The Handmade Dress

For those of you who like our hillbilly stories, you are going to love this one! And in case you are a new reader let me set this one up a bit. My husband is the oldest of 12 children. Yes, twelve. I was pregnant with my mother-in-law three times, which means my children each have an aunt or uncle their age. So it's not unusual for me to have three or four extra children staying with us for a couple of days at a time because if one comes they all want to come, and you know me, the more the merrier. So here's the story..... I'm standing on the porch watching the kids play in the pool, after playing in the muddy pond, thinking about the mess this is going to make to get these six wet and muddy little munchkins into the house and cleaned off, when a genius idea came to me. "What if I could wash six kids and a load of clothes all at one time? I can just pour in some soap and let them play! And they will love it too because what kid doesn't like bubbles? Then I can ju...

In the shop you get 15% off of your entire purchase until Tuesday at noon! Have a wonderful day!

The post office is closing in like 10 minutes (don't even get me started on the very short hours of country post offices). I have packages that I would have liked to be in the mail yesterday in the front seat. I have managed to get only Maddie and Tim out to the car, but not buckled up. Molly yells half way to the car "I gotta pee!" and darts back into the house. This is the slowest child in America, I promise. I wait. How long can this take? I mean you pee, wipe, and run...NOT THAT HARD. My patience is seriously being tested.....Tim is still standing in the van NOT GETTING BUCKLED.....Molly should have been done by now.....So I say "Timothy, tell Molly if she doesn't get her tail to this car I'm gunna snap!" (Yes, I still say snap. I know I shouldn't have brought that word out of the 90's, but I did, so there.) so he turns and yells out of the car door "Siiiiiiiiiis!!.... Siiiiiiiiis! Mama! said! come! on!" I honk the horn. Tim yells...

As Molly gets older I find myself thinking more and more about modest, feminine, dresses for older girls. I try to come up with designs that will keep her interested in "mama-made", something that can grow with her, and a timeless design that isn't going to be out of fashion by the time Maddie gets to wear it. Sewing for older maidens (girls) can be tricky sometimes! With the increase in household duties and responsibilities I feel like it would be embarrassing for Molly to wear dresses that made her feel like a baby. I want to design dresses that are appropriate for her age and something that she is comfortable in. BINGO! That's how Miss Mary came to be..... I'm sure by now you have guessed it, Miss Mary will be my next pattern. I don't have the particulars nailed down yet, but this is the first draft and my little maiden definitely approves! I will do my best to offer this dress up to a size 16. Miss Mary is a lined, square neck, yoke dress with the...

Just browsing around on Etsy tonight drooling over all of the teal and pink Pyrex -that goes oh so well with Dorothy .....you know the pink mixer- and there are so many pretty things out there. Too bad I don't have a birthday or something coming up. My dream is to one day have all teal and pink dishes and cookware. Well.... a girl can dream can't she? You have to admit, cooking with cute stuff is part of what makes cooking fun. And you know what? Even washing dishes isn't so bad when you are washing something adorable. Maybe in a few years I will have collected enough for this dream to be a reality! By the way, all of the pictures are from THIS Etsy shop. She totally rocks! Do you see that baby chair in the background there?? Seriously, how does she sell all of this good stuff? I would have a hard time not keeping it all!

The tummy bug has passed, and my tooth (which got a temporary yesterday) is feeling MUCH better this morning! I'm gunna catch up on this load of email (we're talkin over 100) I have here and we will be back to regular programing by tomorrow! Thank God for a wonderful dentist and a good night's sleep! I haven't felt good since Friday so my excitement level is just ridiculous right now (hence the slight overuse of exclamation marks), but it just feels so good to feel good again! Look for a tutorial on ruffle piping sometime this week. Now that should excite you!

I have had a tummy bug and a broken tooth ... so if I owe you a package or an email I'll get to that as soon as possible! Thanks for understanding! Be back soon.

Just popping in to wish you all a VERY happy Mothers Day! and to share this little sign with you.... it sure made me smile! (The sign was found HERE on Etsy.)

The Spring International Quilt Market is just around the corner and that means sewing lots of samples! So here are the samples I mailed off yesterday, after taking these pictures in the rain... Here is a Miss Lily, and a Miss Madeline with no apron. Pretty bright and sassy huh? I always try to send some brighter fabrics and some that are a little more muted, so this is the bright set. This set turned out so cute in these sweet muted colors. I wish I had a better picture but it was just sooo gloomy out when I was taking these, and I was too late to hold them another day to wait on sunshine.... Maybe when they make it back from market I will get a few good pictures. Did you notice that Miss Molly ? Ruffle piping! Is that the cutest or what!? I have been wanting to try this with Miss Molly for forever but I just never did it, so when market sewing came up I decided to give it a go and WOW. I just love it! It accents the curved bodice perfectly and adds such a girly touch, not to...

Well a couple of months ago I was at home alone (that hardly ever happens) and feeling pretty lonely so I turned to my favorite podcast, Craftsanity . To be specific this podcast with Jennifer Paganelli . Well.... as I listened to her tale of starting her own home-based business from scratch I looked at her beautiful fabrics online, browsed around her blog, and literally fell asleep thinking of how awesome it would be to get her fabrics and my patterns together. When I woke the next morning I grabbed my iPhone by the bed to see if there were any pressing emails (I never do this), sitting right there in my inbox was an email from Jona saying that Jennifer Paganelli wanted MY Miss Madeline dress for market! So...Yah. I fall asleep thinking about this and literally as soon as my eyes are open it has actually happened! Jeniffer picked MY pattern! Can you believe that? So a week or so later this beautiful fabric arrives for me to sew with and this past week I made the dress. I am seriou...

There is no need to worry....I will just be away for a few days to get my thoughts together. It's been a hard week here and I'm feeling a little scattered....I haven't been able to write for days, I don't know why (or maybe I do and I just don't want to talk about it) but I know it will all come back to me soon. So until I have something worth saying I will be hugging my babies extra tight, thanking God for my precious friends and family, and sewing like a mad woman for Quilt Market. See you soon. xoxo, Samantha