My Project Run and Play Remix of The Junebug Dress!

If you haven't checked out Project Run and Play, hop over there and become a follower. They have a great competition among bloggers for making kids clothing! As part of the fun, they are inviting anyone who wants to "sew-along" and compete for a $25 gift card to Fabric.com. So I figured, why not give it a shot?
The first week is to do a remix of The Junebug Dress.
This dress is adorable, with its flap on the front with three buttons attaching it on the sides. It also has sweet puffed sleeves. For my remix, I decided to turn it into a corduroy overalls jumper! I removed the puff sleeve to make it a jumper, then instead of attaching a gathered skirt, I made pants with an extremely tall waist and gathered them to fit the bodice. I completed the "look" with covered buttons, an applique on one leg, and lined it with the fabric I used on the front flap. LJ loves it and didn't want to take it off!

("Modeling" with her hands on her hip, sorta...)

Who me? Require chocolate in exchange for photos?

Kindle Case

A while back I found out that my friend Ali has the same Kindle I do. So I hunted around on the internet until I found a good tutorial (no use reinventing the wheel!) I think it turned out great, and it was so easy! It was a gift I handmade as part of my Great Christmas Challenge.

Check out the tutorial here at Chica and Jo.

The finished case, closed up all safe and cozy!

All propped up on its little hands-free stand.

Opened up and ready to read!

Thanks for the great tutorial Chica and Jo!

***Please become a follower- when I reach my current goal I will draw a random number to win a prize handmade by me! Send your friends over as well!***

Upcoming GIVEAWAY!

I really want to try and get more followers on my blog. So if you like any projects you see, please become a follower! Also, please share the blog with your friends who might be interested in sewing, crafts, and cooking.
Once I get to 30 followers, I am going to have a randomly chosen winner. The winner will get something handmade by me!

(A recent portrait taken by my daughter. Eight months pregnant is so attractive, right?)

Some gifts from my Christmas Challenge!

Well, I had Christmas last Saturday with my side of the family, so I can share what I made for my mom and sister now.
I LOVE the pattern I used, in fact, I have used it about 6 times now. It is Amy Butler's Birdie Sling.

I used home-dec weight fabric and omitted the interfacing (yay, saves a step and supplies!) If you use regular cotton, or silk, I would definitely do the interfacing.

For my mom, I chose a blue dot pattern with a tweed-ish contrast fabric. I really liked how this was modern looking without being too trendy for my mom's style.

She really liked the size of the bag, and plans to use it to carry around her crochet stuff. The big pockets are great for keeping her organized.

For my sister, I wasn't sure what to use since i Had a lot of good options so I texted her a picture of a few fabrics without telling her what it was for. I was tempted to go with an awesome laminated cotton I have, but she really surprised me and chose a rich dark green fabric that looked very traditional. I loved the sheen, and happened to have some silk in a tan color that looked great with it and also of course had a sheen. I think it looks great together!

She immediately started using hers as a purse, because she likes to carry around a ton of stuff (like most of us moms!)

I really liked how these two turned out. They are definitely more wintery than the others I have made. My friend Kristin got one for her birthday out of a heavy linen fabric, then I appliqued a vintage embroidered doily on the front which looked awesome. Why didn't I take a picture??? I do that so often- give something away before I take good pictures. Maybe I will learn one of these days :)

This is a great EASY pattern, and now that I've made a few I can say it takes me about 3 hours total (depending on how many times I have to start and stop!) Amy Butler always has great instructions including illustrations, so her patterns are great. She even features some free patterns on her site for quilts and accessories!

Silk Christmas Dress

I had some beautiful silk fabric given to me and I knew just what to do with it- a Christmas dress for LJ! The bodice and sash are a rich jewel-tone pink, and the bottom is cream with a circle pattern embroidered on featuring greens, pinks, and reds. While not completely traditional holiday colors, I think it works because of the quality of the fabric, and of course pink is in the red family.

(Sorry for the poor photo quality, my nice camera is at my mom's so this is from my BlackBerry!)

I used "The Party Dress" tutorial from The Cottage Mama. I modified it slightly by leaving off the bottom band of fabric and making it shorter. I also constructed the bodice in a slower way because of using that slippery silk- I sewed the skirt onto the outside bodice piece first to make sure it all was perfect from the outside. Then I pinned the lining over it to sandwich the skirt between and "stitched in the ditch" to attach the lining. It took longer, but looked perfect. (This part is under the sash, so it doesn't matter really though, haha!)

My only other suggestion is to make the sash piece wider- in her picture the sash looked really wide, but on my finished dress it was much more narrow. It still looks pretty, but I would have preferred the wider look. I should have noticed when cutting it out but oh well!

Here is the back:

I LOVE the covered buttons- it is a must I think for the more formal look. If you are doing a casual version of the dress then you could pass, but it really looks beautiful and professional.

I highly recommend this pattern- be sure to check out her other tutorials. She also recently started selling patterns too.

I wish I had a picture of her wearing it to show you, but every time I ask her she says "No, I fine." I don't want to wrestle her into the silk and end up with a wrinkled up snot-covered mess, haha!

("Oooh, pretty buttons Mama!")

Merry Christmas to you and your families, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, Merry Winter!

Christmas Jammies and Homemade Wrapping Paper!

Well, despite being in the third trimester I have kept so busy getting ready for Christmas! (But I am WORN out!)
I kept thinking December 25th was my goal, but my side of the family celebrates on the 17th, so I am scrambling to finish some sewing projects, as well as my homemade wrapping paper!

(We also squeezed in some cookie baking, and my daughter decided the dough looked good. Thank goodness we use local organic eggs, so at least its not quite as bad...or that's what I told myself!)

For all the kids, I wanted to make some Jammies. Instead of choosing Christmas fabric, I went with flannel prints they could wear all winter. The tops are much more time-consuming and I just couldn't do it, so I bought plain t's and added an applique that matched the flannel. The boys got a penguin and the girls got a heart. I free-handed these, but you can do a Google image search to find ideas or outlines to use. The boys got plain pants, and the girls got some ruffle action as well as a tiny satin bow at the center of the waist.

Now to the wrapping paper...
I am so lucky that my husband got a goodie for me from his office. He was astounded that I actually wanted this item, and even more astounded that I wanted it all. What was it? A GINORMOUS roll of paper- I'm talking big. They apparently got sent the wrong size for one of their machines, so voila! It's mine!
I immediately knew what I would make with it, which is the wrapping paper. I did make some fancy kind at my craft night where we cut a romaine lettuce heart and used it as a stamp. While it looked cool, it involved paint. Paint has to dry and did I mention I have been running behind??? So I used crayons!!!
This was perfect since my daughter didn't want to nap. Here are some of the designs. Can you guess which one my 2 year old contributed to?

(For this one, I wrote "Joy to the World" and made some messy stars.)

(For the plaid, I held 2 crayons together to make each row of stripes. I used a few different color combos.)

(This one is my favorite- I used 2 reds and 2 greens to each make a word. "Joy", "Peace", "Love", and "Hope". It looks really cool!)

Here is a gift all wrapped up with Christmas fabric scraps and cute gift tags that I made using a printable from My Sparkle.

Do you have any other ideas for homemade wrapping paper? I've got so much more of this paper left, so send your ideas my way!!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

It's that time of the year- comfort food. So here is my Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. Easy, and perfect for this season. (And good medicine for my sinus infection too!) I promise more sewing tutorials to come, but I don't want to spoil any Christmas surprises!

Chicken Noodle Soup

3-4 organic chicken breasts- or 2 regular ones (boiled and shredded or cut into chunks)

4 carrots, peeled and diced (real carrots, not baby)

3 celery stalks, diced

1 generous handful of fresh parsley, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cups dry egg noodles

1-2 boxes of organic chicken stock or broth (I prefer stock)Use as much as you want depending on how much liquid you like in your soup.

Directions: Place broth and vegetables into the pot and bring to a boil. Then simmer for about 30-45 minutes at least. Add in the egg noodles, parsley, and chicken. Simmer until noodles are soft. Then serve!