call me butter...

'cause I'm on a roll! :oD

So I set out on a mission today to get going on Adelyn's birthday dress and I actually ended up finishing it! Well, minus the buttons and button holes on the front, but I don't have the buttons so that part will have to wait. ;o)

I'm really proud of this one because although I started out with a pattern (Claire by Portabello Pixie), I switched it around quite a bit and changed several things to get it just the way I wanted...and it worked! The whole thing turned out perfectly, and I didn't even bomb my first attempt at ruffles. Actually, the ruffles were MUCH easier than I expected because they're so forgiving. If you bunch a little extra here, or not enough there, it's ok because it all balances out on the finished product. The applique on the bodice was a last minute addition because I thought the top looked a little too plain with just sprinkles. And an extra cupcake is always a winning idea in my book.

It was actually a fun little project too, I think I might make some more so I can officially add dresses to my repertoire. :o) Now I'm even more inclined to try a tiered twirl skirt...hmmmmm...

Anyway, without further ado, the dress!

Oh and I could obviously use some help in the bow tying department so any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

(This dress was inspired by the one Adelyn is wearing in my profile picture, but I can't take credit for making that one)

ta-dah!

I was able to whip up a skirt for my sewing bench today so now I can focus entirely on Adelyn's cuppie cake birthday dress! It'll be my first attempt at ruffles so I'm a little nervous, but I think I can pull it off. I love the way my table turned out, what do you think?

getting ready for the big party!

The kiddos birthday party is coming up this weekend and I still have a few things to get done before the big day. I need to make a skirt for my sewing bench (so that nobody has to look at the piles of fabric and I can hide most of my mess) as well as Adelyn's birthday dress! I was toying with the idea of making homemade fondant and doing the birthday cake myself, but baking isn't my forte and I'd hate to make our guests pay the price. ;o) I have made the kids' birthday crowns so they're just sitting and waiting for the big day. I found the pattern for them here.

this is halloween, this is halloween...

everybody scream! :oO Yeah, yeah, I'm a dork I know. :oP

So I managed to get all the costumes done just in the nick of time, phew. AJ and I stayed up until midnight last night gluing strips of fabric to my mummy costume, but it's officially ready for the festivities! Brody's school is having a fall festival tonight and from there we're all going to make a parade over to the park for some trunk-or-treat fun. Hopefully our little witch will be in a good mood this evening so we can make it to everything.

There's a costume contest and Brody's pretty sure we're going to bring home a prize, but we'll just have to wait and see. That would be pretty neat if we won though. :o)

ETA: Here are the pictures! Unfortunately we didn't bring home any prizes in the costume contest :o( The categories were most original, scariest, and funniest and we didn't really fit into any of those...but I'm on a mission for next year! I have 364 days to come up with and make costumes for a fantastic original family theme :o) any ideas and suggestions are welcome :oD

And for the crafty details...my costume was made out of muslin, I sewed up a shirt and pants and then we tore the rest of the fabric into strips and glued them all over with fabric glue. Adelyn's was a cute little tunic top/dress that I found a pattern for here as well as some Halloween knee socks I converted into baby leggings. Brody's was a shirt and pants that he had grown out of that I shredded and washed, as well as dyed with coffee to give it an aged color and smeared with face paint. AJ's vampire getup was a tuxedo shirt I added some snaps to, a fleece cape (with interfacing in the collar and a snap front) that I winged (pun intended :oP), and a last minute fleece cummerbund. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek! Can't wait 'til next year.

too many irons in the fire!

So with Halloween and the kids' birthdays coming up soon, I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff to do...but I keep adding new things to the list! I've already gotten Adelyn's witch costume, Brody's raggedy zombie outfit, and AJ's vampire cape done BUT I still have to finish AJ's shirt and add all the strips of fabric to my mummy get-up. :oO Oh and I haven't even touched Adelyn's birthday dress for next weekend. But I stumbled across some beautiful pink yarn and felt the need to start a pair of longies for Adelyn instead of working on any of those things. :o) My goal has been to work on a craft a day so that I can get it all done and it's been working fairly well, I just need to stay on task!

so here's a picture of the beginning of the longies that I can't put down...

(I know it's a little hard to picture at this point, but the waistband is at the top and then the front of the pants to the left and the bum to the right - I'm using the Freckle Bottoms pattern)

hi my name is kara...

and i'm addicted to making stuff! :oD

About halfway through my pregnancy with my daughter Adelyn I got an itch to start making things for her. We use cloth diapers so I figured I could save money by just sewing some up myself. My mom got me a sewing machine for my birthday, so I bought some fabric and got started. I hit some bumps in the road since my last sewing experience was more than 10 years ago, and merely a pitiful attempt at making myself a bumblebee costume for Halloween, but I really enjoyed experimenting and creating things.

After that, I decided I should learn to knit so I could make a sweet little hat for my baby girl. I successfully taught myself to knit and churned out a cute hat that was barely big enough for a doll (and obviously too tiny for an actual baby). But after a couple more tries I got it down pat.

Then knitting cascaded into wanting to dye my own yarn, and it continues on from there. :o)

Here is a slideshow with some of the things that I've created up to now...