sewing

35 Things to do Before I Turn 35

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Yesterday was my birthday!  I am now proud to say that I have made 34 trips around the sun.  Pretty cool journey we get to take each year, flying around in outer space.  For my 35th years, I decided to make a list of 35 things to do before I turn 35. ABM_1424992821Here’s my list:

  1. Read a book a month.  This should be easy since I have book club every month.  If I keep up with the club, this will be complete!  Note to self: must get this month’s book!
  2. Sign up for life insurance.  Not to be morbid, or anything.  But, yeah.
  3. Try a Barre3 class.
  4. Get a monthly massage.  I would love to complete this goal, but I think it might be one of the less likely.
  5. Try acupuncture.
  6. Get a haircut.  I’m pretty much on a once yearly schedule, and my last haircut was last March.  I did this right before my trip to California!  I love it how the stylist thins out my hair.  Feels so much lighter!
  7. Try 5 recipes from my new cookbook!
  8. Spend a weekend at the beach.
  9. Spend a weekend in the mountains.
  10. Can something.  Maybe tomatoes, pizza sauce, green beans?  What do you think, friends?  I know I have some amazing canning friends!
  11. Get our garden going again.  It has been sadly ignored since I’ve either been pregnant or living with a small baby for the past 3 summers.
  12. Focus on getting my Etsy shop going.  Note:  It has a new name and address – CaroMade!
  13. Post one new listing on CaroMade every month.
  14. Do a creative retreat – either an organized one, or organize my own!
  15. Get more chickens.
  16. Get back on my daily chore schedule!  Our house neeeeeeeds it!
  17. Go to Disneyland!  Yes!  We took Alma there with my cousin and his family.  So perfect.
  18. Go to a Broadway musical – it will more than likely be on tour, but it will count and it will be amazing.
  19. Hike 35 miles.  Or maybe 35 kilometers might be more attainable.
  20. Get the trailer set up and go on bike rides with the girls.
  21. Rent a limo.  I’m thinking wine tasting, or Christmas lights?
  22. Make and sew a huge cushion for our hearth.
  23. Get chairs recovered.
  24. Get estimates to get our house painted.
  25. Set up some good seasonal capsule wardrobes.
  26. 5 Days of Christmas crafts on the blog.
  27. Get going on a creative, relaxing morning routine.
  28. More author interviews on the blog.
  29. Plant a tree, or lots of trees.
  30. Take a class.  Sewing?  Cooking? Writing?
  31. Sew some clothing for me.
  32. Make art of Alma’s and Harriet’s rooms.
  33. Go to the Country Fair.
  34. Go camping.
  35. Build a sandcastle or a snowman.

And…. GO!

New Dresses for the Girls

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As part of my resolution to sew from my stash, I decided to make new dresses for the girls.  I used Shwin and Shwin’s Holiday Dress pattern for the bodices, and made some amazingly twirly skirts using my own mind.

And Then They Dresses at the Ghirardelli A day in San Francisco seemed like the perfect time for the girls to wear the dresses.  They were perfect – short sleeved, colorful, twirly, and fun.  They had the added bonus of making the girls super easy to spot in a crowd.And Then They Dresses Alma And Then They Dresses HarrietI was able to use some of the more random fabrics that I didn’t have any ideas for – ahem scissors – and also some of my cherished favorites.  Both dresses have the purple flowers and matyroshka dolls, but the rest are unique.  I love Alma’s mashallahs and Hattie’s bee sleeves. And Then They Dresses Sisters And Then They Dresses Trolley WorkAlma’s dress has two big sparkly blue bottons.  Harriet’s dress has the one leftover sparkly button, and a cute pink bubbly button. And Then They Dresses Waiting and Marching And Then They Dresses at the beach And Then They Dresses Waiting for Cable CarI loved making these dresses.  They were really quick to sew, and really fun to wear.  I’m planning on making a couple like it for an upcoming silent auction at Alma’s school, and maybe a few for the Etsy shop.

Also, check back tomorrow for more photos of our time in San Francisco!

Christmas Dresses

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For the girls’ Christmas dresses, I used Oliver + S’s Fairy Tale pattern (the same one I used for Harriet’s baptism dress) and solid fabrics from Piece By Piece.  bIMG_5705Alma got to wear her dress to the Nutcracker, and Harriet got to wear her dress to my dad’s Rotary meeting, but unfortunately, Alma was really sick on Christmas, so we skipped church, and didn’t have the kids wear their fancy Christmas dresses to Christmas Eve dinner at my dad’s.bIMG_5710

Luckily, we’re really lazy and still have our Christmas decorations up, so before we went to Alma’s birthday party, we had a quick photo-shoot with Jesse’s old sled, decorated with some Christmas boughs.

It was Jesse’s idea to make Alma’s dress look like a Christmas tree.  I thought it could be awesome or ridiculous, but I decided to go for it anyway!bIMG_5703I raised the waistline and lengthened the skirt, and added a few extra layers.  I think the tiers of green look really sweet, and I love the petal sleeves in this pattern.  bIMG_5698

bIMG_5702For Harriet, the initial idea was to make it like a poinsettia, but in the end, I decided making petals would be too much, so I just lengthened it, and added the dark red lining, longer than the dress.bIMG_5706I love how the Christmas dresses look Christmas-y, but are plain enough that they can wear them all year long.  I also love how Harriet was totally mugging for the camera.  She seriously cracks us up, all day long.

A New Coat for Hattie

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I took my first sewing class a few weeks ago at Piece By Piece.  In the class we made baby coats, so I made a new coat for Hattie.  I used a cute owl fabric for the main coat, a sweet mushroom fabric for the pockets, and a soft flannel polka dot fabric for the lining.  We followed Olive Ann Designs’ Hoodie Baby pattern, but we didn’t really follow the directions.  Our instructor, Celeste just told us, and showed us what to do.  She was fantastic!  I learned so much about sewing clothes from her.  Now for some photo overload:

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Quilted Infinity Scarf Tutorial

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I’m starting a new series of projects that have been on my Pinterest boards for far too long.  I’m going to actually start creating the things I pin, and posting them on here.  I know, it’s crazy.  Without further ado, I give you the quilted infinity scarf tutorial!

Quilted Infinity Scarf Tutorial - AndthentheyInfinity scarves seem to be all the rage these days.  I didn’t have an infinity scarf, so I thought I’d try making one.  I like to wear scarves because, as a teacher, I have to be pretty modest.  A scarf is a great way to cover up when a shirt is just a little bit too low-cut.

mThis is a great project, because all you need is two fat quarters, some leftover batting, and some embroidery floss.  I’ve seen some tutorials around the web – here’s my take on it.  It took me about an hour to complete, so it’s pretty simple!

Start with two fat quarters, cut them into 6 inch strips.  Mine ended up being about 6 x 21 inches.

I used two fabrics from Joel Dewberry’s Birch Farm line – “Barn Owl” and “Horse Blanket.”  I bought my fabric at Piece by Piece, but if you don’t live locally, I think you can get it at Southernfabric. I wanted  mostly neutrals, and the pop of light blue is perfect for my capsule wardrobe.

aSew the short ends of each fabric together to create two long, skinny strips.

Cut your batting to be 5 inches wide by the length of your strips.  I made mine a little longer than the strips, just to make sure I had enough.  Mine was 5 x 63 inches.  Now you have three long strips to work with.

bPut the batting on the wrong side of one of your strips, as sew together using a basting stitch (which you will later remove, it will just hold everything in place until you quilt it).

cPut the other piece of fabric so the two fabrics are facing, and the batting is on top.

dSew along the long edges, leaving about 9 inches open on one side.  Leave the ends open, but trim them so all three layers are the same length, and line up.  Turn right side out.

eThis is where I got stuck.  This next step totally baffled me.  What you need to do is stick one end through the tube of fabric and pop it out the other end.  I’ll try to explain this so it makes sense.  Reach in the opening on the side and grab one of the open ends.  Pull it through to the other end, and pull it all the way through so both ends are lined up.  I hope the next three photos help make this more clear.

fghThe last photo above shows one of the ends inside the other.  Go ahead and sew this closed.

iWhen you turn it back right side out, you’ll have a full circle – infinity!

jTo close up the hole, you can either just hand stitch it closed, or edge stitch the entire scarf.  I like the look of edge stitching, so I did that with white thread.

k1To quilt the infinity scarf, you have more options!  You can machine quilt it, or hand quilt.  I’ve been liking quilts with big stitches, so I went that route.  I just took some embroidery floss and quilted an easy line right down the middle.  I used all 6 strands of the floss because I wanted it to look thick.  I didn’t pay much attention to keeping my stitches even, but I did try to keep it in a straight line.

kThere you have it! A quilted infinity scarf!  Let me know if you make one – I would love to see photos!  I think I’ll be raiding my fabric stash to make more of these!

nl

Alma’s New Quilt

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aIMG_4040Alma just made the transition from her ‘baby bed’ to her ‘big kid bed.’  We actually converted her crib into a twin bed and just had to buy a mattress.  Jesse did a great job building the rails and platform for the bed.  I love having such a handy husband!

I wanted this quilt to be special, so I actually bought, and (mostly) followed a pattern.  All my other quilts have just been of my design and pretty simple.  And quite small.  This quilt is a whole twin sized quilt.  Whoa.

aIMG_4043I bought the Atkinson Designs Morning Noon & Night pattern and used the Scrappy Quilt pattern with more of the Sunrise Quilt color design.  I wanted to transition from the aqua color to the coral-pink color.  I bought the pattern and most of my fabric at my favorite fabric store, Piece by Piece.

aIMG_4038As always, I had times where I would get nervous, but it all came together really beautifully, and quite easily.

aIMG_4035I love to make the backs of my quilts fun and interesting, too.  All these fabrics are fun to look at – fairies, goose rides, hiding kids.  I love it.

aIMG_4045This is by far my biggest sewing project, and totally one of my favorites!

Hattie’s Weekly Photos

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Back when Alma was born, I was inspired by Clara’s Photo Project to create a photo project of my own.  We took a photo a week of Alma, and I photoshopped the number into each photo.  I loved how it turned out, and knew I wanted to do it again for Hattie.

I love to see how Hattie changed during the year.  The tiny, sleepy baby stage is so sweet and short-lived.

I have my favorite weeks, but to be honest, those are always changing.

One thing I have loved about both projects has been the amazing amount of fabric I’ve been able to collect.  It’s fun to use the fabric for a quilt, or a dress, or something else.  Then when I see the photo, or the dress, I have all these lovely memories of the girls as babies.

This is also something that I offer in my Etsy Shop – H&A Baby.  If you bought this for yourself (or someone else!  Great baby shower gift, don’t you think?), you would provide me with the photos, and I would edit the images and add the numbers and weeks.

I offer this in both weekly and monthly versions.

Once you have the images, they are yours to do whatever you’d like.  I used Picassa to make the collages.  I had both of these printed in poster sizes and hung them in the dining room.

Another thing I’ve done for both girls is make photo books on Shutterfly.  We gave copies to all the grandparents and kept one for us.  In our copy, I wrote down milestones for each week – so it’s kind of like a baby book.

After I finished Hattie’s, I also made a book of both girls with their weekly photos side by side.  This is my favorite thing ever.  I put both girls in the same pose each week, so it’s fun to see that.  I also used the same fabrics when I had them.  Seriously my favorite thing ever.

Alma’s Backpack

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aIMG_4006This little girl is getting pretty big.  In fact, she’s starting pre-school next week.  We are so lucky to have her nanny be her pre-school teacher.  Talk about the best thing that has ever happened in the history of education.  Rach is Alma’s favorite person (actually, she’s one of our whole family’s favorite people).  I had been worried about Alma going to pre-school, but since Rach will be there, I have no worries.

Well, I have the normal worries of her making friends, of other kids being mean to her, of her learning bad habits, of her getting her feelings hurt, of her getting hurt.  But I’m not worried about who will be there to help her through these things.  Because Rach will be there.

Anyhow, I made her a backpack to take with her.

aIMG_4024I used the pattern in the Oliver + S Little Things to Sew book.  As always, I loved the Oliver + S pattern.  I used some outdoor fabric from a local fabric store.  It’s nice and strong and I think it will hold up well.

aIMG_4013Alma took the backpack on our trip to California, and it was great to have her carry her own snacks and books on the plane.  She really loves putting things in, and taking things out, of the backpack.  I put an extra long ribbon on the zipper, so it’s easy for her to open and close.

aIMG_4014I can’t wait to see what kind of treasures she’ll bring home from school!

Busy Sewing

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Right now I’m working on making a quilt for Alma’s new twin sized bed (!).  She’s still choosing to sleep in her ‘baby bed,’ and we’re not pushing the issue.  Since we got mini cribs for our kids, I was worried that they would outgrow them quickly.  Alma totally fills up her crib, and so I thought she might be uncomfortable.  Apparently she is not, since she keeps choosing to sleep in it.

Anyhow, I’m making her a full twin sized quilt.  I’ve never made a quilt using any sort of sizing guide.  I usually just make a quilt using triangles, squares, strips, or some other shape and sew them together until it’s about the ‘right’ size for a baby quilt.  This time I’m using a real pattern.

I’m using the same blues and pinks and corals that are in Alma’s room and doing a sort of transitional ombre.

Since I’ve been working on the quilt so much, I haven’t had much time to create much else.  Also, I’m trying to get back into the swing of things now that I’m totally not working at all anymore for a few months.  Yay summer vacation!

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the fabrics that are going into the quilt:

IMG_1521

 

A New Dress for Alma

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The other night I totally had the urge to sew something.  Since I’ve been working, I haven’t made anything, and I’ve been missing my hobby. While I’ve made quite a few dresses in the past, they have all been sort of complicated.

I have been wanting to try to make a simple dress pattern, so I just gave it a shot!  I sketched out a simple sun dress, then drafted up a pattern.  I just took one of Alma’s dresses and used it to estimate the bodice proportions, then made a couple simple ruffle layers.

I’m really happy with how it turned out!  I love the colors together, on Alma.  She is really into foxes these days, so it was fun to include those.

I will definitely be making more patterns and dresses in the future!

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