I sewed!

After a long hiatus, I finally put my little sewing machine to work. I made this cute little skirt!

Skirts are a fun alternative to shorts in the summer, and believe me, it's HOT here! Please disregard the mess of toys strewn about our living room :). It's unbelievably hard to get a toddler to hold still and pose for a photo. This was the best I could do.

And here's my little girl. She's growing up so fast! It must almost be time to have another one.

Christmas Coat

I started to make a coat for Lucy several months ago, and I just finished it yesterday! It was SO fun to work on and SUCH a cute pattern. My mom bought me a great book by Anna Maria Horner for my birthday, and I just fell in love with this hooded jacket.

I actually ended up using the same main fabric as the jacket in the example photo because I loved how charming it was :). I love that the coat has buttons, but didn't require any buttonholes!

I chose a super soft pink flannel for the lining.

It fits her perfectly! If you're really observant, you'll notice that in the photos of Lucy wearing it, there are pockets on the coat. I decided to add them because the "finished" coat, seemed like it was missing something. I LOVE the pockets!
Lucy seems to really like her new coat too. It's especially good for pretending to fly.

Lucy's Apron

It was so much fun to be able to make this project for Lucy! I finished the whole thing in one day (except for adding the velcro, which took me about 10 minutes the next day). The advent calendar had me so bogged-down that I didn't even want to sew (which made me realize that it was time to set the advent calendar aside for awhile).

It took some playing around with different fabrics to decide on the final color combination. This is the one I ended up going with.

And here's the finished product!

I used a nice, long piece of velcro so that it can adjust to fit her as she grows.

I love how all of these patterns work together. The color palette is so much fun.

Here's a shot of the back for those of you who might want to make your own little apron :).

I can't wait to give it to her for Christmas!

Sheet Skirt

I have been sewing a little bit, but I haven't been blogging. This week is all about playing catch up.

I posted a long time ago about this fabulous elastic I found for super cheap at a fabric store here in Phoenix. I used it in a skirt for Lucy, but I also made a little something for myself.

I bought this sheet a year ago at a thrift store because it was so wonderfully and whimsically retro, and I FINALLY used it to make myself a skirt (see the cute little pink butterflies?).

The really cool thing about it was that I used the existing finished edge of the sheet, so I didn't even have to hem it!

I'm thinking I can wear it with a long-sleeve t and some tights for the fall. And now that I think about it, this skirt probably cost me less than $1 to make! This gal would be proud :).

Not So Much

Sometimes I have great ideas that don't quite pan out. Like this skirt I made for Lucy.

I thought it would be cute and frilly and feminine, but instead she looks like a peasant princess. This is good motivation to start her collection of dress-up clothes.

New Skirt!

Yesterday I got to sew! And, oh my, was it glorious. I had bought this super cute this super cute greenish yellow fabric several months ago, and I FINALLY got the chance to use it.

I also got a bunch of yards of this black and white striped elastic that I love. I used it on a skirt for myself as well (but I haven't taken photos of it yet). I bought it for something like 50 cents per yard, so of course I got a ton of it.

The elastic is three inches wide, so I decided to sew the fabric on top of it to make it appear thinner.

This might be my favorite thing I've ever made for Lucy.

A friend of mine also suggested that I sew a big fold into the back so that I can let it out as Lucy grows. So smart! Even if it starts to get a little short, she can always wear leggings under it.

Embroidery

I've been trying my hand at some embroidery recently, and I've REALLY been enjoying it. So far I've only done a few onesies, but I'm looking forward to tackling a little pink hoodie next. My mother-in-law just bought me an AWESOME book about embroidery with tons of photos and illustrations. She found it at a thrift store... what a treasure! I wish I had taken a photo of it to show you all its magnificence. Perhaps that will be in a later post.

So with all that said, here's my first attempt... I took the photo in the car right before I gave it to a sweet friend who just had a little girl.

This is the one I just completed. I got the pattern from this delightful store on etsy.com.

It's such a cute little graphic!

Here's a question from an inexperienced needle-worker: is there anything I could or should attach to the wrong side of the design so that it won't fall apart in the wash or irritate baby skin? I use the wash-away stabilizer while I'm stitching, but that's it. Does anyone have any insight for me?

Tank Top Re-do

We have this great store in Phoenix called Last Chance that's FULL of great bargains. Awhile ago they were selling tank tops for $1 each... so I bought 10! The problem is that I didn't try them on, and when I got them home I realized that they were all really low-cut.

This post is the first in (hopefully) a series of tank top re-dos. I used pre-made ruffle trim that I bought at SAS fabric for 30 cents per yard. I think it's pretty cute :).

This photo shows what the tank top looks like...

... but this shot is cuter :)

And here's the back:
Ta Da!

Lucy Pants

Lucy's Grandma (Dave's mom) made some ADORABLE pants with the leftover yarn from the robe she made awhile ago.
So here's the bathrobe...


And here are her new pants! Can you believe how cute they are? Lucy is so lucky :)

Bel Kai Designs

I just got this necklace in the mail from Whitney over at Bel Kai Designs. I love it! There's even a little "L" for my Lucy Love. Please take a minute to go check out her beautiful jewelry.

Thank you Whitney!

model

Here she is!

dress after

I've had these photos sitting in my camera FOREVER. I was all set to shoot some photos of Lucy actually wearing the dress, but then she fell on her face and got blood all over it (SO sad for her). All the stains came out, but I've yet to actually photograph her wearing it again. So... I figured I'd post what I had, and hopefully I'll be able to snap some shots of her wearing it sometime soon.

But.. just so you know.. she looks totally adorable in it :).

Wings!

I stole this idea from a book I saw in a fabric store. I thought it was just too ridiculously adorable not to try. This would make such a cute baby shower gift!

LucyBee

I love the look of embroidery, and I wanted to try to teach myself how to do it.

This is my first attempt. It's far from perfect, but I think it turned out pretty cute.

See how much Lucy likes it?

Headband

A few weeks ago I saw very pretty headbands like this one at Anthropologie

I decided that I didn't want to spend $28 on it, so I made my own. I bought a pack of headbands at Target for a couple bucks, then found some flowers from Michael's craft store. I used my glue gun to attach the flowers, and voila! Not quite as cute, but pretty close.

Naartjie

The Heller family went shopping at the outlets yesterday and we found so many wonderful things! The highlight of the trip (for me) was shopping at Naartjie. They had THE cutest children's clothes. I had never been there before and I had the hardest time trying to decide what to buy... there were so many funky lovely choices ON SALE!

I decided to be practical and buy two pairs of pants. I figured that Lucy could wear them with a bunch of different pieces that she already has in her tiny wardrobe. The little stripes are SO cute, PLUS they're size 6-12 months and they're stretchy. I'm hoping to get many months of wear out of these little beauties.