a bit of catch-up, and a preview

I am doing a lot less blogging these days -- things are busy here and I am trying to stress less about things that are not important in the grand scheme of things. But I had a couple of projects to show and then wanted to give you a sneak preview of a tutorial that will be coming soon.

Here's H's first day of preschool outfit!

Fabrics: Riley Blake's Little Red Riding Hood main and pink floral

plus a matching red and white polka dot of unknown origin from my stash

Patterns: another Marilyn's Slim Fit Peasant Dress (top)

               another Modest Maven Ruffle Bloomer Pants (capri length)

 (same 2 patterns as this outfit)

 

I added a little patch pocket to the top, and then H helped me make the necklace by knotting some styrofoam balls into a fabric tube. 

 I love this look. I'm considering it for picture day.

The next few photos are of my first custom embroidery/applique order -- and it was a big one! A friend was throwing a baby shower for her niece and wanted some items customized for the baby. She let me just have fun with it, which I did!  It was kind of a trial by fire, because I didn't really realize how much time would go into doing all the digital part of it before I ever got to the stitching, but it was fun, and I was really pleased with the way the stuff turned out.

Pretty fancy, considering they're just going to be spit up on! ;-)

 The family has pet pit bulls and is crazy about them, hence the recurring motif. Not the most obvious choice for baby stuff, but I think they came out cute.

 I am assured the mom-to-be loved the gifts.

OK, here's what else I've been working on -- a skirt of my own devising that I am REALLY happy with. I'll be sharing the tutorial soon. I worked on this in small increments over a long period of time, so I'm a little afraid doing the tutorial will be hard because I will have to wrack my brains to remember everything I did!

But anyway... it's a reversible (recurring theme), flat-front skirt with a pocket and an optional sash! I absolutely love it, and, more importantly, so does this little gal:

reversible jumper

Not much to say about this one, so it will be mostly pictures. This is a reversible jumper from this pattern. (Same pattern as I used in this MUCH smaller version a few years ago.) I cut a 4T, because many of her off-the-rack 3Ts are getting too small and I wanted to leave her some room to grow… but it's pretty huge on her. 

She's doing some pretty silly things here. She was tired and grumpy and I had to bribe her with fruit gummies and tell her, "Whatever you do, DON'T laugh!"

The fabrics are from Hobby Lobby. I'm usually not that impressed with their fabric selections, but they have some really cute stuff right now. I love the citron floral and the plum Aztec print equally.

This will be one of those workhorse outfits that will be perfect for school…

...and I'm thinking it will fit until she is 6 or 7. ;-)

Naproll -- We've gone full princess!

Although my own nap mat tutorial is the most popular post I've ever done, I used a different one this week to make H a nice, compact roll-up nap mat for preschool.

The Sew4Home.com nap roll is quite a bit more challenging than my pillow-stuffed nap mat, but it is just perfect for toting to school.

H went with me to JoAnn to pick out the fabric, so I let her choose. And we came away with some stuff I would not have normally chosen: a purple tie-dye fleece for the blanket and a fabric I like to call "The Full Princess". It's got everything -- castles, ponies, hearts, carriages, rainbows, pink, and glitter. Oh, my! It got glitter everywhere after the first prewash, but fortunately seems to have stopped shedding after the second.

I'm not usually big on promoting the whole princess thing, but I think it occurs naturally in three-year-old girls, so I'm not going to hinder her natural inclinations, either. So we went with it!

 I deviated from the tutorial in a few small ways, such  as doing a blanket stitch around the edge rather than using a satin blanket binding. I'm really pretty bad at hand-stitching. Especially while watching Boardwalk Empire. ;-) But it's sorta cute in a wonky kind of way.

Here is the whole thing unrolled. When I showed it to her this morning, she climbed under the blanket and said, "I LOVE IT!" Which is pretty much why I do this stuff that keeps me up way past my bedtime (see name of blog). :-)

I also added a little pocket with a bit of turquoise glitter fabric left over from this project, and some pink baby pompom trim. And I did my first embroidery machine applique! Ohhhh, my goodness. So easy and satisfying. I see many appliques in our future. The only tricky part is trimming, and I bought a crazy-looking pair of scissors that really make that much easier.

Of course, H doesn't recognize that as a letter H. She said it was a donkey wearing a crown. Then later,  after I had told her it was supposed to be an H, she told me it was an H with a kangaroo face wearing a crown. Confusing! Oh, well. She will know it's hers at school. Hers is the one with the fancy donkey-kangaroo!

This is probably not a project for true beginners. There's a lot of precise cutting and lining-up, and sewing through all the layers to quilt the mat part is really pretty hard. But it's straightforward enough, and very quick. The only thing I didn't immediately understand about the directions was what end to put the straps on if you are using a directional print fabric. (I eventually figured it out -- it's the foot end.)

The full-princess nap mat coordinates well with the backpack and lunch box we had already picked out. Backpack from Company Store Kids, lunch box from Pottery Barn Kids. Both on sale now!

Perfect for a certain little princess. ;-)

Hummingbird seersucker sunsuit

Right at a year ago, I was making little baby hummingbird dresses for two baby girls (cousins) who were named for their late, precious, hummingbird-loving great-grandmother.  When we were invited to a hummingbird-themed first birthday party for one of these sweet girls, I was so excited to make her a little present. I have so missed making little baby girl clothes! And I knew I wanted to incorporate another hummingbird, which would be a fun challenge to keep it babyish enough for a one-year-old.

I think that's enough hummingbirds for one paragraph!

Here's what I eventually came up with, which I think fits the bill. It's another iteration of Little Betty's ruffled sunsuit, which was one of the first things I made H when she was little, and what got me into sewing seriously. 

I just love this vintage style! I also think it works really well with the seersucker. The hummingbird redwork embroidery (from a file I got on Etsy), red rose buttons, and the red rolled hem on the ruffles make it a little funky, I think!

Little J will definitely be as cute going as she is coming!

H in her party skirt

Just a few fun pictures now that I have had the opportunity to get H to model for me. She was in a picture-taking mood today AND had been playing with a party hat left over from her first birthday party. So we pretended she was going to a birthday party. 

With a pet alligator, of course. 

I told her to show me her "surprised " face. 

SURPRISE!

Skirts!

 H is starting preschool this year, and it's making me go crazy, apparently. I have spent an utterly absurd amount of time and money on the perfect backpack and lunchbox (you seriously don't even want to know how much brain power has gone into this). 

Now I am frantically making school clothes. Oh! She will need reversible jumpers for school! I keep telling myself. Even though school is going to be two mornings a week. And it's not like she doesn't already have clothes.

I think I have pre-traumatic stress. Or some form of OCD. I don't know. Whatever.

I am currently starting work on a fancy personalized nap mat. Even though the kid hasn't napped in a year and a half. (Maybe she'll rest! Right.) And I just purchased the (expensive) materials to make her a mini messenger bag. For school. Even though... previously mentioned backpack.

I'm pretty sure N is going to stage an intervention soon. 

Aaaaaanyway.

Here are some skirts I made. For school. I'm sure she will be the most overstyled kid in the 3's class.

I really love this style, and will definitely be making more of these. I got the tutorial from a blog called Groovy Baby... and Mama. I think it's a Danish blog, and the tutorial is in Danish, but between the photos, the simplicity of the design, and a little Google Translate magic, I was able to figure it out.

I thought the camera print was a bit funky. H likes it. "YOU have a camera, Mama!" You should know, child, as I have been sticking it in your face nine times a day since birth. Poor kid.

With a little friend showing off the skirt's best feature: POCKETS!

 I love pockets. Why have I never put them in one of H's skirts before? Nothing could be easier. I also used some jumbo rickrack on the bottom for a little extra something.

She probably won't really be wearing this one a whole lot for awhile, because I accidentally made it a bit too long.

This next skirt is one I can't BELIEVE has taken me so long. I have had the tutorial (from the ever-talented Dana) in the back of my mind for two years, and I have had the fabric (from Michael Miller's Mini Mikes line) in my stash for about the same length of time, just waiting to figure out what to do with it. Finally, one day, the two thoughts bumped into each other. :-)

Ruffles! Pennants! Polkadots! Razzmatazz! It's a party in skirt form!

I like the red rolled hem, which is good, because I used it for several other projects I have going at the same time. (Setting up the serger for a rolled hem takes me forever, because I just don't do it that often and have to get out the manual, so I figured I'd better make it worth my while. And I had several projects in my to-do list with ruffles and red accents, so it worked out well.)

I added some top-stitching, which wasn't in the original tutorial, because I can't NOT.

Dots hiding under the ruffles. So fun.

Here's the inside, just in case you're wondering what that's like. Surprisingly neat and un-bulky, considering everything going on on the outside.

This skirt would have been pretty tedious to do all at once, I think. (That is a LOT of serging and gathering and pinning.) But I was sort of working on it between projects and in little snatches of time, so it seemed to go fast.

Boy is it cute on the kiddo. I'll have to come back and add a picture later.

If I do it again, I'll do seersucker like Dana did in the original. If possible, it's even cuter, and I can't get enough seersucker.

Well, off to do some hand-stitching on a blanket for a nap mat that will probably never get used! 

Green and gold Baylor wreath

A few months ago, I decided the big ol' "offering plate" above our mantel looked too naked, so I had N hang our monogram front door wreath (which I had been using as our year-round wreath when there wasn't a holiday-specific one on there) on top of it. I really like the way that looks, so I decided to leave it up there.

Which left our front door wreathless. Quelle horreur! ;-)

So this week, with C taking more regular naps and H having a newly instituted "quiet activity time" in her room every weekday afternoon, I sometimes have as much as 30 free minutes a day. :-) (Sometimes.)

With all this free time, I decided to do something about the naked door, so I made one of the yarn wreaths I have seen all over Pinterest for the last few years. So easy and so fast! And I made it in green and gold, which I like because it kind of works for most seasons and also, of course, because it is Baylor's team colors. And around here, we're getting juuuuuust a little excited about the start of football season and the opening of our brand-new stadium!

(Can I just say how often I find myself reflecting on how nice it is that my university has pretty colors?)

The making of the wreath is fairly self-explanatory, so I'll just leave you with pictures. The felt flowers were made using this tutorial. The whole thing took maybe an hour.