Butterfly Dress for Aria

I made this dress for Aria back in December, but I forgot to take pictures of it. She was wearing it on Sunday for church so I took her out in the backyard and did a quick little photo shoot.

In October or November I stumbled across a sew-along for this Oliver + S pattern called the jump rope dress.

I fell in love with the pattern, but not the $15.00 price tag. I had bought the cutest butterfly corduroy fabric the year before but never ended up using it. I knew it would be perfect for a little dress like this.

So instead of buying the pattern I looked through some of my old children's patterns for something similar. I found this McCall's pattern that I had bought back when Michela was little but never used. I probably had bought it during one of those pattern sales and gotten it for a few dollars. I had to drop the waist, change the sleeves, add belt loops, a sash, and cute rounded pockets. I ended up with a fantastic little dress. Aria especially loves it's twirling properties.

I love that I didn't have to spend so much on a pattern, that I got to use up some of my fabric and pattern stash, and that I got to use some of my skills from my pattern making classes in college. And the smile on her face definitely makes me happiest of all.

New Shirt for Michela

We saw a cute shirt at Old Navy that Michela liked but when she tried it on we realized the fabric was pretty thin.

She had liked the yellow, but when we ordered this jacket with the cute bright pink buttons, I thought I would make a pink version of the shirt. I used another t-shirt she had for a reference and a t-shirt pattern I had purchased a few years ago for a starting point on my pattern. My favorite part was doing the ruffles and flowers. It turned out better than I had imagined it! The best part is that Michela loves it and is so happy to wear it.

Cutesie Girl

I finished the skirt for Laina! I was having a bad day a week or so ago and I decided I needed to make something. I had wanted to get this skirt done by Valentine's day, but it was not to be. I did get it finished for Church on Sunday and she looked so darn cute in it!

I used some leftover fabric from the Valentine skirt I made Aria last year.

I don't know what it is, but once I start cutting out fabric and sewing my whole body starts to relax. I could feel the tension releasing as I started rolling my rotary cutter. I get in this kind of zen zone when I am sewing. I mentioned this to my sister in law and she looked at me like I was a bit crazy. I know sewing stresses out a lot of people, but for me the whole process of creating is so soothing to my soul. The only time it is stressful is when I am trying to unpick stitches with a baby on my lap! :) Hopefully for my sanity there is lots of more sewing time in the near future!

Princess Peach

My friend's girls wanted to be Princess Peach and Princess Daisy, from Mario Bros., for Halloween. Princess Peach costumes were easy to find, but Princess Daisy presented a problem. My friend found a Princess Daisy costume on ebay for $65. The catch is it was made in Hong Kong and it was like $50 to ship it. What?! I've done some sewing for her in the past so she asked me if I would be willing to give the costume a try. Of course!

I started with a basic princess pattern that I used for Michela when she wanted to be Cinderella about 8 years ago. I looked online to find a picture of Daisy and went to work. It turned out pretty darn cute.

Here is a picture when they came to pick it up.

She was so cute when they first came to pick it up. She was all nervous energy. She kept reaching out to touch it and wanted to grab it right out of my hands. It made me so happy to see that big smile on her face. Later I received an email from my friend. She said her daughter told her to send me an email to thank her for the dress. She said she loved it and it was so comfortable. :) My friend said she hasn't taken it off since they got home. Made My Day!

Sewing for Baby

I bought some cute little white onesies in hopes of adding some embellishments. Thankfully Laina had a good day where she actually took a nap so I was able to get a little sewing done. I ended being able to applique four onesies, two for Laina and two for a neighbor friend.

I've been seeing ruffles on the bums of onesies and wanted to try it out myself.

How cute are those!

I also made a cute little headband for Laina.

I'll have to get some pictures of it on her.

Other projects are in the works, but I'm lucky to get a shower and everyone fed every day. There's not much time for sewing, but I'm sure there will be more in the future. I'm amazed I got time to do this post. Alas, I spoke too soon, I hear her crying after being asleep for a whole ten minutes! Aargh!

Fourth of July Shirts and Skirts

Since I had so much time on my hands this past week I thought it would be fun to make some stuff for the kids to wear on the 4th of July.

Aria is always wanting to wear dresses and skirts so I bought a few different red, white and blue fabrics and made her this darling skirt.

I can't wait to see her in it on Sunday.

The shirts sprouted with the idea to make Chase a special birthday shirt. Since his birthday is the 4th of July and we like to call him our little firecracker I came up with this.

Front-

Back-

I've wanted to try Freezer Paper stenciling for a long time now and this presented the perfect opportunity.

Hunter's shirt was a little more simple but I loved how it turned out.

Michela's shirt inspiration came from a Michael's ad in the paper last Sunday. Michela helped me figure out the stencil and she painted it all herself. I loved how we roughed up the edges. It gave it kind of a worn look. She even came up with the words she wanted to use and wrote them on with a Sharpie. She loved it so much she didn't stop with the front of the shirt but went on to do more stenciling on the back. She is such a creative girl. I love doing crafty things with her.

I love how they all turned out. They are going to be super cute for all the fun Fourth of July festivities this weekend!

Projects for Baby

Yes, I'm still here. If this baby doesn't come tonight I will be getting induced tomorrow morning. At least the end is in sight either way. I swear I thought I would be having this baby every night this week. I have been having lots and lots of contractions but they always stop before they amount to anything. Last night at about 1:30 I woke up having really hard contractions every ten minutes. I waited awhile to see what would happen and instead of getting closer together, they got farther apart until they finally disappeared. I am a bit frustrated with all this teasing. What is it about my girls, they have all been the hardest and longest labors.

With each day I find I have more time to do things, so here are some pictures of some of the things I have been working on in the last two weeks.

I restuffed the crib bumper. I am using the bedding I made for Aria because I loved it so much and it looks so cute in the room. The crib bumper was in a sorry state. I can't believe how saggy and deflated it was. Now it is super cute and puffy again.

I recovered the cushions on my rocking chair and Mike painted it for me. Mike bought me this rocking chair back when we first started trying to get pregnant with Michela. I've rocked all my precious babes in this chair but I just couldn't stand the forest green fabric with the pink roses on it anymore. I didn't quite think the project through though and after wrestling the back cushion to tuft it with some covered buttons I realized I wouldn't be able to sew up the channels on the sides. Luckily there is a awesome little upholstery shop nearby and they sewed them up for me. What I wouldn't give for an industrial sewing machine!

I made myself a pretty, lightweight nursing cover. I could have used these with all of my other babies.
I also made a car seat canopy for the infant car seat. Of course I had to go the extra mile and put a ruffle around the edge and made cute little flowers to go on the handles and front. Why make it easy on myself?!


I still want to make some cute burp cloths, maybe I'll have time for that later today, and applique some onesies, but I'll have plenty of time for that after Peanut is here. As well as getting these projects crossed off my list I've also gotten a lot of mending done, turned a couple of pairs of pants into shorts and shortened the sleeves on a few shirts. Other projects done consisted of organizing around the house. It's been a busy month but I'll be so glad to be able to relax after Peanut comes and just concentrate on taking care of our new little one.

The Robes of Many Colors

Costco always has the cutest swim robes. When we were there a few weeks ago they didn't have any big enough for Michela and Hunter. The XL looked pretty tiny of them. I bought some for Chase and Aria and figured I could try to make some bigger ones. I bought two really big beach towels from Target and decided to give it a try.

I used Chase's robe as a pattern and then figured out where I needed to lengthen and widen for it to fit the older kids. I ended up not having enough towel for the sleeves and hood. I could have gone and bought more towels, but then I would of had a bunch left over and I really didn't want to go shopping again. I decided to use some extra white towels that I had laying around and used parts of the striped towels for trim.

Thankfully Michela and Hunter aren't too picky. They actually turned out really well. They loved how cozy and warm they were after a day of swimming, especially since a few days turned out to be pretty cold for being in the pool. I was just happy I accomplished something and finished a project! Too bad my sewing machine and serger weren't very happy with all that thick terry cloth. They will definitely need to be going into the shop for a little once over.

Maternity Shirt #2: J. Crew Inspired

When I got back some of my maternity clothes from my friend she also threw in a black t-shirt she had bought. She bought it near the end of her pregnancy and thinks she never got around to wearing it. Let's just say it was a Liz Lange XXL Black V-Neck Tent! There's no way I would ever fit into that shirt so I decided to do a little refashioning.

I was inspired by a shirt from J. Crew. (It is no longer on the website.) I loved the ruffles around the neck and the asymmetry of the neckline.

I cut up the side seams of the shirt and sleeves. Then I used another t-shirt as a pattern to take in the sides. I also cut off the sleeves, took them in a bit and moved the shoulder seam so the sleeves weren't hanging off of my shoulders. I also had to hem up the bottom a little. I used the excess I had removed from the shirt to make the ruffles. I ended up with a cute fitted shirt.

I love how I don't even look that pregnant if you are looking at me straight on.

I kind of blew out this picture so you could see the detail at the neckline.

At first I had the ruffles going down but when I flipped them up I loved it even more. For the other ruffles on the side I took some smaller pieces, gathered them up and then randomly bunched them together. I then attached them by hand in a few bunches.

Super cute black shirt that can go with so many different things. I really love it with my gray boyfriend cardigan from Shade.

It also would look really cute dressed up a bit with a skirt and heels. Now I'm ready to tackle a couple of more gigantic tees.

Maternity Shirt #1: Jalie Pattern 2806

I have heard a lot of good things about Jalie patterns. I was encouraged when I saw on another blog that they had taken a Jalie top pattern, altered it a bit, and made a cute maternity shirt. My first attempt at this was Jalie 2806. It is a blousy scoopneck tee with a little gathered detail at the neckline.

I went with the size closest to my bust measurements, since when I am pregnant I can be rather top heavy. I then swung out the side seams on the front piece to give my growing tummy a bit more room and lowered the bottom hem of the front a bit.

This is what I came up with.
Next time I think I'll raise the neckline a bit. It is just a teeny bit on the low side for me.

Notice the gathered pleat at the neckline. It gives a little more fabric ease to the front of the shirt which is great for the preggo tummy.
A side view of the pleat detail.
And here was my outfit for the day. I actually got dressed up a bit because Mike wanted to meet me for lunch.
The skinny jeans were some non maternity jeans I found on clearance at Old Navy a couple of months ago. I put in my own stretch panel and tapered in the bottom of the jeans a bit more to fit into my fabulous new riding boots. The beautiful scarf is one I picked up in Italy on one of our trips. This turned out to be a pretty chic little outfit on my pregnant bod. Love it!

A Sweet Valentine's Day

For me Valentine's Day started with a frantic sewing session trying to finish Aria's valentine's day skirt. I decided to make her a Nie Nie Skirt from Pink Fig Patterns and I didn't give myself enough time to finish it in a timely manner. So me! Luckily I finished it right before it was time to go to church. There was no way I was not finishing it! It turned out so cute! She looked like a little Valentine's Day Flamenco dancer. I got so many compliments. I used all pink and white fabrics and only included one with hearts on it. I wanted her to be able to wear it any day, not just Valentine's Day.

Michela's skirt went together in a flash. I just kind of came up with my own pattern for hers. I loved the pink and brown fabrics and I knew I had to make something that wasn't too ruffly or frilly. Her skirt turned out perfect!

For dinner we went over to Matt and Sara's house. We had a delicious dinner and way too many desserts. What was Peggy thinking when she brought three pans of cinnamon rolls and a red velvet cake! That cake was so good!!! Here is a picture of Aria enjoying the cake.

The sweetest thing about Valentine's day was that Bronson was home and loving it! He was toddling around, he is still a bit wobbly, but what do you expect after being in a bed for like 12 days in a row! He was all smiles and so darn stinkin' cute.

Daynen had to join in on the picture taking, he didn't want to be left out. I didn't get many pictures of the other kids, they were too busy downstairs tearing up the basement. I'm so sorry Matt and Sara!

And the best gift was a beautiful red scarf, handmade by my sister in law Megan. Peggy delivered them to us with a little note from Megan saying she wanted us to have the scarf to wrap around our neck because she wasn't there to wrap her arms around us. Isn't she so sweet?! Here are the ladies in their scarves.

What a lovely day it turned out to be. I actually loved having Valentine's Day on Sunday this year. It let us just have a relaxing day where we could enjoy the company of the ones we love best. That was the sweetest gift I could ask for.

My First Tutorial: Maternity Jeans

The rubberbanded jeans are not really cutting it anymore so I decided it was time to move on to some bigger pants. These are so saggy in the back that I hate wearing them. Maternity wear is calling my name. I got back a few pairs of pants from my friend but when I held them up I couldn't believe my eyes. They were huge! I thought to myself, does my butt really get that big? Well I tried them on and they were way too big. I didn't want to go and buy smaller maternity pants and shell out 40 - 50 bucks a pair so I decided some repurposing was in order.

I saw this tutorial for using some old pants to make maternity pants on megan nielsen's blog. I used it for reference but I had to change a few things. I'm not a big fan of the under the tummy panels for maternity pants. I must confess that I don't have much junk in my trunk so these kinds of pants tend to end up half way down my rear way too often.

I found some really cute jeans at D.I (a thrift store) for $8 which fit me great in the legs and behind. I could zip them part of the way up, which is important because you will need to have some of the fly on the pants.


1. First step is to take the waistband off the pants. I took a seam ripper to mine but you could probably cut it off too. I didn't want to lose any of the back length so I choose to unpick the stitches.

2. I then put them on, zipped them up as far as I could get them and marked where my tummy would start needing some room. Then I used a marking pencil and made a curved cutting line from the side seams to my front marking line. Remember that you want to make your line about 1/2" above where you want to sew so you have some seam allowance. I also pinned the pockets in place because I would be cutting off the part where they were stitched at the top.
3. I took out the zipper, sewed up the fly and then cut along my marked line.
4. Next I took an old fitted t-shirt and cut off the top portion. I placed the shirt over my pants and marked a cutting line that matched the curve of my new waistline on my jeans. Remember you need about a 1/2" seam allowance. Cut along this line. Luckily my t-shirt almost perfectly matched the width of the waist on the jeans. If it is too big you'll have to sew up new side seams to match the pants.
5. I then pinned the shirt and jeans together, right sides together, and stitched them up using a 1/2" seam allowance. I also serged the edges to finish them and keep the jeans from raveling.

6. Next I put the jeans on and played with the top, folding it over until I figured out where I wanted it to lay. I pinned it in place. I marked where I wanted to cut the fabric and then serged the edge. (Remember you need to take into account how much you are going to fold it over for your elastic.)

7. Next I folded it over 1 1/4" and stitched it in place, making a casing for my elastic. I only had 1" elastic, but I think next time I'll use a wider elastic.

Here are some different views of my new jeans. They look so much better than the saggy butt jeans I've been wearing lately. I actually feel very cute when I'm wearing these. These are just a regular length but I also bought some longer jeans to wear with boots and some skinny jeans just for fun. Hopefully these will last me until it is time to move into the BIG pants. :) Thanks for bearing with me for my first tutorial. Next time I'll remember to take more pictures!