Skirt Ensemble for School

I have become obsessed with denim skirts this last weekend. I have made a couple of them for myself this summer using this tutorial. I love them because they are cool and look much better on me than shorts. So I decided a variation would be fun for Brittany for the new school year. After a trip to my darling Hobby Lobby we had picked out some fun fabric to add to the skirt. Instead of using one of the legs to fill in the middle front panel I used some polka dot. Then I had about 1/2 yard of the floral which I cut in half, then sewed the ends together to make a big circle. Then I folded that in half and gathered it to fit the bottom of the skirt, which really does hang evenly although it doesn't look it in the picture.

I had a little fabric and motivation left over so I decided a flower headband and matching bracelet would be fun too.

I sewed the fabric into a tube which I then threaded beads into tying a not between each bead.

I made flower with burnt edges and put a fabric knot made of the matching fabric in the middle.

The whole ensemble. Brittany says I should trim out a T-shirt in matching fabric too, but I think that might be taking things a bit far!

What We Have Been Up To

It has been a strange week. The big news was that I finished the Halloween costumes! Yipppppeee! I am always so excited to get them going and then so glad when they are done. I was really pleased this year with the end result. Harry Potter, Hermione, Alice in Wonderland, Queen Elizabeth and a pretty witch. Joshua will be a recycled fireman from Matthew's younger days.

This is one of my favorite details. Love how it turned out and Matthew thinks I am cool so that is the most important thing.

Brittany had a volcano assignment. They "erupted" them this week


Matthew had to get in on the act too, they made their volcanoes out of paper mache.

Matthew was sick this week, walking pneumonia if you can believe that. The kid is so tough though it is hard to tell when he is really sick, I had no idea he was that sick when I took him in. Thank heavens for antibiotics. I thought I would post this picture as a tip for other parents headed into the flu season. See that hoop he is holding? It is his scarf he is knitting. The only thing that kept him on the couch for any length of time.

The Parade of Denim Skirts!

Remember the denim skirt experiment from this post? Well I think it has become a disease around here! I can't seem to stop making them! The good news is that means three new skirts Brittany can have for school! I thought I would show you the variations I have come up with. This one was just plain denim that I appliqued flowers on. The colors are brighter in real life.
This was a pair of pink corduroy pants. The ruffle is made from a thrifted sheet.
This was one of our favorite pairs of paint. they had ballerinas on the leg. This way we were able to save one of the ballerinas and a bit of the cute trim for the insert. I added the hot pink ruffle in gingham of course!

She seems happy, and so is my bank account. All that school shopping adds up! I almost have the new dress finished to show you too!

A really good sewing day

Sometimes I really wish I could figure out what makes the difference between a really productive today and an unproductive day. The day before yesterday was a really great sewing day. I was able to work on two different projects I have wanted to try. My kids did have summer school but we also had friends over. Yesterday was a total wash, got nothing at all done and there were no friends over. I don't know, wish I could figure it out. Anyhow, here are some of my projects that day.

I saw a girl wearing a skirt like this at Target the other day and then I saw her again at the pool. This must have been a sign that I needed one too right? I had seen this skirt, made from your favorite old pair of jeans around blogland and after seeing that cute girl I couldn't get it out of my head. I googled it and found this tutorial to be the best. I experimented on Brittany's first, she has more old jeans than I do. I followed the tutorial except I didn't unpick the inner leg seam, I just cut up it. I wanted to keep the stitching as a bit of decorative stitching. And I folded the edge over on the back seam so it wouldn't fray too much. Oh, the tutorial also has you cut off the waistband. I guess that would be good if your weren't using your own jeans and had to make it fit but I left mine alone. Oh, and I didn't hem it or anything I kind of like the soft frayed edge. In fact I washed them before we wore them to make them fray. All said and done it was a really easy project, which you can tell since I was able to make two in the same day. I am thinking of making another for Brittany, shorter with a ruffle all around. I might embroider around the bottom of one for her too. I love mine, it is cool and comfy and since it came from a favorite pair of jeans that were fading in the knees(I hate that!), I knew it would fit from the start!

This purse. I have had this in my head for a long time. I want to make one like Alicia did here. Lots of colorful patchwork but I like the shape of my green polka-dot purse so I have been trying to figure out a pattern. I want to use some of my vintage sheets that are coming from that swap to make the patchwork.

This is the inside. I need two pockets. One for keys and lipstick and one for cell phone. I love these fabrics and I am really happy how this one turned out.

So that was my really productive sewing day. Just think what I could do if all my days were this productive?!

Does this skirt make me look like a bed?

I think this will be my new uniform of summer! I finished this fast little skirt this weekend and I really like it. I love my capri pants but lets face it, when it is really hot those extra 3 little inches aren't really cooling me down all that much. Skirts are so much cooler so I decided to work on some. Here is the silly part, I made this one out of a really old sheet. I don't quite dare say vintage because I was not the original owner but I can tell it is old. That means it is really soft too. So what I am wondering is, does this skirt make me look like a bed? Hope not, cause I plan on making more!

**Don't forget to enter the giveaway on yesterday's post! You have until Wednesday night!

A new bag for Joshua

I made this bag before I left. It is small so I could pack it away for Joshy's birthday. I just stitched a fun patch of "cool"fabric as Josh would say to make it cute on both sides.

This is my favorite part though. I put pockets made from recycled Matthew jeans inside. Perfect for little cars!

Being June Cleaver!

I finished a couple of fun aprons yesterday. I needed to make something with all the crazy kid stuff going on around here. So I worked on these. I needed to finish one for the apron swap I am supposed to send off Monday. To tell you the truth I made this one first:



And then I liked it so much I couldn't bear to part with it! I know, that is awful! But this swap you didn't communicate with your partner and so I don' actually know her favorite colors. So how tragic would it be if I sent it and she didn't like pink so she never used it! I couldn't stand the thought,especially since it is all my favorite colors. So I made this one.



Truthfully it actually turned out better, it was the first time I had used this pattern. I love this pattern! If anyone invites me to a bridal shower anytime soon they will be getting one of these!

I just love how I feel a little like June Cleaver in it! Honest, I feel like making a better dinner when I am wearing it and how can that be bad!

New dolls in the Shop!

Well, I just finished putting three new dolls in the shop!







I had to snap their picture among the miniature roses on our walk to school today. As you can tell I am really hooked on the combination of black and white with the pink hair! See that little tiniest one in front, she just about drove me nuts!
Here are their studio portraits, you can see them a little more clearly.



This little girl is totally different than her sisters, funny when having pink hair makes you one of the crowd!







Thanks so much for all the lovely comments you girls leave me, they mean so much to me. And it make creating these little girls so much more fun!

New Girls and a new light studio!

I finally finished the two dolls I have been working on. It is so funny to me how I use basically the same pattern every time and yet they turn out so different.



This is Annabelle



This is Heather

They are both outfitted and in the shop! It is so silly, but I think I like their ity-bity flowers they like to wear in their hair and their stripey stockings the very best! Why don't we wear stripey stocking more in real life? They are so fun!



I have been working on making my own little light studio ever since I saw Adri working on hers. She gave me some good tips and I am happy with my results I think. I took the photos of these dolls with it. The best part was I was able to take them at 11:00 at night when I get no interruptions! I may add some different fabric, I don't know if I can take white all the time but I am thinking they may work better on etsy this way.



Here is my fancy new studio. I think I will probably try and make a large one. Best of all it was really cheap to make!

The girls are ready!

The girls are ready and looking for new homes! They will be in the shop today at 1 pm. pacific time. You can see how happy I am with how they turned out, they are taking over this blog! It isn't very often something in my head turns out as well as I saw it and these did!


I really love these toile girls! The black and white one is already sold to my friend Circe I think, but if you love her too let me know. I think I am going to have to make more of the toile girls, I love how they turned out!


And these are the Springtime girls. don't they look like sisters?


I managed to finish a bluebird made like my little nesing dolls and they will be in the shop too.

Is anyone else having weird blogspot problems?

Teddy Bear Quilts

Welcome to my sweatshop!

I spent the day yesterday putting these quilts together. We had three babies born to close friends and family in November and I haven't sent baby gifts yet. Hubby's mom and dad are coming to visit next week and said they would act as postman for me so I decided to kick it into high gear and see if I could get three quilts done. They were all boys, I don't think we are ever going to get girls again around here, so I could make them the same. This is where I go a bit crazy because I figure it will save me time to set things up like my own little sweatshop and do them assembly line style. Great idea, but it does create a giant project.

So my bright idea was to buy this cute sheet with the teddy bears on it from Ross and then three plain sheets and cut them up. I even had enough for an extra to put away for the next boy baby. So today I will be trying to get them all sewn up before the kids mess up my piles. Joshua has another ear infection but the silver lining there is that he will probably take a giant nap if the past couple of days are an indicator. So that will be my day, with some laundry and floor scrubbing thrown in. What are you up to today?