Gracie Jayne

Welcome to the world Gracie Jayne!! My sister had this beautiful baby a couple of weeks ago, and has been sending us the sweetest videos of her. I am already completely in love.

At the hospital with my mom

Coming home from the hospital

She isn't starved for attention. These two scramble to hold her every chance they can. I bet they are great helpers. I can't wait until I can hold her myself!

Sharing a Couple Tutorials

I found it! This is the tutorial I used for my rosette dress. What did we ever do before google?? (It took a few searches on a couple different days. Now it is saved in my bookmarks!) It is a great tutorial and an easy way to make a big difference in a garment. I want to do some on a top for me. Who's coming over to do it with me?

And here is a similar one where she uses felt and just one layer to decorate a pillow!

LBB Challenge Gallery is Up!

Here is the gallery of all the entries for the contest. There are so many amazing and creative ideas here! I know what my favorites are (How about that monster hoodie!?) and I think the judges have quite a job before them to narrow it down to a top ten!! Here is Ashley of LBB's post about the gallery. My entries were missed somehow when she posted yesterday, but are in there today!

3rd Entry

OK this is my last entry for this challenge. What do you guys think? I am calling it the funky gilded butterfly dress.


This one shows the color the best. I edited to add this one because the other ones were looking a little too fluorescent to me! It can be hard to get good pictures! I would have loved to share some modeled ones but these are for my niece in Minnesota and didn't get them there in time. (Well one outfit did, but she hates to get pictures taken lol.)


I used some super soft t-shirt weight knit and the Sienna Dress pattern from Lil Blue Boo and added ribbing at the bottom to make it sort of a bubble/long sweatshirt dress. (Remember those that we used to wear in the 80's??) I also added some ribbing to the sleeve, and pieced the applique. I don't know if I'll ever be so happy to sew a straight seam again after sewing all the little pieces of that applique!! I used Tulip brand fabric spray paint glitter and sprayed each color of fabric really well and let it dry. Then, I cut out the applique using an image I printed out on freezer paper and used Steam a Seam Lite 2 to attach it to the dress. Then ironed that on, and sewed around all the edges!

For the center, I decided to get funky and try something totally different. I rolled up some brown nylon chiffon, and wound and sewed some silver embroidery thread around it. So the little butterfly body is 3-D! Then I used the silver embroidery thread to hand embroider the antennae. This was a fun challenge that Lil Blue Boo offered and I love her patterns!

2nd Entry

This is my 2nd entry in the Lil Blue Boo contest!
Take this cute pattern
and two old t-shirts


...and you can make this! I used the old t-shirts to make this skort. I loved how I didn't have to hem the under shorts - the pattern guides you to just use the existing hem - sweet!! I appliqued the skort and top (I bought the t-shirt below) with a rose motif from some cute brown and pink floral fabric I found at Joann's.


See the cute little undershorts? I know my sister will love that for my niece!

Seams In My Dreams and Chapped Lips

I have been hard at work on some sewing for a contest! This has been very different from my usual rate of just doing a few steps here and there when I am up to it. I have been pushing it hard and will crash afterwards, but it feels good to get things done that I want to do! Just before I fell asleep last night, I realized my mind was just full of seams and fabrics, and appliques........ Also, I have chapped lips. Why do I get this from sewing so much you ask? Well, apparently I stick my tongue out between my lips when I am sewing on my machine, especially if it is something I have to really watch and be careful with. Skiing sounds like a better excuse for chapped lips, or hmmm... maybe kissing... but hey, I get mine from sewing.

The contest I am entering is this one.

It has been really fun to push myself to create something

a little different and see what I could come up with!

OK first up is a dress I made from this pattern. I added some gathers to the middle piece and the bottom piece and then made these fun rosettes for the neckline.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I told Jake I needed him to make me a valentine this year, and he sat right down and made me this. What a cutie. He printed the real heart out from the internet and cut it out. The Feliz Cumpleanos is because he is silly and learned it the other day in Spanish class. :)

I have been working on these two skirts for a while and am excited to share them! I love the colors of this fabric line all together like this. This is Sarah's outfit:

And here is Elise's outfit:

And here is the sweetest little punkin' ever in her outfit:It ended up a bit too big, but I guess that means it will still fit her in the fall!

Jake is 14

He has been for a couple weeks! I guess I am finally somewhat resigned to the fact that he is just going to keep growing up on me. He looks like a 16 year old, so I guess I can be grateful he is still only 14! I love the person he is becoming. He is so much fun.

Here he is opening his presents.

This is the cool little finger drum set my parents gave him, which looks like his big drum set that he got for Christmas. Yep. He really did. I can't believe I did it. I found a great set on ksl classifieds and got some mute pads. He loves them, and sounds good (and loud.) My camera broke on Christmas Eve(!) so I haven't shared pictures of Jake and his drums yet, but I will.

And here he is....

driving! I let him drive around the church parking lot for a bit. I was worried this would lead to a lot of asking if he could drive all the time, but even though he loved the opportunity and did well, he said it scared him a little and he got his fill for a while.

And here's a silly picture of my brother Curt just for fun.

I'll be sharing some sewing pictures soon so tune in!