A Crafty Birthday

My birthday was a few weeks ago, and I got a few crafty gifts I wanted to share. First, I've already shared my new sewing machine, the birthday gift from my awesome husband. Next, is this shirt, made by one of my best friends.

If you know what this is about just by reading it, I know you are a big Gilmore Girls fan like me! I love Gilmore Girls. I own all 7 seasons and watch the entire set several times a year. In fact, season 5 is going on in the background as I type... This shirt is from the 3rd season, click this link to get to the scene (around time spot 0:45). Anyway, Lena freezer paper stenciled it onto a super comfy shirt for me. I love it!

Next, my older brother is in school to become a machinist. I don't know exactly what the job description for that is, but he told me that a mechanical engineer designs machines and a machinist makes them. Anywho, he needed an idea for this lasering acrylic assignment, so he made me (and Jake) this great plaque with a picture of us and a beautiful quote about love.

"But what binds humans? Love.

Powerful in small spaces, yet with profound effect in distances. Love defies time, outliving both its source, and its object. Love is faster than light, for light requires time in order to travel through space. But love reaches its object instantaneously.

Love journeys forever, into infinity. And it's here, binding together two lives."

Oh, and I thought you would enjoy seeing how I took the picture of the plaque. I had to put something in front because it  kept getting me in my pjs in the reflection!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Fall for You Scarf Giveaway! (closed)

I have been taking a break from sewing after doing so much for Halloween. It was nice to go a few days without making anything. But of course, it was just as nice to get back to it and create this lightweight scarf, perfect for fall! Introducing the Fall for You Scarf!

I used muslin for the scarf body, cut two rectangles 53 in x 7 in. On one end of one of the rectangles, I freezer paper stenciled a bare tree in plum purple. After it was dry, I sewed the two pieces together, right sides facing, on a 1/2" seam, leaving a small opening. Then I flipped, pressed the scarf and hand sewed the opening closed.

The last step was to make and attach the "leaves" (you can be making these while the paint of the tree is drying). I used V and Co.'s tutorial here to make 3 of leaves of each of the 5 colors. Then I arranged them to my liking and hot glued them on!

Just perfect for a slightly chilly fall day!

And here's the fun part! For the first time on this blog, I'm going to have a giveaway! I want to send this scarf to a lucky winner! Here's how to enter:

There are 3 chances:

• Leave a comment telling me what your favorite season is and why. Or what your favorite color is. Or why you rock. . . or anything really. . . (1 entry)
• Become a follower. (1 entry)
• Blog about the giveaway, include the link in your comment so I can check it out. (1 entry)

Leave a separate comment for each entry. Make sure to leave your email address in the comments so I can reach you if you win! The giveaway will be open until 11:59pm Monday, November 8th. The winner will be selected by random.org and announced Tuesday morning.

Bass Guitar Dress

When I saw Dana's WARHOL dress over at Made, I fell in love with it! I knew I had to make one for my baby girl. I used a almost new maternity shirt that I bought way cheap near the end of my last pregnancy. It was so comfy and cute, but was pulling apart at the seam above the bust. I love that it has a band at the bottom and though it would be a cute addition to the dress.

Dana's dress has an image "inspired by Andy Warhol's famous album cover art for the Velvet Underground". I, however, (maybe I'll be shot for this) don't know who Andy Warhol is. And while the banana is awesome, I felt I should do something else. When I met my husband, he played bass for a band. He still owns several basses, and plays for me and the kids occasionally. So I picked the head of a bass. I used Picnik to create this image:

And turned it into this:

I love how the plum purple compliments the dark teal color of the dress. The white came from an old t-shirt of my husband's.

The dress is made for a 6-12 mo. size. Pretty is 4 1/2 months, so it looks silly long on her right now. But she's growing fast, so I didn't want to size it down for her. 

All of the supplies I had already. Don't you love it when that happens? I love the way it turned out and plan to make more for her soon.