a repurposed dress for the bean

(with way too many pictures cause she's just too cute!)




The bottom half is a top I'd had for awhile but never really wore and the top half was made from a red Christmas camisole I never wore due to the sparkly candy canes on the front. And I'm dreadful and remembering to take before pictures.





It's so soft and comfy so she likes wearing it which is a wonderful plus!



The ruffles were fun and so easy to make, I think I'll be doing a lot more detail stuff like that in future projects.





The back has a gathered section and I love how it flows and hangs.




Thanks for looking, more re-purposing of old clothing into new soon to come!

today it came...

Daily blogging challenge day #2

This afternoon I have been working on my skirt, last night I'd sewn up the pleats but by morning decided I didn't like the way it was turning out. As everyone knows, if you don't love it, you won't wear it. And I want to love this skirt!
So, I brought down my dress form and began pinning and playing around to see what I could come up with.

I ended up putting one larger pleat in the front, two small pleats, one on each hip, and lots of little knife pleats in the back. which is what you see pictured.

Earlier in the day I had gone to check the mail and was pleased to fine my package from Amazon had arrived!

I had ordered the book on Terrariums and the newest Enya CD, which although it's the winter/Christmas one and it's now summer, I got anyway. For anyone who really knows me knows how much I adore Enya! I'm excited to sit down and read the book though, I've been wanting it for some time and can't wait to glean knowledge and start making my own little terrariums!
you likely noticed that there are other items in that photo which I did not include in my list of arrivals from Amazon. That is because while I was sewing away the ups man arrived with Two more packages!!! One of which is the book and CD set of "Growing Kids God's Way". I'm really excited to start listening and learning from that one as well.
The third package was from Forever 21...

I have decided that while Nathan is away, and shopping with kids is so difficult that I would try some online shopping. So I got plain white and gray tees (cause I am rather boring), a skirt and top, and a black cardigan which has a lovely lace cutout in the back!(and it all fits!) You'll also notice the pink flower head band and the necklace.

The necklace was a fun find, I liked the poetry of the heart with the anchor seeing as my love is out at sea. And since the heart is a locket I can even put his photo in it! Man I love being a girl! :D
So, it's been a fun day.

A challenge...

I have been contemplating a lot lately, things in life, the goings on of my family and friends, and such... if you haven't heard the latest yet my sister Emily did a perfect post which I don't think I could improve upon so go check it out! :)
I have also been working on my goals of things I want to accomplish and do while my beloved is out to sea. I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to it or not but I think I've decided for it. And the "it" is committing to blogging more regularly. I don't ever want to blog out of obligation but I think it'd be a fun challenge to blog every day for a month (unless I'm out of town etc...)
So, here is post #1 for my self imposed challenge:

A skirt in the making...

I am using some left over vintage fabric I got from my mom at Christmas. You might recognize it as the same fabric I used for this apron. However because I did make the apron I didn't have quite the full amount to make the skirt I wanted. But by lessening the size of the pleats I think it'll still work out. Won't be as full of course but I SO wanted a skirt out of this darling fabric so I'm willing to compromise :)
I'm hoping to sew it up this week so stay tuned...

The skirt...

I made a skirt, awhile back now, but never got around to blogging about till today.
I found the fabric at Joanns and liked it for it's warm wintery look but it's actually fairly cool and light weight. which is helpful when one lives in San Diego.



I'd been wanting a full length skirt for some time and so decided now was the time to make one. it's a full circle which is fun but makes me want to spin and twirl about the house all day. :D I also learned a new technique with the waistband which is done with grosgrain ribbon so that was fun! And the more zippers I put in the better i'm getting at it which is always nice.



so there you have it, my skirt.

recent projects...

I recently made a much needed trip to the fabric store in order to make Gabriel's cape, seen in the previous birthday post. I also picked up some patterns and some fabric and notions to work on some other projects. here are the two I finished so far.



I'd been wanting to make Gwen some jammies and finally got around to it. I had some trial and error with the pattern but it was good because I learned several new things and now next time I'll be prepared! I've learned that in sewing you can't get discouraged if you have to pick out your stitches and start over.

The button holes were completely new to me and rather fun to make! And just so you know, when I told her I was going to take her picture she promptly went and got the stool to stand on and then posed as you see here in the photos. such a difference between boys and girls! :)

I look forward to using the pattern again though as it has a lot of options and variations of P.J. ensembles.

My next project was to use the vintage fabric my mom gave me for Christmas. I've been wanting to make a cute apron for awhile now and thought this fabric would be perfect. plus there's enough of it to make something else as well! :)


I used trimmings I already had which was fun, and it has lovely deep pockets which I love! bonus...I got to try my hand at button holes again and they turned out even better on this than Gwen's night gown. For those of you who might be wondering, my sewing machine is old and doesn't do button holes.

sewing, sewing, sewing...

Well, I finally made it to the fabric store and got the necessary things to finish up Gwen's costume. I was also able to get stuff to get started on Gabriel's.
He decided to be the scare crow (or snow crow as he says it).
so, here is the little felt hat... which he's wearing sideways...



And then I took an older pair of cords he has that had been accidentally bleached playing in some water and added colorful patches.



And now I'm waiting yet again to go to the fabric store to finish the top as I inevitably always forget something! But I was already in a sewing mood by now so today I made this P.J. shirt from some old t-shirts of my husbands. Now just to find some cute plaid flannel or something to make some bottoms to go with it!

babylegs and a dress form....

These are called "Babylegs"
I have always thought the idea was cool and was actually going to purchase some online soon.
Then last night at Target i noticed that they had some!
So that was fun! :)

But this was even more fun!

I was up at my sister's this last weekend doing wedding things,
and by chance it came up in conversation that i enjoy sewing and costumes etc...
Well the lady of the house mentioned that she had an old dress form she'd bought at and antique store years ago that she no longer wanted.
So she gave it to me!!!!
It's so cute and so old! I love it and am looking forward to finding fun things to display on it. :)

dress form!!!!

My dress form came in the mail today!
I ended up getting the "Uniquely You" after doing some research and deciding what i'll be using it for most.
Of course i'd still love to get a "cute" one some day, to showcase costumes etc... but for now this is functional!
and by functional i mean i can now make myself costumes and clothes!
well, almost....the thing is, with a "uniquely you" dress form you have to fit the cover, seen below, to yourself and then you squeeze and squish it onto this foam core.
and wala! you have a dress form custom made to match your body!
so until i have someone to come and help me fit it to myself i won't be able to actually use it.
but i'm still thrilled that it's here!

Now i just have to think of something to name her....

finshed the crib!

ok, so my mom did all the sewing! she is a genius by the way! i did the crocheted flowers. the top pic is of the blanket which we just added the flowers and some of the pink floral fabric as a trim. the next one down is the crib organizer, which is actually currently attached to our bassinet crib in my room. the next is the full crib shot, followed by close ups of added embellishment to the dust ruffle, the bumper pads and sheet, and the inside of the crib with the pillows we made. it took a lot of work, and lots of love but i LOVE the way it turned out! (thanks mom!) i'll post again later to show what we did in the rest of the room, and what we did on my son's bed. :)

baby baby.....

ok, so here are the fabrics i picked for gwendolyn's bedding (on the left) along with the dust ruffle we had from gabriel's bedding(bottom right) and the blanket i am going to embellish a little(top right).

nesting....

so i have officially hit the nesting stage of pregnancy! sat. i cleaned my entire house from top to bottom, i couldn't stop myself! on mother's day i skipped out on church and started to paint our mini crib. it belonged to my husband when he was a baby. we used it for Gabriel but it needed a little pick-me-up color. didn't have a lot on hand but happened to have enough yellow paint to get the job done. the bars are actually darker than the rest but i kind of like it that way. ;)
so what you see here are the before and after pic.s the before really makes it look better than it was, trust me!
on Monday a friend offered to take Gabriel for a morning and i went fabric shopping for the reg. crib. my mom is making the bedding for me and I'm heading up to her house this weekend. so i wanted to have the fabrics so we can get started on the project! it took some time and a lot of looking and re-looking but i finally settled and chose the stack you see. the stuff in the green picture is the main blanket that I'm planning on adding some extra trim, ribbon etc... to. and below it is the dust-ruffle that we are also going to add a little something too.
the bigger challenge in picking colors and such is that i want it to be girly but she'll be sharing a room with her big brother. i haven't done much in his room since he moved into a twin bed and will be doing his stuff at the same time. but i want it all to match and flow nicely while still maintaining gender differences. add to that the fact that I'm picky and had a look i wanted it was a little more challenging. :) but I'm excited about what i got and can't wait to continue collecting and preparing for our dear Gwendolyn's arrival! don't worry I'll be posting my progress along the way! :)
and finally, i have a dear friend who lives back home(where my parents live and where i grew up). i suddenly felt like making a canvas collage for her, and I'm trying to get it done before i go this weekend. her bedroom is red,black and white. the white is what's proving to be a little harder since i tend to make things look old. never much real white in my art, usually creams and beige's. not to mention that i use a lot of old paper which of course is because it's aged and old, not white and new! so it's been a good challenge! here is a picture of the work in progress. enjoy!