Week 13 Recap 2014

Burn out. That pretty much describes my week last week. Mon- Wed I did NOTHING crafty. I got my house back in order and on Weds I went and helped out in Lorelai's class. At the school they told me that 3 kids had thrown up in the hall way the day before. I thought to myself, "Gross, throwing up is the worst. I hope my kids don't get it.." so far they haven't. I sure did! That night while everyone was gathered at my house for book group my back started hurting crazy bad. I was totally baffled. I put our heated blanket on my back and Brett got down the tylenol for me and I managed to go an hour and a half before it happened. It was like a switch was flipped and it was time to ralph. I felt so bad and kicked everyone out. I just pray none of them caught the horribleness. It wasn't wasn't even one of those nice over night things. I suffered through that until early Friday morning. Misery!

It's funny the way being sick makes you think about yourself. I've been sewing a lot for Lorelai recently. Probably because it is easiest and the inspiration is constantly flowing in.. So I was lying in my bed feeling sorry for myself waiting for the next time the sickness would over come me and I could see into my closet. I found myself staring at my favorite shirt that has a stain on the front so really I shouldn't wear it any more BUT I love it and keep forgetting about the stain until I put it on. So in a moment of strength I pulled myself out of bed grabbed the shirt and cut out the elastic. Then I was sick, went back to bed and haven't touched it again. So funny. I'm such a wierdo. So the plan for that shirt is to copy it and make a few more just like it and then use the unstained parts to make a shirt for Lorelai. I'm excited. Friday was a good day. I was feeling pretty weak but my stomach and my head were feeling good again and I finally made some progress on Kent's half of my current project. Which is good because it is making its bloggy appearance this Thursday! Until then feast your eyes on the sneak peek.... that everyone on Instagram already saw.

I Read That! March 2014

1. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson
2. The Girl Who kicked the Hornets Nest by Steig Larsson
3. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
4. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

Words of Radiance was hands down my favorite book of the month I'm just afraid it'll be another four years until the next book comes out.

Come back next week, lots of sewing fun coming back!

Week 12 Recap 2014

So this past week I learned that, I LOVE SEWING! Crafting however? That's kind of secondary. The challenge I am working on for Project Run and Play right now is "Design Your Own Fabric". This involves about a thousand steps before I get to get to the actual sewing. FIVE days I worked on the fabric before I got to do any sewing and I learned that its is the sewing things together that I really, really love. The prep work is is extensive and I probably would have thrown in the towel back on Tuesday if I weren't doing this for a specific challenge. Here is what last week looked like at a glance.

So much more sewing to do! I'll be back. Happy sewing, my friends.

Little Brasilia

I think the most ideal Spring Break vacation would be a trip to Brazil. Just look...



I've convinced you haven't I?

My husband served his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints in Londrina, Brazil. He has tons of awesome stories about the people there and I would love to meet them and see the place that so greatly shaped the man that I married. I'm not going to lie, I want to visit all the famous places too and see all that Brazil has to offer.

When I think of Brazilian fashion, I think colorful, flowy beach wear, and swimsuits. So I give you...
Little Brasilia:
This adorable outfit includes a bright colorful swimsuit cover up. It is a one piece, pant suit that Lorelai can step into through the neck and easily slide off for some beach time fun!




The swimsuit is made from a bright yellow swimsuit/ dancewear fabric I picked up at Joann's and is easily the most slippery fabric I have EVER sewn with but the results were so worth it. It was so exciting sewing along and having everything turn out. I don't know why I was so intimidated by swimsuit sewing. This was an awesome experience and I am totally stoked to try making one for myself! I just need to find the perfect materials, I'm afraid Joann's was fairly limited.

To make this swimsuit I heavily modified a kwik sew pattern, I can look up the number if you are interested. I turned the suit into a one piece, removed all the frills and bows and added the rushing down the front. So pretty much the pattern was just here to help me with the proportions.. for the most part anyway, I had to remove a lot of fabric from the chest area. The pattern is sized for a six year old but there was so much fabric in the chest it would have only fit her well if she had started developing as a four year old. Lorelai thought that was pretty hilarious.


I'm so happy with how this turned out, I can't wait to try it again! I've got several other projects lined up right now but don't be surprised to see more swimsuits before summer is over. Happy sewing my friends, I'll see you next week!

Week 11 Recap 2014

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I discovered something interesting last week. Lorelai doesn't have any green clothes. I took a couple of days and looked through everything shes got and I guess there are a couple of dresses that have flecks of green in them but nothing significant. Then I thought, well, I guess I need to make her a shirt to wear. So I started riffling through my fabric stash and guess what I don't have? Green knit. Nada. Then comes the last chance idea, I cross my fingers but alas, I don't even have green fabric paint.

Well, Thank you St. Paddy's day. You have pointed out a serious hole in Lorelai's wardrobe. I may not have noticed for months yet. I guess green is just not a color that we are particularly drawn too. Oh well. It wasn't in the budget to run out and get something green for just one day. I'll have to work on that in the future, maybe by next St. Patrick's day she'll have something green to wear. For those concerned, I did send her to school with a nice green bow to avoid being pinched!

Today is a special day for another reason. Today Desmond was officially adopted into our family! I miss that giant little boy. I'm so afraid the next time I see him he will be taller than me!

(sorry phone pic) 

On a more crafty note here is a peek at what's coming this Thursday!
 See you then :)

Sparkle Cat

Much to my husbands disappointment, the kids and I are cat people. I wouldn't say crazy cat people, we don't even own one right now. As you can see though, if Lorelai had $100, she would buy new cats. I laughed so hard when I read that and Brett just shook his head. Totally out numbered.

(This cat is just a stand in)

When I was a small kid my parents and I picked up our first kitten. I was four and I loved her so much from the very get go. My dad let her loose in the house when we got home and I chased her under the chair in the computer room. When I got down and looked for her the only thing I could see was her sparkling eyes. So I named her Sparkle. My dad often called her Sparkle Cat.

For the first week of Project Run and Play I decided to take my inspiration from Sparkle's name. I toyed with the idea of fur but that just seemed too literal.

So here is the direction I went... Everything has a little Sparkle to it! For the complete outfit I made an embellished t-shirt, slouchy cardigan, and some skinny jeans.



The cardigan is a really fun knit that I found at Joanns. Its has a pink stripe and a shimmery silver stripe. (Sparkle!) The cardigan sewed up very easily. I just modified a t-shirt pattern and cut the bodice front right down the middle. I rounded the neckline and on the bottom. Then I sewed a band all the way around the edge to provide a nice finish. Lorelai really rebelled against the "cardigan that doesn't fasten closed" idea. When it was all done she loved it.



The t-shirt and jeans on the other hand she loved instantly. I made the shirt a couple of days ago while she was at school. When she came home and saw it hanging by the table she asked, "Did you make that?" I told her yes and that I needed her to try it on and she asked if she could just wear it, wear it the rest of the day. It's so satisfying having her so excited about something I've made.

I drafted a pattern for this shirt and I am extremely happy with it. I'll absolutely be making some more shirts with this same pattern, I just love every detail with how it turned out, the length, the neckline and I love the simple, just the right length sleeves.

The fabric I used was pretty cool too. In the store, I thought that it was a double sided fabric, dots on one side stripes on the other. (You can see hints of the stripes in the sneak peeks on my Instagram feed). Turns out that in reality this knit fabric is actually two very thin, separate fabrics put together. You could actually separate it into two pieces if your heart so desired. Mine did not. Leaving it the way it was adds interest, I think so anyway, and made the shirt the perfect thickness.

After the shirt was completely constructed I decided every piece in this outfit needed to have sparkle on it. The cardigan would not be able to carry the entire ensemble along. I did not want to run out to the store just to buy some bling so I found some fabric in my stash that had sequins pre-attached and a snipped off enough for this project. I hand sewed them around the neckline in a necklace shape. I love how it turned out and it adds just the right amount of Sparkle!

Finally, the jeans! These jeans are seriously my new loves! I had cut all my pattern pieces (again, self drafted) out of some very stretchy denim and sat there a little stumped. I wanted to make these jeans sparkle with out looking gaudy. Then inspiration struck! The sequins! Of course those should carry on through my pieces! I pulled out the thread and hand needle and got to work. An hour later I had two adorable pockets ready for some pants. Do you see the "L" for Lorelai? (Sparkle!) Brett didn't, haha. I think that's a guy thing though.

I don't mean to toot my own horn but I think those jeans look pretty legit! I used the triple stitch for all the top stitching and I think that was a huge factor in the professional look. There are a few things I will change the next time I make this pattern: there needs to be a little more rise in the seat and I want to try a fly and placket front, but I still love, love, love these pants and so does the girl! The jeans were the last thing to be finished and when Lorelai came home and saw all the pieces done and laid out she immediately started putting them on. We went out for pictures and had one of the most fun photo shoots to date. Have you enjoyed all the Lorelai poses?

That is one very satisfied customer! Come back next week! The next theme is, Spring Break and I'll be showing off my Little Brasilia outfit.

This outfit is in the PRP Sew A Long!

Week 10 Recap 2014

Spring Cleaning! It slapped me across the face and I have been a busy little bee! I've been systematically working through our apartment cleaning and organuzing things to their highest potential. I constantly find myself wanting to sew but I think, I've just got to get such and such clean first. Then my sewing gets pushed back days! Or the other extreme happens and I just ignore everything and it just gets worse and worse. So now I am trying to get things in shape so that I only have to spend a few minutes a day maintaining and have hours left to do what I, or the kids, or Brett wants to do.

Inspite of all the cleaning I did manage to squeeze in some sewing and blogging!

In sewing land Project Run and Play announced their themes so I made a fabric run and started working on the first theme, "Take Me to the Zoo". Inspiration, Sparkle the Cat. More on that later.

Last week on the blog I shared with you the six year old pictures I did of Lorelai. I thought this would be a good moment to share some detail shots with you.




Originally I was just going to do the pleats on the bodice but when I thought about the rest of the dress it just seemed too plain. So I drafted up a sleeve pattern with the necessary space to accommodate three little pleats. I love how they turned out and helped carry out the "theme" of the dress.


Have you been crafty recently? I've got so much more to show you, be back soon!

The Six Year Old

Incredible. My girl is a six year old and has been for a whole month now. I told her to stop getting older and she said no. She wants to get to 14 so she can have her own phone, haha. Fortunately we've still got a little bit of time.

I decided to make a special dress for her six year old pictures. I had a new technique I wanted to try and I love how it turned out! It was easy and fun to do. Lorelai was impressed and loves her new dress. Mom win!

We went out to get some portraits and I love, love, them. Here are my three favorites..







Isn't that a gorgeous girl? I love that one. A lot. Come back soon and I'll share a few more details about those special pleats.

Week 9 Recap 2014

This post could have also been titled : The One with the Really Bad Photo Quality. So brace yourselves.

Brett decided an hour before bed time that I needed to sew up my new skirt so I could wear it to church the next day. I hemmed and hawed for a few minutes and then went for it. I was on such a roll! I flew through the construction of my own skirt and then decided Lorelai could also use a dress.

Originally I was just going to mention that it all happened but as I was getting ready for church a wave of bravery came over me and I had Brett snap a picture. I'm not at a point in my life where I am particularly comfortable in front of the camera. Especially as I'm in that adorable, kind of showing, not quite showing, could just be a chubbers point of pregnancy. It's delightful. BUT it is my goal to take more pictures this year and I want my kids to see me in these pictures so I did it. Plus, I'm going one step further and sharing it here. Go me. Enjoy.


Well, as for the rest of the week I had different crafty plans that went straight out the window. We found out Sunday the Brett's Gma Peterson had passed away. So Monday- Wednesday went to preparing to leave for Utah and Thurs-Friday were spent in Herriman, Utah. Saturday we came home and my week was gone. I did manage to slip into a fabric store before we left Herriman. I told Brett's aunt that I wanted to visit a fabric store that I can't go to here so she recommended Nuttal's. It was a dream!! They had so many jersey knits and minky fabrics it was insane! I made out with a few knits and I am thrilled about them.

 I've already whipped up another skirt for myself and I can't wait to work with the rest. Happy sewing, friends. See you later this week, hopefully I find my battery charger so I can snap some pics and share them with ya!