Thursday, June 21, 2012

Saying Yes

Today, a brief detour from my sewing machine fabric frenzy to remember how lucky I am to be able to spend most days teaching myself the womanly arts and chasing the kids.  This morning during my normal morning coffee and computer time, I came across this great article for stay-at-home moms, about having more fun and truly enjoying being home.  Gave me so much to think about!

Shorty is off doing teenager things and the little ones were asking every ten minutes, "What are we doing today?  Are we doing anything today?  Are we going somewhere?".  Inspired by number one in the article, I said "Yes.  Yes we are going to Target, because we need Tide."  I have to admit, I wasn't sold on the idea of being happier by saying yes.  Going to target with the kids is usually a battle of wills about whether or not treats and toys will be purchased for them, so I pretty much always go in prepped for maximum irritation.

For whatever reason, the stars aligned properly or something, my kids accepted my spending limits and didn't make me repeat myself.  Amazing!

Sometimes they surprise me, and because they do, I decided to surprise them by stopping by a playground instead of going straight home.


Saying yes isn't always a painful experience, and giving it a shot today reminded me why being a stay at home mom is awesome.  Look at me, it's 3:30 p.m. and I'm on a park bench under a huge tree listening to the beautiful music of giggling children, can't get better than that!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Adventures In Sewing Part 5--Popover Sundress

Would you believe I'm feeling so confident making the toddler a-line dress that I actually started feeling bored with it?  I decided to check around the web to see if there were any easy peasy freebies around, just to try something new.  I found an adorable dress from Oliver + S, the Popover Sundress, a completely free downloadable pattern and instructions.  Score!

The great thing about the Kwik Sew pattern is that it takes up almost exactly one yard of fabric with very little scrap.  Downside to the Oliver + S pattern is that it takes up a little more fabric because it is much longer than the a-line dress.   Okay, its not really a downside because it gave me and babygirl a great excuse to go fabric shopping!  This was an adorable adventure, it was so fun to see her picking out fabrics, hefting all those bolts into the cart was so cute!  She made some great choices but boy did I learn my lesson about taking her to the fabric store, girl has less self control than me! ;)

On to the dresses...this was my first time making bias straps, which turned out to be not as bad as I thought it would be.  Ended up having some trouble with the ends of the straps, but thanks to my dear Ruby Murray's brilliant solution of knotting the ends to stop fraying, the day was saved and I finished it up rather quickly.


This fabric was an absolute STEAL!!!  Had only planned to buy two yards to make the Popover Sundress, but when we got to the cutting table the employee told me that it was only 58 cents a yard!  Woohoo I bought all they had left, a little over four yards.  It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie for some reason, and ERL called it "the carrot fabric", but babygirl loves the dress so much!  What to do with the other two and a half yards?

A few days after making the carrot dress, ERL came home early and took all three monsters to the library so I could have a little peace and quiet (he's so cool!).  Decided it was a great chance to get some uninterrupted sewing time and make another sundress.  This fabric babygirl calls the dandelion fabric, and after a closer look i realized the little circles do kinda look like her favorite phase of dandelion :)


She's attempting some sort of fashion diva pose here, the silly girl.  Took a bunch of photos and this was the best one, heehee.  This was done in just over two hours and was completed with ZERO seam ripping involved woooooohooo!

We've got a laundry basket full of fabric for babygirls' future dresses, and I compulsively bought four yards of this at IKEA the other night...

I'm thinking its about time for momma to get a sundress...anybody know a good commercial sundress pattern for women?


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Adventures In Sewing Part 4--Not A Drawstring Bag


A while back, I found this adorable fabric in a remnant bin, somewhere...maybe Hobby Lobby?  It's like that with remnants, I never remember where they came from and I never have a real plan for what I'm going to do with them.  I was excited to find some "boy" fabric though, as I've realized my stash is quite floral!


I have a little buddy in Canada with a birthday coming up, so I thought a little bag would be a great way to practice some sewing skills while making a cute gift/book/toy bag.  Found the Book Buddies tutorial over at Sew, Mama, Sew! and set to it.  This was my first attempt at making a bag with a lining, which would have been pretty funny to watch, I'm sure, except for those easily offended as there was a high level of swearing involved.  And seam ripping.  And more swearing.

Long story short, I managed to get the stinkin lining in but somehow sewed it wonky, not allowing for the casing I was supposed to make for the drawstring.  Oooops.  I threw it.  I picked it up, took it to my bedroom and threw it on the floor in the closet.  It sat there a good two weeks.

I finished up my other birthday gifts for my little friend, and decided to pick up the wadded up "bag" and give it a look.  I decided that all of that ripping and swearing would be wasted if I didn't do anything to the bag, so I made some little straps for it.

The straps match the lining, which I forgot to take a picture of, but was another random remnant from somewhere.

Hooray for forced ingenuity!  Lanikins always says sometimes the best things come from "winging it" and in this case, I don't think it came out too bad!
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