Happy Halloween!

I enjoyed Micah's birthday mobile so much that I ended up switching it up for a Halloween one. It only took a whole month to get a picture of it! 

We dressed the kids up on Saturday to get pictures of them. If one child is hard to photograph two is nearly impossible! Ever since seeing this video on youtube I knew I wanted to dress them up as bear cubs.

 Micah's outfit was re-purposed from a sleep sack Mum made him after he was born, it was WAY too large (obviously) I redid it into a pants suit and added the hood with ears. I also made Isabella's pants and both of their shoes. Lets just say this is a good example of why I don't sew clothing.

 Also I think Micah grew since I made his outfit last month. But I am still happy with them since they are just costumes! Isabella was a little irritated about the whole thing. Micah on the other hand seemed to really enjoy tromping around in it. And doing anything but sit still.

Hope you all have a good holiday!

A Pillowcase Dress

A month or so ago Jess and I decided to make some dresses for Bella Boo. We started with a dress that had been gifted to Jess. It was super long. probably a christening type gown. I convinced Jess that we could make it into something Bella could wear. Copying a dress from Baby Gap, in about a hour, we had a dress. It took that long because sometimes I can not get around doing things the hard way....

The hem of the old dress was a very pretty border of embroidered flowers. It was so easy to make, we ended up making two more. Getting pictures is the hard part. I used a soft cotton twill tape for the shoulder straps. the front and back panels have a casing at the neck with elastic through it. I like that you don't have to have actual ties to hold the dress on.

She has already grown so much, that it is more of a top than a dress! That's the nice things about clothing like this, it can go through several growth spurts before being too small. We'll try to show the other versions soon!

Greenpoint Cardigan - The Cashmere Version

For my second go at The Greenpoint Cardigan, I decided to make something for the girl. It's a size 12 months, so a bit too big, but she wanted to model it anyway.... no bribes necessary.... Anyways...
Once upon a time, a lady had a beautiful cashmere sweater.
 Then she shrunk it.

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As I was looking for cardigan appropriate fabrics, I remembered I'd saved this almost too small for anything sweater. There was just enough to get the main body of the cardigan without the neck edge. Buttons would be impossible unless I adding a different fabric and I didn't want to, so I settled for the tie. IF I'd been thinking more clearly the tie could have gone all the way around the neck edge. As it is, this will stretch, but it will be fun while it lasts. I used the sleeve and bottom hems at the sleeve and bottom hems.
 Sometimes I like to keep it simple.

This girl loves to stand up.

 She loves talking to anyone who will look her in the eye.

She loves to laugh.

And drool? Well, it happens a lot!
I love her face.

The Greenpoint Cardigan

The Greenpoint Cardigan - Do you ever have one of those moments when you are looking for a particular something, and then that exact thing practically falls in your lap? This happened to me three weeks ago when Adrianna, one half of the Crafterhours dynamic duo, released her first pattern. Oh. My. Goodness. It is cute. It is adaptable. It is unisex. It is downloadable. You can find it on her new shop website, "Hey June Handmade". I knew exactly what fabric I wanted to use for my first attempt. I've had a Michael Miller clown stripe in brown sitting around for a couple of years. Not a single time did it speak up and say, "make me into this!", til now..... Within two days of downloading the pattern, I had the Greenpoint Cardigan made up, it is that straightforward. Three weeks later, I did the buttonholes and sewed the buttons on.... go me..... Those buttonholes almost didn't happen, my machine and I had a mild disagreement over whether it would make them for me. It actually won, but I'm not going to talk about it. 

I could go on and on about the pattern but I'll post a bunch of photos instead. 

My grandson was my inspiration and model. He was a very good sport, even if he was bribed. 

The boy kills me and I love him so.

 

Buttoned up, it has a nice slim but not tight fit. The raglan sleeve makes for easy movement and this boy moves.

 Micah really got into modeling. He even turned back and forth so we could different views.

 Ahhhh blowing kisses?!

 NOPE! Eating brownies. You can see a bit in his right hand in the photo below.

Unbuttoned the look becomes cool and casual.

And then he was done!

Disclosure: Though this pattern was given to me by the designer the decision to make it, love it, write about it and make it again are entirely my own.

Necessaries

Small items required for a purpose. 

Miss Bella Boo needed diaper covers. I really did not mean for them to have a patriotic color theme. I was just pulling solids to try out the pattern to see if it worked for me. It is pretty perfect. If you don't like seeing a diaper, but love your girl in dresses, I can recommend this free pattern from Dana Made It. 

I added a bit of cotton twill at the back so no guessing is needed when trying to change a wiggly baby. These are so easy to put together, there really is no excuse for me not making a few more. I want to try some in knit too..... 

Goin' Round in Circles Quilt

So last year I lost the beginnings of a quilt. It wasn't a tragedy because I ended up making this quilt instead. 

It was a mystery.

Maybe meant to be.

 About three months ago it was found. 

Seriously, I don't understand this. Jessica and I both must have looked over it a dozen times.

It turned into a collaboration.

It became a gift.

 A Joel Dewberry charm pack, some Kona solids and a yummy Michael Miller Dumb Dot in aqua. Machine applique, plus lots of hand stitching with different colored pearl cottons.

Two tags because it amused us and we knew it would amuse the recipient. 

She says she loves it.....

Micah's 2nd Birthday

 Why is time flying by so fast? Micah turned 2 at the beginning of this month. 

We went back and forth on big party or just family and finally decided  just family sounded the best. I left the theme to the last moment. I really wanted it to be something that Micah would love- and it finally hit me that it had to be all about the sky- he loves everything that fly's! 

This guy will be in the shop soon. It made such a fun addition to the decorations.

Other then that I kept it simple since Halloween decorations were waiting to go up after the party

 Delicious fudge cake courtesy of his Great Grandparents. 

 I grew up with small family birthdays so I thoroughly enjoyed the evening of hanging out with just family. And yes that is Beau- he just happened to be available : )

Micah hated being sung to...again...  But enjoyed eating his cake!

Isabella rocking one of Micah's gifts. 

P.S. new photos are up on both of the kids album pages.... including more photos of the party 

Also Isabella is almost 5 months old - WHAT?!

T shirt fun

So behind on so many things! Sorry about that life is busy! I will try to get back and get up to date here soon but I really can't promise anything. I'm trying to spend more time with kids...  I don't really feel like I am accomplishing this since I have so many other things going on.... but you're not here to listen to that -you're here for crafting! 

I've been playing with the Silhouette a LOT. It is addictive. 

Among many other things I made matching shirts for the boys-- Uber was nice enough to let me dress them alike for a few hours and get a picture. I LOVE THEM! (the boys and the shirts... but mainly the boys)

I also made them matching Thunder Cats shirts

The one on the left was an extra shirt... for no one special at the moment. 

This graphic is copied from an American Eagle shirt we bought Uber a few+ years ago. It wore out and I held on to it to duplicate... and since I didn't have to hand cut the design I realized Micah needed one too. 

Micah's Sea Turtle Quilt Applique now a shirt graphic

And an enlarge Elephant shirt. 

And here is Bella in one I made a while back (as in before I ever knew there would be a girl to wear it) - It's so fun seeing them in things with my graphics on it!

Alright I am off to bed. Hope you all are well I will try to catch up on my blog reading soon!