Baby bloomers

I made these from the pattern in Amy Butler's book Little Stitches For Little Ones. They are so cute, but that's really not the point, since they don't fit AT ALL. (This is a great picture because you can't tell.) Ray cracked up laughing when he saw them and asked if they're baby low-riders. What did I do wrong?? I can't imagine that there's something wrong with the pattern, so I need to figure out what's wrong with me.

Mae doll and Margot

Marji bought this pattern off of Etsy www.bitofwhimsydolls.com for the Mae doll and shared it with me. Margot Mae, as Mae has been renamed, was born last night. Finished her off this afternoon. I can't decide if she'll have a face or not, I've always liked the faceless Amish dollies, so Margot Mae may remain faceless (not without personality though, don't be mistaken.) I lovw the Amy Butler print I used for Margot Mae's skirt, so I decided to make Margot a matching Pinnie.

I'm not sure if I've ever had more fun making something so quickly.

Ready For The Beach

Here's one little beach ball. Of course there's another one in the works.

Sunday Afternoon

Amazing looking blood oranges from Straub's.

Today was a nice lazy day, a little shopping, a little getting ready for the week and our trip to New Orleans next weekend. We went to look at new sewing machines at The Quilted Fox http://www.quiltedfox.com which is a gorgeous store in Frontenac I've never been to before. Then to Straub's to get ready for our Al Fresco style Sunday night dining experience.


Margot has a little cold and is teething, and her goofy big brother is finally feeling better.


Working on a little patchwork beach ball I'll probably post tomorrow. Also bought Amy Butler's book. Can't wait to get started.

Sucre to the sweet

I couldn't resist these colorful old school tootsie roll banks from Schnuck's. Don't they fit right in with Nash's toys?





The project of the day though was to handcut the sugar cookies. Why are there no cool cookie cutters out there? Hello fat Mr. Squirrel, hello birdie and flower. You're almost too pretty to eat.

Dollhouses, totes and fuzzy wuzzies

I think this wraps up the blogging on dollhouses. It's about time I finish them, and I have enough to last us a lifetime. I tried a few different things here. I like the idea of using one fabric on the outside, with the nice bright red inside, like a little present when you open it up. There isn't anything to show the scale of it, but the purple dollhouse is about 3 times the size of any of the others. It's the mack-daddy dollhouse. Enough about dollhouses, they've had their 5 minutes of fame in my book :)




Here's an art blanket I started awhile back and took out again recently to look at. I didn't use a walking foot while sewing it, so it got a little bunchy. But I love the idea of free-handing a quilt. I'd like to go back and add more detail... maybe a zipper. I am getting ready to add a border. Will share the progress, if it ever happens. By the way, this quilt depicts the iconic Louis Vuitton Speedy bag.



Here are the little guys who keep me company while I sew. Hi Blue Doggies!! Hi Blue Hippo!!! See you soon!

All my friends are pregnant

I'm only lying a little bit. Most of my friends are pregnant. Which I love! Babies babies babies means sewing sewing sewing. My very favorite things to make are things for little ones. And I think it's so much fun to get new things for a new baby, even if it's not your first baby and you really have everything you need. So I've decided I need to stockpile, and made a trip out last night to the quilting store and the fabric store for, um, a few, ahem, new things.


I really do better with the creativity and putting things together when I don't have to run out and find what I think I want. Yay for a new supply!

I finished up a little quilt I have been thinking about for awhile. It's very simple and Springy. I think I'm about to get into linen. It's so simple and beautiful. I like things to either be starched and perfect, or purposefully wrinkled. This is backed with a tan linen and lightly quilted with yarn pulled through and knotted.



Made another quick blanky with sleeping owls at night and a blue sky on the other side.



Then with the little bit of fabric I had left over from that I made a sweet little burp cloth. This is something that's really easy to do and looks much nice than the cheapy Carter's ones! I made a few others too, while I was at it.




And that's about it for the last few days. I have some other dollhouses and pinnies I'll post ASAP.

Three cheers for adorable clothes!

Am I into the Pinnies? Yes I AM! They're just so sweet! I've been sewing for a few years, have made countless blankies, quilts, aprons, burp cloths, etc. But I've only attempted clothing once, and I didn't like the way it turned out. So here I am! Ready to walk down the clothing road again. I altered the pattern I bought to decrease the width of the straps and the bodice, and I tried a few other things too. Here are pictures of my two favorites:




You'll notice that neither of these is reversible, even though the pattern I bought is made to reverse. I kept choosing coordinating fabrics and I decided I didn't want to hide one of them. So I was using muslin as a backing. But I'm about to go put together another one while the kids sleep and make it mixy matchy. So stay tuned!

Pinafore!

I have been obsessed with pinafores since I first saw them. Finally last night I ordered two patterns off Etsy and of course this afternoon I went ahead and made one while the little ones were asleep. It didn't take long, honest! Here's the link to the pattern: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5307201
Money well spent. Here are the results modeled by my favorite baby girl.





This pattern is for a baby 12-18 months and Margot is almost 4 months. It is big. But I think it'll work for this Summer without adjusting the size. But also, I don't think it would be that hard to trim some off of the pattern to size it for her.
I did one side patterened and the other plain pink. I should have used a thicker material for the plain fabric.
I am excited to get my other pattern too, I think it's coming in the mail. The nice thing about this one is that it's reversible and simple. The nice thing about the one that's coming is the cute buttons on the front straps. Can't wait!

More dollhouses!

Attempt #2. I definitely like the inside better with two different patterns. It's not that much harder to do and looks so much better than this!


I like the idea of using rounder shapes on these square little houses. Using felt here to decorate the outside. I'm thinking of doing a window with a candle in it. And maybe a fireplace inside. I like the way the contrast stitching looks, I also used a light neutral color when I sewed up the sides.


Nash seems to dig his new farmhouse!




OK maybe I've gone a little bit over-the-top. But I'm not in love with UK Lass's instructions, so I keep trying different things to make it better. So here are some ideas to improve on the original tutorial (I think). I hated using the hair bands! I just sewed little loops to go around the buttons and they were easy to make and look loads better. Now I'm wishing I made the top half of the side piece (the house-shaped piece) in the same material as the roof. Also, I think using one handle will work as long as there's also a button on top looping the sides together. But I do think that the handle does a lot for the cute factor. I tried making one with a thin batting (the blue one), thinking that it would look neater, but I don't like the way it turned out either. The batting also does a lot for the cute factor. That's it for now, still working on decoration!

Dollhouse

I should really wait until I've finished a project to blog about it, but since I'm still in the figuring out stage with the dollhouse, hopefully this will help me too. Mom sent me a link to http://uklassinus.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabric-dollhouse-tutorial.html which is a tutorial on how to make dollhouses! I think it's a great starting point, but goes in to very little detail.
Some thoughts on adjusting UK Lass's instructions:
Use corrugated cardboard instead of mesh. Wrap the batting around the cardboard only once, so that ends meet and be sure it's smooth. I want to come up with some new dimensions for cutting fabric for a different color roof, but kind of winged it my first time around. I'll get them up here. Anyway, here are the results of my first attempt at a dollhouse. (I'm not happy with the elastic, and haven't sewn on buttons or decorated yet... so don't be too judgemental!)