Dear my kids pattern giveaway!

***This giveaway is now closed***

Happy (almost) New Year!!

Boy, do I have a fun giveaway for you today! 

Karen from Dear My Kids Easy Wear on Etsy is giving away  

3 patterns to 3 different winners! 

She has the cutest patterns-especially outerwear...these are some I'm eyeballing right now! Planning on trying the hoodie vest and reversible tunic sometime soon!

      

  

To enter, hop over to her store, check out the patterns, and leave a comment on this post telling me which pattern you might choose if you win! Easy as that. One comment per person please...we will have 3 winners though! woohoo!! This is open to everybody-you international reader too! The patterns are PDF files that are emailed to you-easy peasy!

This giveaway will run until next Friday when I'll pick a winner. :D 

Good luck all!

Here are the lucky winners!

Yerim Lee

 Jessica

and... Jennifer

Congrats gals! I'll be in touch-good luck picking out a pattern-they're all adorable!

Have a safe and fun New Year's Eve!

photo displays

 I saw this idea for a photo display a few days before Christmas and decided to make a few for some close friends and my momma for Christmas gifts. (and one for me, muwahaha) They were so easy and fun!

I forget how fun it is to get dusty and paint covered sometimes! (on a small scale, that is, haha)

On a fun note-look at cute little baby Sadie in the pic above! It was the first photo I found on my messy desk. Crazy how fast they grow! I managed to find pictures of my friend's kids with Sadie, so I clipped those to their photo board.

 I love that you can swap out the photo in, like, .0005 seconds.....If you're Superman....but still. Quick!

You could also use it for recipe cards, or...something else paper-related that I can't think of...

 

The one thing I did different was I had Rory cut some triangle pieces and glued them to the back for a stand, since I couldn't find a 2x8x8 piece of wood. Just 1x8x4. That size still worked fine. I got some little wooden topper thingys (very scientific name) at Michaels, and used some white house paint, then sanded the edges a bit to distress. The wood was light colored, so it doesn't show much. Oh well! I did use the little furniture tacks she suggests in the tutorial. They came in a huge pack for like $1.25...so hopefully I can use them for something else!

What do you think? I love them! (that's why I made one for me ;) 

On a side note-make sure to come back tomorrow! I have an awesome giveaway planned for you guys, with multiple prizes! AAand a screaming good deal for you readers as well....mysterious, eh?

So make sure to stop by and check it out tomorrow!

more gathered clutches and a pincushion

 Well, I told you I ordered more zippers (from my awesome sponsor Zip it!)....what was I supposed to do? Let them gather dust!?

Appalling! ;)

So I whipped up a few more gathered clutches, one for my sister in law-to be, and one for my sister. I love coming up with fabric combos-so this may end up being my go-to gift for gal pals.

 I lined them in the same fabric-easy cutting since I already had the teal out.

This one is my sister Janae's-wild and vibrant just like her personality!

 

This one is Anna's. I'm told she likes green, so I hope she likes it...and some cute teal fabric...who doesn't love teal? :D 

 Also, this isn't a gathered clutch, I know...but I made another one of these wrist pincushions for my pal Cassy, who is a sewer too. She's already told me she loves using it. It's really soo handy!

hey, all.

I'm back! Couldn't stay away for too long, ya know? (though posting may be spotty this week)

We had a great Christmas, spending time with family and friends, and Sadie LOVED opening her presents. Really, is there any other option when it comes to presents? Of course she's gonna love opening them! (and playing) The hit was her Aquadoodle...really it was a hit with everybody. I saw almost every member of my family stop and play with it throughout the day. lol! 

But anyways...I got some really fun sewing books:

 

The middle one; "Sewing for Dummies" (haha) was my brother's gag gift to me. The joke's on him though, cause I read through most of the book on Christmas Day and learned quite a few tidbits. I can't wait to dive into the other books, but I will be quite busy in the month of January. Why? Well, remember that sewing related thing I was so excited and nervous about?

It's called Project Run and Play!

I'm taking this straight from the site:

Project Run and Play is the blogger's version of Project Runway, but for kids! Each week, the designers compete to create the best outfit (with a tutorial) based on a theme. A panel of "celebrity" judges awards them a score of 1 to 10, and then a reader's poll is opened. Readers are allowed to vote once each week for the design they like the most, and at the end of the week, the score is tallyed. The winner is announced (and their tutorial is posted), and the person with the lowest votes is "sent home."

Fun, right? I am so excited to participate in this! Only, go check out the other participants. 

HOLY COW!

These are some heavy hitters in the sewing blog arena. Now do you understand my nervousness?

I just hope I make it past the first week, at least. Oh please, wish me luck. :}

Christmas card wreaths are awesome.

 

Hey all! I just wanted to show you how the Christmas Card wreath looks full of cards...and show off a few lovely ladies who made them too!  My mom has two of these (that's where I originally got the idea) and they are practically falling off the wall by Christmas, they're so heavy with cards.

I am so excited for the beautiful cards we've received! Every day when Rory gets home he brings the mail in, and I think he's getting sick of being greeted with,"Didwegetanycards?!"

haha. Anyways...here are some adorable wreaths!

 Gwen from Gwenny Penny (the hostess of Haul out the Holly which is where this project was featured) did this one!

 Jessica from Subtle Tee made this one!

Heather from H's Creations made this one!

I just love seeing all the fun Christmas cards that people have-gives me some fun ideas for next years card!

Speaking of which....

And with that, I hope you all have some very Happy Holidays! I'm going to go spend some quality time with my family-so I'll be taking a bit of a break until after Christmas! I'll be back soon with all of the presents I made but couldn't post about. ;)

I also will be participating in Emilie's new organizational series in January!

 and in something else that I am sooo excited to tell you about. (and nervous about beyond belief.)

(not pregnant and it is sewing related)

See ya!

meat and potatoes tutorial

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Here's how I made this cute felt chicken dinner.

Click below for more!

apron+food=fun

Sadie's little friend Rayne (coincidentally my BF's daughter), is getting a kitchen from Santa this Christmas. but SHHHHHH don't tell!

So I knew I had to make her something for that. I made this cute apron using my own tutorial. (which is a quick sew, if you still need something for your little chef for Christmas!)

Don't you loove the fabric? It's Farmdale Crossing by Alexander Henry.

And I'm seriously thinking about an apron for moi in this fabric.

 

 I'm loving the aqua around the bottom. 

I also made her a chicken dinner....

and pizza similar to this one. I hope she has fun cooking in her new play kitchen!

christmas decor

It's not much, but I wanted to show you a few of my favorite and new Christmas decorations!

I usually have teal, green, and white plates hanging here, but I searched around a couple of thrift stores and found some Christmas ones. My favorite is the Cookies for Santa plate-perfect for Christmas Eve! I got all of the christmas ones for under $6.

I made our wreaths a few years back by wrapping some wreaths with strings of white tinsel and gluing in place. It took awhile, and a lot of tinsel-but I love 'em.

I like to think they class up the dusty front porch a bit.

 This little wreath I made by hot gluing some fabric scraps around a styrofoam wreath form.

(made BBT......Before Blogging Time)

Easy peasy.

These embroidery hoop ornaments are new and currently gracing my craft room wall. I got the idea here, and love how they turned out.

so, um....I know that's not super awesome like other bloggers...but that's some of our decor this year. :)

I hope your week is starting off well! My sister gets here tomorrow (YAYAYAYAY!) and then the festivities begin! Can't wait!

silhouette stuff

Sooo...as you can see, I've been busy with my Silhouette making Christmasy things! Big surprise there, huh? Here are some of the things I've made with  my new BMF (best machine friend)

I made this reindeer pillow cover using the heat transfer material. Can I just say how much I love reindeer? I want them on everything this year. It's borderline creepy.

Next: I cut out these snowflake tags for neighbor/friend goody boxes.

They were so easy (well, duh)-and I just used some spray adhesive to glue the white and red parts together-waste not, want not.

Just had to sneak this pic of Charliloo in there...oh and she's wearing another Silhouette heat transfer creation. So fun and easy to customize. Love my BMF.

and here are some paper tags for those ornaments I made.

And last, but certainly not least, I cut out this vinyl nativity, painted a spare piece of wood, and stuck it on. I dug out this easel I've had forever, and it fit perfectly! Love it!

So, are you sold? I am, I love this thing!

felt ornaments

I went a little crazy making some fun felt ornaments this year.

I used this free pattern and tutorial-and they were so fun to embellish! Besides the smelly fabric glue headache, of course.

I used a wool felt blend-I get mine here. I added some cool trims and such I had lying around. In hindsight, I probably should have stuffed them a bit more...but that's why you have hindsight...for next time. right?

Anyways...if you make them, now you'll know...stuff them more than I did!

I packaged them up in some clear treat bags, cut out some quick tags on my new Silhouette, and tied them on with some candy cane-esque ribbon! (leftover from our stockings)

Ready to gift out to neighbors and friends! (though I think I'll keep a couple for us!)

simple felt garland

If you're like me and can't stop making Christmas decor even though the big day is around the corner, than this is for you! Cause, it literally takes hardly any time. But looks super cute!

Cut a bunch of circles from your felt. To cut out nice circles-I trace my circle on the papery side of freezer paper, iron it to the felt, then cut them out and peel off the paper. It gives a nice clean edge!

I chose traditional colors, but it would be so cute in any color combo! I also used about twice as much felt as shown in the pic. I get my felt here. Mostly. I did grab the red and white from Joann's-they have a basic selection of wool felt blends...but the "good" colors I get on that website.

Then, sew together....wow hard to justify this being a tutorial...so easy!

Then, decorate something! I decided to bring a little Christmas cheer to our  master bedroom by hanging it over the mirror.

I also stuck some scrapbook paper in a frame, and taped this little ornament up like so, removing the glass, of course...and wha-la! a little Christmas cheer. :D

charlotte's christmas dress

Again, with the force-feeding of pics! haha...although Charlotte's cheekies sure are scrumptious so I'm sure you won't mind.

Presenting: Charlotte's Christmas dress

 I used the same material as Sadie's. (obviously) In the end I couldn't find another fabric I liked as much as the green, so they both got it! It was close call with the fabric, I ordered 1.5 yards and had tiny scraps left, but I made it work! Luckily...there wasn't enough time to order any more. Thank goodness for muslin linings.

Although Sadie kept asking for a yellow dress. I had to explain yellow wasn't really Christmasy. I'm not sure her two year old mind got that, but hey, it's ok! She forgot about the yellow 10 seconds later.

I patterned her dress after a similar (store bought) dress already in her closet-it's a very simple style. I also added the bands of coordinating fabric around the bottom, sleeves, and middle. It has an invisible zipper in the back-these are soo much easier than regular zippers to put in! (on clothing at least)

I made her headband with this super simple tutorial. I love it!

 

She looks good in green too, eh?

Here's a pic so you can see the whole dress. The bow is safety pinned on, that way I can remove it when it goes in the wash. Fabric bows tend to not look so good after a couple times in the wash, I've found. ;)

Soooo....Christmas dresses? CHeck!