Happy Easter

I figured this year was my one ONLY chance to go full matchy-matchy Easter attire, so I ran with it. It took some work to convince Carter that wearing a pink and white tie was cool enough for him (Look! Zig-zags! Just like an Easter egg!), but I had him convinved by Saturday night. :)

I also realized on Sunday morning that the perfect picture of all three kids will probably never happen. Of the ones I took, I got closed eyes, crazy eyes, hair in eyes, and baby eating the dress. And in this one, three of four.

For Allison's dress I used Simplicity 2460 with an added collar and contrast hem band (don't be fooled by the drawings! There is no contrast hem band peice!). Lindsey's is from McCalls 4351 (which is out-of-print... I bought it when Allison was a baby and had never used it!). The collar and midriff sash are added. I liked both patterns, but had to make changes to both of them to make them work with the fabric I used. The pink satin taffeta was in my stash from when a JoAnn's location liquidated nearby (just $10 for a 4 yard bolt!) and I was determined to use it. I love how they turned out with the pink and white... I was concerned that they pink would be too much "wow, pepto bismo puke!" but I like how the white contrast toned it down. Still very pink, but not so pukey.

For Carter's tie I used my favorite online tutorial and pattern and appliqued white chevron's onto the pink. Its pretty thrown together, but I figured it will only get worn once... maybe twice if I can get him to put it on for portraits. But it held up surprisingly well in the wash, so I was pleased. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and were able to take time to remember the amazing gift of our Savior, His saving, atoning grace and the miracle of the resurrection that we can all look forward to.

Upcycle Sewing

Allison is a skirt girl. Have I mentioned that before? And skirts are easy to sew and don't require much fabric so I've been trying to make her skirts from leftovers and scraps in my stash.

Well, late last week I noticed these two shirts in my donation pile:

I haven't worn them in a while and don't love them anymore (actually I do love the red one, but I don't love the holes it developed in the front). And looking at them I realized that it would take almost zero effort to turn them into skirts for Allison.

I like the maroon one much better than the red. Its a heavier t-shirt knit and just behaves much better as a skirt than the thin knit from the red shirt. I also was able to keep the exisiting hem on the marron one, but had to cut it off on the red one to get rid of the aforementioned holes. Allison likes them, she's worn them and they'll make good play clothes for this summer. I'll call it a success.

An "Everyday" Dress

Allison is a girly-girl. In fact, she is such a girly girl that she has recently decided that pants are out. Especially jeans. If she must wear pants they should be pink sweats if at all possible. She'll consider other varieties if you ask very nicely, but no promises... espeically if they're not pink!

And since pants are out, dresses and skirts are in. She has several skirts that are fine for playing in, but no play dresses. I made the mistake of asking her a few weeks ago if she would like to have some "everyday" dresses, which she apparently took to mean that she should ask me everyday for one.

She was finally able to stop asking yesterday morning.

I found the pink tree fabric last week before leaving for Manhatten for $3/yard at JoAnn's, and Allison picked the green to go with it. Took me two good evenings to put it all together... I think sewing for kids is a good way to ease myself back into it. Whaddya think?

A completion and too many UFOs

Wanna know what football and crafting have in common? Completions are good, incompletions are bad.

Here's my best completion for the month of January: a t-shirt quilt!

I (and my mom) have been saving t-shirt for years. I mean, YEARS. There are lots of t-shirts from junior high and high school on here, but theres more: one from a progam at school in the 4th grade, one from going to Disney when I was 8, one from a play I did in the 2nd grade... this quilt is packratting put to good use, I guess. I think that this quilt (or something like it) was really the purpose of saving all these shirts. Its was a someday project for my mom that became my project.

This thing is huge. Like, twin sized wide, but half again as long as a standard twin. But that makes it great for cuddling on the couch, which is what we'll be using it for most, I'm sure. Our kids love cuddling under quilts to watch movies and read books.

Sadly, for every crafting completion, I have 2 or 3 UFOs. This t-shirt quilt spent a good 3 months in UFO status. Do you have any UFOs? Need some clarification? UFO... UnFinished Object. I know that I have TONS of them. Off the top of my head:


*painting the playroom
*ABC wall for the playroom
*Grapevine wreath for front door
*Quiet book for Carter
*crochet baby blanket for Carter (that I started while pregnant!)
*white dressy shirt for Allison
*tweed Easter dress for Allison (with that fabric that spoke to me...)

The only projects I've already purchased supplies for count as UFOs in my mind. Which is probably good, becuase if I had to count all the things in my head that I WANT to do... thats a much bigger list...

So I was thinking maybe I needed to have a challenge month. Anyone interested in an "Out With the UFOs" challenge? Let me know... I think, even if no one else needs to, I really need to challenge myself to get them finished. But really, all I want to do is start on something new.

The problem with knowing how to sew...

If you know much about me, you know that I'm cheap. Maybe frugal's a better word... but whatever you call me, it means the same. Part of me being frugal means that I buy my kid's clothes a year ahead of time when they're on clearance. I aim to get things 75% off or better. I don't like to pay more than $2 for t-shirts, or more than $4 for jeans. $5 an item it about where I put my cap for kid's clothes, and if its $5, it'd better be a darn good item. Like this adorable dress that I found in store for $5 today...

Old Navy runs a great sale this time of year where I buy a lot of my kid's stuff for next year... so does Target, since they reset kids & baby stuff in January so if you can be patient enough, you'll find 75% off markdowns. But this is really all background information.



While shopping Old Navy clearance, I found this little skirt...

Cute, right? Allison loved it too, so I bought it. And this weekend, as I was going through my purchases trying to make sense of what I over-bought (and need to return) and what I still need, I realized that I don't have a shirt to go with this cute skirt. Or the cute little silver one I found at the Carters Outlet. So I start thinking... what would I like to go with it and I come up with an idea of what I want for this skirt: a cute little white (winter white, I think) button up shirt, out of a satiny fabric... or maybe a shantung... either mandarin or classic collar, with puff sleeves and some pink ribbon rosettes on the upper chest one one side.

Can you see it? Yeah... so can I. And now that I have in my head what I want, its what I want. And, I'm more than certain, it doesn't exist. And certainly not at a price I want to pay.


THATS the problem with knowing how to sew. It gets you in trouble and you start thinking about what is possible, and perfect, instead of just shopping for something that exists and would work. So now, I have to make it. Sewing and I have been a little at odds for a few years now... so I'm not sure how this will work out. Maybe it will be good for me. Luckily, I was able to find a toddler girls button-up pattern. I was pretty afraid that those wouldn't exist either.



Oh, and the other problem with knowing how to sew? Fabric starts speaking to you. Wanna know what this piece said?

"Look at me! Wouldn't I be an adoroable little dress or jumper for Allison? And I'm on super sale... only $2.50 a yard! You know you want me... I'm even pretty Easter colors!"


It bewitched me... so now a dress/jumper is on my list too... as if I didn't have enough on that list already. :)

As if I needed a longer "To-Do" list

For your viewing pleasure. Please note that I take no responsiblity for your urge to do these projects as a result of looking at this post.

I've been thinking I should make some skirts for Allison. She loves skirts and they'd be so cheap to make... cheaper than buying the things. Toddler-sized skirt patterns don't exist (becuase they're so stinkin' easy, but I'm a Type A, so I looked anyway), so I hit the internet. Here are a few of my favorites that my searches yeilded me today.

Lazy Days Skirt. No picture here, but click the link for the instructions. Its simple and easy. I'll probably make this one several times over.

The Dresden Plate skirt. Cute, huh? See the scallop edge? Not being a quilter I had no idea what a "dresden plate" was when I stumbled upon the post. But it makes a DARLING skirt. But, not-so-simple. Good thing I was taught well how to sew well (thanks, Mom!). Find the tutorial over at Crafter Hours.

The Tumbler skirt. Adorable. I love the shape. I acutally think I need to make one fore me before Allison. Looks like the PERFECT summer skirt, if you ask me. Tutorial over at Crap I've Made (seriously, thats the name of this blog).

Easy Whirly Skirt. Cute, simple, looks FAST to stitch up. Another make-it-a-million-times winner by the looks of things. Find the tutorial over at This Mama Makes Stuff.

By the way, if you're in the market for patterns, Simplicity is $1.99 at JoAnn's this weekend. We picked up the pattern for Allison's costume today. I'm not telling what she wanted to be... I was mildly (but not completely) surprised at her choice, and I'm excited that she chose something that I could use as a jumping-off point for costumes for the rest of the family. We might even convince Brian to play along and dress up this year. :)

On a related note, I now aspire to NEVER take my children to Jo-Ann's again. Ever. And if you happened to be in the Fayetteville Jo-Anns before 11 am today, I apologize for the crying, screaming banshees' behavior... er... I mean, my children's behavior.

Something I want to do...

A little background info: I was in 4-H for 10 years. And for most of those years I was a fairly active 4-Her. I didn't show horses or dogs or raise pigs or cows... I was involved in the domestic arts side (bet you didn't know that 4-H had a non-animal side). I sewed, did arts & crafts, photography, cooking... that sort of thing. And every year I entered lots of projects in the county fair, and a few in the state fair.

Today, while trying to get packed up (again) I came across a box labeled "Rosie Memorbelia" (yes, apparently I'm famous enough or novel or enough or just plain cool enough to have my own brand of memorbelia! Check a gift store near you...). Inside the box? 10 years worth of 4-H ribbons. Two bundles of blue awards, a bundle of red awards, a smattering of whites and several stacks of those cool special award championship type rosettes (yep... they let us non-hosre kids have those too).

I feel like, at age 27, 9 years after the fact, I really ought to be able to let go of these... I mean what are they going to do besides sit in a box? But they represent so much hard work, and the just look cool!

So I hit google. And I found this...

and this...

Photos from www.Showthrow.com

and a whole bunch more. Quilts & quilt wall-hangings made of of award ribbons. WOW! I want to make one of my very own. But I'm pretty sure the last thing I need is one more project on my "Wanna Do" list (which, for the record, has more than likely surpassed Brian's "Honey Do" list in length. I know... its long).

So tell me... yay or nay? Take the ribbons with me and put one on my to-do list (it would live in my craft/sewing room...), or leave them behind... in the garbage. What would you do?