The Ultimate in Refashion

Before I got married, I always said that I would just rent a wedding dress. Why spend upward of $1000 on a dress that you're only going to wear once? Well when the time came and my parents were actually paying for the dress, suddenly more than willing get one. I couldn't let it be worn just once, so when my daughter was born, a friend and I turned it into this:

I used a pattern (don 't know the number or designer off hand). I used the original hem from my dress and took some of the organza from the skirt and also used it on the sleeves. It closes with 4 buttons (from the original dress) in back

This is my older daughter wearing it. She is now 3 and a half. My younger daughter wore it as well. I'll try to post a pic as well. Funny story, when we were at church on the day she got blessed in it, two nine year old girls came to look at the baby. Then one of them gave me some advice, "I think next time you should make the dress after the baby is born so you'll know how long to make it." Gotta love kids!

Crocheted Dress

Many, many moons ago, before I had children or a man to make them with, I made this dress. My gage was off, so it turned out much bigger than anticipated. Also, I left it in my back window for too long and the part of it that was exposed faded in the sun. My husband thinks the faded part looks horrible, but I pretend its part of the artistic flair. She's only worn it once. . . to church when my husband was sick! She wasn't in the best of mood when I took this picture and wouldn't look at me!

Shirring

So I had seen clothes that had been shirred before and wanted to learn how to do it myself. Until the Sewing Dork posted this tutorial I had no idea how easy it was! So on a whim, I went out and bought a yard of fabric at 7pm and had 2 dresses ready for church the next day! My youngest turned 2 on the 8th and I wanted her to have a new dress. I didn't have quite enough fabric so I added some plain black on the sides. My younger daughter's dress has quite a bit more shirring lines than my older to make it tighter for the little lady who is still not on the growth chart!

Happy Birthday to my spunky Bug!

. . .who happens to have an equally goofy sister!

New Toy!

Wednesday after dinner my husband offered to take the girls for a while. I enjoyed the sweetness of the offer and the time to myself. When they got back he and the girls screamed "We love Mommy!" Again, very sweet I was busy cleaning their room so it took me a while to notice this:

on the floor! I was speechless! A serger of my very own.

Purple P.U.L.

Cakes showing off her new diaper

Recently, one of my friends started using cloth diapers. I went shopping with her when she bought supplies to sew with. The bad news is that the only local store that has PUL was out and wouldn't have any in for a few weeks. The good news is that she ended up ordering some from verybaby.com so I ordered some as well. I usually just get the white offered locally, because its cheaper, but it was fun to have an excuse to get purple (its more purple than it looks in this picture). I ordered 5/8 of a yard and made 3 diapers. I used a pattern that I made earlier for my younger daughter. I just added some to the rise.

The inside is a yellow micro chamois (similar to fleece). I think that even though the chamois is softer, I still prefer flannel. The chamois doesn't wick fast enough for my 3 year-old so she leaks. They're too big for my 1 year old, so she leaks. But don't worry, I have found a use for them. I stuff them and use them over a prefold for my one year old at night.

Soft Cozy inside, I even made laundry tabs

Cards

For about 2 years now, I have been a member of a card group. Each of us makes 10-12 identical cards each month and then swaps them at our party. Although, with my crazy life, I'm not able to go every month, this is the most recent card I made in February. I'm most proud that I designed it myself. The inside print came from a stack of Christmas paper that I have. I have determined to not buy anymore supplies for cards but rather use up what I have. The inside is stamped Happiness with a stamp set a purchased from Costco several years ago. The closure on the front is a metal heart attached with brad.

The theme for next month is butterflies. Any ideas?

I am still alive

For all my regular readers (ha, I love pretending that I have a "fan base") I have been crafting, creating and such, I just haven't pulled anything off my camera yet! Soon, I promise, soon. . .

Manly Crafts

My dad works graveyards and outside, so for Christmas this year we gave him things to keep him warm. Here are two of the things I made for him.

I finally made a hat that passed my husbands criteria for "manly." I was so glad he liked it I made one for him the next day! The brown thing is a heating pad filled with lentils. (Place in microwave for 2 minutes to heat). I made it out of a quilters quarter. I cut it in half lengthwise so I was able to get two out of one. Not bad when it only cost $0.79! I made about 8 of these for people as well as for a family auction to raise money for our reunion this year. I wasn't there, but my mom tells me they went for $8.00. I like that kind of profit margin! I wanted to fill them with dry herbs (I found a list care of the sewing dork) but could only find two of them, cinnamon and thyme. It smelled too much like a Thanksgiving turkey with only those two so I didn't put them in. Anyone know where to get a variety of dried herbs in Portland? I know they have to be here!

Wool Shorties/ Soakers

Once again my idea comes from the sewing dork. I used the arms from this same sweater to make the longies of an earlier post. Click on the link for an awesome tutorial. The sweater was a really big one, so the shorties fit my almost 3 year old great. However, she says they are itchy and I could hardly keep her in them for this photo. I wonder if she has a sensitivity or allergy to wool since this is oh, so soft merino wool and I think it is especially comfy.

As with a few other things I made for her that she won't wear, I find hope in the fact that her sister is only 17 months younger and hopefully will choose to wear them.

Also, if you look in the comments from my Training Pants Tutorial, you'll see that the Sewing Dork made a comment. It's like a celebrity stopping by! {{Blush Blush}}

Travel Bag

When I was growing up we always traveled by car on our vacations. My mom would make special vacation bags for the 12 plus hour trips. They had coloring crayons and books, doodle pads (the kind with the red plastic "pencil" where you wrote and lifted it up to erase it). And of course the bald guy with magnetic shavings to give him hair, a beard and mustache.

This year we flew to Utah to be with my husband's family for Christmas and I wanted to make a special bag for my daughter for the plane ride. I was please with how it turned out. I made it reversible with a Christmas pattern picked out by my daughter on the outside and a coordinating solid for the inside. It has 4 pockets, 2 inside and 2 outside. The fabric is a basic cotton so I used stiff interfacing on each piece to make the bag thicker and more durable.

Although the bag is reversible, I expected her to use it with the print out since she chose the "cookie men"
However, she preferred this on the inside. In this picture it is full of the art supplies we took for the plane.

This is how the bag looked during the duration of our vacation. I love how the crayon
holders turned out and Cake loved putting them in and out!

My mom took us the the airport so of course I showed her the bag. She commented that she was impressed and that the bags she made for us were never that fancy. I was very pleased because of course I remembered them as that fancy and was hoping to equal my moms work.

Holy Hats-- 31 to be exact

Yup, that's the finally tally of how many hats I crocheted between Thanksgiving and Christmas but most of them were done (like 20) the 3 days before and 3 days after Christmas. Here's just a sampling of a few that I made. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was working so fast and furious and giving them away as fast as I made them that I didn't have a chance. I learned crab stitch (gotta love you-tube) and used it to finish the boys hats, I don't have a picture of that though.

I made hats for all my husband's nieces (10 including our girls) in this style.
I just love how the sugar and cream yarn looked!

I didn't make the had I'm wearing (I hadn't finished mine yet) I used woolease thick and quick yarn with a K hook. I also really liked working with this yarn. I know you can't see my husbands very well,
I'll try to get a better pic later.

This is the first had of the season that I made its just basic yarn with a double crochet. I started from the bottom on this one. All the other's I started from the top. The picture is so bad because my camera was cold. My daughter is in the hat and my sister is holding her.
My nephew in his hat. There are three nephews and three on the way.
Unlike the hats for the girls, theirs were all a different style. One even had ear flaps.

My daughter and her cousin in their coordinating hats