Reversible Vest

I don't know where it's coming from, but I have been very productive this Christmas season. I decided Nolan needed a vest to go with Savannah's Christmas skirt. I found a wonderful pattern here, it includes full size pattern for sizes 12 month-10? I can't remember what it goes up to. They were supposed to wear their outfits to church today but Savannah has a fever so she couldn't go.

Ok, so the pattern was very simple and of course I changed it slightly. Here is what I did:

It was not meant to be reversible but was easily done. Skip the welt pockets, instead of folding the hem to the inside stop all bottom seams 1/2" from bottom, when you go to do the hem just fold up the bottom of the lining 1/2" and press, do the same with the outer vest then pin together and topstitch around the whole bottom to enclose the hem. Do your buttons and button holes normally, then put buttons on the other side of the buttons you already have, I would use flat buttons for more comfort while wearing.

Just a few more must do changes, make sure you clip all curves before turning right side out otherwise it won't lay flat, and topstitch around entire vest at 1/8" including arm holes. This helps it lay flat and adds a really nice look.

The sizing was perfect.

Christmas skirt part 2

Christmas Skirt

I finished a few things I was working on for Christmas including my quilt! Then Savannah's school said Friday is red/green day. I couldn't think of anything cuter than a handmade Christmas skirt. My mom gave me the fabric, leftover from a quilt she made. I had not planned on getting to use it any time soon. This skirt was super easy, and took me 2 days. In be-tween skirt

Take into mind I changed a few things, and wish I would have changed a few more (I will explain)

The pattern given is for a size 12, Savannah is a 4T. My measurements were:

20" waist

Main fabric A-Cut 2 @ 21"X 11", cut 1@ 21" X 5"

(so the main skirt is changed to 11" long, and the waistband is 5" total but you fold it in half)

Main Fabric B- Cut 1 @ 11" X 5"

Accent fabric, cut 2 @ 21" X 5 1/2"

(bottom band was changed to 5 1/2")

Interfacing 11" X 2 1/2"

For the elastic casing in the back I sewed a line 3/4" down from the fold, then 3/4" down again from the first line. I would cut both elastic strips at 10" (half of the waist measurement) It was very small at fist then I had to go fishing for the elastic and leave an awkward space in the back.

When you attach the skirt to the band she does not specify if you stretch the back out. Best thing I figured was to gather the length of the back part of the skirt to 11" or half the waist + 1" for seam allowance, then ease in the waistband (you will have pleats)

If you finish your raw edges you don't really need the binding for the inside waistband.

Unfortunately you need the zipper to get it over the hips but I would measure your elastic and make a mark that far down from the top of the skirt. Sew up from the bottom 1/2" seam allowance and stop at your mark, then attach the zipper as you normally would.

I didn't like the look of the long section on the bottom so I folded up 1/2" from the bottom raw edge, then matched that fold line to the seam line made when attaching the bottom of the skirt. Sew this together from the right side of the skirt to make it look better, stitching 1/8" down from the seam. This encloses the raw edges on the bottom also.

Happy Halloween

For some reason the photos that I have been trying to transfer from my phone to my computer are too large. But if I email them to myself as attachments it works. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time to do that and my Internet has been down for a few days now. 

Here are my cuties dressed in their costumes. Savannah's were a Snow Queen (generic not the Hans Christian Andersen) and Crumbs Sugar Cookie Lalaloopsy doll.

Nolan's costumes were "Bapbam" and Lightning Mcqueen. A quick rundown of their Halloween festivities: Trunk or treat (preschool and Church), Nolan's costume b day party, and then trick or treating.

Savannah Loved getting her hair curled for her Lalaloopsy costume.

Adding another thing to our plate, Savannah is finally old enough for Cherubs choir at church. They play handbells and were surprisingly good and adorable, and they sing. We are all currently practicing for the Christmas Live event at church. It is a living walkthrough of the bible from Genesis to the Resurrection and it is awesome. Savannah will be performing with the choir, and Jake and I are Mary and Joseph again.

I know I'm all over the place this morning. Nolan turned 2 on Halloween and he is just as sweet as ever. There is always a reason to use a snow shovel.

 I found this awesome superhero fabric at the Collingswood quilt shop when my mom and I did the NJ quilt shop hop. I just made this skirt for Savannah and it has been such a big hit. I made another to sell and I have enough fabric for one more skirt (Christmas present?)

what is happening

So I have been trying all day to transfer some photos from my android phone to my mac, and it looks like they are going through fine, then I get this (Pic) Why is this happening. Grrr... I hate electronics.

Sweetheart dress

Look at the beautiful quilting job the quilter did. She had made a few suggestions when I sent it to her, but I never expected anything this beautiful. The binding is made, I just need a little help with the trimming and learning how to attach it. Will it be done in time for Christmas? I sure hope so.

And as promised, here is the sweetheart dress that I adapted from the romper Savannah wore on her 2nd birthday.

Ok, so here is the deal with this dress. (Why it took me almost all summer) I decided that it makes more sense to sell my patterns than sell the dresses themselves. I just do not have time to make bundles of dresses for my Etsy shop. So as I was making the dress I was trying to write up the pattern to be home stitcher friendly. The way I cut the pattern, I had no choice but to add a partial placket to the back for buttons, but I wanted it to somehow be elastic so The dress could fit different body shapes. I stewed over this for at least a month because I do not want to add the partial placket in the pattern. Back to the drawing board with that one. But I am able to sell this one, so it should be up soon.

Still having problems with pictures on the macbook, I loaded them all on and sent a few from my phone but it took me hours just to get this far.

No pics, broken laptop.

No pictures this time.
Hi, My toshiba laptop, that I have only had for 4 years just crashed. It's a good thing I just backed it up recently. I have been having problems with it for a while, and seriously I only used it for pictures, blogging and printing for eBay, it was too slow to do anything else with.
Jake and I have been doing research for weeks on what to get next, since we have had such bad luck with PC's, and I need my own iPad for eBay selling but we also need the laptop for watching video's in Maine (no Internet access). He got me a used Macbook, it came in the mail last week, I go to turn it on and "blip" screen shuts off after 4 seconds, turns out it had an issue that was not mentioned in the listing that if it wasn't touched for 4 seconds it would shut down. After a while lot of frustration and not having a computer for over 3 weeks, we returned that one and tried again with a different seller (that other company will be getting a very bad review) My new/used macbook is perfect, we decked it all out in pink accessories. I just did a tutorial on youtube to learn how to use it and haven't gotten to transferring the pictures yet.

I have to get the pictures on here soon because my quilt came back from the quilter! And I finished the sweetheart dress that I have been working on for months now.

Savannah started preschool in September, it has been a lot more difficult and stressful than I had anticipated. I am not dealing with the stress well and my memory has gotten even worse (if that's even possible) I think I'm borderline Alzheimer's. This is literally my first "day off" since September something. I was supposed to go to MOPS today but Nolan is sick (a blessing in disguise) so I get to stay home for a whole day! and don't get me wrong, I'm super stressed because he is sick too, but it is nice not to have to rush out of the house all day.

Quilts

I have been so busy working on my quilts that I haven't done much in the Children's clothing area. I thought I could hear my sewing machine calling me yesterday, poor thing is so lonely. 

My first quilt ever is this applique tree bells quilt. I really enjoyed the applique part once the millions of little pieces were cut and folded and bonded. That stuff was a pain in the butt. The tree bells quilt is ready for me to piece the back, I just need my mom's help with that, then off the the quilter for the batting and quilting. I might actually have it done in time for Christmas.

The next quilt I have started is the Crabapple Hill A to Zzzz Christmas quilt. It is hand embroidered which I am enjoying a ton. Again, not a huge fan of the tracing process. I worked on my first square while vacationing in Maine.

We had another great year at the cabin in Maine. Jake got to do a lot of work on the cabin (he actually enjoys this) and I got a good amount of sewing done. The kids had fun, they wen't canoeing and swimming, and fishing. Nolan was loving all the rocks at the beaches and Savannah and Jake even went into the ocean at Roque Bluffs (way too cold for me). The weather was cool, which was a really nice break from the hot humid Jersey weather. 

Bad Little Falls, Machias

Bog Brook Cove

Roque Bluffs

Eastport

One Shoulder Dress.

Happy memorial day, independence day, anniversary, and all the others that I missed. Obviously it has been a busy summer, probably for everybody. 

So as promised in my last post long, long ago, I created another dress pattern. This one is a one shoulder dress with a large ruffle. Kinda reminds me of some dresses I saw people wearing in the 80's. The top picture is the first one I made. It ended up being too big, so I had to add another strap. I also realized after I finished this dress, that I should have put the zipper on the other side. I really love the second one and I even made a similar dress for a friends daughter (yay my first order). I might shorten the ruffle on the underside of the arm.

Other than these last 2 patterns I haven't made any more dresses. I have been working on that tree bells quilt and I'm almost finished with the quilt top, I am working on the last bit of applique so I wasn't able to get a picture of it. I also started a Crabapple Hill Christmas quilt that is hand embroidered, I am so excited to get started on that. Only tracing so far.

What's new with us:

Nolan has started to tell us when he has to or has already gone to the bathroom. So we started potty training. We are taking it slow for right now because he hasn't quite gotten the idea of doing his business on the potty. He is such a smart little guy, he talks so much now also.

Savannah has been doing a little schoolwork with me at home to prepare for pre-school. She loves to color and paint ( I do too) She loves barbies and thinks everyone is her friend.

I have lost a total of 12 lbs but it keeps fluctuating. Exercising 5-6 days a week still.

1950's style pinafore dress.

I have been working so hard on creating my own line of children's clothing. This is a very exciting and stressful time in my life. On one hand I want to create and start selling children's clothing, and on the other hand I know I am in this by myself with 2 little needy munchkins and I don't know if I have the time to keep up with this.

I saw a vintage style pinafore dress on Instagram and immediately all these thoughts came into my head about how to create something similar and create different variations based off of one pattern.

Here is the first result. This is Savannah's Easter dress. Since my daughter takes after my husband, she is very skinny and very tall in the torso, making it very difficult to dress her. She is 3 1/2 years old, a 5t in shirt length but only a 3t in width. I had to take this dress in several times. It buttons in the back on the waistline with 2 covered buttons. It is adorable on her. Unfortunately I don't have pictures with it on because of course she was sick for Easter.

I tried a second time and it went so much faster, to deal with the size issue I added elastic to the back waistline. I made this one for my niece Stella. 

I blended a few different patterns together and hand drafted my own pattern for this dress. 

I would love some honest opinions about the dress.

I'm hoping to base all the dresses off of the original Abby Cadabby dress pattern. I am currently working on a 1 shoulder dress also drafted from this pattern.

So we have finally defrosted from Winter. We were lucky that we didn't get as much snow as some other states but this late storm threw us for a loop. Savannah took her first solo tube ride. She is growing up and getting so much more brave.

She also learned to roller skate. I never thought these were things she would do. She has always been very cautious and nervous.

Here are both my munchins after a trip to the Bucks County Discovery Museum. The museum was quite small but it had everything just the right size for these 2. 

Nolan got some new sunglasses and likes showing off. His sister accessorized.

The kids have both been sick for over a week now. Savannah is on a round of antibiotics. No hospital visits or blood work this time, but it is apparent that their little bodies can't keep up with all the extra work destroying blood cells and making new ones. It seems now whenever they get sick their bodies just give up. 

I am still going strong with my fitness goals. I really don't have any goals but I am keeping steady at 10 lbs lost in 4 months. Exercising for 30 minutes per day, 6 days a week. I am feeling great, just super stressed.

Jake and I started teaching a morning Sunday school class at church. We are teaching 4 and 5 year old's. I love all the kids, they are super sweet, but some are not so happy to have another new teacher and some like to be boys and wrestle the whole time. Needless to say it is very exhausting and Saturday nights are no longer something I enjoy. Preparing for class is pretty difficult with getting the supplies ready, lesson plans and making sure everyone is ready to leave the house Sunday morning. 

Tree Bells Quilt

Happy New Year! 

Our new year has started out pretty rough, but I guess the rest of the year can only be good in comparison right?

Nolan got a bad cold for Christmas, which kept getting worse. He had a fever for over a week, became lethargic and was not getting any better. We took him to the doctor and she sent us immediately to his Hematologist. After checking his blood work they found his hemoglobin levels were dangerously low about a 6.2, not too abnormal for him. The told us if it didn't get any higher within 24 hours he would need a blood transfusion. Scary thought for me, he's so tiny. They put him on antibiotics which cleared up the problem, but then found out he is allergic to them.

A few days after all this craziness I tripped and fell in my basement (Jake wasn't home) and broke head of the Radial bone in my right arm. After going to urgent care the next day they told me I should move it around so my elbow doesn't lock up but follow up at an Orthopedic. It was the most painful week before I got to see the Ortho. Needless to say, he called the urgent care doc an idiot, I was not to move it. I was put in a splint for 2 weeks, then a sling for 2 more. I have been free from these annoying and restricting devices for a week now and the pain is finally ceasing. I will be allowed to lift again in about 2 weeks, pending doc's approval.

Now to get to the fun stuff. I bought a quilt pattern about 2-3 years ago. Yup... I'm just now getting to it. I have never made a quilt. It is called Tree Bells and it has a lot of applique (which I have also never done) It's going well, just lots and lots of little pieces and I get about 1 panel of the applique done a day. 

 Below is some of the finished "Bells"

 I had to figure out how to arrange this on my own. It made my brain hurt.

I have also been on a weight loss journey. I have the MyFitnessPal app on my phone, it has helped me so much. It was an eye-opener when I started looking at how many calories I was consuming every day and how surprising the sugar and fat content of some foods were. I have lost 10 pounds in 70 days. I am not going crazy trying to lose much, I have just altered my food consumption, making healthier choices and I exercise when I can, not as much as I would like but it is working regardless.

Savannah was helping me ice my arm after I went to urgent care. She is starting pre-school in the fall (I can't believe it) she will go 3 days a week 9-1. She is waaaay too excited. She is a master at puzzles.

Nolan is walking/running everywhere and getting into all kinds of trouble. He breaks everything or dunks it in the dog water, when he isn't breaking the bowl. He has started self feeding and he's a little pro of course. He is also a total cookie monster. I have been working on my baking skills (which stink) and he asks for cookies all day long. This picture was taken this morning after breakfast around 8 am. Yup, cookies for breakfast, hey they were oatmeal.