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.