Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Reversible Car seat Canopy


This is car seat canopy I made for my friend this week for her baby shower on Saturday. I used this tutorial and it couldn't be easier. However my friend had a crazy car seat handle so I had a really hard time placing the straps. It doesn't look perfect, but it was the best I could do with the wacky handle. I'll have to keep that in mind when I end up buying a car seat eventually hehe. I still need to add bows onto the straps so maybe it will look better after that. I'm planning on using this bow tutorial. I also made one for my sister in law Kelsey in boy fabrics, but I don't have a car seat to model it anymore. It's really cute though!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Felt Diner Food



Last week I checked my email and Jessi from Sweetie Pie Bakery said she had another pattern for us to test. I was really excited once I saw the adorable pattern. It's called "The Blue Plate Special" and it includes instructions on how to make felt diner food. I tested the spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, burger with steak fries, and tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. I only tested half of the pattern, but her pattern also includes how to make meatloaf with mashed potatoes, milk, a strawberry milkshake, a blue plate, a little menu, and an ice cream sundae. Can you say good value for your money? Her patterns are always fun to make and the instructions were very easy to follow even to a pattern challenged person like myself. Her pattern is now for sale and you can buy it here if you're interested. I highly recommend it and I love how most of it was hand sewn so I could make it while I was watching our favorite TV shows. It makes me feel less like a bum. Now I'm off to eat because looking at my fake food made me hungry! Mmmm tomato soup!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Charlotte Dress Sew along


One of my all time favorite craft blogs is Craftiness is not optional. She is amazing and makes the most adorable kids clothes. Once I saw she was throwing a sew-along for a dress she made her adorable 9 month old daughter, I had to join and make one for Jenna's new baby girl on the way. Here is a link to her tutorial and she even emailed me a free pattern for the dress. How cool is she? I was keeping up with the sew-along until day 4. I was serging a seam and my thread snapped. I wanted to cry! It took me 2 hours to figure out how to thread my serger when I first got it and I hadn't touched it since praying that I never had to re-thread the beast again. After another hour looking at the manual and the poorly made video I got the thing working again. So I didn't finish the sew-along on time, but I did finish the dress eventually. It really only takes 30 minutes a day. It was shockingly easy and the final product looks professional. I even installed my first zipper thanks to Jessica's easy directions. I want to make more now!

With the scraps and I mean scraps, I made Sara Jane a matching skirt. I followed the directions for a skirt from this book I bought with an Amazon gift card I got for Christmas from Matt's parents. More baby presents coming soon.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Baby dress from an old skirt


The other day I went through my closet and threw out all the old clothes that I didn't wear, were ugly, or didn't fit anymore. It wasn't a pretty sight. I had stuff from 7th grade that was way out of style. Yikes! Did I really wear that? I was about to donate them to DI then I thought to myself that it would be a shame to waste so much fabric that could be used to make something else like doll clothes, baby clothes, purses, baby bibs, etc. However I don't want to have a pile of old clothes laying around so I made a goal to make something weekly from my old clothes. This little baby dress came from an old skirt I had that was too short for me. I used this tutorial and free pattern. It took a little longer to cut out because I had to make all the pattern pieces fit onto the fabric which wasn't easy, but after that it was a breeze to sew together. I'm proud that I recycled and saved money. It will make a cute baby present to give to someone. Plus I'm learning how to construct clothes which isn't my strong point right now. What better way to learn than on fabric you don't care about right?

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Blairs Dress





This is a dress I made for my niece.You can find the free pattern here. It was really easy to put together and only took me 2 hours including cutting time. Just as a warning this dress ran big. I originally made it for Sara Jane who is 2, but it didn't fit. It fit Blair who is 5. Maybe I didn't use the right seam allowance? Not sure since this wasn't included in the tutorial. Oh well it looks adorable on Blair and I'm sure if you had a child's measurements you could figure out how to make it fit right.Originally the bow was supposed to tie in the front, but it looked better tied in the back. Maybe I'll make a flower to go on the waistband and send it to them. She wore it to church today and she said she loved her new outfit. What a cute model! It's fun sewing for kids and how excited they get. Blair was so happy when she saw the dress. Also I got this fabric on sale for $1.00 a yard on fabric.com so this dress only cost $1.00! Not bad eh?

Believe Blocks



While I was at my in-laws for Thanksgiving I made these cute blocks while we had a craft party. It's been awhile since I've used mod podge. It was fun! I might just have to make some more for Valentines Day.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Felt Bakery Set

I had the privilege of being a pattern tester for Sweetie Pie Bakery. I got to test out an adorable pattern for a felt cookbook, canisters, measuring cups, brownie, cinnamon roll, cheesecake, macaroons, cherry pie, and peanut butter cookies.

I made the canisters, cook book, and measuring cups in red and blue because I have found that boys also really like my felt food (my nephew Sumner played with it for 3 hours) so I tried to avoid pink. I like how the color combination turned out looking retro. I love it! Wouldn't it look cute with a red play kitchen?

I used the pattern she gave me to test out all the food items. Except I had already made a cheesecake from this tutorial so I used her cheesecake pattern to make a lemon square instead. To get the powdered sugar look at the top I just dabbed white paint on the top. I think it looks just like a lemon square. If you are interested in the pattern she is now selling it on Etsy. Here is the link. I highly recommend it! Her instructions were very easy to follow and everything was fun to make. I especially like how a lot of it was hand sewn so I could do it while I was watching TV in the evenings or on long road trips.

Thanks Jessie for letting me be a pattern tester! I love how everything turned out. It's absolutely adorable! I will definitely be making more of her patterns in the future. It's so cute how can I resist? Now on to the pictures!


The felt canisters are adorable. They open up and even hold baking ingredients flour, sugar, and brown sugar. I even sewed beads on it to make it look like real sugar crystals. Also shown in this picture are the cinnamon rolls and peanut butter cookies.





These pictures show off the felt cookbook and measuring cups. The felt cookbook even has pages that include recipes for the cookbook item. The spine of the cookbook says Bake. Adorable? I think yes.



This is a picture of my cherry cheesecake. I used a tutorial online. This was not included in the pattern.


Here is a picture of the cherry pie and macaroon. I still have one more macaroon to get done. I've never tried them in real life, but they look delicious.


Finally here is the caramel fudge brownie and lemon square. I used her cheesecake pattern to make it.