Almost there!!

We’re just a few weeks away!!  YAY!!!

August

This summer has been a blur.  We’ve done so much and so little.  My son starts first grade next week (!), how crazy.  Soon we will be back into the school year routine with soccer, ballet and even a new baby thrown into the mix.  I’m savoring these last few days of having both of my kids at home.  I love this time.  I love the exhaustion that comes with it, the smiles and laughter.  Even the fighting and whining about cleaning rooms, because they are home.  I can hug them and see their smiling faces any time.

In the next month or so there will be lots of changes happening in our house.  My beloved sewing and craft room is currently being packed up and relocated to the basement.  The room is going to be the baby’s room.  I’ll let you see once it’s finished.  I’m excited about the changes, having a hard time deciding on the wall color.  I’m using fabrics from Joel Dewberry’s Heirloom collection for the crib skirt, curtains, and other accessories around the room.  I love the Rose Bouquet print (top left in the collage.) that will be the main fabric that I use.  It’s so pretty.  I will keep you posted on the fabrics and the tutorials that I find or create to use in this room.

Enjoy your weekend.

Let's talk bags

Ok, I made lots of bags in the last year.  Many of which I never shared with you.  So here are some that I really like.
  These two wristlets were made from Echino fabrics.  The blue scooter one on the left is  Ni-co blue scooters, it’s an older print, and hard to find these days, but I love it.  The smaller one on the left is also made from Echino fabrics, you’ve probably seen this print before in some of my other bags.  It’s called Bird to hang in Raspberry.  I tried to find more of this back in December and had no luck.  I did find it in a laminated cotton, which is cool if you need that and don’t mind paying $26 a yard for it.  I love, love, love Echino fabrics.


This bag was made for a dear friend of mine who is currently living in Macedonia.  She needed a big bag to carry books around town, and this bag was large enough to suit that need.  It’s made from Amy Butler fabric, part of her Love collection, it’s called Memento in burgundy.  It has an adjustable strap, I can’t remember if the actual pattern called for an adjustable strap or if I just added it to make sure that it worked for her.  It has a zipper and I added pockets on the inside so that she could keep things organized.
  This one is made using Alexander Henry fabric, Mocca in chocolate.  The pattern is Chic Hobo bag and you can find it here from I Think Sew.  (I like using these patterns, because you can download them and use them immediately.  I hate having to wait for something that I’ve bought online! I’m so impatient when I want to start a project. )  This bag is a great sized bag, it hangs really nicely.  Lots of room, so you can carry as little or as much as you want!  (I tend to carry lots of stuff.)


I liked this little clutch, it was sweet and simple.  It would be cute to carry around town or out for a date night.  I actually filled it with a couple of diapers and a wipes container and gave it to a friend to use as a travel diaper pouch.  The fabric is from Hobby Lobby, the pattern from I think Sew.  It’s the Gloria Clutches pattern, you can find it on the website as well.  It uses a magnetic snap. I was out of those so I just used velcro, it just made sense since it was being used to carry diapers.
  This is the only one of these bags that I still have.  I’ve never used it. I had intended to, just decided that I wanted something else.  It may find it’s way into the Etsy shop at some point.  (Along with many other things that I have never listed…)  The fabric is Anna Maria Horners’ Fortune, from the Good folks collection in sea.  I love this fabric, it’s so pretty.  I added some fun embroidery stitches to one of the flowers.  If I would have thought about it, I would have added embroidery to the entire side of it, but that idea didn’t occur to me until I already had it sewn together, and it was just too difficult to fit an embroidery hoop in most places.  The pattern is the Jasmine bag from here.

So…see, I may not post here frequently, but I am not just sitting around at home being totally useless!!  As if that’s possible when you have kids, right!?

My current bag...

I have a slight addiction to making purses.  I love purses.  I always want a new purse.
So the other day I came up with this design.  It was a late night idea that turned out much better than I anticipated.  It has two exterior pockets as well as two interior pockets.  I added two additional smaller flowers on either side of the large one.    You’d think I would have taken a picture of the final product but no…
It’s a really big bag.  I don’t know that I will use it too long, because I really want something more spring-ish.  Some brighter colors.  Still on the search for the perfect fabric for that one.  I bought this brown bird fabric a few years ago, because it was just SO pretty.  It’s a decorator weight fabric by P. Kaufman.
I also made another bag a couple of weeks ago.  I had a sudden urge to do a little needlework around some of the flowers…LOVE the result.  Again, this was a really big bag, not sure that I will end up keeping it!  The fabric is from Good Folks by Anna Maria Horner.

Floor Pillows

My kids received these pillows a few years ago, they were Christmas gifts if I remember correctly.  They have been dearly loved, carried all over the house, stomped on, squished, slept on, etc.  I pick them up from time to time and think too bad the print isn’t cuter.  Well, today as I was pleading with my three year old to let me down size the number of stuffed animals (or “friends” as she calls them) that are currently occupying a huge space in her room, it occurred to me that I can change the fabric.  How have I not thought about this before??  I mean seriously, I can only take forest green and bears for so long.  What was the solution?  New fabric of course!

I changed them to simple rectangular floor pillows, no more of those funky cylindrical things.  It was so easy to do, took about 5 minutes to sew both of them.  Longer to get those teeny, tiny, itty bitty little Styrofoam
granules into the new pillows…so messy!
If you are interested in making your own, all you need is a piece of 20″ fabric.  Fold it in half, right sides together.  Sew all sides with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving a 4-5″ opening.  Press, clip corners, turn right side out.  Press again.  Sew a half inch seam all the way around, except for the spot where you have left your opening, don’t sew that until after you have stuffed it!  So go ahead and fill it with whatever you are using to stuff it.  I filled mine about 1/2-2/3 full.  Sew the opening closed.  All finished!

My kids love them, they have carried them from room to room.  I love floor pillows.  I love cute fabric.  It makes me happy.  Anything to brighten one’s day, right?!

Still here!

So…yeah after a really long break, just wanted to let you know that I am still here!  We’ve been sick and we’ve also enjoyed lots of snow.  I have been in a real crafting/sewing rut.  Just a little discouraged lately.  I will have things to share with you soon, I promise!

Oh Night Divine

Merry Christmas!!

Mohren-Haus

Our trip to Germany was incredible!  I told my husband that I am ready to pack up and move there…he wasn’t ready to make that kind of commitment though!  The city of Bamberg is like a walking into a fairy tale or a time machine.  It was absolutely beautiful…and there were some amazing  stores there!  I mean that’s really all you need to know to pack up and move halfway across the world, right??  One of the coolest and quite possibly my all time favorite store was Mohren-Haus.  I L.O.V.E. this store.  I wanted to move into this store, my husband thought that I had.  It was only after coming in to retrieve me that he remarked “Oh, now I see why you’ve been in here for so long…this store is totally you.”
This place smelled wonderful, you enter the store through a room full of teas, floor to ceiling.  I picked up a Christmas blend that smells better and tastes unlike any tea I have ever tried.  SO GOOD. 
The colors, oh the colors.  I wanted one of everything in that store, budget and space prevented that from happening.

I picked up a couple of candle holders, red ones.

You can barely see the top of a really cute teacake pan that I got.

Did I mention the colors??

The felt???

I was ready to hand over my wallet.

Yes, I took pictures, lots and lots of pictures.

These cups were too fun to pass up.

This is only a small portion of the store.  There were two floors, and a million different rooms all equally fun and appealing.  I cannot wait to go back!!!

Guten Tag!!

So, I'm currently in Germany.  I wanted to share a few inspiring pictures with you!  Wow.  Let me tell you there are some incredibly cool things here and I'm pretty sure that I cannot bring most of them home! A few things from today that I love!!!

This window diplay was so pretty!!  I am in love with the colors.  I think I need one of each of these items...I love the pillows, I see a need to make some when I get home!!

 My little lady is loving the carousel ride, I am loving the color of this pink scooter she is on!

And this is my travel bag!  I have made so many things out of this fabric, what can I say, I am quite smitten by it.   This is a great bag, it's from I think sew and it's called the 91 cross bag or messenger bag.

I'm sure that I will have lots more to share with you!!

The $1 Skirt

 Okay, so we (Mama #2 and I) were walking through Wal-mart yesterday when we saw 5 racks that were marked down to $1.  Not our typical place to shop for clothing, but when you see it's only a dollar you have to stop and look, right?!  So it was mostly what you would imagine finding in the WM clothing markdown section...lots of comical things, but there was this denim skirt...that was kind of, sort of, maybe almost cute.  You know the kind, right?  You would only buy it if the price were awesome and you would definitely have to do something to it to make it wearable, but it has potential kind of thing.  Well this is what we found for that price, a (short) denim skirt.  Add a fun and colorful little ruffle to the bottom and here you have a new inexpensive skirt.  Throw on ap pair of colorful tights,like the ones that my husband says makes my legs look like an Avatar character (Love him!!)  and it's a perfect fall skirt!

Sew Hip Kids

As you know, I love to sew and make things.  I've been selling my designs since 2007. This past weekend I was invited to sell some of my things at a small venue.  It was lots of fun, and I wanted to share some pictures with you.  I will be selling at another show in November and after that I will probably put some thing in my Etsy shop...so if you see anything you are interested in, let me know!

I had a variety of things that I make available on Saturday.  There were skirts and aprons.

This corduroy skirt, which happened to be my favorite, used brown birds from Robert Kaufmans Cool Cords line.  I made matching hair clips to go with the skirts.  I love them!!

You can see them in the top portion of the picture below.  I made them in a blue colorway to match the blue bird skirt as well.

 

These little apple hair clips are so cute!  I am seriously considering making one for myself.  Is that crazy?

 

This hair clip display board was made from an old ikea print that had ripped and landed in our trash pile.  I rescued it and stowed it away in a closet until it hit me that I could use it to display the hair clips.  I love this fabric.  It's from Tina Givens Fairy Tip Toes line.

 

This little display stand is based on a really cool one that my friend B has.  (She also painted the sign hanging above for a show we did last year...she is SO talented!!)  It worked great for displaying this fun skirt.  Again, what would you think of a mommy sized version of this skirt?  I really want one...

 

There was even a little section of "gourmet" felt food items!  My kids play with felt foods I've made on a daily basis, in fact, they even snagged a pot and some pasta that I had intended to display on the little stove top!

I had a nice long nap after it was over.  Sunday had no plans, so we just stayed home and I attempted to make sense of the chaos that is my "sewing studio"

Please and Thank you

I'm glad that these tutorials have been helpful to so many of you.  I would ask that you PLEASE do not sell things that you've made using my ideas.  Please contact me if you have questions.  Thanks!

The Hat

Ok, so...here it is, a few days later than promised!  Sorry, sometimes it seems that finding an extra hour or two to post a new tutorial is impossible!

What you will need...

• Fleece


• ruler


• scissors or rotary cutter


• thread and a needle, sewing machine

For the flower

• 3" strip of 44"long fabric


• needle, thread, pins

Measure the head of your recipient!  For my 5 year old son, I cut a piece of fleece 22" by 12", and for my 3 year old daughter I cut a 20" by 10".

Bring the short sides together, sew from end to end.

You should have a tube.  Now sew along the top.   There should only be one opening now, you can see the basic shape of a hat!

Take the open edge and fold it up a 1/2-1", your choice.  (Make sure that all of your seam are on the same side, so that when you flip the hat the right way, you don't throw it across the room when you realize that the cute hat you just finished has an unfinished seam exposed on the top of the hat... you will not enjoy fixing your mistake...I didn't...)  Sew all the way around, I used two seems, just because I liked the way it looked.

Now grab your needle and thread it, start on one end a sew a big gathering stitch all the way across the top.  When you get to the end, pull it tight and gather the fabric.  Knot the end a few times and you are done with the hat.  Easy peasy.

Ok, for the flower.  It's much like many of the other flowers on the blog, but this time instead of rolling them, I simply folded the fabric.  I didn't take pictures for this step...Sorry, but it's really easy I promise!

• Take your strip of fabric and fold it in half, you can iron it if you want to make sure it really stays folded, I didn't, because I like the messy look.


• Begin by folding or just knotting the end so that you have a center, again, just depends on if you like the raw edge showing more.


• Once you have a knot in the center, begin to fold the fabric once and twist.  Keep doing this until you reach the end of your fabric, fold the end under the last section.  You can pin it as you go, if you want to make sure it doesn't fall apart when you start to sew it together, ahem...


• Sew from the back, make sure to sew through all layers.  (This is just like the way you sew this and this.)  Finish off the end with a good strong knot!


• Now you can pin this to the hat wherever you want it.  Sew it on and you are finished!  I made several of these flowers, attached them to various things, like a hair clip and then clipped it on to the side of a headband!

A New Hat

With cooler weather approaching, it's finally time to break out the winter scarves and hats.  Now that the kids have new jackets, they need new hats...right?!  Well, regardless, it calls for making a couple fun, easy and cute hats!

My daughter loves just about anything that has a bright and fun flower stuck to it, even the brown fleece fabric that my son was convinced that she "would just not like."  She really liked it, to my relief!

You can whip this hat up in minutes, really,  it's simple to make.  You will have fun making tons of them and adding lots of embellishments.  So, if you want to learn how to make this super cute and easy hat and flower, check back tomorrow!!

A big thanks to you!!

Well, I can't tell you how thankful I am for the lovely comments on the last post.  You are all so sweet,  thanks!!!

Thanks to the random number generator, I would like to say congrats to comment #17 who said...

nannergirl

I love the clothes I’ve made from your wonderful tutorials. My daughter wore her skirt yesterday and got several compliments And I love pie – I’ve got one in the oven right now – so yummy! Happy (early) birthday!

You will be getting an email from me shortly!!!!

Thanks again everyone!!!!  I look forward to sharing new stuff with you!!