she sews: a tote

Lately I’ve been having to juggle things back and forth between one tote bag.  Although obviously it’s not a necessity, but I’ve been craving a new tote so that I don’t have to switch things out constantly.  I peeked around at a few places, but I wasn’t finding what I pictured in my mind.  Couple my desire for a new bag with the chevron print I have had my eye on at Hobby Lobby for a while, and I decided to attempt to make my own bag.  I put together different aspects of different tote tutorials found here, and I love what I have come up with.  It was actually super simple to complete, and I spent under $10 to make it!  Not bad in my mind!

 

 

 

 

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since then

since then (then being the last time i blogged, has it really been nearly a month?):

we’ve hunted eggs:

gotten good laughs at trying to get 6 kids to smile nicely for a picture:

lost a first tooth without knowing it:

celebrated a 6th birthday:

acknowledged but did not photograph an 18 month milestone:

(insert mental picture here)

enjoyed Cornerstone’s spring program:

and, of course, started another round of projects:

 

 

A peek

A peek at one of the almost completed dresses.

Now, back to the sewing machine.

Someone banish me from the fabric store

I did it. I spent over an hour looking at fabric over and over. I now have several yards worth of fabric and less than 2 weeks to turn it all into two dresses. What’s another project. Right?!?!

projects aplenty

We’ve been keeping plenty busy around here lately.  I thought I’d share a glimpse of a few of our recent projects.  (A small part of why I was too busy to blog for a while.)

1.  The quilt I started for Brad on our second anniversary.  We celebrate anniversary number 10 in November.  In my defense though, we’ve added a dog and three munckins to the family since starting this project.  I’m thrilled to be working on it again though.  Still not thrilled that every completed 8″x8″ square is made up of 32 triangles.  What was I thinking????

2.  The second quilt I ever started.  It’s oh so close to done, but again should have made it easier on myself and not done shooting stars all over the dark blue strips.

3. Being the lover of sewing that I am, I couldn’t take the simple route and just buy Nate a school spirit shirt.  I pictured in my head what making one would look like.  Yeah, should have again taken the easier route.  Cutting out and sewing on small letters is NOT easy.  I am super excited about the way it turned out considering how difficult it was to make.  Let’s hope all three kids wear this at various times over the years.  (Somehow I don’t have a picture of the completed shirt.)

4.  After much talking about whether we should or shouldn’t, we dug in and started a veggie garden this weekend.  It’s about 170 square feet, and no we don’t know exactly what we plan to grow at this point.  Thank goodness for a husband who is much stronger than I am and endure the bulk of the hard work – although my muscles from head to toe are sore enough to think I did the entire project alone.  We are super thankful and blessed to have friends with pickup trucks that were able to give us a hand – thanks Careys and Zagozdas!!!

Not that I need another project, but I told Brad I wanted to run to the fabric store tomorrow and see if I get inspired to make Easter dresses for the girls.  We’ll see!

christmas tree shirts

i’m loving the christmas tree shirts i made for the girls this weekend.  i’d seen the idea on pinterest, and decided it looked easy enough.  i’m not sure if choosing my ribbons or searching for our fabric glue (which is still missing) took longer.  i’d only worked with fabric glue one other time, but it worked out.  my only concern is it said to hand-wash what you use it on.  i’m glad these are seasonal shirts because i don’t think i’d hand-wash something that they would be wearing for longer than a month of the year. knowing me though, i’ll see how they fare in the washing machine on the hand-wash cycle.

block skirt

i’m behind on blogging once again, so i’m going to take the easy road and share pictures from another one of my recent projects.  i bought the fabric that makes up this skirt quite a while back, and i thought i knew exactly what i wanted to do with it.  as time went on though, and it continued to sit in the basement, i knew i needed new inspiration.  i finally found it, and here is the skirt that i made:

jilly wore it a couple of weeks ago, but i forgot to take a picture of her in it.  of course.  hopefully she’ll wear it many more times though and increase my chances of capturing a picture of her wearing it.

yoke neck tunic top

i’m a few creations behind in sharing here on the blog, but i want to make sure i get around to sharing them all.

i actually bought this fabric back when jilly was less than a year old.  i cut out all the pieces i needed using the pattern i bought, and was ready to dive into the world of pattern sewing.  and, then i read the first step.  i had no clue what it mean to do a gathering stitch.  i set the project aside figuring i’d get to it at some point when mom visited.  it didn’t happen.

fast-forward 2 years, and i have a renewed desire to be project-y.  i’ve begun to follow several blogs which deal with many sewing creations and also give some great step by step tutorials.  i was able to get a little over halfway through the top before i decided i needed mom’s help.

while she was here last, she worked on it some, and we were able to complete it.

here is the finished product:

ruffle pants and flower shirt

It’s day #8 of Brad being gone, and I can proudly say I survived.  He’s currently in the air on his way back from the mission trip to Mazatlan, Mexico.  It’s been interesting at time, but I and all three kids still seems to have come out of it unscathed.  I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty close as to whether Jilly or I will be more excited to have Brad back – man, does that girl love her daddy!!

Faced with the daunting task of 8 days being a single parent (I’m not cut out for single parenthood!), I knew I needed something to make me look forward to his time away.  I decided a sewing project would do the trick.  There are so many cute clothes out there that I could never dream of affording for Jilly and Laurel.  I was curious to see what I could do with a sewing machine, a pattern, and some fabric.  I went out before he headed out of town and picked up what I needed and although it about drove me nuts, I waited for him to be gone before diving in.

Here is the result of my attempt:

I learned a LOT!  And, I still need to go back and fix a couple things.  Overall though I was pretty excited about how it turned out.  Best yet, my highly opinionated about her clothing two year old was excited and willing to wear it.  Now if I could just get her to stop calling the pants her pajama pants  . . .  🙂

I hope later this week to make another top to go with the pants – I hate when pants only go with one thing!  I have to wait for my mom to get here though to give me a hand and share some of her sewing knowledge.  I’m super excited though!

An etsy page has crossed my mind, but I’m not sure at this point.  I feel like I still have so much to learn and am having fun making stuff for my own kids to enjoy wearing.  But who knows . . .

the number of the day

back when i made the girls’ cupcakes shirts, nate asked me what kind of birthday shirt i was going to make him.  i kinda back burner-ed the request as i wasn’t sure what i could do for him.  fast forward to a few short days ago when i ran across the perfect idea.  i ran to hobby lobby 20 minutes before it closed on monday evening and got everything i needed.  and now it’s finished, and i love it.  i also learned some along the way about how i can make it speedier for myself if i ever do this again for someone else or one of the girls (the directions were perfect, unfortunately i’m not).  it’s going to be torture to not let him wear it until monday when he officially turns 5!