Twincess Designs

Go To Dress

2012-03-02T10:31:00.001-05:00

Have you seen the tutorial for the "Go to Dress" on the Train to Crazy? It is super cute and makes a super cozy knit dress. I have been eyeing it for awhile and wanted to make one. I even happened to have some of the exact same fabric that Andrea used in one of her dresses. I hope that she doesn't think that I am a "weirdo" for copying her. :) What is it they say, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."?

Anyway, I love the end results and the girls looked so cute heading off to Kindergarten today. The tutorial has lots of pictures and very clear instructions. It would make a nice first time project for sewing with knits if you have been wanting to give it a try.

For more details on sewing with knits, see my post HERE.

Happy Sewing!

Cowl Crazy

2012-02-22T22:46:00.002-05:00

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So I went a little "Cowl Crazy" over Christmas. I made them for just about everyone! It all started with the Cowl Knit Along over at Luv in the Mommyhood. I made one for myself and then I just couldn't stop.

Here are my mom and sisters modeling their cowls. These are all the Breckinridge Cowl.

Here are my sister in-law and two nieces modeling their new cowls.

Breckenridge Cowl

Speedy Cabled Cowl and Speedy Cabled Beret

Quick Cabled Cowl

I also made one for my aunt and for my husband's secretary. I haven't knit in about 6 years and it was nice to get back to it. Even when I used to knit it was only very basic scarves and maybe one or two hats. I think I even have a half finished blanket still lying around somewhere. :)

I have been trying to branch out and try new things like cables. I am currently working on a hat that involves some lace work. Hmmm... we'll see how it goes.

If you are interested in getting started with knitting here of some web sites that I have found very helpful.
Knitting Help and The Knit Witch both have some awesome knitting videos. If you come across a stitch in one of your projects that you don't know how to do just look on one of these sites and there will most likely be a video for it. If not, I have found Youtube to be very helpful.
Ravelry is full of awesome free patterns for just about anything you can think of. I love that you can type in the type of yarn that you have in your stash and see what others have made with it. There are also tons of knitting groups that you can join on-line.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T16:30:00.003-05:00

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Happy Valentines Day!

In my last post, I shared some cute dresses that I made for my girls for Valentine's Day. It was the first time ever that I was actually prepared and had them ready two weeks early. That NEVER happens. I was so proud of myself until.... My girls came home last week and excitedly announced that they get to have Pajama Day on Valentine's Day! That'll teach me.

Of course that meant that sure enough as usual I was sewing the night before.

I just made some simple flannel pj's and the girls actually painted these shirts themselves.

I first saw the idea on the cover of this month's Family Fun Magazine. Then Dana at Made had the brilliant idea to paint it onto a piece of scrap fabric first and then sew it onto a shirt. That way if you mess up in the painting portion you don't ruin the whole shirt. Then just cut out the heart shape from your scrap fabric and sew it onto your shirt.

It is a super easy idea too. Just use a glue stick to stick a paper heart doily to your shirt or scrap of fabric. Paint and let dry or use a hair dryer to speed things up and peel off the doily.
Like I said the girls painted these themselves and then I just went back over any missed spots. The secret is to put the paint onto a plate and then just dab the brush in the paint and then dab it again all over the paper doily. NO BRUSHING!

I think they came out pretty cute!

Of course I had to make up a couple of cute hairbows too! :)

Here are my kiddos getting there goody bags today. Just simple little things like notebooks, silly puddy, treats, etc. and they are so thrilled!

Tonight's dinner will be eggs with pink heart shaped pancakes!
The hubby has a board meeting tonight so he won't be here. Waat Waa!! :(

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Dresses

2012-02-02T13:51:00.001-05:00

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I found this really cute idea for Valentine's Day dresses on Pinterest. I just love them! Best of all, they require very little material.

Before After

Just take some extra large men's t-shirts and some scraps of fabric from other old shirts and you can make these adorable dresses.

There is a full tutorial on Make It and Love It. Go check it out and be sure to browse around this site a bit. There are lots of cute ideas to me found. She also has a cute Valentine shirt idea for boys that I think I might try too.

I love the sweet little ruffled hearts and so do my girls. The only change that I would make would be to make the ruffled heart about 1 1/2" bigger on all sides than the cut out heart shape. I only cut it about 3/4" bigger and I wish I had a little more wiggle room. Other than that I would follow the tutorial exactly.

The following photos are what happens when I tell my girls to pose however they want. :)

Happy Sewing!

Go Pats!

2012-01-22T22:47:00.004-05:00

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Woot! Woot!

The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl!

Christmas Picture Outfits

2011-12-08T10:27:00.001-05:00

I having been dying to post these! I was actually prepared this year and we had our Christmas pictures taken the week before Thanksgiving. Sure, I stayed up until 3:00 am the night before finishing the outfits but it was so nice to have them done! (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the “how to” on the outfits.)

I love how they all turned out!

I love how they got the boys to look like little cherubs. Don’t be fooled!

My little girls, sweet as usual.

O.K. so here is the lowdown on what I did.
For the girls: I bought this fabric last year after Christmas from Chez Ami and was just itching to finally use it. I knew that I wanted cozy yet girly dresses in a Hanna Anderson like style. Christine at From an Igloo posted this nice tutorial on how to make a cute twirl dress using knit fabric and it was just what I wanted.
Christine used the Lil Blue Boo Hoodie Pattern for her top. I own this pattern too and highly recommend it. See my post about it HERE. However, it doesn’t go up to my girls’ size and I was being chicken about guestimating up.

I looked through my patterns and found

McCall’s M6157

I like the gathered sleeves and the length of the bodice but I didn’t want it to cross over in the front like it does in the pattern. I ended up cutting two of the back bodice pieces for each dress and then just cutting down the neckline a bit on the front bodice piece. Once I had my top, I followed Christine’s tutorial for making the gathered twill skirt.

For the boys: I wanted to make an applique using the fabric from the girls dresses. At first, I was thinking maybe a snowman and having the polka dot fabric be his scarf and band on his hat.

Then I googled boy’s Christmas appliques and found this cute little truck idea. I like how it’s a bit more “boyish” and I love the button wheels. I used all knit fabric so that I could just straight stitch the applique and not have to worry about fraying. (Quick and simple was my goal as this was all happening at about 2:00 am after finishing the girls dresses.) Go HERE for my tutorial on straight stitch applique.

Happy Holidays!

Lily and Thistle Paper Dolls

2011-11-29T11:26:00.001-05:00

Are you looking for a unique and beautiful Christmas gift for a special little girl? How about these adorable Lily and Thistle Paper Dolls.

I just love them and my girls do too. Here they are receiving theirs last year.

They are totally customized to look like your little girl. You choose the hair, eye and skin color as well as the hair style. Your child’s name is even printed on the bottom. She comes with a lovely pillowcase dress.

Then the fun really starts with all of the beautiful outfits that Hannah has created. There are clothing lines for each season as well as Fairytale, Sports and Girls in Literature lines. SO FUN!

Hannah also shares a great tip on her site about the “Amazing Sticky Strip”. It is reusable tape that you can place on your doll and just stick the clothes to her rather than using the tabs. The tape can be used over and over again and if it looses it’s stick you can just wash it and it is good as new! This made playing with the dolls so much easier for my girls. It also helped when it came to cutting out the outfits because they could just cut the tabs on the clothing right off. What a great idea!

Hannah also offers come cute freebies on her blog HERE. Including this Mabel doll so that your little one’s doll can have a playmate!

Happy Playing!

P.S. There are also boy paper dolls and clothing lines so these would make a great gift for a little boy too.

Pumpkin Applique

2011-11-18T13:28:00.001-05:00

(For my more detailed posts on applique “how to”, look HERE for straight stitch and HERE for satin sitch.)

I was in the mood for a quick sewing project so I made up a couple of these Pumpkin Applique T-shirts. The applique pattern is from Kimberbell Kids and is super easy.

I used Wonder Under to adhere the pieces to the shirt and then I just did a straight stitch around each piece. It will fray a bit over time but I like that look. Super easy and super quick!

I also like that the applique isn’t specifically for Halloween so that it can be worn all fall.

Happy Sewing!

No Pattern Knit Pants

2011-11-08T13:56:00.001-05:00

My girls only wear knit leggings and I have been meaning to make them some for a long time. I figured it couldn’t be that hard and now that I have sewn with knits I few times I wanted to give it a go. For my more detailed post about sewing with knits, please go HERE.

There are several patterns out there for sewing leggings but I decided to try the FREE tutorial on From an Igloo. I really love this blog and am so sad that Christine isn’t blogging anymore but there are so many wonderful tutorials on there that you should really go check it out!

Anyway, back to the pants. Christine gives terrific instructions for making your own pattern using a pair of leggings that fit your child. I have always been a little scared to try this method but knits are so forgiving because they stretch.

Well it worked out great! You do need to remember to add 1/4” to 1/2” on all sides for seam allowance. I added a bit more as the pants I used for my pattern were getting to be a bit snug on my girls.

Well they love their groovy knit pants!

I really like that they have a fold down yoga style top to them rather than an elastic waistband. Super comfy!

I used the same fabric as in the tutorial for two reasons.
A.) I really liked it!
B.) I wanted to make sure that the fabric that I chose had the right amount of lycra in it.
This fabric was found on Chez Ami. Occasionally , I will by knit fabric at Joann’s or the discount fabric warehouse near my home. However, the fabric at Chez Ami is far superior and worth the investment in my opinion.
I hope that you give these a try. They were super easy!

Happy Sewing!

Cowl Knit Along

2011-11-03T23:46:00.001-04:00

I only started sewing about five years ago but before that I used to knit. When I say knit, I don’t mean fancy sweaters or anything. Mostly scarves and a couple of hats. I think I even have a blanket 3/4 of the way done in my stash somewhere. Well it has been a while and I have been meaning to get back to knitting.

Shannon over at Luv in the Mommyhood gave me the perfect opportunity. This month, she is hosting a cowl knit along. (See that cute little button in my right side bar? Just click on it for the details.) Here is the cowl that I made. I was able to sport it this past weekend while my kiddos played in the snow! Hello, it’s only October people!

Anyway, I really love it. It is the Breckenridge Cowl if any of you want to give it a try. The pattern is on Ravelry which I only just discovered last year. They have about a bazillion knitting and crochet patterns and many of them are free!

See all of the lovely cables? This was my first time attempting cables. I am so proud of myself.

As I mentioned before, it has been a while since I have knit and I even needed a refresher on how to do a knit stitch vs. a purl stitch. Fortunately, there are several sites with how to videos. The two that I found the most helpful are Knit Witch and Knitting Help . Go check them out.

Guess what, I even whipped up a second one! Hmmmm….. whom to give it to?

Happy Knitting and thanks Shannon for hosting the knit along!

Kindergarten Backpacks

2011-10-27T13:51:00.001-04:00

O.K. so I’m a little late with this post but better late than never right? My girls started Kindergarten this fall and I wanted to make up a couple of backpacks for them.

The fabric is Hoos In the Forest by Doohikey Designs for Riley Blake Designs.

I used a combination of Made by Rae’s Toddler Backpack pattern and the Oliver & S backpack pattern found in the book Little Things to Sew. ( Have I mentioned that I am so loving that book?! Check my previous post about the Little Red Riding Hood pattern from Little Things to Sew.)

The Made by Rae pattern includes instructions for making the bag a bit larger for older children and that is what I did. I think the size is perfect. My girls are 6 but big for their age and the bags fit nicely. Their school also uses folders for home school communications and these fit well in the backpack.
I liked the piping detail in the Made by Rae pattern so I used that for the exterior.

I wanted the interior to be lined so I followed the instructions in Little Things to Sew. I am so happy that I added a lining to the bag it just makes it look more finished. (FYI, the last step in sewing the lining calls for hand stitching near the zipper and I am not a big fan of hand stitching so I just pinned and topstitched near the zipper and it worked out fine.)

I also added an exterior pocket,

an interior pocket,

and a pocket with a vinyl window to put their name, address and phone number.

I also wanted to be able to tell them apart so I added a little initial keychain.

I love the finished bags and highly recommend both of these patterns. I think that they are probably best suited for an advanced beginner or intermediate sewist. The instructions are easy to follow but I wouldn’t attempt this as a first sewing project.

Happy Sewing!

Little Red Riding Hood

2011-10-18T12:50:00.001-04:00

I really love these Little Red Riding Hoods! The pattern comes from Oliver & S Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson. Have any of you purchased this book? I highly recommend it. I first checked it out from the library to make sure that it had enough items in it that I would like to make to warrant purchasing the book. It soooo does! Lots of really cute things for your little ones. I have made a few so far and will be sharing them in the next couple of weeks.

Now back to the Red Riding Hoods. They are super easy to make.and the end result is so cute. My girls love them and get tons of compliments.

I chose to make the size large. My girls are 6 years old and big for their age and these were the perfect fit. For the exterior I was dreaming of some lovely red wool fabric I spotted. However, I needed 4 yds. to make both hoods and the wool was $25 a yard. Ummm…. time for plan B. How about some cozy fleece instead? Great!

For the interior, I used a turquoise quilters cotton. I just love red and turquoise together.

I wanted it to be reversible so I added buttons and button loops to both sides.

As I said before, this pattern was easy to follow and I feel that a beginning sewer could tackle this project. Now as far as keeping little brothers out of your photo shoot, that takes advanced skills which apparently I do not possess.

If you would like to see more examples of this hood and other Oliver & S patterns be sure to check out the Oliver & S Flickr Group.

Happy Sewing!

Girls’ Night Halloween Goodies

2011-10-14T08:27:00.001-04:00

I hosted book club at my house this week so of course I had to search blog land for some yummy treats to serve. The most helpful sites were Twin Dragonfly Designs and I Heart Nap Time. Be sure to check out these sites for even more ideas. O.K. so here is what I made.

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Sugar Chips. For the salsa, I cut up some apples, strawberries and kiwis. I also added fresh blueberries and a bag of frozen mixed berries drained. Lastly, I added about a Tbs. of fresh lemon juice, a Tbs. of white sugar and a Tbs. of brown sugar. For the chips, I followed the directions on Twin Dragonfly Designs for cutting and baking tortillas and sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar. I did have to bake mine for closer to ten minutes though to get them crispy.

Ghost Pretzel Sticks. My girls had fun making these.

This last recipe is also from Twin Dragonfly Designs. No Bake Oreo Cheesecake! I like this recipe because it can be given as a party favor. Just make it the night before and put it in some small jelly jars.

I put some cute Halloween fabric on top. I planned to cover the metal ring with some Halloween ribbon but I ran out of time. Oh well.

Witch Hat Cookies. I didn’t serve these to the ladies but my girls made these later in the week for a treat. They are super easy. Take a Keebler Fudge Striped cookie and turn it upside down. Add a dollop of Wilton colored frosting in the tube. Then place a Hershey’s kiss on top. Easy peasy!

Bat Decorations! I saw this cute idea on Made last year and I knew I wanted to do it. Super easy! Just cut out some bat shapes and tape them to the wall. They have been up for a couple of weeks and so far only a few have fallen down and we just stick them back up.

My boys really like these!

Check out my post from last year HERE to find out about Spider Snacks and Mummy Dogs!

I just had to share this picture because I thought that it was funny. On the rare occasion we let the kids eat dinner in front of the t.v. and they love it. Yummm hot dogs and Mac-n-Cheese what’s better than that. Yes, my boys are wearing costumes.

Showoff Bag Pattern Review

2011-09-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

I was very excited when Rae from Made by Rae contacted me to pattern test her latest bag pattern. It is called the Showoff Bag because it is nice and big and does a lovely job of showing off your favorite fabric.

I really love how these bags turned out. They sew up really quickly. I didn’t find that they were any more difficult to sew than a basic tote but the final look is so much “snazzier”!

Another one of my favorite features is that it opens up nice and wide. I have sewn up a couple of other large bags but I have found that they don’t open up big enough to actually see everything.

The pattern gives instructions for adding an interior fabric. I made mine 8”x6”.

I also added a zippered pocket to the other side. Instructions for this pocket are not in the pattern but could probably be easily found on the internet. I used the zippered pocket instructions from the Runaround Bag.

This little beauty with the Amy Butler fabric is for me. I know greedy right? I just can’t part with this lovely fabric. The pattern calls for using a décor or canvas type fabric for the main outer fabric and a heavier fabric for the top. I think quilting cotton works fine as long as you interface it with a mid-weight fusible interfacing. I used a heavy weight interfacing and it was a bit too stiff.

This bag will be for my mom for Christmas. Shhh…, don’t tell. She doesn’t even own a computer so no fear of her reading this. For this bag I used a décor weight fabric for the main part of the bag and a quilters cotton lined with light weight interfacing for the interior. I found that this version sewed up very easily.

I even added a label and some snazzy stitching because you know moms appreciate that kind of thing.

Don’t forget to check out Made by Rae for the pattern coming soon!

Happy Sewing!

Hooded Towels

2011-08-16T08:34:00.001-04:00

I have been wanting to make up a few hooded towels for my kiddos. I searched Blogland and found some really great tutorials. I chose elements of my two favorite tutorials and combined them to make exactly what I was looking for. I used Andrea’s tutorial on The Train to Crazy and Lindsay’s tutorial on The Cottage Home.

Materials:

1 large bath towel

1 hand towel

Coordinating strip of fabric “4 x 25 “

Ric-rac (optional)

Coordinating thread

sewing machine, scissors, etc.

Rotary Cutter and Cutting Mat or Scissors

Tutorial:

Take your hand towel and cut the trim off of one end and about 3” off of the other end. Your towel should be 24” long.

Now fold the towel in half and cut it to a width of 11”.

Find something round like a plate and use it to cut a curve on the top folded edge of the towel. Important: Make sure that you are not cutting the curve on the side with the finished edge. This finished edge will be the edging of the hood.

With right sides together, sew from the curved edge to the bottom of the hood piece.

Now we are going to attach the hood to the beach towel using a French Seam. This awesome idea comes from Andrea’s tutorial on The Train to Crazy. I love it because you won’t have an unfinished seam were the hood is sewn to the towel. With wrong sides facing, lay the hood piece on the center of one of the long edges of the beach towel.

The raw edge of the hood piece should be just below the edge of the beach towel. Pin the hood in place.

Sew using a 1/4” seam allowance.

Flip the towel over so that the right sides of the beach towel and the hood are now facing up.

Top stitch close to the edge of the beach towel and you’re done! Wasn’t that easy?

Look at those nice finished seams.

Now if you want to get fancy, you can also use Lindsay’s idea from The Cottage Home and add some cute coordinating fabric.

Cut a strip of fabric 24”x 5”. Sew a piece of ric-rac to each long edge and press edges under. For the boys’ towel, I skipped the ric-rac and just folded the long edges under about 1/4”.

Lay your cut hood piece out flat and pin the strip of fabric close to the finished edge.

Sew the fabric strip to the hood piece.

I wanted to give the boys’ piece a little more pizzas so I used a contrasting thread and sewed with a decorative stitch.

Now complete your hood and attach it to the beach towel in the same manner described above.

Happy Sewing!

Round Neck Top/Dress Pattern Review

2011-07-26T07:49:00.001-04:00

I have had this lovely Heather Ross Mendocino fabric for about a year now and I always new exactly what pattern I wanted to use with it. The Round Neck Top/Dress from That Darn Kat at You Can Make This. Well, I finally got around to doing it.

I really love how they turned out.

This pattern was very clear and had plenty of photos. I found it easy to follow. I would say that it would be a great pattern for an advanced beginner to an intermediate sewer. It involves, gathering, topstitching and sewing a button hole. This would be a great pattern to try out some French Seams on the side seams of the dress.

I did have a little bit of a mishap when cutting out my pattern. One of the photos in the tutorial is a mirror image of what the pattern piece actually looks like and like a ding-dong, I looked at the photo and didn’t pay attention to the actual pattern piece. Luckily I was able to fix the problem and not waste too much fabric.

The finished dresses are very comfy on my girls and I think that the style is very versatile. It can be worn in the summer as is and is roomy enough to be worn with a long sleeve shirt underneath in the winter.

Great news, That Darn Kat now offers this pattern in sizes 2-7 and 8 -14! Yippee!

Now get going and sew up a few! :)

Happy Sewing!

Captain America Shirts and Happy 4th?

2011-07-12T15:17:00.001-04:00

A week and a half later I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our 4th of July weekend! Are any of you finding it difficult to blog in the summer? I feel like I am trying to keep the kiddos busy and outside this summer and can sometimes find time to sew at night. However, finding any extra time to blog about what I might be sewing or crafting seems next to impossible. I’ve decided not to stress about it. This is supposed to be fun right? I’ll post as often as I can and get back to more regular blogging when the girls start kindergarten in the fall. Sniff Sniff.

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I’ll post more pictures tomorrow of all that we did. Today, I just wanted to share with you these cute Captain America shirts that I made for the boys.

The idea came from Cheri at I am Momma Hear Me Roar! Go on over and check out the full tutorial HERE.

They were really simple. I liked that they were perfect for the holiday but could still be worn the rest of the summer.

Apparently they are “cool’ too because my 9 year old nephew asked for one! I was so excited to finally have something that I could make for him.

You may remember from my Memorial Day post HERE that I made these madras shorts for my boys too. Well I had planned on the girls wearing their matching skirts.

Then we remembered that one of their dance costumes from this year would be perfect.

I think that you can only pull this look off if you are five. They were a big hit and the girls were so happy with all of the compliments they got.

Here is the view from the back.

Happy Sewing!

P.S. My boys thought that it was pretty awesome that candy was just being thrown at them during the parade!

I love this picture of his little hand holding on to his lollipop for dear life!

Friday Favorites: Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

2011-07-08T07:39:00.001-04:00

I would have to assume that most of you already know Dana from MADE. She is kind of amazing! If you are one of the few who haven’t visited her blog, you need to go right now! It is full of wonderful sewing and crafting tutorials. Well as if that wasn’t enough, Dana also has some pretty yummy recipes on her blog as well. See my post HERE about her Pumpkin French Toast.

A few weeks ago, I tried her Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. As Rachel Ray would say, “YUMMO!” Seriously, I don’t think I can express to you how very good these are. One of my two year old boys is sitting with me while I write this and he just saw the pictures and said, “Cookies! Yumm Yumm!”

What’s even better than rows and rows of yummy cookies?

How about enough dough left over to make six logs to put in the freezer for later? This could be dangerous!

If you would like to try these too, please click HERE for the recipe.

Happy Baking!

On The Go Toddler Bed Rails

2011-06-28T07:35:00.001-04:00

We went on a mini vacation with the kiddos last week. As previously mentioned here, my boys still sleep in cribs. They like them and haven’t climbed out yet and I like the peace of mind of knowing that they won’t be getting up and running all around the house in the middle of the night. I know I only have a few more months of this so I’m just going to enjoy it while I can.

Anyway, we stayed in a townhouse on our trip and had to figure out sleeping arrangements. The boys are much too big for pack and plays so “big boy” beds it was. First we tired them out every day so that they would sleep through the night. One problem solved. Now how to keep them from falling out of their beds? I first came across this awesome tip when my girls were little and I loved it so I thought that I would share it with you!

See that little bump along the edge of their beds? That keeps them in and here is how you do it. (I promise that this was a nice townhouse but we rearranged the beds like this and took down the pictures that were over their beds because that was just asking for trouble.)

Take your standard swim noodle. These are cheap, light weight, and easy to bend for packing.

Next wrap it in a towel or blanket. This adds some extra bulk and keeps it from being so slippery.

Finally tuck it under the fitted sheet on the bed. Make sure to tuck the fitted sheet in nice and snug to keep it form shifting.

Easy peasy!

This method worked so well for us that I never did buy my girls bed rails when they were little we just used these all the time. An additional plus to this method besides being inexpensive and portable is that making the bed is much easier than making a bed with a bed rail.

I hope this helps!

Ballet Shirts

2011-06-21T00:00:00.001-04:00

Both of my girls and three of my nieces recently performed in dance recitals. Aren’t they sweet?

I decided to use my Silhouette to make some cute gifts for them.

I used an image of a ballerina. I cut the ballerina shape and their names out of pink heat transfer and ironed them onto shirts.

For my oldest niece, I ironed the image and her name onto a bag.

I also did a little fancy stitching on the top to jazz it up a bit.

I love these girls! You all danced beautifully!

Happy Crafting!

P.S. What were the boys doing during their sisters’ dance recital? Running around in the lobby like complete lunatics! Thanks for watching them daddy and Uncle Eric!

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-18T23:17:00.001-04:00

Happy Father’s Day! Not that I think any dads are actually reading my blog but you’ll pass along my well wishes for me won’t you ladies? I hope you all have an enjoyable day with your families.
To start you off here is a fantastic dad video you have to watch!

Kimberbell Kids Doll Round 2

2011-06-13T08:46:00.001-04:00

A few months ago I made up a couple of Kimberbell Kids Dolls for my little girls. See my previous post here. When their cousin saw them she loved them and asked if I would make her one too. I promised her one for her birthday so here it is.

Hers is the one in the middle. She requested having both of the hair colors that I used on the other two dolls. It took a little extra time but wasn’t too tricky.

I think that my niece was really happy with it.

I really love this pattern and would recommend it to anyone who is has never sewn a doll before as the pattern is very detailed and easy to follow.

Happy Sewing!

End of the Year Class Gifts

2011-06-09T11:27:00.001-04:00

Aren’t these just so cute?!!! I came across this idea around Valentine’s Day at 24-7-365. I really wanted to make these but we had already planned to make crayon hearts for Valentines Day. (See my post HERE.) I decided that the end of the school year would be the perfect opportunity for these super cute treats.

My little girls went to their last day of preschool today. “Sniffle Sniffle.” I actually managed to keep it together today but they have their graduation on Friday and I’m not making any promises about my emotional state on that day.

Anyway, they had so much fun passing these out today and everyone thought that they were super cute!

Just take a picture of your child with their fist up towards the camera.

Add whatever text you would like. I used Picasa to do this.

Then using an exacto knife or scissors cut small slits above and below their hand. Insert the lollipop and tape it down in back.

Happy Crafting!

Warhol Dresses

2011-06-07T02:04:00.001-04:00

I really love how these Warhol Dresses turned out! They were made using another wonderful tutorial from Dana at MADE.

The girls really like how soft and cozy they are. Another plus is that I was able to make both of these dresses from old pieces of clothing of mine.

I used a navy blue maternity shirt (which I don’t plan to ever need again) and this “lovely” pink dress. (Does it make it any better if I tell you that I used to wear it when I was a Kindergarten teacher? No? O.K.)

The Warhol Dress pattern only goes up to a size 4 and my girls wear an 8. I used the Pillowcase Dress pattern from Little Big Girl Studio to help me get the right size. The Warhol Dress pattern is on the left and the pillowcase dress pattern is on the right.

I laid both patterns on top of each other so that I could get the size from the pillowcase dress pattern but have the shape of the top of the Warhol Dress pattern. I then traced it out on freezer paper to make my own pattern.

I was trying to eek out two dresses for my girls out of this one dress of mine so I copied the pattern twice so that I could get a better visual of the layout. I folded the dress in half to see if it would fit. As you can see in this photo, the pattern overlaps by about 3” in the center.

I decided to add a strip of the navy blue fabric from the shirt to make it work. Then I got the idea to add some ruffle. It was super easy! You don’t have to finish the edges because knit doesn’t fray. I just cut a long strip of fabric ( It should be around 2 times as long as the length of the dress.

Then I set my stitch length to the longest setting and increased the tension to the maximum setting. I sewed right up the center of the strip and it pretty much gathered up on it’s own. I just gave the threads a little extra pull and it was perfect. Then I put all of the settings back to normal on my machine and sewed the ruffle to the center of the dress.

Now I did have a little setback with the next step. Do you ever have that experience while sewing that something isn’t going to work out but you don’t listen to that little voice and you do it anyway and yep, you were right big disaster? Maybe this is just me.

Here is what happened. I wanted to use the blue fabric to make the ties but because it was a maternity shirt, the fabric was super stretchy. I figured that the weight of the dress would pull too much on it but I went right ahead and sewed it on anyway.

All of the gathers came out because the blue fabric was so stretchy. It also didn’t hold up the dress at all. I tried it on my girls and it was beyond huge!

So I had a little 3 HOUR date with my seam ripper! It took this long because when I sew with knits I always use a triple stitch. It wasn’t a total waist of time though because I got to sit back and listen to some classical music. Oh who am I kidding I watched the season finale of Biggest Loser! :)

Once I finally got the blue ties off, I gathered the top of the dress again and then sewed the begeez out of the gathers so that they wouldn’t shift.

Next I cut out ties from the pink fabric. I made the ties a bit wider and I sprayed the fabric with some spray starch to make it easier to work with.

Then I pinned it really well before I started sewing.

Guess what? I like the pink ties better.

I really liked this pattern and I love the end results even more!

Happy Sewing!

Happy Memorial Day!

2011-05-31T14:06:00.001-04:00

O.K. so I’m a day late. I hope that all of you had an enjoyable holiday weekend. We had some great weather and lots of fun!

A little bit of relaxing

What’s better than finally getting to run barefoot in the grass?!

Hmmm… how about getting to burry your cousin in the sand!

And then getting to do this afterwards!

You may have noticed the matching shorts and skirts in the first photo. I have been eyeing this madras fabric at Joann’s and it was 40% off last week so I had to buy some.

I used two tutorials from Dana at MADE.

The Simple Skirt

The Kid Shorts

Both tutorials were really simple and easy to follow. I would recommend both for the beginning sewer.

Hope you had a great weekend!