Just wondering....

You think it's time to pull this sucker?



My poor little jalepeno plant! I tend to leave the plants in the garden and then till them under in the spring. Sort of a compost if you will. The plants break down by composting and adds some nutrients to the soil for the next year. I usually end up with volunteer plants in various places through the garden. Sometimes they produce veggies, sometimes not.

Miss me?

I have spent much of the past 2 weeks in bed or sleeping on the couch.  The weekend before my birthday my lovely child who was sick at the time coughed in face.  She slimed me!  And in turn, I wound up sick.  And just when I thought I was getting better, the sickness turned into a sinus infection.  When it finally became more unbearable to sit at home, than in the Dr's office, I went in.  See, I hate Doctor's, loathe them.  I just never seem to have good experiences with them, misdiagnosis, prescribing the wrong medicine, etc. 

But I went, and I got an antibiotic and things are looking up!  However, when you spend so much time asleep, you don't get a lot of sewing done.

I made a little baptism outfit for a friend's baby.  The all white was driving me crazy!!  So I used an orange zipper and some little puppy dog material for the inside of the waistband. 

The pants are from Ottobre 4/2008 and the vest is from Ottobre 5/2006.  Both are size 86 but with no seam allowances added since they were a little big to start with.





The pattern didn't call for them, but I included d rings on the back to make the ties adjustable.



I also completed these 2 crazy skirts. I made this skirt before I had a serger and told myself that I would never make another. But with the serger, I could gather and serge together all in one and they went much faster. These are the Sudoku skirts from Ottobre 1/2009. The premise is to make 8 gores for each skirt. Each gore consists of 3 pieces. The tiers come in 3 heights of a, b and c. So in one gore you could have a 1b, 2a and 3c or 1c, 2b and 3a. The idea is to get an a, b and c in each gore and to make sure that the heights vary from gore to gore. So you don't want 2 1a's right next to each other. I was making 2 which made things infinately more complicated. I actually made a couple extra gores so that I could make sure everything was staggered!

I dug through my scrap box and pulled out some scraps which hadn't seen the light of day in years and divied them up by color (ish). Then I just started cutting, saving the bigger scraps for the tier 3 pieces. I needed 24 pieces for each skirt, or 48 for both and I used 40 scraps so each skirt has a couple of the same pieces.

The girlies love these! They put them on and immediately started twirling. All over the back deck. In fact, they wouldn't hold still for pictures. And that is what makes these skirts great. The girls love them, I love them, everyone who stops to look at them loves them. And I get to look at the scraps and remember all the things I made!











Wahhhh, my last piece of Tillbrook fairies!









I know, I know, another Antonia. KK painted this one back in January and I just got around to cutting the rest out and sewing it up.



Finally, the girls wanted to take their school spirit shirts and cut them up into something else. Seriously, what other kid looks at a brand new shirt and asks their mom to cut it up and make it into something else. Only mine.

So I obliged and got around to cutting up Nin's. Much to KK's chagrin. I turned it into a Mamu Sabrina. Not happy at all with it. It was more of a "get it done because the sinus infection is killing me" kinda dress. But Nin likes it and she loves that it has a hood!

Screw you sewing machine.

I can't believe after all these years you decide to give out on me right in the middle of a very busy month.  So yeah, you have been replaced. 

After my machine took a turn for the worse last week, I had to borrow a machine to keep on track.  She is very lovely.  I may never give her back to her rightful owner.  She is a 1950's Singer 401A Slant O Matic!  This machine produces the most wonderful stitches and just glides along.  After I had a falling out with my machine, I went to Amazon and ordered a fancy schmancy new Brother computerized machine.  It was a birthday/Valentine's present.  Isn't the hubby so thoughtful! 

I am still dealing with this crap on the back deck in order to take pics, but at least it was 50 degrees out and melting...



Anyways, once I got back on track I got a lot accomplished.  In no particular order...

a dress for KK and a dress for Baby Avie. KK loves her so much she slept in it. She is so easy to please.

Both patterns are Mamu Sabrina (which is matchy matchy to the Mamu Deborah's I make myself)
Kk's is size 134 and Avie's is size 68



She asked why I hadn't ever used this ribbon. My response: I have no idea. So I chopped off a piece and stuck it under the pocket seam.



This was her action shot. She asked "momma, will you take a picture of me running and put it on your blog?" Sure thing Darlin.



For Baby Avie
hood up


hood down


So versatile isn't it?

I also made 2 Farbenmix Celina's for the swap I joined. I love love love this pattern. Even though I profess my love, I have never made it for my girls. Gasp! I may get around to it someday. It just happens to be really cute in smaller sizes.

Both of these are size 98/104 about a 3/4.



Pocket on the front.





pocket...



I have made these shorts for Avie before so I thought I would pull the pattern back out.

Ottobre Design 3/09
size 74 about 12 mo.



cute little vent on the side



I then made this shirt to go with them. But this was in the middle of my machine crapping out. It's so horrible I am trashing it and just giving the shorts to Avie and hope she has a shirt to match.

Ack!



Next up is a Valentine shirt I finished for KK that was started a couple weeks ago and a Baptism outfit for a cute little ginger baby.

Make it wear it

I submitted my Mamu Deborah shirts for the Make it wear it party over at The Train to Crazy.  Go check out the blog!!

Make it wear it

Stash Game 2011

I know I am a little behind in posting pictures and that's because, well, I am behind in taking the pictures.  The only place that is inside where I have enough natural light is in the living room in front of the sliding glass doors.  On the carpet.  It is dreadfully cold outside, not to mention, I still have snow covering the back deck.  It was a tropically warm and balmy 1 degree this morning when I was taking pictures.  But I digress.....

I have sewn something everyday so far.  It helped that I had a couple snow days and was trapped at home briefly last week! 

More shirts for the shop.  You know, the shop where I currently have Valentine shirts for sale....  Wink wink, hint hint. 

Farbenmix Imke made from an upcycled t-shirt.  This is a size 4/5.  It does need to be hemmed, so don't look too close yet.



Another Antonia in an upcycled Fairly Odd Parents t-shirt. This is the smallest they come in a size 2.



This dress will hopefully meet several contest entries. It's stash game, so I get points, the white panels on the skirt are hand dyed by me so I can enter it in the Lil Blue Boo challenge, and I want to ship it off to the swap I entered. Multi- purpose clothing!!

Old Navy shirt on top, Studio Tantrum Redondo skirt on the bottom



Up next are some grocery bags that are made from fabric. I made these as testers because I am thinking about selling them this summer. Made from fabric I have had for ages and the pattern is from Keyka Lou. I love them! Especially because you can wad them up and tuck them into your purse.



I also made Baby Theo Leo and Baby Chey Chey (my cousin's son) some matching t-shirts. I got this monster truck fabric at Girl Charlee, but it was a little too white and black. So I color blocked the fronts and added some red sleeves.

Pattern: Ottobre Design 3/2006
I believe it's number 13, but don't quote me.
Size 98 for Chey Chey and size 80 for Theo Leo.



Look who came to visit Aunt Kelly!!! So I made him model a shirt for me.



More to come!!

It's going to be a busy month!

In addition to Stash Game which started a few days ago, I am also participating in 3 other games or contests.  I know, I know.  I just figured it would be a good way to keep busy and to get my name out there. 

One of the challenges that I am participating in is a monthly challenge over at Sewing Mamas.  Every month is a new challenge.  I completed January's challenge, which was to sew something for yourself.  I made these shirts remember....





February's challenge is to sew a new pattern. So I planned on making the Mamu Sabrina for Baby Avie which is the child size pattern to the shirt pattern above. But, I made the girls some tunics last night and it was a new pattern, so technically I have already completed this month!

The other game I entered is actually a swap. I sew groups of items that have at least a $10 value and I send the items to the host, who matches my items to another participant. In return I receive the same number of items I sent in. The last time I participated I sent in 6 items and the girls loved the things they received in return! So I plan on sending 6 things again.

I want to make the hooded tunic I made KK a while back.



I also want to make 2 of the Farbenmix Celina's that I love..



I may break out the Farbenmix Roxy and make it with short sleeves since tunics and leggings are soooo in right now..



Maybe a baby girl outfit..



Or a button down boy shirt..



And then finally, I want to take part in the Dharma Trading Company challenge over at Lil Blue Boo. I can make anyting I want using any technique I want to like fabric paint, fabric dye, transfers, etc. The prize for the winner is pretty awesome!

Lil Blue Boo challenge

Stash Game

Stash Game is here again!  Every year I have these grand plans and they just all kind of fall apart.  So this time around I didn't make any plans.  No goals, no talking about what I needed to do, no grand ideas....  I am going to make what I want and when I want.  Now, with this attitude I will not be winning the game.  But for me really it's just a time to not buy any fabric and use what I have. 

Monday, I did stop and trace several patterns and spent my snow day on Tuesday cutting things out.  Between Tuesday night and my second snow day on Wednesday I got 4 shirts and 2 pairs of capri leggings made.  Pretty decent for 2 days huh? 

So maybe that's my problem.  Maybe I set so many goals, I psych myself out and render myself completely useless.  So for now, I will just remain completely goal-less. 

I would have pictures of what I have made, but we got more snow and this morning when I was getting ready for work, it was -9 out.  And no blog is going to force me outside in that just for pictures!