Brown and Pink Striped shirt

This is my 49th complete sewing project for 2008!



This is just the last piece of the t-shirt fabric that I got in April. I am excited to have some fun printed t-shirts for the summer. I am now hoping to clean out some of my wardrobe. We have way to much stuff in about every room of our home, so maybe I won't be having as much on the sewing blog because I am trying to dejunk.

Green Shirt and Froggy shorts

My 47th and 48th complete sewing projects for 2008!






My mom bought this froggy fabric for Autumn last June, and I never got the shorts made last year, so I made Autumn's a couple of weeks ago and I finally finished Prairie's. So now Autumn and Prairie have froggy shorts and I have a pair that I made for myself 6 years ago. That is the magic of Joann's fabric, sometimes they carry it for a long time.



This is some fabric my mom got me when she was here in apirl and now I have some fun t-shirts for the summer.

Multi-colored leaves shirt

My 46th complete sewing project for 2008!


This shirt is the same pattern as the chicken shirt that I made. I am just trying to sew up all the projects that my mom bought me fabric for me when she was here in april. I am also in the process of making a couple of more t-shirts, and then I think I will be pretty much set for summer clothes. I still have 2 articles of clothings for Autumn and then I am done with summer clothes and I can really get working on my Christmas blankets or other projects.

Yay for more shirts for me! I love sewing for my girls, but it is really nice to occasionally sew stuff for myself, especially when it fits!

Black and Grey Striped T-shirt

My 45th complete sewing project for 2008!


I really wanted some more casual t-shirts to wear, and I found a great deal on t-shirt fabric at the Cotton Shop. This is the same pattern that I drew off of a Gap shirt and made my long sleeve purple striped shirt. I made this one short sleeved and worked out the problem with the stripes matching at the seams. This is is fun because I sewed it at my dad's house, and on a sewing machine my sister would never sew on, what a snob! :) Yay for a new t-shirt for me!

More Baby Projects

My 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 44th complete sewing projects for 2008!

Cover for foam for changing table

The baby gift package, sheet for the bassinet mattress, covers for the changing pad and waterproof mat for both pads

My sister-in-law is due to have her second baby in the next couple of weeks. She asked if I could help her make her some covers for some baby stuff. She had these 4 pieces of foam that she used for the changing table. The first thing that I decided that needed to be done was to make a cover for the foam so it wouldn't move around. So I took one of Ben's white shirts that he no longer used and cut it up to make a cover for the foam. I had an extra white zipper so I put a zipper in it in case they ever want to take the foam out. The finished project is pictured above, it was the 41st project.

the four pieces of foam for the changing table

I bought some blue terry cloth for the cover for the changing mat. I decided that the terry cloth would be nice, because if there is any accident during a diaper change, the terry cloth is very absorbent. I made and extra one, so that it can be changed easily.

the blue terry cloth covers for the changing pad (the 42nd and 43rd projects)

The last thing that I made for my sister-in-law was a sheet for her bassinet mattress. We didn't have time to go to the fabric store together. I didn't know exactly what they would like, so I decided to use the scraps I had from a sheet I made for Autumn for her birthday, and I thought it would work great for a baby boy. So they have a Bert and Ernie sheet for their little boy. I also made patterns for the changing pad cover and the sheet so Lisa can make some more sheets if she needs.

By the way sheets are really easy to make, and a lot of fun because they sew up quickly and it is really fun to have a sheet made out of the exact fabric that you want.

the Ernie and Bert Sheet (the 44th project) and my foot

Baby Gift

My 40th complete sewing project for 2008!



I have some friends from Iowa State that had a baby in the beginning of May. I finally made their present. I bought this fabric in March, but just barely got around to sewing it up. I also gave them the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" which I think is the best book on getting your baby to calm down when they start crying. I love that it is dependent on schedules or anything. You don't have to make changes to your life for his techniques to work, and they really do work. He has a few tricks on how to wrap your baby, hold them, etc, and you can get them to sleep longer and stay calmer. Anyway, there is my little plus for the book, it totally made a huge difference with Prairie.

White t-shirt

My 39th completed sewing project for 2008!



When it became obvious that I wasn't going to finish either dress for the wedding that I had last weekend, I decided that I would make a new t-shirt to go with one of my skirts, because I really wanted to feel like I had something cute to wear. Well I still didn't finish it in time for the wedding, because I decided to get my house really clean because we had guests, but I did finish it to wear to church.

My mom made a shirt just like this for me last summer, but I decided that it didn't fit me quite right and it fit my sister better. My mom had bought a lot of fabric though, so there was enough to make a few t-shirts, so I am finally using some of the fabric that she bought last June for t-shirts. I made some adjustments to the sizing and I was really happy with how this one fit.

Works in Progress

So I have spent a lot of time this week working on two different dresses and they have both been causing me a lot of problems. The first one, the black and white dragonfly dress, when I sewed up the seems it was way to tight. I got really discouraged and decided that I would just wear it when I lost weight. Then couple of days later I got some more momentum and decided that I could let out all the seams, which means unpick everything I had sewn and go back to square one, so i did that, now it is fitting well, but the top band of the dress didn't have so many seams, so I need to piece on some more fabric, which is a pain, but I will do it, but that is the main reason I haven't finished that dress.




The other dress is the dress that I worked on a LOT when my mom was here in the end of april. I completely reworked the bodice on a mock up while she was here, so I finally started sewing the real dress together, and I got the triangle piece in sewn nicely into the bodice so it is modest, and I think the bodice fits really well. When i finally got the skirt sewn on, I was really disappointed. I really do not like how the skirt looks on my hips. I have very large hips proportioned to the rest of my body and for my frame, and this dress screams that out, and it just doesn't seem right. So I am back to the drawing board on the skirt part of the dress, since the way the pattern is designed is not going to work for me. I am thinking of reshaping the skirt so it is a lot sharper a-line skirt and so it doesn't gather to the middle section at all, therefore giving less poof for my hips, so we will have to see. This little snag will probably mean that it is a number of weeks before I finish this project.

Autumn's swimsuit

My 38th complete project for 2008!



So Autumn needed a new swimsuit for this summer, maybe 2 or 3, but atleast one. She chose out this black and green striped fabric that I had actually gotten for me to make a swimsuit, but I am a nice mom and let her have it, thinking that I could probably work it out to still cut out a swimsuit for me. I thought the swimsuit would look really cute with horizontal stripes, so I cut the entire thing out, not even bothering to check if the swimsuit fabric stretched that way, well it didn't. So after I had cut it out the wrong direction, I then had to cut it out again the other direction, so maybe there won't be enough for me. The only problem is that the pattern doesn't seem to cover Autumn's voluptuous bum, it keeps giving her wedgies, so I will have to work that out for the next swimsuit, which she wants to have a skirt built into it and it will be a pink and whit striped swimsuit.

Hooray for swimming this summer!

Skirts!

My 36th and 37th complete sewing projects for 2008!




Autumn loves skirts, as in she wanted a lot more skirts for the summer than shorts. I let her decide everything, because she basically won't wear clothes that I pick out, and I don't fight her about it, so she pretty much wears exactly what she wants everyday. The brown skirt is scraps from a skirt that I made last summer for myself, and the khaki skirt is leftover from a pair of pants I made for myself during the winter.

Also all the skirt I have made her have built in shorts/bloomers, so that she can do whatever in the backyard or whatever and her underwear won't show. It makes making skirts take a lot longer but I think it is totally worth it.