Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving Pom-Poms

My little Bird is fanatical about few things, details on costumes and decorating for Holidays.  She was very disappointed this year when the Halloween decorations (which she still doesn’t feel are adequate) came down and we didn’t have anything to put in their place.  She helped me right the wrong by painting that little autumn tree that hangs on my door.  We covered a shoe box lid with fabric and modpodged/hotglued it on for our front door.  Birdy wanted to add a 3 foot turkey, we were somehow going to make together, parked outside our front door.  I was less than enthused about both the turkey and the idea of making it.  When I stumbled across this post, I knew we could strike a compromise. 

The twins helped me make all these little felted balls by fluffing and separating roving wool, a dozen or so at a time over a week.  We would throw them in the wash tucked inside a sock with all our hot/warm laundry and then keep washing the biggish ones until they were a uniform size.  After a few days, they started accumulating even with the Lu throwing them all over the house. Today we strung them on string and put them outside.  Easy as that.  We made more than we realized and had enough to string across the front of the porch as well.  I love the little felt pom-poms and can’t stop thinking of all the pom-pom garlands I need.  Birthday pom-pom garlands, Valentines Day, a Christmas tree garland.  I foresee lots of pom-pom projects in our future.

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One Baby Quilt

This spring I’m going to become the aunt to two new nephews.  I’m halfway done towards my goal of making each new nephew a baby quilt.  I started piecing this on my old machine (so a while ago) from material left over from a quilt I made another baby nephew.  His first birthday will be in a few weeks.  I quickly stalled with no recipient in mind but when I found out that my sisters were expecting I got some momentum to finish it.  I started the hand quilting the first weekend of October and finished last night, with some very big breaks in between for important things like Halloween.  

IMG_7196 This is the first quilt where I’ve actually taken a picture of the final product (thank you little blog) and it looked so charming hanging from my front porch.  IMG_7199 IMG_7200 IMG_7201

Friday, November 11, 2011

Flashback Friday-Spring 2007

This was a little linen outfit I made Bird when she was bitsy.  The pattern comes from a delightful Finnish pattern magazine Ottobre.  I don’t remember the issue but I think I made it fairly soon after it came out so probably Fall06 or Winter06.  This makes me wonder where this is now because it is most certainly Baby Lu’s size.  I think there were two pairs of pants as well.  One in the light embroidered linen with ruffles.  Out to the garage.

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Nothing to do with Sewing

Two of my best friends work with the young women in our church which means, by association, I occasionally work with the young women in our church.  My friend JJ has the most spot on sense of style.  I spent Friday helping her execute this vision.  Together we made all those crazy sugar cookies, cupcakes, and sugared fruit.  She always envisions details that I have no idea how to do.  It becomes a learning process each time I’m enlisted which ends up being delightfully fun for me.  This fall she has really expanded my skills with her demands.   

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Purple Skirts

This is a picture of cleaning up my sewing room/den.  The purple fabric has been on the floor for 6 months after I used a bit of it to make a rapunzel costume.  It was easier to make the fabric into purple skirts for my girls than try to find a spot among my stash for it to live.  So I did.  Honestly, this is the last thing I would ever buy probably to make skirts because I have a strong and undying love for natural fabrics which this one is most definitely not.  But they turned out cute, they machine wash/tumble dry and keep their original body, and both girls love them.  So much that Bird couldn’t be bothered for a picture and Lu had to be bribed with a dum-dum for the 10 seconds she stood still before she ran away. 

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Friday, November 4, 2011

Flashback Friday 2003

This is a dress I made for my little sister to wear to a high school fall ball.  Not many girls would wear white to a high school dance but she had clear ideas about exactly what she wanted and the personality to pull it off for sure.  Kelsie's Fall Ball with Gary 038 Kelsie's Fall Ball with Gary 006 Kelsie's Fall Ball with Gary 010 Kelsie's Fall Ball with Gary 027Kelsie's Fall Ball with Gary 063

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Vision of Hot Pink

Pattern: McCalls MP436

Size: 5-6

Fabric: Something machine washable in very pink (per Bird’s Halloween request)  

I thought this dress went together beautifully with less effort than it looks.  I cut out on a Monday afternoon and finished the following Tuesday night with a little parenting and cubscouting in between.  However, it took me weeks to acquire all the fabrics/trims because I refused to pay full price for any of the cuts.  This dress takes a lot of fabric!  The pattern is good once you get past the yardage requirements for all the different views.  Bird loves it—great twirl factor.  The cape is a lovely addition.  I got the clasp at JoAnns.  We lined it in a velour to add a little more weight since it does get real cold here trick-or-treating.  She loves swishing that cape around, (think Mother Gothel from Tangled) and I’ll probably make some more cloak/capes in the future for dressups.  (The effort to product ratio is perfect.)

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