I have an Innocent Crush

I love Anna Maria Horner fabrics.  I mean, really,  I love them. I think I could live in a house entirely decorated with them!  They are so vibrant and interesting that I would never get bored.  So, I was thrilled when Innocent Crush came out and included some options in Velveteen!  I was able to score three yards from Sew Mama Sew when they had their sale a few weeks back.  I love their fast shipping and great customer service!

Anyway, I decided I wanted to make myself the Norma skirt from Ottobre Woman, 5/2010, pattern #2.  The description of their sample said they used stretch velveteen but I decided to try it with AMH's velveteen, which is not stretch.  I took a risk because I do not sew for myself often and I am not a skinny minny anymore.  This was going to take a great deal of attention to detail and patience.

With all that in mind, here is what I made! It was not an easy pattern to follow. The directions did not make sense to me in some places.  I knew how to attach the waist yoke, which was good because Otto's directions were too vague.  And the lining attachment instructions seemed like Greek to me so I made a slip instead of lining the skirt.  The skirt also came out about 4 sizes too large at first so I had to do major alternations on it. 

But, in the end, I now have a skirt to wear to holiday festivities this year!  And I have enough fabric leftover that I will be making a little girl skirt to match soon!  We will both wear our skirts with black tights, black shoes and black tops. 

Baby boy clothes

I have two girls and am done having babies. So, having a friend who is pregnant with a boy, due next month, is a joy.  I relished the opportunity to make some tiny boy clothes!

I made this wee baby jacket from the Ottobre Winter 2006 issue.  It is pattern number 2, the Wraparound jacket.  It is made from the softest fleece I have ever seen.  It is double sided!!  I also made pattern number 4, the Baby Bonnet, to match but gave it to my friend already.  I will get a picture of it the next time I see her.  Her baby is due next month so I hope he gets to wear them this winter!

The father of this boy loves fishing and hockey, so I appliqued some Carter's onesies myself.   My sewing machine went a little wonky on me, and the stitching on the hockey puck and stick show that, but I think they came out well enough to still give to her.

Whimsy Couture giveaway on Our Family Treat!

This lovely blogger is having a fun giveway with Whimsy Couture!   Check it out.


Our family treat blog


Whimsy Couture blog



Check out the great patterns for little girls!

Peas in a pod!

I got to try out this pattern before it was released.  It is really easy to make and super cute!  I made it a few weeks ago but have not blogged about it because I was waiting to give it to a friend at her shower.  So, here it is, the Peas in a pod from Tiedyediva's pattern.  Super cute, huh?  I lucked out and found this fleecy-type fabric on the remnant rack at Joann's.  I was not sure what to put inside because the mama I gave it to is super crunchy and I did not want to put anything unhealthy inside.  So, I ended up with some cellophate wrap that came with Fabric Fairy fabric and a wee kitty collar bell.  I figured the kitty collar bell is small enough, and packed inside the batting so well, that a teething baby could possibly get to the metal.  And the other two peas have cellophane packed inside.  So, two peas go crinkle and one goes ding!  Heehee!

Homemade Halloween

Happy Halloween!


My girls wanted to be witches this year and I decided to make their costumes myself. I bought two long sleeved black tees at Target and some fabric and tulle at Joann's Fabric Store.  We found hats and wigs at various places.  Voila!  Halloween costumes. 

Here is how I did it without patterns!!


Big girl's skirt is lace fabric cut into strip long stripes, each gathered and sewn to the shorter one.  Then, I made an elastic waistband.  Voila!  Lacey tiered witch skirt.  She wears black leggings underneath.  Her top was long sleeved but I cut the sleeves halfway between elbow and wrist and sewed on more lace.  I stretched the sleeves as long as they would go to sew on a circle of lace I had cut and sewed to be 4X the regular length of the cuff.  It worked!  Voila!  Lacy cuffed sleeve.  She is wearing my black velvet gloves from some formal event many moons ago and a cute hat we got on sale last year after Halloween.  She added a velvet vest over the top for detail. 


Little girl's tutu is made from strips of tulle cut 3-4 inches wide and knotted onto an elastic sewn to fit her waist.  I took one black and one purple piece of tulle together and knotted them in the middle on the skirt.  It is supposed to look messy and it does!  She did not want lacey sleeves so she is just wearing it with black leggings and a black tee.  Her hat and wig are something I found on sale a few days ago.


I also made myself a witch outfit and will post those pics later.

From disfunctional to functional (aka, look at my new sewing space)

I have been sewing in the dining room for a year and a half now and the space has become unusable as my stash and project list has grown.  Just look at it!

 As we approach holiday season, I realized I need to do something about my dining room!  So, here is what I did!  First of all, our playroom had an extra wall with nothing on it. 

 And I organized my daughter's crafting area.  Her stuff is now all in the white three drawer bin you can see in bottom right corner of this picture.   

She will have plenty of space to craft and I can use the space now, too!

 

 I was lucky to have my mom give me her old sewing table.  She prefers the dining room table.  LOL!  So, here it is with the stool from our drum kit.  I am being creative.  I put notions and current projects in the drawers to the right, future projects on the shelves to the left, and the fabric stash in the bins on the far left.  As soon as I clean out the storage closet, they will move into it. 

 As you can see from picture below, I have a nice view of the front yard from our family room basement and I can talk to my cat, Pete, while I sew.

 Hi Pete!

 Here is the craft bar with serger at one end.  Plenty of room for everyone's crafts!

The dining room, all cleaned up!  

Finally, my grandmother's dining room set can be the focus, instead of the mess.

Crafty mama

I have been busy this summer, with camping and swimming and my serger was in the shop.  But, I did manage to get one big project done, my 3 year old's room.  Here are pictures of her room, finally decorated!

It started when cosleeping with me was no longer working and sharing a room with her sister was not an option.  So, we took a small guest room with a queen sized bed and turned it into a room for a three year old girl.  We kept the queen sized bed so we could still have guests come over and I could still cosleep if necessary.  Thus, the bedspread was a big part of the room, being on such a big bed in a small room.  I found this Pottery Barn Kids Quilt, called Betsy's Dolls, on deep discount, and we were off!   I could not find affordable Pottery Barn Kids bedding so I searched Ebay and found some white sheets with lavendar trim, new but very cheap.  After that, lavender became our complimentary color.  So, since yellow compliments it perfectly, the walls are pale yellow. I was lucky to find a cheap twin sheet set on Ebay of the same PBK lavender gingham and turned that into curtains and a bed skirt.

Isn't it adorable, with the dolls?

I could not find shams so I had these custom made on Etsy by Cute as a Button Designs.   

She is great to work with and made adorable shams. 

I found a picture of some wooden flowers on a child's bedroom wall and got Zzbob, on Etsy, to make these for me.  They cut them from MDF, per my measurements and design, and I painted them myself.  They are attached to the wall with this genius product by 3M Command. They make a whole line of products that are not supposed to wreck your walls.  These are attached with velcro that sticks to each side.  Genius!

I think I did a good job!  :)