For the love of sleep.

I think about sleep a lot.  This is most likely because I don't sleep as much as I should, and even when I decide to go to bed early (everyone's definition of early is differently and mine is anything before 11 p.m.), baby Hank will inevitably wake me up shortly after I fall asleep.

Sew, for Valentine's Day I decided to make my two big Gs pajamas, and then I threw myself in the mix and decided I needed some new pajama pants.

I *heart attacked* my big little ones, and they were so excited on Valentine's Day to wake up with hearts, chocolates, and new jammies.

George would not stop being goofy.

Grace's tank top straps were a bit long, but I didn't realize this until she tried it on.

I shortened them, and I'm much happier with the fit now.

My pants didn't actually get finished until Valentine's Day night.  Totally romantic.  Actually the Italian had to be out of town for the night, so sewing was my Valentine's Day present.

My pajama pants pattern comes from Amy Butler's In Stitches book.  Great pattern and very comfy.  It does require quite a bit of fabric because the legs are so wide, but that's what I think makes them so comfortable.

"Grace, please make sure you are getting my pajama pants!!"

I do not have the best pictures of me in my pajama pants.  Grace was my photog, and it was getting dark outside as we were trying to get pictures taken.

Then I tried having Grace take my pictures inside.  Still not working so well.

So I resorted to taking my own pictures in a mirror.

Just keeping things real over here.  I'm in my new pajama pants and my eyes have felt heavy since I woke up this morning.  Henry just woke up, and I'm crossing my fingers that he'll sleep for at least 3 or 4 hours before he needs me again.

Signing off from West Coast MOM!!

Apron Wrap Dresses

Do you remember the darling Apron Wrap Dresses that Annee's girls fashioned on MoM a couple weeks ago?  I was smitten as soon as I saw them, and when I heard how easy they were to sew up, my curiosity got the best of me.  Grace needed some.  When you find a pattern that is A) easy to sew, B) comfy to wear, and C) is totally cute, you get on it!  You make it.  I made one, and then had to make another.

Sew, if Annee didn't convince you to make an Apron Wrap Dress, here's my attempt at it.  I love that the author of the pattern, Anneliese, says that her mom use to wear a dress similar to the Apron Wrap Dress in lieu of jeans.

I could totally get into wearing something comfy like this.  The Italian might think I'm a little crazy, but that's nothing new.

This Apron Wrap Dress is made with Sandi Henderson's Vintage Dot fabric, an all time favorite of mine. A long time ago, when Grace was probably 2 or maybe 3, I made her a Sweet Little Dress out of this fabric and I appliquéd it with a strawberry.

I miss that little dress, and at times I miss how little Grace was, so I decided that I was going to recreate this little dress.  The strawberry might be a bit young for Grace, but I doubled checked before I added the strawberry and she approved of the design.

On the back of the Vintage Dot I used this fabric.

On both of my Apron Wrap Dresses I did double buttons, so each dress is completely reversible.

My hot tip for sewing the buttons on if you chose to do double buttons like I did, is to sew the buttons loosely together.  The can't be pulled too tight or you won't be able to get them through the buttonholes.  I learned this the hard way and had to resew the buttons onto the straps on the first dress.

Having four new looks really adds some wardrobe options.  Grace is starting to get more and more opinionated in what she'll wear, so having lots of options has become very important in my life.

I'm not sure what up next for my sewing room.  I made a *celebrate* banner this weekend, but didn't get any pictures.  I also cut out pajama pants for myself, but haven't finished, and I'm starting to think it would be fun to have new pajama pants made for my big kids for Valentine's Day.  Pajama pants are easy to make, but I'm not sure if I have the energy to whip them out tonight, so that puts a lot of pressure on tomorrow night.

I'm off to make a plan (or to watch an episode of Parenthood or to listen to my book).  

It doesn't have a name yet...

I got this idea to make a quilt for every season.  I have my summer quilt!  This is supposed to be The Winter Quilt.  It's going to get backed in a super soft flannel just to make sure it's cozy for winter.  I'm already looking ahead to my Spring quilt.  Fabric is starting to arrive in the mail box!  

But wait, let's not forget where we're at:

 This moment of accomplishment should be celebrated!

It started off as a fabric bundle back in October:

Three moths or so later, with a little bit of grey and off white added, it's my new favorite winter quilt...

It's not the first time I've made a zigzag quilt, but it is the first time I've made a quilt with all solids.  It's a bit tricky in the planning stages to figure out how to lay it out.  Lucky for me I found an awesome quilt-along which I was able to benefit from.

Finished size is about 50x60.  Perfect lap size.  It all started with 5" squares.  180 of them to be exact.  I had 1/2 yard cuts of all my colors, and I have barely any scrapes left over.  That was lucky!

I'm a little nervous about how different it's going to look quilted.  I think I have a plan, but I'm not sure if I'm going to love it after it's done.  I'll never know until I try, so stay tuned for the finished quilt.  Hopefully by the end of the week!

Heart Party Garland: A Tutorial

In case you missed my guest post on Toddler Approved last week, here's the tutorial for making Heart Party Garland.  I created this party garland to *heart attack* our friends letting them know you loved them.  You could make some to give away or to adorn a wall, window or mantel for Valentine's Day.  I made one version with my 5 year old using construction paper, and then I made my own version using lots of scraps and muslin fabric.

If you want to make your own, here's how you do it:

For little ones

My daughter made her party garland out of construction paper, glue and twine.

One sheet of construction paper (9"x12") turns into 5 pieces of party garland.  Cut out the pieces and fold them in half lengthwise.  I cut out all the party garland pieces.

Then I put Grace to work cutting out hearts.  A favorite activity of my 5 year old.

Then we placed a long piece of twine in the fold of all the paper party garland pieces and glued the party garland pieces together.

Now for my fabric version:

I used the exact same dimensions with my fabric as Grace did with the construction paper.  I used bleached muslin for the white party garland pieces, and fabric scraps for the colorful party garland pieces.

First I folded all my party garland pieces in half lengthwise.

Instead of colored construction hearts I cut tons of fabric hearts out of scraps.

I used a glue stick to glue the fabric hearts to the folded party garland pieces.

Then sewed a straight line down the center of each heart.  

I repeated this over and over and over.

Then I sewed all the party garland pieces together up above the top of the hearts.  

Now it's ready to be hung.

I'm added my Heart Party Garland to my Felt Heart Party Garland.  I've been wanting to clear out my felt box, so I cut hundreds (probably not hundreds but it felt like it) of hearts and sewed them together.

Thanks to all my fun decor, I'm loving Valentine's Day this year.  Not that I have big plans, but maybe I'll make some.

Growing like the weeds.

In December it was observed that we lacked Sunday attire.  I bought a couple of Olive&S patterns and fabric.  But nothing happened after that.  Except for Christmas.

It's been a while so I don't exactly remember when these frocks were completed, but nevertheless, we added two new numbers to the Sunday line up.  It feels like drops in a bucket when you have a pair of twins who are growing like weeds...

This is the Family Reunion Dress Pattern View B

Using an Anna Maria Horner Voile:

LouLouThi Clippings in Forest

It's soft like silk, which is important for this sister.  But it's also very sheer, so were it not in the dark colors, it would be objectionably see through.

That pattern, like all Oliver&S numbers, is sure to give you a finished product that you will love and be proud of.  But for some reason, it was not fast.  It hung in the sewing garage partially finished for weeks!  It might have had something to do with the final step of sewing all those buttonholes, and buttons.  Though my machine will do it all for me, I was dragging my feet all the same.

Though I hope to make more Family Reunion Dresses, I have a hard time sewing two of the exact same anything.  I am finicky like that.  I found two yards of another Anna Maria fabric at my local quilt shop, on sale.  I bought it without an exact plan.  When I got home to the sewing garage, I remembered the dress shortage.  I also remembered how much I love the Marissa Dress from a while back.  I vowed I would sew more of that pattern too, though I hadn't.  I think that pattern, and this fabric went together like tart frozen yogurt and fresh strawberries, yum!

Unlike the Family Reunion pattern, this one sews together in a day.  That's right friends!  And it's not because I'm supre speedy.  It's delightfully straightforward in it's construction.  I remembered anew how very much I like this pattern, and the fit.  I added a bit of length, because Heaven help me, they keep growing!  

Liz surely raised the bar with her blue walled background location!  I have not seen any blue walls in my area.  Hers was spectacular!  All the same, though my photos may be uninspiring, I hope that the fabrics and patterns might spark something in you too...

Though to be honest, I do not hope you have a pair of twins growing like weeds.  It's exhausting I tell you!  And there will never be enough fabric!  

A Ruffle Skirt

I'm done!  Presenting the third skirt that I've had planned for over a month now.  

I used ruffle fabric.  Have you seen it??  I feel like I've seen the ruffle fabric all over the place, but I haven't seen so much of it at the fabric stores.  Well, the only local fabric store that I frequent. (JoAnn's)

But, while I was on vacation at my house in the South and Annee and I had ventured to Hobby Lobby to look around.  We don't have a Hobby Lobby in my area, and if you do, then I'm a little bit jealous.  They don't necessarily have the greatest fabric, but there have more craft supplies then I could wrap my brain around in the 30 minutes that I spent there a month ago.  Anyway, as we were looking around in the fabric area I stumbled across some ruffle fabric.  Now it's pretty pricey at about $10/yd (or was it $12??), but for a little girl's skirt I only needed to buy a 1/2 yard.  I, of course, couldn't pass it up, since I haven't seen it in person.

Then re-entry happened. (Re-entry is that time in your life when you have to readjust to life after a vacation.  It can be likened to astronauts returning from outer space.  It feels that crazy sometimes.)   So, the ruffle fabric has been sitting in my stash for a month.  Finally when George was at school last Thursday and Henry was asleep, I went for it.

I used this tutorial as a rough guide.  I pretty much knew what I needed to do, but it's always nice to have someone tell you what to do especially if they have any hot tips that will save you time in the end.

The hot tip I will give is to check to see how stretch your elastic waistband is before you attach the skirt to it.  My waistband didn't have much give, so instead of adding 10 inches to Grace's waist measurement like Vanessa suggests I should have added 6 to 8 inches. I ended up having to cut off the excess fabric to finish my skirt.

I'm pleased with this skirt, and I think it looks like I spent a lot of time on it mainly because the fabric, but this skirt came together in about a 45 minutes.  My kind of skirt.

Now I'm done with my three skirts...

That took me long enough!

Hopefully the Oliver & S dress is next.  However, Annee's excitement and review of the Apron Wrap Dress had me busy this weekend.  I had to make one, and I have fabric selected for another, so I might need to make another Apron Wrap Dress before the Oliver & S one.  I'm totally procrastinating.

Off to bed!