Easter Shirt Trial Run

I've been working on the boys' Easter outfits for the past month or so, and made this pattern up myself, so of course I wanted to do a trial run before cutting into what little bit of fabric I have for the actual Easter shirt. 

Samuel's been asking me for a cowboy shirt, so I told him that it has pearl snaps - kind of like a cowboy shirt. He thought that was pretty good, and it must be, because I found him wearing it with sweat pants and cowboy boots when we woke up from nap time the next day :o).

I used flat-felled seams, so it's as pretty inside as out. I never knew what flat-felled seams were, but when I started looking at the insides of Tim's dress shirts I wanted to try to get the same look.  I came up with my own way of doing it on a different shirt, but then saw THIS  tutorial and found out the real way to do it :o). It's nice to make something that you can be proud of and know it will last a long time. This is also the first time I've successfully used snaps. It was really easy when I figured out the RIGHT way to put them in the snap press :o).  As long as they're in the right way they work great! It does take some practice, so always try it on some scraps before messing up your shirt :o).

The pattern could use just a bit of tweaking, but overall it's not bad for coming up with it from scratch.

Thanks Moe!

Moe (my man mannequin) was a big help again the other day while I was making Tim a new shirt!

It's so nice to have something to drape and fit things to while Tim is at work (or sleeping late at night when most of my quantity [not so much quality] sewing is done :o)). Moe was an unexpected gift from my Aunt Sheryl. Thank You!!! She got it from a retired seamstress and passed it my way. You should have seen Tim's face, Aunt Sheryl, when I brought it home :o).  I should have taken a picture for you!

I used a shirt that fits Tim well as my pattern.

Nothing fancy, but I think it turned out just about perfect :o).

 I did one line of stitching on the sleeves, only because my bobbin ran out and I didn't feel like filling it up again.

 I did a double stitch on the hem. I don't have a twin needle, so I just do a second row of stitching VERY slowly close to the first.

Thanks again, Moe and Aunt Sheryl!!

New PJ's all Around

For Caleb's Birthday I made him some much-needed jammies. I used this pattern and liked it a lot.

It was a simple and quick sew - only taking one nap time :o). I like instant gratification!!!! :o) The pants have a cuff, so you can roll them up or let down as baby grows.

Of course adding my label. 

So classic. 

I  appliqued the C as an afterthought just so it's not so plain.

For Samuel and Josiah's I used this pattern from the 70's (Soo Cute!).

I Love these jammies!

I love the wide legs!

They are so cute on Josiah!!

I tucked about 3 extra inches into the sleeve length and pants hem, so they should fit for a few years to come. I figure if you're putting your time into making something you might as well make it last!

Even if I need to add a strip of something to the bottom of the shirt so his belly won't hang out in a year or two the rest will still fit. I also overlapped about 3 inches of the elastic in the waistband of the pants so that can be let out too. See my nice thick hem :o). I made a double line, but with very long stitches so it won't be to hard to get out later.

I think the buttons really make the whole thing though!!

I love the vintage feel!

They're Josiah's favorite too.

Samuel's seem a little more grown-up looking with the plaid I think. I really wanted to use these cute teddy bear buttons, but I had already told Samuel he could pick out whatever he wanted, so we ended up getting ...

giraffe buttons :o(. They're ok (better then the pink flowers he was also looking at :o) ), but the bears would have made it look how I wanted it to. Oh well, not the end of the world.

Here are all my guys :o) So handsome!!!

With lots of kisses to go around.

It was fun to make them each a warm fuzzy pair for winter. Maybe next year I'll make some for myself :o).

First Girls Dress

This was a Christmas gift for my little niece Caitlyn.

She is so cute and tiny! I love this wrap design because it gives a little room for growing. She can wear it now with a long-sleeved shirt and tights, and there's enough room that it should last her all the way through summer.

The button was in my Grandma's stash - an extra one from a shirt I remember her wearing a good bit. It makes me feel good to be able to add things of hers back into our and other people's lives!

I knew I had to use this pattern as soon as I saw the little bloomers :o)

Way too CUTE!!!

She looks like she's ready for warm weather just like her Aunt B (me)

Caleb is 8 months younger than her, but much bigger already.

He's trying to squeeze his way into the chair with her and she's not too sure about that .

He finally decided to get down and rock her instead.

I'm so glad we have family close by!

A Very Late Christmas Post Part 1

I made Tim some Very manly pj's for Christmas :o)

Notice how the plaid on the pocket lines up (almost) perfectly!

While I was madly trying to finish this and all my other presents a few days before Christmas the boys were doing mostly this...

And their room (and really the whole house) was looking like this :o)

But it was worth it to get a smile like this!

And so you get a better idea of the total look.

I made pillow cases for most people but forgot to get pictures before they were all wrapped. Oops.
I think Lyonya was happy with his!

I also made a few tissue pouches. The one on the left was for my mother-in-law and on the right for Tim's Grandma, who lives right outside of Chicago and just turned 96 years old!!! She is so fun and loves birds :o)

And for the ALWAYS traveling sister-in-law, a luggage tag.

It was a very different Christmas, but a nice one! We did our Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve, and then got right into the car to drive to Ohio to be with Tim's family Christmas morning. It's 10 hours from SC and ended up taking 13 hours.
We wanted to drive all night while the boys were sleeping to hopefully make the trip easier, and that part was easier. The hard part was staying awake after us not having much sleep the week before. We didn't have to stop every  hour for potty breaks and snacks for the boys, but we did stop every hour or so because we were trying not to fall asleep, and ended up getting stuck going 35 mph for 2-3 hours in West Virgina at 3am behind a snow plow. Anyway, back to Christmas Eve.
We had lots of fun watching everyone open the presents we gave them and giving lots of hugs.
It was the second Christmas with my new siblings (you can see more about what has happened the last year with them HERE).

This was Caleb's first Christmas and he really enjoyed opening his presents!
Look at that serious look :o)

He got a cute hat from Aunt Becky that stayed on about 3 seconds.

Tim needed a bottle opener for his Blenheim ginger ale (a favorite of the guys - it's way to HOT for me!)

Good thing a knife is never more than 3 seconds away in my family. It's funny to see who can make the draw the fastest :o).  Matthew happened to be sitting beside him, so it might have been only 2 seconds, not 3 :o).

We have some better pictures I think, but on a different camera, so maybe I can get my hands on them soon.

Part 2 of our Christmas in Ohio coming soon!

2011!!!

Wow, is it really here already? It happens faster every year I think. We just got back from a very good but VERY long trip from here to Ohio then Chicago and back home to South Carolina all in less than 1 week. Maybe this next week I can finally start showing  off all my hard work that had to be top-secret until Christmas! :o) (I promise it's coming Aunt Sheryl)

To Busy Sewing For Any Blogging

I'm so close to being done with all three of the boys' quilts! All 60 squares are finished and now being sewn together. Now for pretty hand quilting. Not sure how long this is going to take me, but I'm assuming I'll have time for that and about 10 more presents to start and finish in the next 2 1/2 weeks :o) I'm feeling like I'm cutting it a bit closer than I'd like, but I always seem to work it out when there's a deadline. 

I will have a TON of pictures to post after Christmas! (Sorry Aunt Sheryl, I know you're waiting :o) )

OOOPS, never got that posted. I did say I was too busy sewing, didn't I? Well, now only a few more days to go and I'm really cutting it close!!! We'll have to wait and see what happens... :o)