Happy Halloween!

Yes, this is an early post. The kids got out of school at noon today and we are officially on Fall Break until they go back on Monday. We are pretty lame because we aren't going anywhere. I didn't get clearance to get out of my sling until this past Monday, so we didnt want to book a trip not knowing how my shoulder was going to be. But, down time means I can get some sewing done and they can be lazy!

So, are you all gearing up for tonight? Getting your ghouls and goblins ready? I wanted to share some of our Halloween fun. I actually did make her shirt for today, but since it was last minute, didn't get any pictures of it. I had been on the fence since today was a spirit shirt/blue jean day. But, I finished my pattern test on time and so we went to Goodwill and upcycled a Halloween shirt with some other shirts using Peek a Boo Patterns raglan shirt pattern. It was really cute.

So, first let me tell you about my little celebrity. We entered our local newspaper costume design contest and found out day before yesterday we won!! We had to go to the paper yesterday for pictures and she was on the FRONT PAGE this morning! It was a lot of fun. I designed a wedding dress and my husband made the "lace" for the train and veil. Here are some of the pictures

We were so excited to win and that she made front page news. The bodice I drafted on my PGM sz 12 form. The circle skirt I used a basic circle skirt formula. I just made a BIG piece of "fabric" to cut it from. The "lace work" was cut like you used to cut out snowflakes when you were in school. The bouquet was made from a special edition pink breast cancer Sunday paper and hand rolled into roses. I loved being able to work with my husband on this project. He is a fantastic artist and partner.

Now, I want to share her costume for tonight. She wore it last Saturday to a friends costume party and won the costume contest. It was inspired but, of course, Pinterest (aren't all things?). But, it really relates to us. We are a huge animal rescue family. We have 2 rescue dogs and 5 rescue cats. So, here is my darling Crazy Cat Lady!

I dont know if she will get to wear the robe because it is HOT today. It is about 80 and very high humidity. It's supposed to rain later tonight and tomorrow.

Feel free to post some of your Halloween costumes or outfits below. I would love to check them out!

Have a blessed and wonderful weekend and we will see you back on Monday! Happy Halloween!

Lovely in lace

Don't you love a beautiful floral and lace palette? I mean it has taken off in pretty much every genre it's ever presented in. I mean, look at the Shabby Chic phenomenon. Decoholic.com had a whole feature on shabby chic palettes here http://decoholic.org/2013/02/28/habby_chic_living_room/. This is one of the pictures from that feature.

Personally, I wish I lived in some sort of house with character and had all kinds of frilly rooms like this. *Sigh* In the real world, I get to have some cute, but a lot of compromise with three other people that live here. Which is why in designing my clothes, I get a lot of leeway with my fabric and trim choices. For the most part, she likes most everything I make, so I am lucky there. I know a lot of you moms out there have to fight with your tweens if you make them clothes. I do know her general style, which means I do usually hit the ball in the park. Like today, I got to mix a vintage feel outfit with some florals and lace, and she looked beautiful. 

The pants from today's outfit are an upcoming pattern from Aivilo Charlotte. She has a whole section on her Etsy store dedicated to tween patterns here https://www.etsy.com/shop/aivilocharlotte?section_id=13225211. She also has kids patterns, adult patterns and gorgeous bag patterns. Lisa is the owner/designer of Aivilo Charlotte and is absolutely wonderful to work with. These pants aren't out yet, but when they are released they will have three bottom finish options - double ruffle with bias trim, single pleated ruffle, and a tall ruffle. And they are super cute. The top in this picture is a 3/4 sleeve peasant top that is from Whimsy Couture. This particular pattern has a dress option as well. You can find it here https://www.etsy.com/listing/116840023/on-sale-30-off-whimsy-couture-sewing?ref=shop_home_active. They are also on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/WhimsyCoutureSewingPatterns. 

Without further ado, here is today's gorgeous outfit!

Tomorrow is a half day and also is the start to the Fall break which means its a spirit wear day. But, stop in tomorrow as I will have some pictures of her Halloween Costume which was pretty fantastically awesome if you ask me. I'm only slightly biased. 

Deja vu?

Hey, wait, didn't we see this pattern yesterday?

Did I not tell you she loved it? She wanted another one AND they are so quick and easy to make, I just whipped another one on up. Everyone at school thought it was store bought. And she got to smile with pride and say, nope, my mom made it!

Look at that thumb hole! I <3 it!!

Look how fun it is! You can even climb trees in it! I told you. It's a must have. If I didn't convince you yesterday, I know today has you ready. So, go click here http://www.greenstylecreations.com/products/lacy-n-lane-hooded-t-shirt-sizes-3-years-to-14-years and get the Greenstyle Lacy n Lane hooded tshirt while it is still on sale. You will thank me. I know you will!

In other news, we went to the dentist today and guess what. We got an orthodontists referral. We knew it was coming and here it is. So, little miss will probably be sporting her new accessory in the coming weeks - braces. The joys of tweendom!

See you all tomorrow!

The girl in the hood

Sometimes you get a pattern that is a 100% winner. I mean, you can't blame the girl. She gets a new outfit everyday, so she may be slightly jaded when it comes to beautiful clothes. But, every so often, an outfit comes along that she adores. Those, of course, stay in the closet instead of being donated. Today's pattern is one of those. This pattern is one that I was chosen to pattern test and once I tried it on her to fit test it, she didn't take it off. As a matter of fact, I even loved it so much, I have the adult pattern and made an identical one for myself! I wore it to therapy on Friday and got tons of compliments. My therapist could not believe I made it. Sounds great, right? I mean, what a compliment to a seamstress. Well, hold that thought and we will come back to this must have pattern in a second.

What did you do this weekend? We had a great one. Saturday, we went to our downtown market. While we were there, they had a doggy costume contest and a local tree preservation organization was having a "Climb a tree" event. I honestly had no idea what they were talking about when they advertised it, but here is what it is. There is a HUGE tree in the median of our Broadway. They ran climbing rope all over it and had tethers and let the kids climb all the way up this huge tree for a donation to the organization. So, both kids were all over this. She got about 7 feet or so up and kind of froze. Then, she found the courage to keep movin on up. Our son had no problem going up super high. Here are some pics of this fun event.

I, personally, couldn't have done it. I am so freaked out by heights and look how high they went!

Ok, back to the pattern at hand. I am going to give you the link to both the tween version AND the mom version (and my husband wants one, so I may tweak the adult version to make it man friendly. The tween version is already unisex). So, go buy the pattern, then come back and take a look at how flipping awesome it is.
You need to buy it now because it is on SALE! Originally $8, right now its $6. And you will SO get your moneys worth on this one.
Tween size: http://www.greenstylecreations.com/products/lacy-n-lane-hooded-t-shirt-sizes-3-years-to-14-years
Womens size: http://www.greenstylecreations.com/products/women-s-lacy-slope-hooded-t-shirt (its not on sale right now, but $8.50 is a great price for how many times you will make this one for you!)

So, here we go. One of the most awesomest patterns of the year so far. The Lacy n Lane Hooded tshirt from Greenstyle Creations (and you can like them on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gogreenstyle-GreenStyle/148045871969799

AND it has the little thumb holes in the cuffs!! Squeal! It is a super fast sew. Go, get it now, now! You will <3 it! Let me know when you make one, I would love to see your pics!!

AND guess what else. Guess who is out of a sling and starting strength training on their left arm. *This girl*. Yay! I am back to normal-ish. I have about 6 more weeks of therapy, but I can drive again and use my arm and ease back into running. Hip hip hooray! I never thought I would be so happy to take the kids to the dentist tomorrow. Wait, Im not happy about *that* :)

See you wonderful folks tomorrow!!

My little angel...and my little girl, too!

I have always loved Raphael style cherubs. One of the first "paintings" (read we got a framed print from Kirklands) that my husband and I had in our first house was the Sistine Chapel cherubs by Raphael. Love them! So, of course when I saw the graphic, I knew I had to download it. This is the actual graphic from http://thegraphicsfairy.com/victorian-graphic-lovely-cherub-angel/

If you go to the link above, you can download it for free. I used this kind of opaque iron on transfer paper for the shirt 

http://www.dharmatrading.com/transfers/opaque-inkjet-transfer-paper.html?lnav=transfers.html

So, this is what I did for the shirt. I bought the shirt at Tarjay and shortened it for a better fit on her. I really should have left an extra inch, but que sera, right? I ended up cutting off 5.5" and turned under .5" and hemmed it with a double needle. Then, I ironed on our beautiful cherub. Voila! Custom altered and embellished shirt. 

For the skirt, it was an upcycle. I went to a huge yard sale back in September toward the end of the day and they gave everyone these huge industrial sized trash bags to fill up for $10. I stuffed that puppy to the gills. As a matter of fact, the outfit I had in mind for a signature look for the Project Run and Play competition was using some of those garments. Once this shoulder thing gets better, I am still planning on knocking it out. It is a completely custom draped outfit, though, so I need two functioning arms. So, back to the skirt. I was digging through the racks, stuffing my bag and found a gorgeous hot pink Lilly Pulitzer (rest in peace :( ) silk skirt with pink paillettes. It was a womens size medium. Like any good Southern girl, of course we grabbed that on up. Of course, while my girl is certainly growing, she isn't yet a women's medium. So, I opened up the waistband, took out the elastic and shortened it to fit her. It was probably a knee-ish length on a grown person, but I was happy with the longer length on her, so I didn't have to change the length. And there you go - a custom unique fun outfit with very little to break the bank. 

My point? Don't be afraid to alter or experiment. Have you been to a yard sale or a thrift store?? (If not, go now..no, really, stop, drop and shop!) While browsing, have you seen something with an amazing fabric, a cool print, or something that just really caught your eye but you left it because it wasn't your size, style or anything else in between? Don't ever do that again! Buy it. Bring it home. If you screw up, no big deal, right? If not, you end up with something really cute, like I am about to show you below! So, its Thursday, go scan your local Craigslist or read your newspaper classifieds, find your local yard sales. Or, find the locations of your nearest Goodwill, Salvation Army or other thrift stores. I have found GEMS junking - everything from this Lilly Pulitzer skirt for basically free to gorgeous cashmeres. Don't be a snob! Let this inspire you!

And while the music is playing and tags are a popping, I present to you my upcycled, custom altered, ironed on tween fun outfit of the day!

I know some of you may have the impression that my daughter is always prim and proper because of the pictures you see of her. Those are the EDITED pictures you see. If you really want to see her personality and how she is most of the time, the picture below pretty much sums her up!

Doesn't fall make for some of the prettiest pictures?? Thank you for stopping by today. I go back to the Orthopedist Monday, so any prayerful thoughts that I can get out of this sling would be appreciated!! 

Twirling in the flowers

Today's dress is soft, sweet and very girlie and I want to talk to you about a simple way to add individuality to your garments and projects with a technique that isn't very difficult.

First, I present our tshirt dress. Another target tshirt cut off 5" below the underarm with a floral skirt that is 2 rectangles of fabric each measuring waist measurement x 20" long so that the total of the skirt is 2x waist. Then, we have a floral ruffle which is 4 width of fabric strips that are 4" long. The noteworthy item of this dress is the bodice. Don't you just love that graphic. Did the shirt come like that? Nope - we made it that way. And how? A regular old iron on. Wha wha what? Yep. Let me show you pics and then we will talk a little more about that.

The little girl with the bunny was a vintage graphic I found online. You might be saying, yeah I've tried iron ons and they have looked like crap. Okay, that is possible. But, I found some that look pretty awesome. You print out your image on these and then iron them on. This is one is for light colored garments http://www.dharmatrading.com/transfers/supersoft-inkjet-transfer-paper.html?lnav=transfers.html and this one is for darker colors  http://www.dharmatrading.com/transfers/opaque-inkjet-transfer-paper.html?lnav=transfers.html. The one for lighter colors feels more natural like the shirt. The darker one does feel a little more like ironed on paper but it looks great. The light colored one you have to reverse your image to print and iron on and the darker one you don't. You can use these for clothes, pillows, and all kinds of fabric projects. It is a really simple way to give things an extra pop. And if you are looking for some really awesome free vintage clip art, you can find it here http://thegraphicsfairy.com/. You can also find them on Etsy, but you will have to pay. Usually they are less than a dollar a file. But, you can have so much fun with this technique. Make one of a kind shirts, do those trendy burlap pillow covers. Your friends will think you are a crafting rock star.

Come back tomorrow for another super cute outfit using this technique and some upcycling! Thank you for stopping by tonight and hope to see you tomorrow!

Keep your pants on!

Pants...Oh where did the golden days of summer go? But, at least if we have to make the transition, we have some cute pants patterns for our tweens to choose from, right? Today we are visiting our friends over at Create Kids Couture http://createkidscouture.com/. I have featured them before because, frankly, between them and Juvie Moon, they are keeping my daughter dressed while I continue to recover from this shoulder blade fracture. Today I am featuring two patterns from Create Kids Couture. One is one of their newly released teen patterns the Bridgette Palazzo Pant and Capri. I LOVED the silhouette of these pants. This is the picture from their pattern. After taking the pics, I did actually hem them up another inch. Definitely try these on before hemming to gauge where they need to fit to not drag the ground. I recommend you try them on with the shoe your girl will be wearing because a heel will impact your hem.

You can find this pattern here http://www.createkidscouture.com/bridgettes_tween and it goes up to a 15/16 which, of course, I find amazing. 

The top....well...ummm...It IS a Create Kids Couture pattern..it just only goes to a size 8 so I had to upsize it. SOOOO...at the moment, you can't BUY it in a tween size. It isn't hard to upsize though. And MAYBE if you want it upsized enough and you let them know either by

email http://www.createkidscouture.com/contact-us or on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/createkidscouture they might get it fast tracked. They have it in the girls size AND the adult size, so a tween sizing can't be too far behind. But, if you can't wait to get your grubby hands on it and are brave enough to try upsizing here is the link to the Felicity Simple Peasant Top http://www.createkidscouture.com/felicitys and here is the picture from their site 

And the fabrics I used tonight are from JOANN! And they are amazing. This is the pant fabric I used http://www.joann.com/patty-young-premium-quilt-fabric-dark-gray-texture/12806709.html#q=modkid&start=15. It is from the Patty Young line at JoAnn and is the gray texture. It has a denim look but regular woven feel. Here is a picture of the swatch 

The fabric I used for the Felicity peasant top is from the JoAnn Juliana Horner collection. You can see it here http://www.joann.com/juliana-horner-quilt-fabric-garden-main-floral/12519328.html#prefn1=isProject&prefn2=brand&prefv2=Juliana+Horner&prefv1=false&start=8 and this is the swatch 

The sash and ruffle are also by Juliana Horner and are the bouquet sprout pattern and can be found here http://www.joann.com/juliana-horner-quilt-fabric-bouquet-sprout/12519369.html#prefn1=isProject&prefn2=brand&prefv2=Juliana+Horner&prefv1=false&start=12  and here is the swatch of the fabric.

So, here is tonight's outfit. Separates from Create Kids Couture with fabric from JoAnn. 

And because this one came out so stinkin cute and I don't give the boy much play on the website, one of the both of them.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you all had a wonderful day and I hope to see you again tomorrow!