Sewing for ME!

I've been busy not feeling too hot for the last few weeks, and trying to get in some orders for my friends. Lots of reuseable snack bags, and a couple t-shirt quilts that will be graduation presents. In between all of that, I've managed to sew for myself!

I started with a pair of dress pants that I bought for work. They were ill-fitting, but inexpensive, and I bought them thinking that I would alter them. It didn't happen for a long time, and every now and then I'd have to pull out the ill fitting pants. Yesterday I got so fed up with them that I put them on inside out, pinned them up, and altered them before I went to work. It only took 20 minutes!! I can't believe I put it off for that long, I have a couple more pairs that I want to fix up now that I figured out exactly how easy it is! I looked and felt so much better that day :)

I also had a daughter and daddy free day on Sunday. My fabulous sister took Natalie for the day and the hubs had some side jobs planned. I hosted the first Sewing Group meeting for my mommies group. ( http://www.chesapeakemommies.com/ - for Haford and Cecil County, MD. There is most likely a chapter near you- you can check for locations near you at The Mommies Network home site) We had a blast sewing together! We decided to all do the same project this time- and started with an adorable Sash Bag made with a free pattern made by Aimee at Homespun Threads. She has a bunch of cute patterns, and they're all FREE!

Here is my bag! I used a home dec weight blue houndstooth for the outer, and an antique, french, sewing inspired print for the inside.

Also, Crafterhours started off their 2011 Skirt Week! I entered the Milkmaid Skirt I made for Natalie in August, and I'm planning to try and get some skirts for me in as well!

Un-frog-gettable

Yesterday we celebrated Bug's 2nd year of life :) I can't believe how much she's grown in the past year! We decided to have a frog theme for her party, because she has such a cute ribbit :D Here are some of the highlights of the decorations and things I made. I adore this little skirt. It's a simple circle skirt with ruffled tulle around the bottom edge. This fabric is fabulous- Girly Frogs!! A little clippie I shamelessly copied from a little hairbow shop. Hers is better, I couldn't quite figure out how she made his body.

Our little cake table, I highly recommend Touche Touchet if you're in the Maryland area. The bakery is in Columbia, and she has done my bridal shower, wedding cake and cupcakes, and this lily pad cake is PERFECT! My mom added the frog faces to the cupcakes with marshmellows and candy buttons.

This is one of those moments where I thought "to the CLOUD!" because in every single picture all 3 of us were looking different directions! It's sad that this one was the best!

We got some dress ups for my girl, she likes her Tinkerbell wings the best, she left a trail of glitter (and sticky handprints) as she fluttered dreamily through the house :)

Just a few pictures of the decorations. I see a photography class in my future this summer, so pardon the terrible photos until I learn what I'm doing.

There were two of these little guys hanging in the doorway, they were a definite hit!

Please pardon the deflated balloons, I didn't realize that I never snapped a picture of the scene in it's full glory!

I feel like I can finally breathe again! Hopefully I can get to some fun Easter activities with Bug this week!

sock monkey

I've been wanting to make a sock monkey for a while now- and when I saw some red heel socks at my new favorite store I just couldn't resist! It's probably a good thing that the nearest Hobby Lobby is still an hour away....

Here he is, with his little fez :) It makes me smile just to see him. Bug has hardly put him down since I finished him, she said "I lika my monkeeey" all day yesterday.

Baby Shower Gifts

This was a baby shower gift for one of my friends, if it wasn't pink, I don't think I would have been able to let it go! I definitly need to do a green one for Bug :) I followed Dana's fabulous Faux Chenille Blanket Tutorial. I love this shabby chic fabric with the ribbons, it matches my friend's style perfectly.

This dress was fun as well, I scaled up the Itty Bitty Baby Dress to a 3-6 month size and added a twirl skirt to the bottom- this baby is going to look ADORABLE this summer!

I think these shoes might be my favorite part! I used this Pleated Ballerina Slipper pattern.

I have some leftover fabric from the Jelly Roll I have of that collection featuring more blue and green- I'm still deciding what I might do with that

i spy quilt

Natalie's other Christmas present was an I-Spy quilt. I made 3 of them all together, two for my nephews, I didn't get pictures of them with working last minute and all.... :) I used the Disappearing Nine Patch tutorial on Obsessively Stitching. I loved how quick and easy they were to put together!

The orange denim backing is one of my favorite parts :)

Going Green is Saving Green!!

Since I had Bug, I really started searching for ways that we could save money. I've always been thrifty, using coupons, shopping clearance and sales, etc... But now we needed to save some serious cash. A few months after Bug arrived, I discovered cloth diapers. They were no longer the prefolds and pins and rubber pants image that I had stuck in my head. They were easy to use (no pins or plastic pants!!) and they were going to save us tons of money! In doing research, I also found that I could make them myself. I was doubly tempted. Saving money, and having a good excuse to slave away at the sewing machine and try something new, it was a no brainer!

Now, I'm not going to get up on a soapbox and tell you to save the Earth. I'm just going to tell you that I can make a reuseable cloth diaper for just about $5. The average box of bulk diapers bought at a wholesale store cost $30-$40, and got used up in about month. For the same price, I made eight diapers that will last us YEARS! It just makes sense.

The added bonus, is that cloth diapered bums are ADORABLE!

Hopefully this summer my little Bug will be a big girl with no more need for diapers, and these puppies will be cleaned thoroughly and put away for future use ;)

I have also discovered a few other things that have saved us money.

I made my own baby food, saves about 50% or more off the cost of buying jarred food. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

I've ditched the ziplocs and started using reuseable snack bags/sandwich wraps.

I use "unpaper towels". (I made my own very easily, but you can buy them here http://unpapertowels.com/ )

I use a vinegar/water solution to clean most surfaces. No more harmful chemicals, same disinfecting power, and it's cheap! I've also made reuseable swiffer wet pad and duster pads.

Of course, now my dear husband complains that he misses throwing things away :) At least we're not throwing away our money!

Fall Wardrobe

So I started off the fall with a post about how I was going to be making a bunch of fall clothes for Bug, I shared her green ruffle shirt, which is one of my favorites, but I did make a few more things for her during the fall and winter.

Circle skirt out of a fun knit


Pillowcase Dress with her matching headband

Awww :)

T-shirt dress from an XL girls shirt. It's Mickey and says "I love presents".
It's a-dor-a-ble on her!

Another Mickey and Minnie t-shirt dress.
This time Minnie is throwing a snowball,
and it splatted on Mickey's face :D

Not necessarily part of her wardrobe, but Bug is very busy rocking her new chef hat, apron, and oven mitt these days :)