The Handmade Dress

I have found a judge........It's Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood from Craftsanity !!! If you have never listened to her podcast you are missing out! She has the most fun and interesting interviews with top crafters, sewers, knitters, craft book authors, and designers. She is awesome, and she will be judging our little scrap game on November 8th! Which means I need all entries by lunch on the 7th! YAY! I am so excited! If you haven't entered yet JOIN IN! This is going to be such a fun game!!!

Miss Alice is now up for pre-order (the pattern will be ready within two weeks!) and as usual I am offering a discount for the next couple of days! You will get 15% off of your entire purchase and that includes EVERYTHING in the shop, even fabric!! So head on over NOW!

This post is all about crating/sewing the quick, easy, artistic, inexpensive, and fun way! This weekend I was looking for a fun hand project that could be done on the couch with the kids around me, and I also needed a baby shower gift for Sunday, so this is what I came up with. I had these two inexpensive canvas tote bags (you know the ones that come in a 3- pack at Walmart or Joann's) that were from an abandoned  project a few months back. The bags already had the bird ironed on but nothing else so I thought a scrap project would be nice. This is how the first one turned out! I loved it! I loved it so much that I decided to put in a lining with pockets so that I could use it as a purse. The whole thing came together quickly while the kids and I watched a movie. Perfect. I just used scraps and I worked long hand stitches with embroidery thread. I didn't do any measuring or anything like that I just built this little scene as I went, it was so much f...

I couldn't decide on the title of this post...should it be "cake and tattoos" or "things that make you feel good but probably aren't good for you"...what a quandary.... Today I made a straight-out-the-box strawberry cake. Probably not a good move. O.K. so most definitely not a good move, cause I may as well take that piece of cake and slap it right on my thigh because that's exactly where it's going. I wasn't going to cut it until tomorrow when I go to my sisters house but I decided I needed to taste it first and make sure it was good. Ahemmm...It was good...so good. Maybe even better because I didn't have to mess the kitchen up making it from scratch. Bad! So here I am in heaven eating my strawberry cake when Maddie comes up wanting to "make a tattoo" on my leg with a pen....I thought about how good it would feel to have someone rub my leg while I ate my cake. I mean let's face it, how often does anyone offer to rub...

Done! Thank you all so much! Within just a couple of hours I had all the help I needed! Once again you all have swooped in and saved me just when I need you, thank you for that. I chose testers on first come basis this time, whoever offered to do the size I needed first got the job, but I will definitely keep this list for the future patterns! I made a special folder in my inbox and filed away every comment so I know just where they will be! Again, Thank you so much! Hey friends! I am in a bind! Could you please help me?? Please!? I didn't have quite as many testers for the Miss Alice as I planned and I just don't feel right about sending this pattern out there without being thoroughly tested.....so....is there anyone out there willing to test this baby and send in a review by Saturday? I would like to have one extra tester for each size ( 3mo- 12 yrs) with sewing levels from advanced beginner to expert. You will get the tester pattern in PDF first and then later...

For all of those mamas out there that may think my children are always decked out in handmade dresses with perfectly fixed hair and matching shoes...I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's so not my life! LOL! While, yes, on Sunday mornings they are "what you'd expect"; any other day of the week this is most likely what you would find! Dirty little happy faces, a PJ shirt under a pair of overalls, and rubber rain boots....I wouldn't have it any other way. I love this little munchkin! See how the dirt just makes her little eyes sparkle? Dirt sure can grow some happy kids! I can't wait to have a yard FULL of dirty faces, little Bulgarian faces too! I hope you get to kiss a dirty little happy face today!

....working on ideas for the bitty-tiny-patterns I want to make. Bitty tiny is what Maddie calls anything small so why not have bitty-tiny-patterns with a bitty-tiny-price? Who knows if they will ever really see the light of day, but it's fun either way. The little sketch book is just some recycled pattern sheets (all duds) that I have sewed together using a strip of fabric for the binding. I love for projects to have their own little books, it makes me happy. So do colored pencils. One of these days I'm going to suck it up and buy a set of these babies , I know they must be worth it because I'm constantly hearing good things about them, but that price! Wowza. Until I get those though, me and crayola will be chillin........nothin wrong with that.

Hello friends! Thanks so much for all of the sweet birthday wishes! After writing that last post I quickly started feeling yucky, nauseated, and I got chills and fever. I spent the rest of the day on the couch wining about how I wanted a do-over! LOL! And on Friday I got my do-over, complete with a surprise party at Martha's house (my mother-in-law). It was a lot of fun, they decorated it in all black and I had a very yummy tombstone cake with "R.I.P" written on it. My Father-in-law said he even tried to catch a crow for me, it may be best that didn't work out! On Sunday we celebrated my sweet sister-in-law, Cristina's, baby tea. Martha and I were in charge of decorating and we had a really good time with this theme. We went with frogs because Cristina had registered for this super cute frog baby bedding, so we knew she would like it. We made the frogs from a free pattern HERE , and we cut down *most* of the cattails from my neighbors front yard, with...

...and you know what? It feels good. I have had a whole year to think about how old I would be today, how old 30 sounded, what it meant to be 30....but now that I'm here, I'm kinda excited. I feel like I've earned it. I have lived a lot of life in 30 years, good life too! There are not many regrets. I know exactly who I am and I'm proud of how I got here. I'm waaaay more comfortable in my own skin than I was at 20. So, for those of you who wonder what 30 is like...it's awesome! I wouldn't trade it for anything! Here is a list of things that I've done in the last 30 years: Grew up with awesome parents who never told me how weird I really was! Had many dear friends. Went to cosmetology school. Worked at Glamour Shots as a make-up artist and "hair-puffer-upper". Oh yeah! Remember that?? Learned sign language. Worked the Summer camp at the Institute For Deaf and Blind, where I met so many awesome kids! Worked at a hearing aid shop. ...

I have been working on styling for the older girl version of Miss Alice, this is always so important to me (and my big girl, Molly). Some of you asked for this to go up to larger sizes but I honestly wasn't feeling it at all. I felt like it would look way too young for the older girl, and after talking to Molly about how she felt about it I was thinking that it might not happen. I do so understand the need for modest dresses for our older girls, and well know of the pattern shortage for this age group, and I have also done my very best to provide that.....so, I thought....and thought....and this is what I came up with, a belt! That takes it from baby sister to big sister! The belt gives the dress a whole new look! It has a "Anne of Avonlea" feel to me. What do you think? Molly was very happy with it, she said that she definitely feels her age in this dress. Being the oldest she seems very sensitive about this issue, looking the part of the oldest sister is very imp...

We have 100 yards of beautiful fabric in the shop!! I thought it would take us longer than it did to get it and list it all, but we're ready!! YAY! Pretty retro fabric! I am so in love!