Serger!

I am super excited that I bought a new used Craigslist serger! Hopefully I can crank out even more fun stuff.

Recycled Dress for LBB Challenge

Here are some pics of my first Sienna dress for the LBB & Dharma Trading Design Challenge.

I'm so glad I posted about it earlier...it really kept me on the ball with this project and I knew I couldn't back out. This dress was actually a blast to make and I love how it looks on Little Lu. I had the perfect amount of scraps left to make bitty baby a dress. How convenient, especially since Little Lu is 132 X more likely to wear it and wear it often if her miniature counterpart has one.



She has worn it twice already, once with leggings and once with warmers. Both not without TONS of compliments!




If you aren't thoroughly impressed yet, 1) you don't know my previous sewing skills, and 2) you haven't seen how truly HIDEOUS these shirts were to begin with. These .99 shirts at Goodwill had some potential, I thought. This is UPcycling in its greatest form, I think!



There are tons of things I like about this pattern. 1) It is very user friendly with lots of pics and descriptions. Trust me. I have tried store bought patterns. Simplicity does not always live up to it's name. I just don't know the "lingo" and I have a Master's degree :) Ashley from LBB has never followed store bought patterns either, and talks in language that we all understand. It is also accompanied by pictures of each step and little alterations along the way. There is even a troubleshooting section that was handy for me at times. Take that, Simplicity :) 2) I love love love the concept of using recycled shirts to make dresses. For one thing, they are cheap. I spent $3 on shirts for this dress, and had enough fabric to mess up/cut new parts AND make another dress. How many yards of cute clearance fabric can you get for $3? Also, these old shirts have stood the test of time. No worrying about the color fading or the fabric shrinking. Don't let that solid black collar fool you, it was the reverse side of a very worn t shirt collar.

I went round and round about my added decoration. I initially wanted to use fabric paint to make a freezer paper stencil. However, I have smeared the paint before when setting the design and was way too paranoid about doing that again. A friend suggested that I do her initial, and then I decided to give jewels a try. I actually did a reverse freezer paper stencil for this and it turned out great, I think. Ironically, I had not planned on doing a dress for Bitty Baby at this point and the little "L" was just a freezer paper stencil trial. When the doll's dress came together, I decided to use the little "L" for this one.

That's my first entry. Here is just a preview of my second. I like it just as much as the first since it's more the flavor of our Texas family. JD is a staple around here.

But that entry is for another day....Bitty baby's is in the works :)

Chipotle Baby Clothes

I was so impressed with the LilBlueBoo Tutorial about making baby pants from a T-shirt. I found some old t-shirts with the purpose of upcycling them in this way. I decided to give it a try, and how convenient that one of my co workers is expecting her first in a few months, and her hubby is employed with Chipotle. I really didn't know where I would go with this, but after the pants were done, there was so much fabric left. I used the remaining big logo to make a bib. It was centered when I cut it, but somehow did not end up this way. And, while I was just going to include a plain white onsie, I thought, why not use Dana's freezer paper tutorial to paint the logo on there? It was actually SUPER easy! I am so glad I took these pics first b/c when I ironed the shirt to set the paint, it smeared a little! Oh well, they are still super cute!

Before pic of my freezer paper stencil...

This Will Knock Your Smocks Off!

I feel like I need to change my blog title. I started out meaning to just keep the ball rolling with crochet, but instead, I've found myself at the sewing machine a lot more. Thanks in a large part to Ashley and Dana. I have actually made things from both of their tutorials and it's been lots of fun. Pictures on those later.

On the same note, I found While They Sleep through Dana's blog. Hannah is amazing also, as a mom of 3 little ones and has lots of stuff for moms to do "while they sleep (or tear up the living room" :). I found some smocks that she made using the mayfly's smock pattern and it looked easy enough. I decided to give it a try and made this smock.

So easy and cute! I got brave enough to try the heart and made my first ever applique. Guys, it was really super super easy.



I had thought the applique would negate the reversibility of the smock, but I think it looks just as cute reversed.



It was so easy and fun, that I made two more...one for my BF Sunny's daughter and also my niece, River. Hers is one sided with black flannel and a little heart pocket.


Lucy approved! I got her a precious gathered turtleneck and she wore it with that today...tons cuter! I didn't take a pic, though, so I'll have to post that later!



Reversed....(so hard with a two year old model!)



And, from the back...



Since I got all 3 yards of fabric on clearance for $8 total, this was a super cheap project too. I probably have enough fabric to make another baby one. Here I go...

Also (I have debated forever about even posting this part), I am going way out on a limb here and letting ya'll know that I'm participating in the LBB/Dharma Trading Design Challenge. I know! I'm super nervous, too! I wanted to just make my dress and see if it looked good before I posted, but I feel like if I blog about it, then I'll have to post no matter what! I was super excited about the .99 shirts I got at goodwill.



So far, this is what I have cut out.



But I haven't sewed anything yet! Keep your fingers crossed for me, K?