Tank Top Dress Meets Lazy Day Skirt

I've been busy friends!!  I'm sure it has everything to do with the fact that I'm a week away from having another baby, and I'm nesting like crazy.  There's this feeling I have for whatever reason that once my baby comes my sewing room is going to see no action other then lots of laundry and hosting my mom on the floor for several weeks.  So with these thoughts, I've been going crazy to get things done.  I'm pleased to say I've finished almost all my WIP from last week.  I love checking things off my list!

First up was another tank top dress.  On our sidebar you will find a link to the Lazy Day Skirt free pattern from Oliver and S.  Annee first introduced it to me, and I've probably made 20 of these.  Maybe that's a stretch, but I've made a lot because they make the perfect gift, and they come together sew quickly.

I took my main skirt fabric (Alexander Henry Birdseed in Pink), 

added a coordinating fabric to it, 

and threw some rick rack on top of my seam.

Then I sewed the selvaged edge to selvaged edge, gathered the top of my skirt fabric to the size of my tank top, and sewed them together.  I didn't time myself on this project, but I'm 100% positive it took me less than an hour and a half.  I went back and forth over whether or not to embellish the tank top, but I decided not to.  I like to say I heard Tim Gunn in my head telling me to "edit" as he would a contestant on Project Runway.  Surely a little flower or ruffle or something wouldn't have been too much, but the project came together so fast I'm not sad I didn't do more.

The next day we head to the gorgeous grounds of the local Catholic church (notice the statue of the monk in the above pictures) and snapped some shots.  I love this little dress.  This is also one of my favorite fabrics ever!  I own Alexander Henry's Birdseed in all 3 colors, and true to who I am the pink is my favorite.

Grace did tell me that she likes the dress, but wishes it had more color in it.  She's requested a bow and a flower on the top.  I've told her when I have time I'll add them.  Which should be translated as, I'm probably never going to add them.  Sorry, Grace.  It's still totally cute though, right?!

And hopefully I'll have a tutorial for you tomorrow!  Stay tuned.  If not tomorrow, then maybe Wednesday?  We'll see how long my insatiable need to get things done holds out.  Probably I need to pack a suitcase for the hospital should my body decide to go into labor on it's own.  That might be slightly more important than finishing my tutorial or painting my picture frames.  Just slightly.

Tootles for now!

WIP Wednesday

Things are going to be a little quiet at Made on Maple this week.  Annee is in full swing with summer vacation and house guests, and I'm supposed to be prepping for my baby.  I do have several projects that I'm working on, but my brain seems to be bouncing around like a ball in a pinball machine, so I'm not sure what will get done and what won't.  I find when I have too much I want to do I have a hard time getting organized.  It's really sad.  I'm crossing my fingers all of it will get done by the weekend.  It's possible.  I think.

Here's what I have on my list of creative projects that I'd like to get done:

Go through my pictures and choose current ones to put in my picture wall.

Try to decide what color(s) to paint the picture frames on my art wall.  Should they all be the same color?  Or do I make them each their own color?  I'm leaning towards painting them all the same color as the frame in the picture below.

Make another Tank Top Dress.  I was going to do a multi fabric skirt like I did last time, but I like the Alexander Henry Pink Birdseed so much that I think I just want it to be the main event.  Now I'm trying to decide how I want to embellish the tank top.  Or maybe I just let this be the easiest, quickest project ever and leave the tank top plain.  Decisions!

I want to make another wreath for a friend.  This project WILL get done.  The tutorial might not.  We'll see!

I hosted a Sewing Soiree here at Made on Maple West Coast last night, and I helped a friend make the Crazy Daisy Apron.  It actually was completed before the party was over, so this actually is no longer a WIP. Wahoo!

And the most important Work in Progress over here at MOM West Coast is taking care of my baby.  I'm doing my best, but I might have eaten too many cookies yesterday!

I'll let you know next week what I get done.  I hope you have a good rest of your week.  Hopefully your pile of unfinished projects is shorter than mine!!

Tank Top Dress

So I finally made a Tank Top Dress like the two that Annee made for her girls.  This is really a very easy dress, but even easy things seem hard to me these days.  BUT, I'm so glad I made this.  When I had Grace try it on for the first time she asked me if she could wear it all day which is a huge compliment if you ask me.  The fact that she wasn't groaning about something meant we were both pleased with it in the end.

I used Annee's instructions that she left in a comment to a follower of MOM.  These were her instructions:

I measured across the bottom of the tank top then doubled it to get the circumference. Then, I double that figure. For example, I believe the circumference was 22, which meant I was going for a total for 44 inches across (in total). Since I was going to use 4 different fabrics I wanted to use, I think that worked out to be 6.6 inches wide per stripe (trying to take into account the amount of seam allowance I wanted). I believe I cut them 19 inches long. It fell right about to her knees, if not slightly below. I liked the length.

The only thing I'll do differently next time would be to lengthen the tank top portion of the dress.  I had intended on it being a little longer.  I had a little bit of a tricky time attaching the tank top to the skirt, so I ended up shortening the tank top to have a "do over."

Now that I know how quickly this dress comes together maybe I'll get to Old Navy to buy a couple of tank tops.  Or maybe I should attempt another dress all together.  Or maybe I should consider an earlier bed time. Or just enjoy not having to do something with my last couple of weeks without an infant who will demand all my time and attention.

I'll figure it out tomorrow.  I'm also signing off for the week.  It's only a day early, but just wanted to wish everyone a happy weekend.  I'm hoping to spend my weekend resting as much as possible.  And maybe making another dress...

Baby Pictures

Have you discovered the website Pinterest?  May I suggest you head straight there once you're done reading this post.  Well, head on over if you have time to kill.  I find I spend maybe just a little too much time on that website pinning pretty things to my boards.  You can check out my boards here.  I was even shocked to find out that people had pinned some MOM creations to Pinterest and Annee and I didn't even know it.

So, one of the great ideas I found was a way to document my babies first year (and beyond if I want).  The idea comes from Famille Summerbelle's blog.  I'd never visited this blog before I discovered it on Pinterest, but it's really an inspiring site especially if you have children.  Julie used simple felt letters and numbers to label each monthly picture she took of her son.  I thought this idea was so simple and easy, and I have tons of felt that needs to be used, so I knew I needed to make this idea happen.

The only problem, well maybe not a problem, is that I didn't want to make and stuff my letters. I just wanted to cut and sew and be done.  I have a touch of carpal tunnel syndrome that comes on with my pregnancies, so I'm try to avoid hand sewing.  I think my solution turned out just fine.

I cut and sewed letters

and numbers.

I might also make the letters for WEEK and maybe YEAR.  With a newborn things change so much, so trying to catch each week (or as many as possible) would be fun.  Taking the picture with the label already in it sounds genius if you ask me.

I used my big babies to demonstrate what I'm hoping the pictures will look like.  Hopefully a newborn is a little more cooperative!

Hopefully some time today I'll find time to make a dress for my 57 month old!!

A wreath to welcome my baby.

A while ago a made a wreath to welcome spring.  I still love my bright colorful wreath, but I've been feeling like I needed to either go wreathless on the front door for awhile, or make a new wreath.  Then I got the great idea to make a wreath to welcome my little boy.  And a new wreath was born.

I'm calling it my "It's a boy" wreath.  After two ultrasounds confirming that I'm having a boy, I thought it was safe to make a gender specific wreath.

I used a straw wreath, wrapped almost a whole skien of yarn around it, 

made several yo-yos for embellishments, 

and then added a small bunting stamped with scrapbook stamps and fabric paint.

I think this will be a nice way to welcome all our guests who will come and see our new little bundle of joy, and maybe it will deter some people from ringing the doorbell and waking up my sleeping baby.  (I'm assuming my baby will be a good sleeper.  George still hasn't figured out how to be a good sleeper, so I'm crossing my fingers and praying this little boy will get it all figured out quickly!!)

I think this finishes up my sewing to do list for my baby.  I'm sure there are several other things I could dream up to sew for him, but for now I'm considering myself done.

Next on my list is a dress or two for Grace.  You know because she can't go into summer without a couple of handmade dresses.  Here's to hoping I can find the energy to stay up late and sew her a few.  If not, luckily I live down the street from a Target.  Thank you Target for always having my back!

Sand, sun and water.

I got the amazing idea that with our beach vacation on the horizon, that I NEEDED a beach quilt to spread out on the sand, for tanning and reading.  You know how you spread your towel out, but then your feet fall of the ends of it.  Or the sand starts pouring in on the sides?!  I hate that.  I figured with the generous size of a beach quilt I would be like a sand-free island atop my quilt.  Wishful thinking?  Maybe.  But the quilt got made!!

*Annee is posting this from the beach and her internet is slow, so I logged in to help enlarge the photos.  This quilt turned out beautifully.  I know she used some of Heather Ross' Far Far Away fabric as her inspiration for the quilt.

I could probably save this for a comment, but I'm loving Annee's mix of FMQ on the border of the quilt with diagonal lines in the center.  Gorgeous!

Annee's enjoying the beach for a couple of days, and, well, I'm 37 weeks pregnant, so posting might be sparse this week.  I do have a little something to share tomorrow, and we'll see how the rest of the week goes.  Thank you for being understanding!

Madras Shorts

I'm officially down to three weeks before my baby comes.  Scary and exciting at the exact same time!  I've got a couple more things I'd like to make or sew before my baby comes, and these shorts have been on my list for a couple of weeks.

I love the preppy look for boys.  My husband, the Italian, grew up in LA and wore neon and overalls (in high school), so we can sometimes differ on how to dress a little boy.  However, I'm the one who dresses George 95% of the time, so I win out most of the time (or the Italian would say all the time).

I love the madras short look on boys, and George has some from Gymboree, so I took a pair that George owns and made a pattern piece for the front and back piece, and sewed them together just like pants.

I also added a lined pocket.  You can't really see the pockets, but boys clothes need to be more subtle than girls if you ask me, so I think it's a good thing they don't stand out.  Pockets are also very important to little boys who need to carry cars, action figures, or trains with them wherever they go.

I bought this patchwork plaid fabric at JoAnn's, and it should be noted that the fabric is made up of small squares sewn together and serged.  That's a lot of work if you ask me!  It's not the cheapest fabric, but with a 50% off coupon it wasn't too bad.

In the end I really like how these shorts turned out, and I'll for sure make George another pair.  I'm thinking a pair or seersucker shorts would be cute.  The Italian might disagree, but remember who dresses George most of the time?  Me!