Hadley's Birthday Outfit

One of my friends little girls birthdays was this week and I thought I would make her a birthday outfit. I started by making a tutu like the one I made for Madison. Then I made the party hat using this tutorial. Then I took an old onesie that Madison never wore and appliqued a cupcake onto it. I gotta say this was a very fun project and I may have gotten carried away on it. Girls are so fun!!

Madisons Room

This was my summer project. My mom, mother in law, and I spent hours designing and putting this nursery together. My mother in law Gail  started the ball rolling by painting the entire room pink for us. She did an amazing job! She also helped me paint Madison's dresser that my grandma gave me white. 

After that my mom and I took a trip to Denver Fabrics and found the most adorable bird fabric and coordinating pink dot that we knew would be perfect!  We found the crib at Burlington coat factory, but spray painted it white because it was a yellowy cream that just didn't work with the room. For the bedding I sewed the crib skirt and the Minky blanket. My mom made the bolster pillow. The crib sheets and bumpers came from pottery barn kids. We then sewed the canopy and drapes to go over her crib. We added ready made roses we found at Hobby Lobby to give it a little something extra. 

For the tie backs. We found these birds at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them white and hot glued them to tiebacks. 

My mom made the valance by stapling some of the dot fabric onto a wood curtain rod. The finials came from land of nod. 

The dresser my grandma gave me also came with a mirror. It looked ok white but we both thought it needed a little something to spruce it up. So we covered fake flowers in plaster of Paris and hot glued it to the mirror. The lamps were from my childhood room but the shades had yellowed so I covered them in rose fabric. 

 We found the rocking chair off of craigslist and spray painted it white. My grandma gave me the nightstand that I also spray painted. I made the pillow that went on the chair.

I even changed out the light fixtures because it made the room even cuter. 

I absolutely love how everything turned out. As you can see Madison loves her room which makes it worth the effort. 

Bronco Super Bowl Outfit

It isn't very often that your team makes it to the Super Bowl so I had to make Maddie an outfit. I'm so glad I had an excuse to finally make a fluffy tutu. I grabbed some of those 6 inch wide tulle spools from Hobby Lobby and cut each strip to 18 inches long and then tied them around some 1/2 inch elastic. It was super easy and fast. Add a homemade bow and you got yourself a cute Bronco fan.

Thanksgiving Outfit

It's been a dream come true to have a little girl to sew for. I just had to make her a little outfit for thanksgiving. I whipped up this chevron dress and hair bow for the occasion. I used this tutorial for the dress and this tutorial for the turkey part of the hair bow. 

Ruffle Scarf

For our ward enrichment night we made these adorable scarves and I couldn't help but share. I love how it turned out and can't wait to wear it this winter. I don't have specific directions on how we did it,  but here is a similar tutorial.

Birthday Banner

I've been meaning to make a birthday banner for years and finally got around to it. I got the chevron fabrics on sale at Joann's during 4th of July weekend. To make the banner I just cut two 7 by 7 inch squares for each letter. I already had the letters cut out in my unfinished projects tub (I have no recollection of cutting them out, but it sure did save time). I then appliqued the letters on, sewed the squares together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, turned the squares right side out,  ironed the squares, and then sandwiched the top of the squares in between bias tape. I absolutely love it and it goes perfect with the balloon wreath I just made.

Old Macdonald Puppets

I made a puppet theater  awhile back that needed some puppets to go with it. So when I saw this tutorial I just had to make them. These puppets were very time consuming, but they are adorable so it was worth the effort. Can't wait for baby girl to play with them.

Balloon Wreath

Matt's birthday is coming up in August and we thought we would have a party to celebrate. As part of the decorations, I decided to make a balloon wreath using this tutorial. I absolutely love it and I'm excited to pull it out for every birthday in our house.

Fall Baby Outfit

I didn't have much time for sewing until recently due to our out of state move, pregnancy, and teaching 3 full college courses. I've been so excited for things to get settled to finally have time to sew for baby girl. I made this adorable top using a pattern from the book Making Baby's Clothes by Rob Merrett. His patterns are so easy, fast, and fun to make. I made the matching leggings using this tutorial and free pattern using an old red tank top I never wore. Now she just needs a matching hair accessory.

Hair Bows

After years of infertility, Matt and I finally found out we were expecting in January. Imagine my excitement when I found out it was a little girl. I am so excited to sew her dresses and make her hair bows. While we were in Arizona visiting family, Matt's twin sister taught me how to make hair bows. I can't wait to see them on her little head.

Summer Wood Crafts

Right before we moved from Utah Matt and I took one final trip to Wood Connection. I picked up these Summer letters to finish out my seasons and then some cute dangles for holidays/seasons. Matt helped me make the welcome sign because I'm afraid of hurting myself with power tools. We drilled holes in the board and added the pegs using wood glue. I then painted the sign brown and cut the welcome letters out of vinyl using my silhouette. I'm so proud of our handy skills. Right now it's hanging in the kitchen, but I think it would also make an adorable door wreath. 

Peeps Easter Bunting

A couple of years ago Made came out with her peeps bunting tutorial  and I got excited to make one for Easter. I cut out all the bunnies, but never got around to sewing it. I was looking through my box of unfinished projects the other day and decided to finally finish it. It was a pain to sew around all those bunnies ,but I love how it turned out. Now to tackle all my other unfinished projects. It's an embarrassing sight. 

Fall, Frankenstein, and a Black Cat

Last week I went to Arizona for a conference for my online teaching job. Going to Arizona means crafting with my favorite mother in law Gail. I always bring the unfinished wood projects from Wood Connection in Utah and in exchange she lets me raid her amazing scrapbook collection and puts up with a messy kitchen while we decorate them together. I always forget to snap a picture of hers which are always adorable too.

Keeping with our season theme I picked out Fall for us to do together. Aren't the papers amazing? See what I mean about Gail having the best scrapbook collection!

Matt loves Frankenstein so he picked him out for us to do. This guy was super quick to make. Really just had to paint and glue him together.

This cat was so much fun to do. My favorite part was making the necklace for the cat. Gail has some awesome jewelry making gel which your can use to turn a paper picture into a glossy necklace. So fun!

Wrap Dress

We were invited to my friends daughters one year old birthday party a few weeks ago so I decided to make her a dress as her present. I actually made two because I had enough fabric. I used this pattern and it is such a great pattern. I love that it doesn't have real sleeves to sew in and no zipper! This is one my favorite little girls dresses I've ever made. Although I think it's because I'm in love with this Amy Butler fabric.

From Necklace to Earrings

Awhile ago I found this necklace at Forever 21 for $5.00. I thought it would be cute, but when I tried it on I didn't like it as a necklace. It sat in my drawer for awhile, but then I got the idea to turn it into some earrings. All I did was add earring hooks and I had some new earrings. I love them and wear them all the time. I even have two flowers left over from the necklace that I could make into a ring or use in a handmade hair accessory. Not too shabby for $5.00!

Spring Letters

I was bored the other day so I finally got around to finishing my Spring letters that I bought at Crafty Wood Cutouts. Utah is the land of unfinished wood products which is really fun. I didn't have anything fancy lying around to decorate them with so I just painted them and modged podged some scrap paper on them. Then for the bird I made a tiny rosette from some scrap fabric and then glued it onto some pretty ribbon Matt's mom gave me. It was fun taking a break from sewing and decorating these letters. 

Lace Dress

I started this dress in December as my News Years dress, but just finished it last night. I didn't finish it until now because I've been really busy training for my new online teaching job and I encountered some major problems with this dress. I swear everything that could of gone wrong on this dress did. I ran out of fabric, I had to unpick the zipper twice because it wasn't lining up, the length was way too long so I had to shorten it which caused the layers to be off making hemming difficult, and the sleeves didn't look good.

I won't even show the dress without the cardigan because it just isn't that flattering. I don't really like the sleeves and the neckline is way too high for my body type. I wouldn't call it a fail because it looks cute with the cardigan. I used Vogue 8766 in a size 12. The pattern was easy and the fit was good, but if you are making it I would suggest lowering the neckline which is why it didn't look good on me.

Even though it was a very frustrating project I'm glad I did it because I learned a lot. I figured out a trick to line up zippers so it will line up every time and I learned the best way to hem a circle skirt is by hanging it on a hanger so you can see how it falls naturally.

Little Girl Patchwork Skirts

I made these little girl skirts a long time ago, but am now just blogging about it. Awhile ago I was at a quilt shop and they had charm packs for 1/2 off so I couldn't resist getting some. I used this tutorial and whipped up these skirts in one night. Actually I convinced Matt to help sew some of the squares together for me to save me some time. He is the best! I absolutely love these skirts and really want one in my size. I wonder how many charm squares that would take?

Winter Letters

Over Christmas break Matt's mom and I decorated these letters together. Unfortunately I wasn't able to snap a picture of hers although they were very cute as well. I got these awesome unfinished wood letters for my mother in law and I at a place in Utah called Wood Connection that my friend Rashael told me about. They have great selection and it's resonably priced. We also used Martha Stewarts glitter paint for the first time and I've got to say I love it.

Christmas Dress, Kate Middleton Style

Awhile ago I picked up this white and red polka dot fabric for super cheap, but struggled to know what to do with it since it was Jersey. Jersey is not something I've worked with before. I came across Simplicity 2145 and laughed because it was a knockoff of kate middleton's engagement dress (shown below). So I decided to use this fabric with this pattern to make a Christmas dress. The dress doesn't photograph well, but it does have the wrap around the front like her dress.



I made a size 12 and it fits pretty well. Not as well as my other dresses I've made, but pretty dang close. This dress fabric only cost me $8 so I'm very pleased about that. Like most dress patterns this pattern was too short. Must I always add 4 inches to every pattern? Ugg! The other thing I changed is I took the sleeves in by 5/8 of an inch since I was drowning in them. I probably should have taken them in even more, but laziness struck.

Overall I am pleased with it and it's really comfortable. A lot of people liked it at church and said they liked the retro feel about it.