April 2013 - Blue Dress

 I'm gonna try to blog again... well see how I do. 

I made this little dress for E last year and she's worn it on and off. Its in the regular rotation lately, but my craftmanship is starting to show in some falling off hems... oops! I am not in love with it, but its one of the most complicated garments I've sewn so not bad?! The pattern was bought at the fabric store and I can't remember what it was... and it wasn't well written so you dont' want to know anyway ;)

 

and here she is more recently - little doll face!

Edrie's First Birthday Craftiness

Mama went a little (read: WAY) overboard for baby girl's first birthday. We had about 70 people in our newly overhauled backyard. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. The 'theme' was soft, vintage, mason jars, pinks, greens, blues. I LOVE how it all came together.

I have been hoarding a few vintage sheets for years. I wanted to make a beach blanket out of them, but it never happened. My mom helped me cut and sew about a million yards of bunting out of them...

My mom made the cute party hats, and my step-dad made me the chicken-wire frames. I hung pictures from Edrie's first year on them with clothespins.

We had a keg of good beer and had people serve themselves into mason jars. We also had lemonade and appetizers. I LOOOVE that giant balloon - took some serious convincing to get it inflated, but so happy it worked!

I made Edrie's dress out of an old t-shirt and used one of the sheets to applique a 1 on it. I used Made's Warhol Dress pattern (FREE!!) I love how easy this was and how great it turned out. I'd like to make her a few more for next summer. It was super comfy and she is still wearing it over long sleeves and leggings as a tunic.

LOOVE how this crown turned out. I used felt I had on hand from making hair clips and I did a random felt flower search on flickr and found that flower - just love it! It is a little big, but I wanted it to fit her for a long time. THe back is elastic covered in the same vintage sheet I used for her dress applique. Used the pattern in soulemama's first book. 

I took a few new pictures of it with my fancy new camera... do you love how much she looks like a toddler in the picture below?? snotty nose, crazy hair, and fake smile. LOVE! 

For one of her gifts and another reason I didn't sleep at all the week of her birthday was this fabric book. I just loved the idea of a soft book with pictures of the people who love her in it...I didn't anticipate how long it would take me though! 

Also an idea of Amanda Soule - It really is very simple but working with the fabric sheets and the printer was frustrating and it frayed HORRIBLY so I had to use fraycheck on everything. I love how it turned out though! I used a few other sheets I had for hte background, some quilt batting I had and each of her grandparents, parents, olive and uncles had a page to write something special with pictures of them together. She is just now starting to look at it more. I hope it is something she can look back on fondly. 

Another little crafty thing I did was a DIY Photo Booth - Just hung up a sheet, put out props and a camera. The pictures are great! I still need to print them and put them in a book that I had out for people to sign. 

Lastly, I had a little table out for the book I made documenting our pregnancy with Edrie and banana bread baked in mason jars. I put little thank you tags on them and used part of the sheets to decorate the tops. I also made E's cake, pie pops, and cupcakes, my mom supplied flowers from her yard...it was quite the party! SO much fuN! 

 You can see more pictures here and here

christmas came early!

i might have peed my pants a little when i opened this package...

out came some pretty amazing fabrics. a friend with self - diagnosed SAS (stash acquisition syndrome) needed some help. i was obviously more than willing to do whatever i could to help her condition. now my stash has practically doubled!!!

archived: wedding fabric

I found it!! I saw a fabric in a wedding magazine that I loved and was perfect to use as a 'theme' for our wedding MONTHS ago. I've been in search ever since...and a few weeks ago I actually found it! I was just searching endlessly online one night and I saw it... I couldnt believe it!! YAY!! Anyway... the next task was to find a way to get it...I called every fabric store in Eugene and one of them agreed to order it for me!

I'm soo excited...my mom bought me a whole bolt (18 yards) and I ordered it on Monday...it should be here in a few weeks. We will use it for things like table runners, the guys pocket hankies, ring pillow, to wrap bouquet handles, etc. Its just perfect...poppys are my FAVORITE flower and it has all three of my colors!! OH and...we want to have guests sign a quilt square instead of a guest book and then after the wedding I'll sew them all together to make a quilt...this and some solid fabric will make up the rest of the quilt!