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!

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!

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!

Newborn Gown and Matching Hat

I recently purchased this pattern from Bonnie at Fishstick Design. I was going to wait until we find out what this little bean was before I sewed something up. But I've had this pattern for almost a week and couldn't bring myself to wait!

I found the fabric at the thrift store and will be very sad when it's gone. I purchased 4 yards of it for only $2.50!

This was my second time doing neck binding. It's A LOT easier than I thought it would be!! I don't know what I was so afraid of! :)

Onto the pictures!

The tag is in the center back of the gown.

If we find out this little bean is a girl I may add a flower to the hat to give it a bit more color, we shall see. :)

Bonnie has some great patterns out there. If you are looking for some go take a look. A lot of her patterns are for knit fabric (which I'm just learning to sew with and love it)! My first project with knit binding was a shirt I was testing for Bonnie. I LOVE the way it turned out. I will share that later when her pattern comes out! :)

The little hat is from this tutorial from over at Make it and Love it!

Birthday Crowns and Skirt...

Annika just celebrated her fourth birthday! Boy does time fly (I never believed it until I had a child of my own)!

I put to use that cupcake material that I found at the thrift store (blogged about it in the previous post).

Here's a picture of the birthday girl!

And here's close up of the skirt! You can find the pattern here.

I also made felt crowns for all the little princess that came to the party!

More detailed:

Thanks for letting me share!

Christmas Outfits

Okay so this is a bit late in coming....

Here's a picture of Annika's dress before I "spruced" it up a bit. I got the dress off the clearance rack last year for $7. I thought it was pretty cute, and than I pulled it out of her closet a couple days before our Ladies Christmas Tea at church and it looked a bit boring to me. I didn't plan on her wearing the pink shirt with the dress it's just what she had on at the time.

I took the sash off and added my own and put some ribbon around the bottom that matched the sash.

Along with Annika's outfit I also made a few pieces to add to Donovan's black pants and white dress shirt. I had some red with white polk-a-dot fabric hanging around my house (left over from this project). So I whipped up this tie (which was really easy to make I got the pattern from here. The tie was really easy to put together and I LOVE the way it looks on my little man. I plan to make more of these in the future. Along with the tie I also purchased the reversible newsboy hat pattern from her site.  I made one to go with his outfit but will share that in another post. :)

Along with the tie I made Van's vest out of some left over velvet I had from this project (from a long time ago). The pattern from the vest was something I found free online from here.

Without further ado...my Van-man in his Christmas outfit.

 

And after taking almost 350 pictures of them together...this was the best I could get of the both of them together!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! :)

Leggings!

I was fortunate enough to earn a spot to test a leggings pattern for a friend!

These leggings are so much fun to make and very easy! I made 3 pairs in one day!

You can find the leggings pattern here at her Etsy Shop! While you're there check out some of her other great patterns!!!



Can you tell she loves them!!

Baby Shower Gift

My neighbor and friend is expecting a little baby girl (due in December). I woke up the day of her shower and had the urge to sew. Both of my kids and PD were still in bed, so I thought, "why not." I got up and "threw" together this little baby gift for her!

The pants are from the Katrina Soaker pattern and tutorial found here:

The Bib is also from a tutorial online (I just can't remember from where):

The hat is from my own concoction: I made Donovan and similar one you can see here:

 

And just in case you didn't think they'd fit a new born (the pants at least) this is a newborn diaper.

Owls and Hoodies

Remember this hoodie and this hoodie?!? From Heidi and Finn (The Urban Unisex Hoodie). I LOVE this pattern (but I already said that in previous posts). I have had this one in the works for about a month now and finally finished it up yesterday! This is by far my favorite one so far!

The Front: This was taken before I added the snaps.

The Snaps: I covered them with material left over from the owl fabric

 The Back: I LOVE this Owl material from JoAnns. I got what was left in the remnants bin (and I'm glad I picked it up...I even have some left over)!

 I think she likes it also!!

Another Ameila Top

I made another Amelia Top!

I'm very happy with my fabric choice for this one!