LA Originals Knitted Baby Hat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

LA Originals Knitted Baby Hat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I wish I could knit like this!

Nieces Christmas Gift

OH I AM SO EXCITED!  I love these butterfly wings.  I found the tutorial here, from one of the sewing blogs I follow.  The only thing I really did any different is I used a black fabric marker to draw on some butterfly wing patterns.  I really like the result.  And it was super easy to do.

Quick, I Need a Hat!

I had about a quarter of a yard of white fleece I've been carting around forever (I have a hard time throwing cloth away) that I finally found a use for.  We were asked to be on a float in our town's Christmas Parade, and, although this is Texas, I knew it would be cold (unfortunately it was so cold and windy that Ellie and I ended up not doing it, but still...).  So the night before I googled for a baby fleece hat pattern and used this one (basically), to make this cute little cap.

When I first made it I centered the earflaps directly on the sides, but when I put it on her I realized they would work a lot better if they were a little farther back.  So when we got home I picked out the flaps and adjusted them back about an inch.  And I embroidered a cute little snowflake on the front.

So here it is in its finished state.  Instead of string that tie under, I attached a snap to the end of the tie and the other side of the flap so it just snaps together.  I would have prefered to use some velcro, but I'm all out.  I also used a decorative wave stitch on my machine in pink to edge to ear flaps, the tie, and the top of the brim.  I love it and it was super easy to do.  I would say all total it took me about 30 minutes.

Nephew Gifts: Check

I decided to make capes for my nephews this year for Christmas.  It was super easy and I know they'll get a lot of use out of them.  I used flannel, because it was on sale mostly.  I appliqued the monogram emblems together using iron-on fusing and then topstiched around them to secure them.  As a side note, when doing letters, next time I would trace the letter, cut it out in a square, do the iron-on and then cut out the letter.  I accidently nearly fused the letter to the ironing board because I cut the letters out first and then attached a square of iron-on fusing.  Anyway.  I hemed the edges and then made ties and attached them.  I took me perhaps 4 hours to do all three. 

But I'm mostly excited about the bib.  My nephew Preston is only a few months old, and he obviously couldn't use a cape right now.  But my mother-in-law suggested the bib idea and I thought it was perfect.  If I were to make another one, I'd do a few things differently (like attach the velcro before I sewed the whole thing together, whoops).  And this time I cut out the emblem and the neck loop seperately and then attached them instead of making it one whole piece.  I just wasn't thinking clearly, obviously.  Anyway, I think they turned out great.  Now on to make butterfly wings for my nieces!

I'm a genius!

Well not really.  I finally cracked open the manual that came with my Bernina that my grandma gave me for my high school graduation in 2000.  That means I've had the machine for 9 years without ever reading the manual.  And wow was I impressed!  I learned what some of the random things that were included with my machine were for.  But more importantly I learned what some of the stitches were for.  I was especially excited to discover that I have a stitch specifically for knits that stretches with the knit.  AMAZING! I'm using it on a sweater jumper I'm making for Ellie out of an old sweater vest of mine.  I found a tutorial here that I got the idea from (but I've made a lot of changes).  I'll post pictures later.  In the meantime, I recommend that you bust out your machine manual and see if you learn something new.  I sure as heck did!

The Handmade Dress Patterns GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Handmade Dress Patterns GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Because who can pass up a bunch of free little girl patterns (especially when you have a little girl...)

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

My wonderful mother-in-law put me in charge of makin the centerpiece for our thanksgiving dinner.  I'll be honest, I've never been a huge fan on centerpieces.  I guess the word conjures up images of oversized things that don't allow you to see the person sitting across from you, something stuffy, or toll-painted (which may be worse).  But I was excited to try my hand at it.  And I came across this great tutorial on making these things called yo-yo's, so I had to try it out.  I liked the result.  We'll put an amber-colored glass bowl in the middle with autumn stuff (acorns, etc.), in the middle.

I also picked up a remnant of this red/green/gold striped fabric at Walmart.  I cut out four squares and sewed them together to make a nice square (the real table is square, so I wanted it to fitI didn't like the gold part of it, so I cut it off and sewed on a border of the same gold fabric as the yo-yo's.  I really like how it all turned out.

The Last Minute Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!! (with free bonus pattern in post)

The Last Minute Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!! (with free bonus pattern in post)

This sounds like something I would do (sew something because I don't have anything to wear).

Tutorial: Lattice Smocking

I made my first tutorial.  But I was silly and published it to my other blog.  So click here if you want to learn more about how to do lattice smocking.

Another Fabulous Grosgrain giveaway.

The Hop, Skip and a Jump Maternity Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

I think I'd still be able to wear it the next time I'm pregnant (which is not any kind of announcement at ALL!) But isn't it adorable.

Ellie's Blessing Dress

I recently taught myself how to embroider in order to do this dress.  I used an amazing book that has great instructions and images, if your interested it's called The Embroider's Handbook by Margie Bauer.  I did lattice smocking on the yoke of the dress.

I found a pattern online for the embroidery that I modified on my computer (it was originally for a corner, so with some fancy cutting and pasting and blowing up, I got a nice edge pattern). 

I must say, for my first go at embroidery, I'm pretty happy.  I did some pretty basic stitches, namely satin stitching, colonial knots (center of roses), stem stitching, and fly stitches (for the leaves).

And I made it big enough for her to keep wearing for a few months (in fact, she wore it to church last Sunday).  I also didn't want to do the traditional all white thing because if I was going to go to so much effort I wanted to get a lot of wear out of it.  Here she is wearing it for her blessing, being loved by my friend Tiffanie.

Welcome!

I've recently found lots of wonderful sewing blogs and thought to myself, "Hey, I should do that too!"  I love sharing things I make, and maybe I'll even go crazy and post some tutorials (like for how to do lattice smocking since I've been asked a lot).  I'll even post links to stuff I find that I like.  Sharing is good.