Making something special and close to my heart

I'm working on something special in true "Jennifer fashion", at the last minute! Tuesday is my middle girl's 5th birthday and even though she is afraid of all animals big or small she thinks she is a cowgirl! For Christmas she wanted a cowgirl outfit, horse toys, etc. When she plays it usually will involve cowgirls or horses. So for her birthday I had the idea to make her a cowgirl themed dress.


I bought the Sienna Dress pattern a long time ago after reading Lil Blue Boo's blog. She is amazing and her stuff is so cute! So I thought this would be the perfect one to make this outfit with. Lil Blue Boo also gives great tutorials on freezer paper stenciling and embellishing your fabric which I will be doing to this dress.

The fabric is a load of pink knit fabric I scored at a garage sale for less than 50cents! (SWEET!) When I went to the craft store to get some paint and spray bottle (per Lil Blue Boo's instructions) I found that Tulip now makes spray fabric paint. Nice!

So I'm up to the point where I have all my pieces cut out. Now I'm embellishing each of my pieces. I've put a cowgirl on a running horse on the front and she didn't turn out too bad for my first try at stenciling. I probably should have practiced on a scrap piece first but I'm impatient and I'm on a time crunch. =) Now that she is dry I've found that the Tulip paint will make your fabric a little hard but I'm waiting to see if it'll soften when washed.


Next is to add special things to the bottom three layers of the dress. I'm thinking on the first layer a large star with a 5 in it with smaller stars, second layer horseshoe prints, last layer either boots or vertical stripes. I was thinking of putting Cowgirl Madison somewhere on the dress but have heard you shouldn't put your kids name on things like that for safety. What do you think?


(Oh and getting back to the "close to my heart" in the title, I love horses. Don't own one, yet! But it's the main decoration in my house. lol)

Scrap Happy Goodness

Started working on a crocheted rag rug today.
Why?
Just because I felt like it. lol
So instead of painting my stairs or cleaning something I grabbed a long thin strip of fabric from my scrap pile and found my stash of crochet hooks (I choose the N hook) and just started to chain stitch.
I think I'll be using this rug in my kitchen (depending on how it turns out) so I wanted a nice length for under my feet while I do dishes.
I'm running out of long scraps fairly quickly so I posted a few Want Ads on my local Freecycle and Craigslist.

If any of you have any long scraps you'd like to get rid of I'll be happy to take them off of your hands! =)

Still waiting to see if my top made the top 60. Fingers crossed!

Not Easy Being Green

I finished!! I made my top for the Spring Top Week event!

As I mentioned before I had a top that I loved but was shaped like a tent. Since I've no plans to become expecting any time soon I did a little reconstruction and took the sides in a little. I really loved the finished product! So much so that I decided to make my top for Spring Top Week just like it!


I really challenged myself in making this top (besides doing it at the last possible minute). Since I had no pattern to go on I had to make my own using the old top. However, I still want to wear said top and didn't want to take it apart so there was a lot of stretching and maneuvering to get the right size.

I already knew the fabric I wanted to use, some pretty white and green floral cotton knit I got on sale at Beverly's. And as an accent fabric I decided to upcycle my favorite green maternity shirt my sister bought me that was no longer stylish since the puppy decided to put some holes in it.

The most difficult thing about this project was designing the shape of the sleeves. I've never done sleeves like these before so was doing some guess work but they turned out great. This is also the first time I've done any shirring but I found it so easy and very fun to do. You should try it out some time! =)

I took a bajillion pictures to try to get a nice pic to enter into the flickr pool. I hope what I ended up with will be alright. Not sure if I'll win any prizes with this shirt (I hope so!) but I sure loved making this top!

Just under the wire for Spring Top Week

Tomorrow (ok today actually since I'm writing this at 1:00am) is the deadline for the Spring Top Week hosted by Made by Rae. As one of my Pattern Challenge goals I wanted to make myself a top for this event. Well, I believe I'll get it done just on time. lol I had my fabric picked out for quite some time, some knit fabric I bought at Beverly's. I was just waiting on inspiration for a shirt style. I finally picked out a top that I already own. I love how it fits me (especially since I did a little reconstruction to it). I've cut out all the pieces and in the morning (when the sun comes up morning) I'll sew it all together and cross my fingers that it comes out right. I'm having to do some new and daring things that I've never done before with this one. Experimentation! I love it! Especially when it works. Wish me luck! Deadline is 8pm EST. I'll of course post pics of the top when it is done.

Seven Sisters Quilt Show Goodies

Spending the day at a quilt show is so much fun! So many beautiful quilts and some of the beautiful stories behind them were just fantastic. I wasn't able to take many pictures or good quality ones because my camera was lost. I found it when I got home.

It was such a gorgeous day outside in SLO at the Madonna Inn but every time I stepped outside I started to sneeze and my eyes started to itch. *sigh* allergy season

Ok on to the show. When we first got off the trolley bus that took us up the hill there was a tent filled with vendors selling oh so many beautiful things! We browsed a little then went into the main building each going our different ways. (Oh didn't I mention I went with 2 friends) I decided to look at the quilts on display first.

There were so many beautiful quilts but the one above was my favorite and that for any know me you can guess why. The horses of course! lol The company that makes this pattern I have discovered also sells a few different horse ones so I need to get myself one right away and start making it. It would go perfect in my living room.

This one had to be the funniest quilt! The lady who made it used baby clothes for the clothing on the men. It could have been a snapshot of that day! I saw so many men walking around holding their wives goodies as she ooed and ahhhed over the quilts.

This quilt is a mini that was made as part of a competition. It was the one I voted for. My husband loves this pic and I'll have to see about making a similar one for his office.

Now for the goodies!! This is all the loot I brought home from the quilt show:

Starting in the upper left and working my way around. The first is a Nap Time quilt kit. I bought it to make for Caleb. It was too cute to pass up and I loved those colors! To top it all off the binding and the pattern was included in the kit and they had already cut pieces of fabric for the backing selling right next to it. I loved it! I started working on it last night at the Monday Night Mavens Sewing group and have 1/2 of the top complete.

Next to it are 2 pieces of fabric that were only $4 a yard. I thought they would make a cute shirt for Caleb.

The clear bag was filled with a purple needle threader, a spool of thread, 100 paper pieces for making 1" hexagons, a pack of needles, easier instructions to make those 1" hexagons. At the last quilt show I went to someone handed out samples of paper piecing and I thought I'd give it a try. LOL Trying to follow the manufacturers instructions was a nightmare. After making one I gave up on it. This was not for me! But at the Seven Sisters Quilt show a lady was there demonstrating how to make them and boy was it a lot simpler and faster. I'm gonna use this as a car trip project and make a bunch using one of my charm packs that has been sitting around forever. After I get a bunch made I'll figure out something to make with them.

Moving on down the pattern is an embroidery piece I thought would be perfect for my mom's birthday.

On the opposite end is another quilt kit for a large table topper, binding and pattern included as well.

Well, that's all the goodies! If anyone actually made it to the end of this post there are a few more pics of quilts and up close shots of the goodies on my flickr page.

It's Friday Already?!

Yes it is and I haven't gotten one single thing done on any of my projects. Yuck!!

I've been a bit under the weather due to allergies and by the time the kids get in bed (my sewing time came around) I was so tired that I just got in bed as well. I have gotten some things done. I moved my sewing area out into the garage. It makes for a much cleaner bedroom and I don't have to worry about keeping my husband up when I sew late.

All my projects are at the cutting stage and I think that's also why I've not started any. I hate cutting but it is needed if you want to actually sew something.

Pray for us this weekend as we are having a special Ladies & Girls Spring Event for the ladies and girls of our church. We have a special speaker (one of our missionary wives), food, and a lot of fun planned. (This has also kept me very busy this week.)

I had a wonderful birthday and received many lovely cards and gifts inside the cards (WOOHOO fabric store here I come!) but with all the busyness haven't yet sent out (or purchased) my thank you cards. I think I'll try making them using this blog post as inspiration:

Bernina: Make a Greeting Card on Your Sewing Machine.

And did any of you see this oh so cute tutorial?
Mother Huddle: Hanging Fabric Baskets
I can think of a few places where these would be handy!

So I've been busy....

I know it's been a little ok a long while since I've posted but I've been busy! First there were those Easter dresses to make and 1 Easter tie (my husband wanted one too but I didn't have a pattern to make one for him). And they all turned out just lovely and just a few days before Easter. The tie was actually made the night before Easter but it's a simple project.


(And in the middle of all this Easter sewing mayhem I had to quickly make 5 red scarves for a ladies activity we had the Wednesday night before Easter)

Once those Easter dresses were done I breathed a big sigh of relief

*SIGH*

Now for the fun to really begin!! On the Monday after Easter was my littlest girl's birthday and I wanted to make her a special birthday dress with fabric I had purchased long ago.
And on Monday we were leaving for a family vacation to Disneyland! After Sunday Evening service I went to work washing clothes and getting things ready to pack. While waiting to switch loads of wash (I live with a constant Mount Washmore so having things already clean is silly) I started on her dress. By 3am it was complete!! I love how it all turned out. (Sorry no pic of the back of the dress) I bought just enough of the red heart lace peeking out at the bottom. Whew! Making the skirt full was fun with the tulle (I cut just enough as well!).


Needless to say she loved it! When she saw it in the morning she gave me a hug and said, "I love it, Mommy." in her sweet little 3 year old voice. =)

Completing all these projects has let me cross some things off on my Pattern Challenge Goals list:

1. finish the jumper planned for Glory.
2. make matching skirts for the girls.
3. make a Sunday dress for each of the girls.
4. repurpose 2 shirts for Caleb.
5. make a tie for each special Sunday for Caleb. (Easter, birthday, etc.)
6. finish the planned shirt and skirt for myself.
7. And to do this all before Summer.

We are now settled and back from vacation. Even the bags and van are all unpacked (and clothes washed!). The next projects I want to tackle are the shirt and skirt for myself as well as a dress, repurpose some of Travis' old khaki pants for Caleb, make 2 Pencil Rolls. And that should do it for now. =)

So much to do in so little time.