I'm, Like, All Grown Up Now

Next in the line of never ending (I'm serious, I hope) things for Isabella.... McCall's 5835. This is a size 1 and will be more of a top than dress. I think. 

Jess choose this polka dot design by Riley Blake. I decided on the dark green to coordinate with it. 

It's a sweet, fairly easy pattern. Fairly easy because I changed the way they told you to put the bodice together. The instructions call for too much hand sewing  for my liking right now. Having just sewn the Ice Cream dress by Oliver + S, I finished the bodice with the method shown there. 

I picture it with a little pair of jeans. Jess may have other ideas.... 

I also had some help from my new toy. See that underarm seam up there?? 

Yes, I am all grown up, I finally got a serger. 

I have resisted for so very long because the silly things intimidated me. The price and the threading and such. 

Then I saw a post over on Crafterhours. Adrianna informed me that this model was on sale for a attainably low price. I caved and I'm so glad I did. It can cut down to one step what I used to take three steps to do. Time is something that I don't have an excess of lately. 

It was a bit busy when it came so my attention was not all together when I started trying the machine out. After realizing where I threaded it wrong, I was good to go. So far, it's amazing. 

Dear Serger, 

I 

heart

 you.

Oh!

Dear You Know Who,

I 

heart

you too!

Walls Go Up lll

This should be the last in this series..... There's one other possible wall change but that's down the road a bit.

So this first picture is the way before. 

As soon as I saw this area I knew I wanted to change it. The open spaces at the top of the closets is such a dust catching area. I was never, ever going to put any thing up there so closing it in was a great idea and while we were doing that, why not make an arch over the bathtub area???

You Know Who, being the ingenious guy that he is, did some research and came up with this plan. 

I do think he is rather clever.

Very determined too.

I was very anxious to see it done.

I think the wait was worth it.

My view when I indulge in a bath. 

Oops, I keep forgetting to fix that broken chain....

A Wall Goes Up ll

There for awhile I was coming home to scenes like this. 

 Disconcerting. 

 Anticipation. 

 Amazement.

 Removing one very dirty, useless, something over your cabinets helps so much. The only problem, see how you can still see the light over the dining area? It just seemed wrong to  us.

The photo below shows the wayyyyy before.

So. Very. Ugly.

Then the walls go up.  

 

Rooms become separate.

And we wonder why it wasn't always like this.

One day, maybe, we'll get to finish this area......

The Entry Walls Go Up!

When we bought this house, one of the first things I knew I wanted to do was get someone to put up the rest of this wall. 

 This room had been used as the dining room. It's now our cuddle up and get cozy TV room.

 I don't like seeing the back of the TV. 

Oh and yes, Micah rides his Puki in the house.

 Guess who the someone was that put up this wall in our home? 
First there was the tear things up a bit portion. 

 Then we were on to the building up parts. Jessica helped a lot with the first two parts.

I missed photographing the "Dexter" parts. Hanging plastic sheets from the ceiling is just creepy.

I have big plans for this side of the wall.....

I love the way it looks now. This is how it always should have been! 

Nice job Babe!

Garden Friends- Garden Tuesday

To those who are afraid of spiders..... I'm sorry. This spider is just too strange and wonderful not to share. 

She's called a spiny orb weaver. Some people call them crab spiders. You can see why. The are classified as beneficial spiders for the garden so she and/or her sisters got to live in the tree above the hammock.

I know she looks large here but she's barely as big as my fingernail.

Some of our other beneficial neighbors/residents are bats. This was the second of several we've found sleeping in our umbrella. I'd been wanting to make bat houses for them but now it seems unnecessary....

These guys are kinda cute and kinda scary, but I do like that they eat mosquitoes and gnats!

I never expected such a variety of "wildlife" in a city type yard.

I'm linking to Pam over at Sidewalk Shoes.

Napkins

Years ago when I was lots younger, with young kids, and not a lot of cash, I still wanted to give everyone Christmas gifts. I decided to make napkins! I used the most lovely calico fabrics, enclosing each square with a mitered corner frame. As ugly as we'd all think they are now, I worked very hard on making them perfect, and I used mine untill they died. I think my Mom is the only one maybe still hanging on to a couple. (Love you mom!)

A few weeks ago I went to the Jacksonville quilt show. I had a great time wandering through seeing some amazing quilts, trying out long arms (oh how I miss you Millenium) and looking through shops. Jacksonville very few fabric shops for such a large city, so it was fun to see such variety in one place. 

At one shop I spotted this piece of Farmers Market by Sandi Henderson and not far from that I saw a fabric I'd not seen before. I found out it's by Hoodie, whom I've also never heard of, though she has been designing fabric for years. This line is called Vegie Patch. The eggplant fabric was all I could find at the show. There on the spot I decided to revisit my napkin making. We go through a lot of napkins but I also do a lot of laundry so why not combine the two.... After looking at the line, the eggplant is my favorite, but I want to get the others to make more napkins, four is not enough.

They finished out at about 22 inches. I love the mitered corners. I made these by just wrapping the fabric from the back and framing my focus fabric. The solid green is Kona Grass. Is there anything you made years ago that you've decided to make again? I wonder if in twenty more years I'll think this fabric was a "lovely" choice?

Shirts For the Boy

I love, love, love dress shirts on men, even/or especially on little guys. I purchased an extra large dress shirt while back in Germany because the fabric was a yummy Italian cotton. I thought I'd re-purpose it for myself but when Jess asked me to make Micah a shirt I knew that this was a better option. I used the Sketchbook Shirt pattern by Oliver & S again. It goes together so simply. Even though I like to use a real stand up collar on bigger shirts, this one is easy to make in a short time, and really, spending a lot of time making small clothes that will usually be outgrown before they are worn out is kind of silly. Now, ask me how long it took me to finish these...... no don't, because I don't want to tell.

Meet Mac, my size 2 kids mannequin that I got for $25.00 at a very cute shop that went out of business. I was very sad to see the shop close but since I didn't know it was happening, I was very glad that I went in time to rescue him. Don't make fun of him please, if I ever decide to dress him as a girl.

Oh how I love stripes.

I got very tired of trying to remember what sizes I've made for Micah and on these shirts with a yoke facing the solution was simple. Pooh to my machine for messing up the number 8.

I also had some gingham that I'd been gifted ( I cannot remember who gave it to me! It had been used for table clothes?) anyway, as some of you have already seen, it was put to good use for Micah's first birthday.

 It's so fun to see this little guy running around in things I've made!

Emptying the Cupboard II

Back when I worked at the most amazing shop on earth, I ordered this fabric. Avignon by American Jane for Moda. I started this sample, the whole bolt of red focus fabric sold, and I lost momentum. I was using a pattern from this book and had even sewn most of the left over odd shaped triangles together for the edging. 

It went into the cupboard and never came out again  

Fast forward two years.....Out comes the project. I realize there is not enough of anything to finish this project, and I'm determined to finish it without spending any more money. After a panic, a cup of   coffee and messing a bit carefully planning, I found some blue kona in my stash, unpicked all those triangles and set them on their sides, then used the kona for the corner blocks and backing. What looks like a wide binding is actually the backing wrapped to the front and the corners mitered. 

Since it will be used as a tablecloth, I didn't use batting. After sewing it together I hand quilted some of the hexagons with a size 5 variegated pearl thread.

Whew! Done, just in time for a picnic before the weather changes!