MIA Blogger

Sometimes life is just crazy.  I have a couple of things I have been working on lately but I need to finish them up before I can post them, but I realized the other day that I did not show you my creation for my daughter's baptism.  In our church the children are give the opportunity at the age of 8 to choose whether or not they want to be baptized.  Our daughter Kirsten made the decision and on December 29th she baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).  I was watching Martha's Sewing Room one day and a guest showed how to make beautiful designs on a sheer material with the serger.  (I can't find the link, sorry.)  I knew right then that I was going to make Kirsten's dress that way.  So here is a picture of my beautiful daughter in her dress.

I created the cross work on my serger on to a sheer organza material and then lined with the white satin fabric.  It was a lot of stress.  I did the serging first before I cut the pattern out.  I am grateful to my mother that did all the handiwork on it and helped me figure out the zipper.  Kirsten just radiated and the dress was the finishing touch.

After the baptism we had a lunch at our house.  It was crazy with over 30 people in my little house but it was a lot of fun.  I had found this beautiful dress on Pinterest and knew that I needed to make it for Kirsten's baptism luncheon.  It was fairly easy once you figured out the rhythm out of how to make the flowers.  I used my largest star in my pastry set and went to work.  To make the Buttercream recipe more white I just used half the butter it called for and substituted the shortening for the butter and used clear vanilla from Wilton.  It turned out adorable.  I sprinkled a little bit of white sugar crystals on top to make it "shine" and bought some pearls from the Wilton store for the waistband.

So much fun!  I love getting things together for a party.  We had a great time and enjoyed having friends who could share this special day with us.

The Christmas Dresses

YES, I AM CRAZY.  If you haven't figured that out yet, then you will when you see these two photos.  This year I decided to make Christmas dresses for the girls and then it snowballed into something for everyone except Dave.  But he really started the whole thing by buying that Burgundy colored shirt.  I was in love (with the shirt) it was beautiful.  {Funny side note: you can barely see it in the pictures.  Trust me it is the most beautiful color.}
So the quest began to make dresses to match the shirt.  Then the snowball began moving and TA-DA - The DRESSES.

Oh, yeah, two matching ones for the girls, one for me, and to make it fun - a vest for Peter.

I saw the idea for the girls dresses on one of my favorite blogs - Make It and Love It.  She is amazing and she made a ruffle dress for her daughter with a t-shirt and ruffle material.  I wanted to step it up a notch and so I made the shirts out of stretch velvet.  I actually found my ruffle material at Hobby Lobby, where I was able to use my 40% of coupon to bring the cost down a little.  You can buy the material at the Ruffle fabric shop but I wasn't sure how much I needed and didn't want to pay the price for it.  I can't say anything about the quality of either compared to each other.  But I liked the ruffle material, but with any of them you are going to have to match ruffles on the sides and that was a pain and I did clip some of the ruffles unintentionally when I was cutting my top out.  It worked out okay.  Anyway, when I bought the material I was a bit generous in my purchase because I had come up with an idea for me.  NO, I was not going to wear ruffles on my butt (it is NOT little and I don't need to accentuate that point.)  I think I bought 2 yards. 

For the girls I used various patterns I have at home and patterned the tops after dresses they already had.  The skirts are just pieces of the material gathered on just like Ashley did in her tutorial.  I also followed her instructions for the sash.

I had found a dress at a swap our church has yearly for clothing.  It was too large for me but I had hopes that I would be able to take it apart and adapt it for me.  When I started thinking about this project, that dress came to my mind.  It was perfect.  I cut off the top and "designed" myself a top.  To be honest, I had some knit fabric that I made a muslin out of to test the sleeves and the neckline.  It turned out okay and so I proceeded.  It took me a couple of days to get the sleeves right.  First try I looked like I was going to be playing in a Mariachi band.  I have to admit I was a bit down and didn't want to try any more.  I thought to myself.  This "designing" thing is for the birds.  But as you can see, it turned out beautiful and I was excited to walk into church as that "MATCHY MATCHY" family for Christmas.

You would not believe how close of a match the material for our sashes and Peter's vest were to Dave's shirt.  Dave even said it looked like they were cut out of the same material.  Peter's vest came together in a little more then and hour.  He was pretty grumpy this morning when we pulled him away from his toys and MADE him where THAT vest.  I promised him chocolate kisses (and mommy kisses) if he wore it and the tie.  I used a pattern I bought a year or so ago.  But you could really use an old vest and make a pattern off it.

Lastly, I am quite proud to say that I had them finished the day before Christmas Eve.  I finished up the final touches around 1 pm and was able to spend the rest of the day playing with my family.  So I made the flowers from instructions form Vanilla Joy for Satin Peony Flowers.  I made two for the girls hair and 3 for our dresses.  For the girls I used a tutorial from Make it or Love it for non-slip hairbows - and Esther's stayed in the whole time at church.

Okay so here is a better picture of the dresses.  I like all our faces (except Peter) in the one above, but this one is actually a better picture (and took less time to photoshop out the table in the background.

This is one of those times I am proud of my sewing skills.  It was crazy for me to make these but it worked.  {Of course the kids didn't get new sewn PJ's for Christmas because it took me longer to make my dress then expected - but they got a TON of things for Christmas anyway and didn't notice.  I guess I'll try and get them done for New Year's instead.:) }

**My jewelry was made by Liberty.  She is so awesome.  Now I have a really beautiful set of jewelry from her.  And for a special treat, I had her make bracelets for the girls.  They loved them.  Esther kept hers on the whole time.  She is really one of those girly girls.  She loves to put on jewelry and carry around purses.

Easter dresses

I don't know if people are still even looking at this blog, but we are still around.  We just have been overly busy or just too crazy in our life to actually publish things on the web.  I had been working on Easter dresses for the girls.  I used a pattern for the top and the sleeves and then adapted as I went.  It took me longer because I was making it up as I went along.  Esther has a different dress that I was copying the ruffle of the skirt with.  I found the lace that I had bought at a garage sale and found that I could use it on the dresses.  It was an adventure to say the least.  Here are the pictures I took of the two of them. 

 

Hope you had a Happy Easter.  Here is a project that I finished a couple of days before Easter.  Liberty found these letters after last Easter on clearance for $2 or 3.  I bought the paper at JoAnn's.  The sparkly kind is hard to put on the wood because it is very stiff.   I decorated it with odds and ends around the house.

 

Beautiful Blessing Dress

It's done (well almost).  I need to find some buttons and serge the inside of the sleeves and then it is done.  It has turned out so beautiful.  I love it.  I just can't take a picture to show you how beautiful it is.  I have worked long and hard on this, hoping to get it done before the 1st of October and I'm proud to say except for a couple of last minute things it is done.

Here is a closer picture of the top.

I love the pintucks.  They turned out perfect.  I chose to move them closer together then in my original trial run.  I ran the diagonal lines at 3/4 of an inch.  The sleeves are just soo cute all puffy and fun.  The lace just adds the finishing touch.

Here is a close up of the hem.  I bought this lace at a garage sale and it is just so pretty.  I love the 5 rows of pintuck that I added.  It just gives it that finishing touch.

Can you tell I love it???  I am so proud of myself even more so since it isn't the day before she is being blessed.  Here is the link to the original post if you want the pattern I used.  I got my inspiration from Homemade by Jill for the pintuck.

Summer dress fix

So I bought these two dresses at Kohl's on their clearance rack for $10 each.  I knew they might be a little short once I washed them.  They are cotton knit and I loved the style.  I actually bought another shirt that has the same elastic gathering in the middle.  One washing and they started running a little short.  I saw on Make it and Love it where she added on a ruffle and I thought.  I can do that.  So went to the store and bought material to add to both.  So far I have only got the green one done but I have the material to make the other.

I added a 6 inch ruffle on the bottom.

And a little piece at the top to keep things from showing on the top. 

I love this dress.  It is my best GO TO dress for summer.  It is so comfy and anything that doesn't bind around my ever growing tummy is wonderful.  I think I spent maybe $2 or 3 on the additional fabric and with my serger I added this really quick.  I just need to switch the thread on my serger to white and then I can finish the orange one before the summer is over.

Before (pretend it is green)

After

A sneak peak

I have started working on making a blessing dress for my baby that is due the end of November.  I saw this cute idea on homemade by jill and kept it in the back of my mind that if I were to have a girl, I would make a blessing dress with this cute pintuck design.  So I bought a remnant to try it out on and now I am excited to make the cute dress for my baby girl.  I will post pictures when I finish.  (I have to wait to use my 50% off coupon to buy the fabric since it isn't cheap, so it might be awhile.)