Dolls and things

Willow is a girly girl, and as such she loves dolls. She insisted on making this doll for her little friend Lilly's birthday party earlier this month. She picked the pattern and all the fabrics, I sewed it and she turned the arms and legs and stuffed them. It was a big hit.


I made these for my girls for Christmas. As you can see, Violet had a fascination with her doll's mouth (left). I may have to replace later. I think they're beautiful dolls, but Violet is indifferent and Willow doesn't like her's. She thinks it should have black wavy hair like Charlotte from Little house in the big woods. Oh well.


My old chair cover wore out, so I made a new one. Here's the chair before. Thank goodness it had a cover. Yuck.


Here's with the new cover. Much better don't you think?

Wow! What a week!

Okay, maybe week and a half. First was my birthday on the 15th. Happy birthday to me! It was the best birthday ever. And no, chickens are not my thing, but Violet picked them out and that was sweet. You really can't expect a two year old to get it perfect.



Then my baby brother Greydon came home from his mission on the 19th. We all went to the airport to meet him. Then back to the airport the next day to get my sister Tori! My little girls were getting tired of so much driving and waiting. Actually, Mom was too.


Then Christmas of course. Here's a picture on Christmas eve of the pajamas I made. Don't kids look sweet right after bath?


They look quite a bit more rumpled on Christmas day, but look at their faces! Those are the ponies from Grammy.


Violet didn't think much of her apron, but the duster was a big hit!

Then goodbyes last night my Mom could go back to the airport to return Tori at 6:00 this morning. At least I didn't have to do it. Whew! I'm exhausted!

I'll post pictures of the dresses and dolls I made for Christmas later, this post has enough pictures already.

Wow! Thanks SMS!

Sew Mama Sew featured my Meme! How cool is that? My whole day is made. I'll be grinning from ear to ear for the rest of the day. And just in time for my birthday tomorrow too! I'm wriggling in my chair with joy.

Shhh, don't tell Willow

I learned something today! Spray starch is wonderful! Let me explain.

I use bias binding all the time. I usually make my own and it's really no big deal, but I got the idea to spray the snot out of it (yes that is a technical term :P ) with starch when I iron it. What a difference! This is the smoothest, nicest binding I've ever done.


It's Willow's Christmas dress. It's the same fabrics as Violet's dress, so Willow thinks it's Violet's. So in case she does look over my shoulder she won't look too long. Hopefully, that's my thoughts anyway.

I lost one of my favorite patterns! So I had to make the pattern for this one. I drew it on butcher paper first, then cut it out of fabric, but of course it wasn't perfect on paper so I had to make some adjustments, which I then drew in on the paper version. I think it looks pretty good. I sure hope it fits. Maybe I should go into pattern making?

The Ballet

I got to go to The Nutcracker yesterday!

It was fabulous. We got to dress up, go some place fancy, take lots for pictures and listen fabulous music. The actual ballet was kind of boring, but that's okay, because now I can say that I have been to the Ballet.


The Young Women have been working hard on personal progress this whole year, so we all went together. It was great. Teenagers are funner than I thought. Go figure.


Here's the YW president. Isn't she cute?

Star bunting

I got this great idea here. Very clever I must say. And her picture is a lot better than mine, I'm having my friends at LDFR help me though. I think I need to learn more about photography.


Here's mine.


She didn't post directions or anything so I think it's okay for me to sell it. I've got it up on my etsy shop now. Woo hoo! I've got 2 items there now! Life rocks. By the way, if you go look at it, tell me what you think. My listings don't look as good as the others, but I don't know quite what I'm doing wrong.

Snow-less man

Well, all the snow has melted. It's been almost 50 degrees here for half the week. Guess what activity we pulled out of the jar! Yep, build a snowman. Actually, the same thing happened last year, so I still had the body.
I took a scrap of batting and rolled it up like a sleeping bag. Then I tied a piece of yarn around the it at about 2" from the top and then again farther down to make a nice round head.
We used hot glue and whatever we could find to dress it up.

Here it is with Willow


Violet was giving it nose kisses.



Here's last year's. Willow looks so little! She was almost 4 then. I can't believe she'll be 5 soon.


5! How did that happen? I'm sure I'll freak out more on her birthday. Stay tuned...

My Etsy Shop!

I did it! My Etsy shop is up!

My first item up for sale it this.



I got it for working at Greenwood Institute D'Art in Chewelah when I was a teenager. Boy that was a long time ago. I can almost smell the patchouli thinking about it.
I just loved the piece, but now it's just taking up space and it really isn't my style any more.

Anyway, wish me luck! I'm so excited!

Custom laundry bag ;)

I bought this laundry...thing... at Walmart. It came with this awful white mesh drawstring bag that kept falling off the metal frame. Really annoying. I like to fill my laundry bag more than half full before it spills all over the floor.


So, I made a new bag for it. Actually this is the second one. The first one was great, but after 2 years of use and abuse it wore out. The trick is to make it plenty long enough to fold over the top of the frame. Fold over the top of the fabric a good 8" so that when you do fold over the top of the frame, you don't see the inside of the fabric.

Voila! Beautiful! And it adds so much blue to the room!

My little Meme

Sew Mama Sew is having a little activity for us craft bloggers. It is share our holiday projects and traditions and ideas. Here's mine:

• Do you have a favorite gift that you love to give?

I love to make jams and jellies during the summer, mostly from things I've grown in my garden, to give to my neighbors, Clint's friends at work, visiting teaching sisters, etc.. I decorate the jars really cute and it's something that can be done by October and I don't have to think about it again until I'm ready to give it.

• If you’re making gifts this year, what are you making?
  

Well there's this little apron for Violet. She's also getting a little duster and broom (both from the dollar store) to go with it.
I've also made jammies and dresses for both girls, but I'm afraid they'll look over my shoulder and see them if I post them now.

• Name one thing on your personal wish list.

I would just about die for an embroidery machine.

• Do you make and sell things that would make fantastic gifts?
  

I am in the process of getting any Etsy Shop right now. I need to take pictures and the weather has been cloudy, so the light hasn't been good for that. Keep watching my blog!

Traditions

• Have you started any new traditions with your family that you didn’t practice growing up?

We have a jar full of little scraps of paper, one for each day in December. Each paper has something to do for that day. All different things like, drive around and look at the Christmas lights, read part of the Christmas story, build a snowman etc..

• What do you love most about the holiday season?

I just love the closeness you feel to family during the Christmas season.

• What do you like least about the holiday season?

I wish it wasn't so cold. Cold makes me hurt. But on the other hand, if Christmas was during a warmer time of year, I'd have to go through the cold months with nothing to look forward to!

• What is your favorite holiday food?

Apple pie

• Do you have a great recipe to share?

We always make snowball cookies. They're really just Mexican wedding cakes, but my kids like to call them snowball cookies.

Getting in the holiday mood

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! This has nothing to do with sewing but I just had to share yesterday's pictures!

Sweet Violet

Sweet Willow

Can you get much cuter? I think not!

We got the first snow of the year yesterday. It's so windy here that we get big drifts of snow. I could see grass in the yard, but the driveway was 15" deep!

And I made some pants, but I'll post those later.

So sleepy today

So I sat down to sew at about 8:00 last night, thinking I'd sew until 9 and then go to bed. This was my project. A little apron for Violet's Christmas. It turned out so cute with the eyelet lace at the top, and I was having so much fun, that I finished it and ironed the last little bit and looked at the clock...and it was 10:12! How did that happen!?! My sweet husband laughed at me. Oh well, it's done and she'll love it.

This one will fit a very skinny 2 year old, here's how I made it:

Cut two rectangles 6 1/2" x 9 1/2" for the bib. I used plain muslin for the back.
Cut a strip 10 1/2" x 45" for the skirt. If your fabric is 45" you don't have to hem the sides ;)
Cut two 3" strips for the ties.

Assemble however you think best :P

If I had taken more pictures I would write up a whole tutorial, but I didn't.

Here's a picture of the back.
I gathered the skirt to about 18". The waist ties are 60" long, and the neck strap ties in back so I can adjust as she grows.

I'm laughing out loud now because I just realized that every post with a picture in it, has a picture of my chair!! I mean, I love that chair, but geeze!

Not my favorite or my best

Why do I have such a hard time with piping? It's a rather simple idea. Put the piping in the seam and sew as close as you can right? Why does it always take me 2 or 3 tries to get close enough? I know I'm using the right foot, I must just be a piping dunce. At least with 3 rows of stitching I know it will never ever fall out.
Piping has made Violet's Christmas dress take twice as long as it should. On the other hand, I sewed the best zipper I've ever done with this zipper tutorial .
I'll post pictures after Christmas when it's safe for the girls to look over my shoulder.

My Inspiration

My sewing has been rather minimalist in nature. The girls need dresses, I make dresses. I need a skirt, I make a skirt. A customer needs a new zipper, I replace the zipper. I get done what I need done as quickly as possible.

Until now.

I finally finished my Grandmother's antique sewing desk. The old kind with the hole in the top for the OLD sewing machine to fit into. I re-painted it and put 16 inch tile on the top. It looks so pretty, I just love using it.


Now, my machines are accessible anytime and all my tools are at my finger tips. I don't have to spend 10 minutes getting everything out to sew for 5 minutes and then 10 more minutes to put it all way. Now I have time to really enjoy working on a project.

Here's my other inspiration.



Isn't it cute! This little baby took me about 6 hours, but I had so much fun! Now I'm all set to take lots of time and make the things I make really special.

Hello there

So this is my sewing blog. What do you think? I think I need some pictures! I'll get right on that tomorrow.