Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We enjoyed our Sunday!

I promised pictures of the girls in their dresses. Well I didn't get individual pictures of just the girls but got the boys in it as well! :) I found a great tutorial for a flower for the top of the girls dresses here. I love the way they turned out and added just the right touch to the bodice of the dresses! They were so easy to make (even if you don't own a ruffle foot attachment for your machine). I also made matching hair flowers for them.

For the boys I serged up some quick bow ties (in about 5 minutes) the evening before from my tutorial here. :)

 My Crew:
Paxton, Donovan, Annika, Kendra

Easter Dresses!

Last week I finished up the girls' Easter Dresses. I don't know about you but I love that my girls love to match (yes even my 7 year old)!

The pattern is from Cottage Mama and it's her {FREE} Party Dress Pattern. If you head over and sign up for her news letter she will send it to you! You can click here to read more about it!

I love this pattern it's so easy and a lot of fun to sew. I did modify it a bit for my girls. I made the sashes smaller and I added some extra length in the back to do button holes instead of button loops and buttons.

Both Girl's dresses together.

Kendra has informed me that she will only wear pink....well she gets orange also!

Annika isn't really into pink anymore so she went with orange. I really like the way it turned out. However I wish I would of got the bodice fabric a bit more centered....but live and learn. We live in MN so chances are it's going to be cold and they will end up wearing sweaters over them anyways. :) 

I don't have any modeling shots....not until Easter! :)

But if you come back tomorrow I will share a VERY EASY tutorial on how to serge a fast bow tie for a little boy. I'll give you modeling shots of a cute 9 month old wearing it! ;)

Review: Fishsticks Design: {FREE} Tank Pattern

 Bonnie over at Fishsticks Design offered up a great tank pattern for FREE! However, while this pattern is super awesome, Annika has grown out of this size. You can bet my excitement when she said she was picking testers for larger sizes! I was all on top of that!

I was so lucky to test this pattern for her. We love the way it fits Annika! It was a really easy sew also! We love the length and width. We added a little freezer paper stencil (I'll share a tutorial on that another time it's super fun and easy and my go to gift when I need a fun shirt for someone) to the front for my bug-loving 7 year old!

She even went to find her bug headband to wear. :)

We liked it so much we whipped up another with a pair of matching shorts for summer pjs for her! You can bet that more of these tanks will be made!

Sneak peak at some sewing...

I have a lot I have sewn in the last couple of years.

Super Hero:

How cute are they?!

And a baby in a mask? <3

To others: a-line jumper from the Scientific Seamstress

Another a-line jumper and one of my all time favorites!!

A few things for the boys:

Heidi and Finn Urban Unisex Hoodie:

Coming home outfit: Fishsticks Design-Jaime Jumper:

:

Some skirts from this past fall for both girls using Little Lizard King Retro Glam Skirt Pattern (modified):

This is just a few of the things I have done. I'm sure I'll share more in the future!

Easter Outfits...

After writing one of my last post I realized I didn't share any pictures of the kid's Easter outfits this year. I didn't due to much as we've been busy with building a house and all..... ;)

But here's a picture of their outfits. I found this fabric at a thrift store 2 yards for $1.50!! Can't get much better than that!

Van's tie is from the pattern I listed in the last post. You can find it here.
Annika's skirt is made from a tutorial I found on Dana's site over at Made called the Simple Skirt.

Kind of a funny story. When I first made the skirt it was just the blue with white polka-dot fabric. Annika looked at me and said, "Mom that's kind of ugly." (sigh). So we added the pink ribbon and and flower. She liked it a lot better!

Close up of flower and ribbon border.

I plan to make an Itty Bitty Dress as shown in the previous post in this same fabric so they will match also. :) I have to say I never thought I'd be one of those mom's that matched their kids clothes...but the fabric is cute and how can I resist?!?

Baby Girl Outfit (head to feet)!

I'm loving this outfit!!! I got the fabric from Walmart (of all places). I LOVE it! It was 1.50 a yard!

Every pattern I used for this outfit was free (except the bonnet pattern and I would GLADLY pay $5 for that pattern any day)!

Starting at the head and going down!

The Bonnet: Made from the pattern "The Beautiful Bonnet" found on Etsy! 

The Dress: The Itty Bitty Dress found on Made by Rae's site (this is a free newborn dress pattern).

The diaper Cover: Newborn Bloomers is also a free pattern made by Bonnie over at Fish Sticks and Fries. Oh and while you're over there check out her new announcement! Her patterns are now for sale in PDF format!!!

The Shoes: Pleated Mary Janes also a free pattern.

The whole outfit together:

Feel free to go by print out the pattern and make your girl up a new outfit from head to toe!

My goal is to make the older sister and dress using the same fabric as above and using the Summer Dress Pattern I sewed here. I also plan to make Van a tie to match with this pattern off of Etsy. This is the pattern I used to make his Christmas tie and his Easter tie (hmmm...no picture of their matching Easter Outfits, I'll have to post that one another time)!

Variations of the Comfy Sleep Set:

I used the Comfy Sleep Set (another Pattern from Fishsticks Design, you can download the pattern from here (sizes newborn - 12 months but you have to buy the magazine for the directions). On Bonnie's blog you can also get the pattern in bigger sizes!

This is such a wonderful and easy pattern to sew up great for any baby or little kid! And adaptable!

Here's a picture of the a newborn Comfy Sleep Set (CSS) that I made (w/ matching diaper):



Here I changed the pattern into a dress (0-3 months): I ADORE this fabric!!



Here's one I turned into a baby gown: 0-3 months; I think I may make a hat to match with a pink flower on it!
Front:

Back:


Thanks for letting me share!

Recent Sewing....

Ready for this.....I've been sewing up a storm lately! Mostly stuff for the new little girl on the way!

First up a shirt: Using my Little Layette Pattern found at Fishsticks Design:
I believe this s a size 0-3 months!



Some bibs for the Van-man: Poor guy for almost 2 years now (he turns two on Sunday) has been wearing his sister's cast offs...so we said "good-bye" to the purple "Diva" bib and "hello" to 2 new airplane bibs!



That's all I have for now, but come back because I have an assortment of things from another pattern! 3 different looks from one GREAT pattern!

In the pass couple of weeks months, I've been able to test some more stuff:
Like these Gaucho pants for Miss A!





I also made Van some shorts for this summer to wear outside to play in. Poor guy didn't have any summer shorts (than I pulled out his 12 month size ones from last year and realized he still fits in them).We made these because he needed some shorts he could wear to the land (house) when he's "helping" daddy build (I'll update more about the house another time). The legs aren't really that uneven, just not a great picture!



This pair is made out of an old shirt from daddy! Daddy has had this shirt since he was a freshmen (or sophomore) in high school! Yes daddy is turning 29 this year! I told him it was finally time to give it up! I have since added length to them (so they didn't pull so much in the diaper area), and pockets, but now they are too big. Maybe he'll fit into them next year (they are to long).

 

Well that's all I have for now! Thanks for letting me share!

Tester Dress Pattern

I was able to cross a couple of things off my "to do" list! I'm moving kind of slow. I was able to get some stuff in the house packed up last week. You see we are moving sometime before baby comes (hopefully) we're just not sure when. Yes this does drive me a bit crazy as I really don't have anything ready for this little girl come.

On to sewing!!!

I was one of the lucky few to test a new dress pattern for a friend and I have to say we LOVE this dress. It's adorable! Even my non-dress wearing 4 year old LOVES it!!

I CANNOT wait until the pattern comes out!

My little model: I told her to stand and smile and this is what I got! ;) 

 

 

Because I was just testing a pattern I used some cheaper fabric that I had hanging around (this is $1 yard fabric from Walmart). If you look close my stitching isn't the greatest also (I don't think I would have her wear this one out of the house). I will definitely be making her another one with this fabric as I LOVE the color of it. I also plan on making it a bit longer (the one in this picture was not hemmed). But again I LOVE this pattern. 

You can see other patterns created by this seamstress here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BirdifulStitches

She has a whole bunch of different patterns ranging from tops and dresses for little girls, to camera bag accessories, to ireader covers and purses....go check it out!

What I need to Sew List

I'm going to add a what I need to sew list on my sidebar so I can keep myself organized instead of starting a lot of different projects at once...does anyone else do that?! I find myself saying "Oh I need to do this" than I find something really cute and think...oh that would be fun...but I want to finish up some of my unfinished items before I start cutting out new things!

So on the side of my blog you'll see what I'm working on. The only thing that will take lead over all is a dress pattern I'm testing for a friend. Her computer crashed so we are still waiting for the pattern to come to us to test but until that comes I'll start working on some other stuff!

Kid's Clothes Week Challenge - May 9-15

I have seen Kids Clothes Week Challenge for a couple of years but never partcipated, well I've decided to give it a try this year (although I'm not so sure how well I will do with everything else going on). ;)

The Goal for kcwc:

Work on making clothes for kids one hour each day for a week.

This doesn't mean you have to sew the whole time, you can cut out your patterns , knit, crochet,  anything pertaining to sewing counts. I'm sure I will spend a good amount of time using my seam ripper and it seems we are close friends these day! ;)

You can see more info here: http://www.elsiemarley.com/kids-clothes-week-challenge-faq.html

Oh and it starts today!!!  

So get your sewing stuff ready and start washing, ironing, tracing, cutting, sewing, seam ripping, crocheting, knitting....anything pertaining to making kids clothes! 

I plan on coming back to this post each day and logging what I did for that day:  

 Monday: made a pattern from a pair of shorts Van already had, sewed up the pair of shorts from a shirt daddy has had since he was 14 year old (and yes he's 28 now). Washed up some tshirts to make into summer shirts and shorts for Van. Made my list of things I needed to get sewn or cut out this week to start wit summer sewing for Annika, Van, and new baby girl joining our family at the beginning of August.

Tuesday: Today I edited the pattern I made for Van's shorts yesterday (I think I might have to do it yet again), good thing I'm not a pattern maker. ;) I might give it another try tomorrow. I need a break from the shorts! Okay so I couldn't leave the pattern thing alone...lol. I sewed up another pair of shorts for Van looks like they might work!! :)

Wednesday: Today I've tried drafting a pants pattern for Van (I give up). I found one to print, but it's to big. We'll just leave it at that. I am now working on some cotton big butt baby pants for the new bean due in August. I used a pattern found here for free. I also may cut out a Rockin' the Reglan Tee found here out of some old shirts for Van (he needs some outside shirts), if I have time. I've pretty much used up my whole hour for today. Wednesday tend to be busy as we have church and the youth group meets in my house so I need to make sure the house is clean. We also have story time at the library which we don't care to miss since it's the one day of the week we for sure get out of the house (and out of Sunrise). ;)

UPATE: I did finish my week up strong (I however missed Saturday as we had a teen activity and I needed to get the house clean for it, but I did more than 1 hour most days that I did sew so I'm counting that as my Saturday! ;)

I can't finish writing exactly what I got done b/c I can't remember (blaming it on the pregnancy brain)! :)

But I did finish out strong!

I didn't get much sewing in besides what I wrote at the beginning of the week, but got a lot of patterns traced and cut out!

I am thankful for the challenge as I got a lot accomplished and even tried some new things (even though it didn't pan out). :)

A New Apron for Van (tester)

I was signed up to test an apron pattern for a lady on my DSD board. I love the way this turned out.

I wasn't to sure about it when I started, I used some fabric that I had purchased from the thrift store (for real cheap). But it was kind of boring, so I added a little flair! :)

The overall apron. I added the tag (which says Totally Handmade) b/c it looked a bit off since the snapped part that goes around DS neck overlapped but the other strap didn't overlap the fabric. I think it really balances the apron out well!

A Close up of the top Applique.

But it's not your normal applique, it's actually a pocket!

And my little model! He loves the frog!

This was a really easy pattern to put together...you should see the girly one that is going a long with this!!! I'll share it when the pattern comes out for sale!!!

Thanks for looking!

Oh and by the way do you remmeber the Rockin' the Reglan Shirt I made for my Van-man? I posted about it here. Well Bonnie over at Fish Sticks and Fries has now released the Rockin' the Raglan Tee pattern along with her Lazy Days Lounge Set (another very cute pattern)! Go have a peak! While you're over there check out her other patterns. I posted about her Little One Layette Pattern here.

Diapers.....girly!! *Lots of Pics*

This is my first time making a Girly Newborn Diaper!! I didn't start cloth diapering Annika until she was around 6 or 7 months old. I made Van a few newborn diapers, but not to many (I'm afraid I didn't do a very good job clothe diaper). I plan to stick with it this time as it seems I will have 2 in diapers at the same time (Van told me he's not going to potty train)! ;)

Here's what I got done so far!

All three together:

 

I think they turned out pretty good for my first time serging diapers and using the Darling Diaper Unlimited Pattern. 

If you are looking into cloth diapering and want to make your I highly recommend this pattern you can make any diaper out there with this pattern! You can find more information here!