Pretty's Girly Room

One of the fun things about buying a home was getting to create a boy room and a girl room. While there is still decorating to do in both, the two kid rooms were a priority for me to paint before we moved in. And they are still the only rooms I've painted so far.

Hero was old enough to pick his own wall color, but since Pretty was only 19 months when we moved, I decided the colors for her. My favorite colors are blue and yellow. They don't scream "girl", but it turned out just the way I wanted. I decided that when Pretty is about 12 years old, I'll let her pick her own colors if she wants...

Here's my sister, Audrey, helping me make stripes (she also helped me with Hero's green stripes).

Pretty's room has a funny angled corner, so instead of only doing one wall, we did more that half the room with these light and dark yellow stripes.

Here's the finished product, taken just this morning. You can see the blue reflecting in the mirror. So pretty!

Since I picked two not-so-very-girly colors for the walls, I knew I wanted to add flowers and pink into the decor. I carried around the paint chip cards with me everywhere and one day, while randomly deciding to walk through the fabric section at WalMart, I found this beautiful pink roses with a blue background fabric! I was ecstatic that it matched well with the paint! I found a yellow to match, because I knew the design I wanted to create. It's girly, while still staying with the colors of the room.

The problem I created for myself was not having measured the window when I found the perfect fabric. I then guessed at the amount I would need. Never a very good idea... While I had enough to make it work, I was hoping to have the curtains hang past the bottom edge of the window by about 6 inches. Instead, it brushes the window sill... and that's with adding the yellow  piece at the top I wasn't planning on. Oh well, they are still beautiful!

 I have a lot more ideas for making Pretty's room girly (check out my Pinterest board on it). My vision includes a lot more of the dark pink, butterflies and flowers.

It may be blue and yellow, but it is definitely a girly room!

Check this one off the list! I hope to check off more soon!

Easter Outfits 2012

Happy (late) Easter! It was a great Easter for us, filled with candy, church and family. I love all the fun that comes with holidays, but Christmas and Easter are my favorites because of the spiritual events they celebrate.

New Easter outfits are also good fun! I had planned on making new ties for the men, in addition to the dress I wanted to make for Pretty. But when I found myself at the mall 2 days before Easter, and I hadn't done any sewing yet... I took Hero over to the Tie One On store and let him pick out his own tie. I knew he would pick green, because it's his favorite color, but I loved the nice bright spring green he chose! We bought a matching for Jake and went home. I'm the only one who didn't get new anything. I just used the tattered chic skirt I made about 2 years ago. It's turned out to be a super comfy maternity skirt.

For Pretty's dress, I used the project from V and Co's new book. The instructions were very clear, and she included an easy method to adjust the dress to your own girl's size. I was lucky to have this green fabric in my stash. $3 for a queen sheet in the as-is section at IKEA and I've now made 3 dresses and 1 skirt from it, (see the other projects here and here). What a great buy!

The pattern only called for a small opening, and one button, but I measured and made it a bit snug. So I had to make it open farther down and add a second button to make it easier to put on and off. My husband loves the wooden toggle buttons for one reason.

"Squire. Tell her. What color will my tunic be tonight?"
"Uh. . . it's green. . . trimmed in a sort of pale green. . . with wooden toggles."

I think I might make another dress with this pattern soon. I was able to sew it up in a few hours and Pretty loves it!

Talina's gift.

I promise that I am working on the details of each of the decorations from the Library baby shower, but in the meantime, here's some pictures of the Straight-Jacket Swaddler and 8 burp cloths I made for Talina to go with the books I got her.

I bought 1 1/4 yard of the green, and 1 yard of pink for the back of the burp cloths.

I messed around with the fancy stitch options on my machine and did a different one for each burp cloth's top stitching.

This vine with leaves is by far my favorite.

My Greek Princess

First, thank you so much for all the compliments about my dress! I wanted to email you all back, but some of you don't have your email attached to your profile, so I couldn't. I hope you understand how much I love your comments and compliments!

Now, what you have all been waiting for since I teased you about it over a week ago!

I had a picture in my head of how I wanted this dress to look, and it worked out perfectly!! This was my first experience with pleating fabric (if you don't count having to iron the pleats from my uniform skirt all through school). It was a slow process at first, but in the end, well worth the effort! It's not hard, just requires patience.

After pleating two entire widths (one for the front, one for the back) of bridal satin, (left over from making my SIL's wedding dress a few years ago) I used New Look 6903 for the pattern and sewed it just as directed. I basted the pleated pieces along the neck, arms and sides before I started to sew to keep the pleats together. I added a sash to hold in the pleats and keep Pretty from looking like a total marshmallow.

I also added a lining of purple that is only connected at the arm holes and neckline.

It makes me think of Greek mythology, and I love it (I really wanted to name her Helen, as in Helen of Troy, but was vetoed by Jake). It fits her big enough and long enough that she will be able to wear it for a while.

Pretty is a fan too. After taking these pictures, I took the dress off and she fought me to keep it on, then cried when I put it up! I was also very pleased to see that when she drooled on it, it didn't darken the purple color. The only thing I have to worry about is when I wash it, will the pleats come out? I'm pretty sure they won't, but I'll keep you posted.

This makes me happy!

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Sweet Little Girl Hat

This is the little baby girl hat I made in case the newest arrival of my sister turned out to boost our tiny number of females in the family from 5 to 6. Instead we are slipping farther behind (now outnumbered 10-5), but darn! that boy is adorable!! Anyway.  This is my first time writing up a crochet pattern, so if something doesn't make sense, please let me know.

Items Needed:

2 coordinating sport weight yarns - mine are pink (A) and white (B)

Size I crochet hook

yarn needle

Hat:

Holding both yarns together, ch. 4, sl st in first st to make a loop.

Rnd 1:  ch 2 (counts as first hdc), 7 hdc in center of loop, sl st in top of ch 2 (8)

Rnd 2:  ch 2, hdc in same st, 2 hdc in each st, sl st in top of ch 2 (16)

Rnd 3:  ch 2, hdc in same st, * hdc in next st, 2 hdc in next st* repeat from *to*, sl st in top of ch 2 (24)

Rnd 4:  ch 2, hdc in same st, * hdc in next 2 st, 2 hdc in next st* repeat from *to* until last 2 st, hdc in next 2 st, sl st in top ch 2 (32)

Rnd 5:  ch 2, hdc in same st, * hdc in next 3 st, 2 hdc in next st* repeat from *to* until last 3 st, hdc in next 3 st, sl st in top of ch 2. (40)

Rnd 6-8: ch 2, hdc in each st around, sl st in top of ch 2. (40)

Rnd 9-12: ch 2, hdc in back loop only in each st around, sl st in top of ch 2. (40)

Rnd 13: ch 2, hdc in both loops in each st around, sl st in top of ch 2. Fasten off.

Shell edge: 

Using A, fasten on any hdc, ch1, sc in same hdc, *sk next st, 5 dc in next st, sk next st, sc in next st* repeat from *to* 10 times, sl st in first sc. Fasten off. 

Use yarn needle to weave in ends.

Flower Petals:
With A, ch 5, sl st in first ch to make a loop.

Rnd 1: ch 1, 10 sc in loop, sl st in first sc.
Rnd 2: ch 1, sc in same st,  * 5 dc in next st, sc in next st*, repeat from *to* 5 times, sl st in first sc, fasten off leaving a sewing length.

Use sewing length to fasten petals onto the hat between Rnds 9-12.

Flower Center:
With B, ch 13.

Row 1: sc in second ch from hook, sc in each ch across. Fasten off leaving a sewing length.

Roll the row into a spiral, using yarn needle and sewing length, fasten through the bottom until secure. Use remaining sewing length to fasten in the center of the petals. Weave in remaining ends.

Flower Market Skirt

I have always wanted to make Dana's Market Skirt, but never had a good excuse until my husband's cousin and her daughter came to visit the last week of the year. I love the way the green compliments the the floral print.

And these pockets are just the right size for little hands. I decided not to add buttons, and I think they are a bit smaller than the dimensions the tutorial gives. I was having a total brain fart and the tiny pockets took as long to make as the whole rest of the skirt!

This adorable skirt is made even more adorable by my 2 1/2 year old niece*.

I am so sad these guys live in California and not next door! Can't wait to see you again soon!

*I know, she's technically a cousin once removed, or something, but I think I'll stick with niece. I have so few (2) that one more in the ranks is a good thing!

Twin Dresses

My sister-in-law and her family recently moved across the country. While they were here for Christmas, I decided that I would make matching dresses for her little girl and Pretty. I chose the "Pretty as a Picture" pattern from Anna Maria Horner's book Handmade Beginnings.

Her patterns seem to run a bit large. But I love that it comes in bigger sizes (up to 24 mo.) anyway. This means there's much more time to use the patterns. The girls are almost a full year apart in age; but being only an inch apart, they both measured out the the same size. I added about an inch in length to my niece's dress (on the left). Pretty's (10 months old) fits her a bit loose, but the 12 month size fits my 20 month old niece perfectly.

The hardest part of the whole process was picking the fabric for the center panels! There was a lot of voting by all the family in for the holidays, but I ended up picking some others that I hadn't shown them for the voting part. I wonder if they feel rejected? Even if they do, everyone liked the results.

Once I had the picking and cutting out done, the actual sewing part took only a couple hours to complete (per dress). I love that there are no fasteners. Just a wrap top that opens and some elastic in the waist.

please excuse my drooling slobber-monkey of a daughter ;o)

The dresses were a big hit!

*out of respect for parents' wishes, my niece's pictures won't appear here, but trust me, they looked SO CUTE together. :o)

His and Hers

On Saturday, I went to a baby shower for my friend who is having twins. One boy and one girl. These are 2 of the adorable pairs of booties I've been working on.

Of course, blue for the boy:

And pink with a super pretty button for the girl:

Pair them with the sock monkeys and it's a pretty sweet gift.

She loved it!

And here's something interesting. See these shoes; the two styles are from different designers.

The boy pair is size 3-6 mo, the pink pair is 0-3 mo, and the last pair (made for Pretty) is 3-6 mo. Pretty is 8 1/2 months old and her pair is a bit big for her, even with socks.

I made the pair that are now Pretty's first and, when they were done, I realized they were a lot bigger than the boy pair. Luckily, I had time to make a second pair in the smaller size. And the pink 0-3 mo is still bigger than the wrap-around style in 6-9 mo. It's funny how much difference there can be  between designer's sizing...



PS: Thanks for the info on the web album. It turns out you can delete the individual photos (I was trying to delete an entire album), but it will remove them from your blog as well. I'm just going to stick with what I did. The $5 adds 20x the storage, so hopefully it will last for a while! Oh, and as you can see, it did not take 24 hours for the new storage to kick in.

"Girly" Dresses

Spoiler, Audrey! Don't let Rora see this!!

For my niece Rora's birthday, my sister asked that I make some Warhol dresses. I went to the thrift store and found two t-shirts for under $4 each.

This first one was made from a Women's XL fitted tee. Because it has been a while since I last made one, I misread the instructions and didn't make the tie long enough by half. Oops! I realized it while I was pinning it in place.

And then, because of the size of the shirt, I didn't have enough to make the second half. Rather than using a different shirt (because all I had was white, *boring*, or black, * Halloween-esk*) I  decided to use the short tie and add a button closure.

And to make the blue button less random, I added a flower using this tutorial with a second button in the center. Instead of using pinking shears, I used regular scissors and melted the edges with a candle after it was sewn on.

The second dress was from a Men's XL. This shirt was brand new with tags still on! The perfectly matching contrasting tie was just the inside of the shirt.

I love the fact that these adorable dresses are not in stereotypical girl colors, but they are still pretty girly. It fits her personality perfectly. I hope she (and her mommy) like them!

Happy Birthday, Rora!

Cotton Candy Hair Accessory Tutorial

Now that you've made the adorable costume, here's now to make the hair accessory.

Cut a circle with about a 6" diameter.(I traced around one of my cereal bowls).

Use a running stitch around the outer edge of the circle to gather. 

Use the small amount of dyed batting you saved out and put in inside the circle.

Pull the gather until the opening is closed. Secure it closed.

Place a button in the center opposite to the opening and hand stitch it in place going all the way through the back. Attach to a hair clip with hot glue.

Add to your costume and it's a complete set!