Old Dress is New Again!

I had asked my friend Kim for suggestions on how to fix my dress disaster and after I decided to go to Washington for my cousin's wedding I figured that I would just take the dress with me and have her help me in person. That's exactly what I did!

After the middle picture was taken I took the collar off and took the dress in in the sleeves and on the sides. So it looked better but not as good as it does in the bottom picture.

I still need to make a 2" sash to be the belt but otherwise it's done.

Before

After & Before

Semi-Final After
(Just imagine the white around the waist 1" wider)

Peter's Dragon Costume

Weeks before Halloween I decided that I was going to make Peter's costume and he was going to be a dragon. I used a sleeper pajama pattern and modified it to make it a dragon. At first I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do it so I mailed the fleece and the pattern to WA so I could work on it with my Mom while I was up there. We actually finished it just in time to go trick or treating with my friend Kim. The glue on the googly eyes was still drying so they actually came off while we were trick or treating luckily Kim had super glue at her house so I was able to glue the eyes back on before we headed over to my Mom's church Halloween party.

I used green, brown and white anti-pill fleece. The green was bought specifically for the dragon costume and the brown was a remnant @ JoAnn's and the white was scraps from a previous project. My friend Kim had some spare bumpy fabric for the bottom of the feet and it still needs snaps over the zipper and the base of the hood. My mom had this spool of stay stiff fabric stuff that we sandwiched inside the toes and the spines on the back.

There was very little modification needed to make the dragon. I left out the elastic around the ankle and added the hood, the spines, the tail and the toes and that's it. We did have some major brain farts when it came to sewing the spines on though. We sewed the spines on first and then sewed the pieces together and we had issues remembering which way they needed to go to poke out when turned right side out. :)

I think that it would have been finished faster if I had just sat down and done it but there were multiple interruptions including a day of me and an awful sinus headache. Otherwise it was quick and easy.

I need to put it back on him and take some better pictures; I'm thinking some of him standing on his own and also crawling around in it.

Front

Back with hood

My ferocious dragon

Check out that awesome tail!

Peter's Pumpkin Bag

A few months ago I went searching for craft ideas that use orange fleece. I have extra from a previous halloween costume that I want to use up. I found this pattern/tutorial for a pumpkin bag online, but the link doesn't work anymore. Thank goodness I printed it out. :)


Basically it said to find a picture of a pumpkin that you like and blow it up to get your pattern. I printed out half of the pumpkin onto a regular piece of paper and jut put it on the fold to cut the fabric.

I used the shape of this pumpkin.

And I used the mouth of this pumpkin.

The bag is the orange fleece and the lining is halloween cotton fabric. The tutorial said that you needed cotton batting but wasn't specific on where it went so I sandwiched it between the fleece and the cotton. I also lined the cotton with interfacing so that it would be stiffer and stand up & stay open on its own. The eyes and mouth are felt and I used some craft spray adhesive to put them on and then I used a satin stitch to keep them in place. I also used a satin stitch to make the pumpkin lines.

The handle is one strand of fleece braided together with two strands of cotton. I used large grommets to reinforce around the holes for the handle.

The original tutorial made a bag that was just a front & back but no bottom. I made my own "pattern" for the bottom & just winged it. It also had bats & leaves and such decorating the top of the bag, but I'm not sure I'm going to add those.

Here's the finished product.




There are a few things that I would do differently:

• I would choose a rounder pumpkin picture.
  
• I would attach the interfacing to the fleece and leave out the batting.
• I would sew on the pumpkin lines on just the fleece.
  
• I would sew on the face BEFORE I sew the bag together.
  
• I would try not to break 3 needles.

Old Dress, New Dress

I made this dress in high school and I decided that since it doesn't fit anymore, I would take the fabric and make a new dress out of it... So I did. :)

The original dress.

Me wearing the dress at EFY

Again me wearing the dress at EFY

I followed this pattern and this is how it turned out:

It looks better on the hanger.

It's doing a weird bubble thing at the neckline and it has a bit of a moo moo feel to it.

It still needs some work/tailoring but otherwise it's done. I'm not totally happy with the way it looks on me but in general I think it looks alright. I am happy with the length and the way the sleeves look. The neckline is higher than I was expecting so I'm going to do some adjusting there which should also fix the bubble that's going on. I need more definition in the waist but I'm not sure how I'm going to do that. I'm thinking of some sort of a white band or a scarf that ties to cinch it in at the waist. A scarf would be easier but I'm not sure how it would look. The skirt has too much volume so I'm going to take it in at the sides to fix that.

So what do you think? Any suggestions? Kim?

Lauren's Baby Stuff

My friend Lauren commissioned me to sew some baby paraphernalia for her because she liked what I did for Peter's nursery. She has a blanket that her husband's grandmother crocheted for them for their wedding and she wanted the colors of the blanket to be the colors for her nursery. We went up to JoAnn's and found fabric and all the bits and bobs for the two quilts and two nursing pillow covers. She actually asked me a few months ago and then I went on two vacations and it took me a bit of time to get back into the swing of sewing again. And then I got the invitation to her baby shower and decided that that was going to be my personal deadline. The shower was held on September 19th and I made my deadline. Hurray!!!

I used this picture as a status report to Lauren when I got home from my first trip

1st nursing pillow cover on my pillow.

2nd nursing pillow cover on my pillow.

Unfinished layout of quilt #1. I did finish the quilt I just forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

After seeing the above design Lauren questioned what happened to the blue fabric. I said all that white you see is actually blue. I ended up going back to JoAnn's on my own and found the new blue fabric. It looks much better.

This picture was used to determine white or gray yarn to tie the quilt (white it is). I used pictures on facebook a lot to get opinions and decisions made about the quilts.

Finished quilt #2.

A view of the back against the front. The same backing fleece was used for both quilts.

Punk Nursing Covers

My friend Lauren is expecting a girl in November and she had her baby shower on Saturday. I made her these punk nursing covers. A while back she mentioned that there aren't enough punk baby clothes and so I decided that I would look for some punk fabric to make something for the baby. I saw these two patterns and I just knew that they were perfect for her. The funny thing is she's not a pink kind of girl but I saw the pink skulls and crossbones figured she would be okay with this pink. :) I used this awesome tutorial to make these.

Previously Unphotographed Artifacts

I made this blanket for Eliana a few years ago for Christmas and I had forgotten to take a picture and then it was temporarily lost. While we were up visiting at the beginning of this month I was informed that it had been found. I was really excited because this is the best blanket that I have made to date.

I finally got a picture!

The kids didn't think it was right to take a picture of a blanket with no people in it. :)

That's Archie, Eliana, Kaela & Peter, such cute cousins.

I made a teddy bear for Kaela a few years ago for her birthday and I never got a picture of it either. I really like the yarn that I used for it; it's super soft & fuzzy. The bear's ears are a little low and I'm not very good at embroidering faces but all in all I say it's not too bad for a first attempt at a teddy bear.

Bear lying down.

Bear sitting up.

Curtains

Yesterday was Andrew's off Friday so I took the day off too. :) Andrew watched Peter and I got to sewing. I finally finished the curtains I've been planning since we painted Peter's room. I got the fabric at Ikea for only 2.99/yard! That's cheaper than I would have been able to buy them. Though now that the curtains are complete they look a little thin. I may have to get/make under curtains, which won't be too bad because the curtain hangers are for double rods.

Just the curtains

The curtains in the room

Peter Wearing the Sleep Sack

He likes it!!!

"What is this?"

"It's soft! I like it!!!"

I JUST Finished a Sleep Sack!!!

I got this awesome super soft fabric at Joann's as a remnant (less than a yard and half price!!) and I was really excited (it is usually really expensive. Anyways... I cut out the pieces maybe 2 weeks ago and I was all gung ho about getting started when I discovered that I didn't have a green zipper that would go well with the fabric. :( So last week I went with my friend Lauren to help her pick out fabric for some baby stuff I'm going to make for her little bun in the oven and found the perfect color zipper. So tonight after feeding the missionaries and putting Peter to bed and then getting sucked in by Bejeweled Blitz I got to sewing. So... TA DA!!!! Check out the cool sleep sack I made for Peter. I still need to put the snap on the flap that goes over the zipper, but other than that it is done. I will probably have to wash it before he wears it though, otherwise he will come out of it covered in lots of light green fuzz. :) I will also take a picture of him wearing it tomorrow. Andrew says in Holland they put toddlers in these so that they can't climb out of bed.



Sorry for the rambling, but sometimes it's nice to ramble. :)

Christmas Presents... Finally!!!

I made Andrew's Sister and Brother-in-law matching St. Patrick's Day aprons for Christmas. They are super into St. Patty's; every year they throw an awesome house party with pipers and corned beef & cabbage and soda bread and lots more. I thought that these aprons would be perfect.

My sewing machine can do basic embroidery so around the pocket on each apron it says their name. This one is Stephanie's; I forgot to get a picture of Sean's.

The aprons are practically identical except for the stitching around the pocket.

I made my Brother and his Girlfriend laptop cozies because I saw this tutorial and knew that I had to make one for them both. They are both into the retro games and I knew that this would be the perfect gift.





I had so much fun making all of these gifts. It really was great to finally be sewing for other people again.

Bumper Issue Solved!!!

I finally decided how I was going to tightly secure the bumpers to the crib. I took some leftover fabric from the dust ruffle and sewed it into a tube and then secured the ends together to make a loop and then I just tightly tied the bumper pads to it on each side.

Hurray for finishing projects!!!