Vintage Stripes

I picked up this pattern recently to use with some of my light weight, silky, vintage fabric.  I liked pattern D and figured it would look great with a belt.  Super light and easy to wear.

The pattern was a cinch, especially with the help of my serger.

Here is the pretty, vintage, stripe fabric I used and the finished dress.

I love how it came out!  It looks so dressy, I was surprised.  I figured it would have a more casual look. It definitely feels casual, which is nice.  

I have a few other fabrics that have this pattern written all over it.  

All I need now is some free time to sew.

Puppet Theater for the Princess

I love taking my kids to the different aquariums, either in town or when we visit other beach areas.  For some reason all of them seem to have a puppet theater area.  Aubrey always loves to play in the puppet theater area.

For … ever.

It's adorable and I oblige as much as possible, but the germaphobe in me is secretly cringing over all the gross, dirty, hundred year old, million sticky hands have touched them puppets.

I thought a good gift for her birthday would be a nice puppet theater of her own.

I used fabric I had on hand and trims I had laying around.  I only had to buy the suspension rods to make this.

The cloth I tie dyed years ago and never found a use for.  The curtains where given to me by their Grammy.  They were perfect, since most of the sewing was done on them.  I just added some lace trim and gathered them up.

I even made a little case to store it in when it's all rolled up.  I used some vintage fabrics I was given to make it.

Gotta love the funky 60's butterflies print.

We do have a few puppets, but I thought it would be fun to make an Aubrey puppet.  She got to help with this project.

Here's Puppet Aubrey!!!

And here is the real Aubrey having fun with her new (CLEAN) puppet theater!

One of the other little gifts I made her for her birthday were bean bags for juggling.  She's been really into learning to juggle for some reason.  I had all these stupid pearler beads left.  Those things were NOT a hit, but I found a great use for them!  They are the beans in the bags.  I used more of the funky 60's butterfly fabric to make them.  

It's like a circus in this house.  

Animals, juggling acts, a couple of clowns, and a crazy ring master!

Old Hat, New Hat

Once upon a time I had a favorite hat.

Until the sad, sad day that the snap broke in the back.

I bought a new one in blue, but I couldn't part with this one.  

I decided to see if I could resurrect it somehow.

I sketched out this little idea out and turned it into fabric appliqué.

Then stitched it onto my hat covering the old design.

To fix the back I just picked out the seam and took out the plastic snaps and added some velcro in its place.

I think it came out kinda cool!  

It's definitely a unique piece.

I have another old hat I want to try this out on, too.

I like that I can wear my fabric art pieces.

Super fun!

What do you think?

Little Red Corduroy Pants

I'm WAAAAAAY behind on blogging my creations.  I have so many new things I have made recently that I want to share.  I made a few cute things for Aubrey's birthday, so I will start there.  I hope to have all my new stuff up on the blog by the end of the week.  I also hope that by typing that out here in cyber space, it will help motivate me to do that.  

We will see!

Aubrey is just not the girly girl.  I have made so many cute dresses and skirts for her, but there is no point.  She just won't wear them.  Which is a little bit of a bummer because she is just so pretty.  On the other hand, I'm a tomboy, too, so I have a greater appreciation for the person she is.  I love that she likes to play hard and get dirty.  It's a little hard to do that in a dress and skirt, in my opinion.  I, myself, grew up in izod t-shirts and corduroy pants from the boys section at Sears for the same reasons.  I was just like her … always running with the boys, rough and tumble, never wear a dress or skirt, kind of girl.  I've embraced my little mini-me and her fashion preferences and decided to give up the dress/skirt patterns and start focusing on making her cute/cool pants and shorts instead.  

This is by far one of my favorite, most used pattern.  

It is so easy and versatile.  I use it to make all the kids PJ pants (See here: Pokemon PJ's  and here: PJ's for my Posse) and also regular pants, too.  I add a pocket to the front when I make regular pants to give them a little more day wear look and feel.  

Here is the pair of red corduroys that I made my for Aubrey as a gift for her birthday.

Here they are on my sweet little girl  totally cool tomboy.  Complete with her special CHD zipper heart shirt (also made by me - you will see more of these for sale in a post soon) and a hand-me-down flannel from her big brother, Bayne.  This is about as fashionista as we get with this girl … lol.  I'm hoping to try to make more cool pants and possibly some vests of something to snazzy her up a bit and give her a little more style, but still practical, comfy, and cool.

I had this corduroy left over from a dress I made her a few years back.  Even then it wasn't easy to dress her up, but I still could get her to wear a pretty dress for special occasions like Easter.  Gone are the days!  This is probably my favorite dress I ever made for her.  I'm keeping it for future grandkids ;).

She makes a beautiful girly girl and tomboy.  I sure love my blond hair, blue eyed girl!

Save the Leggings

 These kids of mine are growing so fast!  I can't keep up with them.

Especially their clothes.  I hate buying new clothes because they look the same as their old clothes in a matter of a few weeks.  I thought I'd try to save a few pairs of my daughters leggings by combining them together.

I took this grey pair.

Plus this black pair.

Cut them up and laid them out like so ...

I cut a pocket out from the grey.

Folded the bottom

Serged on the black, like so, to keep both lace ends.

Sewed the grey piece to the black legging.

And viola! They have a little more length now, since I combined them and a lot more funk.

Here's my funky fresh little girl in her "new" leggings.

The pockets I placed a little low and they started to pull an create little holes in the corners, so I added some felt heart patches.

I decided to combine the other pair of leggings she grew out.

Here is the result:

They are a little crazy, but she likes them and I saved 4 pairs of leggings from the garbage … for now anyway.

#RockYourScar CHD Photo Contest

CHD.

I use to know nothing about what those three letters stood for, but now I know all to well.

This week, being Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, those of us who know all to well have one week where we get to speak out and share what those three letters mean to us.

Congenital Heart Defect.

CHD.

What they have come to mean to me is …

Courage.  Hope.  Destiny.

This week we get to celebrate the courage of these heart warriors.

We get to spread hope to those just meeting theirs.

We get to help shape the destiny of these special hearts by spreading awareness, to find a cure.

This is my special heart warrior. 

And she is rocking her CHD and her scar!

Mended Little Hearts, an amazing CHD organization, is having a #RockYourScar photo contest.

I would love it if you would vote for Aubrey!!!

You can vote for while you are logged onto Facebook here: http://bit.ly/1ggzY3a)

Of course, the crazy crafter wheels in my brain started turning as soon as I read about this photo contest.  I wanted to make her a shirt that would show off her scar, but not be provocative in anyway.  I also didn't want to buy anything new.  It was a perfect opportunity for a refashion.  I found this almost too small heart shirt that had a rip in the collar.  I thought it might be cool to just simply sew a zipper into the center where her scar is, so she could show it off in the picture. 

I put some interfacing on inside of the shirt, then cut down a slit for the zipper.  Pinned it all into place and top stitched over it.  I fixed the hole in the collar, too.

You saw the finished product in the picture at the top!

I hope we win!!!  

I, of course, couldn't stop at the shirt and had to make the CHD Awareness Ribbon, too.  

Now we can hang that year after year during this special week.

Thank you to those of you who have already voted and shared the contest on your page.

It's YOU GUYS who ROCK!!!

Rockin' my heart strings!!!

CHD Awareness Ribbon

National Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Week is February 7th-14th.  

As most of you know, this is a cause that is near and dear to my heart.

My daughter was born with two very serious CHD's called Tetralogy of the Fallot with Pulmonary Atresia.  She required heart surgery at birth in order to live.  At 7 months old they did a full repair, closing the hole in her heart and placing a pulmonary artery (or conduit) from another child in her heart.  She will require more heart surgeries throughout life to replace the artery as she grows out of them.  We have been so fortunate with many years of good health between surgeries.  There is so much hope for these children in the future.  50 years ago a child like Aubrey would have most likely died early on.  With continued research and medical advances, children like my daughter can live long, normal lives.  Although, not quite ready for prime time yet, micro robotic surgery is on the horizon for helping avoid opening the sternum for open heart repair.  Stem cell research has opened the doors toward a possible cure.  Organ donation continues to save lives like my daughters.  There is so much hope for children and adults living with CHD.  Raising awareness and educating people on what it means to live with CHD will enable us all to work together towards finding a cure.

I will be wearing my red and blue with pride this week!!

I felt inspired to make a ribbon of my own to decorate and show my pride and support for CHD to the world.  I plan to hang this on my door every year.  I have a secret motivation behind making this … which will be revealed shortly in another post.

Here is my giant CHD Awareness Ribbon:

I made this using bendable wire I found in the floral decor section at Michaels.  I formed the shape first, tied it together in the center with a small piece of wire to anchor it.  I cut 1 1/2"W x 5"L stripes of fabric and tied them in a single knot onto the wire.  I used corduroy red and blue fabric.

I love that it looks like several red and blue ribbons that make up one giant red and blue ribbon.

I can't wait to hang this on my door to show my support for CHD.

But first I must use it for one more thing ….

You'll just have to wait and see.