Craft-A-Little

Well, despite my insane list of things to do before my baby is born (due date= less than 3 weeks away!!), I decided that I wanted to participate in the Ice Cream Social hosted by Amy.  I meant to blog about it before I actually finished my Ice Cream dress and shirt, but it just didn’t happen.  Remember the insane list that I mentioned?  

So…my results of the ice cream social…

A dress…

I had been debating the linen of a pink fabric for the top and bottom and in the end I decided on the linen and I love it!  This is going to look so great on Little Helper!  Well, whenever it fits.  I made a 3T and I am pretty sure it will be huge on her.  She won’t try it on yet though.  I haven’t put a button on it, so she refuses. 

I made her a shirt too- also in View C. And 3T.  And with no button yet, so she won’t try it on.  So particular! 

(Sorry for sideways photos.  I was so surprised that they worked and I couldn’t easily figure out how to flip them after they were uploaded.  I didn’t want to push my luck!  I do have them rotated in my flickr stream.)

I also finished the baby sleep sack for my brother and sister in law and their little girl that is due a few weeks after my baby.  I LOVE how it turned out!  I did a horrible job of blogging the process, just after I promised.  But I just didn’t have time!!  Especially because I did have some frustrations along the way. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn’t like that the pattern didn’t involve a zipper and I couldn’t decide on a back fabric.  Well, as much as I wanted to do a zipper, I don’t quite think that I am an experienced enough sewer to start adding in zippers yet- well, at least not on this pattern.  I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it without having made it before.  So, I stuck with velcro.  And the back fabric- I chose this dark pink that I actually had originally purchased to be part of the ice cream dress that I made for Little Helper and then decided not to use.  I think that it works perfectly! 

Here is the finished product:

I just LOVE how it turned out.  I really hope that my brother and sister in law do too!  I lined it with flannel as suggest in Anna Maria Horner’s pattern.  I didn’t find the instructions to be all that clear though.  I was a little disappointed in them.  I don’t know if I am just spoiled with O+S directions, or if these just really weren’t that great.  I am not turned off from the book though- I do really love the sleep sack!  And there are a few other things that I still want to make from it. 

I am also working on 3 quilts that I want done before the baby is born.  Well, I guess it is 4.  Hmmm….   One (stripe quilt) of them just needed the binding to be re-done.  I did the machine sewing on that a few weeks ago and it has been waiting to be hand sewn to the back.   Another (block quilt) needed a back, quilted, and needed binding.  Oh- and yeah- those were both supposed to be gifts.  Haha.  Not anymore!  I also had a colorwheel quilt top done and another top made with some Tula Pink Plume charm packs.  Little Helper has claimed that one.  She insisted that I put and A on the back for her name.    So here is where I am on these:

1.  Stirpe quilt- my mom is had sewing the back as I type.    She is visiting this weekend and didn’t want to sit around and do nothing.  I suggest she work on quilt bindings.  Funny story- I asked her how she did this part on her quilts.  She said that she gave it to her mom to do.  So, I am learning quickly!

2. Block Quilt:  I basted it, quilted it, made the binding, sewed the binding on.  Now it is waiting for my mom to finish sewing the binding on the stripe quilt.  Just kidding- it could be waiting for me to get to it. 

3.  Colorwheel quilt:  basted and ready to quilt.  I am taking vacation on Wednesday and I plan on staying home from work all by myself.  I am thinking that I might quilt it on Wednesday. 

4.  Tula Pink Charm quilt- I am in the process of quilting it!  I have the binding picked out, I just need to get to that part!  I have decided to try some flowers from a tutorial from Oh Fransson.  So far it is going pretty well!  I am almost halfway done and I expect to be done with quilting it tomorrow. 

I just tried to upload this photo and it errored on me.  I guess my luck ran out!  I am showing you a picture that is of a pretty good flower.  They aren’t all this nice.  But, they look pretty good!  I am happy with them. 

Well, I think that I am going to go do a bit of knitting- I have a blanket that I need to finish before this baby is born!  I didn’t have Little Helper’s blanket finished until she was 1- I need this one to be done before he/she is born! 

Have a great night!

I have been busy!!!

Today, during Little Helper’s nap, I thought it was time to try to catch up on Quilt Bee Blocks.  I am officially caught up now!  Well, I have my May ones left to do, but since May is not over yet, I am not behind yet.  Here are my blocks for Becca in A Piece of Work B.  She sent all of us different fabrics and told us to do whatever we wanted- just do not follow a pattern.  One of our fabrics was the focus fabric.  My focus fabric was the hippos. 

I have been sewing colored pencil rolls.  It all started as a going away gift for a friend’s daughter because they were moving to Texas.   The first one I made (no photo) had a plain linen exterior.  My seam allowances on the inside color strip must be a little larger than 1/4 in. because my color strip ended up being too long.  With the first one I made, I (foolishly) trimmed the ends so that it would be the right length.  This made it really difficult to fit the end colored pencils in.  So when it came time to make my other 2, the linen pieces that I had cut were too short.  So I had to dip into my fabric stash to find something else that would work.  And I found frogs! 

Little Helper likes hers.  She chose the one with the pink and orange frogs.  The one with green frogs will be going into the mail to another little girl right around Little Helper’s age. 

The pattern for this is from the book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.  I did a couple of things differently than they said.  It said to hand sew in a part and I chose to edge stitch with my machine instead.  I don’t really like hand sewing that much and I am not very good at it.  I think that the edge stitching looks just fine too!

I also finished the 2+2 Blouses that I showed you fabric for a while ago.  I LOVE how they turned out!  I finished them (except for buttons and button holes) last Sunday.  Then, Wednesday night, I finished sewing the buttons on one of them- and Little Helper wore it on Thursday.  I washed it and she found it in the laundry basket this morning and decided that she wanted to wear it again.  I love that she is choosing to wear the things that I make for her. 

Here is the other one that I made:

I gave Little Helper a choice on which one she wanted.  She picked the one that was just faces.  Although, I think that I would have picked the other!  She tells me the other is for someone else.  So…looks like this goes into the gift pile!

I expect to be working on a few more gifts in the coming weeks.  So, lots of little projects.  But that should also mean that I will have lots of pictures to share!

As a side note, I am currently between good cameras.  We decided to upgrade our DSLR camera and we sold our old one yesterday.  We expect our new one to come in the mail tomorrow.  In the mean time, I am stuck with my point and shoot and the quality of photo is really not very good, particularly after looking at my DSLR camera pictures for the last year and a half!

I finally finished the silk dupioni tea party dress that I said that I was making for Little Helper!  Yay!!  Ok- it actually didn’t take me all that long once I started working on it.  I cut it all out a few weeks ago and then I sewed it all in one weekend.  Well, I did the hem and put the buttons on in Mexico after Little Helper went to bed one night. 

(I just took all of my photos today and the dress needs to take a trip to the dry cleaners- it is nice and wrinkly and has a small spot of food on it. )

Let me just say- I LOVE how this turned out.  And so does Little Helper!  I lined the bodice in pink cotton.  I found that sewing with the silk was easier than I expected, but I still had a bit of trouble.  Trying to attach the interfacing was a bit of a problem.  I am not sure that it ever attached properly.  But when I finally had to sew edges and I caught the interfacing, I was sure that it wasn’t going to slip out of place! 

I also found that it puckered a bit more than quilting cotton does.  There is one small pucker on the back where the bodice and the skirt meet- notice I didn’t show a picture of that.    I also had a hard time getting going points on the back bodice part with the button holes. 

I found the buttons at Joann’s- and just LOVED them!  They are just perfect for the dress.  I was so thrilled!!  Little Helper wore silver sandals with the dress and she was so cute in it!  Other than the bride, I am pretty sure that she got the most attention at the wedding. 

And here is the whole family at the wedding.  My husband was in the wedding, so he had to wear the groomsman outfit.  The wedding was down on the beach and just beautiful.  Well- SUPER windy, but very pretty and nice.  During the vows Little Helper decided that she just HAD to have her Daddy, so I sent her up to stand with him and the rest of the groomsman.  She is such a cutie. 

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Another exciting thing that happened- I won a giveaway!!!!  Melissa over at Elemental Stiches hosted a giveaway of four books from Shambhala books and I won one!!  I am particularly excited because she was giving away Carefree Clothes for Girlsand she has also been hosting a sew along with that book.  Now I might be able to participate next month!  Yay!!

Ok, so I still don’t have any of my “coming soon” clothes made, but I am working on them!  I got tired of waiting for my fabric to come in and I bought some other stuff to make a 2+2 blouse with.  And this is what I did this weekend…

It still needs buttons.  Little Helper and I are going to go pick some out on Thursday or Friday.  When I first showed Little helper the fabric, she liked it.  Then, as I was making the shirt Little Helper told me she didn’t like it and she wouldn’t wear it.  Then, after her nap today, I was hanging it on a hanger to take a picture and she said- “That’s mine! I wanna wear it.”  I had to tell her that it still needed buttons and she could wear it once it had buttons.  She was ok with that response.  But at least she likes it!!

Overall, I am really happy with how this shirt turned out.  I think it is so cute and can’t wait to make more!  I know that I made mistakes and I need to remember to read pattern errata BEFORE I start sewing.  And there are certainly things that I can improve on.  This is why I am really happy that I have 2 more to make in the near future.  I think that will really help my sewing skills!

I will be working on the other 2 shirts, but if I haven’t finished them but Thursday, I will be switching my focus to the silk dupioni tea party dress.  I am glad that I warmed up a bit (after such a sewing dry spell- I needed it!) before working on my expensive silk dupioni fabric!! 

Have a great week!

I completed another quilt square!  And then I tried to do another one so that I was caught up- and I screwed it up.  I barely got any cutting done and I realized that I had messed up.  I do think that the instructions are not clearly written.  And I am not the only person who had trouble with that.  Anyway…I am currently waiting to hear what she wants me to do with my screwed up fabric.  I am so irritated with myself!!

So here is what I finished…

And what is coming soon…

We are going to a wedding in April.  I wanted to make a dress for Little Helper to wear.  But since it is a wedding, I wanted it to be a little fancier than quilting cotton.  So, I am excited to say, that I went to a different fabric store today and picked up some silk dupioni!  It was not cheap, but the woman who was working there assured me that it would not be that hard to work with. 

The colors aren’t coming out quite right in the photo- my photo quality is pretty terrible for this post.  Sorry about that.  My real camera’s battery is dead. 

I also picked up some fabric for some summer shirts for Little Helper-

I know- those 2 are very similar.  Well…that is ok. 

I am really excited to start on some of these projects, but unfortunately, I will be away from my sewing machine for a few days.   Even worse- away from my Little Helper. 

I had a very productive weekend of sewing!  I made 3 things- start to finish.   2 pair of bedtime story pajamas and a knitting needle holder- I was VERY productive!! 

I made coordinating pajamas for my daughter and a friend’s daughter- aren’t they cute??

I really loved how they turned out- and they came together so quickly!!  I was able to make a whole pair in one day (during Little Helper’s nap and then after she went to bed at night).  And they turned out so cute!  I used Riley Blake Be Merry fabrics.  I ordered the fabric from an online store and when it came, A was so excited about getting snowman jammies.  Then, as I was making them, she sounded like she wasn’t going to want to wear them.  But when they girls opened their presents tonight, I was able to convince her to put them on and I am so glad that she did.  When I put her to bed, she looked up at me and said ” snowman jammies”- like she liked them and was proud of them and wanted to be wearing them.  I love her.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of the knitting needle holder.    I forgot to take one.  Hopefully, my friend Athena will take one and send it to me.    Well, she did take a picutre on her phone and texted it to me, but I am hoping for better quality.    I used one of the new Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet fabrics and made one that was very similar to the one that I made for myself last winter.

Well, I am worn out after a day of Christmas partying!  And I still have to work this week.    I took too many trips this year and used up all of my vacation!  Oh well- one more week(well, 3 days)  and then I am off for a week and a half!  I can’t wait…

Little Helper turned 2 on Tuesday!  I cannot believe that she is 2 already!  I did a post on my private family blog sharing a bunch of things that she does and says now.  Here are a few of my favorites:

…calls penguins snowmen.
…hugs her babies and tells them that it is ok.
…loves to read stories and her favorite changes weekly. Right now it is Moo, Baa, La la la.
…thinks that my fabric is blankets for her to play with
…is day potty trained.
…tells me that her baby is scared of the airplane as she consoles her baby.
…LOVES babies. whether they are real or toys. She LOVES them.
…thinks that reheating food in the microwave is cooking. (it saddens me that my child thinks
this!)
…is really good at and loves doing puzzles.
…loves going to swimming lessons. Her favorite part is when she gets to jump in the water.
…goes under water in our swimming class!
…remembers that you get owies at the doctor’s office.
…will set up her babies and animals in all the chairs at her table and feeds them dinner.
…loves to paint.
…calls her gloves “gums”.
…likes to wear my shoes.
…kisses the books goodnight when we are reading them right before bed.
…pats me on the back when gives me a hug.
…holds on tightly around my shoulder when I am snuggling with her before she goes to bed.
…gives me kisses, and hugs, and nose kisses.
…loves to be tickled.

Here she is getting ready to blow out the candles- she blew them out like 9 or 10 times.  That was really fun.  We just did cupcakes on Tuesday because we had the bigger party today!  I got everyone to make party hats today for the party.  Everyone did a really nice job.  See the one all the way on the left with  a heart on it?  That one was made by my husband’s 32 year old brother.  He put nice pretty princess ribbons on it.  There were only 2 kids at the party (including the birthday girl!) and the wouldn’t wear the hats.  All 9 adults did a really nice job of participating in the hats and in wearing the polka dots that I made for everyone to put on their clothes.  The hats were made following this tutorial. 

I baked a cake.  It tasted really good, but it wasn’t very pretty.  I did polka dots on it and they melted all over the place.  And one of my layers broke before I got the cake built and it was sliding all over the place.  My guests we ok with it, but I am not sure that I can show a picture here! 

But I can show…

Oliver and S bubble dress:

Streamers for the party:  I have seen these around the internet in various places.  They were pretty quick and easy to make. 

Advent calendar:  (following this tutorial)

3 WIP finishes this weekend!!  Finally! 

Oh- and Little Helper got a pretty nice gift from my friend…

Homemade slippers!!  They also gave her the penguin boots that her daughter is wearing in the backround.  Given that Little Helper LOVES shoes- this gift was better than any toy would have been!

Here is the shirt that I have been working on for Little Helper.  It was pretty hard to make.  Well, hard for me, since it was my 2nd clthing item ever.  I think that it looks ok though.  Now I just need to remember to get some buttons.  And assemble the shorts before summer is over!

As I was making it, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it.  But I think that I do.  I think it is cute.  And I think that it will look cute with a pair of jeans this fall.  Or the green shorts that I am making this summer.  We will see…

I have really been into sewing lately.  As I start to explore this whole new world I have so many things that I want to make and so many fabrics that I want to use!  Over the weekend I finished up the dress that I made for Little Helper. 

I used the Tea Party Dress pattern from Oliver and S.  I was thrilled with how it turned out!  I have never made a dress before, so at various times in the process I thought it was going to be huge!  But it wasn’t.  It fits perfectly!  I like that there is a little room for her to grow, but it doesn’t look huge on her. 

I used an Alexander Henry fabric (I forget what it was called) for the skirt and Kona Cotton in white for the bodice.  I used a pale pink fabric with white polka dots for the bloomers.  The hem is lined in the polka dotted fabric as well.  I am having trouble getting a good picture of the hem/bloomers. 

Please forgive the wrinkles in the photo.  I washed and dried it after Little Helper wore it last and it hasn’t been ironed yet. 

I am also pretty sure that Little Helper likes it!  When I put the dress on her she kept looking at it and touching it.  She really seems to like it- which makes me feel so great!

I used ladybug buttons on the bodice.  When I was sewing them on, Little Helper kept trying to take them off.

The first time Little Helper wore the dress, it was to visit friends of ours that are expecting their second baby- we were celebrating their news!  Anyway, their daughter, Chatterbox, loves ladybugs and she kept trying to take the buttons off of Little Helper’s dress.   She would point and say “bug!”.  

The weather was nice, so we were able to play outside- in the sandbox-

On the slide-

I am not sure that this dress was meant for outdoor play- hopefully it will come clean!