIX soon!) has had a bunch of stuff going on. She had her first (and last, I think) ballet recital this week. Here's a picture of her outfit:
She did a great job, as did the rest of the cast. (The Duluth School of Ballet puts on quite a production, I must say!) She's done with ballet, though (I think all she wanted to do was arabesque, and beginners don't do that sort of thing), and I can't really say I'm sorry. It's sort of a pain - lots of driving around - for something she wasn't all that interested in. We'll stick to other sports, I think.

Speaking of other sports, she also had her first (practice) swim meet this week. It started badly, with a (fairly legitimate) freakout over being asked to swim backstroke. (She'd never practiced it at all, so it's not so unreasonable not to want to do it, if you ask me.) But THEN, she swam freestyle, and not only did she go the entire way without touching the rope (for the first time ever, as far as I've seen), but she did it in 51 seconds! She was 6th out of 12! (Without ever putting her face in the water, lol!) She was really, really excited, and I was so proud of her. Especially since I've been kind of worried that she'd be dropped from the team for not swimming a whole lap. (The water has been extremely cold since they started practice, and that really hasn't been helping things at all.) I loved swim team as a kid, so I'm glad she's having fun. And she might even be swimming in a real meet with that time!

Oh, I think I mentioned her watermelon shorts and matching shirt in a previous post - here's a goofy yet sweet picture with M post-ballet recital:
And I have another outfit to show off - a white version of my Burda shirt, and a jean skirt that I quite like (another version of Simplicity 3881):
Very comfy. I'm working on another denim skirt - that seems to be a summer wardrobe staple for me this year. At some point I'll have some more tops to show off as well, but I probably should sew the kids a couple of dresses first. They're starting to complain... ;)

And a completely random note - we saw the Star Trek movie this evening, and it was awesome! I definitely recommend it!

I find it hard to believe that it's already June tomorrow. The calendar's pretty much full for the month, so I'm sure it'll fly by....

More stuff for me...

2009-05-28T11:02:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been busily working away, but I don't have pictures of very much of my stuff. I made another one of those Burda tank tops in white. I made some super cute shorts with watermelon fabric for the girls, and A has a shirt to match (M's isn't made yet). I adapted the Favorite Things Little Smarty pants pattern (that I had previously made for M), and they fit better.

Then, I spent a whole lot of time drafting a pattern for a circle neck tank top. Since I have absolutely no pattern drafting experience, that took a considerable amount of trial and error and time. ;) I finally got something I like, and then I made it in white knit. I'm not entirely happy with the final product (I assembled it differently than my muslin, and I don't think it worked quite as well), but it's certainly wearable:
So I have a couple more of these in mind. It's quite comfy, which is nice, and I think I know how to fix my construction issues. Oh, and I made the skirt as well - the fabric was an impulse at Joann's, and I used Simplicity 3881 again, lengthened with a ruffle instead of a flounce. And I put the zipper in the side instead of the back. I like this skirt pattern a lot - it's versatile and flattering. I'm definitely making more of these - I've been in a skirt mood lately.

Oh, and if this picture is funny, I blame my 5 year old, who took it for me! :)

Hopefully I'll have some pictures of some of the other things at some point. And I have many more things waiting to be cut out and sewn. I think I might get some good sewing time in this weekend.

I've also been spending some time lately looking at blogs because Sew Mama Sew is having a May Giveaway Day. Tons of cool giveaways available - check it out if you have a chance!

Me, me, me

2009-05-17T16:59:00.001-07:00

;) Apparently the me-centric sewing theme continues.... I've been in a mood to make myself things lately, and since the girls have a ton of clothes anyway, I've been doing that. This week I've made two tops and a dress (and miserably failed on another dress).

Oh, please ignore the weird angle of these pictures - I was using the timer on my camera, and I didn't really have a good spot to set it, so they're kind of angled up. Also, I ended up partly or all headless, lol.

During my last round of pattern shopping, I got Simplicity 2580, which I really like. It's meant to be dresses, but I used the pattern to make this shirt:
I used a knit that I'd gotten ages ago for a dress for A - it was really a bit thin for a dress, so I'd never used it. I thought it'd be good for making a muslin, although I actually quite like the way it turned out. It's cheerful and summery. The neckline is cut a bit low for everyday wear, to my mind, but it works just fine if you put a cami underneath. Next time I'll probably make the sleeves a little less fluttery, but they're fine this way, too.

Today I put together a dress from the same pattern:
(Okay, so it still needs to be hemmed, but I decided to go ahead and include it.) I like this version, too - I'm thinking I'll be making a top from this as well.

And then I also got this Burda pattern (7644) and made this tank top:
I didn't want to do the ruching, so I just cut off some of the bottom fabric. I cut it just a smidge too short, but it's cute and wearable. Of course it is; it's Burda. They actually fit me. I actually decided that my mother's day present this year is a subscription to Burda, so that should be coming to me sometime in the next couple of months. I'm psyched.

I'm also psyched because Stitch magazine finally came out with a new issue. I picked it up at the bookstore today, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. I loved the last one, though, so I'm looking forward to it.

Both of these patterns are actually quite easy. I had a little trouble with the Burda one because I used the serger, and it took me a couple of tries to find a method of ruching the shoulders that worked well, but otherwise it's quite straightforward. Which is good, since their instructions don't always make much sense!

Unfortunately, I think I'm finally giving up on another dress that I was making. Long, long ago, I started to make Vogue 8182, only in knit (with a contrast band) rather than the original fabrics. So, I made it. Only it really looked amateurish around the bodice - I'd had to do a bunch of adjustments to the bodice, and it just didn't look great. So, I cut the bodice off to redo it. The second try was totally unsuccessful, because I messed it up. The third try was this week, and it just didn't work, either. I just can't get the bodice attached in a way that actually looks good. So, I thought I'd just make a slightly different bodice, which is a great idea in theory, but I went to Joann's today to get some more knit for the bodice, and it's all gone. :( I might try a different Joann's, but I'm not hopeful.

Oh, well, I'm happy with the rest of my efforts this week, so I guess I'll just stick with that! And at least my trip to Joann's wasn't all wasted - I picked up a bunch of crafts for the kids and I to do this summer, since school's out in 3 days!!

Tote bags and some chickens....

2009-05-10T18:55:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a good day. My girls (with some help from Daddy) painted a wooden picture frame and jewelry box as my gifts and made many some very sweet cards. Plus I got a lot of hugs and kisses. A lovely way to start the day! And then we all went to breakfast and the Botanical Gardens with my mom and sister and her family, which was fun. Here's a picture of me and my mom at the gardens:

It was beautiful, if rather hot, and we had a nice visit. Afterwards, Iestyn took the girls out to play, and I got some peaceful sewing time. I powered through the rest of my teacher tote bags. (Everything was cut out, and I'd sewn one and part of another, but now they're all done.) I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. Actually, I might make myself something like one of the first two:

(and I got enough of that purple fabric to make myself a skirt. I don't know how well you can see the fabric, but it's really lovely.)

But since it was my treat for Mother's Day, I also took some time to sew myself a wristlet:

I have a great love chickens for some reason, so I had to grab this fabric (Metro Market from Robert Kaufman) when I saw it. It's lined with some coordinating apples, which are also adorable. Plus I've been wanting a slightly larger wristlet than my current one, so new fabric was a good excuse. I'm also planning to make myself a hat out of it. I got that cut out, but I got tired after all the tote bags!

Anyway, it was a very nice day - a good mix of visiting time and quiet sewing time. And I'm all done with teacher gifts, so I can move on to some of my new patterns!

Swim Skirt

2009-05-05T17:13:00.001-07:00

Well, not actually a swim skirt, I suppose, but a cover-up to get me to the pool:
The plan is to wear this with my previously posted Heather Ross blouse over my swim suit while I walk to the pool.

I was at Joann's the other day, sans children (bliss!), and while there I noticed a sign that said Simplicity patterns were 2/$5. I'm a total pattern junkie (possibly even more than with fabric, if you can believe that!), so of course I sat down to look through them. I found this skirt (Simplicity 2608) which also includes yoga-ish lounge pants/shorts. I'm totally going to have to make some of those for around the house. So I picked up some interlock and whipped this up. It was very easy, I must say, although I think the tension on my serger might have been a little off for this fabric, because it's a big puckery on the seams. Since it's just a cover up, I don't really care, though.

I was also pleased to see that Simplicity is starting to expand the number of shirt/blouse patterns that include different cup sizes - it's nice to just be able to sew with a pattern, rather than having to adjust it every time. They even had a dress pattern that I almost got only because it not only included cup sizes, but it also had three different body types available. I thought that was cool. So, I got a couple of tops to try. I also learned that they have a decent price on Burda patterns (and the printed patterns include seam allowances, so I wouldn't have the problems from the last post!), so I got a couple of those - a shirt and a pair of capris.

As it turned out, the 2/$5 signs were mistakenly put out a week early by some Joann's employee, but happily they honored the price anyway. I was awfully confused by my initial total, though!!

Oh, speaking of the Burda pattern from the last time, I've actually made a number of adjustments to it. The zipper still needs a bit of work, but I think it's going to be very cute. I'm really beginning to think I need to get a dressform, though. It's a real pain to pin things on your own body, and Iestyn is completely wigged out by pinning things to me. I think he's afraid he'll poke me. So, at some point that would be a good thing.

For now, however, I have teacher gifts to make, since the end of school is very soon!

Academic exercise turned wearable...

2009-05-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

Let's see... Well, first of all, I've been wearing the capri pants a fair bit, but really they're still a bit too big. I like the dark denim look, so I've just been putting up with it, but at some point I need to buy some more denim and make a different pair. I feel like I'm constantly pulling these up and fussing with the waistband. But at least they look cute. ;)

Next up are a pair of peasant blouses for the girls, made from Michael Miller Tweet Tweet fabric.
(Sorry, no action shots - they haven't been in very trying on moods. M's does fit her, but I don't know yet about A's.) I used the same basic pattern for the tiered dresses the girls like so much. I had to make up an expanded size for A, since she's grown since last year (and the original pattern it's based off of was actually only up to size 4. So this is an expansion of last year's expansion!) I need to her to try it on to make sure it fits before I make any more tiered dresses for her. Perhaps I'll get them on tomorrow!

So the next thing I've been working on is a Burda dress pattern I downloaded. I thought it would be fun in some of those fabrics I got at Gail K a while back. And supposedly they make their patterns in a C cup, so it might not need as much alteration as most of the patterns I try. The downloadable patterns are in PDF format, and you print off 25+ pages and tape or glue them together to make the pattern. So, I did that, and then traced the pattern pieces on my beloved Swedish tracing paper (because I thought it'd be easier to use than the regular paper. And better for my scissors.) However, I didn't realize until *after* I traced the pieces that no seam allowances were included. Oops. No big deal, I'll just add it in when I cut the pieces out, right? Except I forgot by the time I cut them out. And I used nice fabric. Grr. So, I decided to go ahead and sew it together with 1/4 seams, as an academic exercise as much as anything. Which was a good plan, since the instructions were enormously confusing. I hope they're better in the actual magazine. Probably it doesn't help that they were (I assume) originally written in German. Anyway, I finished everything but the hem and tried it on - and it fits! I don't know if they included a ton of ease or if I measured wrong the first time, but here it is:
This version isn't hemmed, and the bodice is pinned in a couple of places - I need to do a quick alteration to fit me better. But all in all, I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm planning to make another version with a couple of change to the front bodice pieces next. And the whole thing actually went together pretty fast, especially considering it was my first invisible zipper, and I didn't understand those instructions at all!

This is my first Burda pattern, but I have to say that I really like the fit of this dress. It seems like it was designed a little more like my body is shaped, unlike many of the US big three pattern companies. I'm going to have to see if there are any other patterns I like from them. (Plus they have some free downloads, and I just think that's cool!)

I haven't quite decided what the next project is - I'm thinking maybe some shorts for the girls. Not that they need clothes at all, but I do like seeing them in all my fun fabrics!

New and Improved Pants....

2009-04-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

It's amazing the difference it makes to have the the help of a) another person who b) knows what she's doing (thanks, Mom!). My pants have been altered, and now they're much better:

(Ignore the blurriness of my head. I'm not sure what the deal is.)

They still have a much wider waistband than I prefer, but that can be covered with a long shirt. And my mom was able to figure out where I should sew so that they actually fit me and look pretty cute. If I make them again (we'll see), I definitely need to go down a size. I had to take the waistband off for the alteration (twice, since I was an idiot and sewed it back on backwards the first time!), but it didn't really take all that long to fix, thankfully. And now they're wearable, which is a bonus.

I got a McCall's shorts pattern that I might try next - if they turn out cute, I can always make a longer pair for capris. It looks like it might be kind of an involved pattern, though, so we'll see how long that takes me!

Pants....

2009-04-19T06:14:00.001-07:00

Well, I made the Smarty Pants by Favorite Things (the grown up ones this time), and I just don't think I like them much. They look cute on the models, but they really don't look that great on me. Well, for one thing, they're a little big, even though I used the correct sizing. But more than that, the wide waistband and elastic backed waist just really makes them look like maternity pants. And I certainly don't need those! Plus they make me look kind of hippy, which isn't so attractive. They were easy to make, and I could probably make some changes to the pattern to get them to look better, but I haven't decided yet if I want to bother, or if I want to try a different pattern. I have some fabric that's just waiting to be made into capris, but I don't think these are it. Oh well. At least they were pretty straightforward to make, and I did get some practice with pockets. I'll just save these for messy projects or something!

Weekend Sewing + more hats

2009-04-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well, as previously mentioned, I've been planning on making the summer blouse from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I've had it cut out for quite a while, and I finally sewed it together the last couple of nights. I used white gauze, because I really just wanted a pool cover-up. (I don't have any pictures.) So, here are my thoughts: I made it in a medium, and it's absolutely huge. I mean, I realize it's meant to be a flowy sort of shirt, but even so, the medium is enormous on me. I probably should've gone with the small (even though I definitely don't normally wear a small!) I even took it in some on the sides, and it's still really big. Oh, and the sleeves were very long - I cuffed them, which took them in about 4.5 inches, and that made them the right length for my arms. I also slightly lengthened the top, since I'd read that it was a little short. Actually, I did all kinds of things "wrong" - I didn't use bias tape for the collar; I just did a narrow hem. And I considerably shortened the placket. I also sort of ignored the instructions on the sleeves, and just did them the same way I always do set in sleeves. I did think the sleeves were pretty easy to attach, though, both because of the pattern and because gauze is so crinkly that I wasn't terribly worried about perfection, lol! All in all, it was a reasonable pattern, I think, but I don't think it's really my style as a blouse. But it'll be a great cover-up. And I'm using the placket idea for another shirt pattern that I want to make, so that's definitely useful knowledge.

I also made a couple of bucket hats for the girls:
Cute action shot:

They're the same general concept as the one I made myself (simple reversible bucket hats); I think I'm going to do a tutorial on them sometime soon. They're fairly fast to make, although sewing around the curves requires some patience. Plus I think my (homemade) pattern pieces for the adult size really fit together better than the ones I've done for the kids - I need to play with that some more before I do any more kid hats. But they're pretty cute and useful for now!

ETA: Well, upon actually wearing her hat (rather than just posing for me), M thinks her hat is too small, and I have to agree. Bother. Oh well, I guess someone's going to get the gift of a hat!

Shorts and other cute things....

2009-04-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I did end up going to Gail K last week with M. My lovely mom met us at the store so she could keep an eye on M (and help me dig in the fabrics....) I got some stuff to make myself a couple of pairs of capris as well as some more for the girls. Last weekend I made a pair of short using the pattern (just shorter):
They're really cute, but I'm not so sure about the fit. Well, for one thing, they're big on M (but way too small for A). I took them in a little at the sides, although not in the way I probably should have (which would have involved taking them apart. I just wasn't up for that.) Plus the rise in front is really high, which my kids both hate, but not really in the back. I think I need to alter it a bit to get a better fit the next time. Oh, and as cute as the belt loops are, they were a *huge* pain, particularly since my children don't even own belts... The pockets are pretty awesome, though - I'm pretty sure that will be the most popular part of the whole thing for M and A.

I haven't started on any more of those yet, because I got distracted by Easter gift sewing. I made the girls super cute bunnies (if I do say so myself):
Bunny back:
I adapted a Melly and Me pattern (Petunia Pig - I'd made one for that swap a while back) for the basic idea, and just turned them into bunnies. I didn't think to stiffen the ears, so they flop rather hilariously, which is a happy accident. I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out - we'll see what the girls think on Sunday! Now I need to return to all my other sewing, though - the bunnies took way, way more time than I expected. I'd forgotten how much hand sewing was involved, and how slowly I do that!

Since it's spring break this week, we took a day trip to Chattanooga today, to visit the aquarium, which was lovely but exhausting, so I think I'll be sitting around tonight rather than sewing! It was a fun trip, and the drive wasn't bad - it's only about an hour and 45 minutes. We're thinking we'll take a long weekend up there this summer to see some of the other attractions. In addition to Rock City and all that, there's a Children's Museum that looks really neat. And we'd definitely enjoy more aquarium visits.

Matchy Matchy

2009-04-01T16:47:00.001-07:00

Despite my nasty cold and leprosy-ish hands ;), I've managed to get a few things done the last few days. The little girl across the street is having a birthday, so I made her a dress. Then I had just enough left over to eke out a matching dress for her (brand new, birthday gift) American Girl doll.

Aren't they cute? A's doll (Emily) is modeling for me... I actually made Emily doll clothes a while back, and it was super easy. This time I was using quilting cottons rather than interlock - big mistake in terms of ease! The little tiny set in sleeves were a pain! So, for my future doll clothes, I'll have to remember to return to knits or at least not do sleeves on the wovens!!

Did I mention that I bought the Favorite Things Smarty Pants and Little Smarty Pants patterns to make the girls and I capri pants/shorts? So, now I need some good fabric for them. (Well, for me, at least.) I'm thinking about a trip to Gail K's, because I saw some blue twill that I think would be great the last time I was there. The decision is, do I take M along with me or not? If I don't want to take a kid, I think I'll end up having to wait quite a while (since next week is spring break), but if I do take M, there's a 50-50 chance she'll get all crazy. It all depends on whether she thinks it's like Joann's (and I quote "I don't want to go there. It's too boring.") or Intown Quilters (aka, the "pretty fabric store"), which she loves for some reason. She wanders around and touches all the fabric. Of course, the last time we were there she got a little nuts at the end, and I had to buy a fat quarter for her as a bribe, but at least it wasn't "too boring"! lol.

(Yes, I bribe my 3 year with fat quarters. Don't you? She's not really a fabric addict yet, though - the actual bribe was letting her pick out a fabric that I would make a headband from. Although now I'm leaning toward a super cute bucket hat. But I digress...) I think it's probably a safer bet to go tomorrow and take only M than to wait until next week when I'd have to take both kids. I'd be out even more money than I will be on my own!

2009-03-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I haven't posted in a while. I've made a few things, but I've been busy with life. We had a big spring party last weekend, which was a lot of fun. I had a lot to do for that, but I did manage to make the girls each a playdress from the the popsicle fabric I got at Gail K's. Somehow we didn't end up with any pictures, though. Possibly because they were running wild in the backyard, only emerging to get more Capri Sun and chips, lol!

Then somehow I got this terrible sunburn on my hands the next day. I mean, the worst sunburn I can remember ever getting - blisters and all. Plus it's sort of patchy. Very strange. Anyway, I didn't want to do very much with my hands for a few days there! Then I was busily tracing patterns and cutting things out, which is useful, but not too interesting, blogging-wise. I've been working on this blouse:

I'm not very happy with it, though. (Okay, so obviously, it's not done yet. And the bottom isn't crooked the way it looks in this picture.) For one thing, I think I should have made a different size. But more than that, I think it just looks a little strange when it's on. Plus the collar is *huge*, which I don't really understand - it doesn't look huge in the pictures on the pattern! (Iestyn thinks maybe it just looks odd because of the collar, but I think it's more than that.) I want to try and rescue it, mostly because I feel like I've done a good job with the construction, and I'd hate to waste that. And I think the fabric is really pretty. So there may eventually be pictures of me wearing it! I have some other fabric intended for another version of this pattern, too, so I may play with that and then return to this one. I really like the sleeves, I have to say.

I have a bunch of little girl things to sew together, too. Actually, I rather enjoyed making the playdresses last week - it's so much easier to sew for little girls. The fit of dresses is way more straightforward when you have no curves, lol!

Oh, and I got Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross for my birthday. I've really been enjoying that - it's like eye candy for people who sew. I'm planning to try her weekend blouse in white gauze for a pool coverup. However, as it turns out, the fabric amount isn't nearly big enough, so I have to go back to Joann's to get some more gauze before I can do any more on that.

Always plenty of projects to work on - too bad I have a cold at the moment, and I'm not really in the mood to do anything!

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-03-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

Here I am in the skirt I posted about last time.
Today is my birthday, and it's been a very good day. Plus I got fabric! My lovely husband got me a gift certificate to Gail K Fabrics, which is a magical and wondrous place. It's not a very big fabric store, but it's got fabric stacked quite literally to the ceiling all over the place. It's packed very full. Kind of an organizational nightmare, but quite a place for a fabric junkie like me! Surprisingly, I haven't been there since before I got married (so, probably 2000), when we went and picked the fabrics that my mom used to make my dress (and the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. My mom rocks.) Ever since I've gotten into sewing clothes, I've been meaning to go down there, but it's just far enough (and has weird enough hours) that I haven't made it. So today I got a gift certificate (yay!) and the time to go explore. And this is what I left with:
Okay, admittedly, this cost more than just my gift certificate... but actually, the prices are really not bad for what you get. And I'm really excited about them all - the current plans include dresses for the girls (the purple), shorts for the girls (the pink and green), shirts for me (the stripes, the butterflies, and the green dots), a swimsuit cover up (the blue dots), and well, actually, I really don't know what I'm going to do with the other two, but they're absolutely beautiful. So that was a very fun trip. (It's just as well that it's a little annoying to get to, though - I'd be utterly broke if it was closer!)

Then this evening, my mom and sister and her family came over for dinner, which was a lot of fun. Iestyn has gotten very into records lately, and today he went digging around in our crawl space for all my old 45s. So we had a fabulous time listening to some of them - I love this picture of my nieces dancing:
Plus I got some more crafty gifts - gift cards for Joann's/Intown Quilters, plus these:
The Dressmaker's Technique Bible and Vogue Sewing, both of which look super useful in my continued clothing sewing. Plus Julie made me this adorable bag, which is fab because I'm kind of tired of my purse, but I haven't been in a purse sewing mood. So now I can switch without having to actually make one!

All in all, a very good birthday. :)

Pretty spring skirt

2009-03-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a while back that I was working on a skirt. I got it done a couple of nights ago, so now I'm posting it.

(Sorry for the random skirt only picture - I was using the timer on my old camera, and it's such a pain to aim it!)

Anyway, it's more or less Simplicity 3881, although I did have to make some changes - I made it fit a bit better, and then I also had to line it. The outer fabric is Par Avion from Michael Miller, and then I found a nice soft Egyptian cotton at Joann's for the lining. It's nice and springy - such happy colors. Plus it looks great with a top I already owned, so that's a bonus. I planned on wearing it this weekend, but it's apparently going to get chilly again, so I decided just to wear it today. With a sleeveless shirt that the weather's probably not actually warm enough for. Oh well, the outfit's making me happy, anyway. And I can always change if I get cold. :)

Woo-hoo, success!

2009-03-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, look, I finally have a wrap shirt that fits. ;)

It's Simplicity 4076, and I actually knew that it fit because I had made one before. And then I made a white one, which fits fine, but looks a little weird to me. (Because it's white, you can see the overlapped part really clearly, so it's like there's a big X across my chest.) But now I finally have one I can wear - hooray!

I also made a swing top and skort for A, although alas, I messed up on the skort, and it's too small. Grr. I'll have to get some more of the knit and make a new one. I've also come to the conclusion that I should've stuck with capri pants rather than a skort for M's outfit the other day. I think the prints would look better together that way. But she's happy, so I'll leave it alone for now.

It was a lovely weekend - the weather was absolutely beautiful. A had her first soccer game, and it went well. I'm actually really enjoying being the coach. I was nervous, but it's a lot of fun. (Although I really, really hope that the other teams have subs in the rest of our games - I felt bad for the other team because the kids had to play the entire time.) Then later we had an impromptu get together with neighborhood friends later in the afternoon/evening, which I quite enjoyed. And today I got in a fair bit of sewing time. So it was good!

Crafty stuff

2009-03-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of things I've made recently...

I found this adorable (very thin, but adorable) knit at Hobby Lobby, and I'm making outfits for the girls. This is M's:
I pretty much made up the pattern for both things - I think the skort could use a little work, but on the whole they worked out pretty well. And she likes them, so that's good. I need to do A's next.

And then I played around making another bucket hat pattern, and this is the result:
I don't have any action shots (next time, I'm going to make sure my camera has a timer mode!), but it actually looks like a bucket hat on me. So that's nice. It's fun for summer, anyway. :)

I also made another wrap shirt that actually worked pretty well, but I don't have any pictures of that yet. Oh, and I'm halfway done with a skirt that I really like a lot. It's pretty see-through right at the moment, though, so I'm not taking pictures of that until it's lined! Our septic tank is fixed though, so I can prewash my fabric now, so the skirt will be done soon-ish, I think. (By the way, it's much nicer to have a working septic tank than a non-working one - doing the laundry and the dishes is a very happy thing!)

My little mermaid

2009-03-04T17:39:00.001-08:00

For some reason, I just love these mermaids that the girls drew the other day:

A's:
(I don't know why she's yelling at the fish to wait.)

And M's:

I'm not actually even sure what inspired the mermaid drawing, but I like them. (Oddly enough, A and I saw part of The Little Mermaid at the doctor's office this morning for the first time. Their previous Ariel exposure is all from Disney Princess stuff. Which is certainly everywhere when you have little girls!!)

I actually have crafty stuff to post, but I have to take some pictures first. So, coming soon! :)

New Look 6149

2009-02-27T04:35:00.000-08:00

is yet another wrap shirt that doesn't work for me. ;) It looks nice in their drawing, but when I made it, I kind of looked like I was in a karate class.... Something about the tie is a problem. I actually have another one cute out, and I'm pretty sure it will actually fit, so I'm just sticking with it for now! I actually have been busily cutting (and thinking) about projects, so I think there will be more to come soon.

And on another note, I'm the coach of A's soccer team now. The first practice was last night, and it went well. So that's a relief! Although I definitely need to get some more drills - 5 and 6 year olds can only focus on a drill/game for about 5 minutes before you need something else! But everyone (including me) had fun, so it all worked out.

Hat, take 1

2009-02-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged much lately, because I've been sewing for my secret/anonymous sewing swap, so nothing can be posted. I've finished that up, though, and the other day I decided to make myself a hat. Just a simple bucket hat sort of thing - summer sun hat, etc. I took a pattern from Craft magazine (for a fused plastic rain hat, but same concept), and I based it off that, only I lined it. And here it is:

It makes me laugh.... Well, so does the picture, but the hat itself is a little silly. I'm going to make some adjustments and try again, but I think eventually I'll end up with a cute summer sunhat!

Whew...

2009-02-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

Well, the sewing was unsuccessful for the wedding, but happily, the shopping wasn't. I have a pretty new dress to wear. Whew! I'll have to post pictures of it after the wedding. The funny thing is that colorwise, it's sort of the inverse of the dress I made - black on top and bottom, with a greenish/bluish strip in the middle. But somehow it fits way better and is actually flattering. So that's good.

In other sewing, I worked for a while this weekend on another wrap top shirt, of my own invention this time. Still didn't exactly work out, although I think I got some good thoughts out of the process. I'm going to try another pattern (Simplicity 4076, which Pattern Review picked as a best pattern of 2008, so hopefully this one will work for me.) I got it traced, but that's as far as I made it with that.

I also spent some time making bags for the game Cornhole. Ever heard of it? Apparently it comes from the midwest. At any rate, we have friends with a set, and it's pretty fun. Basically it's a beanbag toss game - each team tries to throw their 4 beanbags into a hole on a board. Iestyn's been meaning to make a set for a while now, and he finally got around to it this weekend. So I put the beanbags together for him. It was an entirely scrap project for both of us, so that's a bonus. However, it does mean that my bean bags are made from Amy Butler Nigella fabric, which I find hilarious for some reason. Anyway, they were very straightforward to make, albeit slightly tedious, because I did some major reinforcement on the seams. (They are going to be thrown something like 40 feet over and over again, you know?) Actually, the worst part of the entire project was finishing them once they were filled with beans. I had a lot of trouble fitting the full bean bag into my sewing machine (it was too tall to really fit very well), so my outer seams are extremely ugly. But I think they'll hold together.

Oh, and I did a little bit of work on a project for a swap that I'm doing with some people from thebabywearer.com. But since it's secret Santa-ish (you send your gift anonymously), I can't talk much about that at the moment. ;)

Huh, I guess I actually got to sew a lot this weekend. And yet I have no pictures to share. Guess I'll get back to it, though! :)

Or, you know, not.....

2009-02-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

So, you know how I mentioned "progress". Yeah, well, progress was made on the dress for the wedding. Unfortunately, progress led to dress that just really doesn't suit me at all. And kind of makes me look pregnant (which I'm very definitely not). So, I guess I'll be going shopping this weekend.... Here's a picture:

Not flattering, huh? (Okay, the expression on my face doesn't help. I don't know what that was!) It's pretty fabric, and a pretty pattern, and yet completely wrong for me. My mom had some ideas for possible fixes, but I'm too annoyed with it at this point to want to try any of them. Ah well, at least the other one is nice. (Not done, but at least it clearly *will* look good on me!)

Shopping mall, here I come....

Progress is made

2009-02-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything in a long time, because I've been in sort of a blah place with sewing. Between some just general creative blahs, and some major problems with a series of projects, I just really haven't been in the mood.

But I'm back! :) I went to Joann's last week to pick up a couple of things, and I was all inspired to make a dress. It's basically this pattern (the shorter, sleeveless one), except I'm making it in knit, and I more or less took the pattern pieces and completely ignored the directions. It's brown with a pretty light blue sash. It's actually almost completed, although I'm not sure I'm happy with the bodice. I may chop off the bottom half, make a new bodice, and reattach it. I haven't quite decided. But the important part is that I was inspired and having fun. And eventually I'm going to have a darn cute dress.

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a dress for a wedding, and I was afraid. Well, I made a muslin of the bodice, and, as I suspected, it didn't fit at all. So this weekend, my mom came to my rescue. ;) She pinned and draped the bodice and fixed where the darts should be, and made it work. So now my assignment is to do the same thing to the lining, make the rest of the dress, and then she'll come and figure out where exactly the zipper should go. Thanks, Mom! It's handy having someone to help me who actually knows what she's doing, lol! Anyway, pictures will come once something's actually completed. But I'm feeling happy about my progress.

Eeep!

2009-01-19T18:43:00.001-08:00

I started tracing the pattern pieces for my next big project tonight, and I'm afraid! It's this Vogue dress, view A, and it's complicated. Plus I'm planning to make it sleeveless, so I have to kind of make that part up. And it's in satin-y fabric, which I've never really worked with. And I'm not at all certain the bodice is going to fit me without some alterations.

All in all, I'm suspecting there are going to be some phone calls to my mom before this thing is complete.

On the plus side, I have plenty of time before the wedding I want to wear it to, so if it doesn't work out, I can always go shopping. And my fabric is pretty. :)

I'm going to start on a muslin of it (or the bodice part, at any rate) tomorrow - wish me luck!

Well, that's better....

2009-01-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, I tried again over the weekend to make the pin tucked skirt, and this one actually fits me - hooray! I totally forgot to take a picture of it, though. Oops! This time I used pink thread (although I kinda think I like the lime green from the first one better; oh well), and I did it the right size. Although I feel a little better about my mistake the first time, because I realized the actual waist of the first skirt fits; it's just that the rest of it doesn't! I guess I should pay attention to both sets of measurements....

Bad Karma. Or something.

2009-01-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

I don't know what I've done, but apparently I've angered the sewing gods somehow. Or maybe I'm just picking the wrong projects! The last few things I've tried to make really haven't been very successful. I haven't been doing a huge amount since I cleaned up my craft area, but the projects I've tried just haven't worked out.

I was working on the wrap top that I mentioned in my last post. I actually put it together without any major problems, but it was kind of funny looking. Partly I think the knit I used was too thick for the way they wrote the pattern, and partly I think I just don't like the pattern so much on my body. So, I tried to alter the pattern a bit. I put that one together, and it still looks funny. I think it can be rescued, but it needs some serious thought put into it. I just wasn't up for that last night (when I realized how much thought it needed), so I thought I'd do a quick skirt from my Stitch magazine.

Isn't it cute? Unfortunately, I must've measured wrong or something, because it's extremely (extremely, unattractively) tight. Argh! On the plus side, I think I have enough fabric to make it again, and I'm sure I'll do a better job with the pin tucks on a second attempt. (The horizontal ones are kinda crooked.) I just hope that my next big project (which I plan to wear to a wedding) is more successful!

Nice and neat

2009-01-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

The past few days, I've been working on neatening up my sewing area. I worked very hard on my fabric stash, sorting, folding and organizing it all. Plus I rearranged my cutting table, with my new mat (yay!) and my recovered iron (yay!) to make it all a little cleaner. I also had plans to buy a little sewing caddy for my scissors and pencils etc, but I couldn't find anything I liked. So, instead, I made a couple of fabric boxes. So far I have one for my currently planned patterns and another for all the random stuff. I think I might make one more for the scissors so that they fit slightly better, but it's nice to have it all arranged. It's much more pleasant to sew when it's a little less chaotic. So here's a picture of it before I mess it up again!
I also spent time this weekend spending some money. ;) I visited Joann's, Hancock's, and my favorite local quilt shop, Intown Quilters. I used up all of my gift card money (and then some), and I have all kinds of interesting new projects to work on. In addition to all the old projects, of course! I picked up some of the fabrics from this line by Timeless Treasures - I have the birds in brown and yellow for shorts for the girls this summer, and a fat quarter of the Paris one for something for me. I haven't quite worked out what yet, but it was too cute to resist. I think my next project, though, is this wrap top by Vogue in a charcoal gray color. We'll see how that goes...

Crafty mixed bag

2008-12-31T06:37:00.000-08:00

Wow, that title sounds like I made some kind of cool bag. Except I mean it in the other sense - my post-Christmas crafting has been sort of erratic. Well, I haven't been doing a huge amount, because I wanted a break after all the pre-Christmas work. But I've made a couple of things. One was successful, and one was not at all.

The first success was that I (finally) finished the jacket for my friend Mary. This time it fits well, and she's very happy with it. So that was a good thing. And I decided that I thought the first one I made her (that was the wrong size) actually does fit me well enough to wear it, so I've been feeling fairly fashionable. I'll have to get a picture at some point.

The shirt I tried to make, on the other hand, was quite a failure! I cut it out ages ago, and I had this vision of what it should be. This was not it:

The design on the sleeves isn't quite what I had in mind, but it's okay. But the sleeves! I don't know what in the world happened there. I cut it out so long ago, I don't remember what I was thinking. My guess on the width is that I cut it with a different seam allowance than I sewed (entirely possible, since it was from a commercial pattern - I thought I'd adjusted it, but I may not have). But the length! What's up with that?? And since the design is so low on the sleeves, I can't even just chop them off and fix them. If I want to recover this shirt, I'm going to have to do some serious taking apart. That kind of depressed me when I realized it, so I just set it aside for now. I do think I have a plan - since the short sleeve part clearly needs shortening, too, I think I have a way to attach the longer sleeve on there - but still, I don't want to deal with it for now. This shirt and I clearly need a little break from one another. ;)

I'm ending 2008 on an easy successful project, though. My ironing board cover was no longer functional - every time I ironed anything, the metal pattern showed up on the fabric! So, I just whipped up a fun new ironing board cover with my beloved Kokka flowers:

Now I get to see them every day! :)

Happy New Year to everyone! I got a bunch of sewing magazines and Joann/Hancock gift certificates for Christmas, so I have many plans and inspiration for sewing and crafting in 2009!

Whew.... (And Merry Christmas!)

2008-12-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

Since Christmas has passed, and the gifts have been opened, I can finally share the Christmas craft I've been working so hard on lately. This year was a particularly crazy Christmas craft! I made t-shirts and then freezer paper stenciled designs on them. I was busy with it right until Christmas Eve, although that's partly because I ended up having to remake one of them, because when I looked at it, I realized the pattern I'd used was clearly cracked and definitely would not fit! So, here they all are:

I only have action shots of the ones I gave to Iestyn's family, because we did Christmas with them earlier in the month. But everyone seemed to like their shirts yesterday, and hopefully they all fit. I really like the way they came out, and in that sense it was a good Christmas craft, but I think next year it might be wise to do something slightly less labor intensive. Not because it was really that bad, but because I ran out of time to make anything else! I had plans for other homemade gifts, and it just didn't happen. Oh well!

And now it's time to move on to some other projects. Like my now very late jacket. And the purse I wanted to make. And, well, any of a hundred other projects in my head, lol!

(Oh, and um, D, if you're reading this, pretend the Christmas craft is a surprise.... Actually, nothing in these pictures is for you, so in *some* sense it'll be a surprise! :) )

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen....

2008-12-12T14:26:00.001-08:00

But do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all?

Between Christmas crafting and a little weekend vacation (with sick children, unfortunately), I haven't done much lately that I can post about. I did take a little time to stencil some Christmas reindeer shirts for the girls and I.

Ignore the not so great picture - that was the best one of quite a series taken. A's reindeer has a smiley face, M's is singing, and mine is the grown up version. ;) It's hard to tell, but the noses are a little sparkly, too.

And the kids' reindeer bring back fond memories, because they're part of a stencil my mom used years and years ago. (They were the O in a stencil of the word Joy, but the whole thing wouldn't fit on their shirts.)

The Christmas crafting continues as well, but that won't be revealed until later!

Advent Calendar

2008-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

Another one of my Christmas traditions (a new-ish one) is an Advent calendar of activities to do with the girls/as a family. Each day of Advent, I have some kind of activity for us to do. Most of them are things we'd do anyway - wear Christmas shirts, bake cookies, watch the Grinch, read holiday stories, give money to the Salvation Army, give to the toy drive at school, etc. But it's a fun way to make sure we do something Christmas-y every day, and the girls really enjoy it.

So I started this tradition last year, and of course it was already December when I decided that I needed an advent calendar. I whipped one up very quickly at the time, and it was pretty bad. (I used magic marker for the numbers!) This year I thought I'd make a new and improved version. To be honest, I didn't work on it much in advance, either, so I was busily finishing it on November 30. And this was a good example of my vision and my patience not meshing! It isn't quite what I was aiming for (in particular, the stitching around the balls just isn't all that great, and I can't quite work out how to do the numbers without hand embroidering, which kills my wrists). I was pretty disappointed in it at first, but now that it's hanging up, it's not so bad. I put the activities on cardstock, and wrote the numbers on the back. That was just a stopgap, but I actually rather like it, because they sort of look like the top bit of an ornament. So, I may still want a new one (again!) next year, but at least I can live with this one for this year. Perhaps the next one will be purchased.....

Aprons

2008-11-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

Mostly I've been busy working on some Christmas-y crafts lately, but before Thanksgiving I used some of my Alexander Henry birds to make the girls and I matching aprons.

I was kind of experimenting on mine, and I don't love the tie method I used, but all in all, they're pretty cute. So we baked pies for Thanksgiving in our matching aprons. :) I think it's funny that I've gotten all into aprons lately, but they're handy, and it is nice to be able to look at some of my fun fabrics while I'm cooking!

My present, part 2

2008-11-26T06:05:00.000-08:00

I finally got to play with my coverstitch machine last night, and it's the COOLEST thing EVER! I'm so excited. I made a quick shirt, and it looks so professional. (Well, except for the part where I hemmed one of the sleeves backwards, so it's inside out. Good thing it was just a test shirt for pajamas!) I love my new machine!

Although it's got to be said, my three machine command center (so to speak) is hilarious:

I think some rearranging might be in order. Hee-hee.

Christmas traditions

2008-11-26T05:38:00.000-08:00

I was thinking yesterday about one of my personal Christmas traditions, known in my household as the "crazy Christmas craft". (Slogan: It's not Christmas unless you're frantically crafting on December 23!) Every year I pick a craft, and I give it to pretty much everyone. Sometimes it's a little insane, but for some reason I enjoy it. Well, most of the time! :)

Anyway, I was sitting in the car yesterday while M took an unexpected car nap, so I compiled a list of all the Christmas crafts I could remember. I've been doing this for a long time now!

The oldest one I can remember is pottery in 1997 or 1998. Lots of mugs and vases and candleholders and things like that.
I don't think I did anything in 1999.
2000 - scented gel candles
2001 - checkerboards - I painted the squares on a stone tile, and the pieces were stones we collected in Greece on our big European trip. That was an awfully heavy box to mail home!
2002 - ??
2003 - I made books with a take off I wrote of Green Eggs and Ham (about A's tendency not to nap), illustrated with photos of A.
2004 - polymer clay animal ornaments - I still like these, but they were a lot of work!
2005 - ??
2006 - fleece hats with appliques
2007 - purses
2008 is still a surprise ;)

One year the craft was quilling - I assume that was either 2002 or 2005. That was hands down my worst Christmas craft ever, which actually wasn't even a proper Christmas craft, since I think I only ended up giving two of them. I still think quilling is really pretty, but it's also worth every penny it costs to not have to make them myself. (And as a die hard DIYer, that's not something you hear me say very often!)

Sewing has rather taken over the Christmas craft of late, which isn't much of a surprise, I suppose, given my sewing obsession. I wonder what this year's craft will be.... ;)

I got the best present!

2008-11-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, I love my serger. All these t-shirts really made me lust after a coverstitch machine, though. And so my beloved husband gave me one as an early Christmas present! It wasn't actually a surprise, since I was the one to order it, but I'm very excited. (In return, he's ordered himself some car parts as his Christmas gift. This isn't how we normally do presents, but we're both happy with it this year. Although clearly I got the better end of the bargain. Of course, I'm sure he thinks the same thing, lol!)

Anyway, it came yesterday. I haven't had a chance to do anything but look at the manual yet. Apparently it's very complicated to thread - they devoted half the manual to the process. I'm a little scared.... Although the serger doesn't frighten me at all anymore, so I can't imagine it's *that* hard to figure out. I'm looking forward to playing with it tonight. AND I'm looking forward to how much easier it's going to make my Christmas crafting. Hooray!

Busy, busy

2008-11-20T11:09:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I've done a lot of crafting. I was super busy during the 2 weeks after Halloween.
In that time I:
made my jewelry trade jacket (and learned it didn't fit)
stenciled an elephant on a shirt for M (to match her elephant pants)
stenciled a tree on a shirt for myself
turned my ill-fitting hedgehog shirt into a shirt for A
made myself another hedgehog shirt
made my Flirty Skirty apron (then decided I didn't like the fit, unfortunately. But my friend Diane is happy with it)
And last but definitely not least, I made myself a new traveling bag:

View under the flap:
My previous bigger purse was an early effort, and the strap wasn't attached quite as well as it ought to have been, so it's beginning to fall apart. Plus I wanted plenty of space for lots of books/puzzles/etc to entertain myself on the flight. (Which was good, considering how long it ended up taking!) I had this beautiful Marimekko stretch twill waiting for a good project plus some plain black twill on hand, and I put them together to make this bag. It's perfect for flying - big enough to pack lots of entertainment, food and water, with a big slip pocket on the back, and a divided pocket in the front for a cell phone and other stuff. Plus a zipper pocket inside just in case. I'm quite pleased with it. Plus it's so pretty! :)

I'm glad I got a walking foot for my sewing machine, though, as I think the stretchy twill would be have been a real pain otherwise. And while I'm at it, a quick shout out for The Fabric Fairy, since that's where I found an affordable version of my beloved Marimekko print! Plus they have great customer service.

I haven't actually done much of anything since I got back from my trip, but it's about time to get back into crafty mode. Christmas isn't all that far away, and I have lots to do!

I'll close with a picture of M in her elephant outfit, because it makes me happy:

A moment of silence

2008-11-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

I flew to Colorado this weekend, and the flight out here was a mess. First we were delayed, then loaded onto a plane, then taken off that plane, then eventually on another plane.

In the process, I lost my beautiful brown coat. :( I realized it was still on the first plane, but when the attendant went to look for it, it was gone. So I guess *someone* has my brown coat, but it isn't me.

So, a moment of silence for my beloved coat.

(Now I'm going to have to make two more, because the black version I made for my jewelry trade didn't actually fit. I'm going to be such an expert at this coat! But what a very sad way to get the expertise.....)

Halloween

2008-11-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween. You get to dress up, be crafty and get candy; what could be better? So here are some Halloween pictures.

This year the girls decided to be ghosts. That was easy-peasy - some muslin from Joann's, quick armhole sewing, and some eyes and a mouth. I did add a headband on the inside of A's to keep the eyes in place, although I'm not sure how effective it was. M wore hers in the costume parade at school, but since she absolutely refused to let me try it on her, the eye holes really weren't in the right place. She had to be led by the hand to make it through the parade, lol. She looked cute, though! (If you look closely at this picture, you can see how much the eye holes moved...)

A was much more willing to wear her costume (although much crankier during the evening).

The *real* craftiness came in my costume. The kids thought I should dress up, so somehow I ended up as an alien with purple hair. This was the outcome:
I sewed the shirt, then freezer paper stenciled the writing. Then I attached a layered skirt with wire in the hems to hold the tiers out. It worked pretty well to get the effect I was going for, although I think thicker wire might have held its shape better. I really enjoyed the purple hair, though - I might have to do that for real sometime!

We had a lot of fun. We were joined by my mom, sister, brother in law, nephew, and in-laws for the trick or treating, then afterwards we went to the neighborhood party in our cul de sac. My in-laws are visiting for the weekend, so I got to actually talk to adults at the party. Bonus! My MIL dressed up for the trick or treating, too, so here's a shot of all the costumed ones (except my nephew):
Happy day after Halloween!

Fall Fun

2008-10-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Me and my girls:
Well, you can see one of them, anyway! :)

It finally feels like fall here, and over the weekend we went up to the mountains to enjoy it. It was a wonderful, busy day - first we did a corn maze, then "panned" for gemstones, then hit the pumpkin farm. The weather was gorgeous, and everyone had fun. What a great day!

The corn maze was actually quite big, and it had a card with a series of punches you could do while wandering through it. M got cranky after a while, so she and I bailed to have a snack while A and Iestyn finished up all the punches. Here's a picture of her examining the map:

(Which was surprisingly unhelpful for getting around the maze, if you ask me. Once you're in the middle of all that corn, all directions look pretty much the same!)

The panning for gems was very popular with both girls. They each had a bucket of rocks/dirt, which we rinsed and put through a sieve, and you were supposed to find the gemstones. Of course, the girls both ended up deciding about half of their bucket was "pretty", so we have a LOT of little rocks in our house now... ;)

They did each get a few nice quartzes and some other things like that, but mostly it was just fun to play with rocks and water.

After that it was time for the pumpkin farm. We went to Burt's Pumpkin Farm, which we've visited many times before, but never when it was this crowded. It was totally nuts! But the lines (for what we wanted, anyway) were actually pretty short, and we got a bunch of pumpkins for a reasonable price - sugar pumpkins for cooking, some small ones for drawing faces on, some bigger ones for carving.

Here's A getting a wheelbarrow ride before we picked out any of the pumpkins:

And M picking out one of her " two perfect pumpkins".

It was really a lovely day. Time with my family doing fun activities in beautiful weather. Just exactly what I wanted. :)

Pony. HRTS. Pony.

2008-10-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

A, who is in kindergarten, has been learning a lot about reading and spelling since she started school. Naturally, she practices these things at home, which has led to M also practicing them. Even though she has no idea how to spell anything except her name. I got a video, and I had to share, because it's about the cutest thing ever:

The barter system

2008-10-17T17:00:00.001-07:00

My friend Mary is a metalsmith/artisan jewelry maker. She makes all sorts of really lovely things, and is the source of much of my jewelry. :) I was visiting her the other day to get my sister a birthday gift, and I took along the corduroy coat that I made. (She's always very excited to see my stuff.) And she loved it - so much that she wanted her own in black! Meanwhile, I'd been looking at her stock, and there was a necklace that I really liked a lot. It's a little different than her usual stuff, but really striking. So we ended up doing a deal - she gave me this really cool necklace, and I'm going to make her a jacket. I got to take my necklace home with me, so I guess I better get moving on the jacket!

(Oh, I'd include a picture of the necklace, but the ones I've taken this evening have been horrible - I'll have to wait until daytime.)

Fun birdie dress!

2008-10-16T18:19:00.001-07:00

In my to do list post, I mentioned an outfit for A. I haven't done the pants yet, but the birdie dress is done, and it's SO CUTE! I'm really very pleased with the way this one turned out. Look for yourself:
And a close-up on the birdies:
I cut them out of knit (the pants will be the same knit, as are the collar and cuffs), ironed them on, then embroidered them. Embroidery still isn't my thing (my stitches are very uneven! Plus it still makes my wrists hurt, same as the cross stitch I had to give up), but I do really like the look.

Hopefully it'll fit A correctly - it looks huge to me. Ah well, I can always re-hem it if I need to. I'm sure the top part is fine, since I based it off a pattern I know fits her. The outfit is a surprise, but I showed her the birds to get her reaction. She said "Awww..." in the cheesiest voice you can imagine. (Somehow we have an extremely cheesy child. I don't know where that comes from!) So, I'm thinking the outfit will be a hit - yay! Now I just have to do the pants.... And maybe start on some of the rest of the list....

To Do List

2008-10-14T12:23:00.001-07:00

I feel like I have a million projects in my head lately, so I thought I'd write them down.

Let's see:
Outfit for A - dress with (embroidered) applique birdies plus pants to match
Outfit for M - long sleeve shirt with applique/stencil (maybe a pig?) plus pants to match
Halloween t-shirt (me) - white ringer tee with black ribbing with Halloween stencil - maybe a witch hat?
Long sleeve raglan tee for me - still trying to figure out the sleeve pattern, so I think this will require some experimenting
Flirty Skirty apron - I want to use my purple/green Kokka flowers for this, but I need something for the contrast fabric
New purse for me - the fabric for this has just been sitting there for ages, but I need to figure out the new design and I've been putting it off
AB Barcelona skirt from some pretty fabric I already have
Purse for my MIL (much figuring to do with that, too.)
I'd like to try again on the hot pads. I think I know what I did wrong now....
Various other shirts that I have patterns and fabric for (for me), although most of them are more spring/summery, so I may wait a bit on those
I kind of want to make a big picnic blanket (like an extremely simplistic quilt), but that's not a top priority. Probably means I'll do it next, lol!

Plus, of course, loads of Christmas presents, which probably belong near the top of this list, but I don't want to write them down here, just in case. So, I'll be sewing constantly for the next year, if this list is anything to go by. :)

ETA: Oops - I almost forgot the two ghost costumes I need to make!

Edited again: (see what I mean about my list?) And also some more bags for wrapping Christmas presents in, since I've mostly given up wrapping paper. And I want to make fabric sandwich type bags for packing snacks. I have a tutorial for those somewhere.

Cloth balls

2008-10-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

I seem to be in the middle of a little baby boom at the moment. Well, not ME, but a lot of people around me. So I wanted to share a couple of pictures of one my new favorite baby gifts. I found this tutorial for cloth balls a while back, and they're a fun way to use scraps and make a baby/toddler gift all at once. Plus, when the toddler decides to throw the ball, it's fabric, so no one will get hurt. Bonus! Anyway, here are some pictures:

Fun, no?

I love my jacket!

2008-10-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

Last fall, I kept searching for a cute dark brown corduroy jacket, and I just couldn't find one that I liked. This fall, after an added year of sewing under my belt, it occurred to me that I could probably make myself a jacket. And I did!!

I used this Vogue pattern, view B, to make an unlined cord jacket. I was a little paranoid about it, since I've always heard Vogue patterns were complicated, but since it claimed to be "Very Easy Vogue" (and it was the only pattern I found that really looked at all like what I wanted), I decided to try anyway. I did warn my mom I might be calling, though. ;) As it turned out, it actually was a pretty easy to follow pattern. I'm not sure I'd do it as a total beginner (which is what "very easy" implies to me!), but I found it mostly straightforward. And this is the result:

(Please ignore my lack of a head. I looked a little crazy in the only picture that really showed off the coat.)

There are a couple of things that I might change - I definitely need to shorten the sleeves a bit, and I think I'd make it slightly longer if I were to do it again - but on the whole I love it. It's a great weight for our current bizarre October weather; I found some adorable sunflower buttons which make me quite happy; and I feel both proud and cute when I wear it. What's not to like?

And I was pleased to discover in my fabric stash that I have some olive cord that I could use to make another jacket if I want. It's very thin, though, so I think it would need to be lined, so that may take some thought. I'm loving the feeling that I can make it if I want to, though!

2 hour trousers

2008-10-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

I have approximately a million different ideas of things to sew (and plenty of fabric) - honestly, it got to the point last week where I was feeling completely overwhelmed by my entire craft space. So over the weekend I decided to do a quick project just to have something easily checked off my list!

I've used Petchy's 10 minute trousers tutorial a bunch of times now to make pj pants for the girls. It takes me longer than 10 minutes (mostly because of finishing things things nicely) but they're certainly a quick project to whip out. Anyway, I used the same method to make myself some cute owl-y comfy pants last night.

Close-up of the flannel:

They're very soft and cosy. The waistline isn't quite as nice as the pair they're based off of, but I think they'll be lovely once it's actually cool enough to wear them. I think there's enough left to make some pjs for one or both of the girls, too.

I've also been working on a brown corduroy jacket which is just lacking buttons at this point - stay tuned for a post about that. Between those two things, I'm feeling better about my giant list of ideas, so hopefully now I can concentrate on working through it, rather than feeling stressed by it!

Sometimes things don't go as planned.....

2008-10-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

So, I love the Sew Mama Sew blog - I always find interesting projects and tutorials there. So, I was poking around on there, and I found a tutorial on making my own hot pads. (Which, of course, I can't find anymore.) So, I thought that sounded cool. That looks straightforward and easy! What a fun Christmas craft!

Bwa-ha-ha! It turns out that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to quilting things. All those layers mess me up! I didn't have too much trouble with the sewing the fabric together part, but after that I'm a mess. As are these hot pads.....

The *really* sad part is that the extremely wonky one on the left is actually the last one I did. They just keep getting worse! I don't have a picture of my first one, but it's actually relatively straight..... I think I need to have fewer layers of batting, or more insul-bright or something, but somehow I do not think that hot pads will be the Christmas craft of the year. Ah well. At least I have plenty of time to come up with a new one! :)

Isn't the fabric pretty, though? Farmer's Market by Sandi Henderson - such a cute line!