Comfy Christmas Outfits

Yeah, I don't even know what to say about my littlest in this skirt, except I love it! She looks like a perfect little candy cane with her big ruffles! :) I made this skirt by just doing a basic skirt with three tiers of ruffles. It's all made of jersey or interlock knit, except the white ruffle which is nylon chiffon like I used in these flowers.

Oh and this is one of the ruffly skirts I alluded to when I posted my Blinging Rudolph stocking (hmmm, Jessica if you're reading, I'm still waiting of a picture of my little LC wearing hers!)

And my big girl for a Sweet A Line Dress (pattern by Lil Blue Boo) with matching leggings and sparkly red shoes (her fave). I absolutely love the fabric on this dress - it's a Rudolph print and that SO incredibly soft! I hope this picture does it justice!

A couple more pictures ... I love this hairbow (just below). I made it years ago with a Martha Stewart tutorial. I has red jingle bells on top of white holly leaves & pink ribbon.

And that's a wrap! (I do have another Christmas'y dress but it hasn't made its way into the wearingcycle just yet!

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Sweet A Line Dresses - Scrappy Style

So it's pretty obvious I *may* be a little obsessed with Lil Blue Boo, right? Yes, yes I am! When she released a new pattern last week I of course bought it right away, and made 4. Yes 4. Here are numbers 3 and 4 ... still need to photog numbers 1 and 2 :)

I so love LBB stuff that I bought a box of scrap fabric a while back; who can pass up promises of those silk screened scraps? Well not me. I have been just waiting and waiting for a good idea to pop into my head for using my favorite silk screen scraps (the "when I grow up" print, and the paper dolls)! This is what I came up with and I couldn't be happier!

This pattern (like all the others) is great. Easy, easy to follow, and super cute. I've made sizes 2/3 and 3/4.

It's safe to say we "all" like the new dresses. Except the little ones said they were "freezing" on this particular day (it was like 65 degrees here = freezing) and so we had to zip back home for long leggings and coats ... oh and the photo session was abruptly ended when my models walked out on me! ....

Isn't it cute how the little one's dress back is a completely different - yet totally coordinating - fabric? I love that!

Oh and did I mention this pattern goes up to size 14 years?!? So, nieces heads up: you're getting dresses for Christmas this year! ;)

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Lil Blue Boo Swap Dress - Hello Kitty Style

After all this time of making dresses from Lil Blue Boo dresses, I decided to finally participate in a Swap on the Lil Blue Boo Patterns page (on Facebook). All you have to do is tell the organizer what patterns you own and what type / size of clothing you'd like. In turn, you find out what someone else wants!

One of the things my swap recipient said she wanted was Hello Kitty. I'm sure she said something else too, but when I saw Hello Kitty - my decision was made! I LOVE Hello Kitty and I have no idea why...but I remember being obsessed with HK when I was a kid. Like obsessed.

Anyhow, I had seen this black HK shirt at Target a while back and thought it'd make a super cute Halloween'ish (or not) dress. I paired it with orange for Halloween, but added some pink to make it not exclusive to Halloween. I'm so obsessed w/ how it turned out, I really (really) wanted to keep it. It's a size 4 ... my oldest just turned 4. So ... I may need to see if Tar-jay still has this shirt & make another one!

I hope the recipient loves her new dress!

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Preppy Apple Outfit

I've been making so many of these dresses lately, it's almost embarassing! Perhaps someday soon, I'll get around to taking pictures of them and posting :) You know what else? Making clothes = fabric shopping, and I've been doing a lot of it! Double :)

I recently discovered Girl Charlee as a GREAT resource for purchasing really cool knit fabrics, AND they are super affordable. Here in blogland, I kept hearing about "french terry knit" and was curious about it. Soon as I got to wondering about it, Girl Charlee listed this ridiculously cute apple fabric in a french terry - sold! This fabric just screams "back to school" to me, with all those cute apples. The apple core is a Heart on here, so I picked up this cute ribbed cotton trim to coordinate.

Beret Close-Up

The dress is made from Lil Blue Boo's Sienna Dress Pattern in a size 3 with a couple modifications: (1) changed pattern piece for neck trim into one piece about 75% of neck opening, and (2) added wide trim to arms and bottom, and (3) made this a "bubble" dress by making the trim piece smaller.

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Doll Clothes - Yippee!

My daughters have finally hit the doll phase, and I'm not sure who is more excited - me or them! I am so tickled they are suddenly into dolls and being little mommies. Because, after all - the crafting possibilities are endless!

(ps - I only have two kids, so the third dress is for the other little girl at 'daycare' ... apparently we have hit the phase where it's better if all three girls have the same thing or same type of thing, otherwise some serious toddler bickering goes down!)

Not sure why the dolls look so cute - UNTIL they are 'posed' for a picture wherein they just look a little creepy!

I downloaded Lil Blue Boo's Lil Sally Dress pattern the other night, and whipped up these three dresses in NO.TIME.FLAT. Super easy, super quick & super cute! Don't you love the little flutter sleeves?

So from time to time when I make my girls dresses, I am definitely going to use the scraps to make coordinating dresses. I've already made them some cloth diapers for the dolls (but cannot find them to take a picture!), and I see all sorts of other baby doll goodies in my crafting future! :)

Ohhh, just remembered we have two Pottery Barn Kids dolls that the girls got as gifts a while back. The Lil Sallly Dress Pattern includes that size, so I'll have to try it next. Maybe those dolls will photograph a little better?!

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New Dress - Freddy Style?

In Joann's recently, I saw this red & navy stripe fabric. It's some kind of rayon blend. At the time I had no idea what I'd make w/ it, but with the 4th of July around the corner, I decided on a dress - for me! I used the Lil Blue Boo Pieced Tunic pattern (this is my 4th) but used yardage instead of pieced tee shirts & scraps. Using the yardage makes for a totally different look - it looks just like something I'd buy at the store! The only modification I made to this pattern was to add a ruffle at the bottom (with the stripes switched to run vertically). I pretty much love this dress.

Keep reading, it's funny....

The cut of this dress is so flattering and I love the bouncy ruffles. Whenever I wear it, my daughters ask if I'm a princess. The ultimate compliment! Below, the racerback detail.

Pardon all the spatulas in the background - I took a cooking class last night w/some girlfriends and I was surrounded by kitchen gadgets. (The class was at Sweet Basil for Phoenix people - delicious and fun. Just eat a snack first because you don't get dinner until about 9pm = starving!)

Back to the funny stuff ...when I first showed my husband he said it looked like a Freddy Kruegger dress. WTF? No it doesn't ... but there's something about the colors and stripes that make him think of Freddy. Hmmm. For fun, I found a picture of Freddy online and made a little collage of us! ;) I only wish I'd seen Freddy's pic first because I'd probably have tried to mimic his awesome pose - with the nails!

Happy sewing / crafting everyone ... and to a nice weekend! ;) I just got my serger back (more on that later) and LOTS of knit yardage - I see a sewing weekend coming up!


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Little Girl Present - goof up & how to fix

As mentioned before, I am enjoying the twirl skirt pattern by Lil Blue Boo. And I really really love sewing with knits! Having two girls makes for a lot of fun sewing, but having three nieces (and no nephews) makes for extra fun sewing!

My little niece in Iowa just had a birthday and I decided to whip up a fun twirl skirt for her. I was just serging along happily and thought I had finished up the skirt ... I was feeling happy & excited about the skirt, when I noticed that I CUT IT! Oops! The fabric became folded under and I created a ripped which I serged over, and consequently 'cut' the fabric.

Yikes. Here's the thing(s). Sergers have blades and the seams are permanent (unless you're willing to whip out four separate threads - I am not.).

So, I decided to patch the goof up with a coordinating heart made from Bamboo felt. If you're a regular reader, you know we heart felt in these parts. I simply placed the heart over the extra seam / hole thing I created and zig zagged around the edges. Cute, no?

Word is that my niece loves this and I have a most adorable picture of her modeling it, on my cell phone. Unfortunately, I don't have the faintest idea how to get a cell phone picture onto this blog. :)

Fabric from Hobby Lobby, also used on these rompers

Black rib knit used for the waistband

Should you have a serger incident ... consider patching it with felt! Now that it's all said & done, I like this Twirl Skirt better with the heart! ;)

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Twirl Skirts & The Crafterhours Skirt Competition (and my serger)

Longest blog post title, ever? I guess I'm trying to cover a lot here! :)

So, I did it ... I bought a serger. I ordered 'her' online ... I counted the days until she arrived. She thrilled me by arriving a day early ... and we are in love. Love I tell you! As soon as my kids went down for a nap, I plugged her in and watched the DVD that came with. Oh, I got a Brother 1034d serger - it appears that most of my favorite bloggers also use this particular model. I did serious research! :)

As soon as I thought I could turn it on and serge without breaking it, I whipped up a skirt. Then another, and then another. I told you, I love her.

These adorable Twirl Skirts were made with the Lil Blue Boo pattern. I made a 24m/2t for my youngest, a 3t/4t for my oldest, and a large for myself. I've never worn a large anything in my life, but this is clearly the size I need :) Our skirts fit perfectly. This pattern is easy to follow and this skirt is ridiculously easy to sew. Like so ridiculous I made all three in less than 2 hours.

I entered my skirt into the Crafterhours 2011 Skirt Week Competition. Clearly, I like a little competition as Sara vs. Sarah is all about the bi-weekly competition! Have you voted for the Embroidery Challenge? Do so here! Back to Crafterhours ... This is another blog I am so happy to have found; I feel like I must've been living under a rock to have missed it before, but it's full of funny writing, pretty pictures & clearly written tutorials. 

bracelets close up

Do you notice the cute bracelets we are all wearing (I went a little overboard on the matchy-matching'ness)? So fun! I made them using this tutorial for a jersey knit bracelet from V and Co (I love this blog - pretty stuff all the time). The bracelets are made from the same fabric as the skirt - the red peeks out in some parts and hides in others. For the girls, I made the 2-strand bracelet and only had to use one strip of fabric; for mine, I made a 3-strand from two long strips attached together (as explained in the tutorial I used).

The girls LOVE their skirts and love to spin in them! (ok, so we all like to spin!)

Fabric I Used:

Red / White stripe 100% cotton from eBay

Black Ribbed Knit for the waistbands

Now, I am definitely in love with my serger, but we have some tension issues to work out. You see, she does perfect work (I learned this is called a 'balanced stitch') when sewing through multiple layers - 3 layers? Gathered ruffles? No problem. BUT, I am having issues with serging a single layer. I need to tweak all the fancy tension knobs and get this working.

I've labeled my serger (she needs a name) in a couple of places to help me. Yes, the labels are color coded. Yes, I am a nerd.

I HAD to write this one down ... increase tension  = lower number; decrease tension = higher number. Sounds backwards, right? I think so too ...

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Maliboo Rompers x 2 & 3 with The Bikes

I mentioned the other day that I made a romper dress from the Maliboo Romper pattern by Lil Blue Boo (and that I goofed it up). Oh well, like it as a dress, but I couldn't end on a mistake! :) Enter Maliboo Rompber No. 2 and 3.

My kids are 2 1/2 years old and 3 1/2 years old (tall!). I made the size 2-3 first and just tried it on both of them to see who it fit best. The size 2-3 fit my 2 year old perfectly and was definitely too short for my 3 year old. So, I went ahead and made a size 4 for the older one, so there would be some growing room.

This romper is pretty adjustable in my opinion since it's a halter top - you can pull it tighter or looser depending on how you need it to fit.

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Festive Romper turned Dress

By  now, the cat's out of the bag: I'm currently obsessed with Lil Blue Boo's patterns, and I love sewing with knits. This is Ashley's Maliboo Romper Pattern, which is the most recent clothing pattern of hers. When she released the pattern, she offered a giveaway on her blog and I was lucky enough to win one! Woo-hoo! 

I couldn't wait to try it out, and I knew I wanted to make a patriotic one for the upcoming Memorial Day & 4th of July. I have had the worst luck finding cute printed knits in stores, and am slowly realizing that you have to just purchase online. I am so impatient, I couldn't wait for that. SO, I went to Goodwill and found some fun red, white and bluep prints (and even one with stars!).  Silly me, I thought I may have gotten enough for two rompers, but it was only enough for one, so the "baby" gets this one! She makes a fine model and may be the cutest thing I have ever laid eyes on. Ever.

Materials for this one: upcycled knits from Goodwill; purchased ribbed knit in red for the back 'band'

see the little 'flair' on the bottom back here - that is because I didn't sew up the crotch!

Why is this a Romper turned Dress? Well because I goofed up! I accidentally sewed the crotch of the front piece to the outside. I'm a little embarassed to say that I didn't even notice this until I got to the VERY END and realized that there was no front crotch to sew to the back crotch. Oops.

I wasn't even about to rip this all out and I also wasn't going to scrap the project. So, I tried this on the little miss without any crotch being sewn and decided - it worked as a dress! The only modifications I made were to trim the front crotch (which was on the outside edges of the dress) to make it flow a little smoother. I left the back crotch there (it gives a little asymmetrical flair) to the back and just did a quick zig zag stich around the bottom as a "hem."

I totally love it! I may make more dresses from this pattern too because these rompers / dresses are just perfect for summer! ;)

If you're wondering about the leggings - California is COLD! They don't totally match, but it's what I had. It was a little colder there than we are used to here in Arizona ;)

In case you're wondering, yes I've made more rompers by now. The proper way. As soon as I finished this one, I cut material for another. I slowed down and paid attention and ended up with an actual romper. Then I made another one ... because this time I had enough for two matching rompers for my sweeties! I still need to attempt photos of them together in those rompers so I can post, but they are stinking cute in them.

Gotta say, I love the open back of this halter style romper - shows off her cute baby tan she picked up at the beach! :)

We were in Oceanside, California this past weekend for the holiday and Great Aunt's 90th birthday. My in-laws beach house is GORGEOUS and I thought this Red & White lifeguard ring was a perfect prop to have Izzie pose with. She is always happy to play along!

ps- have you voted for the Garden Challenge yet? Please do!

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LBB Dresses

I've become that person that my friends "donate" to ... whenever they are purging their closets! Recently I "scored" some super soft tees from Em because she wanted to see "what I'd do w/ them." She also gave me back the bridesmaids dress she wore in  my wedding six years ago (again, to see what I could come up w/)!

I've been thinking on those tees for a while now, and finally decided to go back to my old trusty dress pattern from Lil Blue Boo (the Sienna patttern) and made the girls some new dresses. I love this pattern and have made more of these dresses than I've blogged about! But here's one, the sorority tee upcycle.

Their dresses are different styles but the colors coordinate - just like I like them! Audrey got a ruffle b/c she is so tall and I needed the added length (someone in Trader Joe's seriously thought she was FIVE the other day ... right! She is only 3.5 yo ... but as sassy as a 16 yo).

She picked her coordinating pom poms for her pig tails. I was impressed with her matching! ;)

Izzie got the cool flower print tee (a GAP tee that I loved and wore a while, until it developed a hole on the front!) mixed with Em's beige shirt. The front and back are different color blocks.

Izzie's sleeves are do not have a folded hem ... they are just finished with a zig zag stitch and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  I used a tank top for the beige, so I didn't have existing sleeves to work with and didn't have enough of the tank body to use.

Yes, she too promptly removed her shoes; it's a thing they do.

We were at a birthday party for these pictures and all my kids (and Trey down there) wanted to do was play in this nasty mud puddle (it smelled like rotten fish). Naturally when I asked for a picture, they gathered around said puddle. Grrr.

When I asked for a picture, they all snugged together with their arms around each other and said "cheese!". They are trained professionals, for sure.

This ^^ is my favorite picture from the day. That ball + that puddle = trouble.

Final picture from the party, I cut off here because this is where I became a referee between my children and the desserts. You see that cake right there? (Audrey licked it) and Izzie? She helped herself to a very large selection of homemade cake pops! It was a fun day for all of us! ;)

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