Project Run and Play Top 10!

Lenore's bathing suit is in the running for a prize package at Project Run and Play.

Go here to see all the entries.  

Please vote for one.

Mine or someone else's.

I was so surprised and excited to see it already had votes this morning.

How exciting!

Bathing Suit for Baby

I just finished a bathing suit for this month's Project Run and Play challenge. I'm posting some photos, without my model because she is sleeping.  I'll do better tomorrow.  Please pardon me.

 (Updated with photos)

The challenge for this month was to take this Frozen Elsa dress pattern and make it or something inspired by it.

We don't need any more Elsa costumes, but I was inspired to make a bathing suit for Lenore using the tutorial to make my top.

Notice I also made the top a sweetheart neckline.  I really wanted it to compliment the scalloped edged bottom.

I wanted sort of a racer back, because trying to put criss cross straps on a baby isn't fun.

But I didn't want the straps to just go over the shoulders, because if one slips off that's not good.

Lenore has already shown a strong desire for being in the water as much as possible.  Carolina was swimming at age 1, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lenore didn't swim her first year too.  She needs something that will not slip off the shoulders.

I wanted scalloped edges, and to make sure they didn't curl up overtime I lined my top with the same gray swimsuit fabric.

I am loving this feature.  The boy short bottoms are scalloped too.  Though they look more like pirate pants on her than the elegant scalloped shorts I had pictured in my mind.  Oh well.

Tomorrow we will get some pictures by the pool.  (After waiting all morning for it to stop raining, we decided pictures in the flower garden would have to do.)

  Thank you for taking time to check out my blog.  What have you been working on? 

Patriotic Baby

Poor Lenore, I feel like I've hardly sewn her anything.

My mom has recently brought a lot of clothes to the girls when she visits.

This is a blessing.

And it has helped me be able to sew something for Lenore instead of focusing on making summer clothes for Kai.  Lenore needs things because she doesn't have hand-me-downs to pull from.

We thought we were done having kids, and she has been a little surprise blessing.

By the way, have you any idea how hard it is to take pictures of a 6 month old modeling an outfit?
Most of the pictures turned out blurry.  The best pictures were taken AFTER my precious model spit-up on her new outfit.

I just finished it, and want to be sure to get it in by the deadline for Project Run and Play.

They said we have until May 22nd.  Since I'm not sure if they mean by midnight tonight or on the 22nd, Eastern Time Zone or some other,  I'm putting this post together quickly with the pictures I just took before putting her to bed for the night.

I guess I'm about to find out.

The project for this month was this cute little top by The Crafty Cupboard.


Isn't it sweet?
It wasn't sized for a 6 month old, but I was able to make it smaller with no problem.
I used cotton knit to make this outfit.

The first thing I did was make a wider skirt portion so it would be much fuller.
 I just love flutter sleeves, and decided to do two on each side, since I knew I'd be adding two ruffles around the whole thing.

My favorite feature just may be all the stars I sewed into the skirt of the dress.
It's called reverse applique.

I drew some stars onto the white knit, cut them out and then sewed it to the wrong side of my dress fabric.  Then I trimmed around my star shape on the back.  Finally, I cut out the dress fabric, inside the star shape on the front of the dress.  Voila!  Reverse applique!

My second favorite thing is the peek-a-boo back on the back of the dress with the ruffled bloomers showing through.

My third favorite thing is that it took 3 unwanted t-shirts to make this outfit.
My sister recently asked me if I wanted to go through a box of clothes she was taking to the local thrift store to donate.  I scored several new looking t-shirts her husband didn't want.  Love to upcycle!

I had a lot of fun making this outfit.  Whew!  It's getting more challenging to sew at this stage of her life.  She got her first two teeth this week AND started crawling in the past two days.  So I'm busy to say the least.  But it sure is fun to sweat over.  And now my sweet baby has a festive outfit to wear to this weekend's Memorial Day celebration.

One of the reasons I love participating in Project Run and Play is that it continually motivates me to push my creative envelope.  I can tell I've gotten better at the little details since stumbling across PRP.  I'm very thankful to get to be a part of sewing with all the ladies that participate with me.

I wish I had gotten my diaper bag finished in time.  You can read about it here if you want to see what I came up with.

Lenore's (um, my) New Diaper Bag!

So, I was going to participate in Project Run and Playhttp://www.projectrunplay.com/ this month.

Well, I took too much time to get around to working on my project and missed the deadline....

by 4 days.  But life with a newborn wins.  And we went to the Great Smokey Mountains for a week as a field trip to school.  (Side bar:  I highly recommend this book"Scavenger Hike Adventures".  Just plain educational fun.)

So, I didn't get the bag done in time for Project Run and Play, but it's still an awesome bag.

The challenge was to take this beautiful bag pattern and make something spectacular.

It's the Reversible Sling Bag from Sugar Bee Crafts.

Follow the link to a free pattern.  

I downloaded the pattern, cut it out and taped it together.

I decided that I would need more room for a diaper bag, so I laid my old diaper bag out on some table paper and cut out my own pattern, imitating the Sugar Bee pattern in shape.

I did follow her tutorial, and would recommend it, for sure.

Another change that I made at this stage is to remove the middle strip.  I just cut two sides for the outer fabric and two sides for the lining.  

I wanted lots of ruffles.  My friend Betsy made herself a ruffle purse a couple of years ago.

I've had that purse on my list since then. However, I'm not gonna carry a purse anytime in the next few years, so I decided to ruffle a diaper bag.

Next, adding details to the lining of the bag:

 I put two pockets on either side of the opening of the bag.  I sewed these on before sewing the lining to the bag.

 I need a lot of pockets.  One for cell phone.  One for keys.

 One for hand sanitizer, lipstick, etc.  One for odds and ends.

Before sewing the lining and bag together I made up my ruffles (3x's the circumference of the bag).  I hemmed both sides, gathered one of them, and sewed it to the bag.

In the end I added one of my Baby Bear Hugz tags.  Baby Bear Hugz is the name of my baby carrier business.  I've run out of my "By Mama With Love" tags, so I used this one.  After all it is a baby product. As a surprise bonus I discovered today that this makes for a quick place to hang my sunglasses.

The strap narrows near the top, but it is a wide strap, for comfort.  The interfacing is also very comfortable cotton/polly quilting batting.  With all the stuff I carry for five kids, it is appreciated.

 I always get to carry at least one bottle of water in my bag, so I put these two bottle holders on either end of the bag.  Also great for securing a bottle of milk or sippy cup.  I'm not fond of searching the bottom of my bag for these things.  I've been using very large purses for the past couple of years, instead of "diaper bags".  I missed these.

 The closure is a simple elastic loop and button.

I had this one in my stash of buttons.  I bought these buttons around 1995 at a Hancock fabric store in Conyers, Ga.  I think I got them for .25 each?  A deal I couldn't pass up, and something I knew I'd use when I started sewing for my kids.

All of these fabrics came out of my stash of fabrics, so I can qualify for #SewMyStash2015.

The lining is a Kumari Garden print I bought 3 years ago, along with the pink flowery print.

The turquoise and pink flower ruffle layers are an Amy Butler print I've had for probably 6 years.

The interfacing is a cotton/poly blend of quilting batting.  Very dense and good for this bag. I got it at Fabric World in Atlanta for $1.00 a yard, when they had some.  It's been at least 5 years since I stumbled across that deal.
The elastic was found in the bottom of a cubby with odd and end notions in it, so no telling how long it's been there.

Thank you for checking out  my blog.

Please leave a comment.  

What have you been working on?

Knot Dress

I got another good picture of Kai wearing her dress. 

This month over at Project Run and Play the challenge of the month was this adorable 

Knot Dress pattern.

When I saw this pattern I immediately knew I wanted to make a lightweight jacket or cardigan, and this is why.

There is this gorgeous little keyhole in the back.

I just thought it would be beyond divine to have the dress fabric show through the keyhole of the jacket, which coincidentally is held together only by the knots.

Plus, even though it's spring it's never warm enough to go without a cardigan on Easter Sunday.

I wanted this to be her Easter dress, so I just had to make it.

This gave me the perfect opportunity to make her that ruffle bustle dress I've been wanting to make her too.  I also wanted to make an open backed jacket for it when I got around to making her a ruffle bustle dress.  I got to do both in this project, and we both love how it turned out.

I used the same pattern for the cardigan, but used a new tutorial for drafting my sleeve pattern.

Here it is at Leena's.com.

I thought about cutting the jacket to be the length of the dress, but she likes the way it looks with her cowgirl boots and jeans too, so I left it this length.

 Here is the dress without the cardigan.

 Now Carolina wants me to make her one.  Don't know if I'll have time.  We'll find out.

Thank you for checking out my blog!

Sling Shot Muscle Tee

Project Run and Play's challenge for the month is this muscle tee.

I was excited, because I've been wanting to make something for Delsin.

But it seems like all I've had time to do lately is patch the knees in his jeans, and replace the zippers on his backpacks.  In other words, all of my sewing time has been consumed with mending.

But that's not to say I've been doing much mending either.

Kai sold and we've delivered 814 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

Delsin has sold 50 camp cards for Cub Scouts.

I've had a granny pass away in the past week and a half.

Another granny become cancer free after surgery, chemo, and another surgery last week.

 So, as always, I've been very busy.

But I wanted so badly to make at least one shirt for this month's project.

Since I'm leaving town for a week, at lunch time today, I knew my last chance was last night.

I went to bed at 4:30 this morning, but I made the exact shirt I wanted to give Delsin. 

First of all I went to the closest fabric store and bought a couple of different knits they had.  Well, the only two knits they had.  One was white and one was white and black blocks.  Kinda like a checker board, but HUGE blocks.  Delsin wanted red.  I wasn't going to drive to the other fabric store an hour away, or order anything and wait for it to arrive, but I was lucky enough to find a dress in my fabric stash.  It was a dress from Cache' that my Granny (the one with cancer) had given me.  Someone had cut the shoulders of the dress, so I put it in my fabric stash.  It took me several hours to deconstruct the dress so I could save the elastic too, but I had plenty of fabric after that.  Nice!

I've been wanting to try out doing a freezer paper stencil for a couple of years now.

This seemed like the perfect time.

I've also known that I wanted to make Delsin a shirt with a sling shot on it.  He's had a love for slingshots for a few years now.  And one day he and my daddy, his Papa, got together and made a slingshot together.  Papa had picked out the tree branch a long time before and it's something very special to Delsin.

After I drew out the sling shot on freezer paper I decided to see if I could make putting his name on it, to match his actual sling shot.

It turned out!

Thanks for checking it out!