Halloween Preview

Between Conference sessions today I made Kylie her Halloween costume. it isn't complete yet (I want to go back and buy a couple more of the big dots and I need to get her a black headband) but you can get an idea. I will also give her a black nose when we dress her up to go party. This was fun, easy and super cheap.
On a related note, this is the first time I have used my sewing machine in four months! Between moving (twice), unpacking and enjoying out wonderful summer, it got put on the back burner but now I am excited to start up again (although not as much as before because I have the whole other blog thing taking up my time) and start making Christmas presents.

Hello Again...

Hi, its just me again and I don't have much interesting to say. Our family has been playing outside and enjoying the sun as much as possible this week so it has been difficult for me to finish up these last lingering projects but here are some more to check off of my list! These are all posted in my store now so if you know of anyone that would be interested, let them know!


I finally put the finishing touches on Macy's sleeping bag and I love how cute it turned out. In reality, she has been using it for months but it looks much better now that the binding is sewn on. This has been such a great thing to have for little trips and I hope we will get some use out of it while camping this summer!


And here are my girly stacks of wash cloths that have been staring at me for weeks, begging me to finish them so I finally decided to tackle these tonight. How cute are these, seriously???

Thanks for checking in again. I promise to post some cute pictures of my little gals here soon!

End of Week

So my crazy week of trying to get my store stocked up came to an end and I am relieved and although I have not added everything that I want to, I feel like I made a good sized dent. I should be adding multiple patterns in the next few days and maybe one or two more little projects. Anyway, here is what I have come up with:

This was a custom order for my cousin's wife, Jodie. Can I just say I was thrilled to get this request? I fell in love when I saw this fabric and really wanted to make an apron out of it but I didn't want to make any if people weren't going to want them. When she made her request I bought several yards of this fabric so now I can make many more. I can also make the accent color different such as yellow, brown or red. I was so glad my gorgeous friend Heather was willing to model this for me :).

This is a purse I have been designing in my head for several week and I finally decided to make it on Saturday night. I love the fabric I used and I think it turned out great. I really don't want to part with it :)

And here is a book of patterns for baby clothes and accessories. It is over 20 years old and I think it is great. It includes several sheets of patterns inside and a lot of different options of things to make. If I still had a little tiny one, I would use this for myself!
Thanks for reading guys. I have a few giveaways coming up on different blogs soon and I am thinking of doing one of my own. What should I do? A purse? Wash cloths? A kimono dress? or just some fat quarters of something wonderful? Please comment and let me know, I see people visiting on here from all over the world (mostly for the apron tutorial) so I would love some input from all of you! Please comment and tell em what you want to see more (or less) of. And I promise to get more pictures of my girls of soon!

More Wash Cloths

Today I added two bundles of wash cloths to my store. I have two more bundles in the works that are a bit more feminine so check back soon!
I have been using my wash clothes for my girls for a little over a month and they have worked great for us. I made these a half inch larger than my original group but they are the same other than that. I hardly ever use paper towels anymore to clean up the girls so it is nice to ave money there, plus I am certain I have saved a very large amount of garbage by using these reusable wash cloths. Some people uses these as baby wipes but I just don't think I am that dedicated :).

Necessity is the Mother

So I needed a new bag for church and decided to make one. This was fun to do and I really enjoyed making it with no help from patterns or tutorials (Maybe I should do another tutorial?). Anyway, here it is:


It is perfect. It fits my binder, my scriptures, diapers and wipes plus there is a pocket inside for lip gloss, my phone, keys, etc. I have fabric for two more of these and they will be available in my store!

Fun Day

I have decided to devote this week to creating things to put in my Etsy store. I hope to use as much fabric from my stash as possible so I don't continually buy more fabric and I think it forces me to be a little bit more creative this way.
However, today's creating came to be after discovering this fabulous cupcake fabric. I had to have it, I just had to decide what to make with it.
What do you think?



I have also decided to include a purse I made several months ago and have received a great response to. Hopefully others out there in Etsy land will love it to!

These items are also all available to be custom ordered with any type of fabric that you may want! Thanks for looking and feel free to grab my store button and post it on your blog, I think we got all of the kinks worked out so it should work just fine!
Thanks to Jayna for all of her hard work on this and my banner!

Kimono Dress- Plus, I need help!

So I have not been feeling well lately so instead of cleaning my house and doing a lot of chores, I did about half of them and and sat around and sewed a Kimono Dress for Macy. It took far less energy than cleaning the bathrooms would have. Anyway, here it is. I actually bought the fabric at Walmart and I figure this dress cost me $3 to make. Okay, I will give Walmart cheap credit this time although I firmly believe that one can get much better stuff at Joann for the same or better price with a coupon. Anyway, here she is:


I think this turned out great. I am planning on going to one of the upcoming quilt store sales in the area to buy some pink floral prints for some other dresses. It will end up costing much more for the dresses but will be so worth it.

Anyway, I am trying to work on my etsy store. Anyone who has been around and seen some things I have done, can you give me some suggestions? I was thinking I could have a few Kimono dresses in different sizes, some bubble skirts, maybe a hot pad and oven mitt set or two... what do you think? Also, what do you think people would pay for things? I don't need a huge profit margin because it is fun to do, but I do want to make enough to buy more fabric :). I also plan to carry Favorite Things patterns as soon as I place my order to get some in. Any certain patterns any one thinks I need to get?
Any and all feedback would be helpful.
thanks!
And thanks for the serious comment love on my last post. I was so disappointed when the shirt didn't fit well but you all made me feel better.

My Shirt

Monday I decided to break out one of my copies of Simplicity #3835 to try out. I wanted to made a shirt because I had seen so many cute ones posted on other blogs. I combined a few elements from the dress options in the pattern and came up with this.

I liked it but I probably should have stuck with the original sleeves because these ended up being too tight for me. I guess I need to start sewing my patterns an additional size larger, sigh*. Anyway, this was easy and fun to do and I will definately have to give it another try soon.
P.S. This pattern is in my shop and if you post my button on your blog, you can save %10 on future orders. And I promise to add more things to my shop soon!

Macy's Kimono shirt

I have seen some cute Kimono shirts and Dresses floating around out there online so I decided to try to make one for Macy. This is what I came up with and I think it is pretty cute on her- I couldn't wait for her to get up from her nap so she could model. I am going to alter this a little bit next time and try a dress for her, we will see how it goes.



Isn't she cute??? I sure think so.

Soiree Baby Quilt

A friend of mine commissioned me to make this baby quilt for a soon to be born God- Daughter. The was so much fun to make, I am just sad that I don't get to keep it! I got the pattern from here and this is now one of my favorite places to look for ideas.
I just love it!

Justin wasn't home so Macy got to be my quilt holder.



I can't wait for her to get it in the mail! I hope she loves it as much as I do.

Easter Sunday/ The Big Reveal

So here are the much anticipated pictures of the dresses! I definately took on too much this week and the house suffered a bit and the girls got a little bored being stuck at home (but who wants to go out during breakup anyway???) but I finished two Easter baskets and 3 dresses this week. I ended up not loving the dresses I made for the girls. The pattern was just okay and would probably make a cuter shirt than dresses but I think they are alright. I had to alter Macy's a little because it looked more like a nightgown than dress but Kylie's turned out pretty cute. I was also thrilled with the way that my dress turned out. I had been very hesitant to make any clothing for myself because I am picky about my clothes and I didn't want to look like some frumpy, hippie mom that makes her own everything (it looks alright on some people...just not for me). I do like my dress, but I made it a tad too tight and even after lengthening it from the pattern three inches, I would still prefer it to be longer but for a first attempt, I am pretty proud. It is fully lined and I loved the compliments I got on it today at church and most people had no idea that I had made it until someone else told them. That's good- again I don't want to look like I am in something homemade. Anyway, enough talk, here are some pictures-

Cutest Easter Basket EVER

So I have mostly finished two of the three Easter dresses that I am making this week and I decided to take a break today and make on of the two Easter Baskets. I saw the tutorial here a few months ago and I have been wanting to make one ever since.
I made the handles a little larger and left a little border on top. I think it turned out great!

Homemade Presents

I had the need to make a few gifts for some people and I decided to finally try oven mitts and hot pads. They weren't too difficult to do and I am pretty proud of how cute they turned out. I tried to pick fabrics that these people would like so it was fun to do something different from what I would normally pick. I hope they like them when they get them!

Our Wednesday...

We have had a busy day at home! Fortunately, the kids have been good and cooperative with naps (bed time has been a nightmare with Macy the last few days). This morning Macy helped me make our weekly bread loaves...

And Kylie cuddled by my side and played dress up while I hurried to finish sewing the binding on this wall quilt.

This is the first wall hanging I have done. I liked how free it was because you just kind of start sewing scraps together. I have seen it on a few other blogs and started it Saturday afternoon, on a whim. I decided to make it girly for the Girls' sleeping room and Macy has eagerly anticipated getting to put it on her wall. She loves it, which is a nice plus, and thinks that it was hilarious that I hung my quilt on her wall. It ended up being about 36 x 30 inches and I didn't have what I needed to hang it well so it would lay nicely. It isn't quite as wonky as it appears in the pictures. I quilted it by sewing around the little squares and I love the effect this gives it. This was fun to do but turned into a headache when it came time to join all of the smaller pieces into one quilt. Next time I will definately be sure to square things off and press my seams better (I was really super lazy on this one).
A nice plus is that this quilt was almost free. I used some super cheap muslin I had on hand that I had gotten on sale and then scraps from other projects. Whoever can spot the most past projects wins :)
I may have to try something more sophisticated in the future but this was fun to play around with.

I guess I better name it. I am horrible at that, any clever suggestions?

The other skirt:

Macy was not in the mood to pose so here is the other skirt we made during her nap. I couldn't get Kylie to put the oven mit down but I think it adds a nice touch :). This one is longer with a narrower sash. I think it will fit Macy well, even though it is still cute on Kylie (even with her round little tummy). My next challenge will be to turn this into a dress. How fun!

Bubble Skirt

I have seen some cute bubble skirts floating around out their and since my girls love to wear skirts so much, I decided to make them some. This is my first attempt, I measured it to fit Macy but I think it ended up being a bit short so Kylie may be the sole owner of this one. I will have to make Macy one now too :)

Midwest Spring Quilt

Here, finally is quilt #3- My Midwest Spring Quilt. I used the Five and Dime pattern and a bunch of Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Fabric. I wasn't too sure if I would like it when I started but I ended us LOVING it. It only took me a week to do everything (Cut, sew, baste, quilt and sew binding on) but then the hand sewing of the binding took a while, mostly because I didn't have a good thimble and I kept putting it off for other projects but yesterday I decided that I needed and wanted to finish it. What do you think? I know it is wild but I really like it and it will be great to bring spring in with!

I love how crinkly it turned after I washed and dried it. The first picture doesn't show it because it was taken last night, before I washed it. After shrinkage it measures about 56"x 78", I only lost about 2 inches each way in washing. It is big enough for a twin but will be a great throw blanket for the living room.



I was a little nervous to actually stipple a whole quilt since I have so little experience with it but I think it turned out fine. It was a good time to practice and I learned a lot (like I need to pin more next time. I also love how the stippling goes along with the crinklyness.

Spoiled gal

Not much has been going on with us lately. Justin has been working and also working with a friend of ours from church who is a mechanic and fixing some airplane seats (this is who I have been making the seat covers for). I have been working on seat covers and I spent a fair amount of time doing this yesterday until I got bored last night and decided that I wanted to do something fun. I know it is similar to the last dress but I wanted something easy. I need to iron it but I think it is somewhat cute.



I thought this picture was funny. Macy was telling me how much she missed Daddy (he left for work 2 hours ago and will be back in 3) and I thought her face was a bit funny.

Afternoon Project

A friend of mine is having a baby shower in a week so I decided to make her this cute little dress that I found a tutorial for online. It was quick, easy and it turned out really really cute. I wish there was a toddler version... oh well, I may have to figure it out on my own.