War Eagle!

It's true. We went to the National Championship and it was amazing. We stayed and traveled throughout the weekend with our good friends Walker & Emily and they have done a great job at blogging about our journey. See today's post about our day trip to the Leupp. My parents were great and kept the girls for 4 days and I'm pretty sure they were totally exhausted by the time we came home, even though they will never admit it. At the game, in all the masses of Auburn fans, I even ran into my cousin Wells, just a couple rows in front of me. It was a game we will never forget.

Printing on Fabric

How cool is this...

Sew, Mama, Sew - "Stash Talk"

So, I have posted in forever. I have lots of projects that I need to write about! Here is a blog questionnaire I took from Sew, Mama, Sew... My stash is currently packed away in boxes because we just moved! Hopefully this weekend I'll get back up & running. I will now have a whole room for crafting & sewing & the dining room table will be just that, a dining room table for eating only!

• What do you usually sew? baby clothes & accesories

• When you shop for fabric, what size cuts do you usually buy? 1 yard

• Do you buy on impulse or do you go out looking for something you need? impulse! This causes my stash to grow to dangerous levels!
  

• Are you a pre-washer? I pre-wash my fabric as soon as I get it home from the store. I know when I get inspired to start a project I am not patient enough to wait & wash it.

• Do you iron it? Yep.

• How do you sort it? What do you mean by sort it?...

• Do you have any special folding techniques? I fold it until it fits in whatever box/bin/basket I need to store it in at the time.

• How do you store your fabric? Mostly in bins and boxes

• What tips do you have for building up a well-rounded stash? Always buy a little extra of your favorites when you're out shopping. Don't forget to buy extra pellon, felt, wool, minky, etc.

• When do you say enough is enough? When you can't fit anymore in your house, or your husband catches on that you're no longer "saving him money" by sewing.
  

• What are some of your favorite stash-busting projects? Applique!

& then there were two...

The stockings were hung by the TV with care...

Or at least one is...

Smocking

This is my first attempt at smocking. I was pretty proud of it until I saw a gown one of the lady's at work was making for her grand daughter. Oh well, maybe I'll get better over time. Hopefully this one will be finished in time for Lucy to wear it to a couple of Christmas functions.

Turkey Day

In order to help make my least favorite holiday a little bit better, I made Lucy a cute Thanksgiving Dress using a simple jumper pattern and some machine embroidery applique. It was so easy to do & came out looking so professional. I tried to use colors that weren't typical brown, orange, green. She wore this pretty much all week considering you only justify wearing a turkey dress one time a year.

Vintage Simplicity

This is a little dress made using a 1950's Vintage Simplicity Pattern. This is the first time I have ever done pintucks & it made my eyes start to cross. I also did fairly well on the bias tape around the neckline, something I normally fail at miserably.

I was impatient and went ahead and put the elastic in the sleeve, but probably should have waited & gotten the really tiny baby elastic. You can't see it when she is wearing it though, so no bid deal. Next time I make this pattern I will know exactly what to use.

I had a hard time with the blindhem, but finally got it looking sort of decent. I'm not sure why I had such a hard time, I'll have to read more about them.

Faded Christmas Memories

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Here is Lucy's first Christmas dress. It is made from a Vintage Simplicity Slip Pattern. I loved the fabric because it is subtle. It is called "Faded Christmas Memories." I covered the buttons myself using some green broadcloth scraps. I think she is going to wear it to see Santa!



This is the first time I have used this monogram and I think I like it.

2+2

I ordered lot of Oliver+S patterns from Sew,Mama,Sew! Here is the 2+2 Blouse paired with some pants made from Jackie Clark's Britches & Bloomers pattern all using Moda fabric that I got from little quilting shop only a few blocks from our house.

The quilt shop is connected to a flower shop that advertises that it does funerals and weddings. When I went to check it out I was greeted by a note on the door to go into the plant part and ask Rosie to let me in to the quilt shop.

Rosie was a very entertaining lady who not only knew nothing about quilting, fabric, or sewing, but also had never used a cash register. We put our heads together & I'm pretty sure I paid for the fabric I left with, or maybe I didn't, but we did slide my card & make it print a reciept. I left my phone number just in case we did it all wrong. The old lady that owns the shop was providing flower arrangements for a wedding and had taken the van & left Rosie in charge!

Comfy Jumper Dress

I finally got Amy Butler's "Little Stitches for Little Ones" and this is my very first project. The "Comfy Jumper Dress."




I loved it so much that I made it again with 2 contrasting colors of fine wale corduroy. I also altered the pattern to make it a little bit shorter. Lucy looks less like a hippie baby in this version.

Burb Cloth

I found the perfect cloth diapers to use as burb cloths. They are the Gerber 12-ply and for some reason were really hard to find, but I finally have them & now can use up some of my random scraps of fabric.

The Patternless

These are two dresses that I made right after Lucy was born & I was still on maternity leave. I couldn't read patterns yet at this point or really finish seams properly, but they were fun to make and looked cute on Lucy! My applique-ing skills have come a long way, especially since I discovered machine embroidery applique from Swak Embroidery.