Goin' to church in style

Once I found the little bag for Alayna's "Crispers", I told her we could decorate it.  Just days before finding her little bag, I came across a tutorial to make a ruffle bag. 

And because every girl likes ruffles, we decided to make said ruffle bag.  Only, a miniature one in her case.

Layna picked the fabric.  And I did the creating.

Turned out pretty darn cute, huh?

In fact, I thought it turned out so cute, that I made a mom-size version for me. 

I have to admit, I like hers better, but alas, not all my church "stuff" would fit in her bag.  So I'm stickin' with mine.

A little too excited

I was thrilled to receive these in the mail today. 

I was even more excited that the company that sent them to me gave me two extra fabrics since the shipping wasn't as much as they said it would be.

 And I was quite possibly ecstatic that I love them even more in person than I did when viewing them online.

Let the projects begin!

I redeemed myself

Even though I was not the most on top of it for Alayna's costume, I tried to redeem myself by making her a Trick or Treating bag.

And here it is.  Cute, huh?

 And a little closer look.  The front.

 The back.

And the inside.



A few more details.

-I used this pattern from The Sometimes Crafter. 
- I had to get in touch with my cross-stitch/embroidery self.  It's been awhile...like maybe 10 years, but it was fun. 
-I need to stop my habit of starting a project, and not wanting to stop 'til I'm finished because it causes me to stay up 'til one in the morning when I could have just gone to bed at 10:30 with Dan and finished in the morning.  Oh well, maybe one of these days I'll learn.
-All the late hours paid off when I would hear someone tell Alayna what a cute bag she had.  It's not about the costume, it's all about the bag.  :)

Can you tell the difference?

After posting all of my sewing projects, I was reminded of a funny story that happened to me about five years ago.

Background:
When I was 18, I took sewing lessons from a lady that goes to my church. It was once a week. I provided all the fabric, patterns, etc. and chose what I wanted to make. Since this was during my high school years, of course, I wanted to make all sorts of clothing for myself (shirts, capris, dresses, etc.). She guided me through each project. It was great, she told me how to complete each step and helped me with the difficult parts. (I wish she was around for some of my most recent projects. I really could have used her help.) And the best part of the whole thing was, getting new clothes to wear when I was finished.

More background info:
After high school graduation I started working at an office supply store to earn some money for college. I worked as part of the floor staff. We greeted the customers, helped them find the item they were looking for, checked them out, answered phones, took orders, etc.

Don't worry. This will all make sense in the end.

One day at work the following situation occurred:

A lady, probably in her mid 40's came into the store looking for a certain kind of legal document. I walked her back to the area where we kept all of those documents and showed her the many different kinds. She looked for a minute and then found the one she needed. I walked with her up to the front to ring her up. As we approached the counter, she said the following:

Lady: So, when are you due?
Me (as I feel my face getting EXTREMELY red): I am NOT pregnant. (Keep in mind. I am 18, single, LDS, AND wearing my new homemade shirt!)
Lady (without skipping a beat): Oh, that's too bad. I just love babies.
Me (staring at her with a dumbfounded expression): No words would come out. I just gave her a half smile while thinking... THAT'S TOO BAD! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT'S TOO BAD!

I quickly told her how much she owed, gave her her change, and walked as fast as I could into the back room.

All the while, my coworkers were just standing there with their mouths open.

Talk about taking someone's self esteem and cutting it in half!

Needless to say, I never wore that shirt again...

until I actually was pregnant.


Here is documentation of me wearing my newly sewn shirt when I was 18. This is the only picture I could find since I don't think I wore it again until just recently so I am bent over, but clearly...there is NO baby in that belly.


Here I am at 37 weeks wearing the masterpiece (just kidding). Keep in mind, this shirt is NOT a maternity shirt so it's not so flattering. Oh, and don't pay any attention to the "I'm so done being pregnant" look on my face. Not so flattering either.


A view from the side. Again, clearly this shirt was not meant for the 37 week pregnant me. Yuck! Don't worry, mom, I didn't wear this out of the house so you don't have to be embarrassed for me. :)

I just have one question.

Lady. Can you tell the difference, now!?

Scrap bag

Ok. So some of you are probably getting sick of my little projects that I keep posting.

Sorry.

You're just going to have to deal with it...at least until the baby comes because then I won't have any time to do them anymore.

Scraps, anyone?

I wanted to use up all the scrap material that I had, so I decided to quilt some material and make a bag.

It turned out way cuter than I thought, so I thought I would try my hand at a purse. I still have some experimenting to do, but it was fun!

Cover Up

Here is yet another one of my sewing projects. After getting so many wonderful gifts at my shower, I realized there was one thing that I still wanted and did not have- a nursing cover up.

Instead of buying one, I decided to use some of the extra fabric that I have accumulated from the other various baby sewing projects, and make my own. It turned out to be an easier task than I thought and I saved a fair amount of money by just making it myself.

Thanks for the pattern, KaLee!

At Last!

Here it is...

The promised Quilt!

A view of the back.
An upclose look at the design I chose. (The machine quilting I did not do. I had a quilting shop do that part. I am not skilled enough to take on that task.)
A closer look at the front.
Here is the cute quilt with the matching crib bedding. They look great together.

I am quite proud of myself. I started a project that I had absolutely no idea how to do and completed it with little help.

Sure, a few phone calls were made to my sister, and a question or two of opinion asked to my husband, but other than that. It was all me (and the wonderful ladies at the quilt shop.)

Pure Talent

Remember how I have to try to be crafty? Well, my sister just has a knack for craftiness.

After spending much time searching for the perfect crib bedding and not being satisfied with anything I found, KaLee, my extremely TALENTED sister, offered to make the bedding. I just had to find and purchase the fabric and materials.

The searching began again, only this time for fabric. And then, I found it. The perfect fabric.

So, for the past few weeks I have been anxiously awaiting the completion of this gift and now I can proudly show it off.

Here is the entire crib bedding. KaLee made the bumpers and the crib skirt.

A closer look at the cute bumper.
She also made curtains that match the crib bedding. They turned out so cute!
I am absolutely in LOVE with the baby's room. The bedding and curtains have exceeded my expectations! I would say KaLee has pure talent!

Now this has even made me want to try out more sewing projects. I would try making something like this, but ya know, I just don't think we are going to have another baby for a little while. We need to at least wait 'til this one is born and probably MUCH longer than that! Anyone want to have a baby so I can try it out? Just kidding.

By the way, be looking forward to pictures of a quilt that matches the bedding.

Oh, and if anyone would like to see upclose pictures of everything that KaLee made, just click here.

Trying to be Crafty

After moving, unpacking, organizing, and organizing some more, I stumbled across something...

An unopened sewing machine. Yes. The box had actually never been opened.

Dan had given me this sewing machine for my birthday (7 MONTHS AGO!!!). Believe it or not, I was thrilled when he gave it to me. It was something that had been on my wishlist for several years, but I had never gotten.

There was just one thing that came between me and that sewing machine. Time. I never found the time to start a sewing project. Sound familiar? It seems to be the case with a lot of things I want to do.

Now that school is out and the baby is not here yet, I figured it was the perfect time for me to open that box and see what I could really do. (Let me assure you, not much.)

So, I thought of a few projects that I wanted to tackle and I began "trying" to be crafty. I found out that I am not as talented at the sewing machine as I would like to be, but I am definitely getting better.

So, here they are, in all their glory. (yeah, right.) Two of my sewing projects.



Mind you, they are NOT perfect, but I figure people will be look at the adorable little girl wearing the dresses, not the uneven stitching.