Monday, November 30, 2009

Poppy Doll In Progress

Lucy's first birthday is coming up in less than a week, and I decided to make her a doll! I saw this pattern

And I could not get over the cuteness of it all. I went over to Hop Skip Jump and purchased a pattern of my very own.

This is what it's supposed to look like when I'm done...

But we'll see what actually happens :). I've had a lot of fun making it, but I'm beginning to realize why she sells the already-made dolls for $95.. it's so much work!

This is what I have so far... sorry for the creepiness!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

60 Flights...

... in one year!!!! Lucy tells us how she feels about air travel.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Itty Bitty Dress

I used some birthday money to buy a pattern for this sweet little dress, and it's so great! It's quick and simple and only requires a small bit of fabric and some 1/4 inch elastic. I've made two so far. The one in the photo is made from a sheet that I bought from Saver's (I bought so many awesome sheets and pillowcases from there to use as fabric!). I love how it looks with little leggings (I'm totally obsessed with leggings on her, by the way).

Please ignore the giant crease down the middle :).

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Radio Interview

Dave and I had a chance to visit the K-LOVE studios this Friday. We spent an hour in the studio with afternoon DJ's Scott and Kelli. It was A LOT of fun. I hope you enjoy listening:)

The interview segments are at the beginning, 7:17, 27:58, and 44:19.

JJ Heller 11/20/09 KLOVE Interview from The Secret Life Of Kat on Vimeo.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Finally!!!!

For basically her entire life, Lucy has not had a friendly relationship with food. When she was a few weeks old, she almost stopped eating completely. We found out that she had acid reflux, and she began taking medication which worked pretty well, but it was a continued struggle to get her to eat enough milk.

Then we added baby food to her regimen, and she hated it. We FINALLY started to feed her real, grown-up food, and she loves it! She can't get enough. Whenever Dave and I are eating, Lucy always crawls over to us and whines as she opens and closes her hands until we share some of our food with her. I'm SO relieved that she likes eating now! Avocados are her favorite (as pictured below :).




Monday, November 16, 2009

If You Want to Make One

A friend of mine just wrote with some questions about the birthday crown I just made for Lucy, and just when I was about to send off the email, I thought some of you might be interested in some crown-making tips as well!

If I was really ambitious, I would take photos of all of these steps and post them next to each instruction, but... I just spend 8 hours traveling from Abilene, TX to Phoenix, AZ, and I'm really tired :).

Here's what I wrote to my friend....

To answer some of your questions.. I did use elastic in the back. I chose black because I knew white would start to get dingy over the years. The felt part of the crown is 12.5 inches and the elastic part is 4.5 inches (I actually made the elastic about 2 inches longer to start with, but it was too big for lucy's tiny head, so I just tacked it on both sides to make it 4.5 inches. It ended up working out great because when she gets older, I can just take out those few stitches and lengthen the elastic back to it's original length).

I used a medium weight stabilizer in between the two layers. I'm not sure if there's a difference between stabilizer and interfacing, but mine doesn't have any sort of fuzibility (if that's a word).

I would also probably recommend using real wool felt so that it's more durable. They didn't have the colors I wanted in the wool felt at Joann when I went, so i just chose synthetic. When I was working with it, though, it left this weird film on my hands. It's not a big deal, but I probably would choose a higher quality material next time.

Also, for the trim... make sure there's no lead in it. I originally chose a different trim, but when I was taking up to the counter to get cut, I noticed a warning on it that it contains lead! Needless to say, I chose a different one.

It was definitely easy to draw the outline of the crown onto the felt, then sew through all three pieces. Then I just cut it out along the seam line, and it was all set.

For the numbers, I cut out 2 pieces of gold felt, and 1 piece of pink for each number. I used the bottom of a can of corn as my template, and traced around the can onto the pink felt with a regular pen. While the felt pieces were still in the shape of squares (before cutting out the circles), I sewed 2 pieces of velcro onto one of the gold pieces of felt. I used a disappearing ink pen to draw the number onto the pink felt, then I put the pink felt on the top, the plain gold one in the middle, and the velcro one on the bottom. I used the regular pen marking as a guide and sewed a seam with the right side of the presser foot lined up with the pen mark. Then I sewed a seam tracing the number that I drew on the pink felt. Then I cut out the circle getting close to the seam, and then very carefully cut out the pink felt from inside the number.

Adding a little princess patch is a great thought. I was toying with the idea of making a separate crown just for dress up. I thought the birthday crown might get worn out if it was used all year. There's also a pattern out there for a princess hat. Did you see that? That could be fun too. (you know.. a cone-shaped hat with tulle coming out of the top).

.... So that's it. Lots of words, but hopefully you can learn from my mistakes!
Happy crown-making!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Fit for a Queen

I LOVE it! It's always surprising (and wonderful) to me when a project turns out the way I envisioned it. I changed the design a bit from the inspiration crown, because I wanted to make it look a little more like a tiara. It kind-of reminds me of Princess Aurora :).

I think the detachable number idea is going to work really well. I haven't sewn all of the other numbers (for future birthdays) yet, but number one is ready!

I love the sparkly trim and the rhinestone buttons... ummm... did I seriously just type that? It's amazing what having a little girl can do to a person :).

I REALLY wanted to post a photo of her wearing it, but decided to wait until her actual birthday.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Almost Party Time

I am SO excited to make Lucy her very own birthday crown! The big day is coming up in less than a month (I can't believe it!), so I'm starting to make my plans. I was totally inspired by this design (pictured below) over at Skip to My Lou.
Isn't it so cute? I love the shape. I just bought supplies to make a dark gray and pink one for my soon-to be one-year-old. I want to attach the number with velcro so that we can swap it out with other numbers for future birthdays. I can't wait to get started!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

I'm In LOVE

Awhile back I made this changing mat for lucy and blogged about the process.

Since then, I've kept my eye out for pretty oilcloth to make another changing mat, or possibly a bib or two for lucy. I have a bib for her that's wipeable and has a little pocket at the bottom to catch slippery food :). Ours kind-of looks like this one...

But I would LOVE to make one with pretty oilcloth! Imagine my delight when I ran across this post by Anna Marie Horner. Look at HOW BEAUTIFUL this fabric is!!!!
It's $17.50 per yard, so I'll have to decide just how much a love it :).

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Making it Mine

I found this dress for Lucy at a consignment shop a week or two ago (I think it was $3). It was cute enough, but I decided to improve upon it a little bit to suit my (and therefore Lucy's) style.

First, I knew I wanted to cover up the embroidery on the pockets.. but then it took me a long time to figure out what kind of applique to use to cover up the design on the top.

I finally remembered this owl design that was a free download from one of my favorite blogs (called Lil Blue Boo). Isn't it so cute? This gal is so talented and you need to go check out her blog right now :).

This dress is so cute with little leggings underneath. Perfect for fall!

And believe it or not, this was the best photo I could get of Lucy wearing the dress. She moves like the wind these days!