Snow White Grace Ruffle Dress

I finished the quilt top for my i spy 'girl' quilt and no matter how much William begged me to start the 'boy' one, I just had to take a break from quilting. 

While I love the look and feel of a quilt, I must admit, I get little pleasure from actually making it. 

It's not anything like making a Grace Ruffle Dress!

I just love making these dresses. I bought the pattern on the very last day of January and I'm working on my fourth one! Then, I realized today that I've only shown you one I made. So here's the first one I made for Miss Sophie June.

I actually used a blanket panel for this dress and LOVE how it turned out. Snow White is my favorite princess, but none of the little ones except Sophie really like her. Sad. :(

So Sophie is gonna get all the Snow White stuff that I've been dying to make for my girls.

I put my other favorite princess, Belle, on the back of the dress and was sad to learn that she doesn't even show up. I'll know that for next time, not to waste part of the panel on the back.

See how the lining is a castle! Perfect for my little princess Sophie.

And I made this little Princess Crown hair clippie to match. My girls LOVE those clips with the ribbons hanging down!

There's something about them that just makes them feel beautiful.

When Lucy and Ella were younger they would put them all in their hair and just think they were the most beautiful princesses in the world. I can't wait to see what Sophie thinks of this one.

And I can't wait to see her in this dress. It's just so sweet with the little bows in the back and the side ruffles!

I love everything about this dress and this pattern. 

Lucy wants it.... and was really funny in the photo shoot~ she kept doing the Home Alone face....

Hilarious.

I spy quilt progress

I've been working on one of my i spy quilts for a couple days. I thought I might get the whole top sewn up yesterday, but No....
I'm finding that it's a little more difficult to be pregnant at 33 than it was in my 20's.
I've had to rest more... it kinda stinks.

But Lucy and I sorted all the squares into 'boy' and 'girl' themed squares and I got the whole girl one cut out yesterday morning.

By 5 o'clock, I managed to have this much done by working on it on and off all day.

Pretty much just laid out, except the last 4 rows. I got those sewn and pressed.

I'm pretty excited about it!
It's only my 2nd 'real' quilt that I've ever made and the 1st one that will be for our home. The girls can't wait for it to be done and William is all ready for me to start his. I have a feeling I might have to make two girl quilts.... I don't know.

Anyways, I'm following this tutorial which is from the same blog that I made my first quilt from and I'd just like to say that I think the tutorials are AWESOME! I wish she had more quilt tutorials or patterns, because they're so easy to follow for a beginner like me. If you haven't made a quilt and want to, I think these are a great place to start.

I did the swap thru her blog, too, to get all the squares. REALLY fun. I think Crafterhours does swaps sometimes, too. Although, I could have easily made 88 four inch squares for this project with scraps from my stash, it's fun to get fabrics that you've never seen before {although some of them were butt ugly or crappy fabric) I just replaced those and threw them in the trash.

Here's to hoping I get the quilt top finished today!
Even though I kinda already feel like I could use a nap. Yawn!

Superhero Day!

So, last Friday was Superhero Day at the kid's school and boy did I luck out.

Ella decided to wear her Superhero dress that I made for the lil blue boo challenge a while back.
Paired with her tall black boots, William's devil cape (which we tucked the collar under) and some leggings and a white long sleeved t-shirt, she was complete!

William had it in his mind that he wanted to be a Fox Meadow Superhero with muscles, so he wore his Thing costume with his school t-shirt on top, his belt from last year, and then we made a new fox mask the night before.

The mask turned out exactly how I wanted it too. I searched online for 'fox masks' and found so many cute ones on etsy for inspiration. I just sketched it out on some paper to make a pattern and William helped me put it all together. He was thrilled with it.

See his little tooth missing? He lost that the night before! I love it!

They were so excited about superhero day! William gets teary eyed every time he talks about moving on to third grade, because they don't have dress up days anymore. He's gonna be devastated.

I love his little poses with the muscles... my little boy and superhero girl.
Could they be any cuter???

The Cat in the Hat

Oh my gosh.... I can't believe I haven't posted since Monday...
I guess things might be kinda sporadic around here like that for a while.

So, last Friday was Dr. Suess day and William wanted to dress up as The Cat in the Hat.
Easy peasy!

Some black sports pants, a long sleeve black t-shirt, some fleece, a gross grain ribbon,  this awesome tutorial from Mama Lusco Handmade to make his hat, a bag from the dollar spot at Target and some eyeliner whiskers and we were done.

I just cut a piece of fleece to cover the words on his black t-shirt and make the belly and then just basted it on with the machine. Super easy and removable.
The bowtie is just tied quickly and tacked on~ also removable.

I lined the inside of his hat with some of the leftover Cat in the Hat fabrics from Ella's skirt.... which I haven't shown you because I forgot to take pictures of her. She caught the bus that morning and William was late.

Ella was mad that I didn't make her a hat, too, but I just ran out of time. I didn't actually make her a shirt, either, just a skirt. I was slacking a little bit....

but they had fun... who doesn't love Dr. Suess day?
Even Lucy had to get in on the action (although she had NOTHING Suess on... she does have the spirit)

And any excuse to have a cat face is a good one in her book and William's.

Man. I love these kids so much.
They are so fun and happy.

Ella's Pageant Dress

So... Ella competed in her first pageant this weekend.
She came home with a flyer for it from school last week and the deadline had already past.
I told her that we weren't gonna do the pageant and she cried and cried....
told me how much she's been 'dying' to do one 'her whole life' and how her teacher told her she'd be good at it and all kinds of other baloney. So, I told her that I would call and see if she could still enter (secretly praying that they would say no... but alas, they said yes) so I told her that we could do it this one time, but that we weren't going to do it all the time.

That gave me one week to make a pageant dress... which I know nothing about.
When I called and asked what she should wear, she told me a cupcake dress. I'd never heard of that, so I googled it (as well as some youtube videos on how to make one yourself) but in the end decided just to make Ella something SHE liked and I'm so glad I did! I just LOVE how this dress turned out and so does Boos.

She chose McCall's 5570 from my pattern stash and told me that she wanted it blue.

I dug the fabric for the bodice out of my stash. Mom bought it for the girls in pink and blue. (but I dryed the pink and ruined it... and everything else in the laundry... William was sequined for weeks) It came from fabric.com and had a slight stretch to it, but I just underlined it with some of the satin. The satin for the sash and the skirt and the netting and lining all came from Hancock Fabrics and was purchased on Thursday night. I cut out the dress on Friday morning, made the entire thing except for the hem on Friday afternoon, and went to the rehearsal on Friday night. Saturday morning I hemmed it up and Saturday night was the pageant.

She really had a blast doing it and I couldn't have been happier with how the dress turned out. I love the colors and the drama of the skirt and the sparkle of the bodice and the contrast pop of color with the pink sash. I really think she had the prettiest dress... but I guess I'm biased.

For a little girl who has never been to or seen a pageant, she did very well. She was the 2nd runner up (although she's convinced she got 2nd place) and also got a trophy for the People's Choice award, but the bouquet of roses was her favorite thing!

And hanging out with all her friends. Being that it was the high school's pageant, all the kids were from her school. That was neat. They were so excited to be dressed up and wearing make-up and having fun together. It was a LOT different from how I expected it to be.

The kids and the Mom's were very friendly and helpful and everyone was cheering everyone else on.
Ella  is dying to do another pageant... I told her maybe once a year.

I did have fun seeing her up there and making her gown.
Our neighbor took Ella to have her hair done at a salon (a first for Boo's) and
I thought they did such a good job with her hair!

My only regret with the dress is that I cut the five length. I bought enough fabric to make the 6, but when I got home realized that my pattern only went up to a five, so I cut the 5 length and 4 width. I knew the length would be cutting it on the skirt, but I was afraid to add length.... that I would have to change all the points where you tack the dress together.... so I just cut the five.
I had to put an extremely tiny hem in the skirt instead of the 1.25 deeper hem, which would've looked better, but oh well.... she looked pretty and now it's just a dress up dress.... it's already been worn in the backyard to plant Lorax seeds. I guess you have to look gorgeous planting a garden when your a beauty queen.

All in all, it was fun to make and a fun little experience for Ella.
Of course, Lucy wants to do one now, too.
Maybe next year.....

and now that that's all done, I have a chance to finish up some UFO's on my sewing desk, make some much needed St. Patrick's Day decorations, and hopefully some maternity stuff for me. I already need some bigger pants... :)

Nathan gets glasses!

Lucy and I went on a walk this morning and it's so nice outside! 

Sunny and warm, but with a breeze... it's just perfect!

Yea! The weather is changing!

We even had to buy some sunglasses the other day because it's beginning to be so sunny out. It made me remember that I needed to make some more eye glass cases. I just LOVE this one I made that I use for my eye glasses, but I really need a few more to house my sunglasses that I keep in my purse and in the car.

Then I remembered that I never showed you the pictures of the eye glass case I made our little neighbor.

He had to get glasses a few months ago, so I let him pick out some fabric and made him a little case as a surprise.

He chose this pirate fabric that, I think, came from Wal-Mart... I don't know.

I used Pickle Pie Designs boutique child eyeglass case to make it and his little glasses fit perfectly in there.

The kids thought it was really cool that he had glasses like me. 

Our other neighbor, who wears glasses, wanted to know where his case was... I haven't made him one yet.

Hopefully I'll be able to crunch a bunch of em out next week.

This week is full already... I DID finish one of Ella's dinosaur outfits yesterday, but it completely wore me out.

Now I have to work on Dr. Suess day and Ella's pageant dress.

Puppy dog theme baby set

It's so funny that just a few weeks ago, I was working on this set and telling my husband, "If we have another baby, I could make stuff like this for him!" and having no idea that I was pregnant.
I just can't wait to find out what the sex of baby #4 is so that I can start sewing away.

Baby sets are so fun to make and this one (that I made for my Aunt to gift) was no exception.

I fell in love with this cotton fabric at Hobby Lobby and built the set around it. I wish I would've taken a picture of it... you can only see the edge around the blanket.

I made the blanket with this blue and white polka dot minky that is sooooo soft and the cotton on the back and embroidered this sweet dog from Designs by Juju. The name was personalized using the 'Boys are Gross' font.

For the hooded towel, I used this puppy dog face inside a circle to mimic the cotton fabric.
I love how it turned out.

Then, because all baby sets need a toy, I threw in this little beanie toy by Sewing for Sarah. 
I love these little toys so much.

I think that's gonna be my first project for baby #4. A bunch of these cute little toys!
But first, I have to work on Ella's dinosaur week, a Dr. Suess outfit, and her pageant dress.... all by Friday and I haven't even started.

Guess I'll have to stop taking a nap every afternoon and falling asleep before 10.