Christmas sewing is underway!

Super Beckett cape for my nephew


Tinkerbell PJs for Ali.


Farm PJ's for Josiah.

Still to come: PJ pants for Jed and I, some purses and gift card holders, and some felt food and doll clothes.

Tinkerbell

My daughter knew, without a doubt, that she wanted to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. So, here she is, flying away.



I wish I could take credit for the great car Josiah is sitting in, but I had nothing to do with it. It's just cute.

I'm currently working on PJ's for the family for Christmas. I have a few other presents I want to make; we will see if they get done. And, if Ali had anything to do with it, I'd be making Princess costumes now also. She thinks she wants to be Snow White, Cinderella, or Belle. She told me I could make all the dresses, and then she could decide!

A little bit of my work...

A tutu a made a while ago for Ali. She had given one to a friend for her birthday and wanted her own.


Her doll and the clothes, diapers and bag I made for her. The baby's name is Curly, for reasons I still don't understand.

Ali in her "purple twirly dress". It's a bit short for a dress, so we wear pants under it. It's the Gracie pattern from Portabellopixie.

Neglecting

Not only have I been neglecting my blog, but my machine is feeling a bit lonely as well. I've started, but not finished a bunch of projects. My daughter is getting a new doll for her birthday next week, and I'm almost done with about a wardrobe of clothes for it (as well as some matching clothes for Ali). I'm also trying to figure out the crafts for the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) this year. I've got some ideas, but I'm trying to get myself all organized.

So, hopefully pictures will be up next week of the things I finish (before the birthday, I hope) and my sample projects for MOPS will show up as well, I'm sure. I also need to figure out what my almost one year old boy would like Mommy to make him for his birthday...and I've got a few dresses I would love to make for myself. We will see...

No Sewing...

My family and I went of vacation and since I got back I've been dealing with this:
about fifty pounds of peaches from the tree in our backyard. After lots of freezing, jam making and peach crisp baking, the peach situation is under control...until we pick the next thirty pounds still hanging on the tree.

To my poor, neglected blog...

I have been doing things, just haven't sat down to post. I suppose keeping up with my kids has something to do with that. I'm sure people understand.

So, what have I done...made skirts and dresses. Pictures? Here they are...
Three skirts for myself (Weekend Sewing Wrap Skirt, Favorite Things Bella Skirt, and self-drafted)
Two dresses for Ali: Weekend Sewing Flower Girl Dress and Portabellopixie pattern.

What other creative ventures have I had? They fall in the land of cooking. Anyone who has been to my house (or packed my house for a move) knows that I like cookbooks. I read them like books. They are interesting. I love them. I have lots of them. So, I decided that every week I'm going to pick a cookbook and cook five things from it. Week One was Yum-O: The Family Cookbook by Rachael Ray. Had good luck so far. I liked all five, Jed was neutral on only one.

I'm also trying to more cooking with Ali (my almost three year old). If you have a pre-reader who wants to cook and don't know about Pretend Soup and Salad People, go look them up right now. Ali loves them. The idea is great too. Both of these books (By Mollie Katzen) has the recipe not only in "normal" format (for the adults) but in pictures for the kids. Ali really feels like she is cooking and I am just helping. If you have a reader who wants to cook Katzen also has a cookbook called Honest Pretzels which is also great.

So, there you have it. That is what I've been doing. I'm now off to put together some puzzles (the 24 piece variety)

Why I will never work on an assembly line

Doing the same thing over and over just isn't my thing...but I did make 13 cup cozies for the teachers at my daughter's school. She doesn't have all 13 teachers, being seeing as how Jed's the pastor, we wanted to appreciate them all. We put a gift card to Starbucks in each one with a "thanks a latte" note. Cheesy, but cute.


In other sewing news...
I made this backpack for our friend "B" who turned two. No pattern used, but nothing fancy either. His sister was the recipient of the purse in the post below.

A dress for Ali:


A taggie blanket for Sy:

I have been looking through my copy of Weekend Sewing (part of my mother's day gift) and attempted to make the wrap skirt. The skirt is cut, and I learned about french seams (which I really like, by the way) but I'm glad that I made a muslim first. The skirt is way too small and will be refashioned into something else (either an apron or some other thing that I haven't decided yet)

Also, I'm trying to come up with good ideas for the creative activities for my MOPS group next year. If anyone stumbles across this blog and has any great ideas, please let me know!