Finally done with these....

I finished my first pair of socks... see the tiny needles? And the thin yarn? That means there were thousands of little stitches... tedious and time consuming, but they are finally done! I've worn them a couople of times since then. They are pretty comfortable, but more so in shoes than walking around in just socks. I'll opt for a little softer yarn the next sock project I try.

Another bridal shower, another apron...

 This bride to be wanted red & black... she loved it, and I can see why... this one turned out really cute!

Bridal Shower

My friend from nursing school is getting married in a few weeks. I love making something they can keep forever for a bridal shower gift. This friend loves vintage, florals, polka dots, and is decorating her first home in black, white, grey, and yellow. My sister helped me pick out the cutest fabrics and I whipped up this awesome apron and oven mitt... this is the second bridal shower I've made an apron and oven mitt for. Another friend from nursing school is getting married in a couple of months and saw this... she's already put in a request! This may become a tradition to make for brides to be! :)

More projects I finished

My brother's family had a new baby... so I decided to make their cute family some new items that kind of all went together (so they can coordinate for church maybe?).

For the two girls I made these cute pillowcase-style dresses. I found the pattern here:
















































And some matching hair accessories (pattern for fabric flower found here):




































I also made a pin for the mommy. Here it is seen with the hair clips for the babies:




















And lastly, I made a couple of ties (patterns found here and here) for daddy and big brother (mom has this same fabric as one of her flowers on the pin):

Quick Purse

I remember when my girls were around two years old and they LOVED purses! Both of my kids were very girly and loved all things grown up... I had some leftover Tinkerbell fabric and wanted to send my niece a purse for Christmas. I lined the bag with the same fabric and interfaced the lining to give this little purse some more stability.

Lots of Hair Clips!!! And some newborn caps!

My girls and three of my nieces got some new hair accessories this Christmas.... The hair clips I sewed by hand and the hats I made on the serger and the sewing machine... I had a lot of fun with this knit fabric project! And it was super easy! The instructions for the hat and flowers I found here (isn't Pinterest wonderful?). To turn the flower into a clip, I simple hand stitched on a hair clip and they were done! :)

Robes for Christmas

My niece and nephew requested (or their mommy did) new robes for Christmas. Found some nice fleece and whipped these up!

It was fun using my new serger to finish the inside seams. I put a tag in the girly robe, but decided my nephew probably didn't want anything that said 'girls' on it for him. Hope they get a lot of use to keep snuggly and warm in Wyoming!

These were made from this pattern which I have used many times.

Mary Jane's

We had a new niece in the family and we started crafting! Many more posts to follow with items made for her!

These are some Mary Jane's that Kara crocheted from this pattern. She did a great job! :)

For a baby boy

A friend from nursing school is having a baby boy in a few weeks... we gave her a mini baby shower and I made this cute sweater and hat for her impending arrival!

The hat:



















The sweater:



















The pair together:
























And of course I HAD to put in a tag!

Christmas Crafting is in full swing

Starting with these two cute pillows made for my mom's birthday a few weeks ago...

Now that she's opened them I can post them!

Here they are together:



















The smaller pillow:
























How I made it:

I found a cute tree coloring book page I cut out and used as the template for tree portion. I mounted the tree on fusible interfacing, then pinned to a piece of red felt. I used DMC floss to blanket stitch the tree to the felt and then I used more DMC floss to stitch around a star on top. I then sewed another piece of felt to the back, left an opening, and stuffed the pillow. Once I sewed up the opening, I went over the machine stitches with DMC floss so it looked more hand-stitched. I trimmed the top layer of felt with my pinking shears to give the edges more texture.



The larger pillow:

























How I made it:

I sewed two squares of fleece right-sides together leaving an opening to turn the fabric right-side-out and stuff. Then I stitched it closed by hand... I finished this off by turning it into a kind of wrapped present looking pillow. I tied a ribbon around it and then stitched two buttons together to the ribbon.

I like how these two pillows turned out next to each other... Hopefully they'll get some good use in the coming years!

for my sister...

... who commandeered this GIANT stocking. Now it's Santa's challenge to fill it! Hahaha! :)

Cute Sweater

So many projects have gone unposted because they have been gifts and I don't like to spoil surprises.... one such gift was this cute sweater for my 1 year old niece, Norah... I'm not sure that I want to ever sew on a zipper by hand again, but nevertheless, there wasn't an easier way to keep this lined up while sewing... :) Hope she gets a lot of use out of this sweater for the next year at least.

Easy musical instrument

For 6th grade science, my daughter needed to make an instrument that she could perform a song on that changed pitch and amplitude. She found instructions online to make a pan flute. We used PVC piping that she cut with a hand saw, then covered in cute paper, hot glued together, and then decorated with a cute tie! It only cost us about $1.15 for the long PVC pipe and we used paper we had laying around. Fun and easy project, just the way we like them!

PE Bag

Kara started sixth grade this year. With the beginning of needing PE clothes I decided she needed a PE bag (she needs all the help she can get to keep herself organized and her things together). I didn't want to make a plain PE bag, so I added a few embellishments to make it a little cuter!

The stuff to organize:















The finished bag:















Close-up of the flower detail on the front of the bag:














The braided drawstring handle:















All we did was cut strips of fabric and braided them... fast, easy, and cute!: