MOM

Apron Wrap Dresses

2012-02-12T20:22:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the darling Apron Wrap Dresses that Annee's girls fashioned on MoM a couple weeks ago? I was smitten as soon as I saw them, and when I heard how easy they were to sew up, my curiosity got the best of me. Grace needed some. When you find a pattern that is A) easy to sew, B) comfy to wear, and C) is totally cute, you get on it! You make it. I made one, and then had to make another.

Sew, if Annee didn't convince you to make an Apron Wrap Dress, here's my attempt at it. I love that the author of the pattern, Anneliese, says that her mom use to wear a dress similar to the Apron Wrap Dress in lieu of jeans.

I could totally get into wearing something comfy like this. The Italian might think I'm a little crazy, but that's nothing new.

This Apron Wrap Dress is made with Sandi Henderson's Vintage Dot fabric, an all time favorite of mine. A long time ago, when Grace was probably 2 or maybe 3, I made her a Sweet Little Dress out of this fabric and I appliquéd it with a strawberry.

I miss that little dress, and at times I miss how little Grace was, so I decided that I was going to recreate this little dress. The strawberry might be a bit young for Grace, but I doubled checked before I added the strawberry and she approved of the design.

On the back of the Vintage Dot I used this fabric.

On both of my Apron Wrap Dresses I did double buttons, so each dress is completely reversible.

My hot tip for sewing the buttons on if you chose to do double buttons like I did, is to sew the buttons loosely together. The can't be pulled too tight or you won't be able to get them through the buttonholes. I learned this the hard way and had to resew the buttons onto the straps on the first dress.

Having four new looks really adds some wardrobe options. Grace is starting to get more and more opinionated in what she'll wear, so having lots of options has become very important in my life.

I'm not sure what up next for my sewing room. I made a *celebrate* banner this weekend, but didn't get any pictures. I also cut out pajama pants for myself, but haven't finished, and I'm starting to think it would be fun to have new pajama pants made for my big kids for Valentine's Day. Pajama pants are easy to make, but I'm not sure if I have the energy to whip them out tonight, so that puts a lot of pressure on tomorrow night.

I'm off to make a plan (or to watch an episode of Parenthood or to listen to my book).

It doesn't have a name yet...

2012-02-07T02:45:00.000-08:00

I got this idea to make a quilt for every season. I have my summer quilt! This is supposed to be The Winter Quilt. It's going to get backed in a super soft flannel just to make sure it's cozy for winter. I'm already looking ahead to my Spring quilt. Fabric is starting to arrive in the mail box!

But wait, let's not forget where we're at:

This moment of accomplishment should be celebrated!

It started off as a fabric bundle back in October:

Three moths or so later, with a little bit of grey and off white added, it's my new favorite winter quilt...

It's not the first time I've made a zigzag quilt, but it is the first time I've made a quilt with all solids. It's a bit tricky in the planning stages to figure out how to lay it out. Lucky for me I found an awesome quilt-along which I was able to benefit from.

Finished size is about 50x60. Perfect lap size. It all started with 5" squares. 180 of them to be exact. I had 1/2 yard cuts of all my colors, and I have barely any scrapes left over. That was lucky!

I'm a little nervous about how different it's going to look quilted. I think I have a plan, but I'm not sure if I'm going to love it after it's done. I'll never know until I try, so stay tuned for the finished quilt. Hopefully by the end of the week!

Heart Party Garland: A Tutorial

2012-02-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

In case you missed my guest post on Toddler Approved last week, here's the tutorial for making Heart Party Garland. I created this party garland to *heart attack* our friends letting them know you loved them. You could make some to give away or to adorn a wall, window or mantel for Valentine's Day. I made one version with my 5 year old using construction paper, and then I made my own version using lots of scraps and muslin fabric.

If you want to make your own, here's how you do it:

For little ones

My daughter made her party garland out of construction paper, glue and twine.

One sheet of construction paper (9"x12") turns into 5 pieces of party garland. Cut out the pieces and fold them in half lengthwise. I cut out all the party garland pieces.

Then I put Grace to work cutting out hearts. A favorite activity of my 5 year old.

Then we placed a long piece of twine in the fold of all the paper party garland pieces and glued the party garland pieces together.

Now for my fabric version:

I used the exact same dimensions with my fabric as Grace did with the construction paper. I used bleached muslin for the white party garland pieces, and fabric scraps for the colorful party garland pieces.

First I folded all my party garland pieces in half lengthwise.

Instead of colored construction hearts I cut tons of fabric hearts out of scraps.

I used a glue stick to glue the fabric hearts to the folded party garland pieces.

Then sewed a straight line down the center of each heart.

I repeated this over and over and over.

Then I sewed all the party garland pieces together up above the top of the hearts.

Now it's ready to be hung.

I'm added my Heart Party Garland to my Felt Heart Party Garland. I've been wanting to clear out my felt box, so I cut hundreds (probably not hundreds but it felt like it) of hearts and sewed them together.

Thanks to all my fun decor, I'm loving Valentine's Day this year. Not that I have big plans, but maybe I'll make some.

Growing like the weeds.

2012-02-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

In December it was observed that we lacked Sunday attire. I bought a couple of Olive&S patterns and fabric. But nothing happened after that. Except for Christmas.

It's been a while so I don't exactly remember when these frocks were completed, but nevertheless, we added two new numbers to the Sunday line up. It feels like drops in a bucket when you have a pair of twins who are growing like weeds...

This is the Family Reunion Dress Pattern View B

Using an Anna Maria Horner Voile:

LouLouThi Clippings in Forest

It's soft like silk, which is important for this sister. But it's also very sheer, so were it not in the dark colors, it would be objectionably see through.

That pattern, like all Oliver&S numbers, is sure to give you a finished product that you will love and be proud of. But for some reason, it was not fast. It hung in the sewing garage partially finished for weeks! It might have had something to do with the final step of sewing all those buttonholes, and buttons. Though my machine will do it all for me, I was dragging my feet all the same.

Though I hope to make more Family Reunion Dresses, I have a hard time sewing two of the exact same anything. I am finicky like that. I found two yards of another Anna Maria fabric at my local quilt shop, on sale. I bought it without an exact plan. When I got home to the sewing garage, I remembered the dress shortage. I also remembered how much I love the Marissa Dress from a while back. I vowed I would sew more of that pattern too, though I hadn't. I think that pattern, and this fabric went together like tart frozen yogurt and fresh strawberries, yum!

Unlike the Family Reunion pattern, this one sews together in a day. That's right friends! And it's not because I'm supre speedy. It's delightfully straightforward in it's construction. I remembered anew how very much I like this pattern, and the fit. I added a bit of length, because Heaven help me, they keep growing!

Liz surely raised the bar with her blue walled background location! I have not seen any blue walls in my area. Hers was spectacular! All the same, though my photos may be uninspiring, I hope that the fabrics and patterns might spark something in you too...

Though to be honest, I do not hope you have a pair of twins growing like weeds. It's exhausting I tell you! And there will never be enough fabric!

A Ruffle Skirt

2012-01-31T00:33:00.000-08:00

I'm done! Presenting the third skirt that I've had planned for over a month now.

I used ruffle fabric. Have you seen it?? I feel like I've seen the ruffle fabric all over the place, but I haven't seen so much of it at the fabric stores. Well, the only local fabric store that I frequent. (JoAnn's)

But, while I was on vacation at my house in the South and Annee and I had ventured to Hobby Lobby to look around. We don't have a Hobby Lobby in my area, and if you do, then I'm a little bit jealous. They don't necessarily have the greatest fabric, but there have more craft supplies then I could wrap my brain around in the 30 minutes that I spent there a month ago. Anyway, as we were looking around in the fabric area I stumbled across some ruffle fabric. Now it's pretty pricey at about $10/yd (or was it $12??), but for a little girl's skirt I only needed to buy a 1/2 yard. I, of course, couldn't pass it up, since I haven't seen it in person.

Then re-entry happened. (Re-entry is that time in your life when you have to readjust to life after a vacation. It can be likened to astronauts returning from outer space. It feels that crazy sometimes.) So, the ruffle fabric has been sitting in my stash for a month. Finally when George was at school last Thursday and Henry was asleep, I went for it.

I used this tutorial as a rough guide. I pretty much knew what I needed to do, but it's always nice to have someone tell you what to do especially if they have any hot tips that will save you time in the end.

The hot tip I will give is to check to see how stretch your elastic waistband is before you attach the skirt to it. My waistband didn't have much give, so instead of adding 10 inches to Grace's waist measurement like Vanessa suggests I should have added 6 to 8 inches. I ended up having to cut off the excess fabric to finish my skirt.

I'm pleased with this skirt, and I think it looks like I spent a lot of time on it mainly because the fabric, but this skirt came together in about a 45 minutes. My kind of skirt.

Now I'm done with my three skirts...

That took me long enough!

Hopefully the Oliver & S dress is next. However, Annee's excitement and review of the Apron Wrap Dress had me busy this weekend. I had to make one, and I have fabric selected for another, so I might need to make another Apron Wrap Dress before the Oliver & S one. I'm totally procrastinating.

Off to bed!

Guest Post on Toddler Approved

2012-01-30T00:44:00.000-08:00

I'm guest posting over on Toddler Approved today. I've mentioned Toddler Approved before, but let me again sing praises to this blog. If you have a toddler, if you teach school, if you have grandchildren, or know anyone who interacts with young children, direct them to Toddler Approved. TA has some amazing ideas and activities for toddlers that are educational and easy to do at home with your children. Such a great resource!

Toddler Approved, for the second year in a row, is challenging us all to show more kindness during it's 100 Acts of Kindness Project 2012. From January 16th to February 14th, we trying to complete 100 acts of kindness.

Today I'm sharing how to make a Valentine's Day Party Garland, so we could *heart attack* our friends. I made a toddler approved version and a Made on Maple version with fabric and sewing. Head on over to Toddler Approved to see the party garland and tutorial.

Fabric Beach Ball

2012-01-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

I finished my last skirt that I've had in the works for only about a month now. It was fast and easy and is darling if I do say so myself. It got Grace's approval which makes me totally happy. I haven't figured out what shirt she'll be wearing with it, so I'll work on that this weekend. I worked on cutting out an Apron Wrap Dress last night because after seeing the cute ones that Annee made I just knew Grace needed one too. Sew, I should have some fun things to post next week.

But, last night as I was trying to pass time and pacify my infant and two toddlers, I found the Fabric Beach Ball that I made for George when I think he was one. Henry went crazy with it, and Grace and George had fun teasing him with it as well.

I decided to put it out for him again this morning. He just loves it.

I took Annee's advice years (George is almost 4, so it really has been years) ago, and I stuffed a jingle bell into the middle as I was stuffing the ball. I'd highly recommend doing the same if you make one.

And honestly, if you know a little one, then I do recommend making one of these. They'll love it. I promise. It uses a small amount of fabric. A scrap buster project really. Oh, and if you don't have stuffing on hand, you could always *steal* some from a pillow. For some reason I usually buy a pillow for my mom when she comes to town. I buy the $5 ones from Target, but they are too fluffy for her. So, I seam rip a hole at one end, take a bunch of stuffing out, and then sew the side back together. Maybe you could find a pillow in your house that has a little too much fluff in it and borrow some stuffing. Just a hot tip for you.

Happy sewing and have a good weekend!

A Patchwork Skirt

2012-01-25T00:09:00.000-08:00

Weeks ago (probably months ago, but I don't want to check or admit how long it's really been) I bought some fat quarters of Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi line. It was beautiful like all of her fabric. I used two of the fat quarters to create my Hourglass Pillow, and then I've just been staring at the other fat quarters trying to decide what to make with them.

Sometime during the Christmas madness, I decided that I wanted to see the fabrics all together in another patchwork skirt for Grace. The pattern was in a past Stitch magazine. I laid the fat quarters on my washing machine and matched other fabrics I owned with them and dreamt of when I'd have time to actually sew the skirt. I even took the fabric with me to my house in the South but never touched it.

Finally last week while both my older kids were at school I started this skirt. Three days later it was complete. (I'm moving slower these days, but I'm not complaining. I'm just so grateful that I can find any time to sew.)

As always I love how Anna Maria Horner's fabric comes together. I *heart* all of her fabric!

Grace kept me laughing during this photo shoot. She was having a love affair with her little Love Jar. I asked her to put the jar down a couple of times, but she insisted the pictures would be better with it in her hands.

I was having a love affair with the blue wall. I drive past this blue building multiple times a day, and every time I do I mentally remind myself that I need to use it for a photo shoot. Don't be surprised if you see it again.

Now I just have one more skirt to complete. It's only been since before Christmas that I felt as though Grace's wardrobe was lacking some handmade love. Two skirts down, one more to go, and then I have to tackle this Oliver & S dress. I have the pattern pieces drafted and the fabric picked out. Now I just need to "screw my courage to the sticking place" and go for it!

Scandinavian Inspiration.

2012-01-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

A while back our Border's went out of business. I assume yours did too?! As I was in there on one of it's final days, I found a sewing book on super clearance that I had been wanting. I didn't pass that chance up, and Scandinavian Stitches has been on my bookshelf ever since.

It's divided into seasonal projects, based on the four seasons. During November I started looking at the winter projects and started dreaming about making every single one!

My mother's ancestors are Scandinavian. When I was drawing a blank as to what to get her for Christmas this year, I decided it should be something from this book. Enter, The January Quilt:

The pattern was straight forward, and I was able to pull from my stash all those different shades of blue! I had everything on hand that I needed to make this project!

Other than the fox, my next favorite part of the project was how you were supposed to quilt the snow with starts. I did free motion stars there in the snow! I thought it was a brilliant idea. The sky was supposed to have cloud shapes. I managed to do it a few times, but it proved to be super tricky to get my hands and brain to do that cloud shape. Go figure!

It was a very satisfying project, and I was happy to send it off to my mom, where she's going to use it as a seasonal wall hanging.

Of course, once you start looking through Scandinavian Stitches, it's really hard to not want to make one of everything. I love the idea of seasonal decorating. Which is why I'm dreaming of finding the time to make this sweet spring inspired scene. Don't you want one too?!

Simple Valentine's Day Wreath

2012-01-22T00:29:00.000-08:00

Last week I found THIS darling little number on Pinterest, and it immediately became a pin on my Stuff to Sew or Make board. Valentine's day is right around the corner, and I really need another wreath (ha!). Then I realized that I already had a grey wreath, so I could skip that step. At that point it was a no brainer that I needed to add this wreath to my collection.

My Halloween Wreath

It was so easy to reuse my grey wreath. All I had to do was remove the bat and moon, cut out some hearts, and zigzag some yarn over my hearts.

And that was all! I was done with this little number in 15 minutes. Fast projects are greatly appreciated in my life right now.

Now if you don't have a grey wreath, jump on over to the Yarn Wreath Tutorial and make yourself one. I wonder what other holidays I can get away using the grey wreath for.

It was a lazy weekend here at MOM West Coast, so I have a few things to share with you. Hopefully I'll get them posted this week.

A Mini Post

2012-01-20T08:48:00.000-08:00

Getting back into the sewing room for me post Christmas has been a bit challenging. However, this week my husband was out of town for business for a couple of nights, and I finally think I might be back. Maybe. We'll see. I whipped out this Little Mini Skirt for Grace while he was gone.

If you have a little girl, this pattern is very reasonably priced and comes together rather quickly and easily. And the author of the pattern is in Paris which just makes me like the pattern that much more. I mean Paris is the couture capital of the world, right? Handmade is their expertise.

I've got two more skirts cooking up in my sewing room. With any luck Grace will have two new additions to here wardrobe by the end of the weekend.

I bought a copy of this book and it arrived in the mail yesterday. Grace wants a Bear Carrier, and George wants a Penguin Backpack.

I'm also working on a project and simple tutorial for the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. If you have young kids, or just want to spread kindness, you should jump on over to Toddler Approved. It will blow your mind!

As you can see, I have plenty to keep me busy this weekend and beyond.

Now I just need to go get started. More realistically I should go and clean up a mess, get a kid dressed, or feed someone so I can work on my list of things to sew once the house is quiet again tonight.

I hope to have lots to share next week. Have a good weekend! Tootles for now!

A little recap interruption.

2012-01-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

I still have some really special December surprises that I want to record here on the blog, but I have to interrupt the walk down memory lane, and give you a glimpse into my last two days.

Here are the facts:

I bought THIS pattern somewhere back in December when all I could think of sewing was anything BUT Christmas presents...
A dear, dear, dear, lucky friend (because she still lives in Korea and has access to Happy Quilt), sent me some gorgeous Sarah Jane fabric back in November. What was worth making with it?!
Recently I thought I had lost my sewing mojo, but suddenly I had the thought to combine the Apron Wrap Dress pattern WITH the Sarah Jane fabric.
And that, in a nutshell, encapsulates my last two days...
One final thought on the matter. I have twins. If I make one super cute dress, and someone chooses to wear it, it basically becomes the first wearers new dress for life. Ruby wore the wrap dress first. It was darn cute, and Jane was twinged with envy. Jane begged me, even put herself to bed early at 7:30pm so that I could have lots of time to sew, so that she could wake up to an Apron Wrap Dress of her very own.
Two days in a row, Two Apron Wrap Dresses later (don't feel too, too sorry for me. It sews together pretty fast)...

Did I mention it's fully reversible?! See for yourself:

Two Happy Sisters!

One Tired Mom!

Good Night.

Minky Quilts

2012-01-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

I recognize it's only the 9th day of January, but I'm a little sad that it's been 9 days into the New Year, and I have done nothing in my sewing room other then clean it. It definitely needed a cleaning, but cleaning isn't nearly as exciting as sewing. I have high hopes that this week my sewing machine will see some attention, but my darling little baby needs to stop waking up so much in the night and getting up so early in the morning.

To help motivate me to get back into my sewing room, I'm sharing my favorite project from Christmas - Minky Quilts for my two oldest. I've had two cuts of minky fabric that I bought in the LA Fabric District in my stash since last November. Grace and George play with the minky all the time, so I thought for Christmas I'd turn them into quilts.

For the quilt tops I used Cluck Cluck Sew's Disappearing 9 Patch. Have you tried it? It's so quick and so easy.

Making the quilt tops were easy. It was the actual quilting that I thought was going to cause me a headache because minky can be a pain to use. However, I omitted batting, used a TON of quilting adhesive, and then used my walking foot to quilt my minky quilts. I also liked the look of this quilt that Allison made, so I did straight line quilting on my minky quilts.

In the end, I would say these quilts were really easy to make. Even quilting with minky wasn't that bad. I almost think I'll make another minky quilt for baby Henry when he gets older.

As for fabrics, I used Aneela Hoey's Sherbet Pip for Grace's quilt. I love this fabric.

And for George's I used Sarah Jane's Children at Play. Another favorite fabric of mine.

I need to figure out what my first project for the new year will be, but for tonight sleep is going to win out!

Welcome to the world 2012.

2012-01-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

We are alive! I promise. But life is so big, it's hard to be contained at times. Christmas came and went in a month long blur. I kept my sewing to a minimum this Christmas because I had two very special things I really wanted to make, and feared they would be time consuming. And they were. Besides the two big projects, I allowed a few little projects to slip in here and there. I'll try to show-and-tell a few throughout the next week.

I have yet to find my way to the sewing machine in 2012.

I think I'm still recovering just a bit from 2011.

Without further ado, a quilt.

The Front:

The Back:

Some close-ups:

The binding!:

My original quilt inspiration came from Allison over at Cluck Cluck Sew. She made one a while back and called it "The January Quilt". I've had my heart set on making one ever since I saw hers! It only took me two years :)

I titled mine:

The Happy-Birthday, Merry-Christmas, Happy-Birthday quilt. That's how many presents it's supposed to count for.

It was for my sister. I love her a lot. She's super talented and crafty. She's made me some of my most favorite Christmas things. I really wanted to make her something equally special in return. Hopefully it's something she'll have out and be reminded of her sister a million miles away who loves her. Can a quilt say all of that? I think it can.

I was scared about the binding. In fact, I second guessed myself so much about that. Funny how when I look at the pictures now, it's almost my favorite part.

While making it over the course of a month, I was listening to "The Persian Pickle Club" from audible.com. It's a story revolving around a quilt bee during the Great Depression. It was sweet to be listening to that book while working on this quilt. They went together well. If you like to quilt, you should think about reading it. If you like to listen to books while quilting, then we should consider becoming good friends.

Welcome to the world 2012.

I think you could be

great.

Last Post of 2011

2011-12-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

What a year! Maybe during the first of 2012 we can review all that was created here at Made on Maple, but for now I've assigned myself the task of wrapping things up for 2011.

Due to the fact that my sewing room (which also doubles as the laundry room) looks like this,

and Annee and I both are swimming (I might be drowning) in Christmas preparation, I'm blogging quickly to let you know that things will be quiet here on MOM until after the New Year.

My ironing board (my task board of sorts) is loaded with projects that will be completed after the holiday madness dies down. I'm anxious to get to these projects, but first things first. I'm like a little kid who needs to eat their vegetables (Christmas prep) before I can gluttonously devour my dessert (sewing projects that are NOT Christmas related).

I did manage to make one Christmas present, most likely the only Christmas present that will get sewn this year, and I thought I would share it with you. I kind of wish I started making these in November and made some for myself. These little house ornaments turned out as darling as I hoped.

Every year my mom requests an ornament with my kids' pictures on it. I loved these little houses from Retro Mama, and I decided that I would figure out how to put a picture on it. The fronts are darling...

The backs, well, let's just say they aren't my favorite, but I'm letting it go!

You see these darlings are really small, and the pictures I put on the back were too large to flip through the small opening without getting all wrinkled.

A perspective picture for you. The houses are smaller than a can of tomatoes.

It's a good thing my mom knows what my kids look like or else I'd be really worried. It's the thought that counts, right?

Thank you Retro Mama for the cute idea, tutorial and pattern! Maybe next year my own tree will get some cute houses. If you have any free time between now and Christmas, you should whip yourself up some mini houses.

And now, friends, I'm signing off until 2012. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and we'll see you in the New Year!! Tootles for now!

For a One Year Old

2011-12-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

Although my list of things to sew for Christmas remains long and unedited and I haven't sewn anything on the list since last week, I had to take a time out. A good time out. I got to sew for a little girl's first birthday. In my opinion, sewing for little girls is sew much fun!! The options are endless!

Every little girl needs an outfit to advertise to the world how old they are. And what little (and big) girl doesn't like cupcakes?!

Having baby dolls are huge to little girls, so baby blankets are a must. I used some leftover Sherbet Pip fabric that I have from a quilt that is in the works for Grace for Christmas. (The unfinished quilts remain on the Christmas sewing list!! I'll have them finished soon. I hope!) I really loved how this mini quilt turned out. I just love the fabric.

The perfect size for a new, soft, cuddly baby doll.

I backed the mini quilt with a scrap of nursery rhyme toile. One of the first fabrics I got from Annee when she was living in Korea. (Four and a half years ago, I think?!) Crazy how my sewing has evolved since then.

Moms, both big moms and little girls pretending to be moms, need bags to put things in. Grace has more bags then I can count and I swear every one of them has stuff in them. Bags or purses are an essential part of being a girl.

And now back to Christmas sewing. Well, maybe. I might take a short time out and make Grace some skirts. We'll see where the sewing winds blow me!

Tootles!

Merry Christmas style.

2011-12-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

Friends, I always have big dreams during the month of December. In order to execute all that I dream, I'd probably sit in the sewing garage for the majority of the day. That is obviously not realistic, and therefore everyday I edit my dreams and pare them down to a more manageable dream load.

For example, I dreamed the ladies would have new festive frocks for the big performance of The Nutcracker today. Around midnight last night, I realized not even the first dress was going to get finished. But that didn't mean that at the start of the night I honestly believed that two dresses might have emerged!

Our Saturday was jam packed full of Christmas fun. We had some caroling to attend to, a Christmas party at church, etc. Sometime last week, I came across this joyful post over at Aesthetic Nest. When I saw her merry snowflake shirts I was smitten. I tried to think of which of my friends both crocheted and had a little girl. I thought of my favorite friend Allison who fit both requirements, and I sent her the link as my Merry Christmas gift to her. I thought she would have a blast making that shirt for her daughter. And I, in turn would have done my part to spread Christmas cheer to all around me, free of charge.

Little did I know I would wake up to an email from Allison Friday morning saying she had four completed snowflakes, and would I like two?!

Enter, sewing crocheted snowflakes onto long sleeved tee-shirts by hand, in the car, on the way to caroling:

Totally worth it, in my opinion.

Now my new Christmas wish is that you might have your own special crocheting friend, who will help turn one of your dreams into a real live thing!

Or maybe you know how to crochet yourself, in which case do not miss out on this awesome tutorial! Allison said it was easy. What do I know?!

Christmas sewing continues.

2011-11-30T22:41:00.000-08:00

Annee's last post re-motivated me to get my Christmas sewing done! I said it in my last post, but to really get everything you want sewn for Christmas, you should probably start in August. However, if you are anything like me, it's more fun waiting until the last days of November and make yourself go mad trying to get everything done in time to mail or put under the Christmas tree for Christmas morning. My mad dash has started, and here's what I've been up to since I last posted...

I hung my Christmas party garland and bunting that I made two years ago (I think?). I love having it hanging in my kitchen for the entire holiday season, and last year I got smart and left the nails in the exposed beams in my kitchen making rehanging it a breeze.

After Christmas last year, I cut out a *Merry Christmas* banner, but never sewed it. I'm pretty positive I thought it would be so nice to have the banner all cut out. It was nice to have it all cut out, but why didn't I just sew it in January?? The day after Thanksgiving I put myself on the clock. I had one hour to work on it, and to try it get it done. Being a runner, I love timing myself, sew it was the motivation I needed to just get the project done!

Before Thanksgiving I bought a fat eight bundle of Christmas fabric to put in my embroidery hoops, and yesterday I switched out my fabric. Now I don't know if I'll always use the fabric in my hoops, so I decided not to cut the fabric to just fit the hoops. That way if I ever try to quilt or make something with the fabric I won't have these random pieces to work with. I put the whole fat eight in the hoop, and then I iron and pull it into place.

Yes, I iron right on the wood hoop. Maybe you're not to suppose to, but I find if I do this then I don't have to cut the fabric and it will lay flat against the wall when it's hung.

We don't have a mantel over our fireplace, but earlier this year we put an Ikea Expedit next to our fireplace, so it's serving the same purpose as a mantel. I've got it all decked out.

Deck the halls...

I think the hoops are a nice touch. I'm thinking maybe I'll make one of these Christmas trees, but it might just have to wait until next year.

And honestly I think the faux mantle is rather busy enough for now. I've had 6 Christmases without a mantle, so I'm probably having a hard time with editing. I want every cute idea I've ever seen put on a mantle on my Expedit!

Last, but sew not least, I made an imitation Crate and Barrel Christmas Tree Pillow. This will go down as my greatest creation of the season. At one point I thought I might just scrap the idea of making it and just buy it. However, the CB pillow is 12 inches and costs $26! Not to mention a 12 inch pillow is smaller then I wanted my pillow to be. Sew, friends, I gathered 6 pieces of felt (9"x12" pre-cut) and cut 100+ two inch circles. If you have the plastic kid cups from Ikea, the bottom of the cup is the perfect size.

My couch is red, so I used a white background (the other reason why I totally had to make my own knock-off pillow).

Before I got to work making the tree, I stitched a triangle the size I wanted my Christmas tree to be on the front of the pillow. This way I wouldn't get lost as I made my tree, and the triangle guided me as I stuffed it full of green circles.

Next I switched out my regular presser foot with my embroidery foot. I dropped my feed dogs, and I sewed several small circles in the middle of each circle.

And I repeated this a 100+ times. By the end I thought I was going to go nuts. I actually couldn't sew this pillow in one sitting. I wanted to make sure that I made the tree VERY full. Just the way the Crate and Barrel one looks.

I also felt like every time I added a circle I needed to pull and cut the top and bobbin thread to make sure that I was getting the tree as full as I wanted it to be. I didn't trim the bobbin threads until the end of the project. Here's what it looked like:

I could still probably trim threads on the front, but alas, I am done. The masterpiece has been placed on the couch for my ~~kids to destroy~~ for all to enjoy!

I probably should have put a zipper in this pillow, but after finishing the Christmas tree, I was done.

It got a deep envelope closure.

I also whipped up a very simple Christmas pillow to sit behind the Christmas tree. It helps balance the couch out.

I kind of want to make a simple cover for my rectangle pillow that normally sits in the middle of the couch. Since my couch is so long, I kind of think it looks empty. I kind of want a Christmas quilt or blanket. But it's looking like I might need to wait on all of that until next year. December is upon us, and I have gifts I need to start sewing!

I'm sure I'll let you know if once I get it figured out! Next up I have a wreath that I'm half way done with, but I'm creatively stumped on how to finish it. If I don't get it figured out soon, I'll post it and ask for help. For now I think this post is long enough!

Signing off from the West Coast.

Fired Up.

2011-11-28T06:20:00.000-08:00

We spend Thanksgiving in Virginia with family. The weather was perfection. The food was delicious. The time together with my siblings and spouses was just right. The only thing missing was the opportunity to sew. It seems that with the oncoming of the holidays, or with the changing of the seasons, I get all fired up about creating again. Suddenly I have a million ideas swirling around. Lists start to get written up. Fabric starts accumulating on my shelves. Things get made!

Sunday was our recovery day from the trip. The kids were content to be reunited with all of their belongings and favorite activities, so it was a quiet afternoon for me. The perfect time to slip off into the sewing garage and get things done. I did start a Christmas wreath while on vacation. I was anxious to get it finished first off when we got home:

Nothing too extraordinary. My lights ended up being a bit bigger than I think they should have been, but I'm too burnt out on this project to go back and make a change. It will be festive and whimsical throughout this Christmas season. That will do.

Right before we left for vacation, I had ordered a half yard of an Alexander Henry fabric called "Merry Main Street". I can't remember how I stumbled across it, but when I did, I knew it needed to be added to the Christmas decore. Waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home was my half yard cut. After the wreath was finished, I got the crazy idea that I could make three pillows to complete my pillow collection started last year....

These pillows are totally simple. I simply added some pre-made red pipping, and then it's backed with a green polka dot and an envelop closure. These are season decor. No need to go all out! Getting them done was the most important feature of these beauties.

Of course we stopped at Ikea on our way to VA. Lucky for me this red linen was on clearance. Only $3.99 per yard and it was something like 56" wide. That's a lot of fabric for just $4. I couldn't resist a red bow pillow. I do love my green one so much. Making one out of red, I thought could present endless possibiliteis, Valentines day, etc.

Please agree with me that this "Merry Main Street" fabric makes you feel merry indeed. I really love it.

In other areas of the sewing garage, there is a massive quilt-in-the-works waiting to get loved again. I work on it in fits and bursts. Then I walk around it all sprawled out for days and days. It's a love hate relationship going on right now.

And finally, two little ladies will be attending The Carolina Ballet performance of "The Nutcracker" this weekend. It will be their first time attending a live ballet performance. True story, I'm totally more excited than they are, and they are SUPER excited. Don't you think someone should be wearing this dress, with this fabric?! I DO! Let's see how the week goes...

Thanksgiving comes first...

2011-11-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

But, I've already started my Christmas sewing. I mean to really do Christmas sewing right you have to get started in August. Well, I was a tad bit busy in August, and sewing wasn't allowed to really be on the list of things to do.

Sew, I started pinning some ideas on my Christmas pinterest board, and away I went this weekend. First up was finishing my Scrappy Christmas Tree. I was having a hard time finishing it because I couldn't figure out how to quilt it.

I decided to do a FMQ on the tree that looks like a combination of a strand of Christmas tree lights and ornaments. Maybe a stretch, but it looks fine from a far, so it works for me.

Then I did just horizontal lines around the tree on the linen part. The Italian is so happy to have it hanging on the fireplace. Normally I have a Christmas Moose hanging there, and he kind of thinks Rudolph is a little over the top. Maybe I'll hang the Moose in our room this year. Haha!!

Okay, after the Christmas tree was finished I went right into making pillows. I have a vision of Christmas pillows adorning my couch for the month of December. I'm trying to keep them rather simple. All the back will just be envelope closes. So far I've finished two pillows.

Just know that making that snowflake was harder than it looks. I'll confess that I had to do a google search for how to make a six sided snowflake. I love where my hobby of sewing has taken me. Never in my life would I have thought I'd need to google search how to make a snowflake, but how thankful am I that I can google such instructions!

Now I'm off to cut 100 circles and attempt to recreate this Crate and Barrel beauty. Wish me luck. I'm not the most well rested seamstress at the moment, but I'm crossing my fingers that my will to finish my Christmas pillows will keep me going!

Parisian Chic

2011-11-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling like Grace doesn't have enough clothing. Now if my husband is reading this he'll think I'm crazy. But, I just cleaned out her drawers and gave away all the clothes that are too small and put away all the warm weather clothing. That left Grace with very few options, and girls need options.

I made a long list of things I want to sew before the Christmas season is upon us (it starts the day after Thanksgiving in this house), but before I feel like I could get too far into my seasonal endeavors (I'm going to make 5 Christmas throw pillows!!!), I needed to take a brief time out and make my big "little" girl something.

One of Grace's favorite books are the Fancy Nancy series, and Nancy loves all things French, so Grace does too. Grace has even told us that she wants to go to Paris, France to see the Eiffel Tower. This is on my "places to go" list as well, so I have high hopes we'll both get there sooner rather than later. Sew, when I came across this Michael Miller fabric in my stash that's been there for over 3 years, I knew it needed to be something Grace could wear.

I used the Lazy Day Skirt pattern as my base pattern, but I doubled it and added a coordinating fabric and some rick rack. Doubling the pattern made the skirt extra full and twirly and fancy.

Pefect for my chic little Parisian wanna be.

Grace giggled at the sight of her new outfit this morning, and when she saw herself in the mirror she said, "Oh, I look so beautiful." High self esteem is not something Grace is lacking in these days. And, I kind of have to agree she does look beautiful. I am kind of biased though.

The best part of this project is that it was done in less than an hour. Those are seriously the best kind of projects!!

Now back to my lofty goals for Christmas sewing. Did I mention I'm making my kids throw quilts?? I finished the quilt tops, and now I'm going to attempt to quilt them to a minky backing. Any tips or suggestions before tackling quilting with minky?? I'm thinking I'll just be doing some straight line quilting, and I will use tons of quilting spray adhesive and safety pins. If you have any other hot tips, I'd love some advice!

A Table Runner

2011-11-10T23:39:00.000-08:00

Didn't I tell you that Annee's post would blow your mind?? My Sew Sister is sew amazing!!

I don't have much to show, but I was really pleased with how quickly I executed this table runner. My mom's birthday is this weekend, so I had to have it sewn and mailed no later than Tuesday. I decided Sunday night that I was going to just go for it, and I started making the wonky stars. Have you made these?? They are quick and easy and fun to make.

I made myself a table runner like this last December. My idea for it came from Anna of Noodlehead, and the tutorial I used for the wonky stars was from The Silly BooDilly.

Now my mom is more of a "bright and funky" kind of fabric lady. Those are her words not mine. She would have probably preferred the three wonky stars to be more like the fabric I put on the back (Tina Givens Treetop Fancy), but I just didn't have 2 other fabrics that I felt coordinated with it. My solution was to put it on the back, and then hope that my mom loves Anna Maria Horner as much as I do.

All three wonky stars are made out of Anna Maria's Innocent Crush line, but my favorite has to be the Woodcut Golden star. It's one of my all time favorite fabrics. I'm kind of thinking I might need to use it to make these curtains for myself.

Okay, friends, I'm signing off for now. I've been cutting quilt squares all day long, so maybe I'll have an update in the near future. I'll keep you posted!

October wasn't for wimps.

2011-11-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

I hardly know what to say for myself or where to start. After my birthday on the 8th, I feel like there was an avalanche of life, and I got buried somewhere along the way. Sewing went from being my therapy to being more like a "job". Much less therapeutic in that regard! Nonetheless, I was plugging away on various projects here and there throughout the month. I feel like dumping them all right here, right now, and then just starting into November with a clean and optimistic approach. Let's see...

There were baby gifts:

The Miss Madeline pattern

via The Handmade dress

size 12 months

Another attempt at the hooded-towel.

I don't even know which tutorial I used, there are like a million.

I may have morphed two together, but I really liked the fact that this one suggested doing a french seam on the hood, so that it was completely enclosed, and therefore you don't see any unfinished, or serged seams, even on the inside of the towel. Kind of cool.

Another diaper clutch.

This time I just followed the tutorial straight. My brain was tired, and I couldn't find my pattern pieces for turning it the other way.

Tutorial HERE.

Then, right before Halloween, we had a little birthday party to go to. This party girl was turning 10 and loves to read. I knew we'd be getting her a gift card to Barnes and Noble, but something is wrong with my head, and I can't seem to get over the idea that my hands should contribute to most gifts around here...

An easy, peasy, scrappy linen zipper pouch.

Tutorial HERE.

Then, there were visitors to the sewing garage! That was an October highlight!

There was Halloween bunting making, a zipper wristlet, and a black little mini-skirt all going on at the same time. It was intense and great.

Action shot!

Here, Summer (from Seven Pretty) is showing when things were going great.

Here I captured a moment when things were really intense.

Here I am with my two little sisters! Love these girls.

I spent most of my time that weekend sewing with things that were black, shiny and slippery. If I never sew with satin again, it will be one of life's greatest blessings. Not likely to happen though, given that my ladies already have lots of satiny dreams laid out, given the success over Halloween.

I helped create one Hermione, and one Witch Princess! The Old Guy was totally pulled from closets, and mostly great because of the perfect wig and cane, courtesy of Amazon.com! Since I put so much effort into making Ruby's Witch Princess dreams come true, I may make her do another photo shoot with that dress to make sure it gets properly honored. Maybe next year I'll remember to make the Halloween costumes in August?!

The best part of the Hermione costume, was that I decided she needed a cute little black skirt to go with her robe. I knew I could do that many different ways, but realizing that a black skirt could be a really great wardrobe staple, I tried to make it worth the effort. It's my favorite Halloween memory:

A fine whale corduroy, black, Little Mini Skirt, as seen before here, here, and here...

It's such a great skirt, she's already worn it about a half-dozen times. That's when sewing is totally worthwhile!!

Of course, how could I close-out the month of October, without remember the night I texted Liz a question about a sewing pattern we both had. And before I knew it, we were in a sewing race, to see if we could both sew a Halloween peasant style dress within two hours or less. All communications during the exercise, via text. It was one of my favorite nights of the month. Liz, you should insert your finished product here too. Here's my iphone photo that I texted to Liz when I was done:

Which in turn ended up being a great outfit for Jane to wear to the NC State Fair:

So anyway, I guess that's all I have to show for myself and the month of October! Not to mention that I was fitting in my longest marathon training miles for the Richmond VA marathon which I'll be running this weekend. Not making any excuses for myself, but just trying to cut myself some slack for having been so totally and completely absent.

I've already started my first non-Halloween or gift related project. It might get finish by the end of the week. But it might not. I don't have any expectations anymore.

XOX

October = Closed Out. Done.

Once a week...

2011-11-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling MOM will be updated more than once this week, but you just never know. Life is busy with 3 kids here, and I know Annee's been crazy busy with her 4. I do know we've both managed to sew since we last updated, but sometimes sewing AND blog what we've sewn doesn't always happen. I'm sure you can understand.

As I was uploading all the photos from my camera tonight, I realized I could do a quick post, so here ya go! Enjoy!!

By enjoy, I mean really enjoy. Look as these decedent treats.

We officially had 4 people knock on our door for Halloween this year. I swear we had 10 times that last year, but maybe I was dreaming. Anyway, I bought 3 bags of candy this year, and with probably 10 tricker treaters to share my goodies, that left me with a LOT of candy. I picked out the mini snicker and used Picky Palate's Double Chocolate Snickers Chunk Cookie recipe.

These cookies are sinful. If you don't have an excess of snickers from trick-or-treating, just peruse Jenny's recipe collection. She has lots of ideas on what to do with leftover candy.

After I made the yummy cookies I whipped up another pair of Quick Change Trousers. I have a friend having a baby boy, and I asked her what she still needed and what I could make for her. She requested appliqued onesies. First I made the QCT because you need pants to go with onesies, of course.

And then I honored her request and made some onesies. I've been meaning to make Henry a CA onesie. They seem to be pretty popular in Etsy and online, and I do live in CA, so he should have one, right? We'll see if that get's put on the sewing agenda.

Up this week for me, I have to finish my mom's birthday present, and then I'm waiting for some fabric in the mail. I've decided that I'm going to make my two Gs minky quilts for Christmas, and since I know how crazy busy December will be, I'm going to TRY to get a head start this week. Wish me luck!!

An experiment, a mistake, and some goodies

2011-10-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

I know that Annee has a ton of stuff to post, and I have a feeling it will all blow what I'm about to post out of the water, but for the sake of just getting things going on MoM, I'm sharing what's come out of Made on Maple West Coast. Not too much, but I think I'm slowly finding my stride with 3 little ones, a husband, house work, and my inner desire to create.

Hopefully that means you'll see more from me soon. No promises, but I'm crossing my fingers and holding my breath!

Okay, like a month ago, or maybe even longer I had the idea for a cute and simple bag to make.

I wanted it to have grommets, a braided handle, and stripes. I'm not sure why all those things got thrown together, but they did, and I made this little number.

I'm still on the fence about it. It's cute, but I'm not sure it's something I'll repeat. We'll see.

Around the same time I dreamt up the bag idea, I wanted to make another one of these jumpers that Annee first made for her girls. When I went to cut my pattern, I realized I had the wrong size pattern. Luckily I found the right size pattern at JoAnn's for $1.99. However, I sewed up the jumper last night, and as soon as it was all done, I just knew it was way too big. Actually I knew before it was all done, but it was only after I completed it that I accepted that it was probably not going to be wearable.

But, I made Grace wear it to church today anyway. Why not!? I sacrificed some sleep for it, so I might as well see my hard work put to use. She didn't seem to mind, and she was thrilled that it had pockets. Oh well.

On Friday night I set up an assembly line to create some Trick-or-Treating bags for tomorrow night.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to sew Halloween costumes this year (and I really didn't want to anyway), but when I saw these cute bags on Homemade by Jill, I knew I wanted to make some. My little ones wanted the Frankenstein bags, but I had leftover orange felt from the Candy Corny Halloween Banner, so the pumpkin bags won out.

I also thought I should share a picture of Henry sporting his new Quick Change Trousers I made with Sarah Jane's Children at Play.

I love them. I love the pattern. Most of all I love my chubby little model.

And, look at Henry's smile. I think he loves the pants too.

That's all from the West Coast. Hopefully I'll have more to share soon!

Nothing too big

2011-10-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

I wrote an email to Annee last week letting her know that I think I might be retiring from sewing. I was of course being all dramatic and feeling sorry for myself because I find myself drained of any energy at the end of my days. My nights used to be my creative time and I would work for hours after my kids went to bed sewing and making things. Now all I really want to do is just sit and watch TV or look at what everyone else is making in the crafting blog world. Annee reassured me that I'll find my "balance again soon," and I know she's right. It might not be too soon, and that's okay too. I do have high hopes of sewing things for Christmas, and I keep thinking if I start soon enough then maybe I can make it happen. However, I haven't moved past the thinking about it stages. Looks like I need to start taking action before October turns into December!

Okay, but on to what I have made. I know I can buy birthday gifts at the store, but isn't it more fun to give something more meaningful? I think it is, so I've made a couple of birthday gifts recently.

But the main thing I've been working on, and it's such a small project but took me so long (reread the first paragraph of this post), is a new pillow. I love pillows, and I'm feeling like my pillows need a change. I bookmarked this free pattern years ago, and recently rediscovered it. I also bought some fat quarters of Anna Maria Horner's new fabric line, Loulouthi.

I took AMH Hugs and Kisses in Ocean and combined it with Summer Totem in Tart and made my own Hourglass Pillow.

Notice my little helpers foot in the background?

The only problem I ran into, and you might not notice it if I didn't mention it, was I didn't have enough of the Summer Totem. The pattern is so big, that I should probably used a 1/2 yd cut when I made this pillow. On one side of the pillow the flowers are right side up while the triangle opposite of the right side up flowers has upside down flowers. Does that make sense?

It's probably too confusing and it's late so my brain is starting to shut down, so study the pictures if you want to see my mistake. Otherwise, just look at how beautiful the fabrics are that Anna Maria designs. I'm really thinking I need to make these curtains with some of her fabric. The only problem - which two fabrics do I chose?!

I also used AMH fabric on the back. The red is from the Garden Party line, and the harvest yellow is from Innocent Crush.

This was my first pillow I added an invisible zipper to. Totally easy, and I will for sure be doing that again. I used this tutorial as my guide, but you can also just read the instructions on the invisible zipper package. Such a cinch. The funny thing is that the zipper was mentally stumping me, and I just thought it was going to be so much harder than it was.

Like I said, nothing too big, but at least it's something!

The $7.50 Dress

2011-10-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've seen THIS little number from Shabby Apple?!

I tried to make something similar for $7.50:

There are two different tutorials out there if you want to follow one. I found the one from "Craftiness is not Optional" to be a little more useful. I liked her flower technique. Here's that LINK.

Feel free to compare it to the tutorial from "Sewing in No Mans Land", HERE.

I was sad I didn't have enough fabric to make the skirt on my dress using the circle skirt technique, a la Dana...

I found my purple polka dot fabric on the remnant table at JoAnn's. Ultimately I didn't feel like it was ever worth going back and spending $10 per yard more, when I had gotten this yard for less than $5!

The only major difference between my dress and the two tutorials linked up there is that I decided to integrate my waist band into the construction of the bodice. They both added it on-top of the dress, after they had attached the skirt. I see that the advantage to that is that you don't have such a long bodice. But I liked the clean construction of having all those layered sewn together in sequence. I guess it doesn't really matter which way you'd make it.

Once again I used the bodice and sleeve pieces from the Oliver & S Jump Rope dress pattern. I sure have gotten a lot of use out of that pattern. I think it goes to show, once you know the basics of dress making, with only a few simple pattern pieces, the sky is the limit!

Next up:

On my birthday I found myself at my local fabric shop. I walked out with half-yard cuts of the following fabrics:

(isn't it cute how the lady folded them?!)

Now to decide what to make with it. I think I used to know what I wanted to make. Now I think I forgot. I sure love staring at it...

I had a birthday.

2011-10-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

My birthday was Saturday.

All week long, leading up to Saturday, my husband kept asking me what I wanted him to get me for my birthday. I kept thinking, and thinking, and wondering why I couldn't think of a single significant thing.

Then, on Wednesday when I stepped out into the sewing garage, I realized it had become more "garage" than "sewing studio". And the mess was driving all of my creativity away. I was at a breaking point. I admitted to him that the only thing I wanted for my birthday was a sewing room makeover.

I should be totally embarrassed to post these next pictures, but they will make his "gift" to me that much more dramatic...

Here is where I used to go to sew:

Our garage is detached from our house. Since we live in a former model home, the garage was the design studio (please notice the design feature signs that were plastered all over the walls. They've ben a constant source of inspiration, as you can imagine, NOT!). It's completely finished, with hardwood floors and everything. It's a dreamy space to have to sew in, but I do have to share the space with the normal stuff that a family of six puts in their garage:

I tried to split the space down the middle, having the sewing stuff on the left, and the garage on the right.

Before I show you what my husband gave me for my birthday, you should know that organizing and cleaning run deep in the marrow of his bones. It's impressive. And intimidating.

Happy Birthday to me:

He re-folded fabric. Re-stacked piles. Emptied old boxes of notions, and created bigger and better boxes.

Added a hanging bar and hooks for all things scissors, brilliant!

Though it may be hard to believe, all of my thread had previously just been thrown inside of a tupperware box. Seriously. Darin put it all in rainbow order even.

A new "task board" to keep myself organized and on track. A tack board that will eventually house fabric inspiration, after I'm done looking at my homemade birthday cards. As you can see, my kids have already given me a few "tasks" already!

And he even hung my favorite fabric streamers and felt hearts!

Now the garage fits neatly behind the "wall" that he created out of the Ikea "Expedit" shelving system.

He kicked me out of the space starting on Thursday (though we started "demolition" on Wednesday!). I didn't get to step back in until Saturday morning. I think he finally crawled into bed sometime around 3am on Saturday! I have never loved a birthday gift so much in all my life! He had a great time doing it. He paid attention to every detail. Even still, I'm not sure if he'll ever really understand how much this gift meant to me in that deepest, downest, inner most part of my soul. I was, and still am, so overwhelmed and grateful.

Since I was kicked out for two days, I moved my sewing machine and accessories to my dining room table to keep myself occupied while I wasn't allowed to peek out the window! In that time I was able to finish the quilt!!

And still had time to sew up a little "create" bunting to hang in my new Sewing Studio.

Finally found a good project to cut into my Denyse Schmidt "Hope Valley" fabrics, which have been sitting on the shelf since January 1, 2011.

Hopefully this is just the beginning of things I "create" that come out of my new and improved sewing space.

It's like a breath of fresh air.

Thank you so much Darin!!

XOX

Bitty Booties

2011-10-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Annee texted me this weekend and asked if I made Henry any baby shoes. I then remembered that I did indeed make him some Bitty Booties a while back with matching Quick Change Trousers. I also appliqued a onesie to go with the whole look some time ago.

I took some pictures a while back, but I didn't like my staging. Just a little too much of the Heart Breaker fabric if you ask me. Don't you agree?? Not to mention it was upside down. Not my best picture taking!

So while I was texting Annee, I went and found the Bitty Booties and matching onesie, and did a quick photo shoot just as we were enjoying the very tail end of sunlight for the day. The Bitty Booties fit perfectly and aren't tight.

And even though Henry didn't really care for them on his feet, he could kick them off.

As I was taking these pictures I started thinking about when I made the Bitty Booties. Back when I had what felt like more time then I knew what to do with. A totally different place then I'm in today. But, besides thinking about all that has changed in the last several months, I thought back to the pattern and the process of sewing them. These are from the Anna Maria Horner Handmade Beginnings book, and she sets up each chapter so that the first projects are the easiest to sew and the last are the most difficult. In this book, Anna Maria puts the Bitty Booties before the Quick Change Trousers. I'm not saying I'm an expert on anything, but having sewn both the Bitty Booties and the QCT I'd have to say the QCT are a wee bit easier than the Bitty Booties. That my two cents and totally my personal opinion!

Both are equally as cute though, but neither are as cute as my baby. Sorry, but no comparison!

Here's to hoping I can sit down at my machine sometime soon. I have a pillow that is sew waiting for me to finish it already!!

A little peak.

2011-10-05T02:45:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a little something special for a tiny someone special! This goes down as one of my favorite projects to date. Love the fabric! (Aneela Hoey's "Little Apples" for Moda.) Love the design! Love the size! Love thinking about the tiny recipient! So many things to love.

The Baby Pinwheel Quilt:

I used a single charm pack to make this quilt. On the front, I used 32 charm squares. I've paired each one with a 5 inch square of Kona White, 64 half-square-triangles later, this is what you come up with.

I incorporated the last few squares from the charm pack on the backing. More pictures to come by the end of the week.

The quilt top currently measures 40x40. I probably used about 1 yard of the Kona white in addition to the charm pack. The little black border was just something I had in the stash.

I can't wait to get this quilted and bound and sent off! But I am going to miss looking at these sweet prints. I'll have to think of something else to make with these fabrics.

P.S. While finding links for this post, I came across this little embroidery pattern from Aneela's Etsy shop. I'm thinking I'm about to go make a quick purchase. I'm dreaming of Halloween skirts!

Weekend sewing.

2011-10-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

Though this is not the first time I've made this "Oh Fransson" wristlet, it was the first time my sister-in-law Amber come to visit me in NC.

Crafting together was vaguely on the agenda. But not before, going out to eat, running, going to the movies, shopping, baking treats, and chatting into the wee hours.

When Sunday rolled around we realized our hours together were limited. If we were going to sew, we'd better get serious about it. Amber had noticed that I'd been carrying around my original wristlet all weekend long. It is my most used sewing creation.

We pulled out fabric, started cutting, and eventually started sewing.

And kept sewing into the wee hours of the morning, until we had four wristlets between the two of us.

Making wristlets is fun. But sewing with a friend is even funner.

Is that a word?

Thanks for coming Amber. Enjoy your wristlets.

Boo!

2011-10-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

How is it October already? The older I get the faster time seems to fly right by me. With the start of October approaching last week, I started mentally planning any new decor I wanted to make for Halloween. This typically isn't my favorite holiday, but with 3 young kids I'm realizing I better get over it. Halloween is going to probably be one of their favorite holidays (right behind Christmas) for years to come, so I've got to get on board!

A Halloween banner was on my mind last week, and while I have Halloween fabric, I just didn't want to make a typical fabric banner. Then for some reason candy corn came to mind, and from the thought of the seasonal candy a new banner was born.

The Candy Corn(y!) Halloween Banner

Can you see my Halloween party garland hanging in the background? Want to make some? Go HERE for the deets!

It should probably ready Happy Halloween or even Trick or Treat, but alas, it just says Halloween. I used felt for the candy corn and letters and then a fabric bias tape for hanging it. I cut out the three colors of candy corn using white, orange, and yellow felt, and then I sewed them all to a piece of orange felt. Before I sewed the white top of the candy corn to the orange backing, I pinned the bias tape between the two layers and stitched around it.

THEN, since I'm slowly transitioning from the banner lady (the Italian called me that on Saturday after I hung the Halloween banner) to the wreath lady, I had to recreate this simple Halloween wreath I found. Seriously this one took me about an hour from start to finish to make, and it saved me approximately $30. ($35 if you count the special discounts the ladies at JoAnn's gave me because I'm there all. the. time.)

I saw a lot of cute Halloween wreaths on Pinterest, but since my door is red, I just didn't think black and orange would look so good. It kind of clashed in my mind. When I saw this one, I thought it would look perfect on my door. I think it looks pretty good. It's fairly basic. Maybe it needs a little something, but for now I'm okay with it. One day I'll show you the wall in my laundry room that I hang all of my wreaths. Pretty hilarious if you ask me. There's still room for more wreaths though, so don't think I'm done. (Sorry, Italian!)

Let the Halloween season begin!

Inspiration

2011-09-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

I texted Annee a week or so ago, and I told her that I felt my fabric stash was holding me back from sewing something. I love having so much fabric because when I want to make something I can just go to my sewing and pick up fabric and GO. However, I've been feeling bored with what I have on hand, so I haven't felt very inspired lately.

After I texted Annee that I was stifled by my fabric, I saw a friend at church with a darling car seat cover made out of Sarah Jane fabric. Have you seen her Children at Play fabric?! Oh my. You'll need some. Last week I ordered 5 half yards on line with the intention of making more Quick Change Trousers for Henry.

My little chubby one is growing out of the QCT I made him while he was swimming inside me.

When my fabric arrived in the mail, I wasn't sure if I was going to try to finish a jumper that I've had cut out for way too many days without being sewn or just dive right into my new material. Annee encouraged me to just dive right into the new fabric and ride the inspiration instead of putting it off.

So glad I listened! Last night I busted out 2 new pairs of trousers for Henry. To say they are cute just doesn't do them justice. Their just precious. I love them. Love them!!

Too bad Henry's nap today didn't work out with my photo shoot. I promise I'll snap some pictures of him in these soon.

For more technical details, for those of you wanting to make these, I was able to make 2 complete pairs of Quick Change Trousers in 3 hours. That means tracing the pattern, cutting the pattern out, cutting the fabric, and sewing the pants. I'd safely say you can make a pair of these in an hour and a half. Now your first time, it will take you a little longer because it's your first time, but not much. Also, as for sizing, Henry is just growing out of his 3 month trousers I made him, but in store bought clothing he wears 3 to 6 month clothing. Three month clothing is way too tight on him, but the Quick Change Trousers still fit, but I give it a week or two, and they won't. He's a big little baby, but this pattern sizing is generous.

Now I'm off to bed. Hopefully I'll get pictures of my little guy in these soon. I kind of want to make some onesies for him to go with his new pants, so it might be a couple days. Stay tuned!!

As promised.

2011-09-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

My models in their dresses:

Working together to blow some bubbles:

Jane's leg flick captured in photo is totally priceless to me.

I got super crafty, pulled out my hot glue gun and managed this much of a hair accessory. I might be the last girl on the craft planet to attempt one of these type of wrapped flowers. But in case I'm not, and you're like, "What? How did you make that?!", here's a TUTORIAL.

I totally love this side zipper detail.

I am right here announcing that I am official aboard the "Marissa Dress" bandwagon! I will be making this dress again. Since the pattern goes up to a size 12 or something like that, my ladies should probably get excited about all the Marissa dresses in their near future.

Have a great week of sewing. I already have a few other finished projects to share. Here's to hoping my turn on the computer rolls around more often than it did this weekend!

A Christmas Quandary

2011-09-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

I know it's not even October yet, and I haven't figured out if I'm going to sew Halloween costumes or not, but all I can think about is Christmas. Probably because I know from experience, if you are going to make things for Christmas now is really the time you should be making them. If you wait until December, there will be way too many things on your holiday To Do List to even thinking about sewing up some holiday decor for yourself. Sew this year I'm getting ahead of the curve. Ha!

While on Pinterest, I stumbled across this cute scrappy Christmas tree:

Source: sweetandlovelythings.tumblr.com via Liz on Pinterest

I knew it would be easy to make, so when I made my Library Skirt for Grace I pulled out several green fabrics from my scrap bin. Last week I had a small sewing soiree here, and within a couple of hours we all had cute scrappy Christmas trees.

Cute, huh? Here's my quandary. I was thinking I'd quilt this and complete it as a wall hanging like my scrappy spool wall hanging, but how do I quilt it? Do I use straight lines, a design, quilt only around the tree, do straight lines around the tree and a design inside the tree, and on and on and on???

Sew, if you had a scrappy Christmas tree, and I hope you do sew yourself one, how would you quilt it?

I'll be mulling over that this weekend as I try to finish some other projects that I've started, but have lost my steam and desire to finish them. I hate when that happens. I don't want to start anything until they are finished. Sew frustrating!

Oh well. And my favorite part of the scrappy Christmas Tree...

The yellow Anna Maria Horner star, of course. I had to throw in a little Anna.

Here's to a great weekend and hopes of sewing a little!

Two dresses coming right up...

2011-09-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

My little ladies will be playing some piano prelude music at church this Sunday. In their minds, this means they should be attired in new dresses. I couldn't find any flaws in their thinking. Pictures were drafted. Colors were requested. Saturday rolled around. It was overcast and rainy. People were tired from a busy week of school and schedules. No one cared that I was off in the sewing garage. One dress got finished on Saturday. The next dress got finished on Monday morning. There will be two new dresses for their big piano debut. With time to spare...

I'll follow up next week with the dresses on the models:

Dress #1:

The Marissa Pattern

by: Jennifer Paganelli

I bought the pattern on May 8th. It took until September 18 to make it.

It was a flawless pattern. I will be making it again. The fit is so darling I can barely stand it. One complaint, it calls for an invisible zipper, but the zipper insertion instructions aren't really for an invisible zipper. It's a tiny detail. I can fix that the next time around.

I had exactly two yards of this Jennifer Paganelli fabric left in my stash from Korea! Jane is so happy about the whole thing, and so am I.

Dress #2:

Ruby gets these ideas in her head. They are very particular. It is very hard to be so specific in what you want, and merge that together with your mother's imperfections.

This dress is a compromise for her. Somewhere in the middle of what she wanted, and what I could provide. She completely fell apart about it at one point. She is being remarkable upbeat and appreciative about it now. She is learning.

I think it's very sweet. She pictured it in her mind with white lacy socks, a black headband, and shiny black Mary Janes. Oh, to be six again.

You can't tell from these pictures, but that little white trim is also along the bottom hem. The dress is a fine whale corduroy. I was excited to try sewing with something new. You can't iron fine corduroy very much/at all. It was easy to work with though. I will try it again before the corduroy season is over.

This is my own design. No pattern. I like to use the sleeve piece and the a-line front and back piece from the Oliver and S Jump Rope dress. But I kind of just wing it after that.

The tuxedo front detail idea I did borrow from HERE.

Though I do sew, in general I don't feel very crafty. It's why I don't ever venture into the realm of hair accessories. But with a few extra days on my hands and the dresses completed, this hair accessory is sort of tempting me. We'll see...

Source: themotherhuddle.com via Annee on Pinterest

I had to have one.

2011-09-12T00:10:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago when Annee posted THIS dress, I was floored with how darling it was. Not to mention I was yet again impressed with my Sew Sister's sewing skills. She's got mad talent. Mad. Her mini maxi dress was stunning, and I just knew I wanted Grace to have her very own. I figured it was a tricky pattern and I would just covet it for a while, but Annee linked to the tutorial she followed to help make the bodice, and I started thinking maybe it wasn't so far fetched that I could make one. Then within like 24 hours Summer busts out her own maxi dress.

And then I knew, Grace to have one.

I pulled out some knit I found at the Michael Levine Loft (where you dig through bins and fabric is sold by the weight - totally awesome) in the LA Fabric District, and started cutting. The knit is darling, but it was so sheer, so I had to line the bodice. You can see a peek of the teal knit I used to line the bodice here: (Look closely.)

Sewing the bodice wasn't a problem because I was sewing multiple layers of my thin knits together. (My bodice pattern could use some more tweaking, but the actually sewing wasn't a problem.) However, when I started trying to sew the skirt my maxi dress construction came to a screeching halt. My knit kept getting stuck under the needle and my machine and I were at war with getting this darn dress sewn. I actually tucked it all away in the sewing room for several weeks before I had the idea of putting tissue paper under the knit to prevent it from getting caught under the needle.

It worked like a charm. It was a messy process, but I'd like to think that the messier the sewing space while creating something, the better the end results.

See what I mean by sheer?

In the end, I think it turned out pretty darn cute. At first it was a bit too long, so I took some length off the bodice, and I still think I could take a little more.

However, Grace is going to grow in the next couple of months. Maxi dresses will still be in style in Spring, right? Maybe?

I'm just happy that the project was completed and didn't end up in the reject pile or the scrap bin. That would have been tragic.

That's a wrap here at

Made on

West Coast. Peace out!

Spread your wings.

2011-09-08T02:47:00.000-07:00

So here it is:

The Patchwork Shift.

Hand embroidered with the hope of my mother heart.

With a super simple placket (TUTORIAL HERE) down the back.

A touch of green floss to keep it spicy.

All to wrap her up in, a little on the "room to grow" size of things. Hoping she feels my love for her all the school day long.

I love watching them learn to Spread Their Wings.

A few links and details...

Inspiration first struck when I saw this adorable patchwork tunic over at "Me Sew Crazy". Unfortunately, when I followed the tutorial on a scrap piece of fabric, I just didn't like the end result (someday I'll show you the shirt that I think ended up looking like a medical scrubs shirt). So it was back to the drawing board to figure out what I'd make with my yard of handmade patchwork fabric.
I remembered this sweet a-line shift that Katy of No Big Dill made for her daughter's second birthday. I decided that with so much going on with my fabric, the dress design better be pretty streamline. Lucky for me Katy was gracious enough to email me back with some tips and pointers along the way. Thank you Katy!

A little more color

2011-09-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

Grace kept telling me over the weekend that today was purple day. Good thing I believed her. Her teacher showed up with a bright purple shirt on, so I was happy that Grace wore her pretty purple skirt. Sadly, it was hot today so the cute long sleeve Bow Shirt and matching tights weren't an option. Grace was bummed that I didn't have a purple shirt for her. Apparently it wasn't enough to just have a purple skirt.

Do you like Grace's fancy hair style? Do you need a french braid tutorial yet?

But, I think my favorite color this week is going to be black. When I made Grace's birthday Circle Skirt, I also made this Circle Skirt.

Have you made on of Dana's Circle Skirts? If not, you totally should, so your little girl can twirl and twirl and twirl. This skirt is really good for that.

I also added some simple white fabric flowers to a black shirt to go with the skirt.

These precious fabric flowers are from my Korean supply stash. I've been hoarding them for over a year. It was about time they made it on to something.

That's all for tonight. I have one more project to show, but I'm not happy with the pictures I took of it. I'll be sure to retake the pictures soon.

Color Week

2011-09-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well, my birthday girl started school. Kindergarten is a great year because as far as academics go I'm not concerned at all. This means I can focus on the more important stuff like what in the heck my kindergartner is going to wear to school! I'm kidding that clothing is more important, but when the cirriculum standard for the first couple months of the year calls for playing at school, I think I get to say clothing is a very critical part of this school year.

When Grace's teacher sent home a letter at the end of the first week of school saying that the second week of school was going to be Color Week I decided that I have sewn enough things for Grace that she could not only wear the colors she needed to wear each day, but she could wear a color coordinated handmade article of clothing each day.

The week started off with orange. I loved the little mini orange cardigan I made to go with The Little Mini Skirt. Unfortunately Grace didn't like the way the mini skirt felt at her waist, and she was concerned it was too tight to sit on the Magic Carpet. Sew, luckily Annee made Grace a skirt like 3 years ago that still fits that matches the orange cardigan.

Tuesday was yellow. (Or as Grace calls it "lellow.") Grace strutted her stuff to school in her Oliver & S Popover Sundress. There were only a couple of tears shed over having to wear this. Apparently I gave away the "lellow lellow" dress from Target that Grace wanted to wear. Admittedly I did give it away because it was too short. It's so sad when we grow out of our favorite things.

Wednesday was green day, and Grace got to wear her Little Bo Peep Skirt. It's a tad short, and Grace needed to be able to participate in P.E., so I bought a pair of leggings and hemmed them to capri length. I would have bought the cropped length leggings, but the Old Navy near me was sold out. I'm sew glad I know how to sew!

Thursday's color was brown. I washed the capri brown leggings Wednesday night, and Grace wore them with her Owl Tank Dress on Thursday.

Please excuse the messy background. I live in a house not a museum, and I know I could have stepped outside to take this picture, but it's cold here in the mornings.

Friday was a big day. It was blue. Now ever since I saw Annee's Library Skirt, I just knew I needed to make one.

In fact, when Henry was a couple of weeks old, and I was feeling a little frazzled, I would wander into my sewing space and just start looking at fabrics. I started way back in July cutting off selvedge edges that I thought would add to a Library Skirt of my own one day.

My mom was in town the first week of school, and she makes a great task master. She called me when she saw Annee's post about the Library Skirt many months ago and said she wanted one herself. While she was here last week, she made sure that Grace got her very own Library Skirt.

Grace loves it. Probably not as much as I do, but she does love it. I also made it big enough for her to wear through the 5th grade. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but still it's a tad on the long side.

I did a couple of things differently from the original tutorial. Instead of sewing each book together as she says too, I just ironed the long sides into the center like so:

Then I pinned them down to the linen skirt like crazy. I've washed the Library Skirt already, and so far I can't tell that my shortcut has any consequences other than it saved me a ton of time.

I also lined my Library Skirt by cutting a piece of muslin the exact same size as the skirt, placed it under the Library Skirt top, and serged them both together. I'm sure this might make some seamstresses cringe, but it saved me time and spared me from Grace complaining that her skirt was itchy.

If I was still a school teacher I might just make one of these skirts for myself. It's just such a clever idea!

That wraps up Color Week. Grace seems to think it carries into this week. If so, I'll have a black outfit for you. I didn't get a note home, so I'm not really sure Grace has her facts straight, but even if color week doesn't continue on this week, I have a cute outfit to share. This post is long enough or I'd add the black outfit to it. For now I'll spare you. But, get excited, MOM will be updated more than once this week!

The Baby Shower Committee

2011-08-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I was part of a Baby Shower Committee.

(I hope you are laughing when you read that word. It sounds very official, our committee was substantially less official. Mostly it means no single person had too much to do. That is the most awesome way to throw any party.)

Some of my responsibilities included

-Location

-Decorations

-Drink Dispenser

I like to believe that I performed my duties to the very best of my abilities...

Rather than going over the top with a theme, I simply went with a color palette.

Our guest of honor is having a little boy so my yarn wreath was able to get put to use!

The joy of party throwing via committee is that all of that beautiful food came from other people! I only provided the lemon bars, which you should probably make today.

Here's the recipe.

These are the best lemon bars you will ever make or eat. I promise.

Another joy of party throwing is the residual benefit of leftover fresh flowers scattered around the house.

Check out those mini cups with individual servings of mushroom risotto! Delicious.

It was such a fun party. I had a blast making my felt circle garland and little strands of bunting. The best part of my color palette is that I think these decorations will work quite nicely come Easter.

My little Ruby is already dreaming of the next baby shower we can host, when it's for a little girl. She has visions of tulle and pink. Sounds lovely...

Of course, a little something for the little man himself. I could not resist the opportunity to make another pair of quick-change trousers, with my favorite elephant onsie to go with it:

Birthday Stuff

2011-08-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was jammed packed full of birthday fun for Grace. She was so excited for honestly a year about this birthday and the party. I worked and worked to make the day special, and I'd say for having had a baby 2 months ago, I pulled off a pretty darn good day for this little one.

Sadly, I don't feel like she is so little any more, but I'm going to call her a little one until she's taller than me. (Which won't be long because I'm short!)

For the special occasion, I did manage to create a birthday outfit. It only took three days to make, but it got done, so I'm not complaining.

First up Grace got a fancy crown with jewels. She requested jewels which made me so happy because they got to be hot glued on. This saved me a lot of sewing and time.

She's sported a Circle Skirt. Thank you, Dana, for such a great tutorial. This was such an easy skirt. It does require a bit of fabric considering it's a skirt, but still the look is so darling, so it was worth the extra fabric!

And a birthday shirt was a must. I kept it very simple. Sewing still needs to be simple around here if I want to finish anything.

The whole look was so cute that she wore it on her birthday (Friday), and then I washed it so she could wear it to her party on Saturday.

The party was a huge success, but my all time favorite part of the party, was my new Birthday Wreath. Have you seen these??

I found the idea on Pinterest, and just knew that I had to have one. It's a pretty simple concept and simple wreath to make - 14" straw wreath with wrapper left on, 250+ balloons, and straight pins. There were several tutorials that suggested using floral pins. May I suggest that unless you foresee a balloon emergency in your future (the floral pins don't puncture the balloons like the straight pins), then just use regular sewing pins. Like these:

Trust me. I used both, and the straight pins were by far easier to use then the floral pins. I also only covered the front part of the wreath with balloons. No need to bother pinning on the back because no one is seeing it, and 250 balloons is enough balloons to buy don't you think?

This wreath is currently my favorite wreath. So sad that we just ended our birthday season at this house. We don't have another birthday until April. Anyone need to borrow the cutest darn birthday wreath ever?!

Oh, and the *G* was found in a clearance table at Michael's for $.79. I thought it was a nice touch for Grace's birthday, but it is easy to remove.

Later this week I might have another simple outfit for you. Sorry, but nothing too exciting and labor intensive is coming out of MOM West Coast for a bit. I'm sure you understand!

Four months in the making...

2011-08-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

It's done. I finished my queen size, Stacking the Odds quilt. I still need a bedskirt, a pair of lamps, and PILLOWS, but should we just celebrate for a second that something got done around here. And might I add, just barely before the "end of summer" deadline. School starts in exactly five days. That's the end of summer!!

Here she is from a few different angles, and in various shades of light. It took me two full days to quilt it, and three hours (from midnight to 3am!) to cut out and attach the binding. For quilting, I just did straightish lines to outline the boxes in the columns. Then I did series of straight lines on the borders. I could have benefitted from a walking foot. But was too darn cheap to add that expense onto this project. Maybe the next time I try to quilt a queen size quilt with straightish lines I should have that tool all lined up and ready to go. I don't know. Is the walking foot as magical as the world says it is? Or would I still end up with little puckers at my juncture points?!

I love that it coordinates with the new dresser. I should probably replace my red fabric in my hoops. They matched my old quilt. Mostly, I'm just so, so, so, so happy it's done. IT'S DONE!

Oh yeah, what's on the back you ask?! I couldn't bare to spend anymore hours on the project making the back all cute and pieced. It's a solid piece of Moda grey. I think the official name is "coal". I sure love the baby blue outline all around that dark grey backing. It's so perfectly lovely.

Hopefully these remain my favorite colors for many more years to come. I don't think "queen size quilt" is finding it's way to the top of my "to-do" list anytime soon. I am dreaming of dresses right now. School is starting in five days! I wish my ladies would be sporting new handmade outfits. It might not happen in time for the first day of school, but maybe in time for the first full week of school? Here's what's at the top of my list right now, CLICK.

Finally, I leave you with one final introduction. A shout-out to one of my favorite MOM fans! The day after I posted my mini-Maxi dress, we received a comment from favorite reader Summer saying she had already made her daughter Finley one of her very own. There was a flurry of emails that went back and forth because it was hard to believe that someone had whipped one out less than 24 hours after the post. But, that's Summer in a nutshell. And to think she said I have inspired her...she is the new inspiration. You can see her creations at her newly created creative blog, sevenpretty.com. Should we all admire her adorable mini-Maxi dress, whipped out in record time:

Seriously cute!

And if you ever find yourself over at pinterest.com, Summer is busy pinning up a storm of sewing inspiration.

Okay, one last long day at the beach with the kiddos to celebrate a summer well spent! Then back to the sewing machine...

Long Live Summer!

Back? and Back To School

2011-08-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

Hello! I've been in my sewing room, or rather I've moved my sewing machine to the dining room table so I can be in the center of the chaos should I choose to sew. Last week the Italian took the two oldest to his parent's house, and I was home alone with baby Henry. While it wasn't quite the same as his last trip where I sewed everything my heart desired, I was able to get something made which made me so happy. I'm in love with my new little baby, but the repetition of feeding, changing, swaddling, sleeping (or trying to get him to sleep) was in desperate need of something else. Something that allowed for me to be more creative.

Sew the Italian took off, and I got to work during nap time. It's Back To School time and I have a kindergartner who I believe needs an extensive BTS wardrobe. I've purchased some clothes, but I really wanted to make her some as well. I know in a few short years wearing handmade clothes by me might not be as cool to Grace as it is to me.

I made Grace another Tank Top Dress using leftover Tina Givens fabric I had from my mom's pajama pants.

I love the owls. Just love them. I am a tad bit sad that I made the dress a bit short. Grace wasn't here to measure, and I went based on the last Tank Top Dress, but it still ended up a little short. Darn. Oh well.

Grace also requested a fancy hairstyle to go with her new dress. French braiding is about as fancy as I get!

I then made another wreath. I've been the banner queen before, and now I think I'm moving in the direction of wreath queen. I made this Back To School one and I've also made a birthday one that I'll share later this week. Anyway, this wreath was SO easy. It takes no sewing and can be completed in an hour.

I took what was left of one of my favorite fabrics. It's Dick and Jane by Michael Miller. I thought it was perfect for the start of school. I cut what I had into 3 inch wide strips.

Then I took plain pins and wrapped the fabric around a 14 inch straw wreath. This took honestly 15 to 20 minutes. Sadly, I only had approximately a fat quarters and a 1/2 of fabric left, so if you look closely in some of these pictures you can see some of my pins. If I had all the time in the world, I would probably re-wrapped the wreath, but my time was limited, so I went with it. Probably if I didn't tell you you wouldn't have noticed??

The longest part of the process was making the fabric rosettes. Using this tutorial, I made 3 rosettes and then hot glued them to the wreath.

I debated on putting a mini bunting saying something like "learn" or "school" on the wreath, but I ended up keeping it simple. I could always add one. Opinions??

So there you have my comeback or what might be my comeback. Who knows. But I do have stuff to share later this week, and I have a sneaky suspicion that Annee might have a finished quilt adorning her bed. Crossing my fingers for a big reveal!!

OMG I sewed something!!

2011-08-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

Seriously, the last time I touched my machine was over two weeks ago. Really, probably closer to three. I don't know what to say, except I have one of the best tans of my entire life :) This summer hasn't been about sewing. I guess I'm okay with that. But when I was in a grumpy mood all of Thursday, I said to myself as I went to bed on Thursday night that I would sew on Friday, come hell or high water. I was going to sew. And sure enough, I did just that.

I've had this idea for a mini-Maxi dress in my mind ever since Ruby tried one on at Justice a few weeks ago. I hate the store Justice, and hope never to buy anything for my girls there. But just for fun on one of our trips, I let them each try on an outfit. Ruby tried on a leopard print maxi dress. I hated the dress, but I'll admit, I LOVED the fit of that dress. And that's when it occurred to me that I should make them Maxi dresses. I started day dreaming, and the dress finally got finished on Friday!!

Here it is. Keep in mind this is my rough draft/first version. I might need to make it a bit more roomy next time around? And for sure my rose has room for improvement. Anyway, this version is mostly my pattern pieces for making the next one. I hope I get to again, sooner than in three weeks!!

First step was making the top piece. I decided in order to add an element of design intrest I'd make it a racer back style dress. I had a few racer back tanks to use as rough pattern pieces, but I also got a lot of great info from Anna's tutorial over at Noodlehead's knit Monday series, where she showed how she recently made herself some racer back tank tops.

I just made the tank top in a cropped version, and then I added the next layer which was supposed to sort of be a high-waisted waist band. And then I started into my layers.

Each ruffle was 1.5 times the width of the layer it was being attached to.

The final ruffle hem is left officially un-hemmed. You've gotta love knit. However, I thought I could get away without serging inside either, and I will say that after only one wear, the seam that hits at Ruby's knees was splitting. Since it's a long dress, it's just too much pressure, right at that point where she does all of her kicking, bending, and skipping. So it's back out to the sewing garage for some reinforcement.

I totally love how it looks on Ruby. I love the racer back detail in the back. I think it looks so sporty/cute.

I hate my knit rose. I was totally rushing at that point since we needed to move on with our day. If I had it to do over again, I'd slow down and just do a better job. But I can't really take it off without making little holes in the top, so it's not worth it. I'll just get over it. I guess.

Because Ruby loves it and wore it all weekend long. And Jane is waiting rather impatiently for hers! Sewing on Friday accomplished exactly what I was hoping it would. Not only did Ruby get a new, one-of-a-kind dress, but I got to experience the one-of-a-kind joy that comes with creating something from nothing! Seriously, I'm going to sew again soon. Promise. Maybe.

Birthday Quilt

2011-07-27T01:55:00.000-07:00

I post this with some serious hesitation. Just know that I'm not really crazy. I'm going to leave it at that because if I take too long to explain myself my baby will wake up, and this post will never get done.

So right after I had my baby and while I was high on painkillers in the hospital, I thought about a stack of Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush fabric I had sitting in my sewing room. I have full yards of 7 different fabrics, and it was kind of eating away at me that it was going to be months most likely until I could get to it. Then I realized that my husband was going to be taking my two oldest kids to his folks house for a long weekend, and that I would have my mom around to help me with my new born baby.

An idea was born in my brain. What if I asked my mom, as a birthday present to me (my birthday was July 5th), if she would help me make a birthday quilt for myself while we had just Henry to take care of. Of course she said yes, and when I say help, I mean she held Henry if I needed her to while I sew.

Sew, I found the perfect quilt design that for some reason I thought would be super easy. Let me just testify to anyone out there reading this that "easy" and "quilting" should never be used in the same sentence. I mean it wasn't a difficult pattern, but quilting takes time and it requires repetitive steps and sewing which gets very tedious after a while. Anything that takes so much time should not be called easy!

However, I will also testify that quilting is always worth it. I mean just look at my version of the New Wave Quilt. It's gorgeous if I do say so myself.

My own secret or hot tip when sewing this is I did a little stack n' wack on the trapezoids that you have to cut. I first cut my fabric into 6 inch by 9 inch rectangles, and then using my rotary cutter and ruler I angled my ruler and made the necessary cuts that Oh, Fransson! says you to make when creating the template. Sorry if that makes no sense. I wasn't thinking when I made the quilt, and I have no pictures at all of the process. Leave a comment if you need a more detailed explanation.

I even inscribed my Birthday Quilt. Happy Birthday to me! (You'll need to read that upside down because of the way I hung my quilt and took the pictures. Oops!)

The back was a bit trick to design (I just didn't know what to do). I'm totally in love with the back as much as I am the front.

My only complaint about my quilt is my FMQ isn't totally awesome. I've done better, but this is a minor issue, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that will ever notice any flaws.

Now, readers, I'm going back to maternity leave. I'm really not sure when I'm returning. Mothering 3 little ones under the age of 5 is a wee bit exhausting, and most nights I'm turning in right after my kids are asleep. My sewing nights are a thing of the past for a little bit. Once we get everyone (mainly Henry) on a decent sleeping schedule, I'm sure you'll hear from me again. Hopefully it's sooner, rather than later!

Tootles for now!

Made on Maple's Littlest Model

2011-07-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

Baby Henry is asleep on the floor beside me as I type this. His being asleep at all during the day is a miracle. Henry is a sensitive baby, so he requires being held a lot, and if I'll hold him during nap time he can sleep for hours and hours at a time. If I dare to put him in his cozy bassinet, I'm lucky if he'll sleep an hour. It's a good thing he's a darling little baby, so I don't mind holding him and I don't mind not getting anything done during the day. So I'm not sure when you'll see me back here on MOM on a regular basis, but I do have a two posts for you this week. (Hopefully.)

I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of the items I made Henry before he was born. I think the favorite thing I made, and the thing I've definitely used the most, are the felt letters and numbers to keep up with the quickly passing days. I've done a photo shoot almost every day to document his little life. As a third child, I don't have tons of time during the day to just whip out the camera and snap shots, so with these letters and numbers I at least know Henry's getting one picture a day.

I'm also loving the little onesies I made for him, and he's also worn his Quick Change Trousers a couple of times. It's been warm here, so he hasn't worn the pants as much, but I made them long, so hopefully he won't grow out of them before the weather changes.

My Simple Baby Quilt has been the perfect thing to lay on the floor when Henry's up from his nap and pleasant.

Annee made me some pacifier clippies, and I've never had a baby that takes a pacifier. However, little Henry came out with a sucking blister on his finger because he liked sucking his fingers so much in the womb, so he seems to be soothed by a pacifier, and the clippies have definitely come in handy. Thank you, Annee!

And, last but not least, the Henry Blanket that Annee made for Henry has been a huge hit in this house. It's light weight, so I can cover him while he's in his swing, or lay it on the floor for him to stretch out on. Such a simple blanket, but with so much potential. I love it!

Cross your fingers I get time to do another blog post this week. I have something really pretty to share. Now back to my maternity leave. Henry needs me!

Summer sewing.

2011-07-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

I don't know how summer sewing is working out for you, but it's not exactly going according to my "plan" around here. Often times, I'll think I'm sneaking out to my sewing garage to work on something, and before long, two little ladies have found their way out there as well. I shouldn't mind. After all, I'm trying to set an example about creativity around here. But sometimes, I really want to get something done. And rarely what I want to get done, and what they think I should make, match up. Case in point; I think I was going to try to make something cute for the girls for the 4th of July. Note the red-white-and-blue fabric. In the end, Cinderella ended up with this really smashing outfit. And as per usual, once it was done, Ruby was depressed that it was too big on the top (and it kind of was). I was too frustrated to go pick anything apart, so I just folded the straps over, and sewed right across them. To be sure, this is not one of my finest moments of sewing, but it illustrates my point.

Yeah, my piping got stuck going the wrong direction. Again, wasn't going to un-pick anything. This was supposed to be a quick project! I thought, to salvage the afternoon, and after appeasing Ruby, that I could still make Ruby something matching to her doll. But soon enough, Jane found out what was going on in the sewing garage and starting picking out fabric, zippers and trim for her doll dress. And that's when I just said, "Let's go to the pool".

Anyway, do you need to make a dress for your little dolls? It might be essential. If you do, might I steer you towards this super helpful free pattern, right HERE. It really was a great, easy pattern. Had I been in a better mood about the whole thing, I might have been super excited about this project!

Let me also point out, you can just as easily put in velcro instead of the zipper. Ruby even wondered why I hadn't done that. She told me all of her other doll clothes had velcro. I told her since this was homemade, it was supposed to be better than her other clothes. But I don't think she totally agreed.

Oh well. I'm surrendering. I will sew here and there. There will be an occasional burst of sewing creativity. But mostly it's summer time, and I'm mom to four kids, who are home, all day long. In case you were wondering. I shouldn't lose sight of that.

When I found a quiet moment today, I pulled back out my quilt! It's going to get done. Today I worked on the backing. Did you see the dresser I painted? I purposely painted it to match my quilt. Every time I walk into my room and see the dresser, I think, "I should finish my quilt". I keep telling Liz every week my goal is to finish my quilt. And every week, it doesn't happen. I'm changing that goal. Now, the new goal is to finish it by the end of summer. That's just the pace around here.

Lastly, I've had some questions about the envelop style diaper clutch. I don't have a specific tutorial for the clutch going in this direction. I just used a wipes case as my template to create pattern pieces from. After that, I mostly used the directions from this tutorial, to help me figure out how to make it.

If I ever get around to it, I should go ahead and make a tutorial. I feel like there is no shortage of diaper clutch tutorials out there, but maybe there is a shortage for the clutch going in this direction? But not before I finish my quilt :)

Liz had a baby.

2011-07-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

Which gave me the perfect excuse to get back to sewing. The dresser took up a lot of time and space! I decide to set a deadline for myself for these little projects. Or else, I might have still been sewing them when little Henry was turning 1. Let's just say that summer sewing isn't all that I had dreamed it would be.

I knew he needed a blanket that announced his name. Since there was so much discussion about it for the whole nine months that Liz was pregnant, when a decision was made, a blanket with his name on it was in order. It is backed with the softest Moda flannel. I just couldn't bare to back it in a fuzzy minky given the heat of the summer!

Next, a baby gift was the perfect excuse to buy a fat quarter of Birch's latest organic cotton. The bike print was irresistible.

A little shot of my last bit of a favorite ribbon from Korea.

I was so excited when I saw pictures of baby Henry with a pacifier in his mouth. I've been wanting to try the MADE tutorial for these pacifier holders. I've had the suspender clips in the collection for probably a year!

Finally a little diaper clutch in a fat quarter of Nicey Jane. Another fabric I've been waiting to use.

Of course, no gift to Liz would be complete without a little touch of Anna Maria Horner fabric!

Thanks for having a baby Liz. It felt so great to sew again.

A little before and after LOVE:

2011-07-11T03:17:00.000-07:00

A while back I bought a dresser on my trip to Virginia. I could see in it something more than it was, sitting there, outside of the barn, where it was for sale...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

After fully sanding it down (with my new power sander!), filling in the hardware holes, priming it with an all purpose primer, and two coats of a Benjamin Moore semi-gloss shade of blue, I was satisfied.

But I wasn't fully happy until I came upon these Anthropologie knobs. When I saw them, I knew the dresser would finally look finished!

In the most perfect shade of yellow. Sigh.

It was a most satisfying furniture make over. It was however, more work than I imagined it out to be. These projects always are. Will I do it again?

How could I not?!

Are you getting ready for the 4th of July?

2011-06-30T03:19:00.000-07:00

Well, this is as far as I got with my decorating this year. I was most grateful to Liz for posting the tutorial to get me motivated to make one for myself.

I had to go with fabric pinwheels instead of yo-yos. That's how much I dislike making yo-yos. Maybe if I practiced a bit more I'd get good at them. For now, I hate making them.

Besides, I thought the pinwheels were appropriately festive. Do you recognize the use of my Sherbet Pips charm pack? It was kind of a stretch to use them in a red-white-and blue/grey color scheme, but I was hoping my neighbors would forgive me my creative license (who else would care what color my wreath is?!).

The best part about this project is how versatile it's going to be. For now it is decorated for the 4th of July, but when that fun holiday comes and goes, just watch my wreath transform itself into a colorful summer wreath. Are you getting excited?

The Library Skirt.

2011-06-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

Friends, how can I ever compete with Liz's greatest creation of all?! Anything I showcase from here on out, in the next couple of weeks, will pale in comparison to her sweet baby Henry!

All the same, I stumbled upon the skirt competition taking place over at Crafterhours, when they were in the midst of voting. Suddenly I saw this beauty, and a tutorial to boot. I was like a hooked-fish. Nothing else in my life was going to happen until I had recreated one of our very own! To make it even more awesome, this was originally a scrap busting type project, which Susan of Living with Punks came up with. It just so happened that I had exactly 1/2 yard of white linen remaining in my stash from Korea, which meant I got to get started right away!

Don't you love when something takes you by creative storm like that?! This skirt was hot off the presses when Ruby came home from the pool this afternoon, and she wanted to go instantly into our "library" for the photo shoot, which she mostly directed. She has since informed me that she will be wearing this skirt every time she has "library day" at school this fall. Awesome!

Without further ado, here is Ruby loving her moment in the spotlight with all her heart:

(I don't know about you, but I have a huge crush on my "E" pillow. Found it on clearance at Home Goods for $9. What the?! I could not walk away from it)

Oh boy! That was a good time. The tutorial was clear and straight forward. The skirt construction itself is super simple, but this is a time consuming project with the creation of each individual little book. And I don't know if it's just me, or if it has something to do with the nature of the project (going through the scraps, looking for the perfect selvage edge, etc.), but my sewing room looks like a tornado has just ripped through it. On the agenda tomorrow, now that the library skirt is out of my system, is to restore order to the sewing garage. I have at least one more little show-and-tell before this week is over too. I have pinned one other skirt from the Crafterhours competition, let's see if I have it in me...

My Greatest Creation

2011-06-27T02:02:00.000-07:00

I've created a lot of things over the past 9 months, but nothing compares to my greatest creation...

Henry

Born June 23rd

Brought home from the hospital in a Made on Maple whale onesie and matching Quick Change Trousers

and photographed every day of his life (so far) with felt letters and numbers and some other Made on Maple props.

I'm in baby heaven.

Sewing at the hospital...

2011-06-23T01:45:00.000-07:00

TOTALLY KIDDING! You'd really think I was crazy if I took my sewing machine to the hospital. I do have some limits.

You are reading this Thursday morning because I scheduled it Wednesday night. There were no rooms at the hospital for me on yesterday, so instead of letting my anxiety (and the heat wave we are having) get the best of me Tuesday night, I decided to sew.

Before the last post Annee did about the Leisurely Dress, we talked over the phone about how silly were both were to fear elastic thread. (I call my phone calls to Annee MoM Board Meetings, and my husband, the Italian, he calls them Bored Meetings. Clearly he doesn't understand how exciting the prospects of things like elastic thread are!!)

She reassured me I would be just as pleasantly surprised when I ventured into the world of elastic thread as she was, so last night I pulled out a yard of Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop that has been sitting in my stash begging to be used. I ironed it up and got to work. Friends, it was a success!

I had the whole dress done in a little under 2 hours, and I finished it up Wednesday morning once I measured the straps on Grace. I opted to not do ties, and I wanted a criss cross back so i don't have to worry about straps falling down.

Love this little number. I'm sure I'll be shirring in future. It might even be my comeback project.

Okay, I'm really signing off now for a couple of days/weeks/months (I hope not months). Until I get my life together with a new baby, I'll be out of the sewing room. I'll be sure to post my babe with the creations I made for him, but there won't be new stuff from Made On Maple West Coast for a bit.

Tootles, again!

At your leisure.

2011-06-22T03:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back, when we returned from the beach I had a mini sewing crisis. I suddenly didn't know what I should sew anymore. I texted Liz in a wee bit of a panic, that I thought my sewing days were behind me! She calmly sent me an email in reply with a few super helpful hints. Liz suggested that I start, where I almost always start, sewing something for my two favorite ladies.

Liz sent me a linke to a FREE pdf file for a dress called the Leisurely Dress that was recently showcased on Sew Mama Sew.

I read through the whole pattern and thought it would get filed away and bookmarked because it required the ever elusive technique of sewing with elastic thread in my bobbin. I know it's all the rage, and seemingly so totally simple, yet it's a technique I have stayed away from, thinking it wasn't for me. In short, I was afraid of the elastic thread. Can you imagine I had Liz mail me elastic thread to Korea several years ago because I thought I was on the verge of shirring something with it. I backed out, and so the elastic thread has sat in the thread box for over two years!

Friends, DO NOT BE AFRAID OF ELASTIC THREAD. Here is what I did. I took a 12 inch piece of a fabric scrap. I hand wound a bobbin with elastic thread (I thought this was the hardest step, but seriously, just wind up a bobbin, by hand with the elastic thread. That's all there is to it.). Then, I simply sewed a straight line across my 12 inch piece of fabric. Like magic, the fabric started getting a bit gathered and stretchy. When I finished, I walked over to my ironing board, where I blasted it with some hot steam, and the whole thing shrunk up, just as the instructions said it would.

With that simple success, I was convinced that I have every skill required to make some Leisurely Dresses.

And so I did:

I made them out of the Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush fabric that was collecting dust on my shelf. At one point I thought I was saving it for a quilt, but then after some careful introspection I realized I didn't actually want to do that.

So I turned it all into dresses! And I'm so very glad that I did.

The pattern comes with two variation of how to finish the top. In the dress above you can see that I made a 3/8" wide casing, which is used to slipped a single piece of elastic through which measured their chest measurement, minus an inch. This is Jane's favorite variation.

The second variation is to simply do four rows of the elastic thread along the top, just like you do at the waist. Ruby doesn't mind it this way. Jane had a real problem with that ruffly top under her arm pits. She's a bit more fastidious in her preferences. But you know, all kids have different things that bug them. I loved these dresses, but that doesn't matter at all, if they aren't comfortable. I was glad to have the two different variations to test out, and get it just right for Jane and her arm pits.

Once I overcame my fear of the elastic thread, these became the easiest dresses I've ever made. I think I made the second one in less than two hours! Who can resist a summer project that is so speedy?! The Leisurely Dress, I highly recommend it as a quick summer sewing project. The instructions were clear and well written, I didn't have any frustration with the pattern. Have fun!!

Trying to come back.

2011-06-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

Yo. If only I had half as much zing, whether "nesting" or not, as Liz has at 39 weeks pregnant, this blog might be truly out of control. But alas, every good relationship is made out of a "ying" and a "yang". My las post was on May 30th?!! What the heck?

Remember the beach quilt? It was so lovely to sleep on at the beach. You have no idea how much happiness it brought to me while I was laying upon the sand. The beach was lovely. I didn't sew for over two weeks. It's being really hard to get my zip back. Maybe it's because we also wrapped up our school year, and I now share my long and lazy summer days with a house full of four kids and a husband?! But I've promised Liz to keep things hopping over here while she's busy laboring, and nursing, and sleeping, and not-sleeping, etc. I must give her some reading material in the wee hours of the night when she's up with her wee little one! So, a promise is a promise, and I'll be here, posting at a slow and steady summer pace.

I have just returned within the last 24 hours, from a speedy trip up to Virginia to visit my sister. It was dreamy. She has been living in Virginia for the past two years and she's become very familiar with an awesome variety of vintagy, cottagey, barn-type furniture stores. She goes all the time. She's always scoring amazing pieces of furniture at enviable prices. See HERE, HERE and HERE (I got to sleep in the guest bedroom with that armoire. It's just as charming, if not more so, in person)! Jaloux? I know I am. It was time that I went with her on one of her weekend jaunts.

I drove up late Thursday night. Though I think I arrived past the Fitzgeralds bedtime, they were gracious enough to wait up for me. Though I am certain they could have fallen asleep, we proceeded to chat into the wee hours of the morning. I felt awful for keeping them up so late, but it was too fun to want to go to sleep either. Friday morning they had real life things to do, I only had vacation life things to do, like sleeping in, and then heading out to The Old Lucketts Store.

I quickly spotted this sweet little chest, and was rather smitten:

But friends, it was my first stop on a weekend shopping trip, I had to show restraint, not to mention it wasn't going to fit in my Camry. But I'm still wondering if I shouldn't have left it behind! You know, the doors didn't always shut right, and the drawers wouldn't slide out smoothly. But it's so sweet, isn't it?!

Next stop was My Wits End in Leesburg, VA. Where my heart skipped a beat for this sweet little table. It's the exact shade of red that I dream of at night!

Though this would have fit in the Camry, I'm just not an impulse buyer. I need time to stew and hem, and mentally arrange and rearrange. It's hard to do on a speedy weekend getaway. Were I twenty minutes from Leesburg, I have a sneaking suspicious that I'd be driving back there on Monday morning to see if it was still there...

Dear Everyone in Leesburg,

You really don't want to buy this table. It's too boring for you.

Love,

Annee

Later that night, after going out to dinner with my brother and his family, in addition to the Fitzgeralds, Rachel and I pulled up the handy yarn wreath tutorial by: Liz, and started making yarn balls. Here's the proof:

Crafting on a Friday night with one's sister. Does life get any better?!

I may or may not have had to call and interrupt Liz's hot Friday night date to ask a super important Yarn Wreath question. I will give full details in just a few days...

On Saturday we headed to Chartreuse and Co's once a month barn sale. It was so visually charming, I was happy just taking pictures.

And then finally, the piece I simply couldn't leave without. It's strange what finally makes you decide to purchase something at one of these places. In the end, I LOVE the curved design on the front of this dresser. The drawers worked. It has all of it's hardware intact (though a bit loose). And finally, it was the fact that it wasn't painted. Oh boy do I love a little summer painting project!! The endless possibility is what got me all excited to call this one mine!

But guess what?! It did NOT fit in the Camry (though we tried mightily!!!). It is now sitting in the back of Rachel's small SUV until we devise a grand scheme to meet somewhere halfway Between VA and NC where we'll put it in the trunk of my VAN, and I'll finally be reunited with my little barn treasure.

One last stop on Saturday at an Asian antique importer, had me dreaming of my days in Korea again, and being so happy that I purchased my yellow butterfly chest in Asia, before needing to pay an American importer for one in America! When Rachel has saved up the required $2450 or so to buy this amazing piece, I have no doubt that she will :)

I only hope she's wearing something yellow on that very special day!

And that wraps it up. A weekend getaway. I promise I have also sewn a thing or two in the past couple of days, so I hope to be back here again real soon.