A New Year!!

It's kind of hard to believe that the last post on MOM was in September of last year, but at the same time, it's not too hard to believe.  

I closed up MOM's West Coast HQ at the end of November.  My husband and I sold our little, teeny tiny house in Northern California and we've since moved to the South.  Not Southern California, but the actually South.  Georgia to be exact.  It was sad and a bit hard to say good-bye to our friends and life in CA, but the upside is that the basement at my parents is bigger than my house in CA, and we don't just have to stay in the basement.  Who knew space could bring such peace!?

I've decided that even though we are temporarily here, I need to love where I'm living, so I'm decorating.  My mom has given me the okay to hang stuff up, so I've been nesting.  One of my only local friends, Summer, tipped me off to the Caravan Shoppe.  Have you heard of them? It's pretty great.  I've bought Olliblocks, chalkboard prints, and the nativity sets.

I added some yarn garland to my chalkboard prints.  I used Anna Maria Horner's tassel tutorial to make my garland.

I had an O' Christmas Tree for Christmas.

Then I got a geometrical heart for Valentine's Day.

I then, with the help of Summer, made a Silent Night Nativity.  This was one of my favorite things I've made in a while.  It was a bit of a labor of love, but totally worth it.

I also helped my kids to make these simple nativities.  They were so cute.

My yarn obsession turned in to making tons and tons of pom poms.  I've turned the pom poms into garland,

adornments for wrapped gifts,

and fake flowers.  I'm sure I'll come up with other ways to use these little fluffy things, so just wait and see what I come up with next!

Please note how totally messy things are in the picture below.  Totally keeping it real here.

Hank's room also got some needed decorations.  I made an "adventures await" banner and stapled an extra large world map to two stained dowels.  Now if only I could come up with a fun interactive way to actually use the map to teach my kids geography.  I'll google that when I'm done with this post.

This little skirt has been with us for 4 years in a row now.  I'd call that a sewing miracle!

Cookies were baked in the month of December.  Have you tried Dana's Gingerbread Softies?!  They will change your life.  I kind of want to make another batch and dip them in chocolate like she did.  So tasty!

Using Made By Rae's Parsley Pant pattern, I wiped out Christmas PJs for my crew in record timing.  This pattern is incredibly quick and super easy to sew.  I will say that it's a tad narrow on the hips and bum, so I would size up for Grace if I make them again.  George seemed to fit just perfectly in his size, but I have since made him a couple more PJs with the pattern and have lengthened them a bit.  All in all it's a great pattern.

On Christmas night I decided that I needed to cover the window of the door to the backyard from our basement flat.  I've loved this Anna Maria Horner fabric since it was first released as Garden Party.  However, I never bought any and it went away and I had come to grips with the fact that I would never own any.  Then she re-released the collection as Hand Drawn Garden, and I knew I needed to add it to my stash.  I think this simple curtain was a great way to use it, so that I get to enjoy the large beautiful print every single day.

At night we just untie the sashes and we have pretty privacy.  

I don't have the best pictures of my last creation, but it's been a favorite of Grace's.  Have you seen Frozen?  It's her new favorite, and she has the soundtrack and sings the songs all the time.  It's totally hilarious and sweet all at the same time.  Anyway, another hot tip from sewing friend Summer was this cape.

We were at her house for a playdate and Grace came down from Summer's daughter's room wearing a cape and said, "Mom, you need to ask Summer how to make this.  I really want my own."  How could I say no to that?!  The pattern is from Growing Up Sew Liberated and is super simple and produces the greatest little cape.  Love projects like this!  Nothing technically difficult about this pattern, but finding silky fabric 60 inches wide in the colors Grace wanted proved to be a little trickier than I expected, but I think I came close.

Grace wore this cape for an entire day, so I'd say that was a win.

I know Annee has some creations to share that will blow your mind, and I have a dress in the works, and a quilt all cut out, so you just might see an update again soon!  Tootles for now!

Unexpectedly.

Life.  It's crazy.  We have completed a move.  We have started up a new school year.  My husband started a new job.  I have two sons in middle school!  I cook and do laundry for six kids.  I am trying to run five days a week.  My sleep is interrupted every night.

And yet, I always wish I could sew something.

One month after moving into the new house, I had a functioning sewing room unpacked and waiting for something to be produced.  This has been a move where I have wanted every aspect of my life to be simplified.  This meant reducing my fabric and scrap collection by about half.  During our three years in North Carolina, I stored a huge stack of fabric that were curtains in our house in Korea!  When I unpacked that stack of fabric again here, I decided it was time to get rid of it, or turn it into something.  I walked through every room of my house looking at the windows wondering if I could use them as curtains again.  But finally, I decided it was time to live out a long held Sound Of Music dream, and turn those curtains into dresses!

I have three girls now!  So, three dresses were on the agenda this week. Thank goodness for The Geranium (madebyrae) pattern that I have in sizes ranging from 0-3 months all the way up to a girls size 12!  Not to mention I have made it a few times, so I knew it was feasible.  

Add in a cute baby sister, and you see I had irresistible inspiration to work for!

These three.  Perfection!

But that wasn't all.  Who could leave out her twin brother, or the long suffering mother?!  

It's not often when the stars perfectly align on a Sunday.  When they do, smile and take pictures.  

Also, I'm addicted.  

Matching babies.  It kills me.  Thank goodness for a great and easy pattern, this just might have to happen more often. 

 It feels good to be back.  (Am I allowed to still post here on MOM, Liz?!)  

One more project found...

My sewing space currently looks like this...

Yikes.  I'm in the middle of trying to make, or at least cut out, a Patchwork Prism Quilt.  I'm slowly but surely going to get it made, but I'm finding myself getting slightly bored, or maybe it's antsy, and wanting to move onto another project.  I only have one more color to cut out, sew I'm hoping I can get it cut out before I clean up this fabric disaster.  

BUT...

Remember how I told you I sewed like mad right before my kids went back to school.  I saved all my sewing projects that could have been done over the whole summer and crammed them into a week and a half before school got started??

Here's the official list of things to sew over the summer (I'm cringing at my handwriting.  I'm a school teacher and that is terrible penmanship!)...

At the very top of the Summer Sewing List is "2 CA Pillows."  I worked with the Young Women at my church and I mentored and befriended 2 girls who graduated in the spring and headed off to BYU a couple weeks ago.  I was hoping to give them as graduation presents, but instead they became farewell gifts.

I thought a CA pillow would look cute in their dorm rooms and also remind them of all the loved ones that are cheering for them as big freshman at college.

I found a CA silhouette via Google images, blew it up, cut it out in felt, added a heart, pinned it like crazy to a linen like fabric, and sewed all around it.

I then used an invisible zipper on the bottom, and added a cute Anna Maria Horner Field Study print to the back.

These pillows are super cute.  I even got a sneak peak of what it looks like in the dorm!  Can you spy it resting on the bed??

Anyway, this is officially the 3 post in like 2 weeks for me.  Maybe I'm back for real.  For real I'm probably not, but I keep surprising myself, so who knows what this week will bring!  Maybe I have another project I forgot about.

Til' I sew again!

Parisian Pants

I'm back!  Crazy to have two post so close together, but alas, I forgot that I made something else and didn't include it in my August monthly post.

A year ago or so (I kind of wish that was an exaggeration but it's not) a friend of mine went to Paris on vacation.  I dream of Paris.  I want to go to Paris.  My daughter wants to go to Paris.  One day I tell her I'm going to take her.  I hope it happens sooner rather than later.  Okay, but my love and desire to see Paris really have nothing to do with this post, but I felt I needed to let it be known that one day I will see Paris in real life!

Anyway, my friend went to Paris, and while she was there she went to a/the fabric district and found lots of fabric.  She said I would be in heaven.  I'm sure I would be.  While on vacation, this friend thought of me, and brought me back a 1/4 yd of Parisian fabric.  It was seriously the sweetest random act of kindness.

I've stared at the fabric in my stash for a long time wondering what in the world I was going to make with the beautiful 1/4 yd.  So many possibilities, but yet not so many because I didn't have so much fabric.

So I went with a classic pattern, the Quick Change Trousers.  You can never go wrong with this pattern.  I paired the Parisian fabric with some Sarah Jane fabric, and Hank was sporting his new pants several Sundays ago. 

Sorry for the blurry iPhone pictures, but honestly, how do you get a 2 year old to sit still after church?!  I forgot to snap the pictures before church.

I love the fabric, I love the Quick Change Trousers, I love kind friends, and I know if I ever get to Paris, I will love it too.

I'm currently working on a Patchwork Prism Quilt and am having the hardest time deciphering between green, turquoise and aqua. It's kind of driving me a little crazy.  Here's to hoping I get it figured out!

Tootles for now!

I guess were back to monthly posts.

I recognize that we have next to no followers probably left on MOM, but this blog was originally started to document the many projects that Annee and I made, and in the sake of wanting to document my hard work somewhere, I will continue to keep MOM alive.  Barely alive, but alive.

I didn't sew a ton this summer.  Instead I threw all my energy - mental and physical - into creating a summer full of fun for my kids.  They weren't signed up for one single camp.  Not one.  There were days when I wasn't sure how I was going to survive without a break from my darlings, but they'd go to bed, and I'd see them sleeping soundly and I'd fall in love all over again with the idea of having them all around me all day long.  Then moments after I tucked them in for the last time at night, I would pass out from sheer exhaustion in my own bed.  So, my sewing machine saw little action, and I was totally fine with it.

Then the week before school got started I made a list of all the things I should have sewn during the summer, but waited until the last minute to sew.  I had a panic attack (fell on the floor laughing and crying with my husband staring at me wondering what in the world was wrong with me), and then I just went to work.  I mean what were my options?!?!

Grace's birthday wrapped up our birthday season (a birthday a month since April), and she requested a birthday outfit and an all girl girlie party.  

Grace's birthday shirt and skirt were made as well as two other birthday shirts not pictured here because they got wrapped up and delivered before I realized I should have snapped a shot of them.  But two more shirts were made!

This skirt was started at 9 p.m. the night before Grace's birthday.  It's not well made, and I made like 300 mistakes while cutting it.  Too bad because the fabric choices were so cute.  Originally I was going to make it a flat front skirt with just elastic in the back of the waistband.  Then it was going to be a Dana Made It Market Day Skirt.  In the end, it is a double Lazy Day skirt made very poorly.  Thank goodness you can't tell in my pictures.

With a girlie party in the works, a girlie party favor was needed.  I decided on Noodle-head's Open Wide Zipper Pouches filled with lip balm, stationery, and pens and pencils.  

The last thing I made for the big birthday party was a fabric streamer garland.  Is that what it's called?!  I wanted a cute backdrop for for taking pictures.  I had a friend come and take pictures of the party, and I think the fabric garland turned out so cute.

The best part??  All the fabric was from my beloved scrap bin.  Such a great use for scraps.  Too bad it didn't put a dent in my scrap bin though!

As soon as the party was over, I was then scrambling to get First Day of school outfits figured out and sewn up.  George got an anchor shirt to match his H&M shorts.

I wasn't really planning on making him anything, but he caught word of Grace getting a handmade outfit, and I could tell he wanted something too.  I told him I was putting an anchor on her shirt, and he said he wanted one on a shirt too.  Really it was so easy, and I love the look.

Grace got a Kirstin Skirt made with Liesl from O&S's Lisette fabric from JoAnn's.  The blue looking stripes are actually small waves of water with tiny hot pink sailboats (sorry no close up).  I found this fabric in the clearance section of JoAnn's.  I knew I needed it, and the anchor shirt idea I had running through my brain matched the fabric perfectly.  The Kirstin Skirt was discovered years ago by Annee.  It's an oldie but goodie.  It's funny because when I first sewed the pattern I'm pretty positive I thought it was so hard and tricky to figure out.  Either I just remember how to sew it, or else my skills have improved since my first go around with it 3 years ago.

 As soon as I sent my big kids off to school, I set up a real life sweatshop in my house so I could appliqué 8 shirts and sew 8 American Girl doll dresses for a party I agreed to do in April.  I live in an area where we have an education foundation that is funded by the parents of students and the community, and using the donations they pay for really nice things in our district - extra teacher, science programs, art programs, technology programs, etc.  It's pretty amazing and overwhelming all at the same time.  I'm NOT a big donor to the foundation at all.  I live here, but most days I think I probably fit in better somewhere else.  Anyway, last year I was approached to host a party for girls that were my daughters age.  The party would be auctioned off at the big annual fundraising event, and instead of just being auctioned off to the highest bidder, as many parents as possible could buy into the party for a set price.  My friend and I agreed to this back in April when life wasn't so stressful, and we even decided on the date of the Saturday after school got started.  It was really the worst timing and it was so stressful pulling everything together, and sewing all that stuff made me feel seriously crazy, BUT it all turned out super cute, and the girls loved it.  And, I was so thankful that I only had to sew for 8 girls.  What if 20 girls would have bought into the party?!

After making all those dresses and shirts, I thought I wouldn't sew for at least another month.  Then George came home from school saying that the second week of school was suppose to be color week.  The poor thing didn't have a thing to wear on Yellow Day, and I couldn't let him go without. (J/K!!)

But I had this shirt in my stash for awhile, and Batman is cool and has yellow on it.

This little kid thought it was totally cool and was so happy I made it which made me so happy I made it.

So ended the summer sewing that all took place in 2 weeks.

Hopefully I'll have a post to show for September.  Right now my sewing machine is getting a much needed break.  I have some ideas cooking in my brain, and I'm slowly working on a quilt, so right now I'm not sure what if anything I'll have to post, but you just never know what is going to happen in life!!