Christmas Appliques and More Ruffled Pants

December is finally here!! Time to really start thinking about Christmas and EVERYTHING that needs to be done before then!! I am sure most of you have started and are probably finished....but NOT ME!! I am a "run-around-crazy-trying-to-get-everything-done" kinda girl! But I am happy to say that I did get this order out on time!! But because I was down to the wire finishing these appliques and outfits, I apologize for the quality of the pictures!!


First up, a sweet little reindeer with a button nose, and an ornament with a ruffle added. I think I had better luck this time adding the ruffle to the knit tee. Thank you all so much for your helpful suggestions the last time I attempted this. These appliques came from the awesome givers over on my favorite machine embroidery site Sew Forum! However, in order to get them exactly like my SIL wanted them, I used my Embird software to "cut and paste" certain elements like the little heart cheeks, and the "ricrack" stitching around the ornament. I tell you, the more I use that software, the more I find out exactly what it can do...and it is COOL!

Case in point:

I did not have a little truck applique with a Christmas tree in the back...but I did have a little truck applique with a giraffe in back. A little cut here...a little paste there and I was able to combine two different designs into the one I needed! Very COOL!! I used a really dark brown corduroy for the boy reindeer, it definitely looks darker here in the picture...but I think next time I would choose a lighter shade...what do you think?



Oh.my.goodness!! What can I say about ruffle pants? How stinkin cute are they??

I think I could definitely pull off a pair...? Nah, probably best to leave them to sweet little girls!! :)

And would it really be a completed Christmas order WITHOUT tutus?

I think not!!

Well, that is all for now!! I have TONS of things in my sewing room waiting to be completed, so I will be back soon with more Christmas goodness! I am also going to be doing a quick post just for my friend Marguerite...she is always giving such interesting "tours" around her historic little town and has challenged us to do the same! There are tons of great things about Lafayette that I would like all of you to know about, and just for Chelle, maybe I will even include pictures of BOTH of our Targets!! HA! Now if you will excuse me...there is a little something happening at Sew Mama Sew called GIVEAWAY DAY!! So if you are on the LIST, and there are THREE btw...I will be visiting you SOON!! And if you are coming to my blog for the first time...WELCOME!! I am not participating this time...but THANK YOU for all who are! Until later...

The Last of Fall

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over we can all wind down and take a nice relaxing break.....YEAH RIGHT!!! December is just around the corner and we all will be so busy we won't even have time to BREATHE!! :) My parents were so sweet and took all THREE of my children last Sunday. We were alone with visions of movies, date night, and long relaxing sofa lounging...that didn't happen. I was SO busy with an order that had to be done before Thanksgiving, and fortunately I made the deadline! Unfortunately, I did not get to finish everything I wanted to bring to my family, but I will be going back that way on the 12th of December, so hopefully it will be done then! I am also way behind on my blog reading, so I am sorry if you have missed my pithy comments...I will be back soon!

Now on with the last of the Fall sewing I've done! I made yet another banner...I really love doing these! This one went to Ms. Priss's teacher. She LOVED it and sent the sweetest Thank You card home with my daughter.

The cute little pumpkin and apple hangers are courtesy of the fabulous Kimara and Michelle of Wee Folk Art fame!! There is still time, if you haven't already, to send them info and a link to your Etsy shop or web page if you sell things online. They have quite the list compiled and are so wonderful to be giving Handmade Sellers another form of exposure! Thanks ladies...I know I can't say it enough, but you ROCK!!

This next dress was a last minute addition to my already huge order for Thanksgiving!! My cousin called to discuss her daughter's bib, and said she needed to go and get an outfit for Thanksgiving. Well, of course I then said, "I'll make her one!!" ARGH!! I have not had the greatest success with A-lines, but decided to give it another go!

Instead of messing around with a pattern, I just grabbed a dress I had from the Gap...laid it on the fabric and cut!! It actually came out BETTER than previous ones used from patterns!! I used snaps instead of buttons for the closures, and have to say I like this much better!!

Here is her bib. It is the same ribbon Turkey applique I've used in the past, but this time I covered the bib in vinyl to protect it!

I forgot my camera at home, so didn't get any pictures from our Thanksgiving with my family!! But here is a picture of the Middle Child wearing her Turkey outfit for Feast Day at her Pre-K.

It is so cute on!! I need to be held back from putting ruffles on every.single.pair.of.pants.she.owns!!

Ok, I've had these outfits made for a while, but have yet to showcase them!! This is what my children wore in their Fall Pictures I had made!! I think they are adorable of course....but I am flabber-gasted as to WHEN I turned into one of THOSE mommas. You know...the ones that feel the need to make MATCHING OUTFITS for EVERY occasion!!!!????? I have been doing this for a while....it just seems to get worse every YEAR!! :) I guess I will continue doing this until my children get tired of it, and start saying....."WHY!!!????" Which I am sure will happen when they are older...but for now, they seem to like it!!

I will apologise in advanced for these crazy shots of my children...this was before we got in the car to go and they were WIRED!! Thankfully they sat still long enough at the Studio to take cute pictures! For The Boy, a pair of jeans with the matching fabric pocket, and my first attempt at a tie!! It came out pretty good, but next time will make it longer.

For the girls....THIS awesome pattern from My Mama Made It!! SHE is so COOL!! If you haven't checked out her blog, you should. She is a RE-fashioning QUEEN!! She takes the most mundane things and turns them into pure FABULOUSNESS!! The pattern is called Valentina, and it is very well done!!

Now, as you can see in the above picture, the back is not sewed together from the neck to the waist. There is a button and elastic closure about 3 inches from the top, and the sash ties around the waist to finish the "closed" effect. Well, this did not work too well for my children. I had to go back and add a small eye hook at the neck for both dresses, and also on Ms. Priss's lower back, above the sash. When they moved, it would gap open, so the next time I make this dress I will probably go ahead and sew up the back and move the button closer to the neck ruffle.

THE SASS!!!

But I LOVE THIS PATTERN. It sewed up easy and you can use ANY fabric with it. She has tons of ideas and pictures on the pattern to get your creative juices flowing!

I will be back when it makes it to December to start showcasing all of my Christmas sewing!! I also have a couple of AWESOME ornaments to show you from my bloggy friends Melanie and Beatrix, and I want to finish up the tee-shirts that I painted using the stencils my sweet friend Amy sent me!! I promise to "catch up" with all of you soon! I went shopping yesterday....YAY for BLACK FRIDAY!!...and had to take out all of the Christmas lights and decorations so I could put all of the gifts in the attic!! If I would have just put them in, I would have ran the risk of the kids seeing them when I went to get the decorations out!!! So now I have to start sorting through the LIGHTS and see which ones work and which ones need to be thrown away!! I guess we will get our tree sometime this week, and I want to have the my children make some ornaments this year.....but maybe I'll just sit here and be lazy....until later...

Thanksgiving Outfits....take two!

I'm still being a little lazy this week...here it is already Wednesday and I don't have much to show for it! But I have been working "behind the scenes", so to say. I have been busy getting things ready for next week's whirlwind of monogramming, sewing, and cutting....not necessarily in that order. You see, my AWESOME folks are coming Saturday to take ALL THREE of my children until Thanksgiving!!! WOOHOO!!! My husband and I have BIG plans!! We are not sure what they are yet....but having the freedom to go to a movie, or a restaurant, or just sitting on the sofa and have a conversation WITHOUT CHILDREN is sounding so GOOD!! :) Now....anyone have an extra bed for my MIL??? HA!

So anyway....with all of the "Wardrobe Re-fashioning" going on around the sewing blog world lately...I just had to get in on it!! Instead of doing ALL NEW outfits for Thanksgiving, I took a second look at the outfits I did last year. This first one is for Ms. Priss. I did the shirt, but didn't have anything to go with it so decided at the last minute to do a quick skirt. It was long and straight and not very flattering, but she wore it because I made it for her.


So this year, I wanted to make the skirt a little more "girly" and a little less "maw-mawish".
Cute huh? I cut it off above her knees, and added a long ruffle to it!! She is very happy with it!

Next up, the Middle Child's outfit:

The shirt was just a little t-shirt that comes in a 3 pack, yes a boy's undershirt 3 pack....sigh! And it was REALLY short this year!! But the turkey applique was a little too "girly" to hand down to The Boy this year....so what to do?

Viola!! I added a ruffle to the bottom of the shirt to lengthen it! Now, I have never done this before and the knit tee stretched a little as I was serging the ruffle on and made it a little "out of shape" looking. Any suggestions for this technique?? I really like the concept of adding a ruffle to an existing T-shirt, but don't want this to keep happening, so if anyone has done this with more successful results....TIPS are WELCOME!! :) As you can see, I also used my serger to "cut" the armbands and neckband, and added a little more "girly" to it!! Now the pants were actually the Boy's from last year...but too short for him to wear again. So I added ruffles to the bottom hems to add full length for the Middle Child!! It is so cute on...she has a Thanksgiving Feast tomorrow at her Pre-K, so I will take pictures of it on...then you can see all of the "cuteness" for yourself!!

Now, all I have left to do is a shirt and another pair of pants for the Boy!!

I also have something else in the works. But first let me tell you about my GENEROUS and TALENTED friend Amy......she sent me this:

Look at that awesome stencil cut!! Is she good or WHAT!! I am an AWFUL cutter, and would never had been able to do this for myself...so she so graciously sent me this care package!! THANK YOU AMY!!! YOU ROCK!! I have it all done, but am doing a little more to the shirts to "girly" them up....yes, I am doing that alot!! Go check out Amy's blog...she just did the sweetest Storytime Quilt for her little girl, but shhhhh....it is a Christmas present!! :) Well...I am off to finish my "behind the scenes" stuff...gathering fabric, altering embroidery designs, washing fabric, cutting patterns...you know the things that go along with great creations, but take more time than the actual CREATING!!! Have a good Wednesday! Until later....

I'm BACK!

What have I been doing? Well, where do I begin.... This week was Symposium Week at Ms. Priss's school. And the AWESOME PTC put on a GREAT one. This year's theme was Science. And I got to be in Dr. Loopy's Laboratory!! Yes, I actually went out in public dressed liked this and had my picture taken! But it was loads of fun and for a good cause!! We worked our collective bottoms off getting things ready for Tent Day, which was Friday! We had 5 tents this year, which is less than usual, but the kids spent more time in each tent, so it worked out great! As I said, I was in Dr. Loopy's Lab, where the classes came through and did an experiment. We did the Cabbage Test, which involved lemon juice, baking soda, Fabulosa, and 409 each dispensed in separate containers. Then the kids added stinky red cabbage juice to each one and depending on which color it turned, learned which was acidic and which was basic! The other experiment, which was for the older classes, involved putting Calcium Chloride and baking soda in a ziploc then adding Red Phenol to it. The mixture bubbled then turned hot and air expanded in the bag so it had to be "burped"!! See, LOADS of fun!! The kids got to wear goggles and gloves during the experiment, then when it was done walked out back to watch what happens when you mix Mentos and Diet Coke!

Here is our tent...

We also had a Weather tent.

The kids learned about volcanoes, clouds, tornadoes, snow, and hurricanes!

In the Human Body tent, the kids learned about organs and blood and various body parts. They got to sit in an Ambulance and a First Responder vehicle and learn their jobs. There were also some kids from one of the High Schools that volunteered to give "check ups".

The Bug Cafe was cool!! Besides learning about bugs, the kids got a treat of mud, dirt, and even a juicy worm!! Of course it was chocolate pudding, crushed oreos, and a gummy worm....but still!

Ah SPACE!!

This was by far, the MOST elaborate of all the tents!! These moms and dads worked well into Thursday night setting this tent up!! It had to be completely blacked out with Visquene in order for all the cool glow in the dark stuff and projections they had going on to work properly!! See that Sun...I did that!! As well as one of the rockets and some of the wording on the tent!! LOTS of work!! We are so grateful for all of the parents who put this together, and our AWESOME PTC that gets all of the help and donations from local businesses! We also were grateful for the Lafayette Natural History Museum and Planetarium who did all of the computer set ups, projections, and told us what we needed to simulate things on different planets!! Another successful Symposium....DONE!!! Now, back to sewing.....

I got my embroidery machine back, but haven't tried it out to see if they "fixed" my tension problems. I also managed to get my serger working properly and have decided to become a sewing machine repair technician!!! Hey at $100 a pop....I can SO LEARN TO DO THAT!!! :) Until later....

Autumn Banner

Here is the banner Nicole chose for winning my giveaway!! I love it! Congratulations Nicole, and thank you to everyone who participated in my 100th post giveaway!! I have the BEST "sweeties"!! Have a good Tuesday...I am off to the sewing machine "dr." to bring in my embroidery machine. Until later....

A few more baby items...

So I make it to 100 and then don't show up for a WEEK!!! Sorry, I have been very lazy this week! In between sinus FACEaches and fighting tension problems with my embroidery machine and lower looper problems with my serger I have just been wiped out!! But even though there is a Hurricane a'coming, the skies are looking bluer!! I think I FINALLY fixed my seger and I am going to bite the $100 bullet and bring my embroidery machine in and hope that it is just some minute piece of thread stuck somewhere causing my tension to be OFF!! So now that THAT is decided....on with what I have been doing!! Well, what I did before my machines went down...

First up, my first crib skirt!

It was much easier than I thought it would be and BIG thank you to Amy Butler's little stitches for little ones. I followed the pattern and instructions and it was super simple! This was for my new bloggie friend Elaine. We met at JoAnn's and she picked out this fabulous black and white print. And I had enough left over to make a little pillow and an 8" x 10" piece that I monogrammed for her to put in a frame for her little one's room. Too sweet!

I also finally finished this order and got it to my friend!
The bloomers with the band are courtesy of a super talented girl which I found through Made by Rae. I loved the look of the banded legs and wanted to try it. Her tutorial is for a newborn size and I needed a 9-12 mo size, so I used my favorite bloomer pattern and added the bands. It came out a little bigger than what I wanted, so I tried again using a 6 mo bloomer size. Still a little big, but definitely better than the first attempt.

So that is it for now! I will be finishing up the banner for my 100th post winner Nicole now that my serger is back up and running and hope my embroidery machine will do well enough until I bring it in Tuesday! I have a TON of things on my LIST of to do, so I will be checking in from time to time. But there is SO MUCH going on in the sewing world with the holidays coming up!! Sew Mama Sew is hosting another fabulous Giveaway Day, but I think I will sit this one out. I so enjoyed meeting everyone who visited, but didn't get hardly any time to visit any myself. SO I will be GREEDY and try my luck at winning....and you should too! :) Also, the sweet girls at Wee Folk Art will be compiling an AWESOME list of bloggers who have Etsy stores so I encourage you to check them out and get the word out to BUY HANDMADE this holiday season!! It will make you feel so good to know that you are supporting families and there are just so many TALENTED people out there! Just click on the cute little button on the left and it will take you to the list!! And while you are there, grab your own button to put on your blog!!

The weekend was filled with fun, we went to Movies in the Parc and watched The Wizard of Oz under the stars. And today, I finally took down the summer gels that were stuck on my back windows and let the kids go wild....

Until later...

And the winner is......

Here are your random numbers: 7
Timestamp: 2009-11-03 21:42:32 UTC

Congratulations Nicole!! I will be emailing you soon!

Thank you everyone for participating, and helping me achieve my 100th post! If it wasn't for my sweeties, and a few random visitors every now and then, I might have given up some time ago!! You all mean so much to me!!

I have not one, but TWO machines down this week so I might not be back this week. My poor serger has a bent lower looper slide thingie, and my embroidery machine is having MAJOR tension issues! Thankfully my sewing machine is doing fine and dandy!!

Sew Mama Sew has already begun their Handmade Holidays, so check them out for giveaways, tutorials, recipes, gift ideas, and as ALWAYS tons of INSPIRATION!! Until later...