Another summer dress for the girl

I don't intend for this to happen (well maybe I do) but it seems that I rarely follow a pattern exactly as directed.  I'm more likely to use it as a base and then embellish it how I see fit....or how my fabric dictates.  I say that because I tend to buy remnant pieces from the thrift store, or end bolt pieces and so I get what I get and then I have to work around it.

That is what happened with this dress.

Had I used a different style and pattern I would've had enough but #3 wanted this particular dress and so I had to "wing it" a bit.  Not enough of the bird print to get the entire dress.  So I substituted one front panel with some red dotted Swiss to make it appear to be an "apron", added an upper band at the empire seam for the apron band and Voila! she is happy with it.





Details:

• Simplicity 5645--used this same pattern for #3's Easter dress in 2012
• Heidi Grace fabric that I probably bought at the thrift store.  Design is "We are Family".
• Topstitched rickrack to each side of the "apron" panel to make it appear more like an apron and not like I had run out of fabric.  

• Added band at empire waist to create the illusion of waistband of the "apron".  It is attached into the side seams and seam attaching bodice to skirt.

• Once again I didn't put elastic in the sleeve hem but added a contrasting band by gathering the sleeve edge onto it.
• Added tiny piping to the faced neckline.  Just sandwiched it between the bodice and facing pieces. And then topstitched it all down.

• Finished the skirt hem edge like I do quilt bindings.  It gives it some body and shape too.

Duct Tape baseball caps

This week has gotten away from me.
We started swim lessons.
Had 2 sports physicals for swim team.
I've been making swimsuits for all sorts of peeps, both others and for my own girls.
I forgot to take pics of 4 of the ones I did for custom orders and already sent off.
It has rained off and on all week.....blech!
However, we did get one glorious day of swimming at our friend Mary Ann's pool.  Thanks!!!

So with the wishy-washy weather here is one of the things my kids have been doing.

My youngest three, mainly my oldest son, are obsessed with duct tape.
We have this cool place called Ax-Man Surplus where you can buy large rolls for $5.
They make all sorts of things.
For awhile there it was lots, and lots, and lots of weapons.

However, just since school has been out last week, son #1 has been making hats.

He was nice enough to make his younger siblings each one too.




Complete with personalization.


And new glasses.






They sort of look like thugs, but they are all happy with their hats.
Daughter #3 even wore hers out in public the other day and got some nice comments from a cashier.

Link to video how-to is HERE

Enjoy your weekend and Happy Father's Day to all!

I hope to post swimsuit stuff next week.

Our Garden is finally IN!

Usually we put our garden in around Memorial Weekend--sometimes sooner if the weather is helpful.  Not this year.  After 21 days of rain in May there never seemed to be a time that we could plant anything.  Finally this past weekend I planted my garden.



The rhubarb (on the bottom left) is going great.  And the strawberries (top right) came back after daughter #3 and I planted them late last year.  I think we got 5 strawberries total last year.

This year, however; things are looking better in the strawberry department.



This other little plot of earth makes me so happy!

This is in the back, off the driveway, side of the house and patio.  This space has been loving the rainy season.  Phlox, salvia, bleeding hearts, hostas, daylilies, and some other stuff I can't remember, but I planted perennials so I don't have to replant every year.  This year I had to divide some of my salvia out.  And next year I may have to do something with the bleeding hearts and daylilies and they are going great guns too.


Last year I found this wooden cardinal somewhere--most likely in someone's trash pile--and added it to the garden.  My kids LOVE cardinals!


I got this rusty water spout from our parents' house over Memorial Weekend.  It was sitting on their patio and had been for some time.  I asked my dad if I could have it and my hubby just rolled his eyes.  Hey!  I've got plans for this baby.

I used the little clay pot that my youngest made for me last year Mother's day and we filled it with some flowers, put it in the water spout, and then added it to my garden space.  I like it's quirkiness there.


So now that the garden is mostly in....bring on the sunshine!

Hot Fudge Cake Recipe--GF and dairy free version

This is one of our most favorite dessert recipes and it is so easy.  We've had to tweak it some with our daughter's food intolerances, but since this has few items we have to alter it makes a good dessert recipe for all of us to enjoy.

Hot Fudge Cake
from Taste of Home magazine.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour  (we have used GF All-purpose flour, WonderFlour***, brown rice flour, and Sweet Sorghum Flour all with good results)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons baking cocoa, divided
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup 2% milk (have substituted with both soy and coconut milk)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1-3/4 cups hot water
• Ice cream or whipped cream, optional (Don't use for those with dairy issues, or use dairy free substitute)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk milk, oil and vanilla until blended. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened.
• Transfer to an ungreased 9-in.-square baking pan. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar and remaining cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over all; do not stir.
• Bake 35-40 minutes. Serve warm. If desired, top with ice cream. 
• Yield: 9 servings.

Nutritional Facts1 piece (calculatd without whipped cream and ice cream) equals 253 calories, 4 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 2 mg cholesterol, 171 mg sodium, 54 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein.

Originally published as Hot Fudge Cake in Taste of Home April/May 1994, p37

NOTE:
***WonderFlour is not GF, only wheat free, but it can be made on your own by combining equal parts spelt, brown rice, and barley.  I mix it all up together in a large bowl and then run it thru my electric grinder.  You can order the flour online, but it is super easy to do by yourself.

Black Tie Baby Suit

Well, this is the last week of school around here, our local public swimming pool opens on Saturday and I haven't really made any swimsuits for my girls yet.  Life has been too hectic.  It feels like I've just been putting out fires for the last couple of weeks, or maybe months.

I should be making for my daughters, but instead I made another little baby swimsuit.  As I was going thru the stash of swim fabric I pulled out the "little" pieces that I couldn't really use for my daughters.  I had this striped black piece that reminded me of a tuxedo.  And thus was born the black tie (O.K. red bowtie) baby suit.





This suit makes me so happy.

Details:

• Used 3 pearlized snaps (one side--female end--only) as the "buttons" on the shirt.

Snaps on inside of the swimsuit

• 1 1/4 inch wide ruffle.  I ran 2 lines of gather stitches at 1/2" from each cut edge.  Then I went back and used these lines as the topstitch lines when attaching to the body of the suit.
• Topstitched with a small zigzag stitch.
• Bowtie is made from a piece of red grosgrain ribbon. Hand sewn on.
• Used my basic baby racerback swimsuit pattern from Kwik Sew 2512 (discontinued).

Pink Ombre Ruffle Bum Swimsuit

Don't know why I didn't think of this style for a baby swimsuit before......I mean ombre is THE thing of late.

I guess I just needed to find the right fabric (pink swimwear) at the right time ( after receiving another baby shower invite) and at the right place (my favorite thrift store).




Size 2T



This will be heading to Holly's baby shower later this week.  I'm super excited about this little swimsuit.

Seriously, anyone else having a baby girl here soon?!  I might have to make some more of these....they just kill me.

I've got another baby suit coming up tomorrow too. 'Cuz every girl needs at least 2 suits.

Scrappy Owl Applique T-shirts

This year I am the camp leader for our young women's group at Church.  We have camp the last week of June and it should be a fun time.  (We're staying in cabins this year as opposed to tents last year and I couldn't be happier)

The theme of the camp is "SOAR" and each ward congregation is assigned a bird and a young women's value--we are owls and knowledge (and the color assigned to knowledge is green).

So in keeping with the theme we made our camp t-shirts last Wednesday night.  I found this fun owl applique on Pinterest.  I had to enlarge it and actually did two different sizes for the girls to choose from.  Then I brought my scrap bags and let them choose their design.

I always like to see what the girls will pick.  We'll be the same but different.  The girls had no problems seeing how fun their owls would look with crazy combos of fabrics.  The women, on the other hand, were trying to be too matchy-matchy and it wasn't producing the look they really wanted.  We had to have a short little lesson with them on "unmatching" fabrics.  They just couldn't envision the scrappy look.  In the end we had some awesome little owls.




Here's a couple up close and personal.
Each with their own particular personality.









As one of the girls said...We are going to have the best shirts at camp.
I'm just happy that they got excited about the project and are happy with their results.
And yeah, we're going to have the best shirts at camp.

Details:

• Shirts from Michael's (or Jo-Ann's) when they go on sale. I found ours earlier in the Spring for $1.97/ea.  
• Variety of cotton fabric scraps (including white for the eyes and some browns for branches)
• Black fabric marker for the eyes
• Pellon WonderUnder for $2.49/yd. from Jo-Ann's (use a coupon if you can)

NOTE:  I took all the shirts home with me and topstitched the ironed on pieces.  For mine and my 2 daughters' shirts that we did ahead of time to use as examples, I sewed each piece as I went along.  I prefer that method.  So if you have enough time or aren't trying to get 12 shirts done in about an hour and a half, I would recommend you sew each piece as you go and not try to topstitch it all down at the end.

Whooo Whooo! Enjoy your weekend!

PBJ Wedding Weekend in NE.

Last weekend out niece Bethany, Shauna's oldest daughter, got married in Nebraska at the Winter Quarters Temple.  After our ER/hospital experiences the week and couple days before I was all for staying home.  My family was still game on driving down and they convinced me to do it.   They were good about packing their own bags, etc. so that I wouldn't have to do "everything" to get ready.

It turned out to be a nice weekend.
Bethany's other grandpa came from Arizona and officiated the ceremony on Saturday.
I didn't take many pics, but here are Palmer and Bethany coming out of the temple.  (Last name starts with J, hence PBJ....get it?)





Her dress was really lovely.



And one last pic, Shauna in the middle, with her youngest and my son talking ER stuff I'm sure.  Check out his orange cast just barely showing in the shot.  Matches his tie really well.

I have to say that the reception was very pretty with paper lanterns and white lights everywhere.  I couldn't take decent pictures with my camera and the low lighting.  And final note...the red velvet cupcakes were divine.  I ate two.  Oh well....they were worth it.

Candy Coated Quilt in progress

After all the stress of last week with our son I finally was able to get a little sewing done.  Have I ever mentioned that truly sewing is my stress reliever?  I actually debated on bringing my machine to the ICU because there was plenty of room and otherwise I was just watching cable T.V. I just needed the repetition of sewing some straight lines and seeing some progress.

I now have 5 rows done for my candy coated quilt and the remaining strips all cut out.  9 more left to sew together.  That is 1/3 of the way to having the top finished. Yeah!



Each size strip is packaged in a gallon ziploc baggie and marked.  I'll just keep plugging away and break out this project when I need some mindless sewing.

Here's a couple other versions of this quilt to check out.
Freshly pieced
Sew Me Something Good
One more from Darci at Stiches&Scissors

Prom Dress--Finale

Well, my intention was to post some more sewing pics of the girls and their dresses, but it turned into quite the week last week for our family.

The Reader's Digest version:

• Tues. night take son to ER for broken arm--both bones right forearm.
• Get admitted at midnight because they couldn't get them both in place.
• Wed. afternoon surgery on arm--2 plates.
• Complications arose with his blood pressure and by 2 a.m. on Thurs. morning we were transferred by ambulance to Children's hospital and admitted to the Pediatric ICU.
• Find out that his kidneys are different sizes and this is probably the cause of his high blood pressure.
• Tests indicate all appears to be fixable at least in the long term.
• Mon. finally get moved out of ICU to regular room--hope to be sent home on Tues.
• Broken arm = blessing in disguise.  Not sure we would've found this problem any other way.

Soooooooo....after all that I was not around much to help the girls.
Unfortunately I ended up finishing the dresses for them because that was less stressful for me than trying to walk them through the remainder and still get them done on time.  Mostly it just meant me putting in the zippers and attaching the skirt lining.  They were O.K. with that.  Seriously, after all our time and effort I didn't want them to not be able to wear their dresses to the dance.

So here they are in all their glory.

My daughter with her design.




We just added a pretty little brooch that we found at the fabric store to attach to her ruched piece.
It seemed to add a nice touch without being too over the top for her.

BFF with her purple and black concoction


She bought her flower at Jo-Ann's in the hair/jewelry section.
We took off the clip part and hand sewed it on.
Then added some ribbon to hang down too.

All the girls together.


And again with my friend Amber who was nice enough to do hair and make-up for them all.
They all said they had a fun time.

Details:

• Turquoise bodice fabric HERE. 3/4 yd. 
• Simplicity 3878 for skirt pattern.
• Simplicity 1797 for bodice pattern
• My daughter opted for no tulle under her skirt once she got it on.  Decided it was fine just the way it was.
• I think both girls spent under $50 each for their dress materials and embellishments.  Yeah!!

Article here about various Mormon Proms held around the country.

And another article here.

Go here to see the original inspiration dresses.

New church dress

My youngest daughter has needed some new Church clothes.  I am tired of her wearing the same ratty-ish t-shirts with her skirts.  (I have plans to make new white tees for everyone.) This dress I made from some of the thrift store fabric pieces I found within the last month or so, and since it is blue she was more than happy to let me make her a new dress.



Details:

• Pattern Simplicity 3513
• Made this pattern before--you can see the dresses here.  I think the turquoise blue one I've kept because it is just too cute and I can't part with it yet, even though no one in my house can wear it.
• Michael Miller thrift store fabrics for about $6
• Made size 10 with added band on the dress hem.
• Didn't put elastic in the sleeve hem.  Made a little band to gather the sleeve onto instead.

• Added piping to the neck facing for added interest and contrast.

Candy Coated beginning

I decided to cut into the Civil War print fabric stack of fat quarters that I found at the thrift store and see if I would like it for the Candy Coated quilt pattern from the book Sunday Morning Quilts.

I may not quite have enough to do the quilt exactly like the pattern, i.e. I may have to eliminate a row or two,  but I'll know better on that front once I get all the pieces cut out.  It is going to be close.

For now this is how it is looking after completing the largest width row.





Not my normal choice of fabrics or colors, but overall I think I am going to like the look of this.  It is going to have a more manly feel, which is good.  Then the boys at my house will have something else to choose from.

Time out for some swimsuits

Maybe, just maybe, we are done with Winter around here.  It has been difficult do get in the swimsuit mode with snow still lying on the ground.  We are done with that now and it appears the weather is going to stay warm.

I spent a day or two sewing swimsuits this week.

My 2 youngest were invited to our 5 yr. old friend's b-day party.
Whipped up some pink/purple suits for her.  Should make the princess loving Miss F. happy.

Cut a 3" wide piece for the yellow attached skirt and then hemmed it with a double needle.

Hubby's youngest sister is having her first baby later in the summer--a girl.  They live in Texas, so of course they are going to need some swimsuits for her.

One of these for my SIL and the other for my friend's baby shower.

Both are size 1T.
Black skirt was about 2 1/2" cut strip--then hemmed it with a double needle.

Cut a 1 1/4" strip for the neck ruffle.
I like to have the ruffle almost double the length that you are attaching it to--makes it nice and full.
I attach it with a multi-step zigzag stitch.
This allows it to stretch with the suit and not pop some seams.



Front above and back below.  We love the little ruffle bums.
I also cut these strips at 1 1/4" wide. (Size 2T)
These were more like 1 1/2 the length of the bum.  I wanted it fuller, but it still works.



Another little purple paisley-ish version (2T)
Those little ruffle embellishments just change the look of the suit so much.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.
I'll be back on Monday with a Prom dress update.
They were sewing yesterday, will do some today, and again tomorrow.
We are down to 1 week and they have to get it done.