Lazy Days Skirt

Here is another wonderful free pattern from Oliver + S! It's the Lazy Days Skirt and you can find it here on their blog. Just click on "lazy days skirt" under free patterns on the right side of the screen. These little skirts are so easy to make and are finished so nicely with the ribbon at the bottom. I think Robin is already outgrowing hers!

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Jerome

When I was a little girl, we lived in New Jersey, and my dad worked for Parents Magazine. (He was in the data processing end of things.) Maybe once or twice a month, my dad would bring home a storybook for us. "Jerome" was one of our favorites. It now resides on Ellie and Robin's bookshelf, and it's one their favorites. A witch pretends to turn Jerome into a prince, and Jerome helps the townspeople solve problems by talking to the troublemakers in a simple and clever way.











You can find "Jerome" by Philip Ressner and Jerome Snyder here on Amazon! The illustrations are funky and fantastic.

I'm so glad my mom saved our favorite childhood books. 

Handmade Art Work in the Girls' Room

First, I"m sorry I've been away for so long! Wow, I missed the whole month of June. The good news is that I haven't been attending to my blog because I am once again busy with freelance writing work, which is a wonderful thing. I am definitely having a hard time juggling kids, cooking, cleaning, paying the bills, grocery shopping, work, crafting, kids, did I mention kids? I can't keep up!

I thought I would share with you a little corner of our home. This corner is in the girls' room just above Ellie's bed. The large needlepoint work of the pansies and the oval shaped painting on fabric came from our thrift shop down the street and cost $1 or $2 each. They are both handmade--I wish the creators could know that their work is still being appreciated! And, the lovely little needlework piece in the ornate frame was made by Ellie and Robin's grandma in Australia many years ago. We brought it back with us on our trip this past spring, and I'm so glad this little treasure is with Ellie and Robin.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to be back here sooner rather than later.

More Tea Towels

It's funny because last year right around this time, I posted about some tea towels that I embellished for my Aunt Patti. And today I just wanted to share some more tea towels. These are a couple of dish towels that I got at Savers or Goodwill a while back, and I finally got inspired to decorate them with patchwork made from my scrap collection. A quick project with a cute result! And they really brighten up the kitchen. Another prototype for my someday Etsy shop...

Thanks for stopping by!

Popover Sundress

 

I absolutely adore Oliver + S! Their blog, which you can find here, has amazing free patterns and fantastic sewing tutorials. They also sell patterns and have a line of fabric. And, they have a new book "Little Things to Sew," which I cannot wait to read.

I made these sundresses with the Popover Sundress pattern--it was free on the Oliver + S blog--just look at the right hand side of the blog. These dresses were pretty easy to make and came together so beautifully. I can't wait to try more of their patterns. I made the dresses a little big so that the girls can wear them next year, too. The pattern for the doll dress was free, too, so I made matching dresses for our favorite dolls.

 

Robes

Ellie had been asking me for a bathrobe for a long time. I couldn't find one at the children's consignment shop or even at Target, so I decided to make robes for both Ellie and Robin. I took the girls to Joann and let them each pick out their own fabric. Ellie picked flannel with purple butterflies, and Robin picked pink flannel with sparkly stars. I used Simplicity pattern 2826, which, thankfully, was on sale for $1.99. I had to buy two patterns--one for each size. I haven't sewn clothing in a long time. The hardest parts were pinning the sleeves to the armholes and turning the belt. Otherwise, not too hard, and the whole process didn't take very long.

Thrift Shop Finds

I've scaled back on my thrift shopping these days. One because I don't need anything (we are trying to be minimal) and two, because we're on a tight budget. However, I did have a couple of affordable finds on a recent trip to Goodwill with my friend Marian. I got this atomic coffee pot (I don't drink coffee, so it's decorative) for $3 and this red vintage fabric for $2.There were at least four yards of fabric! Some of it has been transformed, and I'll share the project with you in an upcoming post.

Fairy Dolls

I am always inspired by Joel Henriques' blog Made by Joel. You can find the post for his wonderful clothespin fairy dolls here. Ellie, Robin, and I had a lot of fun making these. The girls picked out the fabric and hair, etc., and I manned the hot glue gun. They came out so cute and didn't take long to make. It's hard to see in my photo, but some of the dolls have wings made from clear plastic. I cut out the wings from containers in our recycle bin. I'm hoping we can make a forest for the fairies to play in next.



Easter Bunny Stuff

Here are a few things that I made for the girls for Easter. Below are little sleeping bag and pillow sets made from scraps of cotton fabric and fleece. The pillows are trimmed with rickrack. These sleeping bags are the perfect size for little dolls and stuffed animals.

And, I made the girls a set of bean bags to toss. The inspiration for these came from the Chez Beeper Bebe blog. You can find the bean bag post here. I love this blog--Holly always inspires me. I didn't have the gumption to applique letters or numbers on these, so I just kept it simple and decorated them with some vintage rickrack. I hope to learn how to applique in the near future. By the way, I did make ten of these bean bags, but one was AWOL when I was taking pictures! I filled them with dried black-eyed peas.

Simple Easter Craft for Kids

Here is a little craft for Easter that I did with Ellie and Robin today. I was inspired by these Egg Chickens from Martha Stewart, but since we don't eat too many eggs 'round these parts (trying to cut out intake of animal products), I thought we could make some out of paper. I found the egg templates here.

This craft made me happy, too, because we don't color eggs, and I was looking for an alternative project!

Materials:

Card stock

Paper scraps in various colors

Pencil

Scissors

Hole punch

Glue

Instructions: 1. Print out the egg templates from the link above. Cut out the egg shapes. You can transfer the templates onto cardboard to make them sturdy and reusable. (Old file folders work well for this, too.)

2. Trace your template onto cardstock and cut out your egg shapes in various colors and sizes.

3. From paper scraps: cut out orange or yellow triangle shapes for the beaks; punch out black dots with your holepunch for the eyes; and cut out feet and a comb from red paper. (I happen to have a star-shaped punch, so I used it to make the comb and the feet--similar or improvised shapes work fine.) For a decorative chick, cut out a strip of paper to make a stripe for across its body.

4. Glue on the beak, eyes, comb, feet, and stripe.

5. Voila! You are done. You can attach string to the back if you'd like to hang them, or punch holes in them and string them on a garland. They make great gift tags, too.

Happy Easter!

Patchwork, Oz and More

Sorry I've been away for so long. We were in Australia for two weeks, and we had a wonderful time visiting family. Prior to that, I was working like mad trying to meet a number of deadlines. Things are settling down now...

I made this patchwork pouch for a friend in Ohio. Once again, it was inspired by Amy Karol's Artsy Clutch from Bend the Rules Sewing. (Sorry, I know I've mentioned it so many times already, but I love it.)

And, my daughters are really into worms right now. They talk about worms all the time. So, I made them some homemade worms. I like them so much that I'm hoping they'll be an item in my someday Etsy shop. They're very simple to make and fun, too. I've got some patchwork worms in mind for my next batch, so stay tuned!

Patchwork Addiction

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Marian brought me two patchwork squares that she bought at a Denyse Schmidt sample sale a few years ago. I got so inspired that I decided to make them into pillow covers. The squares are the middle of each of the pillows above and below. You can see where I started adding on in the gold and orange fabrics.

But, can I tell you that patchwork is addictive? Once I got started I didn't want to stop! So, I made another pillow cover on my own--below. I just used the fabric that I had, and the new pillow covers really spruced up our bedroom!

Happy Anniversary

My blog is now one year old. I posted my first entry last year on February 28th. My first postings were about Valentine's Day projects, and I showed you a picture of my Origami heart garland. Well, that photo was horrible, so here are some better ones!

I just searched and searched to try to find instructions for this heart on the Web, but I couldn't find anything. I don't think I ever had instructions for this heart, and if I did, I no longer have them--I just keep taking apart old ones to remind myself how to make them. I will continue to try and find the directions. Maybe I will even work up to making a video tutorial for you!

A Christening Card

I can't always make handmade cards, but I try to make as many as I can. I've always loved to make cards--even when I was very young.

Here's a card that I made for my father when I was 6. :)




Here's a picture of a card that I made for a contest in high school. My school used it as their Christmas card that year. Unfortunately all that remains is this photocopy. The original card had red ink printed on white cardstock.

I recently made this christening card for my nephew. I have a punch that is the shape of a postage stamp, and I punched stamps from all of my blue scraps. I used photo squares as adhesive. Simple.

Inspiraton

Here are some things that I do when I'm looking for inspiraton or if I am hankering for a new project, sewing or otherwise...

*I go to Make & Mingle, a local sewing shop in Fairfield. They have so many great fabrics, supplies, project ideas, and more. Looking around this beautiful shop always gets me inspired. You can find them here. (The little vintage bundle above came from Make & Mingle.)

*I go to Joann Fabrics or A.C. Moore and wander around. I don't necessarily buy anything.

*I go thrift shopping.

*I look at my own stash of fabrics and paper and all kinds of scraps.

*I get sewing and craft books out of the library or look at ones that I own.

*I look at back issues of magazines like DIY that I have saved.

*I look at my favorite sites, like Sew, Mama, Sew and The Purl Bee. (Links are on the right side of this blog.)

*I go for a nice, long walk.

What do you do for inspiration? I'd love to hear your ideas.

A Gift from Little Pink House

I just wanted to share a beautiful item with you. I bought these sachets as a gift for a dear friend. I got them here from Melissa Crowe's Etsy shop, Little Pink House. They are really so nicely made--felt flowers appliqued with perfect, tiny stitches onto linen and filled with lavender. A great handmade gift if you are looking for ideas. I love Melissa's work. You can find her blog, Checkout Girl here.

Fat Quarters

Hi, just popping in to say hello. I've been wiped out with a sinus infection for a while now and it's still hanging on...off to the doc tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to Danbury for an appointment, so I decided to stop into The Quilt Shop while I was up that way. A local quilting enthusiast told me about the shop.

I found a nice bargain there--they had about six baskets of fat quarters priced at 6 for $5.00. I am very frugal these days, and that was a deal that I could afford! Can't wait to dig in and make stuff with my new fabric.

A Baby Gift

I made some burp cloths, a pouch, and a changing pad to give to a friend who just adopted a baby girl. I've been thinking for a long time that the burp cloths and the changing pad would be items I'd like to have in my someday etsy shop. So...I made my first Splendid Blue Wren gift tag, just for practice.

The burp cloths and the changing pad are cotton calico on one side and cotton flannel on the other. I added some diapers and wipes to the pouch--easy to throw into a bag when running out the door.

The pouch is another Artsy Clutch from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing. You can find this fabulous book here. (I couldn't put this particular pouch in my someday shop because it is Amy's design, but I hope to invent my own design in the future.)

Valentine Cards

Just a few handmade valentine cards to share with you. I made them using scraps and leftovers from other projects and cut all the shapes freehand. Nothing fancy. Forgive me again, for my photos...I'm working on it!

The one below was for my sister. I cut out the picture of Julius from the tag that was on a pair of slippers that Brendon gave to me.

For Robin...

For Ellie...

And a special card for my sweet father-in-law...