Recent Projects

I know I gave you a sneak peek at my current project on my last post, but if you read a little closer I also wrote "I'm always in the midst of many projects all at once". Case in point... I started this little project a few months ago but could never decide on how I wanted to "decorate" it so it just sat on my desk unfinished. Well, I finally figured out what I wanted to do and finished it up a couple of days ago. Isn't it just the cutest thing ever? I found the tutorial here about a year ago and knew I just had to make one (which was totally easy, by the way - except for trying to figure out how to "decorate" it). It is so fun to see it sitting there all pretty on my sewing desk.

And here it is fully functioning.

*****SIDE NOTE**** Porter is so cute about this cake pin cushion thing. Ever since I made the cake part of it he has been begging me to make one for him. Crazy, right? I asked him why he wanted once, since he doesn't sew. He just says he wants one to play with. I guess I could help him make one in more masculine colors, eh? I can see this beeing a cute addition to Brooklyn's play kitchen as well. Oh, the possibilities!

And here's another project that's been on my to-do list for awhile that I finally got around to making. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my silly magnet faces. I've been working on those too. I just don't have any pics of my progress yet. Here is the "Mullet" dress. It's made from t-shirts.

My sister-in-law, Lauren, found this tutorial a couple of months ago and asked if I wanted to make one with her. Heck yeah! I love all the ruffles! We made them yesterday. In fact, I stayed up past midnight (no surprise there) to finish it so she could wear it to school today. Imagine my total disappointment when she told me this morning that she didn't like it and refused to wear it to school. I just about cried... no lie! When I asked her why she didn't like it, she told me that she didn't like the ruffles. WHAT?! The ruffles?! That's the most girly part of the whole dress. After investigating a little further, I gathered that it's not so much the ruffles as it is the color she doesn't like. More specifically, the grey. Go figure! I'm learning that anything neutral in color (brown, black, grey, etc) is actually a "boy color" according to Brooklyn. She's kind of a freak about that stuff. So after some near tears (on my part) and a little manipulation, I mean persuasion, she decided to go ahead and wear it today for my sake. Naturally, I had to take pictures because who knows if I'll ever get her to put it on again. Oh, the agony!

Anywho, that's all the craftiness I have for today. Have a great one!

Still SEW fun!

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I've been on a sewing kick lately, right? Well, I just finished a skirt for Brynn and matching dress for Brooklyn the other day and decided that I wanted real "models" to display them this time instead of just hanging them on hangers and taking pictures of them. So after church today we swung by the house so I could grab my camera and then went back to the grand entrance of a local neighborhood nearby so I could get some pics of the kids in their outfits. I realized that it wasn't the best time of day (heat, lighting, hungry kids, hungry husband, etc.) to be doing this but knew that as soon as we walked through the door Brynn's skirt would be off and into the laundry basket and I most likely wouldn't get any pics done today. So, here we go...

Of course, as usual, Brooklyn was not at all interested in sitting where we wanted her to sit and there was no changing her mind about it. Not to mention that she was not at all interested in looking at me either. Oh well.

Here's my handsome boy. No, I didn't make his outfit. But I can't leave him out of the pics, can I? Of course not! And just a funny little side note about this pic... he positioned himself for this one. He did a pretty good job, don't you think?

Here's Brooklyn's dress and matching barrette I made for her. She thought she was sooo big and also posed herself for this pic after watching Brynn do the same thing just a minute before that.

Here's Brynn looking all Vogue-ish with a look she came up with. Do you like her skirt and barrette? And, yes, she did take the skirt off the moment we walked into the house. So predictable (just like her dad!).

And here's the funner side of Brynn.

Now we're getting to the tail end of our photo shoot and obviously someone is less than happy to be here. So I decided to get creative to try and get just one more shot of all of them before we leave. And just what is that creative thing I tried to do, you ask? What every good mom does when she wants her kids to do something they don't want to... BRIBERY! I told them that whoever smiled (or laughed) for the next picture would get some candy when we get home.

Not exactly what I was looking for, but I'll take it. You can't really see it in this pic, but Brooklyn really was trying to laugh through her tears. Let's just say she was D U N, done!

And yet somehow I squeezed just one. more. pic. out of her.

It's been really fun to sew for the girls and I know that Brooklyn will continue to enjoy me sewing dresses and skirts for her. Brynn, on the other hand, would be quite content if I never made her another dress/skirt again. In fact, when I was getting close to finishing up on her skirt over at grandma's house, grandma asked her what she thought about it. Her response? Wow. If only I could type it with the tone of voice she actually said it in. This was not a "WOW! I'm so excited you made me another skirt and I'm so grateful you spent ALL DAY working on it for me!". This was more of a "wow. (insert rolling eyes here) I can't believe you haven't stopped making me these stupid dresses/skirts yet. When will this ever end?!". Oh yeah, it was definitely like that. So I guess I'll just stick to the dressy, girly clothes for Brooklyn and maybe start making some shorts/pants for Brynn. Then maybe, just maybe, I'll get a response from her that makes me feel like she appreciates all the work that goes into the things I make for her. We'll see. I do love that tomboy girl of mine, though!

Sew, Sew Fun!

About a month ago I saw some adorable skirts (and sneak peeks of said skirts) from some friends of mine on their blogs. You know who you are! And I just HAD to find out how to make them. So my friend, Alicia, pointed me to this fabulous pattern from this great website here. Of course I bought the pattern immediately and enlisted some other friends to try it out with me. Holy Moses! These are so fun! I feel like I'm addicted to them now. I am totally loving all things ruffles. Thank goodness I have at least one girly princess daughter who can appreciate these sort of things. Brooklyn has been sneaking her's to try it on ever since I made it. However, I won't let her wear it yet because I want it to stay nice for her easter outfit. Even though easter is on conference Sunday this year and the only thing we'll be wearing that day is our jammies... hey, maybe I should make some easter jammies! That's an idea!

Anywho, back to the skirts. When I showed Brynn the pattern online I asked her what she thought about it. She said, "The skirt is nice, but I don't like all those ruffles." I thought, "What?! This skirt is ALL ABOUT the ruffles!" So, of course I had to find a different pattern for her skirt. But I wanted them to coordinate and I figured it was going to be a challenge finding something that was girly enough for Brooklyn and still simple and non-girly enough for Brynn. What did I do? I took Brynn with me so she could pick out the fabric. I should know better. That little treasure hunt was fun for all of about 5 min. and then she was ready to be done. Go figure! But I have to say that I was more than completely surprised by what she picked out...I WAS SHOCKED!! She found something that had pink in it for Brooklyn and green for her. And it was girly. I could'nt believe it. I didn't even point it out to her because I didn't think she would ever go for it. Who knew? So here' what I made for them. Oh, and I clipped one of Brooklyn's barrettes onto her skirt to tie in the green and see what it would look like. I kinda like it so I think I'm going to make another one and put a pin back on it so I can pin it to the skirt when she's wearing it and then take it off when I wash it.

And because I like this skirt so much, I decided to make one for a baby shower I went to a couple of weeks ago. Along with a coordinating flower pin and barrette for the headband. So fun!

And these last skirts are for my friend, Jamie. Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. Poor thing. She hasn't sewn much in her life and I convinced her that this would be a simple project and that she could totally handle making skirts for each of her 3 girls. She reluctantly agreed with the stipulation that if the first one was a total flop I would finish them for her. Well, let's just say that after 8 hours of working on it and having her machine freeze up on her at the end she was pretty much done. That wasn't a very good day for her, not to mention all the other crazy things that happened after she got home (burned dinner, satellite malfunction, etc). So I made her give me her fabric and I made them all for her the next week while they were out of town for spring break. A deal's a deal, you know?

It's been sew, sew fun to get back into the sewing thing again. I haven't done it in so long and now I just crave new sewing projects. I look at fabric all the time online and drool over all the ones I want to buy. Now if I only had the money to back it up. Oh well, such is life, eh? Thanks, Alicia, for the inspiration to start sewing again!