A Girl Gift

I know, I know, you're right, I did drop off the face of the earth, but I'm back, baby! and I have a lot to post. It's been 9 months since my last post, but a lot has happened. My Etsy shop had a very busy spring...an even busier summer, then I gave birth to my 4th child (shortly after my oldest turned 4), and now I'm getting into a groove (at least that's what I'm telling myself).
I've spent a lot of time during the middle of the night nursing sessions browsing really fabulous sewing blogs and I have been inspired. Again. And Again...

I have sewn a lot in the past 7 months and I plan to post all or at least most of it. I'm going to start with a gift that I made for my daughter's Pre-k gift exhange. The requirement was to not spend more than $10 and it had to be for a girl. So of course I had to go really, girly, girly. Do you think I succeeded?



I made a black apple doll. I did enlarge the pattern just a bit. It's not as big as I originally wanted it to be, but I didn't have much time. The pretty little hair bows I made from polyester satiny fabrics and from a pattern at Just Another Hang Up. She is fabulous and only asks that you don't sell anything you make with the pattern. I also made a gorgeous brooch for my new grey (grey is my new favorite colour) jacket. Will post about that later.

And of course I had to wrap the gift up...and send it off to school with my little girl for her Christmas party. Fun.

Stay tuned for more blogging on other projects I've been working on including crib bedding, outfits for the girls, baby boy gifts, and more! I may even have a tutorial somewhere a long the way as well :) and a couple giveaways!

J.

Toss 'n Play Balls

From Thanksgiving to just before Christmas, these puppies were a big hit in my shop. I could barely keep up to the orders. Everyday during nap-time and as soon as the kids were in bed, it was all industry. I was exhausted by the time Christmas rolled around.

I was also contacted by someone at Chase Designs, who wanted 9 custom balls for a conference room that they were decorating in a baby theme for a client. (I believe they were making a pitch to Pampers). They had large glass jars that they were going to fill with 3 balls a piece. All this in the midst of my Christmas order rush...

They turned out really nicely. I wish I had a picture of the finished conference room with my handy work displayed.

Bridal Shower Gift

I have had this fabric for almost a year. My mom gave me quite a few half yard cuts for my birthday last year. It's from the Robert Kaufman Metro Market collection. My mother-in-law and I were invited to a bridal shower, so I put together this gift for the bride-to-be.

Included is:
1 hostess apron
2 potholders
2 kitchen towels

Let's begin with the hostess apron. My friend Jodi, has a fabulous blog with a lot of great tutorials. I used her hostess apron tutorial to make this beauty. It's reversible.

Absolutely adorable! I need to make one for myself.

The kitchen towels were inspired by this extremely creative Etsian. I certainly didn't use as much detail as Melissa does, but was inspired by her creativity to make beautiful creations for your kitchen.
Lastly, the potholders. I made up this little pattern last summer. Basically just cutting 9 1/2 inch x 9 1/2 inch squares of fabric. Sandwiching with Insul-Bright and flannel, then sewing together and adding on a handle. Easy.

Dang, I need to make one of these sets for my new house!

Easter Baskets!!

Easter is approaching. Quickly. My 3 year-old loves holidays. She loves the anticipation and she loves the excitement of the day. This year will be an extra fun Easter because we will be in our very own house. After living with my in-laws for 8 months, this is going to be a welcome treat!

I decided since I have such cute pink fabric laying around, to make some cute little Easter baskets for my 3 girls. I used two different fabrics for each basket. Here's a some pictures of how they turned out. It's hard to see the inside fabric, but they do match and make such a cute, cute Easter egg/candy holder :)






First let me talk about the fabrics.
The babushka fabric I had left over from a custom backpack order I did for an Etsy customer in Australia. The fabric is pricey because it comes from Holland. I bought it here. I really want this fabric in pink and blue, but by the time you pay for shipping and the fabric, you are looking at about $20/meter. Although I did get 3 backpacks and one Easter basket out of one meter and still have some useful scraps leftover. I lined that backpack with Michael Miller Disco Dot in pink and green. For the other two I used some "Springy" Heather Bailey fabric that I had on hand.

I followed this tutorial. I did make a few changes which I will note here.

* I didn't have fusible fleece on hand so I just used some scraps of warm and white cotton quilt batting
* I serged all the raw edges. It looks a little neater and will prevent fraying.
* For the handles I used two layers of warm and white cotton quilt batting and I also interfaced the fabric with lightweight interfacing.
* I did use some nice heavy interfacing like she suggests for the baskets. It makes them so sturdy and they do stand up very nicely. In fact I think they are more sturdy than some of those baskets you buy in the store....and these ones were virtually free. I only used what I had on hand.

Happy Sewing and Happy Easter!

Pink Fig Patchwork Skirt

A couple months ago, I bought this pattern.
Adorable right? But does it look like it's gathered between the layers?? I didn't think so, but it is. I hate gathering. It drives me nuts. It slows me down.
But here's a little trick I was taught by an expert seamstress.
Turn your tension up as high as it will go. Stitch length, 4. Then run a stitch through the layer to gather the fabric. (Make sure you use some high quality fabric otherwise your thread could break as you pull to create the gathers. Then match up the layers. Still not my favorite thing to do and I was by no means perfect at it, but it did the trick.

Again, pictures of the finished product. Unedited, from my phone, with two extra little cuties in the pictures and some princess sneakers to add to the awesomeness of the photo quality.

Check out that pose!
I just used fabrics I had on hand. Some michael miller, heather bailey, amy butler...a designer assortment.

My daughter is in desperate need of more skirts. She won't wear anything else. She wears the same shirt and skirt for two days in a row, round the clock before I have to hide them while she's bathing and force her to pick out something else to wear. Another pink shirt and another fabulous skirt.
I should try making the embellished shirt, too.

More Weekend Sewing

As I mentioned in the previous post, my husband bought me this book.

Also mentioned, was that my super awesome friend, Jodi, had a baby last month. I had to have something to take to her in the hospital.

Here's the finished project (I only made the kimono...not the baby).

This picture was taken on my phone and is unedited...

There are way cuter pictures of baby Tess on Jodi's blog.

I used some super soft flannel. Then made it a little girly by using some Amy Butler Pink Wallflower Fabric to create the trim and ties. It really didn't take that long and the directions were easy to follow.

Weekend Sewing

First of all, if you knew what has been going on in my life the past 8 months, you would forgive me for the lack of posts. Honestly, you would.

For Christmas my husband bought this book for me.

See that pretty skirt on the front?? I made one. I believe it's called the "yard-sale skirt". I loved it. So I started making one for my fabulous friend, Jodi. It was her birthday. She just had a baby 6 weeks ago and when she sent me this picture she wrote, "pardon the 40 extra pounds in the picture". I'm telling you...not everyone can pull off wearing a wrap skirt 6 weeks postpartum, this girl, can! It looks so good on her.
Let me address sewing this beauty. It wasn't easy. It was frustrating. I had bought this fabric (Lacework in brown) on a great sale several months ago in this etsy shop. I was going to make spring outfits for my girls with it, but I know how much Jodi loves this fabric.

The instructions pretty much stink. Except for the french seams part. I did like learning how to do french seams. I had never done them before. However, I started out making the small size and when it was all done it barely wrapped around my size 6/8 frame so I decided to add two more panels. Which meant I was in a time crunch and did not do french seams for the extra two panels. The waist band and ties were not that easy either. Again, bad instructions. But I will say that if you do make one, make sure you make the waistband longer and the ties longer, too. The errata for the book, says to increase the straps 8 inches for every panel you add. But I would expand the waistband to go around the entire skirt and then measure how long you want the ties.

Don't worry, more posts to come. I have been sewing over the past 8 months. Mostly for my etsy shop, but I do plan to blog the other cool stuff I've made, too. I'm moving 678 miles from Houston in a few days, and I'm soon to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. What do they do anyway?? I'll have plenty of time to blog.