Oh yes

I went to JoAnns’s today for a little retail therapy.  I was half successfull in my trip.  I had ment to buy some fabric for myself for a new knit maxi dress and totally spaced on that one.  Instead I bought more than $100 in fabric, trims, elastic, notions and patterns for my little diva’s handmade spring/summer wardrobe.

Wanna see what I got?  I’m in the mood to share lol!

Simplicity pattern 2269

New Look 6962

New Look 6066

I’m going to make the top dress out of scraps (large large large scraps) of fabric I’ve had in my stash since I got married – they are actually from the flowergirl and bridesmaids dresses my mom made for our wedding.  It’s going to be her Easter dress.  Then I can’t wait to make a cute summer cotton print just like the one in the pattern picture!

For the middle fabric I bought some fabric from the Spring Little Lisette fabric line (it’s got ice cream on it!) but I’m thinking about making the yoke and the pockets out of a contrasting fabric I just wasn’t able to decide on which one.

The bottom pattern I actually bought two differant fabrics for.  I’m going to make view c (I’m not sure about the ruffles yet though) using a really cute raspberry ginham printed searsucker fabric.  Then I’m going to make view B using a red (my daughter’s current favorite color!) linen look fabric.

I also picked up some clearence knit to make some cute summer PJs with as well as a sparkly red ruffle fabric that was beging to come home and become a simple A line dress for Ms. Thing.

Looking around gave me some ideas for fabrics I already had in my stash too.  I’m so excited now to start sewing for her and get some of these ideas off paper the computer and into her closet.  First I have to do some arguing with my machine and ask it why it doesn’t want to have proper bobbin tention though. :/  Hope it doesn’t need actuall repairs can’t afford that right now bot financially (especially after this shoping trip LOL) or time wise.

Good Morning Little Miss. Sunshine!

 

I have nothing more to add – just that it’s a good morning.  It’s a new day, full of new hopes, dreams, and possabilites.  His grace is sufficent to see me through, and His Mercy’s are new every morning.

 

Lamentations 3:22-23

²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Confession

I may or may not have a small obession with pre-shirred fabric.  I might have been thinking about it for the past two months wondering what selections Jo-Ann’s would have this season.  It may be possible that I started stalking the apperal fabric section more than a month ago waiting for it to make it’s apperance.  It could be said that when I finally spotted it last week I wanted to buy some of EVERYTHING they had.  I might even have had to restrain myself from daincing in the isle when I saw that they expanded their collection this year to include more styles, and coordinating non-shirred fabrics.

 

But I won’t confirm any of this.

 

I will confirm that I came home with a small pile of yardage Friday in three differant patterns.

 

I can also confirm that the first finished peice was for my daughter (who I let pick out her own design, choose the length she wanted the finished dress to be, and pick the style of straps she wanted).

 

I will say that the second thing finished was a skirt for me – that I am in love with (although it’s shorter than what I’d normally wear) and wore to a baby shower on Saturday.

 

 

I will also say I got this awesome yellow floral super fun spring/summer print for myself and it was the last thing to be finished.

 

That fabric and the skirt both came with pre-finished rolled hems as well so required no hemming at the bottom.  I debated about adding a ruffle to the yellow one to make it a full lenght maxi dress, but after wearing it to church yesturday (before I added the straps LOL, I was just too excited to wear it!) as a tea length dress, I decided to keep it that lenght, it just felt more spring breezy too me.

 

I will however, not be finished, I love this stuff and will be headed back to Jo-Anns for more.  Who knows, maybe you’ll see a theme week of tutorials soon.

 

Girls T-shirt to a Toddler Dress (5 minute refashion tutorial)

 

This is the dress I made my daughter for St. Pattricks day this year.  It took me less than 10 minutes – seriously!

Click the jump to make this super simple dress too.

Sad but true

I’ve lived in Texas for eight and a half years, this is my seventh february, and as depressing as I may find it, I know that it is in fact spring here now.  The amazing seventy degree days are only temporary, and as much as I wish I were still north and plowing through the snow right now, I’ve also learned to enjoy it while it lasts, because – MUCH sooner than I want to think about or admit I’ll be sweltering in triple didget heat wanting to do nother more than either A) stay in the pool till next November or B) move into a walk in freezer for several months (or forever), or C) both.

So, today I’ve spent FAR too much time digging through files, folders, bookmarks, and pinterest looking for inspiration and collecting it all in one place.  Last year about this time, I made a post full of words and links, nothing fun and no pictures of what my spring/summer sewing list looked like.  This year I did it a bit differant and made a Pinterest board FULL of hopes, inspirations, and goals.  I am really hoping to make my daughters spring and summer wardrobe be 100% handmade this year – be it from my own sewing machine or from other sources of handmade wares.  The one exception is I’ve already bought a swim suit for her at Old Navy on clearence sometime in October (so cute and only around $5!).  So, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me if I actually intend to pull it off.

Some items I’ve made before and have become or are quicly turning into part of our summer wardrobe as staples.

The Sienna Dress by LBB

The Key West Dress - a remake of the Sweet Little Dress

Recycled T-Shirt Halter/Tie-back Dress from LBB

Simple Bandana Dress tutorial from Joys Hope

Other things are patterns I’ve had for a while but have yet to use or likewise for things I’ve had bookmarked for ages.

One Hour Sundress From An Igloo

The Perfect Short from LBB

Snappy Toddler Dress from Prudent Baby

Cascading Ruffle Skirt from LBB

Most of all, there are lots of cute pictures and inspiration, a few links for supplies, and lots of summery goodness.  So go check it out!

 

Spring/Summer Sewing List

 

Whats on your to-do list?

Craftily getting stuff done

One of my new years resolutions was to declutter and organize (which seems to be the same every year, but this year I’m going at it a bit differently) our home.  At the end of last year (maybe in November?) I saw a pin on Pinterest that linked to a monthly calendar full of daily tasks to help you get rid of clutter in 2012.  The tasks were simple and not at all overwhelming looking and I thought – why not?!  So I printed out all 12 months, mounted them into a tear off notepad style with magnets and stuck it to my fridge.  I have looked at it every day but until today I hadn’t started to work on the projects.  But I just did the first one and I’m already thrilled with the results of just a little bit of effort!!

The first day the task was to create a “donation station” and the pdf file linked to a blog post The Red Chair Blog.  The idea is simple, use a set of basic shelves, some bankers boxes and you’re good to go

img source The Red Chair Blog

I only had one small problem – when I want to the store for the shelves, they didn’t have any, which was actually OK because I also didn’t have a closet to shove the ugly thing into so I wanted something that looked a bit nicer too.  So I browsed the isles to see what would hold my four boxes.  I found a simple three shelf bookcase in white that had dimensions that would hold the boxes and for an extra bonus it was actually less expensive than I was anticipating spending.

So home I came with all my supplies.

I put together the bookcase, but I added my own touch to the simple plain white with the help of my friends Mr. Fabric Mod Podge and Mrs. Thrifted Pottery Barn Sheet.  In the end our collaboration yielded these results:

Love it!  I am thinking I might go one step further and get some yellow paint to paint the thin front edge of the case to make the color pop just a bit more.

With the boxes.  I definitely want to get some spray paint to make the boxes a bit prettier and a bit less utilitarian.  I’m going to wait to label them or paint the shelf at all until after I’ve painted the boxes just so I know what I’m dealing with.  Either way though – feels good to get some stuff done!

Now I’m off to clean the kitchen so I can make dinner.  I’ll be back later this week with some new Valentines tutorials.  See you then!

Pinterest, Fashion, Toys, and ModCloth

I confess to having a problem with how much time I spend online.  Between Facebook and Pinterest the internet EATS me.  However I don’t always mind either.  For instance, I get LOTS of great recipes, project inspiration, and homeschool ideas from Pinterest.  One of the things I’m really loving/hating about Pinterest though is the fashion pins.  SO many of them have elements of what I like or might actually wear, but most of them just don’t hit the nail on the head for me.  I find this really frustrating as I’m still trying to figure out what my tastes are in a lot of ways.

 

So, last night I played around and tried to figure out how to make my own fashion compilation pins.  I wondered around ModCloth – which I KNOW I’ve said before how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the style there.  As I found things I liked I tried to put them together into selections I might actually wear together.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on this a)because it was past bedtime anyway lol and b)because I wasn’t sure it would work anyway.

 

BUT IT DID!

 

So, I give you my very own (first) style pin:

(All items from modcloth.com)

Now I’m excited to start gathering looks from all my favorite sites and pairing them together – who knows someday I may even be able to afford them lol.

 

Happy Tuesday!