Headed to church

Here's L wearing the jumper I made. This is definitely my new favorite outfit.

Fleece Beret

As we approach the holidays our family is working on doing some service for those less fortunate than ourselves. Through our church we are putting together stockings for kids and families who are Hmong or Karen refugees. We chose a stocking for a little 4 year old girl. One of the things most of these refugees need are hats & mittens here in the cold upper midwest. So when I was at the fabric store I found this pretty little snowflake print fleece that I thought would be darling for a winter hat.

I used McCall 9497 pattern, however it is now discontinued. Even without a pattern this little beret is so easy to make. This will fit a 21 inch head. My 5 year old wore it just nicely. Adjust the band accordingly if you need it to fit a slightly larger head. You can also make the band a bit wider if you prefer also. The original pattern shows a 3" wide band. My finished hat had a 1 1/2 inch wide band.

DIRECTIONS:
According to the pattern envelope you need about 5/8 yd. fabric. However, I only had about a 24" x 40" piece to work with and that was plenty.

Cut one circle 15 1/2" in diameter
Cute one band piece (with stretch going lengthwise) 4 1/2" by 10 1/2".

1. Seam the band piece to form a continuous circle.
2. Fold in half with cut edges together.
3. Mark or clip at half and quarter marks of band.
4. Mark or clip at half and quarter marks of cirle.
5. Baste around circle.
6. Gather circle, matching at half and quarter marks, distributing fabric evenly.
7. Stitch circle to band using a stretch stitch.
8. Finish raw edges with either serger, zigzag or even leave raw.

DONE! and oh so easy, but very cute. You could add a little bow or flower on the band using leftover fleece. Or you could add some cute buttons. My "bigger" girls even think that they need a beret like this. Strawberry Shortcake eat your heart out!

The World's Biggest Dress

***UPDATE****
Had my friend's little girl try this on. She is 5 and 1/2. It fit perfectly!




I had to post this dress only because I've never had a sizing issue so extreme. It is a child size 1 intended for my baby to wear this coming summer, but it is gigantic!! There is no way it fits any one year old on the planet. I'm a little annoyed because it is so off the chart, but what can you do? This is sewing sometimes. I have enough experience to notice it looked awfully large when I cut it out, but you just don't really know until you put it all together.

Here is a 2+ year old giving it a try......

She's pretty much swimming in the one year old dress.





and here's an 8 year old wearing the dress. (You can't tell in this picture, but the bodice is way too tight around her chest.)




At least in these you can catch the vision of how cute it will be when it's on the right age girl. It's such a cute and very easy pattern, but just beware of this sizing issue if you decide to give it a go. My favorite part is how full the dress is. Pretty!

McCall 4814

Sound of Music Musical Costumes

Well......they are finally completed and it is time to just sit back and enjoy the moment.

My oldest daughter's middle school musical production of "Sound of Music" has been an adventure for all involved. I originally only volunteered to make the pajamas for the scene in Maria's bedroom, knowing that I would probably end up with more to do down the road. That is exactly what happened. It turns out that many feel sewing is a "lost art" and therefore there aren't too many that do sew and those few that can, don't always know what they are doing either. But we all survived and the costumes do look good---if we do say so ourselves.

Here are a few pics of the costumes I worked on along with only a handful of other mothers.I made 11 of these peasant tops and 9 full circle skirts. Another mother made their cute aprons. This costume is for a dance number at the VonTrapp's party for the baroness.Some of these sailor outfits we had borrowed from our city's theater company and then had to make a few more to better fit our kids.My daughter is in the middle in the back. This is her cast--Maria and the children right before going onstage--these are the ugly curtain playclothes.Here she is again, onstage, 3rd from the left (tallest one). Aren't middleschoolers a funny group? They sure do come in all shapes and sizes. That made for some fun costuming as we went along. I made all of these pajama costumes.
Let's just say I am oh so happy that this project is completed!!

My latest

I've had this dress cut out for months, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do as far as embellishing. This is what I decided on. I used white twill tape and created these "blooms".

want to buy?

Christmas Postmarks

Christmas is rapidly approaching, which means we've all been frantically trying to get our family pictures taken and our Christmas cards out before Dec. 25th!! It seems to sneak up too fast every year.

One of the fun things I've done to my Christmas cards in years past is to send them to Noel, MO for a special holiday postmark.

This is an easy way to add a little detail to your cards when you send them. All you have to do is address and stamp (very important!) each card. Then you package them all together in a tear-proof manila size envelope (you can get these at the post office) addressed like this:

Postmaster

Noel, MO 64854

I think it cost me around $7.00 last year to send my envelope of 75 cards to Noel for the postmark. Not terribly expensive!

For a listing of all the 'holiday towns' in the United States and their zip codes, you can go to this website. Now that I know of other places with great postmarks, I'll try a new one this year.

I know that the town of Bethlehem, MD does a postmark that has the Three Wise Men walking towards a star (see below), but the town is too tiny to keep up with the huge influx of mail that comes in at Christmas time. So the only way you can get that postmark is by physically taking your cards to the town and hand stamping them yourselves. Which, if I lived anywhere near that side of the country, I would do it in a heartbeat! So cute!

My tip: A good way to see what the postmark looks like on your envelope, and to know when others are 'receiving' your cards, is to address one back to yourself.

This also adds a fun touch to your scrapbooks if you included the envelope (that you addressed back to yourself with the great postmark) along with your family Christmas picture on your scrapbook page.

Jumper for Baby

I finally got around to making some things for L.
This is NEW LOOK 6576


Here is my first one.



I followed the pattern instructions. And decided I could make it better by doing french seams and lining the dress instead of facing. So I did that on my other ones. They look so much better and were just as easy. But you kind of have to make one first to know what you can change.
This one is too big and will not fit until the spring/summer even though I made the size that fits her weight. Measure, measure, measure because the newborn chart is never accurate for L. I don't know if she is small or what. Anyhoo.....




so then I made this one to fit her now
You should see it with red tights. oh my!!





And this one for the spring/summer also.


( this shows the lining)

Ruffle Wrap Baby Sweater

I wanted to try knitting something new--so I chose this baby sweater pattern. I happened to see it first in the Knit 'n Style magazine. I have knit a sweater before, but never one for a really little person. So I thought I would give it a try. It was straightforward knitting and purling in a little kimono style.
The yarn I used was Bernat Baby Coordinates in white. It was some yarn that I happened to "save" from one of my local thrift stores. There were 2 skeins for under a dollar apiece and so it was a good deal. I came up with the project idea later.

Here is my finished sweater--I sent it to baby L. for her 1st birthday later in December.

Countdown

Exactly 6 weeks until Christmas--hope everyone is gearing up and trying their best to enjoy the moments and not get too caught up in the pressure and hype of the season.

As our cheerleading sisters would say:
"You can do it if you try, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!"

Penguin Pillow

In the midst of the "Sound of Music" costume madness that has been taking place in my sewing room over the last 6 weeks or so, I have also been trying to reduce some of my own projects or loose ends that I keep finding as I am moving things around or trying to find something.

My sewing room doesn't make me particularly happy right now as it is so crowded with costumes, etc. That should be alleviated here soon. Dress rehearsal for the musical is on the 15th and the show starts on the 21st. The end is in sight!! I will post about some of that once we get to that point so you can see some of those costumes that I've been working on.

Anyway, while searching for who knows what this week, I found this little remnant piece of fleece. I am pretty sure I bought it, but can't remember what I was planning on doing with it. But, I decided to whip up a little pillow to throw on my couch to dress it up a bit for the upcoming holidays.

I just made it with a little overlapped flap in the back--for easy insert and removal AND washing if need be. And sewed it so that there was a little flange edge around the entire pillow. So easy!
I attached a small piece of velcro to each overlapped edge (on the back) to help it remain closed. If I had had a little more fabric I could have overlapped it more and then not needed any velcro (or snap or button or whatever you may want to use).

Well, one project down...and who knows how many more to go. But anyway, it feels good to at least get this little project taken care of. I'm sure it'll be the cause of much fighting and bickering over who gets to use it while watching T.V. 'Tis the season!

The wait is over

I cannot tell you how long I have been searching for a dress with this exact neckline (see middle photograph of black and white dress). Some have come close....but all were too low. I'm a modest girl that loves little details like this pleating. And great news....it's only 99 cents at Joanns on Monday. Get yourself one if you like.

My fave here

and another dress in the running here. with more pretty little details on the neckline.

Now to see if I can pull it off by Christmas. If not....maybe a Spring stunner. :)

Christmas Card Preview

Here is a sneak peek into what our family has planned for our Christmas cards this year. We went out this afternoon/evening and took some pictures for our Christmas cards. It was pretty fun--the kids love the self-timer. We may have started a trend that we won't be able to keep up with, but for now we are going ahead with the plans.

This is the picture we used last year for our Christmas cards---so you can see what I mean about coming up with something new/fun/crazy/unexpected every year.

Our caption read: "Winter Schminter!! Who says it's cold here?!"