Birthday Teaser

I just made my very first hairbow for Sara Beth! I had to have one that matched the birthday outfit that I made for her to wear to her first birthday party. Her outfit is adorable and this bow isn't too bad either! Here's a sneak peak of the birthday ensemble. Don't worry. There will be plenty of pictures to come after the party.

Applique T-shirt

     When my mom stopped by to visit SB today, I got started on this T-shirt for her. Surprisingly, I was able to finish it with her underneath me, trying to pull the presser foot cord out of the sewing machine. It's done. It's cute. Not perfect, but still cute nonetheless! It's fun to use little scraps to make new things!

Sewing Solo

     All of my previous sewing projects have been done under the guidance of people with lots of sewing experience, namely my mom-in-law, Mrs. Jonell, or my good friend, Carol. Well, my 31st birthday just recently came and went and my sweet husband bought me a sewing machine as a gift. Hooray for me! Now I have one of my very own for any project that my heart desires. So, here are pictures of my first two solo projects on my new machine. The first one is a reversible dress and the second one is a pacifier keeper/leash (or whatever you want to call it). Sara Beth wore her new dress today for her first Thanksgiving. She looked adorable in it!

Done. . . Finally!

     I totally bit off WAY more than I could chew with my latest sewing project! But, thanks to Mrs. Jonell's guidance, it's finally done. It took 2 days, but it's done and it's really good too! On this shirt, I learned how to do so many new things--- sleeves, ease stitching, gather stiching, ruffles, yokes, and more practice with button holes. Mrs. Jonell even monogrammed Sara Beth's initials for me. That makes it even cuter! It's too big now, but I'm hoping that it will fit by her 9 month pictures in February.

The finished product. . . a labor of love!

Close up of monogram (Yes, I know it spells "she") and neckline detail

Buttons on the back (not sure why the picture is sideways)

Ric-rac trim on the bottom of the shirt

SB modeling her new shirt

It was a very short photo session since this is what she really wanted to do!

Happy Birthday, Carol!

     This is sooooo belated, but Happy Birthday to my sweet friend (and SB's adopted grandmaw), Carol! Her birthday was at the beginning of October, but like I said before, I've been slacking on the blog. SB and I brought her a special lunch along with this apron that I monogrammed with my mom-in-law's new embroidery machine. I know she enjoyed the company and we sure did have fun visiting her!

Shoes!

     Sara Beth has the cutest feet! I'm sure everybody thinks that about their babies though. Her Nana and Nonni have bought her quite a collection of cute shoes already, but she rarely wears them. I just can't stand to cover up those little piggies! It's getting cooler though, so I'm going to lose this shoe battle whether I like it or not. On one of the first chilly mornings in October, Sara Beth wore shoes for the first time. Here's the proof!

     Speaking of shoes. . .

For one of my recent sewing projects, I made Sara Beth a pair of fleece shoes. They came out really cute, but they don't stay on her feet very well. So much work for such tiny little shoes!

Decisions, Decisions

   We very rarely dress up for Halloween, mainly just because we're lazy. But, this year is SB's first Halloween so we HAVE to dress up, right?! I'm having a hard time deciding what costume to make for Sara Beth this year. I've narrowed it down to 3 options: a bumblebee, a puppy (a.k.a. Zilla), or Pebbles (her ponytail inspired this one). Now, I need your help! Please cast your vote on the right side of this page. You have until Sunday to vote. I would give you longer, but I need to started making the costume ASAP, you know. Happy Halloween, everybody!

Reversible Dress 101

Rule #1: Never sew the bottom of the dress together before you try to flip it.
Rule #2: Never work on a new sewing project when you are already exhausted.

     I mentioned in a previous post about wanting to make a reversible version of this dress. I thought, "No problem! This will be easy!" Well, I was WRONG! What I thought would be done in an hour took me all evening long. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was dead tired from working up at school all day or that I had no idea what I was doing. Either way, it's done. It's full of imperfections (that I will not list here because then you'll notice them too), but I think it still ended up being pretty darn cute! Next time, it will be a snap since I know how to do it now. At least I hope so!

Scrimping

     Before I get to the sewing post, I have to tell a quick story about the word "scrimp". Last summer, a colleague and I attended some training sessions in Baton Rouge. One of the words that kept appearing in our manual was the word "scrimp". I insisted that they must have had a typo because scrimp isn't even a word (unless you count the mispronunciation of "shrimp"). We giggled a lot that day! Come to find out, it IS a word. . . that lots of people use. We looked it up in the dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster: "Synonyms: pinch, save, economize, skimp, spare".
     So. . . . here's how I scrimped last week for my sewing project. I used leftover fabric (from SB's curtains) and leftover ribbon (from a birthday gift I made for a friend). I already had the onesie since we got a bunch of plain white ones before we knew that Sara Beth was a girl. I used this website for the step-by-step instructions and ended up with an adorable little onesie dress. Thanks to my mom-in-law for the extra guidance! It wasn't very hard, so I'll probably end up making one for every occasion. This sewing hobby is getting to be really fun!

Oh. . . and this is what Sara Beth and Opa were up to while I was sewing.

Sew Sweet

     I completed my second sewing project today, with the help of my mom-in-law, Mrs. Jonell. I made a sweet little pink dress for Sara Beth. I think it came out beautifully! Even though sewing is always more work than I expect it to be, the finished product is worth it! Next, I plan to tackle this same pattern but try to make it reversible. I also want to add a little skirt to a onesie. I will have to save those projects for next week though. I'm "sew" exhausted from today's excitement. Enjoy the pictures!

Cute, cute, cute!

Last time I was at Carol's house, we embroidered this cute little onsie for SB. Carol added the ribbon detail and the bow. I used a 6-9 month onesie thinking she could grow into it. Well, grow she did! When we finally tried it on her Monday night, it was very snug. I guess she gets to wear it several times this week! :)

My First Real Sewing Project

Yesterday Carol helped me learn how to sew this sweet little jumper dress for Sara Beth.  Thanks for the tutorial, Carol! I'm so proud of myself! I think it's adorable, don't you? The best part is that it's reversible. We even mongrammed it on one side.  It's still a little big for her right now, but I can't wait until she can wear it. Hmm. I think I could start to like sewing!

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