Breck's Gift #1

Christmas Cards!

Finally got Christmas cards done!!! What took so long this year was the fact that Josten was at school for about 19 hours everyday for the last 2 weeks, and we didn't have time to get our Christmas pictures taken! Well, we finally did them yesterday, and I finished them up this morning! Here they are!

Sienna's Christmas Present #1

This is my first finished Christmas gift, more to come very soon!

Sienna's little caplet:

Sienna's Christmas Dress

I tossed around the idea for awhile of making Sienna a Christmas dress, but never really made a sure plan to get things under way because I was a little intimidated about it for one, and for another, I didn't know if I'd have time. So I got her a little Christmas dress on clearance, and she wore it last Sunday, and I figured that was that. Well...no it wasn't. I figured I still had a good week before Christmas Sunday, and though her other dress is very cute, I still wanted to see if I could pull off the design I had in my head.

Part of what made me so intimidated was the fact that I have never actually sewn a real dress before, unless you count the little smocked dresses I made this summer, but that's totally not the same as a real, fancy, church dress.

The second thing that made me intimidated, is that I didn't have a pattern, because I of course had a specific design in mind... so I pretty much winged the whole thing.

In the end, I was pleased with how it turned out. It fits her well, though I probably won't post a picture of her in it until Sunday. I also learned a lot about sewing apparel, especially without a pattern, which will come in handy.

So here it is, the first (of many I'm sure) handmade Christmas Dress!



Oh, and another interesting tidbit about this dress - This was our Christmas table cloth from last year! It was in perfect condition except for a big stain on one end of it, and I loved it so much I didn't want it to go to waste...And it didn't! Don't worry, I used the non-stained end of it!

Hats for the Holidays

Oh boy has this holiday craft show made me busy! I wanted to be over-prepared for this show, so I could have optimum opportunity at having multiple styles and sizes on hand, so people could actually buy the ones they wanted. I ended up making 35 beanies in the end!!! I decided to do a line of holiday hats, which actually ended up only being 3 different hats (multiple sizes though), since I kind of ran out of time to amke any other sets. I've still got some fun holiday ideas for next year, which I may end up doing for market next year in the fall. I also re-stocked on some of my original ones from the market. The show went reall well for the first week, I sold quite a few which was nice, and got some special orders. The next week of the show is on saturday, which they said is usually the more busy show, so we'll see how that goes! Anyway, the top few are just some new designs I tried, very similar to my others, with a little variance here and there. The last group are my holiday hats, some are actually the holiday line, and some are just fun holiday colors.




Here are the holiday ones, the ones with the tags are the actual holiday line, and you can read their names :)




This one was fun, I tried a new stitch pattern, and thought it was cute:

More Kitchen Goodness for the Bride-To-Be

Here are the next parts of my gift for the bridal shower I mentioned earlier in the apron post. They're all part of the same gift, so they coordinate.

The first are hot pads, pretty simple to figure out; 2 pieces of fabric with batting and binding, then a simple quilting over top.



Next are dishwashing gloves. I have also wanted to do these for a very long time, and I found the perfect excuse with the shower once again! I got the tutorial from Little Birdie Secrets.

The Apron

Some of you may have noticed that I've had an apron on the to-do list at the top of my blog for quite some time now. It was never really a priority, so it just kept getting pushed aside for the last year and some. This is the apron I wanted to re-create. I saw it and LOVED it:



Well, I was recently given the perfect excuse to re-create this apron when one of my closest friends from highschool sent the invitation for her bridal shower. I'll probably eventually make one for myself too, but it's just not at the top of my to-do list right now.

Anyway, I didn't take as many pictures for this as I had first intended to do, but hopefully I can make it straight-forward enough to help you out, if you decide you want to make this.

First, you need to take maesurments. Take measurments from where you want the top to hit, to where you want it to hit near your knee. You'll also need a measurement of how wide you want it, which I got by measuring from just behind my left hip to just behind my right hip. This will be your widest measurement.

Once you have those 2 measurements, cut a rectangle of the 2 measurements (example, if the hieght measurement was 30 and the hip-to-hip measurement was 28, you'll cut out a rectangle that is 30"X28")

Once you've got your rectangle, you need to fold it in half length-wise and shape it like an apron. I don't have any exact formula for you for this part, but if you just look at the picture, I'm sure you can make it work.



So now you open it up, and you've got your apron shape. Now you need to hem the edges.

Next, you're going to cut another rectangle, but a much smaller one for the front pocket. This is just whatever your preference is. I made mine larger, and sewed down the middle to make 2 compartments. I ironed the edges in, and only sewed the hem on the top SEPERATELY, then I put it on the apron and sewed the other sides to the apron (the sewing to the apron becomes the sewing for the hem too.)



The next part is the neck strap. These are pretty easy and straight-forward. you just sew 2 strips about 2 inches thick, and attach them to the top corners of the apron. They only need to be long enough to tie a bow in the back.

Next was the trim for the bottom. The one in the picture uses pleats, but I decided to do a basic ruffle. For that, I measured twice the length of the curved bottom part of the apron, and cut a 3 1/2 to 4 inch thick strip that was the measured length. I hemmed it all up, then along the top, I adjust my sewing machiene to the highest tension and the highest stitch length, and sewed a straight line right through to the end, and came out with a ruffle.

I then sewed the ruffle to the bottom.

Next are the ties for the back. I originally wanted to do them longer, like the orignal picture, but I ran out of that material, so I had to make due with what I had. The ties that I did are both 45" long, and about 3 1/2 inches thick. You sew them up (which I did by just measuring 7 inches thick, and folding it in half then sewing one side, and turning it inside out and ironing flat), then sew them to the top of the bottom portion of the apron.

Now just cut all your threads and you're ready to get cookin' you cute little homemaker, you!

Super-Easy J. Crew Re-fashion

I was looking around on J. Crew, which, if I had to pick a store that I think defines my taste in clothes perfectly, it would be that one. Anyway, I was looking around and found this beautiful shirt:



I really liked it, among others on the site, but I decided I wanted to re-create, with a few differences. I wanted to combine this with another idea I have seen around that I love. I love when clothes have an artsy feel, and I LOVE shirts that are painted, or look like they are! So for this shirt, I decided to use the same concept and design, except I wanted to have the stems painted.

I used acryllic paint for the stems, and if you do this, make sure you put cardboard or something in between the front and back of the shirt, to prevent bleeding through on the otherr side. You have to let it dry a couple of hours, just to make sure it is set. I free-handed it so it looked sloppy and hand painted.

Once the paint was dry, I cut two 24X1 inch strips of satin, and two 5X1.5 inch strips as well. I pleated the shorter strips with an iron, and evened out the edges, then sewed down the middle. The longer strips become the petals, and the pleated sqaure becomes the center.

I hand-stitched the petals on the shirt by just folding the strip back and forth over itself in a circle pattern. I stitched it on the shirt in the middle, then stitched the pleated center on.
(Sorry I don't have pictures of the process, I couldn't find the camera until after I finished.)

And there you have it!!!


And here is a close-up of the flowers with the pleats.

Craft Gossip Feature!!!

Wow! What a week! The How-To Gal e-mailed me tonight, and let me know that the tutorial I wrote up for her blog ended up getting featured on Craft Gossip as well! Thanks Craft Gossip, and thank you How-To Gal for making it all happen!

Here's the Link to the feature:

Craft Gossip

P.S. Hopefully I'll get some more stuff up this week, I've had a lot of projects I've been working on lately, just none of them are done!

Featured on The How-To Gal!!!

Big thanks to The How-To Gal for featuring my shirt refashion! Check it out here, and be sure to check out all the cool projects she's done!

Halloween Costumes

Sorry I posted this so late, but it's been crazy with projects lately, and I have just been so busy that I didn't find time to post these as soon as I wanted. I suppose you can remember this post for next year's Halloween though!

Anyway, Breck went this year as the Mad Hatter. It was a fun costume to put together. Here's what I did:

What I used:

Foam hat from JoAnn's, Michael's has them too
Feather Boa
1 yard Crazy fabric
Boy's White Shirt
Boy's Vest
Boy's Pants
Boy's Wing-tip shoes
One of my old button-down shirts
3x5 card

For the hat, I made a band to go around it, using the fabric. I hemmed the edges, then pleated it, and hot-glued it to the hat. I took the feather boa and hot-glued it to the end of the hat leaving a little space in the front open. On the back of a 3x5 card, I wrote 10/6 which is what the Mad Hatter has on his hat. It's an old-fashioned price tag.

I made the bow tie by cutting two 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 rectangles and sewing them together, wrong sides out, but leaving a little space so that I could turn it right side out. Stitch up the hole once this is done. I ironed it flat, then sewed a little band around it to gather it in the middle. I then sewed a longer band, and attached it to the bow tie. Then you put velcro on the tips of the band.

The Jacket was an old shirt of mine, that I took in the sides, and cut up the length in front to look like a "tailed" jacket. It was of course, complete with tails in the back. I trimmed the edge of the collar, to give it a more jacket look than a shirt, and ironed it down, to give the jacket collar effect as well. I put a faux pucket and kerchiff on the front too.

The rest of it was just his normal dress clothes, though I put the shirt collar up, and ironed the tips down to look more like a mid-1800's collar.

Sienna's costume was fun.

Here's what I used:

1/2 yard white fabric
Blue Dollar Store onesy
Blue Tulle
Elastic
White Stockings
Black Mary Janes
Black ribbon

The Apron was the main thing that I made for this. I didn't use a pattern, I just looked at the picture of Alice from the Disney movie. I couldn't find an apron for a little girl like that, so I just took measurements of Sienna and where I wanted everything to hit, and it was actually pretty easy!

The skirt was a tutu, so check out my tutu post from last Christmas to see how to make those. I'm pretty sure most people know how to make those by now though, so you probably don't even need to get instructions.

Then I put black ribbon in her hair, put on her stockins, onesy and shoes, and she was ready to go!






*Note* 2-year-olds may not like a big hat with feathers...

Shout Out to Other Bloggin' Gals

This is just kind of my "Thank You" note to all those bloggin' gals who have been so sweet in the last month or so.

First of all, Thank you to Mique form 30 Handmade Days for the Shabby Apple Dress giveaway! I got it in the mail a couple of weeks ago and LOVE it!

Second, Thank you Kelsee from Pumpkin Pie Crafts for your Apron giveaway! She made this beautiful apron (pictured below), and I won it! She also made the flower pin, but I decided to stick it on my necklace for the picture! If you haven't been to her blog, stop by and wish her a happy belated birthday, she just had one! Plus, she makes really cool things, while being a wife, and mom of two!


(Sorry this picture is kind of funny, sometimes I get awkward when I'm the only one being photographed...hence the funky right foot)

Third, Thank you Disney at Ruffles and Stuff for featuring my Anthropologie inspired dress! It was such a pleasant surprise! She has an amazing blog as well, so be sure to check it out!

And Last but certainly not least, thank you to all you of who found my blog through Ruffles and Stuff (or anywhere else) and left such nice comments and became followers! You guys are great, and I was so touched to recieve such support!

You guys are the BEST!

Sienna's Valance

I finished this awhile ago, but hadn't taken a picture, because I kept spacing it. Basically, You cut and hem two pieces of fabric that are 1 1/2 to 2 times the length of the window. For the height of the peices, cut one about 3 inches taller than the other. Once all hemmed, sew them together with two different lines that are about 2 inches apart, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inches on the top for the ruffle.

Copy Cat Design/Another Refashion

Does anyone else remember the Favorite Tee from the Gap? They may still have it, I don't know, but it used to be the biggest wardrobe essential before Down East Basics came up with the Wonder Tee. They were just basic, crew cut tees in long sleeves and short sleeves, and different colors. They lost their steam when The Wonder Tee came out with a more up to date neckline and body length. That's about when I lost my steam with them too, having a need for a longer tee shirt to fit my afore mentioned large frame.
That didn't change the fact that I had literally a dozen of them, just laying around, waiting to be worn.
Around the same time I was pondering what to do with these shirts, I was looking around at one of my favorite idea stores (I say idea store because I can't afford to shop there, so I just get "ideas" from it), Anthropologie, and was noticing their cute little dresses, that were just so basic, yet chic and comfortable. It was this one that really caught my eye:

It was then that a little light bulb went off, and I realized i could make a sleeved version of this dress with one of my "Favorite Tees". I had a different idea for the top, however, because I wanted to save this beautiful circle ruffle for another top. Here's what I did to re-create this lovely piece:

First, I cut the trunk of the shirt across where I wanted it to hit.

I then, used the bottom that I cut off to cut 4 2 inch thick strips. (It doesn't really matter how thick, just as big as you want your ruffles.) I then took them to the sewing machiene, where I adjusted the tension on the machiene to the highest tension, and the stitch length to the longest length. I then only had to sew one straight line on the edge, and it came out like this:

I then sewed each ruffle to the top half of the shirt, starting with the bottom ruffle. This is how it turned out once finished with that part:

Next I found another "Favorite Tee" that I had used the trunk of to make the gaucho pants I posted about earlier. I used just one of the sleeves for the mid section, evening out the width before sewing it on.

Later, after this next picture was already taken, I decided to put vertical gathers in it every 4 inches or so. I did this by attaching elastic that was cut about an inch shorter than the width of the band, and stretching it out as I sewed down the width of the black section.

After that, I found some material that I thought would look cute with it, and cut it to the length I wanted, leaving the width the same as it had come. I hemmed up the bottom, then I measure the right size of elastic to fit around the t-shirt at the open end. I attached this elastic to the top by using the same method for the gathers above. Then I folded it in half with the wrong side facing out. I sewed the sides together, then turned right-side out again. I then attached the skirt to the top, and was just about done when I decided I wanted just a little more flare. I found this tutorial for fabric flowers, and took some black satin to make it, and I sewed on the pearl beads after I was done. I also hot-glued felt to the back to kind of seal it all in, then I attached it to a pin.

The finished product:

Just add some black skinny jeans and some pumps, and your ready to go!

Re-Fashioning Again...Skirt

I love pencil skirts. They are so sleek and classy, and can go with virtually anything. I've had the hardest time buying one. Not a whole lot of places sell the type that I like, that is, one that is a dressier skirt, rather than having zipper, button, etc. on the front like jeans. Anyway, even when I would find the dressier kind, they'd be too short, meant to hit above the knee, which of course in itself is not what I want, but it also means that it hits my 6'1" frame mid-thigh.

Well, I finally found this beauty and snatched it up. It hit me just above the knee, but that was the best I could find. So I decided to dress it up AND lengthen it by adding some pretty trim.

Now of course, since I had EXACTLY what I wanted for the trim in mind BEFORE actually shopping for trim, nothing met up to my vision. So I made the trim myself.

I made it using black satin. First, I measured how much I would need. For this kind of trim, you need 3 X the length of the measurment of whatever you are trimming. I cut the strip 4 1/2 inches wide. I then hemmed the strip, then pleated it by ironing folds into it. After ironing, I sewed the top of the strip to keep it in place. All I did after that, was treat it like normal trim and sew it to the skirt! Pretty fun and simple!



This one is so you can see the fold/iron pattern:

Diaper Stacker

If you want a tutorial for this stacker, refer to my previous "T-Shirt Stacker" post for a link. I did the same thing with this one as I did for the first, except it's smaller (for diapers) and I put bows on the top to attch it rather than a hanger.

Re-fashioning

Okay, I don't know about you guys but, though fun, shopping can be a bit frusterating for me. I get ideas in my head of how I want an outfit to look, what exact outfit I would want (without ever actually seeing it somewhere), then of course, I can't find anything close to it, when I go shopping. So I decided to start making over clothes myself. This is the first of many more projects to come like this. It will be done by buying cheap clothes that have basic lines, or a basic shape that I am looking for, and I will be using extra pieces of fabric either from the same garmet, or from a duplicate that I buy.

This one was my first; very easy, and very pleased with the outcome.

I bought this shirt at Ross for 4 bucks.


Then I cut the entire turtle-neck off (to be used as my extra fabric).
I then cut 3 1 1/2 inch thick strips from the spread out turtle neck fabric, then folded and pinned them to the neckline in this pattern (if you're looking down at the edge of the strips)


I then just sewed one straight line through the middle, at the neckline, and voila!

Are Those Pants...or a Skirt???

They're Gaucho pants! I decided to make some for my little Sienna Buggeroo. She was lacking in the pants department, and since I think gauchos are pretty much the most comfy pants in the entire world, I decided to introduce her into their lovely world! I got this idea from another site, but forgive, me, I can't remember where, I happened to be craft-blog-surfing, and forgot where I was at, but if any of you know where these are from, please let me know! Anyway, the great thing about these gauchos, is that you make them from an old shirt that you don't wear anymore! You'll need some measurments of your little girl; you'll need the waist, the hips WITH the diaper (if not potty trained), the distance from croch to waist, and the inseam to where you want the pants to hit at on her leg. So here we go:

1. Get your measurments
2. Find an old t-shirt (with enough material to cover your measurements), and lay it flat, smooth, and all the seems where they should be.
3. Cut the shirt (through both sides) as pictured below. Make sure the part that will hit her hips is 1/4 the measurement of the diapered-hip measurement. Each top cut should measure 1/4 of the waist. The curved line should be the croch/waist measurement, and from the tip of the curve down to the bottom should be the inseam measurement.


4. Unfold each piece and place together, wrong sides out.
5. Sew together at the curves only
6. Now re-position the pieces so that the curved seems are both in the middle of the front and the back.
7. From this point you should be able to see the pants shape, so then you sew each leg up to the croch, or curved seems.
8. Flip it back so that the right side is out, and you pretty much have it, except for the top.
9. What I did for the top was, I sewed elastic (cut to about an inch smaller than the waist measurement) to the top of the waist in a smocking fashion. Then I cut out some more of the shirt to make a "binding" to cover the top of the waist.
10. There you have it! Now put them on your little girl and admire!



The Top Binding

Kreative Blogger Award

The Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Blogger.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

Thanks to Suzi from "Suzi Homemaker" for this lovely award!

Okay, for the 7 things... I'm not very interesting, so this should be... uh, interesting...?

1. I'm on an anti-hair dye spree. I'll likely start dying again at some point, but for now I'm determined to have my natural hair color (and not DYED to my natural color) the only color on my head, for the first time since 6th grade. Which means right now I'm a half-head, with roots down below my eye-balls, but hey, I read an article about celebs purposly getting their hair dyed with roots... so I write it off like I'm just REALLY in style! Seriously though, I'm lately all for anything natural looking.

2. I can get my 1 year-old daughter's hair into a messy bun with no clips! She's amazing.

3. I'm crazy about food!!! It's no wonder I am going into nutrtion! Nothing makes me more mad than diets! (And by diets I mean fad diets, or celebrity diets, not the sort of diet , or meal-plan a doctor puts you on because of a health issue) Food is NOT an enemy! Food is our firend, and can do marvelous and amazing things if we know how to use it properly. Too much of ANYTHING is bad, so of course over-indulgence on certain types of foods can have a negative effect, but when we know how to use different foods in the right portions, they can strengthen us, give us more energy, keep us from getting sick, and even in some cases, fight diseases! Food is so amazing, and I love learning about it so much!

4. I had serious pride issues when learning how to knit. I had crocheted for 8 years, so going again through the process of uneven rows, loose stitches, dropped stitches, added stitches, etc. really threw me for one. I'm just not used to not knowing what I'm doing when it comes to yarn crafts, so I had some major pride issues to get over. Luckily, I overcame, and I'm now secure in my sloppy knitting!

5. I still get so giggly everytime one of my kids toots.

6. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to read!!!! I go through cycles of the kind of stuff I like to read. I love reading religious and political non-fiction, religious fiction, historical fiction, and romantic ficiton (not the trashy romance novels though). Thanks to my mother-in-law, I am currently on a Jane Austen spree, which I can't seem to get enough of! I'm such a library junkie!

7. I've seriously had Breck's 3rd birthday party planned since before his 2nd birthday party. I know. I'm insane.


And now for the nominees:

(I don't know too many creative people who have blogs for their crafts AND who haven't already recieved this award, so I will probably nominate people who don't have craft blogs, and maybe some who don't even have any blog!)

1. Chelsea Peterson from Chelsea's Crafts

2. Lindy Walker and Alise Wrigley from Lindy Lou and Baby Too!

3. Alyssa Stevens, she doesn't have a craft blog, and her regular blog is private, but let me tell you, she makes amazing bows!!!

4. My Sisters-inLaw, Shasta Baisden, and Shawnte' Morton. They don't have craft blogs at all, but if they did, you'd be blown away at their amazing skills!

5. My Mother-in-law Sherry is an amazing seemstress. She made her own wedding dress, not to mention tons of dresses, diaper bags, etc. for all of us, our weddings, and babies!

6. Erika Allred at Red's Vinyl Lettering. She makes some awesome decorations with her vinyl lettering!

7.Okay, I'm actually going to just tell you to visit the blogs of anyone in my ward in Moscow, which you can find by going onto my family's blog and clicking under any of the "moscow Friends" because they are ALL so creative, and they all SHOULD have blogs for the stuff they make!

Sienna's Crib Bedding... FINALLY done!!!!

You may have noticed that it's been awhile since I have posted. Here is my excuse.. I've been working on THIS baby for awhile! I wanted to take my time with it, so it wouldn't stress me out, and so I could pay attention to detail. Well, I finally put the finishing touches on this morning, so I'm happy to announce, this bedding is DONE!

I did it a bit differently than I did Mary's crib bedding. The bumper I sewed, then stuffed like a pillow with normal "stuffing", then I tufted it in the middle to give it a more flat appearance. I used ribbons to tuft it.

The crib skirt I scallopped at the edges of the tan. I have a scallopping option on my sewing machiene, so I used it along the edge, then cut in a scallopped shape around it.

The blanket is pretty self-explanitory, but I did reinforce the smaller squares by sewing over the top edges as well, before attaching to other side and batting.

All of the measurements are the same as the bedding for Mary.

This was a lot more fun to do because I was not rushing myself, and probably because I was more familiar with what I was doing. I have been in full force re-doing Sienna's room, so stay tuned for other projects that I am doing for it.


The Ribbon-Tufting

The Blanket

The Skirt with scallop detail... I'm obSESSED with scalloping!

Changing Station Pad Cover

The time has come to start conquering the list of tasks for the kids' rooms! My goal is to be done by late fall with both rooms, so we shall see. Here is one of the first projects for Sienna's room (Besides ones I've had done for awhile), the changing pad cover. I just measured around the pad for the top of it, then for the bottom, I used the same measurments for the lengths of the sides, but I cut 4 strips (about 6-8 inches thick), 2 of the strips being the length of the long sides of the pad, the other 2 being the length of the short sides. I sewed the together with the corners coming to a 45 degree angle, then I sewed elastic to the inside of it. Then I sewed that whole piece to the top piece, and then I had my cover. Super easy. If you're wanting to do this project, and those instruction weren't clear enough, let me know, and I'll be a little more specific with everything!

Josten's Birthday Present

Well, I wasn't the most creative in my idea for Josten's present this year, but he liked it so that's what matters right? I crocheted him a beanie, one that looks like one of the little boy ones I made for my first week of farmers market. I thought it looked studly on Breck, and as predicted, it was the first one to sell. I hadn't made another one like it since though, so I decided to make it for Josten.

T-Shirt Stacker

Okay, so this isn't the most flawless or thorough project I've ever done, I kind of just slapped it together, but I wanted to do it for two reasons:

1. I'm making a diaper stacker for Sienna's room, and I wanted the practice
and
2. Josten has very little closet space, and needed a place to put his million t-shirts.

Thus I created The T-Shirt Stacker.

I didn't use a pattern for this, and sometimes when I do that, it's a little hard for me to describe what I did without showing you in person. I did find a great tutorial, however, that you can look at here.

This one uses a clothes hanger, though for Sienna's I will do it with ties on the top to tie to the changing table.

Breck's 4th of July Shorts!

Instructions for these shorts might get a little lengthy, as I did not use a pattern, so if you would like instructions, just let me know and I'll be glad to post it. For now, I'll just say there was a lot of measuring, and comparing with Breck's existing shorts. It was fun though. I pieced all the patchwork pieces together too, so it was a little tedious, but simple.

Front

Back

Sienna's 4th of July Smocked Dress!

I made this dress for Sienna for the 4th of July. The smocked dress that I made a few months ago was in preparation for this dress. So with that said, if you want to know how I did this dress, follow the instructions below for my first smocked dress. The only difference with this dress is the trim along the bottom. I did that by cutting a piece of elastic to the length of the bottom of the dress. I then cut a piece of the trim fabric to 1 1/2 to twice that length, hemmed it, then sewed it just like you would for the elastic in the dress. (see below instructions).


The flower is a hair-clip that my friend Alyssa made. I just thought it would look cute on there too!

Mom's Birthday Gift

For those of you who know how to crochet, you could pretty much figure this out, but here is a tutorial anyway.

I made the towel, just two simple pieces of fabric sewn together, with ribbon and patterned fabric trim. Pretty easy!




The Card

Father's Day Cards

Here are the cards I made for the special Daddys in my life!

Sienna's Artsy Birthday Party!

Wow, this was a fun and inexpensive party to plan! Since it's a theme all around being creative, it worked that I really had to be creative to pull it together! So here's some of the things I did:

First off, as posted before, here are the invites


Sienna's Artist's Beret
I made it without a pattern, but I basically just measured a radius of 2-3 inches bigger than her head, Then cut a 2-3"Xthe end circumfrance of the big circle length of a strip, sewed elastic to one of the long ends of the strip, then sewed the other end to the cricle, wrong sides out, then turned it inside out to reveal the simple beret!

Here are some random pics of the food and decor

Click Here for a tutorial on the Pom Poms.

Ribbon garland on the table

The cheese and grape skewers were made by using cookie cutters. Make sure the cheese is thick enough, they tend to break apart if they are too thin.

Here is the pallet cake I made (two round cakes stacked, then carved out and frosted to look like a pallet.

The table cloth, I splatter-painted myself. You could use a variety of paints, but I used watered-down acryllic paints, and a sylicone baster.

The activities:

Play dough station (homemade)Click Here for the recipe, with a handprint station next to it


Drawing on the wall (Freezer Paper on the wall with crayons so kids could draw on it)

Noodle and Fruit Loops Necklaces (Penne Pasta painted with watercolors)

And of course, The party favors... A Do-it-Yourself Sock Puppet kit!

Karen's "Kim Anderson" Baby Shower

I know I've posted quite a bit about this already, but I just wanted to post how it all turned out and came together. As I said before, the theme was the Kim Anderson photos of little kids with roses and adult clothes. It was a fun theme to do, because we had to stretch our minds to think up different things that we could do for it. As posted before, I did the Invites, the party favors, and I made a fun little dish. Shawnte', my sister-in-law, did the cake, and Shasta, my other sister-in-law did the games. It was a lot of fun, and I think it was a success! Here's some pictures of the event:




This is the cake Shawnte' made. It's a little newsies cap, to go along with the theme!


I made the dish in the middle, they are snails made from refrigerated breadstick dough, and rolled up like a snail. Before you roll it up, you brush marinara sauce over the breadstick lightly. You have to roll a little bit in front under for the head too. Then you poke holes in the head once they are cooked, and put carot slivers in them. It helps when you cook it, if you put a couple of toothpicks in the "shell" to avoid tip-overs.

Sienna's Birthday Party Invites

Here they are in all their glory. Pretty simple and straight forward. I splatter painted them, and took her picture myself. The rest is probably easy to figure out.


Below is the the picture under the vellum:

Mosquito Net

This one I've been done with for quite some time, but I realized it was on my "to-do" list on this blog, and that I hadn't posted about it yet! It was really pretty simple. This project was for Sienna's "room". Right now she's still in a corner of the office, but this summer she'll have her own room, so I've been starting a line of projects in preparation for this. I've always loved the look of mosquito nets in little girls rooms, but unfortunately they are really expensive even for plain white ones. So I decided to make one myself. This saves TONS of money, and you get it just the way you want! I used 6 yards of tulle for this, ribbon of choice, and an embroidery hoop. First, you need to cut your tulle. It will already be folded in half length-wise, so fold the height in half, so it is now 3 yards tall. Cut along that fold, then cut along the length-wise folds on each 3 yard peice. You should have 4 9-foot peices. Next, loosen the embroidery hoop to where you can easily place fabric between the 2 circles. Place the 4 peices of tulle in the embroidery hoop, around the edge. There should be one piece of tulle per quarter of the hoop. You should have about 2 feet above the hoop and the majority left hanging below the hoop. Fold over the top in half, and tuck tuck that edge into the hoop, so you have about one foot above the hoop. Then, you get some ribbon or string, and string it through the fold that you just made at the top. Sinch it together and tie it together in a bow, so you can hang it from it's loops. You may want to double knot it. Straighten out the cone at the top, so it's to your desired tightness. Also, since the embroidery hoop has the bigger part on the back, you will need to make sure you tighten the top so that the knot is closer to the back as shown in the picture below, so that the balance is even. Then, trim the hoop with ribbon however you like!

Party Favors!!!

As promised, here are the party favors for Karen's shower. To my dismay, they don't even make the tradition candy bars anymore... the kind that have foil wrappers with a paper wrapper over it. I made due with what I had though. I used Kit Kat Bars, wrapped them with paper with the little saying, "Thank you for sharing this special occasion with us!" on it. Then I cut several squares of plain white fabric for the diaper (after measuring how much it would take to cover the Kit Kat Bar, they're about 6 inch squares) which I put on just like you would a cloth diaper. Something that made it easier was glueing the corners down onto the front BEFORE pinning them, then just putting the safety pin on for garnish. The roses were from 2 mini rose wreaths from the dollar store. When I pulled them off of the wreath, I was left with only the buds, but I wanted a full stem. So I pulled off the fake baby's breath and cut the tops off of them, and I used their stems to hot-glue to the rose buds. Then I just slipped the roses into the diapers. And that was that!

Karen's Baby Shower Invites

My Sister-in-law, Karen, is expecting a baby boy in August. Together, this is her and her husband's 7th child. But it's been awhile since they've had a child, and of course, now have gotten rid of all of their baby gear. So, of course we found it necessary to throw her a shower! The theme Karen wanted was the Kim Anderson photography, the black and white pictures of the little kids in big-people clothes. I was in charge of the invites and favors (I'll post about the favors later). I really wanted to incorporate the pictures in the invites, and not just the color scheme we were going for (Black, White and Red), so that when people got the invitations, they knew what to expect. I couldn't think of a way to do this, since I'm pretty sure it's illegal to just print them off of your computer and use them, plus I thought that wouldn't look great anyway. I also thought about just getting a bunch of the pictures, but that would get kind of spendy, plus probably a lot of time to wait for them to be delivered. After studying the pictures for awhile online, I figured out what I would do. I figured, "Hey, I've got a little boy, why don't I just re-create these pictures?" So after narrowing it down to two that I liked, I decided to sort of mix them into one for the shot I would take of Breck.

Here are the two pictures that I chose, first of all:


And here's what I came up with:


And here are what the invites turned out like:



It was pretty fun, and now I have a super-cute picture of Breck from it!

Millions of Beanies, Beanies for Me

My friends Alyssa and Lyndee decided this summer to share their talents, and open a booth in the Farmer's Market here in Moscow. Alyssa makes these adorable bows (Bitty Bowtique) and Lyndee makes these awesome purses! Well, they successfully recruited me, though I've never done anything like this before, and am a bit lacking in the confidence to do it! I will be making baby beanines for them, so night and day everyday, I've been working my now-nimble fingers to try to get enough beanies to sell! It went pretty well for my first week, can't wait til next time!

Yes, another one.

What'd you expect when I have a little girl, a new little neice and friends who share all their bow-making secrets with me? This one happened to be for baby Sarah, who just left North Idaho last week! Boo hoo! She looked smashing in it though, though the bow was about the size of her head!

P.S. If you think you've seen a lot of bows, just wait 'til the next post when I over-do you on beanies!

Another Beanie

This one is the exact same one that I made for the auction that I mentioned a couple of months ago. The only thing that is different is the color of the button. If you know how to crochet you could pretty much figure it out.

Crocheted headband

This was a fun little project. I didn't come up with it myself, however, I got it from this great site. She has other really neat corcheted flower accessories on there too, all with patterns.

Smocked Dress

This was something that was actually a test run for later, but I was so happy with the way it turned out, that I just continued to make it. I wanted to test out smocking material to make a little dress for Sienna. It's actually pretty easy, I didn't use a pattern, but you don't need one. All you need is measurements.
1. Measure around your little girl's chest. Take one inch away from that, and cute 4 peices of elastic to that length. (I used 1/4 inch elastic)
2. Cut a peice of fabric that is about twice the length of the elastic. Crop it wherever you want it to hit on her leg.
3. Hem the top BEFORE you start sewing on the elastic.
4. Sew the elastic to the fabric by stretching it as you sew it down, so that the elastic reaches the end of the fabric. Continue with all 4 pieces of elastic, and this will create the smocked look.
5. Hem the bottom.
6. Fold in half wrong side out so that elastic edges meet.
7. Hem and sew the sides together.
8. Turn right side out, and you pretty much have it, all you need are straps, if you like, which I just did by sewing strips of material each side (one below right shoulder in front, one below right shoulder in back, etc.) and tied them together in a bow where they meet.
9. I put ribbon around the bottom, but you can do whatever you want!
*You can buy fabric at most fabric stores that has already been smocked, which might make this a bit easier. However, doing it yourself allows you to have whatever fabric you want!

Itty Bitty Booties 2

Here's some more itty-bitty booties I made for a friend who just had a little girl. If you want a free pattern, refer to the previous itty-bitty booties post.

St. Patty's Hair Bow

Well, St. Patty's Day has yet again come and gone. We all decked out in our best green attire, ate green food, and relaxed. Sienna had a cute new little green shirt, and you can imagine my horror when I realized I had nothing to put in her hair! :) So I made her a little bow. It was just the typical nylon head band (cut both ends of a knee-high nylon, then glue them together in a band) then I did the same thing with the bows that I did in my bow post below, except I skewed them to the side to get a figure 8 AFTER they were glued into a loop. Then I just tied a knot and trimmed it for the top bow. Simple Simple!

Breck's Birthday Party

Breck's birthday theme this year was a "bee" theme. It was so much fun to do, I wish I could do it again! We had games like "Pin the Stinger on the Bee", Singing time (including some bee songs), a "who knows Breck best" game. We ended the fun by watching "Bee Movie".


The invitation




I made this cake with the Wilton's wondermold pan. It's the one that looks like a bottom of a dress, but I figured it kind of looked like a beehive too!


Deviled bees: Make regular deviled eggs, then dye some seperate mayonaise black, then pipe it through with regular frosting bags and tip(small round tip)


The pretzels were made by getting both white and milk chocolate melties, melting them, dying the chocolate black, and the white chocolate yellow, then dipping them in. I did some yellow, some black, then some yellow with black stripes.


You can see the pin the stinger in the background.


I stamped and colored this paper for the "who knows Breck" game


Sorry this is sideways, my computer was acting up when I tried to make it right, but this is the song sheet.


These are the party favors. You can get these boxes at Michaels, thay have all dorts of colors. I used black scrapbook paper for the top, with yellow ribbon, and a bee stamp in the corner. I filled them with "Bit o' Honey"s

Breck's Invites

Here are the invites for Breck's 2nd Birthday Party!

Lunch Sack

I made Josten a lunch sack for Valentines Day. I didn't use a pattern, I just kind of made it up as I went. It's pretty easy to figure out.

Valentines

We just had a blast making Valentines this year! We made ones to send out to family, Breck and Sienna made Daddy a special one, and of course I made one for my special Valentine!

Pinned Ya Again

I've found yet another fabulous and free pattern from Heather Bailey, who is quickly becoming a close friend of mine (her website at least). I've been wanting a pin cushion for quite some time, but I didn't want the ordinary old tomato that comes standard at most stores. I wanted pop and pizzaz! Well, I got it here at good ol' Heather's site, where she has a free pattern for her "Square Deal" pin cushions. They're pretty easy, yet so fabulous! Here's the site. Look on the side bar for "Square Deal" pin cushion.

This one was my first one, not as cute, but it's still better than the tomato!

Modest Mommy

After 7 months of living without one, I finally decided to make myself a nursing cover. The blanket gets old quick when nursing in public due to the heat it traps in around the baby and the mommy's body. I also go sick of having to isolate myself so I didn't have to nurse in front of anyone. So here is the answer to my problems. I didn't use a pattern for this, although I know of plenty of sites that have them, if you are interested. All I did, was I measured around my Chest how big I would need it, and how long I wanted it, and cut it appropriatly. You can add trim if you like, just make sure you stick boning in the hem on the top before you sew it all up on the sides. You'll need about 1 foot of boning.

Well, At Least Their Heads Won't Get Cold

I've been crocheting hats like crazy lately, and I'm not sure why. It could be perhaps the cold weather, or maybe that I've been on a huge de-junking spree and I have TONS of yarn just laying around not being used, or it could be that maybe I just truly wanted to do it. Well, it could be a combo of the three. Whatever the reason, I've made three hats in the last week, one for Sienna, one for Breck, and one for a church service auction. They're all brown, so you can guess what color yarn was the surplus.

This is Sienna's Hat

These next three are Breck's hat, I just thought all these pictures were so cute, and I couldn't pick just one.

This is the hat for the auction

Bitty Booties

I found a free pattern for these on a website, and just HAD to make them! What I love about them is that you do it all by hand. No machienes, although you could probably use a machiene if you wanted, but the unique-ness of these is in the hand stitching. These are the first pair I have made (of many more to come, I'm sure) for little Vanceroo. To print off a free pattern, click here.

Valentine's "Wreath"

This was pretty simple. All you need is a foam heart, glue, a pencil, and about 3/4 to 1 yard of valentine-ish fabric. (Also some ribbon to hang it), The instructions for this project I found at this website. It's pretty detailed with pictures, so that should help a lot.

Mary's Baby Shower

This was fun to plan. It was a headline theme. Everything was pink and black with newspaper!

I know I already posted this, but it kinda goes with everything I'm posting about

These little "suckers" are rolled up baby washclothes, secured with a satin pin (flathead pins) and stuck into treat bags (or cellaphane) and tied tight with a ribbon to keep the stick in. I made the little sign under it, and taped it to the stick.

This is what the little tag at the end of the favors says

Those are Booties on the top of the cake

A little onesy I made Mary with an iron-on transfer.