Rosie's Blessing Dress

I did it! Or I should say that I made it!

Rosie's Blessing dress is finished!  It's nothing really fancy, but I love the simplicity of it and the vintage look that the fabric gives to it.  

I found the fabric on the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby and bought it to make a skirt, but I love the way it turned out for this dress!

I added roses to the waist and lace to the bottom which completed the look. 

The dress turned out lovely and I'm so glad I was able to sew it for my baby girl.

Blessing Dresses

With my last two daughters, I made blessing dresses for them.  I really enjoyed making them, especially since I had five boys first!  It is so much fun to sew for girls and I liked coming up with different designs. 

For my first daughter, I made a simple, yet dainty dress.  I added a layer of lace over the bodice to add texture.   I also added little flowers to the front and the sleeves.  When I tried the dress on her, the sleeves seemed way too big for her little arms, so I gathered them by hand.  I love the way the dress flowed at the bottom!

For my second daughter,  I wanted to try a different look.  I changed the sleeves altogether and they fit so much better.  I keep the bodice plain, but added a layer of lace at the bottom of it.  The skirt part is what sets this dress apart from the other.  I made roses out of the fabric and gathered the bottom of the skirt in various places and then attached the roses.  I think that it gave it a princess feel to the dress.

Now, since we are going to bless my third daughter sometime next month, I am dreaming and designing another dress.  I'm thinking of going for more of a vintage look.  I will definitely post pictures.  I am really excited to see the finished product...but I have to get started on it first.  :)

Stripes and Zigzags Pillowcase

Recently, I showed you the Stripes and Zigzags Quilt that I made for my son.  Well, I had some extra fabric and asked him if he wanted it to make a pillowcase.  He was really excited!  

I gave him a few ideas, and this was the design that he came up with.  It's more of a Pillow Sham than a Pillowcase.  He did a really great job!   And it looks great on his bed with the quilt. 

He wanted me to take a picture of the quilt, pillow and monster.  He made both the pillowcase and the monster.  He has a lot of talent!

Zigzags and Stripes Quilt

My son has been wanting a new quilt for a while now.  He even had the fabric picked out: Riley Blake Super Star.  It has a great mixture of blues, oranges and browns.  And absolutely perfect for a boy!  Sometimes it's hard to find cute fabric for boys, but we both loved it!

So I bought the fabric without him knowing and I worked on the quilt while he was at school and then hid everything before he came home.  It was actually quite difficult to hide everything because he is such an observant child! I wanted to have it done to give it to him for Christmas.  I also made another quilt for one of my other sons for Christmas using jeans.  You can see that post here.

So this is the quilt that I came up with. I didn't have a pattern, but just went with the flow! I bought a charm pack and then some yardage.  I didn't have quite enough fabric to make a twin size quilt for his bed, so I bought some solid navy blue fabric for the stripes and the back of the quilt.

I machine quilted it as well with my walking foot.  I used white thread and it provided a contrast for the back of the quilt. 

I'm not the best quilter and I'm definitely not a perfectionist when it comes to quilting, but my son absolutely loved it!  You should have seen his face, he wasn't even expecting it and that was the best part!

Cub Scout Badges

During the years of being a cub scout, my boys have acquired quite the collection of badges and awards.

When my twins received their Arrow of Light, which is a big award, they were presented with this banner, plaque and arrow.  The plaque says their name and the year.  The arrow represents the Arrow of Light.  And the banner hanging down from it is perfect to sew on all the badges that they earned during their cub scout years.

 

It took a while for me to get around to this project and I only did one of the twin's so far!  I still need to finish the other banner.

With the arrow

Here is the big tip that my mother-in-law gave me when it comes to sewing on badges: use transparent thread.  That way you don't have to try and match your thread to the color of the badge.  I have been doing it ever since!  Now I better get busy and finish the other one...

Without the arrow

Crayon Roll

My kids still have one more month of summer left before school starts.  I wouldn't say that I'm the best at keeping my kids busy, they have a tendency to keep each other busy.  Which is really good for me!  

One of my sons really wanted to sew something, he has been asking for about a week.  So when he asked to make a crayon roll, I thought that it would be a simple enough project to start and finish in one day.

He picked out some fabric that we already had.  The fabric he used is a heavier type fabric, which really holds up for this project. 

He already had in his mind how he wanted it to look like.  I just had to guide him on a few parts, but I was really impressed!

I think he did a pretty good job!  He has taken it many times in the car and this would be great to take to church as well.

Now he wants to make them and sell them.  We shall see...

Pretty in Pink Quilt Top

If you have been following us for awhile, you might remember the Quilt that I made out of Receiving Blankets from my boys when they were babies.

Well, after I had a handful of boys, I had two sweet, little girls.  So we made a huge shift to everything Pink!  It was a lot of fun!  But now I have girl receiving blankets that are taking up room in the closet.   I figured it is time to make another quilt!

I decided to go with a zig zag pattern this time and it was so much fun!  I didn't have enough blankets to cut up to make a twin size quilt, so I found some light pink minky fabric that I bought a long time ago with stars embedded in it and I used that fabric and alternated it between the receiving blankets.  

This quilt will be so soft!  I'm excited to finish it!  I just bought a walking foot for my sewing machine and I am in the process of machine quilting it.  I just wanted to give you a little preview!  I love it!

Popsicle Shirt

Last week we were given a challenge by the Wayward Girls' Crafts.  They give us one word and see what we come up with.  The word they gave us was: Popsicle.    They also did a spotlight on their blog that you can go and check out here.  

So I thought and thought about what kind of craft I could make that went along with the theme.  We made all kinds of pudding pops.  My husband's favorite was banana.  My daughter loved the chocolate.  And my boys loved the vanilla.  But I didn't want to go with the traditional "popsicle".  So I decided to make a shirt.

I didn't have time to go to the store to pick up a shirt and taking all my kids with me didn't sound like a fun trip, so I decided to sew one.  I picked up some grey jersey fabric on clearance months ago.  I knew that it would come in handy one day...and this was that day!

I took one of my daughter's shirts that fit her good and used it as a pattern.

I cut out a front (the one on the right) and a back (the one on the left.

This fabric is nice because it won't fray, which means that I didn't have to hem the edges.  I just sewed along the sides of the shirt and the shoulders.  I added a ruffled strips for sleeves. The neckline and bottom of the shirt are raw.  You can hem them if you so desire.  (This fabric can be challenging to sew, so just take it slow and you will do fine.)

Once I sewed the shirt, I made sure that it fit and then moved onto the fun stuff!

I had a sheet of hot pink with white polka dots iron on transfer material.  I cut out a popsicle shape, but before I ironed it on, I used a brown ribbon for the popsicle stick.  I sewed the ribbon on and then ironed on the popsicle part.  After it was cool, I sewed around the popsicle part.  (You don't have to sew the iron on transfer, but I liked the way it looks with stitching around it.)

I used my Silhouette to cut out the "So Sweet" part.  I found the saying in the Silhouette store.  I had dark pink heat transfer material that I used for the words. ** Make sure you mirror the image you want to have cut.  Before you iron it onto the shirt, put a thin piece of fabric over the part you are ironing. **

My daughter absolutely loves her Popsicle shirt and I love the price!

Monster Pillows

My son found some cute stuffed monsters on Pinterest a few months ago.  And he has been talking about them ever since.  I tried to find the etsy shop that sold them, but I couldn't find them.  I don't think she makes them anymore.
 (A reader just commented and shared with me the name of the shop that sold the monsters.  She doesn't have any listed right now, but she may in the future.  Her shop is called Little Bit Funky.  She is really creative and has some really cute items!)

In fact, my son (who was 9 years old at the time) loved these monsters so much that he made a few for his brothers and sisters and gave them as presents.  He made them all by himself and did a really good job!  

He made these little ones:

So for his birthday, the only thing that he wanted was a monster for himself.  

I decided to make a bigger one and surprise him!

The front has a pocket and I sewed on the letter C, since that is the first letter of his name.  

(Since his birthday, my other son begged for one, so I had to make another monster with the letter A. I am also in the process of making one with a D.)

You should have seen his face when he opened his present!  He was so excited and carried that monster everywhere!  I think he even took it to school to show his friends.  Now the kids at school want one!  :)

This monster has been everywhere, even camping!  My boys love them, because they use them in the car on long trips as a pillow.

So now, I have more monsters to make... I better get busy!

DIY- Bandana Dress

A couple months ago, we were at a farm show in Amarillo.  One of the venders gave me a couple of CASE bandanas that I thought were pretty neat.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them- a Bandana Dress for my daughter.  I am just now getting around to it...

Here is how I did it.

I got two of the bandanas and sewed them with right sides together.

Then I gathered the very top of the bandanas to make it flow at the bottom.

I then got out one of my daughters dresses and cut out a pattern for the top.  Then I stitched it together, I just eye balled it... 

When the top is all stitched up, just sew it to the gathered skirt.

This is how it looks when it is all stitched up.

I wanted a couple of red accents, so I had some red ribbon that I stitched on for sleeves, a ribbon etc...

Then you are done!

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