Bunnies and Flowers

More spring pictures for y'all to enjoy! Look at how much the bunnies have grown!!! They are sooooooooooooooo fluffy! I wish we had touch'n'feel computers because these are the softest things I have ever felt!

They are so FURRY!

This is the same bunny I rescued from its confused mommy. She took good care of them later and now this former runt is the biggest one!

Before
After

Something caught this one's attention!

Shhh... this one was trying to hide!
Not as cute but still pretty... some pics of my flowers...

These were taken last week I think.

See how the blue bells/grape hyacinths/whatever you want to call them have spilled out all over into my yard? I hate mowing them over, but usually the grass gets so high we have to. Last, but not least, MORE FLOWERS!!! I won these beautiful cards from MYSAVIOR through a giveaway on Christie's Cottage! Thank you!!!

Now, if I could just find homes for all of these baby bunnies!

Easter Sewing Part 4

My skirt is the last in the series… I wanted and A-line, and I loved the contrast of plain white against the fabric in the other skirts, so I wanted to trim with white.

I used a pattern, sort of- because I made it myself! I took a skirt I already have and took the measurements of the bottom width and the length of the skirt and my waist. Then I took a piece of freezer paper in the same length, and marked off the half of the waist and half of the width. I drew a diagonal from the waist to the bottom marks.

Then I marked the length on the diagonal and made it curve gently from the bottom to the mark on the diagonal. Using this pattern, I cut two pieces on the fold from my skirt fabric.

For the white waistbands, I measured my waist (ICK!) and divided it in half again. I added seam allowances and cut four pieces in this length by 2 inches wide. I sewed two of them together along the long, top side and pressed them with the seam inside and repeated this with the other 2 pieces. Each waistband piece was then sewed to the top of a skirt half and the edges overlocked. I sewed the skirt halves together on the right side the whole way, and up to 6 inches from the top on the left side and overlocked again.. I put an invisible zipper in the left side and hooks on the top at the waistband.

The hem was my favorite part! I overlocked the edges, then took white double fold wide bias tape (like quilt binding) and sewed it on! This was my first time using double fold bias tape and I LOVED it! How can single fold be so awful and double fold be so wonderful! I cannot believe I have been hand-sewing quilt binding for all these years! I might have to cheat now!

It fits pretty well, although it bunches just a tad in the pelvis area when I bend and sit, but it is still the best thing I have ever sewn for myself to wear!

NOW... drum roll please...........................................

The whole collection! Now, I don't have my hair or makeup done, so ignore that- it was very tempting to use one of the other 3 pics hubby took first with my head cut off because he was so worried about getting the girls to look to see whether I was in the shot! The shirts are a little big, but I am sure they will grow or the shirts will shrink. I wanted to embellish those as well, but then I regained my sanity. I hope you enjoyed my series this week and that you may have gotten some ideas or just enjoyed laughing at my novice abilities and insane ramblings...

Easter Sewing Part 3

For my youngest daughter, I wanted to make a dress instead. She is little, so I had enough material.

I tried to make a pillowcase dress from this tutorial, but it was too big and because the material is stiffer than regular cotton, when I tightened the ribbons to make it fit it was then too short.

I fixed the shortness by adding a ruffle on the bottom from the white cotton. I took a 6” strip, folded it in half and ironed, then gathered it and sewed it on the bottom.

I topstitched to make it look more finished and hold the ruffle down nicely.

The armholes called for single fold bias tape in the original directions- it was my first time using single fold bias tape and I hated it. Seriously.


To make the dress fit better I took the front half of the bias tape off and made it cut in a little more so that the front is narrower than the back before I sewed the bias tape back on. The fit was much nicer, but I still hate bias tape.
The ribbon ties still did not work because of the material/she never holds still so I scrapped it and added some nice, wide straps. It still needed a little something, so I made some tiny bows out of the green grosgrain ribbon and hand stitched them on at the end of each strap.

FINALLY the fit is perfect- although it is now nothing like a pillowcase dress at all! Unfortunately, it is REALLY tight going over her head, so I may have to make the straps thinner if she ever grows some hair and it gets too hard to put on.
Just my own skirt left for tomorrow!

Easter Sewing Part 2

For the next skirt in my Easter sewing series- I went totally without pattern! I decided I wanted to make this one a longer style with a wide white waistband along the top and a ribbon bow accent.

I made another rectangle measuring 18” by the fabric width- 60”and sewed it into a tube. Again, I overlocked the edges and hemmed the bottom.

Then I made a wide, white waistband by taking a 30” by 5” piece, sewing the short ends together, and pressing it folded in half with the seam to the inside. The measurement of this piece is wide enough to go over her hips. I sewed a casing for the elastic and put it in, although I could not find elastic as wide as I wanted to it still twists a bit when she wears it.

I gathered the skirt part with a wide basting stitch and attached it to the waistband. I topstitched it- not very close to the edge, but it looked better on the wide waistband.
To put the bow on, I used two small seams to attach the middle of the ribbon to the waistband off to one side. And... TA DA! The perfect length for a not-so-modest 6yo!

Tomorrow's dress was the hardest but by far the CUTEST!!! Stay tuned!

Easter Sewing Part 1

I am going to start my Easter sewing series with the easiest of the skirts I made. First, however, I need to brag about my thriftiness! I found this heavy cotton material - it is a little stiffer than regular cotton- for $2.00 a yard for 60” width at Walmart. I also bought a yard of plain white cotton and some notions like elastic, ribbon, bias tape, and a zipper. Sadly, the fabric was the cheapest part!


My 4yo’s skirt was VERY simple to make! I sort of used the directions I found here. It called for making a simple tube of fabric from a rectangle made in the desired length by the whole 45” width… but mine was 60” width. SO I used double her waist- about 40” which seems to be a good way to figure a gathered skirt- double the waist. With her facing me, I measured the length I wanted and as per the directions I added 2” for elastic casing and hem. However, I have now learned that she takes after me more than I thought- she DOES have a butt! So it is shorter than I would have liked in the back and we will just put leggings under there from now on.


I made my 14” by 40” rectangle into a tube by sewing the short ends together and used my mini-serger to overlock the raw edges. Then I just sewed an elastic casing on the top by turning it down and sewing all the way around except for an opening to insert elastic. I put in elastic a little shorter than her waist and it gathers up nicely when it is all done.

I turned the bottom up and hemmed it in place before sewing some grosgrain ribbon along the bottom hem for embellishment. It was so quick and easy!

One down... three to go!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

As promised, here are some pictures of our bunnies as they grow up! If you missed the Easter bunny yesterday this will make up for it! ;)

She just HAD to put her bow on there! For all we know, it is probably a boy!


Color-coordinated! This one is different, so it is the one they all fight over.

Hiding out!

This is the younger litter -they are all doing really well and growing a LOT!

Last but not least... kisses for the baby bunny!

After all of the sneak previews of my kids there, I will now tell you that this week I plan on doing a blog series about the 3 skirts and a dress that I sewed for Easter this year! I didn't buy any patterns, so they were all made by "winging it!"

Chocolate Dipping Day

WARNING!!! You may experience intense cravings and weight gain just by reading this post!!!

Today my sisters, sister-in-law, mom, brother's girlfriend, and best friend all came over to make PB eggs and other chocolate-coated goodies!

Look at the detail my sister put into decorating these chocolate-covered marshmallows! BEAUTIFUL!!!

We had a LOT of peanuts ;) to make peanut clusters.

We also did smores clusters and dipped animal crackers, pretzels, and Oreos in chocolate.

There was a little problem with our PB eggs- they were too soft...

not sure why but we all like to blame the one who mixed them! ;)

Anyway, after they were coated, the filling started to ooze out through the eggs and it looked like they were "pooping"- EW!

We made coconut eggs and crispy peanut butter eggs, too.

In all, we used about 15 pounds of chocolate!

Here is most of it- we all split it up when we were done.

Truthfully, we were a little sick of chocolate when it was over, but we still had a great day!

Etsy Easter Egg Hunt

I took some time to go on an Easter egg hunt on etsy today! Here are some great items I found! I hope you enjoy them!

First we need a basket! This beautiful rag basket by LadyMaysFabritique contains an assortment of items made by TeamCAC members! See how talented everyone is! I love that she put this together and her baskets themselves are really lovely.

I found these Fabric Eggs by sewfaithful! I love the pretty fabric and soft hues she used. These even made it to the front page of etsy!!!

I found eggs on these pretty towels from cjscraftcorner! The Easter egg fabric is really cute and I like the greens, too. I still can't decide what color I want my kitchen to be...

There are tiny "eggs" in these "Your Nest is Blessed" charms. I actually got one of these charms from vixensnaturaljewelry for my mom at Christmas with 6 eggs! :) Now she doesn't have an "empty nest"

Here are GraciesEggies! They are cascarones- confetti-filled eggshells and you crack them over people's heads for fun! She has so many great color schemes and themes- you can use these for fun events year round! I had never heard of these befor but they are cute!

And of course, I had to throw in some of my eggs, too! These seem to be my most popular ones and I like the colors, even if they are not traditional Easter colors.