Guest book attendant dress

My last BIL on my husbands side tied the knot this past weekend.
I had the pleasure of making the guest book attendant dress, as well as the flower girls dresses.

guest book attendant

I forgot to take pics of the flower girl dresses, but hope to get my hands on one soon.

New bathing suit

So, I took the plunge this morning.  

 

I have been reading up on making bathing suits for a while now.  I had a pattern, and fabric, for over a year.  Today I finally decided to try it out.  

 

The pattern (McCalls 9374) had excellent instrucions on sewing with this kind of fabric.  It came together quite easy, and turned out great!

 

I did have to extend the torso for her, but that was a simple fix.

Now she is all ready for swimming lessons next week!

Sleep sacks

plain jane grey

I've been getting more and more orders for the bigger sized sleep sacks.  These are 45" long.

spice hoopla dot

forest animals

transportation

I recently ordered longer zippers for the bigger sleep sacks. 

Should make getting the child in and out a lot easier. :)

for the hubs

It isn't too often that I get to sew for my hubby.
He had a little problem though, and thought I could help him out. 
He had a vinyl/plastic case that came with his wrenches.  In the heat, the wrenches would sick to it, and they were hard to get in/out.  In the cold, they would fall out.  It was slowly ripping, so he came to me.

I used a high vis duck cloth, and used the old cover as the pattern.  We made a few changes with the sizing, and used an old drawstring from my stash... he rolls it up and ties it closed when he isn't using them.

Diaper bag

A firend of mine took care of my kids back in January while I visited family.  she is expecting #4, so I offered to make her a diaper bag as a thank you.

She picked the size, style, and colors, and here is what we came up with.  

The true color didn't show up until the last pic... so it's cuter in real life.

 new hardware for an adjustable strap!!

Dr Seuss sleep sacks

A customer ordered 2 sleep sacks, and wanted them made from the new Dr Seuss fabric line. 

The fabric is really cute... except the grinch... he's not so nice looking.  :)

Chenille Blanket

A few weeks back, I decided that maybe the chenille blanket wasn't so time consuming after all... I now had a handy chenille cutter to help with the tedious job, so I gave it another shot.  Cutting was super easy with my handy cutter... plus, there is less chance to accidentally cut though all layers. 

photos courtesy of Katrina

Edit: you can find a tutorial for the blanket here 
I find it works best to sew your lines 1/2 " apart- some tutorials say you can do them further apart, but it doesn't look or feel as nice.  
Also, DO NOT pre wash your fabric or you will not get the 'gathered" look.  
Have fun! 

Nursing covers

These 2 covers were made for a couple friends who either had, or are about to have a new baby. I'm sure they will be well used for the next few months.

M's quilts done!

I finally buckled down last week, and finished quilting M's quilt.  The binding is done... just didn't take pics of it yet.

Table tent

My kids are constantly building tents... in the kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedrooms.  It involves taking all the blankets off the beds, and moving all the books off the book shelf since they are needed as blanket anchors.  Oh, and the toys.  Yes the toys get moved out of their room to where ever the tent is and get all set up. 
They spend more time setting up than playing with it.

Every time the house ends up looking like a tornado ran through it, 

and Mom usually ends up putting most of it away.

A friend of mine told me she got tired of the same thing happening, so she made a table tent.  

I liked the idea!

This afternoon, I got set to work using what I had in my stash, and made the girls a table tent.  

After my 3 old looked at it, she gave me a big hug and said ' Thank you Mom! I love you now".  

Umm, not sure how to take that!  

They played for a few hours in it, and wanted it set up so they can play tomorrow with 2 of their friends.  It seems to have cured the "take all the blankets and books" part of the problem, but not the "move in the toys" problem.  

Oh well, at least they are now confined to a 3.5'x5' space instead of an entire room.

While taking pictures of it tonight, I found this:

Hmm, I wonder who did it?  :)

Blankets

A number of months ago, I decided to use some minky I had bought last year, to make new blankets for the girls. 

Their room is quite cold in the winter, and my youngest especially, really likes the feel of minky.  The blankets they had a babies were barely long enough to keep them covered anymore, so in a few hrs, I had these 2 whipped up.

 

K's was made with some scraps, but she loves it.  The blue has hearts in it, so that was her favorite part.

 

They bring them everywhere they go.  Their "warm blankets" travel with them to bed, the couch, the car, friends houses, and make they great forts too!

more sewing for my kiddos

While I was on visiting my parents place last week, I went through her patterns, and came across a few I wanted to try.

Since cabbage patch dolls are the ones my kids play with the most, I started with this one.

I went through my fabric stash, and found some knits I could use to make them a few of the outfits.  I didn't finish of the edges like it called for... I would have had to use a lot of bias tape... I started by zig zaging the edges, then realized knits don't fray, and opted for the rolled up look - it's less time consuming too!

They love them.  

The one with the pink ice cream is a smaller, baby version of the doll, so they don't fit her too well.

Barbie got a new dress too.  Out of some extra fabric from a shirred dress. 

... and one for K

 This one was made for K. 

I used pattern ****, and a cotton fabric I found at Joanns.

She will be able to wear it in the spring and summer with a shrug. 

I also like how it turned out, except that the zipper doesn't line up at the top... and I was too lazy to fix it since I figured she would be wearing a sweater/shrug with it anyways.  :)

New dress for M

I am r.e.a.l.l.y. behind in posting the projects I have completed.
I know I didn't really speak about it on here, but I volunteered my time for the first half of the school year, teaching some high school students how to sew.
I had help, so I wasn't alone, but it still took up lots of time during the week.
I am glad I did it- the students all seemed to have fun, so it was not time wasted.
I am now in my second week without teaching (they moved on to cooking), and am enjoying my new found free time.
My oldest started Kindergarten back in Aug, which is also when I started teaching, so I am now feeling what it is like to only have 1 child home 2 days a week.  I am liking it so far!
So, here is a dress I made for M a few months ago.

I used a decorative corduroy, and butterick 4852 as the pattern.
I really like how it turned out, and only wish I had made it a little longer.  She is not the most modest 3 yr old, and often protests to wearing tight or leggings.  I improvised, and cut down a pair of leggings that had seen better days.

She now has some legging shorts to wear underneath- which she likes so no fighting!

michael miller fabric is in!

All the Michael Miller fabric has arrived!

round about aqua- $7.95/yrd

carnival bloom- $7.95/yrd

lagoon hoopla dot- $7.95/yrd

lagoon zoo animals- $7.95/yrd

lolli dot aqua- $7.95/yrd

round about lavender- $7.95/yrd

lolli dot orchid- $7.95/yrd

lolli dot sky- $7.95/yrd

  spice hoopla dot- $7.95/yrd

Doesn't it look great?  

It's in the shop, ready for purchase.

If you're local, feel free to send me an email, or call me to avoid the shipping costs.