Some Christmas gifts

Forgiveness is all I'm asking of my blog readers for Christmas! Forgive me for still using crappy iphone pictures!! The iphone really does take good pictures if it's daylight or in a well lit room.

Here are a couple of things I've been working on.

The blanket is for my grandmother. It is my first ever quilt! It's a rag quilt, but still. It wasn't nearly as time consuming or detailed as a normal quilt, but it was a really good way to take a leap into the world of quilting. I'm making another one for my mom, hers is bears and such. It'll match her decor perfectly.

The other one is a flower encased tutu. I took pictures of the process so I could write a tutorial. I hope to have it done sometime in the next few days... but I've been working on the pettiskirt tutorial for months now and haven't gotten it done lol. Initially I was going to sell it, but honestly I think I'm just going to post it for free. I'm about halfway done writing it and I try to work on it here and there but it usually gets put on the back burner. The flower encased tutu, however, is pretty simple and won't take too long to write up.

I've also been working on felt food. I've never done felt food before. I'll elaborate more when I have pictures to show.

I've been working on pajama pants like a mad woman too. I have a pattern that's just one piece, so it's a bit quicker than the two piece pants patterns. They come together in a matter of maybe 15 minutes... hemming, elastic casing, and all.

Back to the sewing machine......

Happy Holidays!

Amanda

Kaytlin's Birthday day & Pettiskirt

These pics are from yesterday, her 5th birthday! We're having her party this coming Saturday. I made the pettiskirt. I'm in the process of working up a tutorial, not sure if I'll give it away or sell it. If I sell it, it'll be $5 or less.

Good morning sunshine! Lets get that hair brushed! (note the pink streaks)

"Mommy, I want McDonalds for breakfast!" You got it babe...

"How old are you today, Kaytlin???" 5!

We picked her up from school with a huge balloon and a bouquet of flowers in tow.

"Let me in! I want my presents!" Check out the bow.... thanks appleblossombows! The bow rocks!!!

I LOVE my new room!!

True Divas do wardrobe changes =)

We went out and ate mexican.... the pictures are on Matt's phone. I'll post those later. Cute. I made the skirt and the shirt is a iron on rhinestone applique. The pettiskirt was not easy.... well, it was easy, but it took HOURS AND HOURS!

Here's a video of the "Grand reveal" of her gifts from us...

>>>> Okay I totally tried to use the blogger video upload function but it took 2 hours and still wasn't done loading, so here's the youtube video!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyn-166GKuw

The most beautiful place in Georgia

If you read this all the way to the bottom, I've got a secret to share with you. But first, I'm going to tell you about my weekend.

While Matt was in Panama City scuba diving with his dad, I went to my moms for the weekend. She lives in the North Georiga mountains, the most beautiful place in Georgia. Parts of it seem untainted... everything is small, simple, and easy going. It doesn't take an hour to go 20 miles (and if it does, it's because you had to cross three mountains to get there, not because there was a jacknife tractor trailer and two fender benders in the interstate). People are friendly. Things have a wonderful timeless feel... and everything "old" is embraced with the term "antique". Hence the picture.... see the copper cooking utensils? I told my mom to write in her will that those are MINE! lol

So what did we do all weekend? Well... I worked on those roman shades for my coworker, no fun. This project is much harder than I anticipated. Not to mention the fact that it's HOT! I've constantly got 10 feet of upholstery weight fabric sitting in my lap! It's been quite a challenge, and a learning experience. I am trying to compare it to what quilting would be like... working on such a huge amount of fabric.

We picked tons of tomatoes and peppers. I have so much I don't even know what to do with it!

K went for a ride on Dollar.

I also learned how to make homemade salsa! My mom has a big garden, and all of her family members do too... so they kind of share crop. They all help each other when harvest time comes. We used home grown peppers, tomatoes, and *cough* store bought onions... among other secret family ingredients. I never knew my muscles could actually grow tired from chopping veggies!

I created a flickr set titled 'My Faves'. I just looked at it... and it's like if my life were flashing before my eyes, these would be some of the images that would appear.

How ‘bout them Dawgs!!!

The first UGA game is August 30th!!! Less than a month away! We (Matt, myself, Kaytlin, most of my family members, and MOST of my friends… well, all except Josh, he’s a Tech fan… heffer… lol, Kaytlin gives him hell about it, well… we all kinda do).

So what better way to commemorate the first game than making something absolutely adorable for Kaytlin that goes with the theme?!?! This is what I have in the works. At first I wanted it to be a skirt with matching appliqué top and I wanted to make a twirly skirt tutorial, but honestly I’d rather make it a dress or something. I think I might still make a tutorial though, and include pattern pieces for the bodice (and maybe some other pieces) in a PDF. Here’s what I’ve got so far… a ton of cut up squares and a strip that was going to be the casing for the waistband. I love the fabric combo…. UGA, red polka dots, black polka dots, and Michael Miller paw prints. May I just say that the makers of the UGA fabric did a terrible job of printing it. The fabric is kind of like a grid…. And it wasn’t printed straight on the bolt, plus those straight white lines… not very straight when you hold a ruler up to it to cut on them… I adore the print, but if I could buy the same thing from a different manufacturer I would. PS- I decided against the gingham band if I do the skirt, it just didn't match as well as I thought it would.

And here’s that tiered skirt I mentioned before. I still need to wrangle up K for a little “photo shoot” so I can list this skirt on etsy, but we’ve been super busy lately. For the last few months she’s dreaded “modeling”. Like the milk mustache? We were running out the door and I wanted to snap some pics just in case she spilled koolaid on it before we got to do a real modeling session.


I’ve been employed to make some soft fold roman shades. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. The instructions are relatively simple, but geez cutting 2 ½ YARDS in a straight line sounds just a tad bit intimidating. Luckily I’ve got a yard stick and some awesome scissors! I’ll post progress pics.

Fabricaholicism

I received my fabric yesterday and cut it all up this morning... four little lovelies coming soo! I was going to write a tutorial on how to get two adorable skirts out of one yard of fabric, I took pictures and everything, then the iphone got wiped out... photos gone... therefore no tutorial. Shucks! Maybe if someone shows interest in how to get two skirts out of one yard (or two half yards, which is what I did) then I'll do it again, photos and all. I will post pics of the skirts in my next entry... I tried to take pics today but it was raining outside... and inside pics with my cam aren't nearly as good.

I just ordered the nylon chiffon to make Kaytlin's pettiskirt mentioned in my previous post!!! I'm so freakin excited! I hope it doesn't take too long!! I just can't wait to chop it up. Most people look at pettiskirts and think they're hard. Being that I've never actually made one, I could be totally wrong in saying this, BUT I'm gonna... it doesn't really look that hard. It looks like the hardest part is just cutting it all up, which shouldn't be too hard since it's all straight lines and repeating lengths etc. It'll be pretty time consuming... shirring up more yardage than I ever thought possible and all... but not really hard per se, just time consuming. Hard is a wedding dress, HARD is a dress that requires buttons, a zipper, criss cross bodice, turned straps, multiple layers to be hemmed, gathering AND beading. We're talking rectangles, shirring, and straight stitching. Alright, I'm starting to sound cocky.

I would just like to know where in the world these etsy sellers are getting there nylon chiffon though. Side note: I'm going to write an awesome tutorial on how to make these (because there's no way in the world I'd make one to sell, I'd make like nothing per hour.... it'll be easy to make but very time consuming therefore not very profitable compared to hours spent making). If I put a lot of effort into the tutorial I'll probably sell it for $5 though... or at least at first. Because honestly there isn't a single GOOD tutorial to make a pettiskirt... or at least not one that I found. Yeah, I watched the martha video (and read the instructions)... very vague... that gal doesn't want to tell folks how to make her skirts, she came on that show to promote her skirts, not to teach others this wonderful skill she has. LOL! She ran through those directions like it was nothing, and took no time to provide measurements to make any size bigger than what the babies in the audience were wearing. Nicely done. Then there are other tutorials. They were helpful... but my number one biggest complaint about this whole process was the measurements. I couldn't find measurements to make one for my DD sz 4T... they were mostly all for babies. It took me forever to figure out how much yardage to purchase and honestly I'm still not sure. I ordered more than I thought I'd need though, 16 yards. Some gals on ebay talk about having a 45 yard pettiskirt... no stinkin way you're fitting 45 yards of fabric into one skirt. I am pretty sure they are referring to the lengths of all of the cuts combined lol.... that and HELLO they're charging $60-80 for something that takes hours to create (I don't care how talented, if you tell me you made one of these in an hour I'll tell ya you're lieing and ask you to show me ).

Okay... this has become way too long.

Because I have no pictures to share, I'm posting these..... I absolutely love the new Ava Rose fabric from Grand Revival Designs! That's on my list of fabrics to order SOON! I love love love the blue fabric with the roses, paired up with the white with pink polka dots! You guys should click the link.... the blog is amazing.

What a busy weekend....

Matt and I met an awesome couple at our neighborhood pool last week. The hubby is in a band called 12oz Prophets. They invited us to come to there show at Sportsline in Lawrenceville this past Saturday. We went… and it was absolutely awesome. They are so talented.

www.myspace.com/12ounceprophets

So I made this handbag a while back. I personally love it. I love the ease of use. I love that it’s big but not so big that things get lost. I love how the inside pocket is big but not toooo big, and no zipper to fool with, and I love how the pocket is in two sections. I can easily stick my debit card and spare change right down in there, then easily dig it out! I love the colors of this bag. I love that I don’t have to worry about it falling off my shoulder (because it’s held on the forearm). I just love this bag. I have gotten so many complements on it that I decided to sell another one…. A recreation of my wonderful bag. I didn’t know if it would sell or not… because I know people are funny about things being recreated when it’s not custom clothing, but low and behold I’ve sold TWO! The first one sold within two days of being listed…. Then I relisted it and it sold AGAIN! Within two days!!! I listed it for a third time today; we’ll see how it goes :-).

I redesigned my shop banner, so check it out :-) http://kaytiebugs.etsy.com/ tell me what you think! I know it’s nothing fab… I made it myself… I just cropped around a snippet of one of Sandi’s Farmers Market prints. Wow how creative of me, right? Terrible, I know… but it’s pretty cute and the best I can do. I redesigned my blog too if you haven’t already noticed :-)

And now for something twirly… because I’m in love with twirly these days. I made this cute little twirl skirt for my niece’s 2nd birthday. It’s in Amy Butler’s Coriander and French Wallpaper… from Belle, my fave AB line. I wish Amy Butler blogged… IMO designers should blog, it offers a gateway… a way to connect with people… a way for people to really see a designer as a person versus a name on a slevedge (or tag, or label, etc….). So, thanks to you designers over there in my sidebar… thanks for blogging. Thanks for offering up a daily dose of inspiration. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Thanks. Oh yeah… almost forgot, this paragraph is about a skirt. Duuh!

We went to my moms house Saturday... up in the mountains. Beautiful place. I sooo wish I had my camera. My mom has a BIG garden... mostly tomatos, peppers, herbs, etc. Actually half of her family up there (her inlaws) have a garden. They all grow different things and share with one another... and help each other. We went to a relatives garden to pick blueberries... something I had never done. Kaytlin was in absolute HEAVEN. They don't use pesticides, and although it would have been best to wash them first, Kaytlin was eating berries right off the bush. It was the cutest thing. She had a bucket and was filling it up. She loves tomatoes too... LOVES... she was picking them right off and eating them. She does that at home too. It was so cute. We made off with about a half gallon bag of blueberries and a bunch of tomatoes. The child ate so many berries and tomatoes I'm surprised it didn't make her sick! I really wish I had my camera... it was such a pretty moment.... huge blueberries everywhere, a cute little Kaytiebugs dress on my kiddo (and on her cousin), setting sun on the mountains, and all of us scooping up as much free produce as our buckets could hold!

PS- if you notice any random 'J''s... those were smileys when I was writing this in word... but when I copied and pasted it over, they all turned into J's! AAH!

Pink twirly fun

My latest creation. I love it. I forgot to take a picture of the appliques at the top of the pants lol. I'm not sure what happened to that bottom picture, but the slightly blurry, muted color, black thing in the corner give it a certain interestingness to me for some reason. It's gotten the most views for this set on flickr, so I imagine it holds interestingenss to others as well.

PS: no sew heat n' bond doesn't work so well when appliqueing cotton onto denim... just an FYI :-)

This fabric has been a creative block for me. I had it in my stash for a good while, I really wanted to use it, but I just couldn't think of what exactly I wanted to make. So many designs would have required a third coordinating fabric, and if I buy more fabric right now my hubby is going to KILL me lol.

So now this is done...... what next?? When I was cleaning out my garage I found an old sheet. It looks and feels like the 60's. It's creamy white and has a big band of eyelet trim... enough to make two... somethings... tops, dresses... something.

K on the front page of Sandi's blog :-)

I was bouncing around blog land when I noticed Kaytlin's picture on Sandi Henderson's blog page. It wasn't IN her blog, but a pic of one of her latest tops I made was featured in the side bar on her shir madness group. The pictures change according to interestingness, so apparently this pic is interesting. It's gotten lots of clicks on flickr. I personally love it too :-)

I have made a few things since my last blog! Check ‘em out! Like my new handbag made from Anna Maria’s Drawing Room fabric? I love it! I get so many looks and complements on it!

I’m currently working on stuff for K to wear on vacation. Nothing exciting finished yet…. I made a dress but it’s not even photo-worthy. Kayt picked the fabric from Walmart and honestly I don’t like it. Sure, it’s cute, but it’s not what I’m used to. Plus I had to improvise the pattern to incorporate both fabrics, and it’s much longer than I wanted it to be (thanks to me not really using the pattern AND not fitting it before finishing it). Oh well, honestly I made it for her because it’s what she wanted… and she’s okay with the length (about mid calf), so that’s what counts.

I finally started chopping up my Ginger Blossom last night. It will become a twirly top with jeans trimmed with lots of ruffles and an appliqué or two.

I think I blogged about this before... I made it for K while she was at my moms house for the week (daycare flooded and closed for the week, after we shipped her off to Nana's they decided to open back up the next day and didn't bother to call and tell us that they were open because we had "alredy made arrangements"... thanks jerks, I sure did miss my DD while she was gone)... I made her this because I missed her so much! It's embroidered linen fabric, ya can't tell by the pic though.

I have been meaning to blog lately, but time doesn’t usually permit. We had an awesome super busy 4th of July. I made Kaytlin a pillowcase style tunic with a matching hairbow and bow flops for $9. It was last minute… I’ve been so busy that I didn’t even realize that she had nothing festive to wear to Mall of Ga. for fireworks and games. She is such a doll…. She loves live music. There were bands performing all throughout the day. She loved watching the performances. This is the best pic I have of her 4th outfit. Pouty face and all. No close up of the hairbow or bow flops, sowwy :-(.

I'm getting fairly decent at crochet. I'm almost finished with a little stuffed amigurumi creature for K, but I don't really like how it turned out. I'll post pics when I'm finished. I made a little bag the other day, working on the strap and I'll be done. I also made some cute 80's style leg warmers... those turned out super cute!! I can't wait to take pics of her wearing them to share!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while!

FIRST AND FOREMOST..... I do not know why in the world my pics have been loading to blogger looking like CRAP!! These in particular don't look that great to begin with, but they look much worse in blogger. And ya see my last blog post with the collage? Why in the world does that look like pixel city?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I'm going to get to the bottom of this!!

I've got lots to cover in this blog!

I just finished up a custom order a couple of days ago. It's such a cute set! These are matching dresses for a baby and her big sister. It's a baby shower gift. They are reversible criss cross pinafores. Since they're on hangers it's hard to see the criss cross in the back, especially with the damask. The fabrics used are Michael miller, disco dot and a damask... don't remember the name of it.



I've been crocheting a lot lately. I've learned a lot! The scarves here are my first two completed projects.


This bag was quite challenging... but once I got the hang of it, it came together pretty easily. I used cotton yarn and I LOVE it! I am now in love with cotton yarn! I guess because I almost always sew with cotton it just feels more "me". I love crochet. It's as rewarding as sewing yet doesn't take as much work! Not that crochet is easy.... but sewing takes a lot of work. Ya spend 30 minutes to an hour or more pinning and cutting the fabric (some things take less, but you get the idea... it takes time). Then you spend an hour or three sewing it all together. It takes less time to complete a project with sewing, but you're kinda bound to the sewing table. With crochet, I can sit at my breakfast table and do a row of stitches while I'm waiting on a pot of water to boil or something. I can do it while I sit in traffic (for an hour each way to and from work... I only do it when I'm sitting in the most miserable parts where I'm practically completely stopped for like 15 minutes). I can do it while I'm laying in bed or watching tv. I can do it just about anywhere! Sewing... I can't multitask in sewing. I might be able to cut some fabric while I'm cooking, but that's only because I now have a rotary cutter/mat/ruler... which I L-O-V-E!!!


I made this top for Kaytlin last night. Her daycare flooded last Friday and throughout the weekend, so they were closed this week. I think they may have reopened yesterday. We had no choice but to take her up to my moms in the mountains for the week. We don't know anyone who is a SAHM who could have kept her for the week. The first couple of days were nice. But we started really missing her Wednesday. I made her this last night as a surprise. It'll look much cuter when she's got it on. Shirring just doesn't photograph well when it's not on a body!



I'm working on a new design for my blog. I'm designing the banner and buttons, colors, etc. and I'm having someone put all the HTML together for me.

I'm going to be making Kaytlin a bunch of outfits for vacation, I'll be posting them as I go. I'm also working on making her a really cute... umm... thing. Crochet. It's like a throw pillow sized alien girl thing. It's an amigurumi.

Everyone have a great weekend!!

All sew, no show

I sew lots, but somehow I manage not to load photos of my creations onto my blog! So this blog is all about sharing my recent goodies! Well... some of them... but hey at least I'm loading something!

These are 5 of a 6 outfit order. She took pics of her daughter wearing them for me!

And because I was in my flickr and she's just too darn cute.... here's my Kaytiebug. She's modeling a hat for mamanme. She modeled some other accessories, check my flickr for more.

I picked up some Drawing Room yesterday, I'm so in love. This print is so absolutely beautiful... the whole line is really. Two thumbs up to Anna Maria Horner. I want to post some of her photos, but I just read on her site that I would need to message her first and... well... I'm an impatient person :P. So... check out the Flickr group dedicated to Drawing Room. Here's my little tid-bit... I'll be whipping up a handbag for MYSELF as soon as I finish making K this cute little top I've had laying on my sewing table for... oh... a week now.

What's after the handbag? I'll be putting this Ginger Blossom to good use. Sandi Henderson is another one of my faves. We're going to Myrtle Beach in August, so I gotta have my kiddo some cute goodies to wear!! I'm thinking ruffly, twirly, girly....

I'm still working on my crochet. I'm almost done with Kaytlins scarf. This is the bare bones of it. I'm going to add fringe and ribbons and maybe some beads. I've still got to add a couple of inches to it, then I'll be DONE! It's a little out of season, but I had to start somewhere!