An angel with a hat

This gorgeous hat is available from Havalah, whom we have dubbed "Crochet Boss". She's just *that* good. The cute factor is certainly thrown over the top when you look at the teensie-weensie angel wearing it though. :) (And no, this is not my little one, she's still 'on the inside').

Many thanks to Melissa from Snap In Time Photography in Rochester, NY.

Carseat Recover

After having three babies ride around in a faded gray and black carseat, I thought it was high time I got a pretty carseat. Taking some clues from this tutorial, and adding a little of my own interpretation, this is what I came up with. I'm dying to put a teensy-weensy girl into this carseat!

My favorite part of the entire project is the candy-stripe visor. It's just something different than expected, right? 

The fabrics used are:
Tea Cakes Ribbons & Roses Vanilla, designed by Verna Mosquera for Free Spirit.
Tea Cakes Sugary Stripe Raspberry from the same collection
and Tea Cakes Petit Fours Spring Green from the same collection (this one is no longer available on Fabric.com)

I did not want to add in a boring newborn head support cushion that covered up all my work, so I created a pattern for an insert myself and made one from the leftover floral fabric!

Rag Puff Quilt

The ragging process isn't complete yet, but my scissors were a bit dull so I was ready to take the scissors to my eyes with all the snips that needed done. ;) I used HoneyBear Lane's pattern here. I won it in a giveaway! I highly recommend it! Super easy to understand. The hardest part is just holding down the quilt while you're sewing some of the last pieces. It only took me a few days to complete.

Matching Easter Dresses [Custom Order]

 This dress was designed from a vintage pattern (Simplicity, copyright 1974).

These bloomers are a new pattern but I added the ribbons on the legs.

Since the sisters these were made for are 6 and 2, their dress designs were best to be different, while utilizing the same fabric. Big Sister chose the dress design she wanted. It was originally meant to look like the Kit Kittredge (American Girl) journalist dress.

And for good measure: A dress for Big Sister's American Girl doll to match.

New Baby's Dresser

With a new baby arriving some time in the next 2-7 weeks, I've [Susie] been feeling the crunch to get everything set for baby. We were going to move around some dressers to accommodate the new little person's clothing, but after a bit of a forgetfulness snafu, I decided I should find a way to use the hideous, old one I was getting ready to throw out. 

It had a peeling finish, broken doors, and to be completely honest, it was the bottom half of a china cabinet. It was never intended for use as a dresser. (Please pardon the ugly photo and hideous mess, this was from a "My House is Trashed" blog post). You can see that the door never liked to stay shut, the hinge was broken at the bottom, the messed up finish is obvious.

I took to the doors with a flathead screwdriver and pried them right off the front. A few minutes of work took the broken hinges off too. Then I took to it with 60 grit sandpaper and (go with the grain!) took off all the finish. Because it was such an old finish, it came off almost completely in 30 minutes of sanding.

Then I went over it with a 100 grit sandpaper. If I had it to do over again, I would have bought a pack of higher grit sandpaper for a final finish, but just using 60 and 100 worked fine.

Then I sprayed it two two layers of primer spray paint. I did this over the course of a few days - sandpaper 1 day, 1 layer of primer in the day, 1 at night, etc. 

Then I painted it over with two coats of Glidden Caribbean Sea. Now, I'm not convinced it was actually Caribbean Sea. I got the quart of paint in a Glidden giveaway last year and when I opened it I thought, "Odd, that looks too blue..." But since it was free, I went ahead with the project. I think it's actually Glidden Cool Cobalt and I still love it. 

Then I took a piece of 100 grit paper to the finish and rubbed off some of the paint. I went with the grain on the flat panels and then gave special attention to the corners to take off more paint. 

The final touch was fabric covered baskets to go inside the shelving. A tutorial is coming soon! Easiest $10 project!

The secret weapon: Dollar Tree plastic bins can be hidden.

I love the overall look! Can't wait to get it upstairs!

Gnomeo & Juliet Costume from Halloween 2011

A friend of mine commissioned this gorgeous set of matching Halloween costumes. 

Gnomeo & Juliet was a big hit at her house and with a 6 year old boy and a 3 year old girl, she had just the right set up. But they costumes were not available for purchase in stores, so she asked me to try my hand at it. 

Juliet's dress was one piece. The wearer's previous Halloween costume had too many bits and pieces, making it a pain for Mom every time she wanted in and out. So I tried my very best to make it all connected. It has a zipper back, a small velcro closure for the vest and a sash tie for the apron. But all those pieces were connected. Nothing gets lost ;). Gnomeo's costume included a vest with an attached belt, pants, and boot covers.

Photo Credit for the photo above to Savor Photography of Naples, FL

They had a lovely time in them and I really loved coming up with something no one else had made! Custom order costumes are one of my favorite things to make.

Freezer Paper Stencil Super Cape Tutorial: Entry #2

This is the portion of the tutorial for the fabric cape. 

For this part you will need:

1 yard of cotton fabric

Scissors

Pins

Sewing machine

(((And a seam ripper if you're new to sewing))) ;)

Start by cutting your fabric. I used a piece 34" wide by 30" long. This is a good length for a 4 year old boy. I'd shave off 2 inches for each size smaller and add 2 inches for each size up (Length only, width should stay the same)

Start by hemming both sides with a small hem. I eye-balled this - it's about a quarter inch turned under, and then turned under again. 

Then hem the base. This will ensure your edges are neat and tidy. 

Then fold your fabric in half with the remaining raw edge at the top. 

Find the middle (far right)

Mark the fold at the middle of the fabric. This will help you pleat your fabric at the neckline so it's even.

Pleat your fabric. You should end up with more or less a 12 inch length across the neckline once all the pleats are in. I took deep pleats to make this work right. 

This shows the size of the pleats - 2" folded under to make a 1" pleat.

Cut a length of fabric for the neckline. You can use the same blue fabric, or something different. I grabbed a piece of scrap flannel. I cut mine at 3" wide by 35" long. 

Find the middle of the flannel and pin that to your fabric middle. Pin along the neckline edge, making sure you grab your pleats into each pin. 

When it's done, it should look something like this. 

Sew along the pin lines. 

Finished sewing neck seam. Now follow along to make a sealed edge.

Fold the fabric down toward the raw edge.

Fold it down again so that both raw edges are hidden. Try to line the edge of the tie up with the thread line you just finished sewing. Pin it down. Do this all along your neckline edge.

The next post will show you how to finish your neckties and do an neat and tidy triangular end. 

Entry #1

Don't forget to pop over to this post (here) and enter the giveaway running through 

Sunday, February 19, 7pm (EST).