Last week I took a quick trip to SAS for some elastic and found this 3/8 of a yard Amy Butler print.  For $1.50 I took it home and turned it into a pillow.  You can’t tell from the pic, but I trimmed it in brown piping to match the couch.  This is the first time I’ve made a pillow for my living room….and, I really really love it!

I keep pinning star quilts on pinterest, I really like the look of the quilted 8 point star.  I googled around and kept finding tutorials for the wonky star- which I didn’t want, I wanted a true star.  I Finally learned it was called a Saw Toothed Star, after a little bit of math I cut and stitched one up.

I’ll be listing it in the shop today or tomorrow for $8, unless you email me now and tell me you want it.  I found the star to be quick to stitch up and am thinking about tackling a throw quilt….after I finish the baby’s quilt (the one I’ve been working on for almost 2 years now!).

On an unrelated note, I overheard my kids discussing the difference between a fart and a toot this morning before school.  There were sound effects.  It was hilarious!!

Two dresses in two days  and one trip to Big Lots and we are nearly ready for Easter.  I wasn’t purposely waiting until the last minute, but both of my machines were in the shop.  Just got the last one back on Friday (my fav machine- the elna), it runs so smooth now…like “butter” I exclaim every time I use it!

For the Easter dresses I decided to only use what I currently had in my stash (fabric, patterns & notions), which was a real challenge as I don’t typically buy large cuts of fabric.  After some strategic cutting I was able to make it all happen!  You may notice that neither of the dresses are self lined, I just didn’t have enough fabric and had to find coordinating pieces in the stash!  This also explains the glaring maroon zipper on the dress above, I did an overlapping flap so it isn’t visible while the dress is being worn.  Thankfully I had an invisible zipper in the right size for the blue dress!

After she finished her homework we decided to do a photo shoot in the backyard to show off the dress.  It is a simple sheath, but I think the cardigan (from down east basics) adds just the right “umph”!  The son asked for a tie….I think the only thing I have in my stash that might work is a blue cowboy print, which doesn’t seem very eastery….we’ll see.

We typically celebrate easter with a simple basket of one chocolate bunny some peeps and something fun like side walk chalk, bubbles, etc.  Each year our church hosts a easter egg hunt where my kids end up with more candy than Halloween!  How do you celebrate easter with the kids?

First-  I have to tell you I made these Cherry Blossom Pastries over the weekend, they were so easy and a BIG hit with everyone!

Second- I added a few items to the shop this weekend, 2 book marks I had been working on.  I can’t tell you how much I love these bookmarks!  I am forever leaving my books out and around the house, and in turn they are always being picked up and moved around by the kids.  The book marks NEVER fall out.  I love how the elastic keeps the bookmark tight on my book!  I tired to make them reasonably priced based on the amount of detail I put into them.  What do you think?

A few weeks ago I bought this dress pattern from Patterns Pretty Please on etsy.

I think it was the scalloped neckline that made me buy it, but I also really like the bow on view 1.  The pattern only calls for 3 yards of fabric!!  Most shirtwaister style dresses from this era take 5 yards, which is a lot when you figure good quality fabric is about $10 a yard!

I’ve decided to make view 1 first….I’m a little worried the neckline on view 2 will be too wide, so I want to get a feel for the pattern before I tackle changing it.  I need help though…I’m really stumped on what fabric to use.  I think I want a small print (I’ll do a larger print for the second dress), and I’m thinking spring colors.  I want to be able to throw a cardigan over it and pair it with flats for a casual spring day, but I also want to be able to dress it up with heels and fun hair for Sunday’s.

Are their any fabrics you’ve seen lately that you think would look great in this dress?  I like blue, grey, pinks, some greens.  Please send fabric links!!  As soon as the machines get their tune up I want to start sewing this (figure if I start now I might have a chance of finishing it by Easter!).

A $5 long sleeved t-shirt from Target + fabric scraps + heart shaped cookie cutter + steam a seam (and some top stitching)=

inspired by this Boden shirt.

Tuesday brought the arrival of my spring mini boden catalog.  I flipped through it while waiting in the car for the kids to get out of school and I SWOONED!  oh heavens, this spring collection is just so fun, a clean and classic feel to it.  The best part was, as I flipped through the pages I kept saying to myself, “I could totally make that!”  So, I set about proving it!

I adored the sweet simple and fun lines of this knife pleated skirt.  I used my pleater/gathering foot to attempt the pleats and I just couldn’t get them the right size so I ended up gathering instead.  I also only included one flap pocket, as my daughter is two and won’t be using them anyway!

I used some of the DS line from JoAnn’s, this print just screams spring to me.  I love the bright flowers.  You can see that I did a cheater hem with (home made) polka dot bias tape.

Next, I really liked the simple sleeveless ruffle tank .  It looked really simple, but I don’t have a lot of experience with knit, so I was a bit unsure about making it…

I used one of her knit t-shirts as a guide to making this shirt.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be!  I recommend using a double needle for the top stitching, it looks so much better!  I am TOTALLY tickled with how the top turned out- even my rarely excited husband was impressed!!

Thanks to Boden, for the inspiration, my daughter is now ready for spring!  My seven-yo wants this shirt, and I also have plans to make this blouse and this T-shirt.  That is after I take the machine into the machine shop, its been running funny lately.  What are you spring sewing plans?

Need a last minute- quick gift for the book lover in your life?  Hand Embroidered Felt Bookmarks!!  This project was super easy and took about an hour to do.

Grab some felt (wool felt is best, craft felt is too stretchy and will pill after a few uses), floss, elastic (mine is 3/8″ I think) and some decorative scissors.  You can find a ton of free patterns in the Hoop Love Vintage Embroidery group on flickr; print one out at about 2.5″ – 3″ square.  (Another option, instead of pictures is to stitch the initials of the recipients.) Personally, I like to use Sulky Hot Iron Transfer Pens for transferring; you will need to use something other than tracing- as the felt is too opaque.

Stitch your design and then cut out your stitching in a circle (although any shape will do) and then cut one more circle.  Cut a length of elastic measured to fit your favorite book and stitch the ends together on the sewing machine.  Lay the stitched ends of your elastic in the center of your felt circle, lay you stitched design circle on top (wrong side together).  Stitch circles together- sandwiching the elastic between the two.    Cut around the edges of the circles with your decorative scissors and Ta Da!  You’re done- and now you have a great little hand made gift to share!

This is what happens when you let an almost seven year old pick out the pattern, fabric and trim for her Christmas dress.

It begins to look more  like something meant for a stage production of “King Lear” than for a Christmas church service.  BUT, she loves it; so I guess its all good.

(she wouldn’t smile, she’s was upset that I made her step away from an episode of Curious George!)

So Sunday evening I decided that with family coming for Christmas my daughter needed a special dress to wear.  The budget being as tight as it is, I thought I would make her a dress…thinking if I went with a simple dress I could get fabric for about $10 (with coupons) and all would be well.  Monday morning we headed out to look for fabric….but moaned and moaned over the fact that I would spend the rest of the day sewing the dress and how I didn’t want to.  So, we took a detour to Goodwill in search of a used x-mas dress.  No go.  On the way to the fabric store I got a call from Jaylee, I lamented to her about how I couldn’t find a dress and was going to have to make one.  She started laughing and told me that I was the only person that she knew that would determine if it couldn’t be found at Goodwill, that it must be handmade…as if I had no other options.  I saw her point and laughed at myself.  BUT, I was sure I could get the fabric for less than I could buy a dress at Old Navy (or this $40 one from the Gap).  Well, turns out this lovely Shakespearean dress cost about $28 to make a about 5 hours of my time.  NEXT YEAR I AM BUYING A DRESS, NEW!

To add insult to injury this pattern (Simplicity 2269) was a PAIN to sew.  It looked so simple.  I’ve been sewing for 20+years, but this pattern took the cake!  The yoke for the neck…the pattern pieces were a total nightmare to pin into place and get the fabric to lay flat (from the upper gathers).  The pieces also didn’t quite fit, I ended up cutting off about 2″ from the back neck yoke on either side, just to make it fit.  On a positive note, I do like the bubble sleeves and they were easy peasy to make.  Has anyone else tried this pattern, I would love to hear your review?

It was like wearing pajamas to church today!  I made this knit skirt using Elle Apparel’s Tutorial.  I bought the knit ages ago (back in college, I can’t believe I still had it!) and whipped the skirt up last night.  It was VERY simple to make, even if you have little sewing experience you could totally make this.  Knit is very very forgiving!

It is really comfortable and I want to have at least 5 more!  I’m going to hit SAS and look for some fun striped knit.  I have a small amount of brown knit that I am going to use to make my daughter a skirt too.  This skirt would be really easy to convert shorter for a summer, I can’t say enough good things….every woman needs one of these (or 5!).

We made it home thursday night and hit the ground running!  I had the suitcases unpacked before I went to bed and started the laundry early Friday morning.  Whew- what a weekend!  Throw in a baby shower, a Sunday full of church meetings, bizarre nightmares (people dying, people accusing me of being a petty criminal, etc) and some not-so-nice kid behavior and you get a sense of how things have been around here the last few days!

Here is the little shower gift I whipped up the night before…I just love corduroy on babies, and you can’t go wrong with ric rac!  I was really stumped at first what to make/bring.  Then I remembered my friend Kate, in college she and I would always bring (well received) receiving blankets to baby showers.  Kate’s were always way cuter than mine, as she had access to KC fabric stores (and is a more skilled seamstress than I).  I highly recommend blankets as shower gifts (one-ply around here!)- they are so simple to make (less than an hour!).

I have no good transition here…but I wanted to share this.

The kids played scrabble this afternoon…and I cracked up at some of the words they used.  Especially the word on the far right.