Castle Birthday Cake

My little boy, I mean husband, requested a castle birthday cake for his birthday. This is what I came up with. He was pleased and the kids thought it was great so I guess it was a success.

Fat Quarter Swap

Today I received my last two fat quarters in the mail. The paisley design is from Ann in OH and the other is from Allison in WA. I like both of them very much. I can't wait to use them. I'm sad that the swap is over because it has been fun to look forward to the mail. Thanks everyone!

Felt Hairclip Tutorial

Above is a little sampling of some of the felt clips that I have made for my daughter, for gifts, and for party favors. They are fun! I will go through the steps that I take to make the basic "sleeve" for the clip and then discuss how I made certain clips.

I start with contoured hairclips available in drugstores, etc. The one I am using here is a Goody brand clip. I trace each one because every brand is shaped slightly differently. I open the clip, turn it over and press down a bit as I trace.

Then I do one of two things. I either pin it to the felt and sew on the line, or cut around the paper and stitch close to it (see below). The first way is more precise but will make your needle less sharp. You could just reserve an old needle for this purpose. You could also try one of the disappearing inks. Fold the felt so that one piece is shorter than the other (see below). Stitch.

This is what you get. Then trim close to the stitching, evenly all the way around.

You end up with a little sleeve for the hairclip.

Now you get to the fun part, decorating. The options are endless. Today I decided to make a pink and brown butterfly clip. So I cut a piece of pink felt into a butterfly shape and embellished it with embroidery floss stitches.

Then I used hotglue, but tacky glue should work also, to attach the butterfly to the clip. I use a little glue to attach the felt to the clip so that the "sleeve" doesn't slip off. And you are done!

For the bunny clip, http://duringquiettime.blogspot.com/2009/02/easter-hairclips.html, I started with a 1 inch white pom pom and used hot glue to attach tiny googly eyes. I made the whiskers with embroidery floss which I then separated out into the individual whiskers. The nose is an embroidery floss knot. First I glued on the felt ears (with pink stitches) and then the pom pom.

Please feel free to post links to your clips in my comments section. I'd love to see them.

Fat Quarter Swap

I received another fat quarter today from the Sew Mama Sew swap. This one is from Ashley from IL and I love the blue and black design. I don't have a plan for it yet but I look forward to using it soon!

Summer Outfit

I came across a great find at JoAnn's recently. I found this fabric, made for JoAnn's, with a winter white background and great brightly colored trees and flowers scattered on it. It was on sale too which is even better! I made my daughter this summer time outfit following McCall's pattern M5416. Next time I use the pattern, I will make the armholes a little lower and the straps a little longer. I had hoped it would be big enough so that in the fall she could wear the top over a brown turtleneck because I thought that would be cute too. Sadly, I am pretty sure she will outgrow it by then. But, there is always the hope that it will fit her little sister during the right season!

Easter Hairclips

I made these little felt hairclips for my 3 year old daughter to wear around Easter time. They are just made of felt, embroidery floss, googly eyes and pompoms. If there is any interest in a tutorial, I will put one together. It's fun to come up with different ways to decorate hairclips. I normally make more hairbows attached to either clips or barrettes but every now and then I get on a roll with these.
My 6 year old son put together the picture below for comic effect.

Fat Quarter Swap

Sew, Mama, Sew is hosting a fat quarter swap http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=736. I thought that it sounded like fun so I decided to participate. I recently sent out 4 fat quarters of Hoffman Pink Brown Floral Batik. I really like the fabric so I hated to see it go! I hope that those who receive it like it as well.

I can't wait to receive my fat quarters in the mail now. One came yesterday from Amanda in CA. Thank you Amanda!

Apple Pie in Memory of Grammie

My dear grandmother passed away at the end of January this year, just shy of her 91st birthday. Today is her birthday and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than to bake an apple pie. My grandmother made the world's best pies, especially apple, in my opinion. She had attempted to teach my mom to bake pies when she was younger but my mom grew so frustrated with her crust once that she threw it across the kitchen! That was her last attempt as far as I know. So, when I was an early teen, I asked Grammie to teach me. Today, I made an apple pie to share with my mom, in celebration of what would have been Grammie's 91st birthday, using her pastry blender that my Aunt set aside for me. I feel that it was the perfect celebration and I think I might do this annually.

Itty Bitty Baby Dress, from Made by Rae

I just tried the tutorial on the Made by Rae blog, http://www.madebyrae.blogspot.com/, for the Itty Bitty Baby dress. It is just so sweet, you have to try it! I made it in the slightly larger size, for a 9-11 pound baby.

The turquoise floral version has lace trim at the waist and homemade binding along the bottom. My favorite, the pink and green version, has pintucks in the center front with handsewn embellishments on either side, and homemade piping at the waist. I left the bottom plain but if I had a piece of lace in the house, I might have added it there. I think this might be our baby's coming home outfit. She might need a little sweater too though. Wouldn't a lacy pale pink sweater be sweet with it? If only my knitting skills were better!

Thank you Made by Rae!

Butterfly in February

This summer, we found caterpillars that became black swallowtail butterflies living on my parsely and hyssop in the herb garden. Once we identified them, we let them eat my plants and put them in an empty aquarium on the back porch so that we could watch them turn into a chrysalis and then emerge as a butterfly. At the end of the fall, there was one chrysalis left and it was too cold out so we assumed that the butterfly would hibernate till the fall and then emerge. We clipped the branch to a magnet on the side of our fridge. And there it remained until this morning. Imagine my surprise as I was unloading bowls from the dishwasher and noticed a little black flutter beside my hand! The butterfly had foolishly emerged thinking that spring had sprung! We obviously can't set it free outside since the temperatures are hovering around freezing for the highs. So, we closed it into our sunroom, set it on a plant, made butterfly nectar and left it an orange. We are hoping it will survive. How strange it is to see a butterfly, turn, and see a yard full of snow!

Flower Hairclip Hanger Tutorial

This is an easy little project but it looks cute and is practical too, especially if you share my hairclip making addiction! I first made it as a quick birthday gift for a little girl in my son’s kindergarten class with a few hairclips on it. I thought it made a nice gift and is not too time consuming. The possiblilities are endless. The top doesn't need to be a flower. It could be a ladybug or an animal head, etc. Please post links to your hairclip hangers in my comments section. I'd love to see them.

Materials list:
7” x 13” piece of fabric
scrap of felt or fleece or other non fraying material
6” length of narrow ribbon (3/8” grosgrain used here, can use narrow rick rack)
30” length of wider ribbon (7/8” grosgrain used here)
fray check product such as Aleene’s STOP Fraying
decorative button
Fiberfill

1. Cut out pattern pieces A and B. See here for pattern: hairclip hanger.pdf
2. Place pattern piece A on the 7” x 13” piece of fabric that has been folded in half, right sides together.
3. Fold the ribbon that will be used for the hanger and place it at the top of the flower and pin. Fold up the longer ribbon and pin the excess together (use a safety pin if you are smart). Place it at the bottom of the flower and pin.

4. Stitch close to the pattern edge, leaving a small opening to turn.
5. Trim and clip the edges. Turn flower and press.

6. Stuff and handsew opening.
7. Sew on button. I hid the knots under the button to made a more finished looking back.

8. Cut 2 or more leaves using pattern piece B, from non fraying material. Pin along ribbon.
9. Using embroidery floss, I made simple stitches around the edges of the leaf and down the center. These stitches served to attach the leaves but also as embellishment. You could choose to be fancier with your embroidery.

10. Cut the bottom edge of the ribbon at an angle and use the fray check product along the raw edge.
11. Hang and fill with hairclips!

Paperwhites are Growing!

The paperwhites that I planted nearly 2 weeks ago are suddenly shooting up an inch a day it seems! They have buds too. I expect blossoms in about another week and I am looking forward to it since we got more snow again today. I put them on the second tier of my plant stand hoping that the opening above would serve as stakes sort of to hold the flower up since paperwhites have a tendancy to flop. Looking forward to spring.....

Fun with Appliques

My daughter is in between pant sizes at the moment so I made her two pairs of new pants in the past couple of days. She has a favorite stuffed doggie and asked that one pair have dog appliques. The other she left up to me. I decided to go with free form flowers because I found the calico fat quarter that matched the pants material so well. I just sketched a flower shape similar to the one on the calico for the applique. I placed the flowers on different spots on each pant leg instead of on the knees. I learned my lesson about that last year when I made a pair of pink pants with heart appliques on the knees. They were in the correct spot for all of a couple of weeks before she had a growth spurt and they were between her knees and ankles and looked silly!

When I applique, I use a layer of Wonder Under Fusible Web to attach the appliques to the garment with a narrow, tight, zig zag to finish the edges. For the flower applique, I cut out the center shape and pinned it to the flower applique and stitched around it with the same zig zag stitch to make the inner ring seen in the close up of the flower.

I have attached the sketches that I used for the appliques as a pdf file below. Anyone is free to use them for noncommercial purposes. If you make anything using the appliques, please post a link in my comments section because I'd love to see them!

Dog, Paw, and Freeform Flower Applique Pattern

Easter Dress!

I tend to be one of those planning types who likes to do things in advance. I can't help myself. So, I had begun thinking about making my daughter's Easter dress recently when I came across the "Bunny and Bird Squares Pink ~ Hannah" fabric on clearance in the sewmama shop! I couldn't resist. I thought it would make an adorable dress.

I made a simple dress that shows off the fabric. I used McCall's pattern 8675 but added ties and a bow in the back. My daughter is happy with it because it twirls so nicely. It has a huge circle skirt. The pattern used three yards and the dress actually feels a little bit heavy because the skirt is so full.

Baby's Room

AFTER




BEFORE

Lately a lot of our time has been spent gutting and renovating a bedroom for the baby. My husband did all the gutting and put in a new ceiling and walls, a new window sill, new baseboards to match damaged ones and a new built in bookshelf. He had a day of help from my father and one from my father-in-law which helped too! I helped with the painting once the priming was done. The room is tiny but it is oh so cute! Now I can have fun planning curtains and filling the bookshelf. Any ideas for homemade wall decorations?