Twirly Lace Doll Dress Pattern

I had some fabric left over from the girls' Easter dresses, so I decided to make matching dresses for their new American Girl dolls. They loved this!  

For this dress I actually made two because I am a perfectionist like that. It really took hardly any fabric, though, and I came up with some things to make it better.

First of all, the bodice and straps are all one piece:

For the back, first I basted the ribbon loops into the back pieces...

...then sewed the straps in along the tops like so...

This was much more efficient. I whipped the second dress up in less than an hour.  

Everything else in the dress construction follows the Twirly Lace Dress Tutorial found HERE.  If you would like, for your own personal, home use only, here are the patterns that I used:

(Please do not be rude and just copy this pattern to sell it to others. Thanks!)

I will be featuring tutorials for the Boutique Style Peasant Dress and Flutter Sleeve Sundress, too! Stay tuned... :)

Linking up at:
Sew Can Do, Skip to My Lou, Naptime Creations, Carolyn's Homework, The Winthrop Chronicles, We Did It! Wednesday, What We Wore, Read, and Made,  Make, Bake, Create, and Threading Your Way.

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere!

OK, I am going to start off with my crafty stuff today for Sneak Peek Friday!  First, I finished my first ever zippered pouch.

  I quilted around the hexagons in the fabric print- with my walking foot on and the feed dogs down. Oops! 

 

Overall, let's just say that I learned a lot and will be making some changes in the future.  If I get good enough, I want to add these to the shop with the embroidered stripe and I have some neat ideas for that.

Speaking of the shop, I finished up these for a custom order:

I am working on lots more. Lots of time sitting around at practices and games = more hand embroidery time.

I also finished up the leggings for Grace that I started during Kids Clothes Week.  All they needed was the elastic at the waist. They were really super easy, even with the ruched sides, and I think this is something I would make again. Taking pictures of her wearing them... not so easy.

My sneak peek of what I have been promising for a few weeks now (almost ready to post- I mean it!) involves this:

Also, my belly accidentally got in the shot, so there is a sneak peek of that, too. :)

Now, for the not so crafty part... Yesterday I said that my azaleas were hit by the frost. Well, here is what happened to my favorite purple ones that I was hoping to use as a background for new pictures of my kids for our wall/grandparents/etc.

But luckily, our flowers seem to bloom later than most, so there were a lot of flowers underneath on other bushes that hadn't bloomed yet. They are pretty now!

The ones below are somewhat frosted so they have almost an "antiqued" look to them- kinda' neat, actually!

Lots of pretty flowers! :)

Enjoy your weekend!!!

The Calf Goes Blonde...

After a few weeks out on pasture, the calf, who was a dark chocolate brown when he was born, has lightened quite a bit.  I think he will probably get dark again. One of these guys is named "Brownie" and he is all black, but "Blackie" has white on him. The cattle just change colors on us; we aren't crazy... really!

I was feeling so much better the other day that I managed to go to a doctor appointment, the playground, grocery shopping, and then a walk up the hill in the evening with my camera. That is enough of that, though. Lesson learned.

  

We (well, my husband) managed to save the strawberries from the frost the other night (hence the plastic). My azaleas were beautiful this year, but they got hit really hard. Oh, well. We don't eat them. Actually, I don't eat strawberries, either, so what do I care? Today, though, it is sunny and warm and supposed to be in the 80s! Let's hope that was the last frost!!

One more... these little guys are getting to be sooooo cute!

I am sure they are going to leave that box any day now. That should be interesting...

Hole in the Barn Door Quilt

WOOHOO! I finished it, and it didn't even take me HALF of the month of May! Sweet!!!

And then, because I am lazy uncomfortably pregnant, I walked a few feet outside to our garden, which is planted  for grazing this year to give it a rest, flopped it on top of the spelt, and snapped a few pictures as the sun was going down.

Instead of hand quilting this one, I decided to try out the new sewing machine and machine quilted this one in a simple grid pattern.  I was hesitant, because it really was difficult to climb around on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor to baste this one.  It was even harder to keep Grace from running back and forth on top of the quilt while I did that and I used a thicker batting because it was what I had on hand.  So, I wasn't confident that my basting was smooth enough, but that walking foot is amazing! No puckers on the back. YAY!

I bought the backing fabric a loooooong time ago and designed the rest of the quilt around this fabric.  It has cute little farmer boys on Farmall tractors and says "What Happens on My Tractor Stays on My Tractor." The stripes didn't line up perfectly on the back, but it isn't horrible considering a toddler was running around on it as I basted.

OK, so the details of why I designed the quilt this way:

~The "fussy cut" squares were from a cute panel I bought a long time ago and I wanted to use some up.(Overly ambitious Plan A was to hand embroider little farm animals on the center squares.)

~The blue bandana print fabrc against the off-white background is because the parents' wedding colors were blue and white (inspired by their silos).

~At the time I was starting to plan this, they were constructing a blue pole building for their new business, but it did not have doors on it yet when I last drove by. When I found out that the churn dash block is also called "Hole in the Barn Door" I thought it fit perfectly! Plus, this block style looked very "traditional" and "old-fashioned" to me.

So, you can see, there was a logical thought process going on here. :)

 

And another great big WOOHOO because I can link up with Fiber of All Sorts' A Lovely Year of Finishes for a chance to win prizes for my May finish!!!

Also linking up here:

And here:

Off the Hook

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!  I didn't get a chance to do a "Sneak Peek Friday" post, so I thought that I would share a little mish-mash of  things I am working on or have finished this morning. 

This weekend we celebrated both Mother's Day and a birthday.  This is the cake that she wanted (original idea found HERE) -  it was super easy! She wanted a "Strawberry 5 Dress Up Party" so this is a strawberry cake (we also had mini cupcakes, angel food cake, and strawberries with our ice cream) and her girl cousins were asked to dress up, with the birthday girl wearing her Strawberry Shortcake ball gown again.  Hey, at least I talked her out of her original idea- all of the grown-ups wearing their "wedding clothes"! Besides the fact that the guys had rental tuxes, I am pretty sure that most of us women would not be able to squeeze into our wedding dresses, especially my big, pregnant belly and that tiny, size 2 dress!  

Here is a picture I took last week of the birthday girl holding one of the kittens- see how much bigger and fluffier they are getting! :)

The Project Yesu dresses are on their way to Mallory.  We ended up with a total of 41 dresses! WOW!  After I took this pic, I added a bunch more lace to the flowery ones as I was packing them up.

With all of the different fabrics, there was a wide variety, too.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped out! There is still time to make a dress (or more than one if you are ambitious) to send to Project Yesu and you can read more about it HERE.

Finally, here is a little sneak peek at something I am working on:

I am not sure how it is going to turn out, so we will see.  I was experimenting with the new machine and I learned that it is important to put your feed dogs back up when using the walking foot. Oops!  I also have a quilt finish to share as soon as I go through the pictures.

The sun is shining again (much appreciated after a few days of rain late last week), some things have been checked off of my to-do list, and the girls are sleeping in! Woohoo!! Happy Monday to me! :D  Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Stella Diaper Bag

I have been doing a lot of sewing while I am still trying to take it easy over here. I jumped at the chance to make a new Clover & Violet pattern for the Stella diaper bag because I had admired it under their coming soon section for quite some time.  

Now, here is the really cute part: Jennie and Clara had a giveaway for two Vintage Modern charm packs and I won! However, since it was on my friend's birthday and she had wanted to win, too, I asked them to send them to her instead.  BUT, they sent two charm packs to each of us! I was really touched and thought it was the sweetest thing.  So, how fitting that I could use them on this bag. These are some really cute fabrics and I have some leftover and additional yardage that I bought so I think I want to make a small quilt with the rest.

 I love the big outside pockets. They are perfect for storing those things that you need to grab in a hurry and don't have time to dig through the diaper bag searching for, like wipes, diapers, and sippy cups.

If you like to pack heavy (I usually do but I just threw some things in for photo prop purposes) the side ties open up for extra roominess.

I tend to go a little pocket-crazy, so I did add an extra zipper pocket to the inside with a contrasting red zipper and enlarged another pocket so I could sew in a pen slot. I am just difficult like that, I guess. Just look- there is a lot of room in this bag!

And, totally unplanned I matched the bag. :) My 4yo is a pretty good photographer, eh?

I will admit that this bag took A LOT of time, mostly from my own daftness, but the bag has a lot of great features. If you want to make one of your own you can purchase the pattern HERE from Clover & Violet. They are even having a sale through 5/15/13, so check it out!

T-Shirt Nightgown Tutorial

Last summer, I did a guest post over for CraftyTammie's Sew Full of Summer series, so I thought I would share it over here on my blog, too.  Girls nightgowns are awfully pricey in the stores, for what they are, but my girls were in need of some.  I have made a few here and there, but as I was gradually attempting to conquer my fear of knits last summer, I converted some old Tshirts into nightgowns for the girls. I wanted to try something a little bit different (read: fancier to make the girls happy) and this is what I came up with...

Ready for a tutorial?  Great!  Go grab a T-shirt.  (I apologize in advance- my camera does not like photographing black.)  I had this old XL men's shirt laying around that someone had given to us- it was free and I didn't want to use something really good in case this didn't work out like I planned in my head.  I was making it for my 6yo and you could probably use a smaller one for a smaller girl.  First, just chop off the bottom below the armpits to get your skirt.  

Then, fold what is left of your shirt in half and trace around a shirt that you know already fits well to get the curve of the arm and the width (leave about 1/2" seam allowance, too!)  I wanted a high waist, so I cut the bottom a few inches below the arm opening. One last cut for the sleeves- line up the bodice piece you just cut a few inches from the edge of the T-shirt sleeve and leave a few inches extra at the (folded) top to give the sleeve a little "pouf" later.

You should have one skirt, one bodice piece, and two sleeves.

OK- lets take care of the top!  On the sleeves, 1/4 inch from the raw edge, sew a gathering line stretching about 1/3 of the way from each end and pull to gather and make the sleeves a little more feminine.  Pin in place and sew to the arm openings in the bodice using a 1/2" seam allowance. Now that the sleeves are attached, just sew under the arms and down the sides (follow the blue arrows).

To attach the skirt, just sew a long gathering stitch about 1/4" from the edge and pin to the top.  Use a zig-zag or stretch stitch or a serger to attach it to the top with a 1/2" seam allowance.





Finally, I took a one inch strip of scraps leftover and sewed a gathering stitch to make a ruffle.  I used a zig-zag stitch to attach it below the neckline.  I think it takes away from the gloomy blackness of a free T-shirt makes it a little more girly!

Ta da!!!  It was pretty easy and I think there would be so many cute ways to embellish.  If I had a really cute T-shirt I think this would even make a cute dress, although I would probably add a sash at the waist to make it more fitted. Oh well, you can't beat free, right? :)

Possibly inking up at: Craftastic Monday, Take-a-Look Tuesday, Tasteful Tuesday, Off the Hook, Wow Me Wednesday, Pink Hippo Party, Shine On Fridays, Friday Fav's Party, Show Off Your Stuff Party, Make It Wear It Thursday, Pattern Party, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, You Inspired,  Whatever Goes Wednesday, Somewhat Simple, What We Wore, Read, and Made, Sugar and Spice,  and Threading Your Way.