The Birthday Dress

When I was in Albuquerque visiting Suzy I picked up some darling strawberry fabric and a coordinating green fabric to make Abbie a dress. Well by the time we got home Abbie decided that she no longer wanted to wear dresses so I put the fabric aside with the intent that I would use it for Abbie's annual birthday dress. A week or two ago I let Abbie look through my patterns and decide which dress she wanted for her birthday dress. Nothing much happened with the dress between then and today because I was just too busy to work on it. Today I decided that the tradition of making Abbie a birthday dress was just to important to miss and I got to work after church this morning. Luckily Abbie picked a really easy pattern and I was able to get the dress done in less that 2 hours. The dress doesn't look that great in the picture but I hope that it will look cute on her. This was my first time using the jumbo rickrack and I am not sure I like how it looks. Abbie seemed to like it when I showed to to her and that's all that matters. This is another of the Oliver +S Popover sundresses that I have made before (here). I love this pattern it is so quick and easy, can be worn year round and can be embellished in many different ways.

Public Exposure

Look what's hanging behind the register at Cutting Edge Quiltworks in Chandler, AZ!

American Girl has nothing on me

Remember this year's Birthday Dress? Well I found a great Red, White and Black plaid fabric when I was at quilt camp and decided to make her a Christmas dress in the same pattern. The dress is almost done I just have to go out and get some black piping for the front. Today I decided that Abbie needed a matching dress for one of her dolls. I drafted a pattern based on the one for Abbie and here is what I came up with. I am so happy with the way it came out. I am sure that more of these dresses will be made for both Abbie and her doll.

I sewed

I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow and it was requested that I make a sling. This evening I used some fabric from my stash and whipped one up. The pattern is here. I am a huge fan of slings and carried both of my kids everywhere in them.

Insomnia

What do you do when it's 2 am and you can't sleep? I am guessing it's not this!

Yes that is what you think it is. I couldn't sleep tonight and was thinking about work. I decided that I needed a cloth breast model for teaching but was not willing to spend $50+ of my own money for one. So I decided to make my own. This is a very rough first draft but I think I should be able to make a nice teaching model for work.

National Doughnut Day

Friday was national Doughnut day and ever since I read this post last year I have wanted to do something fun with the kids. After picking up the kids I took them to Krispy Kreme for free doughnuts. The we ran by the craft store and picked up supplies to make felt doughnuts. The kids seemed to have a good time and it kept them entertained.

Quilt Camp

I went to quilt camp this weekend and had a blast! The weather in Prescott was great and the company was even better. I got to meet a bloggy friend Angela of The Modern Diary. I broght up several quilts in progress and was happy at the progress I made. I finished the black white and red top from a block of the month that I did when I was pregnant with Abbie. The pink and brown top is Bonnie Huner's Carolina Crossroads that I started when it was a mystery on her site. The last top is for Abbie out of 30's repros from my stash.

A Post with pictures even!

Please forgive my absence lately but I have been dealing with some things in my private life. My friend S reminded me the other day that I enjoy blogging and just because there are things going on doesn't mean that I shouldn't do something that I enjoy.

So on to the post. I sewed today! I've noticed that my son's shorts have been getting smaller and smaller so today while the kids were at there grandparents with their father I made my son two new pairs of shorts. The tan pair is from a old pair of pants and the blue pair is from some leftover fabric from making this jacket for Alex. I've noticed that lately Alex checks for the tag on his shorts so to help him out I sewed a small ribbon tag to the back side of the shorts waistband seam. These shorts are so quick and easy to make especially with the serger. It is this pattern that I have used over and over again.

Drafting a block

Ever since my good friend S made my son a taggie blanket as a baby shower gift I have adapted the idea and make mini quilt taggies to give as shower gifts. I have two showers coming up in the next couple of weeks so I decided it was time to get a start on the gifts. The babies are boys so I didn't get to have as much fun with the pretty fabrics but I am pleased with how the quilt block for the front side turned out.

I found this block today on the crazy mom quilts blog. There were not construction instructions so I decided to draft it myself. Let me tell you this is not a beginner block! There are a heck of alot of quarter square triangles to deal with. I must have unsewn a half a dozen seams before I got it together. The taggie for the second shower this month will be identical to the first. I put minkie on the backside so it will be nice and soft. All the fabric and trims for this will come out of my stash.

The thrift store sheet take 2

Ok. I showed you the apron that I made out of the sheet from the thrift store, well I have made a second item from it. I have a clothesline in the backyard that I use on occasion and a clothespin bag that I leave hanging from it. The bag from had ripped and since the hardware was still good i decided to just replace the bag. I think that this is much more cheerful than the plain tan one that I replaced.

Too Stinkin' Cute

A friend gave me this fabric a while ago and I put it aside with the intention of making clothes for the kids. Now that it has gotten warmer Alex needs some new shorts so I pulled this fabric out and made him a pair. When I got Alex's shorts done I had just (barely) enough fabric left to make Abbie a dress. I started this about 6:30 took a break to put the kids to bed and I finished at about 10. I still need to put buttons and button holes in the dress but I need to go to the store tomorrow to pick up some. The nice thing about the dress is that it can easily be worn as a top as she gets bigger. The friend that gave me this print also gave me a blue polka dot fabric that matches so I think that this winter I'll make some pants for Abbie to wear with it. And yes, I do plan on making them wear the outfits at the same time.

My Baby Girl Turns One

I can't hardly believe it but Abbie girl turned one today. We are having her party for friends and family on Sunday but today we were able to celebrate with a small cake and dinner with my friend and her two kids. Monday that same friend and I took the kids in to get their birthday pictures done (her son is 26 hours older than Abbie) and then we went back in briefly to have a picture of the two of them together. Abbie is wearing the dress that I made her in the pictures of her by herself. The headband is a free pattern from Heather Bailey. Abbie got to eat her first piece of cake today and she made a lovely mess with it. I tried to post a video of Abbie eating her cake but it wouldn't work so I'll try again later.

Small Quilt Auction

Tomorrow night is the annual Small Quilt Auction at my quilt guild. I have donated a chicken pincushion in the past but have never made a quilt so tonight I decided to make one. I used the "waste triangles" that I double sewed when I was making Alex's big boy quilt and that I had previously trimmed to 1 3/4" and sewed into 4 patch pinwheels. Tonight I sewed the pinwheels together and put on a couple borders and bound it. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I have also included a couple more pictures from our trip to Zion. The picture of Abbie is of her in our Ergo Baby Carrier, this is how she saw Zion and I was very pleased with how comfortable it was and she got alot of attention from people when she was in it (although she gets attention wherever we go.

Our Week in Zion

We had a great trip to Zion with my parents. The weather was perfect cool in the mornings in the low 90's in the afternoons and in the 70's in the evenings. We were able to get out and do things in the mornings and then come back to the campground in the afternoon to cool off and rest. One nice thing about Zion is that they have a shuttle system to reduce the traffic in the park so we were able to pick up the shuttle right at the entrance to our campground and didn't have to do much walking with kids unless we wanted to. Check out my husband's great pictures from the trip: http://www.joechott.com/photos/2007/2007-09-10

While we were gone I got a couple of packages in the mail, what fun! I got the Sew What Skirts book, the sublime stitching book and several of their embroidery patterns and some kids activity cards that z recommends reviewed.

I found a great website recommended in parents magazine for swapping books, there is a link to their home page in the sidebar. I like the concept of this because all you pay is to ship it to the other person, rather than the amazon $3.99 shipping fee along with whatever the cost of the book is. I have just mailed off a book to someone and have requested three other books, I'll let you know how it works out.

Why I need a fabric stash

This afternoon we are leaving for 5 days at Zion Canyon in Utah. About 9pm last night I decided that my child needed a crayon roll for the trip. So I used this pattern that I had found a while back to make him this crayon roll. This went together really quickly (I got the idea to make it at 9 and it was done before 10). I think that if I make another one I'll use elastic of Velcro to close it since my son is not yet old enough to tie the ribbons himself. These were so easy I think I'll make them and the gifts for the kids at my son's birthday.

My Craftiness

As promised here are some of the projects that I have been working on lately:



Here is Abbie's dress, I am so pleased with how it turned out. I even made her a pair of bloomers to go with it. I am also planning on making her a headband in the pink fabric to go with it.


Lately I have been thinking more and more about bringing my own bags to the grocery store. It's not necessarily an environmental thing with me, although that is a side effect, it's more that I don't like to waste and it feels so wasteful to use plastic bags. I have a couple of the acme bags from www.reusablebags.com, but they are rather pricey. So, when the dogs recently ripped one of my king sized fitted sheets I decided to recycle it into some cloth shopping bags. I got the pattern from www.morsbags.com and they have been pretty quick to put together.


Lastly this is a project that has been lurking in my sewing room for nearly three years now. Shortly before my son was born a friend gave this cross stitchery to me that she had found in a antique store. It was in a frame that I didn't particularly care for so I took it into my craft room to do "something" to it and it has just sat there ever since. Tonight I was inspired to make it into a quilted wall hanging. I origninally had put another outer border on it and did not like the results so I dug though my stash of 30's fabrics and found this green polka dot that I think is perfect. I don't have anything that I think will work for the binding so I think that tomorrow I'll stop by the quilt store to see what they have, I am thinking either solid green or solid cream.

A nice day with a couple of friends

Two girlfriends and I got together today to hang out and make the handkerchief dresses that I reviewed here. All three of us made Halloween themed dresses and one of us made a cute Hello Kitty one. I am very pleased with how they turned out and they were super easy to make, especially with a serger. I also got some time to work on Abbie's birthday dress today and all I have left is the hem and the buttonholes.

Abbie's Dress

I have spent the last two afternoons while the kids are napping working on the dress for Abbie's 1st birthday party. The dress is a size 1 and I think that it will be okay for her birthday party but it is pretty big and should fit her for quite a while. Not a problem for me since there is quite a bit of work going into it. I originally planned on making the whole dress in the floral fabric but Joe convinced me to use the pink for the yoke and waistband and I think that it was a wise choice. I think that I will also make a pair of bloomers out of the pink fabric.

A Review of EZ Patterns

Recently I was reading a post from the freehairbows yahoo group and they were talking about a group of patterns on ebay by a seller named ezpatterns. I was intrigued and immediately went to ebay and checked them out and felt that the patterns were nice and a reasonable price at $19.99 for a complete set. The patterns are either available as electronic delivery or you can have a paper pattern sent to you for an additional $17.01. This is a set of 9 patterns and each individual pattern sells separately for $4.99. After the auction I paid immediately and expected to have my patterns soon after as stated in the auction. After several hours I still had not received the email link and emailed the sender. She responded the next morning with the link to download the patterns. I was able to download 7 of the 9 patterns without incident but with two of the patterns I was told that I had exceeded the allotted number of downloads even though I had not downloaded them at all yet. I had to email the lady twice in order to have her reset those two patters, so for a pattern set that was purchased the morning of July 13th I did not have my complete set until the afternoon of the 15th, not bad but not the instant service stated in the auction.
Now from the description in the auction I was expecting 9 unique patterns, and am a bit disapointed in them. I would say that there are basically 3 patterns and all of the others are variations on a theme. Most of the basic patterns can be found for free on the internet, although I do have to give her credit for the creative variations. The first basic pattern is the pillowcase dress of which the pillowcase dress, romper, peasant dress, pillowcase halter dress and the sun dress/swing top are variations. Try this link for a great pillowcase dress pattern tutorial with pictures. If I were to buy again I would definitely buy the Romper pattern since I think it is the most unique and I didn't find anything like it on the internet. The next pattern type is the t-shirt dress of which the twirl dress, the onesie twirl dress and the bandanna t-shirt dress fit this category. Here are three free patterns: a onesie dress, a t-shirt dress from HGTV, and another t-shirt dress. Of the patterns I would probably buy the bandanna t-shirt dress pattern since it seems to be a unique variation. The last pattern type is the bottoms, of which there are the shorts/bloomers and the capri/long pants. Here is a link for bloomer instructions and making pants out of a t-shirt. Both ezpatters patterns are a good instruction for making your own bottoms, but instead of paying $4.99 I would recommend buying a simple pants pattern on sale and adjusting the length and embellishments to suit your needs. In review, I would have been better off buying the romper, bandanna t-shirt dress and possibly the peasant dress patterns. This would have saved me about $5.00. I would recommend the complete pattern set for new sewers and those not comfortable making their own variations. I would also recommend to the pattern maker possibly offering a website with pictures of the outfits made with her patterns as inspiration for those of us that have purchased her patterns.

And finally something quilt related

Here is the picture of my leader/ender quilt that I talked about in a previous post. In other sewing related news a friend came over today and I helped her make a couple of dresses and several pairs of shorts for her daughter, son and nieces and nephews they all turned out so cute. I think I have convinced this friend that a serger is a required piece of equipment if you are going to be doing any garment sewing.