For Rebekah

I have a friend named Autumn who has been a dear friend for many years.  We are raising our young kids at the same time and her friendship has been such a blessing to me.  Autumn has two boys and just recently had a baby girl named Rebekah.  I made these gifts for her and I think they came out really well.

 

I am all for making burp cloths with the baby's initial on it so that you can them to places like church nursery or daycare and not have them mixed up with other children's burp cloths.  Childcare workers have such a hard job taking care of all those babies and trying to keep track of whose baby paraphernalia goes with which baby.  Why not make it easier for them by having your stuff monogrammed?

 

Want to see some other baby gift ideas???

I love Easter

Happy Easter!!  He is Risen!!

Easter is by far my favorite holiday.  Preparing my heart for the celebration of Easter is amazing, too.  I love seeing the new flowers and thinking of how we are new creations in Christ and how His blood over us makes us pure and beautiful before our heavenly Father.

Making new Easter outfits for the kids is really fun for me.  

I love dropping the heavy flannels and corduroys of the winter and finding the light cottons of spring and summer!

I will post individually about each outfit in separate posts for those interested in the sewing info; this post is just to show you how they look on the kids and hopefully inspire you to get sewing!

Go Blue!

This coming Sunday is Superbowl XLVI and our favorite team made it this year!  Go NY Giants!  I have been making some fun new gear for our kids to get ready for the big game.  

Love this girl!!!!!!!! This hat was a gift from my brother.

FLEECE VEST

I will post separate info on the vest pattern later.  This post is mainly just for pictures.

Yup, it is big but she will grow into it, right?

Cutie shoes

One cute model!

Fleece skirt with twirly bottom (aka randomly cut fleece strips)

Precious girl who loves to twirl!

My little man in blue

Football Fun

These shoes by Mud Pie are totally inspiring me!!!  Surely I can make them for less than $26.95!!!

Great pattern for babies

This Butterick pattern has been one of my favorite patterns for babies.  Why can it be difficult to sew for babies?  You need to be more exact in your measurements when sewing for a baby.  While you can adjust a 3T dress to fit a 2T toddler, you can't really make a 6 month dress and fudge it for a 3 month old or a 9 month old.  That being said, I like this Butterick pattern because I feel like the sizes are the most accurate to baby sizes. 

Fall 2011 Sunflower (one of my favorites!!)

It is a little strange at first because the sizes are small, medium, large and x-large but once you read the measurements, it is easy to find the right size you need.  Remember, since you need to be more exact on baby clothes sewing, don't mess with the 5/8" seam allowance (like I am prone to do because I think I am wasting fabric by using such a wide seam allowance) or you will quickly make the dress to big or small for the baby.

Christmas 2011 Candy Cane

I also feel like it is a pattern with flexibility in sizing because it does not have straps that you need to worry about being too long or too short.

January 2012 Cupcake dress (the coordinating pants aren't pictured here)

I also love the little bloomers or pants that you can sew with the dress/top so that the dress that can last the baby longer.  The pants have been great for us since my daughter isn't walking yet and the pants protect her legs from being scraped on the floor.

Cupcake Party Dress

This dress just makes me happy!  Winter can be so dreary but this winter is full of fun and color in my sewing repertoire. 

Cupcake dress front

I made this dress for my younger daughter to coordinate with the below Feliz party dress that I made for my older daughter.

 

 This Butterick 5017 pattern has been a favorite of mine for babies/one-year-olds for a while.

The pattern has horizontal panels but I like the vertical panels instead.

Cupcake dress back

To make sure that the dress coordinated well with the Feliz dress for my older daughter, I tied in the cupcake corduroy, purple plaid twill, hot pink rickrack, pink and green pom pom fringe.

 My daughter still is not walking, so I made coordinating pants to go with the dress. 

 

I love the idea of sewing elastic about 2 inches above the hem and creating a cute ruffling at the bottom.  I also sewed a ribbon onto the ankle area that helps tie the pants into the dress.  I think next time, I will make the pants longer so the ruffle can be more distinct.  It is  too subtle for me on these pants.

 

Fall fun

I am so excited about these coordinating fall outfits!!
I will post individual posts with info on the patterns I used for each outfit and comments about the patterns soon.

This one is for my oldest daughter:
This one is for my youngest daughter:
My daughter is still crawling so the pants will be useful for protecting her legs.

This one is for my niece:
The only difference between this dress and my daughter's dress is that one of the panels has a mushroom fabric in it instead of the fall collage fabric. This picture is better at showing the pretty sunflower fabric that is on both dresses.

Now that you have seen my ideas, show me what has inspired you this fall...

Beach cuties

As I write this post, I am in Central Asia visiting one of my best friends. I am missing my husband and my kids a lot so it feels good to write this post about the beach trip we all had together this past summer.

I have put a hold on making dresses for the girls for a few reasons:

• Isabelle has STRONG opinions on what she wants to wear and it is not a battle I want to fight at this time so she gets to wear what she wants. I am reluctant to make a dress that she won't wear. She has about three or four dresses she really likes to wear right now and I am content letting her pick those out. So, no more new dresses recently.
• Isabelle has so many dresses at this point for warm weather that I am a little burned out from sewing. I know - it sounds strange, but it does happen from time to time.
• This past summer was so busy that I hardly got any sewing time.

Even though I haven't been sewing matching dresses, I am still not immune to buying some when I see them. I found these adorable matching dresses in the summer at the Chez Ami warehouse and had to get them! When I was packing for the beach, Isabelle wanted to bring this dress so I thought I could get a cute picture of the girls there. Then, I thought about getting Gabe in on the matching action. I pulled out this romper

that I made a while ago from fabric my mom-in-law bought me and it worked really well. I have made this romper so many times before and I really like it. Gabe especially likes the pockets now and I think he looks so cute with his hands (and toys) stuffed in them.

I hope this beach picture gives you an idea of how you can take an existing dress you already have for your daughter(s) and make a quick romper that is really cute to match.

Happy 4th of July!!!

I have found these patterns that I am crazy about because they are incredibly fast to cut out (woo-hoo!), really fast to sew (woo-hoo!), and has a lot of cool variations.
These two patterns have the same general concept with subtle differences.

McCalls 6303
I like the side ties and pockets in this pattern.

Butterick 5625

I like the diaper cover included in this pattern.What is really fun about Grace's outfits is that the top is reversible! Check it out!

The pattern is INCREDIBLY easy to make reversible. The only thing that is tricky is how you do the shoulders. If you make the outfit continuous (a little tricky to figure out but it is possible if you take some time and have some patience), you don't need to worry about the shoulders. If you use a ribbon or tie for the shoulders, it is very easy to make the outfit reversible because the ribbons or ties close at the top of the shoulder and it does not matter which side of the garment is out. If you use buttons, you just have to put buttons on both sides of the front piece (or whichever side you attach the buttons).

Isabelle's outfit is made from the same pattern. It is not reversible because I did not have enough of the white and star fabric to do so. I love the appliqued star on their outfits!