October, 2009
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
I used an old bridesmaid dress from my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding. I had to dress as Princess Lolly from Candyland for work. My co-workers and I were all Candyland characters. We compete against other divisions at work every year. We have been winning every year. Apparently we set the bar high because this year all of the other divisions participated and they put a lot of effort into their costumes. This was the first year we didn’t win. :(
I had to rush home from work and I had about an hour to turn this adult size dress into a size 12 month. I ripped off the bottom portion and put a casing along the top. Then I took my sleeves and cinched them up to fit her arms. Then just tacked them on. She broke her Lollipop Wand before we even got into the Fall Festival. Oh well. It weighed almost as much as she did. :)
Posted in Halloween, Outfits, Dresses, & Such | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Riley turned ONE in August! I’m just now posting pix because this blog is new. :-) The theme was a pink and brown polka-dot theme. Original, I know. I took Riley to Old Sacramento to take photos for her birthday invitations. I made a tutu and embroidered a little matching tank top for her. Added some tule on the tank top for a 3-D effect.
Pictures for the Invitations
Sadly, Riley had been very sick up until a couple of days before her birthday. I can really see in these pictures how pale she was. 
Poor baby. This was the first time making a cake like this. I love that show Ace of Cakes and figured, “I could do that”. So I did.
Birthday Cakes
I also made Riley’s Birthday dress using McCall’s Pattern M5791. I made her new Bitty Baby’s matching dress using Simplicity 4268 (slightly altering it.) I made Riley’s bloomers under her dress using Butterick Pattern 3782 (Although the McCall’s Pattern did come with a pattern for bloomers as well. Not sure why I didn’t use that one instead. Prolly because I had the other one already cut out and wanted to save that one for when I needed a larger pattern. I dunno.) I made Riley’s and Dolly’s matching birthday hats, too. I just embroidered the design on a piece of fabric. Spray glued it to an existing cardboard party hat and hot glued it shut. Easy Peasy. For Dolly’s, I just cut the old party hat down to size and did the same. I made Riley’s matching big using Simplicity Pattern 2924. I hate sewing on that vinyl. How do you guys sew with that stuff? Comments please!
Birthday Attire
Posted in Cakes, Doll Stuff, Outfits, Dresses, & Such, Riley's First Birthday | No Comments »
Monday, October 26th, 2009
I made these backpacks for some friends’ at church. They recently adopted 2 kiddos from Ethiopia. I love these backpacks. I started lining all of my backpacks about a year ago. I will be posting a tutorial soon. I purchased the ASTRONAUT from PLANET APPLIQUE. (Hehe, just a sidenote: apparently they liked how it stitched out because they “borrowed” my picture to use on their site to display the design. I discovered that just now when I went to their site to locate the actual page to link to.) I digitized the tutu myself. You can download it for free, HERE.
I posted the tutorial for the backpack on my Tutorials Page. It’s a PDF file. This is the way I used to make them before I started lining them. I will post a new tutorial soon including instructions on how to line it.
Posted in Backpacks | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
I digitized this design yesterday using Embird. A co-worker of mine is a “Derby Girl” for the Sacred City Derby Team. I am so fascinated when I hear her talk about Roller Derby. Some day I will go watch her. :D She’s the fast one that everyone is trying to catch. Then, the other night I went to
Bunco at my seester-in-law’s where everyone was wearing a Halloween costume. The hostess was dressed as a Derby Girl! She ROCKED it!!
Thanks for looking!
Posted in Outfits, Dresses, & Such | 1 Comment »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
I had some leftover scraps from the Apron Dress that I made for Riley. Enough to make this top and pants as well as the little outfit for Riley’s Bitty Baby. The top is also from the Portabellopixie Claire pattern. This was fun because I learned how to Shir the fabric. Easy Peasy. Don’t shy away from patterns that use techniques that you haven’t used before. You’ll learn something new!
Posted in Doll Stuff, In the Beginning..., Outfits, Dresses, & Such | No Comments »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
When Lexi was a baby we sat her on the counter and gave her a Fudgsicle. Well, over the summer we tried to recreat that photo with Riley. My seester-in-law, Leah, played with them in her paint program. Thanks Leah!
Posted in In the Beginning... | No Comments »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
I made this dress, bloomers, paci-clip and bow for Riley. Once again, I used the Portabello Pixie Pattern. Love it! Made the applique using
Embird.
Posted in In the Beginning..., Outfits, Dresses, & Such | No Comments »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
I used the Ellen McCarn Bishop Dress pattern from the Classic Heirloom Collection. It was a great pattern for a beginner! I don’t think I used batiste. I think I just bought some inexpensive cotton to practice on. The smocking pattern came from a book from the library. I just picked something and went for it. I used my new Sally Stanley Pleater. It works perfectly!! I must have been rushing because I ended up putting the sleeves on upside down. :( You can tell by looking at the hem of the sleeve. Oh well, I’ll do it right the next time. 
I used french seams, so there are no exposed seams. I used a blind hem stitch on the bottom hem.
Posted in In the Beginning..., Outfits, Dresses, & Such | No Comments »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
Oh happy day! I got this for either Mother’s Day or my Birthday. I can’t remember which, they’re so close together. I love it! I found it on craigslist. I don’t think it was used. Everything is in perfect condition. It came with a stand and a bag.
Posted in In the Beginning... | No Comments »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
I found this size 4 sundress at a consignment shop. I loved the bottom of the dress. So I ripped off the top half. Redid it and attached to the shortened bottom. Had to turn this size 4 dress into one that would fit an 8 month old. Then I took the girls to the Folsom “Pond” and took some pics. Here are a few.
Posted in In the Beginning... | No Comments »
I used an old bridesmaid dress from my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding. I had to dress as Princess Lolly from Candyland for work. My co-workers and I were all Candyland characters. We compete against other divisions at work every year. We have been winning every year. Apparently we set the bar high because this year all of the other divisions participated and they put a lot of effort into their costumes. This was the first year we didn’t win. :(
I had to rush home from work and I had about an hour to turn this adult size dress into a size 12 month. I ripped off the bottom portion and put a casing along the top. Then I took my sleeves and cinched them up to fit her arms. Then just tacked them on. She broke her Lollipop Wand before we even got into the Fall Festival. Oh well. It weighed almost as much as she did. :)
