What I'm Sewing This Week: May 2011

 Now for some much over due girl stuff!!!

~A super fun, super comfortable summer dress~

My friend sent me this LINK from Sew, Mama, Sew! the other week and I fell in love with this top.  I decided to make a dress for my daughter using the tutorial.  Making the top into a dress is super easy you just add that much more length to you main body piece and I also added a band at the bottom.

I used seersucker fabric.  I have never use seersucker before and I am so in love with this fabric.  Easy to cut,sew and washes beautifully.  

I purchased the fabric from Joann's Fabrics.  It was 50% off so around $3.50 a yard. 

I also made her another skirt with the stretch knit top band.

The fabric is Micheal Miller's Hot Pink Eiffel Tower and the black and white hoodstooth was purchased at Hancock Fabrics.

One more thing, I love fixing my daughter's hair and the other day we did a little different braid in her hair.  I french braided both sides and braided the left across the back of her head and then finished up the braid together into one large braid.  I love the way it turned out!

~Happy Sewing~

Parties I'm linked to: 

A simple thrift store find~redesigned

I decided I really needed to get out of this winter, snowy, icy yucky funk I have been in.  We normally get, oh maybe two good snow falls in January and February but we have had alot of snow this year.  We southern girls are just not into snow.  We like it for about 5 minutes and then we are over the pretty white stuff!  Our last snow was Wednesday a week ago.  Our city completely shuts down with the first speck of a snow flake.  People flock to the grocery store and empty the shelves with wild anticipation of a snow storm that you think would last a month.  I can say with great enthusiasm I am OVER ice and snow, I went outside Thursday to play with the peeps and their dad and 5 minutes into snow bliss I slipped and fell on ice.  I think I tore every muscle in the back of my right leg.   All I could do was just sit there as the ice under my injured butt began to melt.  I managed a faint whimper and my sweet 8 year old tried to help me regain some type of grace under the excruciating pain from the choir of leg muscles screaming.

All I managed to say to my husband as he tried to 'dust' the snow off of me; was if I could please go inside and cry in a fetal position in a corner somewhere.  So today, four days later with the sun warming up and melting the 'white crap' outside; I decided I really needed to get my blog going again before I start losing the wonderful followers I have!

~Sweet and Simple~

I have always, always wanted a cigar box purse and for some reason I just never got around to making one from scratch.  I was thrifting around in one of my favorite junk shops last year and came across a cigar box purse.  Perfect!! I thought and then I flipped it over to see what was on the other side and was disappointed to find a beaded (in my opinion) gaudy print of a roll skating car hop.  Thanks but No thanks and walked away.  Then I started to think about it and the potential it had so I went back for a second look and to see how easy it would be to take the fabric print off.  For $3 I couldn't pass it up!

Cigar purse before:

Love this side:

I took the metal corners off with a small flat head screw driver and pealed back the fabric (it was backed with thin cardboard and only glued around the edges.

I picked a beautiful floral upholstery fabric, I have been saving for awhile now, to recover the blank side of the cigar purse.  I put a thin layer of craft glue along the edge, let it dry completely with a heavy book on top to weigh it down, then replaced the metal corner

I wanted to dress it up a little more so I cut some black tulle and tied it to one side of the handle and added a vintage rose pin I found at an estate sale years ago.

Isn't it the cutest, sweetest little out-on-the-town purse you have ever seen.

Happy early Valentine's Day!!!!!!

Blog Parties:

Baby M's Handmade Birthday Gift

I just love making things for other people. I think all crafters feel the same way.  We can't just hoard our crafty creations we LOVE to share them with friends and family.  Anyone can just go to a mass-retailer and pick out something as a gift.  I would rather get a handmade gift than something 1000 other people will have in their homes too.

We were invited to Baby M's 1st birthday party a few weeks ago.   She is the most absolutely adorable chubby baby I have ever seen.  You just want to pick her up and hug her.  I didn't want to go buy her a toy because her mom had already told me she really didn't play much with the baby toys.   I started thinking about alternative gifts that mom and baby would like.  I came up with two very cute and very custom gifts.   I was so excited to see Baby M's mom's face when she opened the gift.  I almost gave it to her early because I was happy how it turned out.

First I made an appliqued onesie:

Supplies:
1 onesie
2 sheets of coordinating felt (usually 2 for $1)
Button
Embroidery threat
Interfacing (optional)

Instructions:

Print off whatever letter you need from your computer and then shrink it down to one size smaller for the inside letter applique.  I ironed on fusible interfacing on the back of each 'M', that way I knew it wouldn't slip when I was sewing it.  I machine stitched the pink 'M' onto the black and white houndstooth 'M' and then stitched them.
 

To make the flower I used this simple shape as my pattern:
Cut one big flower out and one little flower.  You can make them any size you like.  The dots are to give you an idea as to where your handstitching should be.

I gathered the flower petals a little to give each flower a 3-dimensional look.  You could certainly leave them flat too.  I also used the opposite color for my embroidery thread so it would really stand out.  After both flowers are finished stitch them together at the center and add your button.  To finish I added a pin on the backside so if  Baby 'M' decided she wanted to chew on the flower it could be removed easily.

 I also make my second ever pillowcase dress and I love how it turned out.  The hot pink and black look so good together!  I found the simple instructions just by doing a google search and it was one of the first ones that popped up. 

~Baby M at her 1st birthday~

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