Feliz party dress

Savannah finally has her cast off. It was on 7 1/2 weeks and I felt every minute of it. I definitely wanted it off more than she did. She is back to normal activities, potty training is slightly better now that she can hold herself up and pull up her own pants again. The arm is still slightly bent but she will straighten it out eventually. Doctor said that children don't need physical therapy and the arm will straighten out as she grows.

We celebrated by going to Sesame Place which she absolutely loved. It was just me and her, so did so many rides and mama was dizzy! she was even brave enough to do a water slide (she hates slides). As we were walking around we saw a bunch of the characters going into a show, so we snuck in late and she had a BLAST! My normally shy child was running up and down the bleachers, screeching, singing along and waving to her favorites (Elmo, Abby, and Cookie)

We also went to the beach with some friends this week and both kids had a great time. Nolan ate enough sand to make up for several meals and both of them loved going in the water. My Jeep got stuck in the sand when we were leaving and I was scared to death I wasn't going to get out but God sent along this wonderful couple to help me push it.

(Below is Savannah freezing her little butt off leaving Sesame) and yes she has ridden the coaster in the background 2 times and loved it.

My sister in law handed down a dress I made for my niece a few years ago. I couldn't get over how cute it looked on Savannah and how well it fit. The pattern was the Feliz Party Dress from the book Sewing Clothes Kids Love. This book has lots of different styles and different options you can make with the same pattern. It's a little more advanced and you have to add on your own seem allowances to the pattern.

 The dress is double layer with the top layer open in the back. There is a casing for the tie so it is very lenient with sizing and there is also elastic sewn between the lining and bottom layer of dress. You can add ruffles to the back and make it into a skirt as the child grows.

 We have finally started construction on our house. Jake, my dad and several friends helped cut off the back half of the roof and frame out the new addition. We are creating a shed dormer on the back half of the house to create a 3rd bedroom and 2nd bath. Our house is a 2 BR 1 BA right now and the rooms are very small. So Nolan is sleeping in our room in a pack n play still.

Savannah is going to be a flower girl in my brothers wedding next month and she is so excited. We found a great dress on eBay and I tried out some hairstyles for her.

 I like the ponytail look but it doesn't stay very well.
 She really has amazing full, wavy hair, I put a few curls in it and had no trouble coming up with a couple cute styles.

 Obviously she was thrilled about this.

dresses and shorts

I have finally gotten back into sewing lately (the bug hit). My kids are the only recipients for now. Mom bought me some really cute dress patterns a while ago. Here is one of them completed, it's called the Urban Princess by Olive Ann designs. It comes with the pattern to make a matching 18" doll dress. I found Savannah a lightly used 18" doll at a consignment sale for $5 and it even looks like her, she isn't that interested in it yet though so I haven't gotten around to making the dress for it yet.

 The pattern was really easy to follow, just remember to add a zig-zag or serger to all raw edges which is not described in pattern, and I added top-stitching around the top of the dress since it has a small lining (I didn't want it to roll after washing)

 It has adorable gathered sleeves and ruffles all down the back. The button if functional only for getting their head through. It does not open the whole back section.

Here's another pattern my mom got me. She picked out the fabric too, It has heffalumps on grey background paired with orange laid and turquoise green with birds. The pattern is the Peggy Sue dress by Kati Cupcake pattern co. This one was also easy, just more time consuming. Again use a serger or zig-zag on raw edges (not described in pattern. I made it into a halter dress instead of crossing the straps and buttoning in the back.

 The back is smocked which I've never done before. After about 50 attempts I decided to try it on my spare machine and it finally worked. So if anyone has and idea how to do smocking on the Baby Lock Grace I would love the advice.

I have been wanting to make an anchor shirt for Nolan since he was born. It wasn't like it was difficult so I don't know why I put it off so long. I found a picture online, printed it to the size I wanted, then traced onto wonder under and Ironed on to a onesie. I ended up using a blanket stitch to secure it better to the onesie. I am not too good at going around the curves yet.

I also made him a new pair of shorts. These we amazingly simple. I finished it in one nap time (that's how I time things now). The pattern was Gone Fishin' in the book Making Baby's clothes by Rob Merrett. All the patterns in that book are simple. I decided to leave off the bias binding and the false drawstring that was supposed to go on the side of the legs.

Little man is 8 months old now. Crawling on his knees sometimes, still pulling up and climbing on top of everything, and very steady on his feet. He doesn't seem to enjoy walking when we practice which is fine with me for now. He loves tormenting his sister and trying to eat all of her snacks. He eats solids about 2 times a day when I am able to get to it, mostly veggies mixed with meats. He was just diagnosed with hereditary spherocytosis just like his sister and is still slightly jaundiced.

I cannot give a tutorial for how to re-size patterns because I'm not that good at it but my next project is going to be Ruffle shorts for Savannah. The pattern only comes in size 0-6 months but I measured a pair of her shorts against the patterns and drew my own. I'm probably going to change a few things in this pattern also.

As some of you know Savannah (my 2 1/2 year old) broke her arm on memorial day. She has had a cast on now for almost 8 weeks and it is driving me crazy. It was supposed to be 6 weeks but it got wet the day before it was due to come off and when the doctor did an x-ray he decided to put another one on for 2 weeks. Honestly, I feel he was just being a jerk and because of his upcoming vacation and lack of reading the chart made this decision. The nurses and PA were even surprised that we had to have the full cast for 2 more weeks. She gets it off this Friday and I hope I never have to go through this again, or if it does happen again, when she's older and can do more things for herself.

A great study Jake and I are doing right now is called Behold your God by John Snyder. It's a great devotional with a great video and we have learned so much as Christians that we never knew.