Embroidery Attempt

I used Oliver + S's Ice Cream Dress pattern to make this shirt, but wanted to add a little something to make it extra special.  My grandmother taught me how to embroidered as a girl, and I was able to recollect enough of  those lessons to do a little daisy.  With all of this on the horizon, I'm feeling more embroidery projects to come!

The Last of 2010

Here's some evidence of my last ditch effort for 2010.  Most of that effort was spent on Christmas presents.  Now, I can start focusing on 2011, which I think will be the year of the baby shower-- even more babies are due in my circle of friends than were last year!

Happy 2011!

Twirl Skirt for Lucy

Fabric: Heather Bailey's Pop Garden

Pattern: Edith Twirl Skirt

Twirl Skirt for Emily

Fabric: Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane

Pattern: Edith Twirl Skirt

Silk Flowers 

(on everything! skirts, headbands, pins, you name it)

Some friends showed me how to make these.  Here is a good tutorial, but WARNING they are addictive!

Lots of trappings for the newest edition to our family, Felicity. (Pictured sleeping on the center shelf).

Doll Quilt and Pillow

Fabric: Moda 1933 Jelly Roll

Pattern: None

Clothes for Felicity

I mostly used Simplicity patterns.  I really like the vintage dresses in No. 4347 and No. 3929.

I can't take credit for this one, but Billy customized this scooter for Henry.  I think it turned out great!

Henry's name written in slip-proof tread.  Genius!

 Bottle Cap Necklace with lots of interchangeable bottle caps!

Some paper ornaments for Lucy.  I'm sure I love these more than she does.

                                      

A little room re-arranging is good for the soul.  Plus, we needed some more spots for all the goodies Santa brought.

Of course there were lots of unfinished projects in 2010.  Some that will remain unfinished because I lost interest, some that will have to wait until 2011, and others that just made me angry.

                                      

So, here's to the project pile of 2011!  May it be as fun to climb as 2010's.  

Mom- Hopefully, these pictures are better quality than the web cam!

Just Cozying Up With Darth

Doesn't Darth look ominous AND inviting, sitting on the rocker?  I made this last minute gift for our sweet friend Cannon who turned 5 this week.  For some reason, I think it's hilarious!  

The last few weeks have been full of holiday parties, gift exchanges, birthdays and special sewing projects that can't be revealed until Christmas morning.  It has been a whirlwind-- but the fun kind of whirlwind.  Now, things are starting to wind down.  Projects are getting finished up.  Presents are mostly wrapped.  School is out.  Maybe now I can catch up on some blogging. :)

Darth and I hope you are enjoying the season as much as we are!

xoxo

From Me, To You

Lately, I've been playing around with Christmas trees as a design element in my holiday sewing projects.  I thought you might like to have some fun with trees, too!  So, in the spirit of the season, I've made my tree templates available to download.  

Click here to download the PDF.

Lucy's Christmas School Shirt

Tea Towels

P.S.  This is my first time to make a PDF, so it's kind of an experiment.  Please let me know if you have problems downloading or printing the pattern.

Togetherness Makes: Part III

 After a trip to Anthropologie, Mom and I were inspired to make Christmas tea towels.  Kristin stopped by to share her scraps and add to the general festive fury.  We came up with some cute appliques.  I'm not sure what to do with mine, though.  Open my Etsy shop again?  Give them as gifts?  Keep them all for myself? 

We also whipped up some new pj's for Lucy and Henry.  

  

These pj's for Henry almost got finished.  They still need buttons and hemming.  Thankfully, I still have a couple more weeks until Christmas to finish them!

Holiday Dish Towels

I made these for Jenny's birthday. I wish I knew what kind of fabric the off-white is. I bought it two years ago at JoAnn's and they don't seem to have it anymore. It is 100% cotton woven fabric, almost like a tight waffle weave. I stitched a narrow band of contrasting fabric to a holiday print strip about six inches wide. Then I stitched the right side of the contrast piece to the wrong side of the white. When I flipped the print piece to the right side of the white, I pressed about an inch of the white piece up, giving an extra band of white below the contrast piece. I top stitched the both sides of the narrow contrast band. Next, I pressed under 1/4 inch at the top of the accent piece and top stitched it in place. Then I pressed a 1/4 inch hem on the sides and top of the dishtowel and stitched.

On the Halloween towel pictured here, I simply attached the wider piece to the white fabric so when I flipped it over the narrow band was at the top.

Scooping Up More Sweet Dreams

Here is the top to go with Eva's popsicle pj pants. Fabric scraps cut into a cone shape and three scoops were backed with iron-on interfacing, basted together and then stitched onto a tee shirt. Before attaching the applique I sewed diagonal lines on the cone in white to create the waffle grid.

Baby Shoez

These cloth baby shoes are constructed like "Robeez" leather shoes. It is fun to see what you can do with scraps of fabric in contrasting colors. My very pregnant daughter-in-law, Candice, and I had fun trying out this free pattern. The yellow lining is a bottom weight fabric and was too thick and hard to work with, so I will stick to lighter weight cotton fabrics next time.

Tweed-ish and Tweaking

The last time I went to Dallas and discovered Heaven on Earth, I picked up some interesting cotton called Quilter's Tweed to add to my stash. It's visually textural, but fairly smooth to the touch and lighter weight than it looks. You can click here to learn more about it. I really liked the blend of colors and thought it had a lot of potential. So, in the midst of my School-Clothes-Sewing-Extravaganza, I realized Lucy would need some shorts (especially to go with this shirt) and I thought of the tweed. Tweaking my Oliver + S Puppet Show pattern was the trickiest part. Enlarging a pattern (four sizes larger than it was meant to go) always makes me break a sweat. I'm never quite sure if I've been exact enough with my measurements until they're finished. But, these little shorts seemed to turn out okay. I guess we'll see if they hold up after a day of breaking in!

Never mind my reluctant model, good help is so hard to find.

First Day Experiment

Lucy has been asking for something like this, for the first day of school:

And me, thinking, oh that would be easy to make! came up with something like this:

I can't say I'm loving how it turned out. There are a lot of things I would like to change, but seeing how on top of things I've been lately, this will probably get put on a shelf and forgotten... hopefully before the first day of school.

Summer Lovin'

I think I'm in love. Ever since Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks line came out, I've been drooling over its Indian summer color scheme, ultra soft, almost silky, light weight texture and fabulous folksy patterns. But, I've been tentative to actually make anything with it. In fact, I bought some a while ago, but ended up just framing it because I didn't want to mess it up.

But, after seeing a friend's recent project with the voile, I gained a bit of courage to try sewing with it myself. I used Oliver + S's Ice Cream pattern to make a little blouse for Lucy. The voile sewed and washed beautifully. I was afraid the delicate fabric would snag easily, but it's actually really sturdy. Now, I'm itching to get some more voile in a solid to make shorts...

Hello, Again

There's something about summer in Arkansas that just sucks all of the creative juices out of me. I think it's 110 degree humidity. We haven't been doing much more than hanging out at the pool and hitting Sonic's half-price drink hour. But, with the faint ringing of school bells to pull me out of this summer's swelter, I wanted to get a few things made for Lucy's back to school ward robe.

Here is the first of a few projects I've got in the works. This dress is a Sandi Henderson pattern that I've been wanting to try for such a very long time. This pattern was so nice to use. The markings on the pattern are somewhat minimal, but the instructions are presented in a color, brochure style that are very easy to follow. I really hate buying a designer pattern and feeling like it is poorly made. But, Sandi's patterns are great-- sturdy, high quality, something you could use again and again with out fear of tearing. I used Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane line and I love how it turned out! The weight of the the Nicey Jane fabric is heavy enough that it will work well into the fall.