Jump Rope Dress

I think I might need to start a separate blog for the dresses that I'm making Arlyn.  I'm seriously enjoying making these little numbers!  Today's post is brought to you by Oliver + S.  Again.  :)  If you haven't ever been to the Oliver + S website, hop on over right now as soon as your done looking around at The Naked Spool and take a look at all the cute goodness. 

After finding some adorable red and white fabric while thrifting I purchased the Oliver + S Jump Rope pattern to make Arlyn a Canada Day dress. 

Here it is!

It looks a little more pink from a distance than I want it to, but I'm still going to have her wear it for fireworks in July!

I love the Oliver + S patterns because they are so easy to follow...I haven't tried making a collar until now, and it wasn't too bad!


Sleeve Cuff

Front Pocket

Front Placket

As usual, I'll post some pics of Arlyn wearing it once I can get her hair brushed.  It's really hard to keep it in place...it looks normal, but it's actually crazy (kinda like a lot of people I know...in a good way)!

I hope you're all having a bright and beautiful week!

Popover Sundress

Another dress for Arlyn....I can't help myself!  I found this free popover sundress pattern on the Oliver + S website, and it's simply adorable!  More than that, it is completely simple to sew, so download the pattern and get started right now!  Here's Arlyn in the new addition to her closet:



I added some orange bias tape just under the yoke, and it adds a little colour pop that I'm loving!

The material for the shoulder ties is cut on the bias to allow the material to wrap nicely around the underarms.

I posted here about Arlyn's Gingham Tunic that I had made for her...here's a few pics of her Gingham adventures in our backyard!

To my fellow Canadians, I hope your long weekend has been completely beautiful and filled with wonderful memories.

~Karina

A Tunic and a Dress

So, I've been trying to make Arlyn a dress for a little while now, but the sizing for each pattern is always so different.  I made a size 2 and it was way to small...then I made a size 3 and it was way too big.  I decided to take some online advice and draft a pattern from one of her T-shirts that fit well.  And guess what?  It worked!  Though, instead of making a dress I made a tunic to start.



Tunic - front

Tunic - back

The lace has been hanging around my sewing room for quite some time now - I came across it while thrifting a while ago and am glad that I have been able to put it to good use!

And then, when I was on a role I made this little number - The idea is based on the Ice Cream Social Dress from Jess at Craftiness is not Optional but omitted the ruffle sleeves to make it a little more simple. 

I had bought the material a while back just after Arlyn was born.  At that time her room was a beige colour and I wanted to brighten it up a bit with some lovely curtains!  Soon after I had bought the material we decided to move so I packed up the fabric and am so glad that I found the perfect project for it (though, I better find a few more projects so the remainder - I've got lots left)!

When Arlyn tried the dress on I told her to go look in her mirror to see how pretty she looked - and then when Daddy came home she kept on tapping the frills at the top of her dress and chattering about how pretty her new dress is (a least I think that's what she was saying).  :)

I'll be sure to post a few pics of Arlyn wearing these as soon as I can!  She wore the dress on Sunday to church, but silly me forgot to get a picture!

~Karina

Momma's Day

Today was a GREAT day.  And it wasn't just because I got this:

Flower sprouts from Elliott

 Or this:


Card from Elliott - loving my purple hair!

 Or this:


21 fat quarters of Flea Market Fancy

It was also a fantastic day because I spent it with the people I love the most in this world.  :)  I am a blessed Momma - Happy Mother's Day!

~Karina

A Sweet Celebration!

We celebrated Elliott's birthday last week and threw a birthday party for him this weekend and invited some of his school friends.  Since Elliott's two favourite things in the whole wide world are candy and video games, we decided to do a CANDY themed birthday party (I think the computer game party can wait a few years...plus, I like candy a LOT more than video games)!  :)

The invite - and on the back of the invites were one of the follow five pics:

I LOVE kids parties.  I especially love THROWING kids parties.  I think I went a little overboard, but that's what moms are supposed to do, right?  Right?!  Okay, maybe not, but I don't care! 

The kids arrived at two o'clock and were greeted by some pinwheels and a single balloon lollipop at the front entrance.  I found the idea for these here - they were easy to make and added a lot of candy 'flare' to the party!


Entrance to the party!

We played in the backyard until all of the kids arrived and started our party games.  Below you can see the 'Pin the Lolli on the Stick" game, and we also played Gumball race (balancing gumballs on spoons), and when the boys started suggesting playing 'beat down' (okay, I can't recall the name but it seemed a little scary!) we pulled out our limbo stick!  :)


Pin the Lolli on the Stick



Backyard decor

This is me catching Arlyn with a chocolate bar that she had opened by herself...and took a bite out of!

After the games and presents we got ready for cake and ice cream!  I've gone all-out on Elliott's birthday cake the past few bithdays, but the last one turned out so horribly (marshmallow fondant is NOT Karina-friendly!) I decided to choose my battles...and the cake was NOT one of them. I think the minute Elliott was born I envisioned having a picture of every birthday cake I made pasted inside of some sort of scrap book that he could look back on and 'ooh' and 'ahh' about (yes, I know I was dreaming), but I think the candy table was a big enough hit that it won't bug me that I had a 'flop' of a cake one year and a simple cupcakes the next! 



Cupcakes!

The candy table was one of the biggest stresses for me about this party before setting it up on Friday afternoon.  I have a hard time knowing what something will look like before I actually see it, so I was worried about the jars and the levels and if everything would work together.  But once I set it up, I was happy!  I made the risers out of heavier weight boxes that Elliott actually got one of his birthday presents in earlier that week.  I simply cut off what I needed and wrapped it in wrapping paper.  The suckers are displayed in a similar fashion and all the rest is pretty self-explanatory.

I made the flag bunting last week out of scrap fabric in my bins - what I love about this bunting is that I can hang it up in the play room once I take it down (and yes, it is still hanging in my living room at the moment)!

Yummy!

At the end of the party I had the kids come up one by one to fill up their bags with candy of their choice.  The kids, all 14 of them, were all so sweet and grateful for their candy (even though I made them all solemnly swear that they would only eat two things before they went home). 

Ahhh.  We had a lot of fun this weekend and made so many great memories!  Now...time to relax with my Honey! 

~Karina

Elliott's Robot Quilt...it's DONE!

It only took me four months, but Elliott's Robot quilt is finally finished!  

Front

Back

Okay, so I didn't work on this thing non-stop...I had a few (understatement) breaks along the way (like when I REALLY didn't feel like piecing the back of the quilt, or fixing the 8-block section that I sewed in wrong, or when I was waiting for my backing fabric to come in the mail and for quilt batting to go on sale), but the breaks were VERY good for me! 

After piecing and sandwiching the quilt together, I decided to quilt this guy around the larger diamond shapes in light grey thread with my walking foot. I knew that the size would pose some problems on my tiny little machine, but with some shoving careful rolling of the quilt I managed to get the entire thing quilted (though I did have some issues with the material shifting...next time, spray basting!)  Ahhh...that last line of quilting felt sooooo good! 


The hand binding took a number of hours...I think I'm going to try something different next time. I've tried binding a quilt using my machine entirely (zigzag method), and I had a really hard time with it. Maybe it just takes some practice (like most things, I guess). I think that for the two quilts that I have ready to be quilted I'm going to try machine biding with my walking foot based on the tutorial found here by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts.


I was hoping to have the quilt done for Elliott's birthday on April 30th but wasn't able to get the binding handstiched on until May 1st. I think he'll forgive me though. :) Last night he told me that he's going to keep this quilt forever and then he'll ask his 'boy' if he wants to have it.  Tooooo cuuuuute!



Elliott truly loves his new quilt (which is crumpled up on the chair in the background)!  :)

The finished quilt measures about 70"x90"  and is way too big for Elliott's current bed!  The ideas was to make one that would fit a bed that's a bit bigger than his current one so that he can use it longer (and let's be honest here - as much as I'd love to make him another quilt, it's not going to be happening for a loooong time)!  I think we'll just have to master tucking the bottom of the quilt under the bed so that it looks like a perfect fit...we're so sneaky!

This is my favourite intersection of the quilting!

So that's it.  Completely worth the time, effort and love that was put into it.  It feels really  good to give my son something that I poured myself into...and it's something that he can keep for (hopefully) a very long time.  Life is good.  :)

~Karina