Neck Tie Tees

I made two of these neck tie t-shirts for the boys back in December of 2012, I believe.

Delsin's was on a regular t-shirt for his size at the time.

The one pictured was the one I made for Enoch.

They loved them and got lots of compliments on them.

I may make some more in the future.

This or next week I hope to work on the muscle tees for Project Run and Play's February Challenge.

But first I need to finish working on a door draft stopper.

I started on it two weeks ago!!

Where does the time go?  I'll tell ya.  I've been trying to go gluten free lately and that's taking a lot of time, making bread and eating differently from the rest of the family.

Plus, these 4 kids can wreck a room in less time than it takes me to get out of bed, obviously.

What a whirl!

It only took me 3 hours to vacuum the living room floor (I had to pick everything up off of it first, and repeatedly put the little rug rats back to bed :). 

Maybe I'll work on it a little after I feed the baby her midnight meal.

That is, if I don't fall asleep while feeding her.  

Breastfeeding takes it right out of you.

Yikes!  She's calling!  Right on schedule.

Christmas Pajamas 2013

So, for 2012 and 2013 I rarely found the chance to blog.

I was getting diagnosed with and trying to gain control of my Grave's disease and Type 1 diabetes during that time and I can say I was totally exhausted all that time.

Funny how now that I have a newborn I seem to have tons more energy.

For one thing, the pregnancy sent my Grave's disease into remission, so that was a blessing.

Thank you Lord!

Here are the Christmas pajamas I never blogged about for the 2013 Christmas season.

Now, mind you, I just took these pictures within the past few days.

Actually, Daniel did this photo shoot with Kai.

He did a good job of making it fun.

When I made the night gown it was longer on her.  I wanted it to be sort of like Cindy Lou Who's nightgown. Coming in toward the legs at the bottom.  Kai wears it often, but asked me to never make her another nightgown with elastic in the bottom again, please.

Guess it's not that comfortable to walk in.

Carolina's pajamas were a two piece. 

The top is made with two different prints of flannel.

I didn't have enough of either to make the whole set, so the sleeves and missing pants have a pink Easter Bunny print on the fabric.

The bodice of the top has frogs and pink Gerber daisies.

You can't see the buttons.  I'll probably get a better picture once the pants turn up.

But the buttons are pink and purple Gerber daisies too.  Perfect.

I don't know how long I've had those buttons in my stash.

Very cute together.

Enoch and Delsin simply got pajama pants.

 

 Enoch is posing.

I keep seeing Delsin's in the dirty clothes, but can't seem to catch him actually wearing them long enough to get a picture.  Gotta get up early to catch that boy.

Delsin's pants are exactly the same, only his size.

If I get a picture I'll update the blog post.

Christmas PJ's 2012

So I just realized that I never blogged about these PJ's from two years ago.

In fact, I never posted any sewing projects in 2013 at all!

I was teaching a sewing class for two years and posted a few things on our facebook page, but didn't have time to post on the blog page.

Now our old computer crashed, and I don't know when I'll be able to get back the pictures I took.

So, I may try to take some pictures over the next few days of things I haven't blogged about.

I know I'll never get it all though.

Here are some photos I have of Christmas PJs from 2012

Iremember thinking I was too busy to make anything but some pajama pants.

 Above are Deslin's PJ's.  

Below are Carolina's PJ's.

Nevermind the wrinkles on Kai's PJ pants.  I just grabbed them out of her drawer and threw them on the floor to take the pic.

Enoch outgrew his long ago, but I remember them being light blue, and I put a yellow cord coming off the side with snaps on it so we could attach a toy.  I remember him going through a phase at the time where he couldn't keep from dropping his toy and then having a meltdown.  

When I find a picture I'll post it.

Batman Costumes!

Long, long ago Delsin asked me to make him a super hero cape.

Like several years ago when I made this cape reversible cape for Tristen's birthday.

I made this tutorial for the super hero cape.

Bless his heart, I have carried that to-do list around for three years now with his super hero capes nearly at the top of it.

I was going to make him a Superman cape too, and still plan to, but I didn't have the fabric in the house (it was at our storage unit) before Christmas.  So I got to thinking, "Batman had more than just a cape.  He also had a mask."

Then I got to searching the internet for a mask tutorial and came across this awesome tutorial.  I found it at The Life Of A Compulsive Crafter. 

They were a total hit too.

On Christmas morning Delsin opened his first.  He was so excited he put it on right away and immediately jumped up, put one fist out and took off running through the house.

Enoch saw him come running back and started begging him to let him try it on.

I just told Enoch to let Delsin play with his new gift and for Enoch to open a gift.  

Eventually he got to his costume and the real fun began, for me.

I was so happy to see them love their gifts.  And it really didn't take a lot of time to make.

Check out the tutorials, you'll see how easy it is.

Spiderman Birthday Cake

 

Enoch is so into Spiderman right now.

In fact, that's what he wanted for his birthday.

Spiderman everything.

So, naturally I had to attempt my hand at a Spiderman cake.

 I watched this video on youtube for help.

But I didn't paint the fondant.  I dyed it with Wilton icing dye.

This is my favorite fondant recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cake-fondant/detail.aspx

 This was the face template I used.

I cut out the eyes from this template.

http://www.hmcoloringpages.com/free-printable-coloring-pages/spider-man-face-template-cut-out/

First I cut out the black background and then layered the white on top.

I know it's total amateur night over here at the Urick household,

but I'm kinda proud of it anyway.

Enoch absolutely loved it, and that's what matters most.

Happy 3rd Birthday My Love!

Project Run and Play Color Challenge ~ Delft (Cause every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed little man.)

This week's challenge is all about color.  

As I went over all the possibilities early on I decided to not use blue, because I had a sneaky suspicion that it would be a popular color with other contestants and I wanted to stand out.  But upon close inspection of my fabric stash I came across this fabric sample that I bought at a yard sale a few years ago.  It had a tag on it and that tag had a place for color.  The color was delft.  Delft?  I'd never heard of such, and as I googled and learned I knew it would be the color of my choice.

Delft is basically a shade of cobalt blue.  Cobalt blue with quartz sand and potash.  It originated in Holland in the 17th century and is most often seen in antique dishes.  The darker blue stripes are most delft.

And it looks great on Enoch.

I wanted to make him a vintage style shortall with a removable bib.  If he gets the front of his bib dirty then I can flip it around to reveal the red side.  But I did this style just because I love all the buttons.
I drafted my own pattern for the shortalls. 
True to my style I monogrammed his first initial on the bib.

And my favorite is the contrasting  red suspenders.

I also made his button up shirt.  For this shirt I used Butterick B5510 for the pattern.

I made this shirt from the same sheet that I made Delsin's button up shirt from that was used in last week's challenge.

I plan to post more photos when I get back from Track and Field Day.  I gotta run now though.
Thanks for looking.

Bouncy Seat Re-covered!

Over a year ago Daniel came home with this cute bouncy seat for Carolina one afternoon.

It was great.  It has a music function (which reminds me: I need to change out the batteries), a vibrating function (which all of my kids have hated vibrating seats), and it's pink.  Kai had to use Delsin's old hand-me-down blue one that couldn't easily be re-covered.

And poor Enoch (I say poor because I'm looking into the future at teenage Enoch possibly whining about me making him use pink), has sat in that pink bouncy seat every day.

 I've got tons of pictures to prove it. 

The fabric I used is the same fabric Daniel picked out for me to make him a Kai Tai several years ago.  It's an upholstery grade velvet.  Don't you just love the shadows of flowers and leaves in the print?  I made red piping for the edges and think it looks really nice. 

The back.

Hung By The Chimney With Care

These are our stockings. (Left to right)

Daniel, Delsin, Kai, Carolina, Enoch, Me

Daniel and I made our stockings the first year we were married.  We made the stockings out of old bed sheets and a silvery shimmery sheer overlay.  We each made our own. It was my rule.

Then we added a little silvery trim to the heel and toe.  I think I was the only one that added it to the toe.

I also added some beads to the top of the white part of mine. (I've Googled  the terminology and still don't know what it is.)  Daniel passed, even for the trims that I thought were manly.

Then when we had Delsin we no longer had that old ugly sheet, so we used red velvet (short pile) for the outside.  Joann's fabric store had a Black Friday sale of 96 cents per yard on the flannel that I used on the lining of the kid's stockings and the fabric for their pajamas this year.

Then for the outside white trim we used the same crushed white velvet that we used on our stockings. 

The Zoo Crew's stockings!

First of all let me tell you that the majority of these stockings were made 10 years ago, or more actually.  So the pictures not only do not due them justice, but stuff has fallen off.  You'll know what I mean in a minute.

Starting on the left, Sarah's (God rest her soul), Smitty's, Laleh's, Prince's (God rest his soul), Dirk's (God rest his soul), and Priscilla's (God rest her soul).    I know that over half of the "people" who own these stockings are dead, but I can't help but to hang them anyway.  I think they are so pretty.  Even prettier than our own, and I like to think that the family members they belonged to are still part of the family.

For Sarah, a dog that I knew the moment I met her was destined to be my dog, I put her name on the stocking in a combination of beads and ribbon.

Smitty's name was written in white buttons and to this day it is my favorite of all the stockings I've made.

Laleh's stocking was actually an extra that I made back in the day before I knew her.  She hasn't gotten her name on it yet.  I really intend to embroider everyone's names on their stockings (the ones' that don't already have them on them) before Christmas of next year.  Including Laleh.

This is Prince's stocking, and the one that is missing parts.

I glued rhinestones to form his name back when I made these almost 20 years ago.  It looked good.

Dirk's name was written in sequence.  Gold and silver sequence.  The silver sequence was smaller than the gold.

Priscilla's name was written with beads.  I went through my bead collection and only used red, green, and white.  She died the night I realized I was pregnant with Gabriella Priscilla, our sweet baby that died in my womb.  

These are my favorite stockings.  Even though most of the animals in this round up are dead I always get these stockings out and display them.  I do this to keep their memory alive.  To let them know that I am still loving them.

Enoch's Christmas Sleep Sack!

OK, time for me to hit my sleep sack.  

But before I do I want to tell you the pattern I used on this.

New Look 6310

When I finished my last post I helped our Elf get into his resting place then started cutting fabric and have now finished the garment.  So this took just a couple of hours from start to finish.  Now that's my kind of project.