Dr. Seuss Inspiration

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you know that I am guest posting over at The Shaffer Sisters' blog today! I am sharing a post that I did last year for Dr. Seuss' birthday. Head over to the Shaffer Sisters to check it out!

Geranium Dress in love

At the end of January I purchased the latest pattern from Made by Rae, the Geranium Dress. This pattern has been popping up all over blogland and there are some seriously cute versions of this dress out there! Just check out the Geranium Sewing Pattern flickr pool and you will see what I mean.

So for Valentine's Day I decided to sew up a Geranium Dress for Miss Erin to wear to school. I found such a cute knit fabric at my local Joann that they sell online as well. It is called Spring Knit Heart Toss in pink by Doodles Collection and it comes in a 100% cotton twill as well. The Doodles Collection has such cute fabric. I am thinking that Erin needs something in this fabric for the spring!



I had purchased the fabric with the intent of using it for an outfit to submit for the Love is in the Air week at Project Run and Play but I never got around to it and in true me fashion I was sewing up the dress the night before Erin had to wear it to school for her class Valentine's Day party! And in going with the procrastination theme here, I only just got pictures of her in it yesterday. So here is my version of the Geranium dress:



I went with view A of the dress which is the flutter sleeves and gathered skirt version but made a couple of changes due to the fabric that I used for the dress and the fact that I wanted the dress to have long sleeves. I lined the dress with the same white knit fabric that I used to make the sleeves for some added warmth but I don't think I will put in a lining if I make it again in knit. It was a little bulky sewing through all that knit. I wound up attaching the bodice to the skirt using my serger instead of folding the bodice and lining up and slipping the skirt in between which is how Rae instructs you to do it. I could not for the life of me get the knit to iron flat and stay for me to slip the skirt in. I also added a ribbing to the neckline instead of sewing the bodice and lining together around the neckline. I didn't add buttons to the back of the dress - I cut the back bodice piece out as one piece instead of two so I needed the neckline to stretch so Erin could get it over her head.

I used the sleeve pattern from the Flashback Skinny Tee and attached the sleeves after attaching the flutter sleeve and scrunching the long sleeves up and out of the way when I sewed the arm holes together so that the sleeves are encased in the bodice and lining (I hope that made sense!)  When it was time to sew the sides of the bodice together, I just continued down the sides of the sleeve. I made the dress in a size 4 but for the sleeves I used the size 5 pattern. The sleeves are a little long on her but that just means she can wear it a little longer ;)



I left the flutter sleeve edges raw since the knit doesn't fray too much

I really love how the dress came out and Erin thought it was so comfy and cute. She has worn it three times now since I made it (washed before each new wearing lol) so I say it was definitely a success! I already have a view B of the dress cut out in some cute Riley Blake fabric from my stash - can't wait to sew it up!

love her fly away hair!



Dark Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, we got hit with a bit of snow. And by a bit I actually mean fifteen inches!! Erin's school called the night before the storm hit to annouce they were closing school for the next day. Yay snow day!!  More like Yay for not having to set the alarm for 6:15!!

Here is Erin's snowman measuring stick showing nine of the fifteen inches we got!

 So with both kids home and a big snow storm on its way, I felt it was the perfect day to make cookies :) I decided to go with a recipe that I usually only use around Christmas but really can be great anytime, white chocolate chunk cranberry oatmeal cookies. But...I didn't have any white chocolate chunks or dried cranberries and I was not leaving my house with a storm about to hit. What I did have was dark chocolate chips and dried cherries which I think is a great combination and would totally work with the recipe. And it did. They were delicious! And the perfect snack for after playing in the snow :)



 cherries and dark chocolate - yum



plate full of yumminess

heading to our hill to go sleigh riding

our little snowmen family

The kids had so much fun playing in the snow after the storm was over (mommy did too!) And the cookies were a perfect little snack for getting cozy on the couch after some cold weather fun. The recipe for the cookies can be found here at the Ocean Spray website or on the back of a package of Ocean Spray Craisins. If you'd like to make them with the dark chocolate chips and cherries just swap out the white chocolate chunks and cranberry amounts with the dark chips and cherries. Enjoy!

I was featured!

I was so excited when I opened my e-mail this morning to see I had a comment on the blog from The Shaffer Sisters! They did a round up of their own looks they created for the Project Run and Play sew along as well as a round up of boy and girl looks from other ladies who participated in the sew along this season. I am so flattered that I am one of the twenty eight "Rocking Boy Designs" that they chose to feature! They have a really sweet post about the sew along and they comment on how it is like having your very own cheering section as you post your work, which is so true! It is nice to know that other people like your work and that a lot of them are just like you - self taught, struggling along to try to come up with cute clothes to dress your kids in that are made with love!
Make sure to check out their post and the rest of their blog!

Fun finds

Over the Christmas break, the kids and I stayed at my parents for a few days since Kevin had to go back up for work. We just hung around the house since Jack had a really bad cold. The kids played with their new toys and tortured their uncle ;)

I always like to poke around and see what my mom has that she might not want anymore. She has some really cool milk glass bowls and Pyrex bowls that I have my eye on and that she is not willing to give up! This visit I did manage to find a couple of things that she was willing to part with - some awesome fabric from the 60s! My mom was not sure what the yellow floral was intended for but she said the red floral was going to be hot pants - my mom was quite on trend back in the day.

There is no selvage information on the fabrics so I am not sure what kind they are. The yellow floral is some kind of cotton, might be twill and the red might be polyester - kind of has that feel. The yellow floral will definitely get made into something, perhaps a Playdate dress with a white yoke and some rick rack trim. Not too sure what I will do with the red. It reminds me of the Brady Bunch ;) Maybe Erin will be Marcia Brady for Halloween this year!

I'll be heading down to my parent's house again soon. Hope to find some more treasures :)

PR&P Week 5: Men's shirt refashion

This week's challenge over at Project Run and Play was to refashion a men's dress shirt into an outfit. I have a few shirts of both my husband's and my dad's in my refashion pile so access to shirts was not the problem, what to make was. I was just not sure what I wanted to do with the shirts and as a result I started my refashion too late and missed the sew along linky deadline - seems to be a theme of mine this season! With all the snow in the forecast for this week it made me long for warmer weather, beaches and sunshine so I decided to make a "resort wear" refashion using one of Kevin's shirts for a top and another shirt for some Capri pants!
I used the Oliver and S Popover sundress pattern to make a tunic length shirt. I wanted to keep the button down look so I cut out the back pattern using the front of the shirt with the button placket. I also cut out the back yoke using the button placket as well so the whole back of the dress was able to button. The back yoke was definitely a challenge and it was not until I was sewing it together that I realized I could have done it a much simpler way. Oh well, sew and learn right? Since the back of the dress buttoned all the way, I decided to make full straps out of the bias tape instead of the tie straps(I made the bias tape myself from scraps of the button down shirt that I used for the Capri pants - go me using my stash lol) I added a little bit of lace trim to the front yoke for some interest.

Original shirts

Back of dress with button placket

Lace trim

For the Capri pants, I used an old work shirt of Kevin's and the Carina Gardner Playdate Outfit pattern. I have used this pattern a couple of times so the pants came together quick which was nice after the trouble I had with the top.

Erin had fun modeling her new outfit and really can't wait to wear it for real. She loves the summer!

Cutest little hitchhiker I've ever seen!

Adventure awaits!