Girl. Inspired.

Teatime Signature Look - Project Run and Play, The Finals!

2012-02-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

So, this is it! The final round at Project Run and Play! Are you as excited as I am? This has been such a crazy and fun adventure and I am so honored to have been included! I appreciate each of your comments and support so much.
VOTE HERE!!!

If you have been a follower of my blog for any amount of time, you could have probably guessed in an instant that my "Signature Look" this week would include ruffles. And the Shabby Chic fabric is probably not much of a surprise either! The design is new, though, and I love it! I'm so proud of yet another entire look that was created without patterns - I think the Teatime Signature outfit is a timeless look, and I think it's appropriate for a wide age range. It includes a ruffly dress, a soft and fancy jacket, hair bows, and upcycled shoes.

You can read all about how I define my "Signature Look" over at Project Run and Play -
to summarize - the clothes I make are fancy, but I don't think that limits the number of occasions when they can be worn. We "dress up" daily and celebrate often and I wouldn't have it any other way.

You can read the details on the outfit here, but I wanted to point out a couple things that you can see in more detail here. In the above picture, you can see the clay button on the jacket that was handmade using a stamp and polymer clay. You can also see the pretty lace detailing on the jacket sleeves. Below is a great picture showing those beautiful ruffles as well as the upcycled shoes. Have you ever put fabric on shoes? LOVE how they turned out. I might be hitting the thrift stores for makeover shoes for all the girls!

As an aside, I'm also LOVING how this tent turned out for a photo prop (and the girls love to play in it!) I changed the pattern a little bit to include the ruffle around the opening. I also used wooden dowels instead of the recommended PVC pipe and I'm really happy with the results - you can find the original pattern through Little Lizard King.

Now, pardon me while I post some additional pictures, mostly because I think my Addison is just so darn cute! She was in great spirits for her own personal tea party while her sisters were off at school. So silly and giggly, the best scenario for pictures that moms like to frame. If ever I wanted to capture her personality at age 2, this is it right here!

VOTE HERE!!!!

So, that's it! The end of this event and on to the looooong list of nexts. Thank you again for playing along! And did you see that you can post your own signature looks for a final group vote next week? I'd love to hear if you're participating!!

Twirling Flower Gown (what Olivia wore)

2012-02-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

First off, a really big thank you for continuing to support me at Project Run and Play. I made it through Special Occasion week and am working this week on my "Signature Look" for the final project - be sure to stop in Friday to see what I've made!

I'm hoping to squeeze in a couple things before Friday. To start, I wanted to share pictures of Olivia's gown that she wore for Grace's princess party (Are you tired of the Princess Party yet?? A couple more things, including a fabulous giveaway, okay?)

Olivia's dress was made using three full yards of a stretchy, bouncy satin. I have no specific information on this fabric - I picked it up in a flurry of sewing and party planning right after Christmas. Those two weeks between Christmas and Grace's birthday party were CRAZY!! I sewed and photographed Addie's entire ensemble for the first week of Project Run and Play (that was the brown silk dress), little Oliver's entire boy look, three princess gowns for Grace's party, AND did all the decorations and baking for the party. Again, CRAZY!! So when it was two days until party and Olivia's dress still wasn't done, I ran to Joann's and bought a pile of several different pink synthetics, ran home, and this dress is what I ended the night with.

It is HEAVY and TWIRLY!!

The bodice is basically a lined tube, cut a couple inches smaller than her chest since there is so much stretch in the satin. The floorlength skirt is very full and tightly gathered, then stitched to the tube bodice. The hem of the skirt is finished with a very ruffly ruffle. I finally bought a ruffling foot for my sewing machine and it definitely made this hemline ruffle a million times quicker to do!!

The flower on the bodice that wraps over into a single strap makes this dress extra special. I'll do a tutorial at some point - remind me if you find yourself waiting too long! It's basically a long ruffle, wound around and stitched down into a flower spiral. Then I added a few singed petals and a thrifted pearl earring to the center to finish it. Olivia was begging for the dress to be strapless, but 1) it was too heavy, and 2) her daddy was having a heart attack over his little girl wearing something so "grown up." The flower strap helped on the first front, but probably not much on the second.

Nevertheless, this princess is definitely happy with her fancy dress and loved dressing up for her sister's birthday party.

Dancing on a Cloud Princess Gown: Project Run and Play, Week 5

2012-02-03T02:49:00.000-08:00

WEEK 5!!! I can hardly believe it. Thank you again and again for cheering me on during this fun adventure!

This week's theme is probably my favorite type of sewing - Special Occasion/Partywear. Since the very first garment I ever made was Addie's first birthday dress, it has become a tradition to sew the girls dresses for each birthday party. And of course, Grace got a perfect princess gown for her pink princess party a few weeks ago. I just wasn't able to show you until now! Olivia and Addie also got new gowns and I will be posting photos of those next week so stay tuned!

Today, we'll be looking at Grace's dress, my entry for this week at Project Run and Play. I called this dress "Dancing on a Cloud." Have I told you how much I [don't] love naming my outfits each week? Not my best trick. But I DO think the name this week suits this pretty puff of a dress.
Vote here!

I used a cotton silk blend in the most delicious shade of peachy pink for Grace's gown. The gown has a scoop neck and short-sleeves that are large and billowy, but cinched with two rows of elastic thread for a simple, princess look. I wanted to keep the top of the dress simple for the main show...the skirt. The very full skirt was bustled in several places in a stair-step fashion to form an inverted V. I think the finished effect is stunning. The sheen and drape of this particular fabric suits the style perfectly. The back of the dress closes with ten, tiny fabric-covered buttons - I love this detail. It's so fitting for a special occasion dress. The dress is finished with a wide sash that ties into a large bow in the back. In order to provide the right support for the princess gown, I sewed a pettiskirt from multiple layers of lining, stiff netted tulle, and lightweight tulle. The stiff tulle provides the support to hold up the gown's skirt while the top layer of lightweight tulle adds a bit more fluff and a pretty compliment to the gown where it is bustled. I encased all of the pettiskirt layers with a thick cotton knit waistband for extra comfort.

This dress was really fun to make for a "princess gown", but I also think it would be the cutest formal dress for a wedding or other super special occasion. I think we'll do a little how-to on the skirt of the dress in the next week or so - sound good?

If you've been following along, you already know that the girls and I made a pile of glittery princess crowns for the party. Grace selected a smaller, tall silver crown to wear on her special day - I think she looks like the most beautiful little princess, giving me such sweetie peetie smiles and holding her skirt out just so. Gosh, I love that girl. If you want to make your little princess a crown, too, you can find my post here! And more on the cakes, here, because if you're like me, you never get tired of looking at pretty cake pictures!

Alrighty! Now, if you haven't already, it's time to VOTE. Head on over to Project Run and Play and check out all the Special Occasion garments. And thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind comments every week, I truly appreciate each and every one of you!

Wide-cuffed Coat Sleeves (Tutorial)

2012-02-01T02:00:00.000-08:00

This last round of Project Run and Play was SO crazy and so close. I am extremely grateful to have made it through another week. This week, we'll be sharing Special Occasion outfits and you know that's my favorite kind of sewing!!

The pace of this competition is so intense, I haven't had a lot of time to share instructions for the pieces I'm making, though I do plan to put some things together after things wrap up. Today, though, I DO have a little tutorial for you on the coat details from the "Sunday's Child" outfit. While I was making Christmas gifts, I made a little "Red Riding Hood" cloak for Grace (which I will share with you soon) which is when I discovered how beautiful the beaded machine-embroidery looked on velvet. For our Outerwear challenge, I knew that I wanted to incorporate that embroidery along with some large cuffed sleeves. The rest of the coat (and outfit) emerged from there. I think it's incredibly interesting that two of the other outfits last week were a play off of Little Red Riding Hood. Most definitely a fun thing to sew for little girls! Anyhow, here is how I made the "Sunday's Child" sleeves....

You are going to want to decide how wide you want the cuffs of the sleeves. I chose to make these cuffs about 6" wide. As Olivia grows, the cuff width can be adjusted so that the coat will fit for quite some time.

We're going to start with the coat completely sewn except for finishing the sleeves. When cutting the material for the sleeves and sleeve lining, I cut the length an extra 6" + 1/4" for hem from the necessary finished length of the sleeve. Attach the main sleeve and the lining sleeve to their respective bodies of the coat. Once the whole coat is assembled, separate the main sleeve from the lining sleeve and move the coat out of the way so that you are working just on the lining sleeve. We're going to replace 6" of the lining with the velvet so that when the sleeve is turned into a cuff, only the velvet shows. Cut 6 1/4" from the lining sleeve (you could also do this from the get-go, but I wasn't sure of the measurements until I had everything put together. Then I cut an equal piece of the main (velvet) fabric at 6 1/2", sewing it into a tube.

Working on lining only: pin "new lining piece" to the lining sleeve right sides together, matching seams and raw edges. Stitch with 1/4" seam.

Fold out and press seam toward top of sleeve.

Now is the time to add trim if you wish. Pin trim to sleeve, matching raw edges. You can measure length around sleeve and form your loop of trim ahead of time (stitch the ends together, then place over the sleeve and match seams) - this trim was so small, I simply overlapped the ends at the seam and left them separate. Now, stitch the trim down. Turn the trim out and press the seam up.

Next, we're going to attach the new lining sleeve to the main sleeve. Press the raw edge of your main sleeve under 1/4" (not pictured). Take your lining sleeve and insert it into the main sleeve. Wiggle the sleeves around to ensure that the seams are matched and everything is in its place. Turn the whole coat inside out so that you are working with the lining sleeve face out.

Working on the sleeve ends, match seams and pin the main sleeve to the lining (both sleeve ends should be turned under to the inside of the coat.)

Now, stitch close to the edge, making sure you catch both the main sleeve and the lining.

If you want to embroider a design on the hem of the sleeve, do that now. I lined up the edge of the sleeve with the edge of my presser foot as a guide.

I selected this oval satin-like stitch and used white thread for a nice contrast and to brighten the coat. My machine (because some have asked) is a Singer Quantum Stylist 9960. It has some great little stitches on it. Even the most basic machines usually come with some embroidery stitches built in - they make such a pretty compliment to the garment - experiment!!

Okay, so stitch all the way around the cuff, repeat on the other side, and, done!! Turn the coat right side out, turn your cuff up, and admire your work!

So pretty!! Let me know if you have any questions!

Sunday's Child: Project Run and Play, Week Four

2012-01-27T06:24:00.000-08:00

It's Week Four over at Project Run and Play. Thank you for all of your votes and support so far. We're past the half-way point now; I'm very excited!! I hope you'll continue to visit over there and VOTE!!

This week we're working on Outerwear and I am so, so thrilled with how this outfit came together. While last week's 80s look was a lot of fun, this week's look is much more "me." I called this one "Sunday's Child", like the poem. I just think Olivia looks ready to go to church or a fancy lunch date, or to prance down the sidewalk in the rain, happy and curious, full of joy, as every child should be.

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I will let you read the details on the outfit over at Project Run and Play, but I wanted to share a little about the photo shoot here. One of the most stressful parts of this process, for me, has been finding the time to photograph the outfit each week in order to get the post put together for the Project Run and Play team. Between nasty bouts of weather and preset schedules (school...gymnastics...the sun setting), it takes careful planning to go do a photo shoot.

My mom kept the little girls with her so that I could concentrate when I picked Olivia up from school to do these pictures. Liv was really excited because I told her I'd take her to the church where Graham and I got married to take the pictures. The church is old and beautiful, with stained glass, and a busy, small town street in the front. We got out of the car and Olivia just wandered the grounds, twirling her umbrella, and looking every which way to take it in. We had a lot of fun and, in addition to photographing the outfit, I got some great pictures of my little girl.

The blue cotton velvet was the inspiration for this outfit. I love how soft it looks and how plush the coat and hat turned out, with their fancy little embroidery and trim details. And what do you think of the ruffle umbrella? I've been wanting to glue ruffles onto an umbrella for ages! So glad it finally made sense to do it - Olivia loves it!

And did you see the boots? From thrift store ice skates??!! Aren't they great?

Olivia got pretty goofy toward the end of our photo shoot. She flashed me some big, sparkly eyes and when I asked her to do it again, she gave me the biggest eyes ever. Silly girl. This picture just makes me laugh.

Alrighty! Thanks for reading through and please go check out what will surely be another spectacular line-up of outfits - go HERE to VOTE!!!

And the Winner IS...

2012-01-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

The randomly selected winner of the Shabby Apple "Too Darn Hot" dress is....

Brianna Grace of The Kersys Family

Lucky girl! Send me an email, please, and we'll get this dress shipped out to you!

Thank you to everyone for entering to win....remember that you can use the discount code

girlinspired10

for 10% off your purchase from Shabby Apple! Happy shopping!

Please stop in tomorrow for my take on Outerwear for Project Run and Play, Week 4 - I think you're going to love it!

And we have a couple more giveaways coming up over the next few weeks. If you are interested in sponsoring a giveaway on the girl. Inspired. blog, please contact Stef at girlinspired@yahoo.com.

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway!!!

2012-01-24T07:51:00.001-08:00

You are definitely in for a real treat today because I get to give away one gorgeous Shabby Apple dress to one lucky reader!!! I don't know about you, but I have been drooling over everything Shabby Apple for quite some time. They have the most beautiful, vintage-style women's dresses, but that's just the tip of the iceberg! They also have skirts, children's dresses, swimwear, accessories, the list goes on and on. Right now, Shabby Apple is offering 20% on nearly ALL of their merchandise, so it's a good time to go shopping! Shabby Apple let me do some window shopping and I wanted to show you some of my favorites....

This gorgeous white and black dress - the Ingrid from the 1943 collection.

Oh, how I want this blue chambray number - Toe the Line.

I love the cute vintage style and the deep plum color of this Viola swimsuit.

Shabby Apple has so many cute skirts too - I especially love this Lost at Sea Skirt, don't you?

So...do you want to see the dress I picked out for one of you to win? I think it's kind of dreamy. Reminiscent of the forties and deep red with four flirty layers of ruffles - I thought it might be perfect just in time for Valentine's Day. One lucky reader will receive this Too Darn Hot dress from Shabby Apple.

~~To enter to win this AMAZING dress, you have four options. Please leave a separate comment for each entry:~~

~~"Like" Shabby Apple on facebook for one entry and to get in on their special promotions and exclusive discounts.~~
~~Visit www.shabbyapple.com and come back and tell me what you like!~~
~~"Like" Girl. Inspired. on Facebook~~

~~Follow the Girl.Inspired. blog~~

Entry for this giveaway is now closed. Thank you!
Shabby Apple is also generously offering a 10% discount to all my readers; use the coupon code: "girlinspired10off"

Fine print things: Winner must have a US shipping address to be eligible for this giveaway. No exchanges will be made on the dress.

Good luck!!

Totally 80s Rocker Girl: Project Run and Play, Week 3

2012-01-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to have made it through to this next round of Project Run and Play: Sewing Through the Decades. The voting has been so close and all of the designs are so great, I'm just honored to be part of the pack still! If you haven't already, you must head over and VOTE for your favorite look this week!

True story here: When I was pregnant with Olivia and went in for my ultrasound to find out if she was a girl or boy, Cyndi Lauper was singing "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" on the radio as the ultrasound tech told us we were going to have a girl. It was so perfect. Then.....at the end of my pregnancy, when Olivia wasn't moving around so much in her cramped quarters, I would try everything to get her to move, and the ONLY thing that got her moving was when I put on my Cyndi Lauper cassette tape. Crazy, right? It's no wonder that this girl loves patterns and bright colors, LOVES big hair, and totally rocks her outfit for this week's challenge!

Clearly, I HAD to do an 80s inspired look. Introducing: Olivia's Totally 80s Rocker Girl Outfit

Fashion in the 80s was SO. MUCH. FUN. and I jumped on the opportunity to revisit my youth. Layers of color, big hair, the BEST movies, the music - what's not to love about the 80s? I wanted to put together a look inspired by pop culture and memorable fashion trends of the 80s, but also something that could be worn today. I think the end result is TOTALLY cool!

You can read all the details on this outfit over at Project Run and Play. But I want to highlight just a few things here. For this look, I made knit leggings and a knit tshirt, a super fun skirt, fingerless gloves, and the most awesome rocker jacket ever! All of our designs have to be sewn without patterns and it has been challenging and a great boost for my self-confidence.

I didn't have the space to show a picture of the skirt layers over at Project Run and Play, but I described that the skirt has a top layer of straight up 80s pink, two layers of tulle netting, and built-in knit shorts - here's a picture for you:

Perfect for playful girls, right?

You can also read more about the jacket over at Project Run and Play, but I have to tell you how excited I was when this came together. Making a pattern for a jacket was not an easy feat, and then to make it with an asymmetrical zipper with perfectly folding flaps - whoo! that took a LOT of brain power. All of the details on this jacket took careful planning, but the overall finished product is just perfect. I had the best time searching for pictures of 80s icons. I included television shows and movies that I loved as a kid - looking at the MTV mosaic on Liv's jacket just makes me smile! Do you see any of YOUR 80s favorites?

Thanks for stopping in! And please, please, please, head over to Project Run and Play and VOTE! I appreciate your support and your comments SO much!

Lace Princess Crowns - DIY

2012-01-18T00:13:00.000-08:00

The lace crowns we made for Grace's princess party continue to receive much wear around here. When the girls put on their leotards or princess gowns for their nightly performances, they now bring crowns and bobby pins to complete their look. The little girls enjoyed helping when the crowns were made and we thought we'd share how we did it so that you and your little princesses can make some crowns, too. I got the original how-to on Jessica's blog, Joyfolie, which you can check out, here.

We used a variety of vintage and newer crocheted lace pieces (we made a total of 10 crowns) cut to about 15" long. Pour a good amount of fabric stiffener into a wide cup and place the lace pieces inside. Wearing gloves, work the fabric stiffener into the lace until they are completely saturated. Spread the lace pieces out onto washable mats or wax paper and allow to dry. While the lace is still very wet, flip the pieces every now and then and make sure that the liquid does not form "windows" in the lace holes. We left the lace to dry overnight and it became very stiff. Then we painted with acrylic paint in several colors of gold, silver, bronze, pearl, and pink. (Actually, for the silver, I used spray paint which was MUCH faster!)

After the paint was dry, we spread mod podge on the lace and sprinkled on glitter, obviously an optional step. This was definitely the girls' favorite part! Shake the excess glitter off and leave the lace pieces flat to dry completely. Once they were fully dry, I gave them a couple coats of clear spray laquer to try to keep the glitter under control. Then, form the lace into a circle and hot glue the overlapped ends (match the pattern). Done!

Girl. Inspired. on Facebook!

2012-01-15T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hello, friends! I've checked a New Year's Resolution off my list and published my Girl. Inspired. page on Facebook! I think I started the page at least a year ago, but I'm a little (well, maybe a lot) behind the times and I just don't play well with technology. It's time, though. I'm mapping out some new plans and joining the world on Facebook is part of the mix. Find me on Facebook, here:

Girl. Inspired. on Facebook

Mr. Carpenter, PROJECT RUN AND PLAY, Week 2

2012-01-13T04:00:00.000-08:00

Woohoo!
We made it to the second week of Project Run and Play! Thank you so much for your votes last week and your feedback. The next round of voting is now open, you can visit Project Run and Play, HERE, to vote for your favorite outfit. This week, the theme is BOY and, as you've probably noticed, I don't usually do "boy." In fact, other than Halloween costumes and an embellished onesie here and there, this is the first outfit I've ever made for a boy. I hope it doesn't show!

So...I may not have my own boys and I may not do a lot of sewing for boys, but I do know that boys love their gear! A place to stash Hot Wheels, rocks, tools, and dirt - that was my inspiration for this outfit. I wanted to create an outfit that was wearable and stylish, while also having plenty of storage.

I'm calling it the Mr. Carpenter look.

The corduroy pants have four pockets on the front, two pockets on the back, and a hammer loop on each side. The pants are detailed with blue stitching to add a pop of color and style. They also have a faux zipper, some cool metal accents, and an adjustable waist. I drafted my own pattern for the pants, as well as all the pockets and detailing. This whole "no patterns" thing really got me here - I think I cut the pants four different times before finishing them without chopping out a pocket on the wrong side or sewing them together upside down. My goodness!

The outfit also has a long-sleeve knit shirt, accented with brown rib-knit around the neck and sleeves. The knit is soft and on the thicker side, making it easy to work with and comfortable to wear. I screenprinted a hammer on the front of the shirt for a fun emphasis on my theme. When I finished the shirt, I came running in to my husband waving it around, shouting "Are you sure you don't want to try for a boy, honey? Look how cute!!" It was a funny moment....for me, that is.

For the sherpa vest, I used the same pattern that I made for the shirt, enlarging it slightly and sewing each seam wrong sides together, so that the fuzzy, sherpa lining was exposed. I folded back each seam and topstitched it down. The neckline and armholes are finished with brown rib-knit.

Finally, I created a little man tool belt with plenty of additional storage. The tool belt was made from vinyl and nylon strapping and lined with a construction-themed cotton print. It wraps around the waist and snaps together on a side flap.

Okay! I hope you love this little outfit and get inspired to make something with lots of gear-storing capacity for the little boy in your life! ALSO, I hope you'll take a few minutes to go check out all the boy outfits at Project Run and Play and VOTE!!! Thank you so much! Voting ends Sunday!

Thank you, Oliver, for being my little carpenter for the day!!

Fit for a Princess

2012-01-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

It was a birthday party fit for a princess. Colors in pink and mauve and copper. Golden glitter accents. Crowns and gowns and spaces for coloring and reading. And, of course, cake. A cake for every prince and princess. Laughter and squeals and hunting for golden keys. A little group of friends. Perfect. Happy Birthday, Grace.

Sources:
Tissue Poms - Pom Love on etsy
Little Shoes, keys, gold bows - Beverly's craft store
Cakes, Crowns, Princess Wreath, Tulle tablecloth - handmade
For my tutorial on the Ruffled Ribbon Cakes, go here.

Sharing at:

The [little] Mommy and Me Dress, PROJECT RUN AND PLAY, Week 1

2012-01-06T03:02:00.000-08:00

This is it! My first design for the Project Run and Play design competition! It has been a whirlwind of sewing and picture-taking and birthday party planning around here and I am SO excited and SO nervous to put this first design up. The theme this week was to remix the Junebug dress pattern (from Jess at Craftiness is Not Optional). The Junebug Dress is darling; I was thrilled that this was the pattern of choice for the remix!

I created the Mommy and Me dress using a beautiful dupioni silk. I made curtains out of this silk a few years ago and had plenty leftover. I've been wanting to try sewing garments with silk (and really, just expanding the types of fabric I use); I saw this as the perfect opportunity. You know I had to squeeze the ruffles in somewhere and I love them added to the sides of the front panel. Silk-covered buttons complete the bodice. I added some length and pintucks to the sleeves and pulled them in, rather than gathering them, for a tailored look. I also added pintucks to the hemline, which was another new technique that I've been wanting to try. I made the skirt quite a bit fuller and I love how the gathered silk flares out softly, but also holds its shape. Don't you just love the silhouette of the dress? It's perfect, no? I don't think I could have fluffed the skirt so well myself; that silk is just so pretty!

A little about the photo shoot here...Addie woke up from her nap still sleepy on picture day and wasn't too keen on heading out for pictures. She sat on her little bench and gave me a few forced smiles. But her daddy came to the rescue. He started reading her and her baby doll a book and then I put out the dolly high chair and she completely forgot I was taking pictures. I think her daddy put an M&M on her dolly's spoon and Addie ate it, which, of course, got her laughing at herself for being so clever. It turned into one crazy silly meal for her dolly, followed by a huge game of chase between me, Addie, and Graham. And it definitely made for some super cute pictures!

On to the other pieces of the outfit. I love, love, love the accessories for this outfit: a vintage-inspired headband, lacy knee-highs, brown Mary Janes, and a Junebug capelet.

I covered a headband with brown velvet and then added a velvet ruffle, a silk flower, and a bit of lace and tulle to finish it off. I kind of love this headband - wish I could pull off wearing it myself!

I didn't have the right shoes for the dress, but I dug through the bin of the older girls' shoes and found a pair of really well-worn white patent leathers from Easter that fit Addie. I grabbed some spray paint (the kind for plastic) and gave them a few good coats. It worked great! The socks got a little tea-stain treatment, some crocheted lace, and a little velvet bow. So cute!

We happen to have the most gorgeous weather right now, so photographing Addie outside in this dress was no problem. But when I started designing and sewing, I was concerned about taking her out into winter weather so I made a little capelet out of a sparkly, brown velvet. I used a cape pattern and shortened it quite a bit. I also adjusted it so I could cut the ends on an angle; I sewed in a ruffle to mimic the dress style. The buttons are accent-only; the capelet snaps together for easy on and off.

Finally, Addie's dolly got a new, matching dress, too. It was definitely not the easiest thing to sew a teeny tiny dress out of very shreddy silk, but it turned out pretty cute, I think. I put little velcro tabs on the inside of the flap so that Addie doesn't have to manipulate tiny buttons to actually get the dress on her baby!

Creating The Mommy and Me outfit was a lot of fun. Trying out pintucks, working with silk, embellishing socks, and spray painting shoes were all new for me and it was really satisfying to have the opportunity to try these things that I've been thinking about for a while.

Please, please, please head over to Project Run and Play and check out all the outfits for the Junebug Dress Remix. Then you can VOTE for your favorite (I hope it's me!! but the competition is certainly fierce)! Voting is only open through Sunday, so please check it out soon! Thank you so much!

p.s. I hope I get to show you what I'm working on for next week - did you see the theme? It's BOY week - and yes, this inspired girl is doing BOY!!

party themes and hairbows

2012-01-02T23:36:00.000-08:00

A pink. princess. party. That's right. I'm going to be honest here. I almost groaned out loud. I was so hoping for circus. non-pink. popcorn and bright colors. loud and fun! But it's not my party. It's HER party. I put on my biggest smile and told my little girl that she would have herself a very pink, very princess party. And by the next day, I was totally on board with this most royal of celebrations.

With Gracie's birthday coming so close after Christmas, there is little time to pull the party details together. Luckily, my kids took me over to their friends' house last week so I could have a crafting play date with their mom. She sews, she makes bows, and what's even better than that? She does a little modeling magic with clay. We made princess-themed clay centers AND THEN, we made bows for them to rest on. Well, she made the clay and the bows and I copied. It was lots of good fun and now I have adorable little hairbows for party favors!

Want Christene to make some clay magic for your bows? Go see the gazillion different options she offers in her shop. Go here!

And just look at that frog! Isn't he the cutest thing? I'd kiss him for sure.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T01:04:00.000-08:00

See this girl right here? The one laid out across the kitchen table looking cute? She's about to turn four. She's my "livin' on the edge" girl - she likes risky, dangerous, dramatic, and dirty....but she also likes beautiful, soft, dainty, and sparkly. She wants to experience it all and she wants to experience it to its fullest. I was really, really hoping to throw her a Circus party. Cause I know she'd love it. And she humored me long enough that I pinned some great ideas. But then she announced what she really wanted. And so we're bustling around getting ready.

But that's not all we're doing around here! OH NO. Because today is the start of Project Run and Play, Season 3. WooHoo!! You should see the scraps a' flyin' in my sewing room. Not so neat and tidy anymore. Did you hear that there is a reader sewing competition as well? And you can win a gift certificate to Fabric.com?? Head on over to Project Run and Play and check out the details - this week, we're doing a pattern remix with Jess' Junebug Dress. And it's a darling dress. I can't wait to show you what I did with it....You'll get to see it on Friday!

And stop back in before then to see some of the party makings. Want to take a guess at the theme Grace picked? Here are your hints: it's very different from last year's party theme and there's a lot of pink fluff involved.

We've jumped into 2012 full force, with much enthusiasm and excitement and anticipation of great things to come! Happy New Year!

Princess and the Pea

2011-12-29T00:25:00.000-08:00

We're still swimming in the aftermath of Christmas and starting some preparations for Grace's birthday. The mornings are slow with the kids out of school, just the way I like them. But by evening, I'm pulling out the birthday party projects and working on my outfits for Project Run and Play. It starts next week!! I'm very excited and also very nervous - will you come vote for me? I'd hate to go out the first week and have zero votes. Especially because I'm so excited to make all the outfits I have dancing around in my head - the themes are so fun!

I promised to share a couple of the handmade projects I did for the girls and this first one turned out so awesome! I had seen some "Princess and the Pea" sets in the catalogs this year, selling for a bazillion dollars, so I decided to make a little themed gift set for Olivia. I ended up purchasing a pricey doll bed because I ran out of shopping time and wasn't able to find one in a thrift store (I didn't even consider building one). I went through my small pieces of fabric - fat quarters were the exact perfect size for this bed mattress) and stacked them on top of one another until I had identified the colors I wanted to use. Then I just cut the pieces to size, folded in half, and stitched around the perimeter leaving a small opening in the short end. I trimmed the corners, turned them right side out and tucked in a piece of foam batting that I had cut to size. I used several different thicknesses of batting, primarily because I didn't purchase nearly enough and had to scrounge around in my attic-like storage closets to find other random batting scraps. I like how the mismatched sizes turned out. I hand-stitched the openings closed and stacked the mattresses on the bed. A little quilted blanket topped off the bedding set.

I made a black apple doll using the pattern and instructions posted on Martha Stewart, here. I've been wanting to make one of these dolls since last Christmas and I have to tell you, it was so simple, you should definitely whip up a couple in your free time (wink!). Isn't she so cute? I wasn't sure if her simple figure would pass child scrutiny, but Olivia took to her right away.

I made a little pea out of some clay, though I'd much prefer a cute crocheted pea like I saw in a catalog. Unfortunately, I don't know how to crochet - perhaps this should be a goal for 2012...Sorry, sidetracked. Anyway, I typed up the story of the Princess and the Pea and printed it out on a little sheet of pearly pink cardstock to finish off the set.

I think this project would be perfect for beginning seamstresses and those who like to sew up openings by hand.

Ready

2011-12-24T14:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas Craft Room 2011 - I'd have shown you earlier, but, well, it's been in use.

The kids set off the house alarm this morning, knocked over the little Christmas tree in Addie's room, and drank at least three cups of hot chocolate before noon. They are so wild with excitement and anticipation. This holiday season has been busy, for sure, but less so than the last couple years. I committed to less projects and did more in the festivities department. The projects that were handmade for the girls are straight from my heart and I absolutely love how they came together; I can't wait to show you. My husband has been busy in the wrapping department, fearful from late Christmas Eve nights of the past. So everything is ready. My kitchen counter is cleared and small dinner preparations for tonight are underway. My craft room is picked up and sewing machines are put away. I'm breathing and loving and enjoying and remembering to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. It's nice, for a change. I want to send each and every one of you the warmest wishes as we near the end of this most exciting holiday season.

peppermint candy cake

2011-12-22T23:21:00.000-08:00

Need a festive cake for your holiday celebrations? I love this little peppermint candy cake. I baked a 3-layer, 7-inch cake, stacked and filled it. I put a crumb coating over the whole thing. In retrospect, I would probably put a red base coat under the red sections, but this was just for our little dress photo shoot so I didn't bother. I scored the cake with a large knife into eight sections on the top and then carefully extended the lines down the sides. Using a small round piping tip, I covered the sections in small dots. This took a little while, but I think it's so fun!

We've been doing only a little holiday baking around here this year. It's just not as much fun for me when I can't eat even a drop. Sticking to the baking that's fun for the kids - cut-out cookies and gingerbread houses. What are you baking? Do you stick to a few traditional recipes or try out new ones?

Around Our House

2011-12-21T23:21:00.000-08:00

Just a few days until Christmas morning...I still have a few projects to pull together in the evenings, but the girls finished up school today and I'm looking forward to some slow mornings with my sweeties. We have had the Christmas decorations up for a few weeks now and I love how festive the house feels. I hope you are all soaking up some special moments with your loved ones during this busy season.

The End (Quiet Book Sew along, Part 9)

2011-12-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

At last! We are ready to finish the quiet books. How are you doing? All caught up?

To finish the quiet books, you will need one piece of coordinating scrap fabric cut to 12" tall by 5" wide. I used 11 1/2" tall for these books here and I wished that it was just a bit longer. I also applied interfacing to the binding piece of fabric, but I forgot to include this in the kits. I did not use interfacing on my original quiet books and I honestly can't tell the difference, so if you have some interfacing lying around, go ahead and cut it to size and iron it on. If you don't have any, don't stress! Turn in the side edges by 1/4" and press. Turn in the top and bottom edge by 1/2" and press. Set this piece aside.

Now, pull out your seven finished pages. If you haven't sewn together the front and back of each page with batting, do that now to get your seven pages. Stack your finished pages in the correct order and line up the top and bottom and right-hand side.

Split your stack in half and sew each stack together along the left-hand side (1/4" seam allowance).

Next, stack your two sewn stacks on top of one another and line everything up again (top, bottom, and right-hand sides). Using just a hair over a 1/4" seam allowance, stitch the two stacks together. You want your stitching to fall on the inside of your already sewn lines so that they won't show when you're flipping the pages in your finished book. To sew through all the layers at once, I found it easiest to start in the middle and sew down to the bottom edge, remove the pages from the machine, flip the stack around, and sew from middle to the other edge (top). Down at the edge, your machine might have a hard time going through all the layers. Just go slow; I even did a little hand-crank/automatic pedal combo trick. Be sure you really secure the stitching at each end of the run - I back-stitched and forward-stitched a few times.

Everything secure and lined up?

Don't be afraid to seam rip and redo if your pages don't end up lined up. In one of my girls' books, there is one page that sticks out just a hair more than the others and I REALLY wish I would have taken the few extra minutes to seam rip and redo.

Now, to finish. Place your 12"x5" piece of fabric on top of the front cover page, right side facing down. Line the left crease up at about 2" from the left-hand side. Pin in place to the front cover page only.

Open up your book and set in machine.

Stitch down the crease. Backstitch well at the beginning and end of the run.

With the book still open, flip the binding fabric back so that it spreads over the bound pages.

Pin in place with pressed edge tucked under on the back cover, about two inches in from the right-hand side.

Before you stitch this edge down, open and close the book to make sure there is enough slack in the binding to lay flat when the book is closed - make sense? Adjust pinned edge as needed. Open the book back up and place the back cover in your sewing machine. Topstitch along the edge of the binding. I used a decorative stitch to do this and LOVE the results. I think it really finishes the book beautifully, especially since it leaves a lovely stitch along the inside of the covers as well.

Now, you just need to slipstitch the top and bottom closed. This was not the easiest moment for me, but I couldn't come up with a better way to bind the book - if you want to share an easy trick, I'm all ears! But anyway, what I did is just tuck in along the creased edge and slipstitch all the way across (open the book up along the center when you're stitching).

The specific tricky part is encasing the seam in the center - I just wrapped the edge until I could stitch and pull it closed to cover the ugly raw edges.

For me, it seemed pretty lame while I was doing it, but once it was all sewn up, I think it looks fine.

So, that's it!!! We're done! If this felt a tad rushed, it was just because I wanted to fit it all in so that you can give the quiet books for Christmas.. I'm giving Addie hers that I've had tucked away for the last two years. I think she's old enough now and it's such a relief to have a handmade project that's been completed for a while and ready for the giving!

I have created a flickr group for picture sharing and I do hope you'll join and upload your pictures. I really want to see what you've been working on! Pretty please... Here's the link to the group:

Girl Inspired Quiet Books (Flickr Group)

Crayon Pocket (Quiet Book Sew Along, Part 8)

2011-12-19T01:33:00.000-08:00

How was your weekend? We fit in some cookie decorating fun and a photo shoot with good friends and some last minute shopping. It was a good weekend, but I didn't do a drop of sewing and I have a few items left on my to-do list. It will be a busy week!

Did you catch up on your quiet books? We're just about done and they'll be ready for wrapping. Today we're going to do the crayon pocket page and then you can start assembling all the pages with batting and we'll finish them off tomorrow.

The crayon pocket page is a single page and will be placed opposite the inside of the back cover. You will need: one piece of scrap fabric, an equal piece of lightweight fusible interfacing (not fusible web), a piece of ric rac, a small notepad, and five pretty, new crayons.

Cut your scrap fabric and interfacing to 4" by 10 1/4". Fuse scrap fabric and interfacing together (for kit users: stack interfacing, bumpy side up, then fabric right side up, press on cotton setting for 10 seconds per section).

Cut a piece of ric rac to 10 1/4 inches and align with top edge on right side of fabric. Stitch using a 1/4" seam allowance, which should put your stitches right down the center of the ric rac (if you're using a different size ric rac, make sure your stitches go down the center).

Flip the seam to the backside of the fabric and press (be careful your hot iron doesn't melt the polyester ric rac).

Top stitch along the edge to hold the seam in place.

Starting on the right-hand side of the pocket fabric, draw a line (using disappearing ink fabric pen) every 1". Draw a total of five lines.

On your background fabric, mark one line, 1" in from each side. Beginning at that right-hand mark (1" in on background fabric), measure 3/4" in to the left and draw a line. Mark a total of five lines, each 3/4" apart.

Lay your pocket fabric on top of your background fabric and align the bottoms of both pieces. Pin the left side of the pocket fabric with the left-hand mark (1" in from left side) on the background fabric. Pin the right side of the pocket fabric with the first right-hand mark. Stitch the two sides in place and run a zig-zag stitch over the edge to secure it.

Now, you're going to sew your crayon pouches. You will sew the pouch lines one at a time (note: I do not have the full lines drawn out in these pictures, but it's much easier that way). I pinned them one at a time and then sewed straight down the line. I started with the left-most lines and worked to the right. As I pinned each subsequent line, I just finger-pressed the bulge of the top fabric to the left. I hope this makes sense.

Once you have all your crayon pockets sewn, pinch the center bottom of each pouch and press it to the side. Stitch across the bottom to hold everything in place (be sure you stay below that 1/4" seam allowance for when you sew up the book).

Got it? Questions? Troubles? Cheers?

Now you have all the pages completed and you can lay them out together to form the pages of the book. Once you have everything in the order that you want, stack each page with its batting and sew them together like we discussed in the front cover post, here. Leave the inner seam open.

So close!!! Some of you have asked about sharing pictures. I think that I can create a flikr group to share pictures, BUT I'm really technology challenged and it's going to take me some time to figure out how to do it, SO, if you have a blog and want to post links in the comments section, have at it. Otherwise, I will try to do the flikr group when I have a bit of time to dedicate to it.

Dress the Dolls (Quiet Book Sew Along, Part 7)

2011-12-17T01:05:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to finish the last two-page spread for the quiet books. If you have a kit, this should be pretty easy!

You will need brown felt, a coordinating brown fabric, lightweight fusible web, fabric dolls and fabric clothes, interfacing and starch (not needed if you have a kit)

Prep your dolls and clothes by pressing them with two to three coats of starch. Apply interfacing to the back. If you have a doll kit, this has already been done. Your doll pieces should feel nice and stiff. Cut them out completely from the background fabric. Cut off the little tabs from the clothes if you will be attaching the dolls to the background fabric in the book. Apply a few pieces of fusible web to the back of the dolls, place them side by side on the background fabric and iron them down (you do not need to completely cover them, though you can if you want. Now, zig zag or straight stitch all the way around the perimeter of the dolls. Left page DONE!!

For the armoire, cut one piece of felt 9" by 5 1/2" and one piece of coordinating fabric the same size (9x5.5). Fuse the two pieces together with fusible web. With the felt side facing up, lay the rectangle in front of you and press the two sides in to meet in the center, forming the "doors" of the armoire.

Stitch around the perimeter of the doors only.

Apply a small piece of fusible velcro at the top center and bottom center of your main armoire piece. Cut the other sides of the velcro in half (so you will have four small pieces) and apply each piece to the top and bottom corners of the armoire doors so that when you close them, they stick to the other velcro and stay closed - make sense?

Cut a slit about 1/3 of the way down and most of the way across (leave 1/4" uncut between the slit and the crease on each side; do not cut into the doors). Stitch close to the edge below the slit. This forms your pocket in which the doll clothes will go.

Now your main armoire piece is ready to place on the background fabric. Apply a piece of fusible web on the back side (fabric side) of the armoire, above the slit.

Center the armoire on the background fabric and iron down.

Cut a felt "drawer" (approx. 4.5" by 3/4") and fuse centered below the main piece. Cut a little scalloped top from felt and fuse above the main piece. In the same way, add two legs from patterned fabric (or felt).

To finish, stitch all the way around the center piece of the armoire (do not stitch down doors), around the top piece, the drawer, and the legs. I used a straight stitch on all of the pieces.

Finally, load the clothes into the armoire and admire your work!!

We'll do the crayon pocket page and stitch all the pages together next! Then, we'll just do the finish binding and we're done!

Tell me how it's going! I want to hear from you.

Pick the Flowers (Quiet Book Sew Along, Part 6)

2011-12-15T23:17:00.000-08:00

We're getting there! Just a few pages left and today's spread is a quick one!

Picking flowers makes me happy and this quiet book activity is no different. For this page, you will need:

6 snaps (the kits include size 15 snaps), felt for flowers, green fabric scrap for grass, fabric scrap for vase, lightweight fusible web, ultrahold fusible web

First, apply Heat'n'Bond ultrahold fusible web (the small piece of web in your kit) to a small scrap of green fabric. Sketch blades of grass in a variety of sizes and thicknesses. Cut them out.

Apply lightweight fusible web to a scrap of fabric for the vase. Trace or draw the vase and cut it out.

Iron down the blades of grass on one side of background fabric and iron down the vase on the other side. Be sure you leave enough room for the flowers above the grass and vase (and 1/4-1/2" seams on the sides).

Now zigzag stitch around the vase. You don't need to stitch around the grass.

Now, you need to make your flowers. I used a Sizzix to cut my flowers, which works beautifully with felt. You can make yoyos, rolled fabric flowers, stacked felt circle flowers, whatever you like. You'll just need to be able to attach a snap to it somehow. For kit users, I intermixed the three flower colors, so do that now if you like. Next, we're going to put snaps on the flowers. Since the prongs for the snap piece aren't real deep, you can only put them through two layers of felt.

From the top of the flower, press in the pronged piece. Use an eraser to poke from the bottomside until the prongs are all the way through. Set the other snap half (I used the male side on the flowers and the female side on the pages, but I don't think it should matter, just be consistent) over the prongs. Using a snap tool, hammer and set the snap. If you don't have a snap tool (get one!!!), you can supposedly place a spool of thread over the male end of the snap and hammer the spool. Check to be sure the snap is secure. Use hot glue to attach the smallest two flower layers over the top of the snap back. Repeat for three flowers.

Next, attach the opposite snap onto the background fabric. Mark your spots ahead of time and lay out your flowers so they all have enough room (again, remember to leave 1/4-1/2" on the sides for seam allowances). So that the snap has more support on the background page and to prevent it from tearing out, I cut two small squares of scrap fabric (approximately 1/2" by 1/2" and placed them behind the background fabric under each snap. Does that make sense. So that each snap goes through three layers of fabric (two scraps + background fabric). Since you already have your batting cut, you could probably just layer your background fabric and batting and put the snaps through that if you want.

Any questions on the snaps? If you're new to snaps and have more detailed questions, let me know.

Hang the Laundry (Quiet Book Sew Along, Part 5)

2011-12-14T21:11:00.000-08:00

Did you finish your princess hair pages? How are things coming along? Someone asked about seam allowances for the pages - thank you so much for reminding me to talk about that!!! You're going to need about 1/4" on each side - you might allow up to 1/2" for the seams that will fall in the center of the book, just to be sure.

Also, some questions about IF I'll be putting together additional kits. If you want them, then yes, I'll put together more kits....let's talk more about this after Christmas!! And boy quiet books? So out of my area of comfort, but I will make it a goal for next year. Let's say before next Christmas...sound good?

One of my favorite pages is next: the laundry line. We're going to make a little set of clothes and a two-page spread with a laundry line stretching from tree to tree. The clothes can be stored in a little laundry basket and hung up on the velcro line.

SUPPLIES: You will need some brown fabric for the trees, a fabric scrap for the laundry basket, several fabric scraps for clothes, velcro (I prefer the Fabric Fusion, iron-on velcro), and green fabric for leaves if desired.

We'll do the clothes first. I'll show you how I did a set of pants and you can apply the same concept to complete a set of clothes. Use your imagination for the clothes - if you're using the templates, please note that the overalls are not symmetrical on each side - you might want to fix that up before cutting your fabric - sorry!! Okay, onto the clothes. Take two scraps of matching fabric. Apply fusible web to the back of one scrap.

Trace or draw your piece of clothing onto the paper backing and cut your shape out. On the OTHER piece of scrap fabric, place a small square of velcro in the position which will become the top back section of the clothing piece (place velcro on right side of fabric). And I am SO sorry, but I don't have any pictures of the velcro, so we'll have to pretend, okay?

From the wrong side of fabric, iron the velcro in place - the directions say Cotton setting, with steam, for 90 seconds. I found that it does not take 90 seconds to secure the velcro on. Be sure that your fabric doesn't burn. Let velcro cool and check to make sure it's fully attached. Next, take your other piece of clothing and set it on top of the fabric with velcro, wrong sides together.

You are going to fuse the two pieces together and then cut around your shape so that you have a two-sided piece of clothing with Velcro on the back. Place your two pieces together so that the velcro will be in the correct position once you cut the shape. Does that make sense?? Fuse together (use a press cloth) and cut out.

That's it! Repeat for other clothing pieces. If you want to add a little scalloped edge to the bloomers or the dress, I would suggest you do that on the finished piece of clothing.

Now for the main part of the page. Take a large piece of brown fabric, apply lightweight fusible web and sketch or trace a tree and branch outline. If you are using the template, extend the top and bottom of the tree so that your tree will reach the full vertical length of the background page.

Cut the tree out.

Then cut it straight up the center to divide it into two halves.

Align each half on the outer edges of your background page and iron them down.

Zigzag stitch all the way around.

Now take another scrap of fabric and apply fusible web. Cut out a laundry basket and an additional "pocket piece."

We're going to do this much the same as the purse on the princess page. Working on the laundry basket, cut a horizontal slit in the laundry basket as shown. Place your pocket piece on the laundry basket, wrong sides together, with the top of the pocket piece aligned at the base of the slit. The tackiness of the web should hold them together for now. Stitch a horizontal line (or zigzag) along the bottom of the slit.

Place the laundry basket in the lower right side of the background pages and iron down.

Zigzag stitch around the laundry basket. Next, stitch a "laundry line" from one set of branches to the other side. You will want the bottom of the drape to flatten out for a bit so that the two sides of the line will match up once the seam is sewn in (about 1/4" on each side).

Apply leaves to the page, if desired, iron, and stitch down however you'd like. I cut my leaves using the Cricut so I can't share that template, but I'm sure you can draw a leaf if you don't have a kit.

Almost done....

Space out your velcro pieces on the line (be sure you use the opposite side of velcro from what you put on your clothing pieces) and iron them down from the backside. Attach the clothes and you're done!!

How are you doing? Ready for the next page? Want to slow down? You tell me!

Braid the Princess Hair (Quiet Book Sew Along, Part 4)

2011-12-14T08:18:00.000-08:00

First off today, we'll do the princess two-page spread. Please excuse the picture quality throughout this post, but sewing and taking pictures as I go does not lend itself to ideal lighting. Hopefully, you can still see what I did!

Braid the Princess Hair

Supplies: scrap fabric, brown yarn for hair, two types of lace, brown felt, tan felt, one shank button, elastic or elasticized ribbon, hair clips

We'll start with the left side of the spread, the princess.

Apply lightweight fusible web to scrap fabric and a small piece of brown felt and tan felt. Cut a dress/gown shape from scrap fabric and two "hands" from tan felt. Layer the hands and gown onto the background fabric (centered) and iron down.

Use a zigzag stitch (or straight-stitch) around the perimeter of the hands and the gown.

Cut a small piece of lace the length of the bottom of gown. Turn under each side slightly and stitch two parallel rows to secure the lace at the base of the gown.

Cut a "head" oval from the brown felt. Cut four long pieces of yarn and place them like hair on the felt head.

Place one additional piece of yarn over the center "part"

and zigzag stitch to secure all of the hair in place.

Take another piece of lace and wrap it over the top half of the head and around to the back.

Iron over the lace (with a press cloth) just a bit to secure the lace on the back of the head.

Apply another small piece of fusible web to over the backside of the lace

and set the entire head ensemble onto the princess gown/background fabric. Iron to fuse in place (you may need to iron from the backside of the background fabric).

Zigzag stitch around the head. You will need to maneuver around the lace "crown" so that you don't stitch over it.

Braid and clip the hair. You are done with the left-hand side of the spread.

On the right-hand side, we are going to make a purse to keep the princess' hair accessories. Apply lightweight fusible web to a larger scrap. You will need to cut a main purse piece, two flap pieces, and a small partial purse piece which will help to form the pouch.

Place the partial purse piece on the backside of the main purse piece and fuse the two together as pictured below. (Use a paper towel or press cloth so that you don't get glue on your iron).

Next, zigzag around the top portion of the main purse.

Set the purse on the center of your background fabric and iron it down. Zigzag stitch around the perimeter, but NOT around the top edge (which you have already zigzagged).
Next, take your two flap pieces and cut about a 1/2" off the top of one of them (this will allow you to adhere the flap to the background fabric in a minute; you can also just add a small strip of fusible web to the flap once you're ready to iron it down). Set one flap wrong side up in front of you.
Place a small piece of elasticized ribbon in a loop at the bottom center of the flap

and sandwich it in by placing the other flap piece right side up on top.

Iron to fuse the two flaps together (don't iron the top 1/2" yet). Zigzag stitch around down the side, around the bottom, and up the other side of the flap - do NOT stitch around the top of the flap. Next, set the flap in place on the background fabric - match it up with the purse like you're fitting two puzzle pieces together. Iron down that 1/2" portion to attach the flap to the background fabric and zigzag stitch across the top to secure it to the page.

Sew a button onto the purse by hand and loop the elastic around to close the purse.

You can fill the the purse with hair clips, hair bands, ribbons, whatever you like. Your Braid the Princess Hair pages are done!

I know I said we were also going to do the Laundry Line pages today, but my computer keeps shutting down and this is pretty picture heavy already. I'll try to put up a separate post Wednesday night with the Laundry Line. Until then, happy sewing!!

Count the Ladybugs (Quiet Book Sew Along, Part 3)

2011-12-13T12:36:00.000-08:00

How are your quiet books coming along? It sounds like you guys are getting them put together. Very exciting!! Today we're going to do the ladybug page, which will be the page opposite the inside front cover. I am also going to post pictures of the other pages so that those of you without kits can plan your color coordination! Tomorrow we'll do the princess hair and laundry line spreads!

For the ladybug page, you will need: some good quality black felt, a colored fabric or felt (I used plain pink cotton here), a "spot" fabric or felt, a 4" or 6" black zipper, hole punch, and some lightweight fusible web.

Okay!

First, you're going to cut out a large body/head combo from the black felt and a large oval body from the pink fabric. Apply lightweight fusible web to the pink fabric only and fuse the body top onto the body/head felt. Trim up any overhang. Next, cut a slit about 4" long and 1/4" wide down the center for your zipper.

If you have a 6" zipper, you will need to cut it down so that it fits completely under your ladybug body. Follow the directions on the package to do this - it's quite simple, really. You just run a few stitches around the zipper where you want the new base and then chop the excess off below. Now, pin your zipped up zipper under the slit and stitch it to the ladybug. I found that pink thread and a tight zig-zag stitch looks the best; you could straight stitch it on, too (see the very top picture on this post for the pink zig-zag stitch finished look). The pictures I'm showing you here are with black thread and not so hot on the finished look. For this particular book, I actually cut small strips of fabric with fusible web and ironed them down over the stitching for a nice, finished look, but I don't have a picture. Anyhow, get your zipper attached all the way around (use a zipper foot on your sewing machine if you have one).

Next, apply some fusible web to your "spot" fabric and cut circles. Iron them onto the ladybug. I did not stitch around the spots, but you can if you want! Place the ladybug onto your background fabric. I used a few small pieces of fusible web just to help hold the ladybug in place; you could use pins or put a few basting stitches in instead. Now, zig-zag stitch all the way around the perimeter of the ladybug.

Notice that when you unzip the ladybug, there is a pocket between the background fabric and the ladybug itself (which is why we don't use fusible web on the black body). This is where the baby ladybugs will be stored. To make the babies, first adhere some fusible web to the pink fabric/felt. Cut small head/body pieces from black felt and small oval bodies from the pink fabric. Use a hole puncher to punch holes for the "spots" in the pink fabric (hint: this worked great when I left the fusible web paper backing on the ladybugs while punching). You can also hole punch or cut tiny spots from another fabric and fuse or hot glue them onto the little ladybugs.

Iron down the top of the ladybug onto the black felt bodies. Trim off any excess. Place the babies inside the zipper pouch and you're done! Set the page aside until you finish the backside of the page (laundry line left side) to sew them together.

You can also embroider "Count the ladybugs," or "Zip the ladybug," or some sort of instruction like that. I didn't because, well, I don't like my handwriting.

The pages we will be completing are:

Count the Ladybugs

Braid the Princess Hair

Hang the Laundry

Pick the Flowers

Dress the Dollies

Color a Picture

Fun? Yes. Okay, tell me how you're doing!

Front and Back Cover (Quiet Book Sew Along, Part 2)

2011-12-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday! Did you all get your materials together and your main pages cut out this weekend?

Today, we're going to work on the front cover and talk about finishing each individual page. Throughout the book, we're going to be doing a lot of appliques and we're going to use basically the same technique throughout. Here's the breakdown of what you'll do to put an applique on the page.

First, cut a piece of fusible web and a piece of fabric slightly larger than the object you'll be making. Iron LITE fusible web to your piece of fabric. Follow the instructions on your fusible web packaging. For people who purchased a kit, you have Heat'n'Bond LITE fusible web.
With your iron on the WOOL setting and NO steam, quickly iron the web, paper side up, onto the wrong side of your piece of fabric - 2-3 seconds and then move your iron to another area. Allow to cool.
Next, trace your object onto the paper and cut out your image. Peel off the paper backing and your object is ready to apply to the background fabric.
Set the object in place, and iron down. For Heat'n'Bond users, apply heat for 10 seconds at a time and then move the iron to another area. Once your applique has cooled, check to make sure that it is completely bonded to the background fabric.
Then, you're going to stitch around the entire perimeter of the applique to keep it in place (and to give a nice finished look). You can do a straight stitch close to the edge of the applique all the way around OR you can do a tight zig-zag stitch around. I used a zig-zag stitch throughout most of this book. On MY machine, I set the length of the stitch to 0.3 and the width of the stitch to 2.0. Use some scraps to determine how you want to set your machine.

SO! Now that you're comfortable with the applique basics, let's move on to the front cover.

You will need: 10" x 11 1/2" front cover and backside, scrap fabric for kitty body, pink and brown/black felt, embroidery floss, 1/2" ribbon for bow, thin ribbon or yarn for tail, fabric letters for title (optional), lightweight fusible web

Set out your front cover background fabric. If you want a title on your book, now's the time to apply it. For my books, I cut names using my Cricut. In order to do this, you will need to apply Ultrahold Heat'n'Bond (the red label) to a piece of fabric that fits your machine's mat. Peel off the paper backing before applying the fabric to the mat. Be sure you have a nice, sticky mat or your fabric will not stay in place when the blade starts cutting. Cut letters to desired size.

Use a press cloth between your iron and the letters and bond them to the background fabric near the top center. Remember that you'll be adding a binding to the finished quiet book which will come in a couple inches from the lefthand side. You do not need to stitch around the letters if you've used the Ultrahold Heat'n'Bond (and actually, it doesn't sew pretty, so don't do it!!)

Now we're going to work on the kitty cat. Apply fusible web and cut a kitty body and two ears. Braid some yarn or a thin ribbon and knot the ends to make a little tail. Lay out the ears, body, and tail to determine positioning for the kitty.

Start with the ears and iron them down. Because of the thickness of the felt, you may need to iron from the backside of the front cover. Stitch around the perimeter of the ears.

Next, place the tail and zigzag stitch over each end and a couple spots in between to make a curved tail and hold it in place.

Next, iron down the kitty's body and stitch around the entire perimeter.

Use a hole punch to make two black or brown eyes and a pink nose. Hot glue them in place. Use a disappearing ink fabric marker to sketch a mouth and whisker dots.

Using 3 strands of embroidery floss, stitch the mouth. Make french knots for the whiskers.

Place a 12" piece of ribbon vertically over the kitty. Zig-zag stitch in place at the center of the neck.

Tie the ribbon into a bow. Your kitty is done! (and SO cute!)

Now, I know this is a lot for one day, but I want to also show you how to put the two page sides and the batting together. Since you won't have anything on the inside cover, you can finish the front cover now. Lay your front cover right side up. Next layer the backside of the page right side down (right sides together with the front cover).

Place one sheet of batting on top and pin the three layers in place.

Stitch around the top, right-hand side, and bottom using 1/4" seam allowance. Leave the left-hand side open.

Trim your corners and flip your page right sides out.

Press. Set aside!!

If you want to sew together the back cover and inside back cover (with batting), you can do that now, too. If you want to sign the quiet book on the inside of the back cover, "Love, Mom" or "Love, Grandma," do that before you sew the page together.

Let's Get Started! (Quiet Book Sew Along)

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! Are you so excited to make your quiet books? I hope so - these will be gifts that your children or grandchildren will treasure and pass down to their children. As I mentioned in my quiet book post a couple years ago, we cannot find the one that my mom made for us when we were kids, but I loved it so much that I can still picture it in my head; I can feel the pages with my memory. The quiet book that I'm going to share with you over the next week is a combination of my childhood quiet book, the quiet books I made for my girls, and some little tweaks of things that bugged me when I finished the girls' books. These are just my ideas, what I thought would be fun and pretty. Make this project into whatever you want. Change it, build on it, personalize it for your little one. Be inspired and have fun!

So, to start today, we're going to gather materials. The first decision you'll need to make is on the background fabric(s) for each page. This time around, I'm using coordinating fabrics from the same fabric line. In my other quiet books, I used totally different fabrics on each two-page spread. I prefer the cohesiveness of coordinating fabrics. You could also just use the same fabric throughout the entire book. I used cotton here, but you could also use a heavier fabric such as denim, if you wish.

Each page will measure 10" by 11 1/2". Since the width from selvage to selvage is usually around 43", you should be able to get four pages out of each 12" length of fabric (1/3 yard). Does that make sense? You'll need a total of 14 individual pages which calculates out to approximately 1 1/3 yard of fabric total for the background pages (estimate a little more to give room for trimming.) You will probably want to use the same fabric on each two-page spread, so think about that when deciding on fabric.

You will need some batting to pad each page. I like Warm and Natural cotton batting. I do not like polyester batting. ever. That's just me. Buy what you like - it should be thin. You'll need to cut seven pages sized 10" by 11 1/2" from the batting.

You will also need a pile of scraps. You can dig in your scrap bag or purchase extra bits with your background fabric. Be sure that the scraps will stand out a bit on your background fabrics. Included in the scrap fabric, you will want:

a brown print (trees and armoire)

a black print (ladybug spots)

solid pink (ladybug)

a green print (grass and leaves)

variety of pink prints

brown felt (armoire)

black felt (ladybug)

colored felt (flowers)

Other bits and pieces that we'll use in small quantities include:

1 black or pink zipper - 4" preferred, but 6" is fine, too (the 4" are harder to find, I discovered)

10" piece of jumbo ric rac

ribbon

lace

1 shank button (the kind that has the knob on the back where you sew the button on)

brown yarn

brown embroidery floss

elastic (elasticized ribbon preferred)

interfacing (just a small amount)

6 snaps (size doesn't really matter, I used size 15)

10" length of Velcro (I strongly recommend the iron-on Velcro v. sew-on)

heavy duty fusible web (you will not need much of this, I use Heat 'n' Bond - ultrahold)

crayons

small notepad

hair clips/small hair accessories

Sewing Machine Thread: white, pink, brown, and black

For those of you who did not purchase a kit or a doll kit, I have identified a source for the "paper doll" fabric and clothing. You're never going to believe it - FABRIC.COM. I seriously had NO idea it was there, but it is, in large quantities. I'm ordering more because it's one of those fabrics that I just have to have sitting on my shelf. And I sent my whole supply to YOU! (which really actually thrills me to know that you love it, too!)

Okay, the final item you will need, is a lightweight fusible web. I used Heat 'n' Bond LITE for this project. I also like Steam a Seam. You will need a decent amount of fusible web. Buy a big roll, it'll be handy to have around. ( Please note that you will also need a small amount of ultrahold (no-sew) fusible web).

Over the weekend, you have two assignments. First, SHOP and gather all your materials in one place so they're ready to go. This will make the quiet book assembly SO much easier.

Second, CUT your background pages and your batting. Remember, a total of 14 pages of fabric (seven two-page spreads) and 7 pages of batting. Cut to 10" by 11 1/2". If your fabric is directional, you will want the page to be 10" wide and 11 1/2" tall. Okay? Any questions?

I will try to answer most questions within the comments section so that everyone can see answers. You can also email me if you prefer. Have fun and be sure to let me know how you're doing!! We'll pick up on Monday with our first set of pages.

Did you Hear?

2011-12-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

Did you hear the news? I am SO excited to participate as a designer in Season 3 of Project Run and Play!! I do like me a fun little competition. I lay in bed at night dreaming up all the outfits I'd love to make. I hope you'll come check out the fun. Beginning now, there are weekly linky parties and introductions to the judges and designers, as well as guest post projects and some super giveaways. The designer competition start January 2!!

Check it out at Project Run and Play.

Last Chance

2011-12-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Just a real quick note here: I'm busy putting together quiet book kits to go out in the next day or two and I wanted to let you know that I will be keeping the "buy now" buttons up through the end of the day Monday for anyone else who would like a kit. Then I'm shutting down the kit makin' shop.

Also, I have been so blessed with orders in the etsy shop over the last couple weeks that I will not be able to fulfill any additional pre-Christmas orders after tomorrow (Monday, December 5). I'll be putting the shop into vacation mode for a few weeks to catch up, help you sew your quiet books, and enjoy the holiday season with my family. Thank you so much for your support.

No-Sew Blankets

2011-11-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

Today, Olivia and I are going to share a quick no-sew project with you. These no-sew fleece blankets have been around for quite a while, but I had forgotten about them until I took Olivia into the fabric store with me and she spent our entire visit with her body plastered up against the fleece aisle. There wasn't a chance in the world that we were leaving without some in our shopping bag. This is a great project for non-sewers or for children. Olivia did the blanket over the Thanksgiving break and it was the perfect activity for a lazy morning.

How To:

Purchase two pieces of fleece. Since the fabric was 56" wide, I had the store cut both pieces to 56" long, giving me two perfect squares.

Clear a large work area and lay out your two pieces of fleece stacked on top of one another. Trim the selvage edges and any overhang so that both pieces are exactly the same size. I then folded my stacked square in half so that I could cut through four pieces at once and decrease the work.

Cut a square out of each corner. I measured 3" by 3". Then, make evenly spaced cuts all the way around your stacked square (if you folded your square in half, you'll be cutting through four sheets of fleece at once; do not cut along the folded side). I made my slits 3 inches deep and 1 inch apart.

Once your slits are cut all the way around (unfold if folded in half), begin tying knots to join the top strip to the bottom strip. That is IT!

Tie all the way around and the blanket is done.

Have fun!

Also, I added a button to the quiet book sew along announcement for purchasing the "paper dolls" and clothes to go in the book. I'll be back soon with a couple pictures of the finished quiet book and a list of supplies so you can start preparing!

Quiet Book Sew Along and Kits

2011-11-24T22:59:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, I sewed quiet books for my girls and my niece for Christmas. It was quite an undertaking, but well worth the results. I did a very brief post about the books back then, which you can read here if you like. After a little push from a dear reader, I have decided to do a quiet book sew along this holiday season for anyone who would like to make a special keepsake for their little girl. I've been putting in some hours making a new version of the quiet books, with a consistent color scheme throughout. It's a shabby chic-ish look and very sweet. I promise that I will work on a boy version someday, but it's just not going to happen this year.

The sew along will begin December 9 and we will make a cloth book with six activities including hair braiding, snapping flowers, a velcro laundry line, and paper dolls. I am offering a limited number of quiet book kits for sale that will include all the materials and patterns to follow along and assemble one complete quiet book. I will also offer a pdf download for my original shape patterns only. You can definitely follow along without the kit or patterns and make your own shapes. There is one spread with fabric paper dolls that require that particular fabric; the remaining activities could be done with any fabric you choose.

I'm excited to share my version of this keepsake with you and I hope you'll join me making this timeless gift! So....who's in?

~~If you wish, you can purchase the kit or templates using the paypal buttons below. Kits and templates will be shipped (or emailed) by December 5.~~

***Kits are now sold out. Thank you.***

Fabric Organization on the Cheap

2011-11-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

Today I wanted to share with you a pocketbook friendly way to organize your fabric, but first, thank you to everyone who joined in the Janey Jumper pattern giveaway. I loved reading what makes all of you happy; your responses were sweet and some quite entertaining! The winners have been announced at the end of the giveaway post - you can find it here.

Remember when I shared the fabric organizers that I used across the desk in my office? Well, I am LOVING them. Being able to see my newest and favorite fabrics makes me super happy and more productive. But friends, I have a fabric addiction. And there's no way that all my fabric would fit across that desk. I have it sorted by material into big bins that I keep on shelves in my garage. Although the material types are sorted, the fabrics are still not as visible as I'd like. Not wanting to shell out the big bucks for more white, plastic fabric organizers, I followed the lead of my friend Christene and ordered a pile of pre-cut cardboard sheets.

They are inexpensive and I'm able to wrap my fabric around them in much the same way without too much effort. I measured the depth and width of my plastic bins and chose the pre-cut size accordingly. I use straight pins to secure the fabric to the cardboard.

I also cut down a handful of the cardboard sheets so they would slip into one of the cubbies on the project table. Now I have even more fabric at my fingertips and the cardboard doesn't stand out too much tucked into the cubby. Lovely.

I've had a few questions about the cubbies on the project table. My dedicated husband made the cubbies by cutting the vertical and horizontal boards and then routing slits in them so that they would lock together; does that make sense? I think you could use two pre-made bookcases, but I wanted taller cubbies to fit some larger items and I also wanted really sturdy bases to hold up a looong, heavy tabletop. Maybe someday we can get Graham to give us a little tutorial on it, but don't forget, it took him two years to build the thing....

I found my cardboard sheets here, at Uline. They're called "small corrugated pads."

more on the Christmas photo shoot and a dress

2011-11-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

I have an excuse to share more pictures of my silly, beautiful girls. The Christmas dress in the shop this year. It's darling. I loved this fabric so much I had to find a reason to use it some more.

Addie was having a blast modeling. In fact, all three girls had a blast throughout. Perhaps it was the progressive delivery of treats along the way...milk with fun straws, cake pops, lollipops, little wrapped presents... Anyway, here are some shots of the new dress.

A few of you are asking about the fabric line. It is Kumari Holiday by Dena for Free Spirit. A quick etsy search will turn up plenty of options for you. I found mine at a local fabric shop.

I sat down in front of the TV one evening and made a pile of brooches/hair clips and Addie's headband. So fun! There is a brooch included with the Christmas dress; I will be listing the brooch/hair clip and the headband separately as well. (You can find my tutorial for last year's brooch here.) Olivia and Addie really got into having their hair styled special; hot rollers and hairspray can be fun. Unless your name was Grace on this day; then, not so much.

Let's conclude this post with the most snuggly adorable picture of Olivia and Addie, shall we?

There's still time to enter the giveaway for TWO Janey Jumper patterns by leaving a comment on this post, click here.

A Jumpstart with a Jumper (and a Giveaway!!)

2011-11-15T00:10:00.000-08:00

I have gotten quite a jump start on Christmas here. I have several presents wrapped, Christmas card photos ready for printing, a little experimental baking done, and best of all, Christmas dresses DONE!!

When Lindsay, THE Cottage Mama from The Cottage Home , sent one of her new, seriously fabulous patterns to try out, I couldn't help but jump on the chance to sew up three coordinating looks and call them Christmas dresses!! And since I knew I'd have a real juggling act to get some pictures to share, I decided to turn it into a big photo shoot party! These three girls had an absolute blast and I'm so excited to now share this pattern with YOU!!

The Janey Jumper pattern is probably the most well-written, well-executed pattern I've ever seen. I could probably go on for days about all the details that continued to wow me throughout the dress-making process, but I'll include just some here:

Variety - The pattern includes three variations and I loved them so much, I tried all three. On Grace's dress, I changed the variation a little bit as the pattern has a flat patchwork panel running down the center of the dress. I chose to do two patchwork ruffles just so I could squeeze more ruffles in somewhere. I don't know that the prints were different enough from one another to see the patchwork aspect, but just think of the possibilities with Lindsay's design! There are also plenty of opportunities to add ric rac, ribbon, ruffles, buttons, all kinds of embellishments - love that! You can even get two looks out of one dress because it's fully reversible!
Straightforward - The progression of steps in this pattern was perfect. The instructions were clear and I loved that there were little tips included; I felt like Lindsay was there showing me what to do (someday maybe!!) The illustrations and extra details were invaluable.
Seam Allowances - This is probably a little weird, but one of my pet peeves is when it takes me like a hundred years to identify the seam allowances on a pattern. Not so here! The seam allowances were written clear as day. It made me smile.
Simple and Quick - The dress was simple enough to put together that I did the latter two dresses a couple steps at a time while cooking dinner or watching the kids color. After assembling the first dress, I didn't even need to check the instructions the second and third round. Everything was just so well explained and straightforward. A quick sew ranks high in my book!
No Seam Ripper Needed - This pattern is drawn so perfect and explained so well, I didn't have to redo anything! Lindsay's technique for the scallop front is genius and the scallops pressed out easily. (I trimmed all my seams with pinking shears). All three dresses came together easily with the lines matching up and everything lying flat. It was a sewing dream!

Sewing DREAM, I tell you. Of course, I expected nothing less from the Cottage Mama. These dresses just make me happy!

And now for the best part... Lindsay is giving away TWO of the Janey Jumper patterns here at

girl. Inspired!

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me something that makes you happy. For two extra entries (each with a separate comment), you can "like" The Cottage Home on facebook HERE, and follow The Cottage Home. Giveaway will be open through November 19 and the winners (that's two of you!!) will be chosen at random.

This giveaway has concluded. Please check in for future giveaways. Thanks!

If you haven't already, you should check out what some other awesome bloggers are doing with the Cottage Mama's Sewing patterns by following along on the blog tour.

November 8^th – The Cottage Home

November 9 ^th – Craftiness is not Optional

November 10^th – A Lemon Squeezy Home

November 11^th – No Big Dill

November 12^th – Kojo Designs

November 14^th – Aesthetic Nest

November 15^th – Girl.Inspired

November 16^th – Noodlehead

November 17^th – The Cottage Home

AND if you need to get your hands on the Cottage Mama's sewing patterns right now, they are available for purchase by clicking here. You can also read all about the release of her first two paper patterns on Lindsay's blog by clicking here.

Good luck and happy sewing!!

***The two randomly selected winners of the Janey Jumper giveaway are:

Kristin of The Meldrin Family

and

Barb from Quilting Barbie

Ladies, please send me your address and we'll get these patterns shipped out to you!

Thanks for entering. If you are interested in sponsoring a giveaway at girl. Inspired., please contact Stef at girlinspired@yahoo.com****

on the table this week

2011-11-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again when cozy fires are in order and I feel perfectly justified serving my family pumpkin pancakes for dinner. I have an early itch for Christmas stuff and have started daydreaming about decorating. But I have to finish up some dresses for the girls first. Thought I'd show you a peek at the fabric on my project table this week. I had a little push toward Christmas dresses with a new pattern and if you come back next week, you'll have a chance at the same pattern for yourself! Exciting, huh?

I have no inclination to try for an "all handmade Christmas" this year. But I would like to throw some handmade things in the mix for the girls. I'm looking for ideas. Could you please share what you're making this holiday season? Also, I'm pretty tired of the same old stuff on the shelves at Target and Toys 'R' Us, so if you have some favorite etsy shops, I'd like to browse there instead.

I'm going to be relisting this little Christmas "paper" dolls set in the shop again this season. The girls still enjoy pulling theirs out. If your littles need one, you can find it here.

Sweet Cravings

2011-11-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I like food. Pretty much everything. I would definitely describe myself as a food lover. In fact, I probably love food too much. Although I haven't talked about it on the blog, I became extremely sick in the spring and have had to make a major change in my diet over the last few months. I've gone from eating everything to eliminating almost everything. It requires a lot of time as I relearn how to cook meals for my family and satisfy my cravings. It's a lifestyle change that is difficult, but ultimately encouraging as I regain my health and develop new domestic skills.

Without sugar or grains in my diet, I have been missing that sweet something. I discovered this gooey little nut mixture this week and it totally hits the spot. It's basically nuts, honey, and butter and it's oh, so good. Kept in the freezer, the mixture slices cleanly into bars or candy squares.

At room temperature or warmed up, the mixture is delicious with cheese, such as brie.

I'm hoping to successfully make some frozen yogurt this week and I imagine that this will go very well as an ice cream topping. Give it a try; if you like nuts, I'm pretty sure this recipe will be a keeper. I used walnuts, slivered almonds, and pecans this time, but you can use any nuts you'd like. I'm going to add in dried fruit and coconut next time, too.

Honey Nut Medley

(adapted from recipe by Raman Prasad)

3 cups nuts

3/4 C. honey

3/4 stick butter (6 T.)

1/4 t. salt

1 t. vanilla

Toast nuts in the oven until golden brown. Heat honey in a large saucepan until simmering. Whisk in butter and salt. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Add toasted nuts and stir well to coat. Pour into jars and keep refrigerated or spread mixture into a 9x9 square pan, lined with parchment paper, and place in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Slice into bars, remove from freezer immediately before serving.

a farm party

2011-11-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween. We made a mad dash down to Disneyland last weekend, played for two days, and then got to meet our new twin nieces as well. So much fun, but so exhausting. We got home late Sunday night and by Halloween evening, the girls finished some quick trick-or-treating and were ready for sleep!!

Anyhow, I wanted to share some pictures with you of the most adorable farm party my girlfriend did for her son's first birthday. She planned out every last detail, right down to cute name cards for the food. Little Oliver was the cutest little farmer on his big day! I managed to weasel my way into the cake decorating festivities with the little barn cake for Oliver to dig into.

Thanks for letting me insert myself into your super cute party plans, Gina! And thanks for letting me share pictures of all (well, some of) your hard work. The party was awesome!

Perfectly Predictable

2011-10-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

So I bought this super cute costume book and thought the girls would page through it and pick out something fun and new for me to make. A flower? Cupcake? Little Red Riding Hood? But no. Grace picked a princess, "but in pink, please" and Addie picked a fairy princess, also pink. There was no swaying them; I tried. And any one of the five million princess costumes they already have wouldn't do. Yesterday, I got down to business and made the princesses their proper attire. What I love about these easy costumes is that you use a store-bought top and just add gathered lining and fluff (tulle/chiffon) along with fun ribbons and trims. The only thing I had to buy was one of the tops and the little premade flowers. Two full costumes in a day's work. Perfect.

Olivia will be dressing up as a cowgirl, in lots of pink; she wouldn't have anything to do with chaps or a vest or anything else I could sew, and by the way, do not google images for chaps with your six-year-old sitting on your lap, okay? I love that the girls' costume choices are so predictable after all. Years from now, after many other costumes and many other phases, I'll be able to look back at this year's pictures and remember how the girls dance around the family room to "beautiful music" every day, how much they love pink everything, how different, but similar they are, and how they all hope to be cowgirls living in castles someday. I'll leave you with some snapshots of Grace in her costume. Not much time for still shots when there's dancing to be done.

Mickey Mouse costume (yes! for a boy!)

2011-10-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

One of my closest girlfriends doesn't have the slightest interest in "DIY," but she LOVES Halloween and appreciates a handmade costume for her little boy, Easton. This means that at least once a year, I get to try my hand at "boy" stuff! This year, Mickey Mouse was in order for this cutie. Easton wore his favorite mouse ears, a store-bought white collared shirt and a pair of Addie's black leggings along with the sewn pieces.

I used Burda 9671 for the jacket. I had a really hard time following the pattern instructions and ultimately abandoned them altogether, but the jacket turned out fine in the end (good for a costume, not so much for church).
I used this tutorial for the bow tie. I used fleece to line it because I wanted it to have a nice puffy costume feel. The tutorial was a cinch to follow, I'd highly recommend it.
I started with this tutorial for the suspenders, but made both straps connect at the center back with just one suspender clip. Another great tutorial.
For the shorts, I just followed a simple shorts pattern and then used fusible, double-sided interfacing to add two white ovals on the front. So cute!!
I also made some little yellow booties to slip over Easton's shoes; I think the booties totally pull the whole look together.

Isn't he the cutest thing? I'm so blessed to have my girls grow up alongside the children of my closest friends!

glittery, shimmery houses

2011-10-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

In case you missed these glitter houses I shared at Positively Splendid, I'm posting them again here. Have a great weekend!

Two years ago, I saw some amazing glitter houses made by Rhonna Farrer, here. I immediately bought all the supplies and have been holding on to my stash until now. Although I intended to do this project way back then, I never found the time with all the other holiday projects I was trying to get done. When Amy asked for holiday projects nice and early, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to tackle this glitter bonanza.

The paper mache nesting houses came in a set of three and I ordered them online from Hobby Lobby, but I'm sure those of you who are lucky enough to have Hobby Lobby in your area, can pick them up locally. This is basically a go crazy kind of craft with no special instructions or rules. It's the perfect crafty project for your soul.

The supplies I used include:

acrylic paints

spray paint

Mod Podge

glitter

more glitter

scrapbook paper for the mini banners

jewel brads

pre-made diecuts

iridescent pipe cleaners

fake snow

bead strings

vintage sheet music

To start, I painted all the pieces using either acrylic paint or spray paint. Both worked fine; spray paint was easier, of course. On the larger house, I worked in small sections to apply a layer of Mod Podge and then glitter. For the smaller house, I cut pieces of vintage sheet music to fit each side of the house and glued them on with Mod Podge. Once they were dry, I cut an X in each window, applied a little more glue, and folded the paper to the inside of each window frame. Then, I covered the whole house with another coat of Mod Podge.

Once you have your base pieces painted and glittered or decoupaged, it's time to decorate. I strung up beads, a dollar store necklace, and a little pennant banner (I cut triangles and sewed them together). I added tiny pinwheels, some pre-made diecuts, and shiny pipe cleaners. I attached everything using hot glue and then finished the houses off with some "snow" along the roof edges and around the bottoms. I spread a bit of glue, snow, and glitter on some little trees, too, to add to the scene. I wanted to keep the colors bright and non-traditional so that I can set up the little village in our girls' playroom. I think it's just perfect!

your questions about the ruffles

2011-10-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your suggestions on party activities; it's always nice to have some new ideas at the ready!

I thought I'd share this latest dress for sale in the shop. I've been wanting to do a dress similar to the one up in my blog header and had a lovely client who obliged. I am loving the soft pink on this one, such a sweet dress.

I get frequent emails asking about my process for sewing the ruffles on my dresses. I wish I could share a simple and fast trick, but the truth is that adding the ruffles to these dresses takes a very long time. After serging the edges and sewing the strip(s) into a circle, I run a gathering stitch along the edge of each strip, gather it by hand, pin it to the dress, and carefully sew it on. It's really slow going, but totally worth the results.

Now that I'm caught up on orders, I'm trying to finish up Halloween costumes. What are you working on this week?

Cookie Decorating for Kids

2011-10-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

**This post was originally shared at The Girl Creative. In case you missed it, I'm posting it here.**

Our recent birthday party was full of girly decorations and super girly activities. Playing dress-up with real makeup and making butterfly necklaces were among the favorites, not to mention selecting from a whole table of pretty treats. I had another activity that I thought would be super fun if the children needed to sit down. Cookie decorating! Since the party was outside in the morning, I had to prepare everything the night before and have it gathered in an easy-to-carry manner. While I was putting together the cookie decorating tray, it crossed my mind that this would be a great activity to transport to a classroom holiday party or to have ready to pull out for a playdate! I simply baked up a whole bunch of tiny sugar cookie cutouts and placed them on a plate. I mixed up several colors of frosting and packaged them in mason jars - easy to transport and store, easy for the children to pass around a table (plus! any excuse to use mason jars is good for me!!) Then, I poured small portions of a variety of sprinkles into tea cups to compliment our tea party theme - again, easy to pass around a table. I placed everything in my trusty Pepsi crate and it was ready to go!

You can find my go-to cutout sugar cookie recipe here.For a yummy, easy frosting recipe, go here.And for more butterfly tea party inspiration, go here.

Party activities are always a challenge for me - I'd love to hear your ideas! What's your favorite party activity?

Glitter Crazy over at Positively Splendid

2011-10-14T10:45:00.000-07:00

Have you been following Amy's Swell Noel series over at Positively Splendid?? You should go check out all the great ideas and get a jumpstart on some of your holiday crafting, baking, and gift-making! Head on over to see what I'm sharing today; I'll just say there's a lot of glitter involved, okay?

Fun Vintage Food Stands

2011-10-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

When I came across this Vintage Lemonade Stand on Lil' Luna, I pinned it to my Dream Home pinterest board. Someday I hoped. But then I figured out a way to get the hubby on board to build it for Olivia's tea party. After all, we didn't have an outdoor table for the party food, and, like I said, we had started our other projects nice and early. Once I got him on board for the first one, I sweetly suggested that perhaps we could do two. He totally agreed because he's cool like that (or he knows I'm crazy and when I get a party idea in my head, there's no stopping me.) We did a bit of studying on Lil' Luna's tutorial and then adjusted for the size we wanted. And when I say we, I mean he. Graham did all the building and I was very grateful. For the paint, I pretty much followed Kristyn's instructions exactly (read her instructions here). I will add that you do not need to prime the boards - I wasn't sure, so I did some with and some without, it didn't make a difference. Also, I would suggest using a satin paint, either spray paint or from the can. I used some spray paint and some that I had on hand in a can. The only thing that didn't work was when I used an enamel spray paint - when I tried to sand it down, it got really gummy and gross. I didn't have cool vinyl for the signs, so I painted the letters onto the sign boards.

Here's an abbreviated picture tutorial for how we built our stands. Questions? I'll try to give you answers. But once you get started, you'll see that all you have to do is build a simple frame and then hammer up slats to go all the way around the front and sides. To hold up the sign, we just screwed a couple narrow slats onto the back and then screwed the sign onto that.

Do you love? I sure do!

Linking up over at Tatertots and Jello!

Butterfly Chandelier DIY

2011-10-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

I didn't take many pictures along the way, but I'll tell you how I made this butterfly chandelier because I know some of you want to make one, too. And you definitely can, but I'm not gonna lie, it's going to take some serious dedication.

When I first saw a chandelier like this, I knew I'd have to make one if we ever had a butterfly birthday party. Then, Olivia announced her theme - hooray!! All the credit here goes to April Meeker - you can see her incredible version here.

I made the chandelier with one foam wreath form (for the larger bottom) and a smaller embroidery hoop (for the top). I punched about ten million butterflies from patterned cardstock using three different craft punches (two are Martha Stewart punches). Then, I started hot gluing the smaller butterflies to cover all sides of the forms. This took a really long time to cover the wreath form. If you don't want to dedicate a good chunk of time to this project, ~~pick a different project~~ you could probably speed things along by using a large embroidery hoop on the bottom as well. After the first layer of butterflies, begin layering again. Use both small and large butterflies and glue, glue, glue!

Once I finished covering the hoops, I used three long pieces of ribbon to connect the two hoops together and then knotted the ribbon at the top so that I could hang it easily. I blinged up the chandelier with leftover crystals from my real chandelier makeover project. Then I sewed long strings of small paper butterflies and draped them around the outside and straight down the center. A few other pieces of ribbon at various lengths were also hung down the center, and voila!

It's so pretty, huh? I need to find a place to hang it in my house - I think it's headed to the big girls' bedroom. What are you going to do with yours?

Linking up over at Tatertots and Jello!

my little girl, age 6 (and party pictures)

2011-10-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Olivia,

You have grown so much in the last couple months, it's no wonder that another birthday has come to pass. Six years old. I always tell you to stop growing, to stay my sweet little baby, but then I tell you, too, that each day brings me so much happiness and pride as I try to absorb all the new things you've seen and heard and learned. It's impossible to freeze time, and honestly, I'm as excited to see you grow as I am to remember every stage you've already gone through.

You are incredible and I look forward to each new day as I watch who you are and who you become. Your anxiety over being apart from me has begun to change as you develop friendships and an identity off at school all day. And though you're still building confidence to approach a group, your strength of conviction once you're there is amazing. You are starting to walk around the house with your nose in a book and remind me of myself as a child; learning to read really is the coolest thing. While last year you would say that your favorite part of school was recess, you proudly shout "Math" this year - another reassuring piece of evidence that you are a product of your mom and dad.

I watch you as you observe others' interactions and conversations and I hold my breath to see how they will effect your sensitive little being. We talk a lot and sometimes we just exchange words with our eyes and I know what you're thinking or feeling, even if we don't speak. Most of the time, you bring things up later, sometimes even days later. I hope you'll always talk to me. I find myself struggling with maintaining your innocence versus preparing you for the world that is already out there. I think about homeschool.

Your favorite color continues to be pink and you love all things sparkly, fluffy, glittery, and girly. Your daddy picked out pink cowgirl boots for you for your birthday and your mommy picked out an oversized toy pony. You dream of being a cowgirl and I dream of helping you to make all your dreams come true. Your ability to nurture and teach is remarkable; your patience is incredible.

You asked for a butterfly tea party and I did everything I could to give you the most amazing party. I started planning early, which did not result in finishing early. Instead, we moved out the goal post (as you daddy says). Several times. It was awesome. I couldn't sleep the night before because I was just so excited and when I woke up extra early to set everything up, you woke up too, and said, "But mommy, you always sleep in," and I said, "You always sleep in, too," and then we giggled and I put your hair in hot rollers and you hoped it would last your whole party, but it didn't. You didn't notice because you were having too much fun running around with all your girls. I love you so much, Olivia, so much. Having you and your daddy and your sisters in my life is the greatest blessing and I am truly grateful every day.

Love,

Mommy

**I will likely share specifics on a few of the party projects, but if there is something in particular you'd like information on, please let me know. Too many projects and pictures to guess what's of interest to others. I opted for the personal documentation route.**

Linking up over at Tatertots and Jello!

2011-10-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

This little sweetie turned six last week and we pulled all the planning together for a most memorable birthday party this past weekend. Picture editing is in progress.

The air had a chill in it this morning and rain is in the forecast for the next few days. The beginning of fall is always welcomed. I'm looking forward to some fall decorating, planting a winter garden, taking the girls to apple farms and the pumpkin patch, and getting a start on some holiday projects. What are you up to?

Back soon with some party pictures!

a good tool: wavy rotary blade

2011-09-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

I love my rotary cutter. I use it almost every day. When I realized that they make "decorative edge blades" for the rotary cutter, I was very excited to try one out. I initially shopped around online and almost ordered a "scallop" blade, but my need to have the blade immediately drove me to Joann's where they sold a "wavy" blade. I'm making wavy-edged ruffles, lots of them, and they are quite pretty, I assure you. I cut 2.5" strips of fabric with the blade, then stitch down the center with my sewing machine, tension cranked up as high as it goes and the stitch length set as long as possible (5.0). The machine will do the ruffling for you.

To make simple tablecloths for the kids' tables, I used the wavy rotary blade to cut a large piece of fabric to the desired length (this should prevent the edges from fraying and I didn't have to hem anything). I then joined a bunch (about 9) of ruffled strips end to end and sewed them down around the perimeter of the tablecloth fabric.

That's it! Much cuter than a plastic tablecloth, right?

a light and breezy dress

2011-09-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

This is how the dress developed. I wanted to make her something light and breezy, something that hinted at butterflies, but didn't have butterflies stamped all over it. Something fancy for my fancy girl and her fancy tea party. While drooling over the ridiculously expensive eye candy in my Chasing Fireflies catalog, I came across a gorgeous, breezy dress and used that as my inspiration.

The sleeveless dress has a square neckline with a little trim detail and a flowing over skirt with ruffled edging. The gathered over skirt drapes evenly around the back and meets in the middle at the high waistline. I sewed horizontal rows of gathered tulle on the front of the skirt lining to show where the over skirt parts in the front. My absolute favorite part of the dress is the pink sash. I found the silk in my fabric stash and it just makes the most beautiful bow.

I didn't use a pattern for this dress, just kind of made it up as I went along. If you're trying something similar, you can shoot me an email and I'll tell you what I did. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. I think it will be just right for Olivia and the type of party she wants. But if I could just get my hands on some of that yummy silk that Chasing Fireflies throws all over their catalog pages, I think I could do a whole lot better.

the metamorphosis (party plans)

2011-09-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

We're in the heavy stages of party preparations around here; Olivia is almost six. There has been a noticeable change over the years in that planning the girls' birthday parties has become so much more involved than writing up a grocery list a few days beforehand and getting the balloons inflated. This method of planning includes several panic attacks, typically related to the amount of yard clean-up necessary, but the crafting part is what I'm focusing on, and that's the good stuff, right? Maybe I get a little carried away. Maybe my kids are spoiled. But when I really step back and think about it, I'd rather we all get swept away by the fun than keep things easy. Sometimes, I'd love it if easy was my motto, but it's just not. If it becomes too much, I'll know, because it won't be fun anymore, and then I'll stop. This planning stuff flexes my creative muscles, it gives me the spark I need to try new things, perfect old favorites, bring excitement into my children's twinkly eyes, make me feel like a whole, thriving person. I'm excited to show you some of the projects for the party as they come together (please let them come together); hopefully, they'll inspire you to get a little carried away, too! Up next, her birthday dress....stop in soon!

on ready-made frosting

2011-09-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Phew! With Grace now back in preschool, some end of summer events, and our always growing project list, we have been going nonstop this past week. Nevertheless, I was feeling inspired (by Nienie, here) to throw together a quick back-to-school dinner/celebration for the girls. I had just a couple hours to put something together so it wasn't a big to-do, but it involved the necessities: homemade strawberry lemonade, crowns, and cupcakes. That, and a well-balanced dinner, were just enough to put the girls over the moon.

I used Cricut to make the crowns, cupcake liners, and cutesy owl and deer toppers. To frost the cupcakes, I used one of my tried and true easy frosting tricks - Pastry Pride. This is a non-dairy dessert topping that you can buy from cake supply stores. It comes in quart-size cartons and I keep a supply in my freezer. Then, when I need a quick batch of frosting, I thaw a carton out, whip up the amount I need (don't overwhip), and I'm ready to go! It's great for spreading out smoothly and also for piping swirls, borders, and dots; it isn't the best frosting for a lot of detail. Frosted cakes and treats need to stay refrigerated. The texture and flavor is similar to whipped cream, not too sweet, and really light and yummy.

I'm so glad we did this. A little bit of effort and a messy kitchen yielded a special evening for all of us. Love making these moments with my cute family.

How do you carve out special moments with your favorite people?

his work shirt to her school dress

2011-09-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yes I did. I chopped up one of my hardworking man's old dress shirts and turned it into the cutest little dress for Grace. My interest in such a project was piqued by others in blogland and by a darling little dress I saw in the kids Garnet Hill catalog. I didn't take pictures along the way because I did it at night and I honestly wasn't sure it would turn out. But if you want to give it a go, I scribbled some lines on a photo for you. If you try it and get stuck, shoot me an email and I'll tell you what I did. Here's the basic rundown:

remove upper collar, topstitch lower collar closed again
remove pockets
chop up shirt into basic A-line dress, leaving collar and buttons intact (be sure to cut front and back together, they'll be connected at the top)
use sleeve fabric to cut out two new sleeves - I used a pattern piece for a little gathered puff sleeve
sew front to back along side seams
hem bottom
attach new sleeves
sew rows of shirring across front; I sewed 9 rows about 1/4 inch apart each - be sure the two sides of shirring match up when the shirt is buttoned closed
sew on cute bows (or not!)

If you're lucky, your cute little model will have as much fun in her new dress as mine did!

Linking up here.

Mission Reorganization: a Project Table...at long last

2011-09-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

So excited to finally have this project done and moved into its permanent home! Two and a half years ago, very pregnant with Addison, I came waddling home from my girlfriend's house to report that her husband was building her a nice craft table, which he was going to cover with a sheet of stainless steel. Graham's ears perked up, as I knew they would. We had some discussion about the "project table" that had been on our "want desperately, but can't buy" list for a while. Graham was inspired. He went to Home Depot and bought wood and parts and...stuff. I could see the stainless steel sparkling in his eyes. He began cutting and routing, gluing and building. I gave birth to Addie and Graham injured his back. Carpentry progress halted indefinitely. Pieces of the project table were moved here and there in the garage. Every now and then, we'd talk about pulling it out ... but then I flooded the house. remember that? The flood ruined the hardwood, which had to be replaced, which meant complete upheaval to clear out the disorganized office/craft room. Over the summer, we have slowly put the house back together. And carpentry work on the project table resumed for a final stretch. At long last, the project table has been moved into the office.

The table was modeled after Pottery Barn's Bedford project table. It has 9 large cubbies on each side; the cubbies house many craft supplies including baskets for thread, patterns, stamps, scrapbooking supplies, and fabric. The tabletop is extra large for spreading my stuff WAY out or sharing workspace! I don't think we'll be adding any stainless steel. It wasn't a ploy; we just changed our minds after a year or two. Also, I have plans to spruce up those boring walls; here's to hoping it doesn't take two more years!

Even though this was a project that needed to rest mid-way through, I'm so glad that we did it! Thanks, honey! I'll try to confine my craft messes to the top of this awesome table!

Linking up here

simple jumper

2011-09-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

This little jumper is a quick sew and a great transition outfit as we head into the fall. Olivia wanted a dress with straps and just one print of fabric. We chose this cute, modern print from Tula Pink. I made a simple bodice and dressed it up a little by chopping it in half, adding ric rac along the center edge, and putting in three buttons. The skirt portion of the dress is gathered around the empire waist and finished with a simple hem. I love that she can wear it as a sundress or throw it over a shirt and wear it to school. It'll be cute with long sleeves and leggings or tights in colder weather, too. I find it quite amusing that my shy little girl knows just how to strike a pose when I pull out the camera.

Linking up to some of these parties!

the gossip bench

2011-09-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

I am really pleased with how this cute salvage piece turned out. Remember how awful it was when I snagged it for $10 from my favorite antique/junk shop?

Yup! I gave it a good sanding and used Gorilla Glue to add on a decorative wood decal.

Then I primed it and painted an undercoat of gray and a topcoat of creamy white. A little sanding for the distress factor and then some fresh upholstery.

It's now living in my entryway waiting for some wall art to appear above it.

Linking up to some of these parties!

little pots of glorious paint

2011-08-31T23:30:00.000-07:00

Today, we're going to talk about coloring your gumpaste butterflies using coloring dusts. For some reason, these little pots of color make me really happy. Not just because they are so awesome to use, but even just looking at these pictures gives me a thrill. I guess I'm a sucker for shimmer. Put it on dessert? Even better. I ordered several little pots of lustre and petal dust in shades of pink and green so that I would have some variety for the butterflies. The declared colors for Olivia's party are pink and green, and only pink and green.

I found the dusts so much easier to use than I anticipated. Here's how:
Mix about 1/4 teaspoon of lustre dust or petal dust with a few drops of clear liquid extract (peppermint, lemon, clear vanilla, clear liquor). Do not use water; the coloring dust will not blend in. (I mixed the paint in cleaned applesauce containers. I like to keep a few on hand to hold regular paint or water for the girls. They were perfect for this project, too.) If you get too much liquid, just wait a few minutes; some of the liquid will evaporate out and you'll be good to go.

Dip a brush into the mixture and then just brush it over the butterfly. (I used a kid's paint brush (new and clean), but I expect that a small little makeup brush would be the perfect tool.) If you've mixed the right proportions of powder and liquid, the paint goes on silky and provides beautiful coverage. It's not runny, but it also easily fills the grooves and crevices, like in the detailed butterfly wings. The extract evaporates quickly, leaving behind saturated color and shine. I did a couple coats on each butterfly. For the two-toned butterflies, I painted one color first and allowed it to dry, then filled in the other color without the colors blending into each other.

I am still working on the perfect body to connect the wings. For these cupcakes, I ran a bead of royal icing, then placed the wings in the icing and allowed it to dry . It held well on some of the butterflies and not as well on others. I'm still experimenting with the best technique.

This concludes the gumpaste butterfly lesson for now. You'll see more in a few weeks when I do the "real deal."

I got the lustre and petal dust here: www.sugarcraft.com

If you missed the other steps to make these butterflies, you can check them out here and here.

eta: Lustre dust colors used on butterflies here include: Rose Pink, Orchid Pink, Olive Green, Avocado

And...I think I finally have some furniture project pictures worth showing and a super satisfying clothing refashion project, so stop in again soon!

Making Gumpaste Butterflies

2011-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the kind words on these butterflies! To hear that you guys are excited about making them makes me even more excited to share how easy it is with you! Let's get to it! I was browsing butterfly-type cake-decorating paraphernalia when I came across silicone molds on sugarcraft.com.

I thought they might be the perfect tool to create the cake I'm envisioning for Olivia's upcoming "Butterfly Tea Party." I also purchased some pre-made gumpaste and lustre dust. Thinking I'd benefit from lots of practice, I tried out the mold a few days ago. It worked like magic; I highly recommend you go get a mold and see for yourself. Today, I'm going to show you the easy steps to make the gumpaste butterflies and then next time, we'll talk about decorating them.

Roll a small piece of gumpaste into a ball and then roll it out like a thin pancake; use cornstarch to prevent sticking. As I mentioned, I purchased Satin Ice pre-made gumpaste. There are also many recipes out there to make your own.

Place the gumpaste over the mold.

Set the other piece of the mold over the top. Press firmly.

Remove from mold. Use included cookie cutter to perfectly remove excess gumpaste.

Repeat to create full butterfly. Admire your work. I love that this mold creates a beautiful three-dimensional object. Both the front and back of the butterfly have perfect detail.

Allow the butterflies to dry overnight before decorating. They will become hard, but handle easily without breaking.

Butterfly mold is made by and can be purchased at: First Impressions

Mold, gumpaste, coloring dusts available at: Sugar Craft

Next time, we'll talk about taking your dried butterflies and turning them into colorful little works of sugar art...

sugar butterflies

2011-08-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

We've been practicing our butterfly-making skills. I'm thinking they're looking pretty darn good. Thing is, it didn't take much to make such beautiful little pieces of sugar. I'll tell you my secrets, don't worry. But there are too many pretty pictures of the butterflies to stick it all in this one post. So today, yummy pictures, tomorrow, magic tricks. Okay?

I'll be linking up to some of the parties listed over to the right there under Favorite Parties!!

lucky

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

My lucky friend Christene. She got a fancy new embroidery machine. Lucky me. She let me come over last week and, while our kids played five hundred tiny toy mix-up, I watched her work up a flower applique on this top for Addie.

With Olivia in school all day (sniff sniff), the little girls took great naps today and I was able to put together this little pair of ruffle pants to match. Another stroke of luck.

Addie was quite agreeable to taking a little break from her afternoon gymnastics routines on the couch to try on her new outfit. She flashed me a whole bunch of sweet and sassy smiles while I snapped her photo, then put her leotard back on and held out her hand for her chocolate chip payment. The other gymnasts held out their hands, too. Lucky girls.

Any lucky embroidery machine-owners out there? How I wish I had one of my very own...

hydrangeas

2011-08-24T00:10:00.000-07:00

Okay! So we finished our big project and I also finished that little gossip bench from some time ago. Remember? Yes, we are in a painting craze!! I've found that both pieces are a bit tricky to photograph, though, and they also need a little staging attention, so I'll have to make promises to show you soon. In the meantime, here's a teensy sneak of the gossip bench while we look at the pretty hydrangeas currently sitting on top.

And since I know you love hydrangeas, I'm going to re-post my little gift-wrapping tips that I shared at The Girl Creative a few weeks ago, just in case you missed it...and to buy me a little more time.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy the packaging of a gift nearly as much as the gift itself. It makes me feel good to give someone a beautifully wrapped present. One of my favorite gift-wrapping techniques is so simple, yet so elegant. The trick is plain white or kraft wrapping paper and fresh flowers. Hydrangeas, roses, and dahlias are among my top choices. The roses and dahlias hold up especially nice, and the hydrangeas, well, they're just too yummy to skip! By using floral water tubes (you can see one in the side view in the rose picture below), you have a dry, convenient way to keep your flowers fresh atop their pretty package.

Don't have fresh flowers? Tie an extra little gift on top. It makes the package instantly fun and exciting. It may even be a little teaser as to the gift inside.

So get out there and wrap wrap wrap!

couch inspiration

2011-08-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

I like to bounce around between projects. A lot. I get bored sticking with the same thing for very long. I do finish a lot of projects, but I also have a lot of things that are in progress. There are a lot of reasons I take breaks in the middle of projects: because I'm frustrated, I'm lacking vision, I'm waiting for materials or a tool, I need someone else's help, or I just simply get distracted with a new project. In the last few weeks, Graham and I have been working hard to finish a furniture project that we started more than two years ago, and we are so, so close to having it completely finished. Hopefully, I can show you that, all moved into its space (in my craft room!!!) in the next few days. It just needs one final coat of paint and finally, it will be done!!

Then I can move on to one of the other twenty-something, half-finished projects sitting around, OR....I can get to work on this antique couch I hauled home from a yard sale this weekend...

Won't she be fun to fix up? I find it absolutely fascinating that this piece of furniture is in the neighborhood of 90 years old and in such beautiful condition. I didn't even have to stick this one in the garage, I just moved her right in. Though the colors don't fit quite right with my vision. I have other plans for her. Paint...upholstery...Scotchguard. Here are some inspirational pictures I've pinned recently. You can click the picture to go to the source.

What projects are you working on? Do you stick with one project from start to finish or bounce around? What halts your progress? What inspires you to finish? Please share!

Also, are you on Pinterest? I'm a newbie and, of course, in love with the concept. Tell me how to find you and I'll come follow your pins. You can find my very new pinboards, here.

Five-Minute Flower Accessories

2011-08-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

Not only is it fun to make custom brooches and hair clips, I think it can add so much to pull the whole look of an outfit together. I used a really simple style for the brooch on the embroidered dress; you can make one, too, in less than five minutes.

This style flower is popping up all over the place and it is SO easy, you should totally make one today. You just cut circles, fold then in fourths, and hot glue them onto a backing of felt. Four folded circles forms a full circle (see? you even get a tongue twister out of the deal!) Glue the sides of the halved circle in to the center for extra dimension like I did for the little flower below.

Top it off with a button or brad or whatever!

Layer "flowers" of varied sizes like I did for the brooch or pop a little single layer onto a hair clip.

You can also use one of these super cool two-for-ones that have a brooch pin and an alligator clip on the back.

I like to buy my clip/brooch backs on etsy. Try here or here.

And the part where I show you how cute they look in the hair? Well, my models were too busy loving on each other to give a proper head nod in my direction.

Have fun!

Miss Charming

2011-08-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

A charming dress for Little Miss Charming herself.

About the girl: She puts on the charm like nobody's business and can weave tales from sun up to sundown without taking a breath. Every word out of her mouth is laced with passion and every story, every request is accompanied by paragraphs of supporting detail. This girl, she's a charmer through and through. She can make you believe in anything and carry you away in the light of her big blue eyes.

About the dress: Cute puffy sleeves with little ties, a pretty, starched collar, a neatly zipped back, charming fabric patterns, beautiful embroidery pattern.

Definitely an old-fashioned feel, a different look, but I think it fits oh so well with the embroidery on the bodice.

Fabrics and embroidery pattern: Children at Play by Sarah Jane from Michael Miller. Dress pattern: Simplicity 2989, size 3

Do you have any idea how many pictures I had to take to get some where Gracie's arms and legs and whole self wasn't flailing all over the place while she weaved her story of the hour?

I'll be back in a day or two with the easy how-to for the flower brooch/hair clip.

Sharing at some of these fun parties!

weekend embroidery

2011-08-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

It's our last weekend before school starts up. We've got some day plans with water, dirt, and lemonade. And some evening plans with my new pile of Sarah Jane goodies.

I haven't embroidered in twenty-something years. Not since I thought a pillowcase with an embroidered rose-laden keyboard was a good idea.

I think my inspiration is quite a bit better this time around.

What sorts of fun are you having this weekend?

peek-a-boo skirt

2011-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I think I like sewing skirts. I haven't made too many.

But they really are a quick sew and don't take a lot of fabric.

I was inspired to make this little peek-a-boo skirt by Kristi, who blogs at Creating Chaos. She wrote up a great tutorial for the skirt, but I missed a couple steps because I was too impatient to wait for her to post it. If you want to make a skirt, you can check out her how-to, here.

I had a lot of fun dressing up my little form for some pictures. The little sweater was a gift to Olivia on her first birthday and I think it's finally too small for even Addie to squeeze into. It pleases me tremendously that I can carry on its usefulness.

fabric: Amy Butler Lotus Wallflower in pink (discontinued, sorry!)