Puddle Jumping!

Towards the end of April, the girls did a photoshoot with L'amore Photography.  We did a fun rain and puddle jumping theme.  The dresses I made were only seen at the very bottom of their coats, but still worth the large iron I managed to get while making them.

Since it is Mother's Day, I thought I'd share my cuties with you.  Be sure to check out L'amore Photoghraphy!

Charming Travelers - Charm Swap Giveaway CLOSED

Winner is Kelli!

I was chosen to receive the Charming Travelers Charm Swap by From Blank Pages.  I picked out some fun prints I think would look lovely in the cathedral quilt I plan to make someday and put in some of my favorite scraps.  So now I get to have my first giveaway to find out who gets it next!

She has a few rules:

winners must be active bloggers

you must reside in the US 

before sending the charm pack off to the next winner, there must be 56 - 5" x 5" squares of fabric inside - please no yucky fabrics

to help keep the map updated, winners will fill out the quick and easy form to let me know where you are!

if the charm pack arrives full of unwanted charms, let me know and we'll clear it out and fill it back up with some more beautiful fabrics!

To enter just leave a comment telling me how you manage or organize your scraps.  Mine are out of control!  I'll pick a winner by random on May 11, 2013.

Want to enter a ton more giveaways today?  Go to Sew Mama Sew!

I sewed something for me!

You may have noticed it has been awhile since the last Sugar Baby post.  Well, that is because I've been trying really hard to get back to my pre-baby body and maybe closer to pre-marriage body.  So there goes super yummy sugary date night.  But thanks to losing weight and a lot of my clothing getting worn out, I got to go shopping and I also made me a shirt (along with buying a lot of fabric to make more). 

I used a pattern from the latest women's issue (2/2013) of Ottobre Design, called Lemon Juice (#13).  I was a bit nervous about making it.  It seems like everything I made for me turns out weird, plus I was working with knit (still scares me a little) and it was a very strange shaped pattern due to the side drape.  In the picture, it is the one on the far right.

Source 

I am so happy with how it turned out!  My only complaint is that it is a little big, due to apparently going down a size from the time I had Michael measure me to when I finished the shirt.  But thanks to the drape it is hard to tell.  So my complaint is also a good thing too. (Yay for losing weight!)

Alphabet Tree

We have just started using the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Part of it involves putting letters on a tree like in the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  

I'm not much of a fan of palm trees, so I decided to make my own deciduous tree.  I tried free handing one, but I didn't like the look of it at all.  I searched Pinterest  for "diy wall tree" and found a free template that I could use.  I wish I could have painted it like it was intended, but I didn't want something so permanent.  I had thought about tracing it on some cardboard, but the image in my head didn't look so great, so I used construction paper.

Since construction paper is larger than printer paper, I printed it on printer paper, taped it and cut it out.  Then I traced it onto brown construction paper taped together and cut it out.  Then I taped it to the wall and cut out all the leaves from green construction paper and taped them up.  Other than being able to see all that tape, I really like it.  It is super cute and perfect for our school room.

Mom Shirt Re-purposed to Kid Pajamas

This is one of my recent projects I thought would be fun to share today since tomorrow is Earth Day.  It is a good re-purpose project.  

One of the shirts I've had for quite some time decided to develop a hole near the hem so I thought it would be fun to turn it into pajamas for Eleanor (although with all her growth spurts lately they should probably be going to Laurel already).  I tried to find a picture of it in it's first life, but couldn't so you only get to see Eleanor.

It was one of those kinds a shirts made to look layered.  I seam ripped off the tan deer long sleeved section and used another pair of pajama bottoms to get the right cut for the top part of the leggings and used fold over elastic at the waist.  I used a pajama top to cut out the main part of the shirt.  I made sure to use the neck as is, because I'm not too fond of doing binding.  For the sleeves, I left the hem intact and just cut off all the old seams, then gathered it and sewed on.  The bottom of the shirt was left not hemmed to give it more length (needed thanks to a growth spurt).

They are some pretty fun pajamas.  I love the deer and apple tree!  I just need to figure out more clothing for her or rather find more time to sew more clothing for her and apparently Laurel is going through some spurts of her own.

Eleanor's Bag for Dance Class

I made Eleanor a bag for her ballet and tap shoes. This one turned out much bigger than the picture led me to believe, but it is still really nice, so I adopted it, especially since she has refused to continue going to class.  Despite being gigantic on her, she loves it.  As soon as I finished, she started filling it with all sorts of toys.  

I used the tutorial from here and the fabric I used was Richloom Trixie in Crocus. .  It was really easy and gave me no troubles at all.

New Ironing Board Cover

For a while now, I've been wanting to replace my ironing board cover.  It was looking a bit on the grungy side, so much I refuse to show a picture of it.  I get the newsletters from Sew Can She and one day she featured a tutorial on making a new cover.  The tutorial is from Sweet Verbena.

I ended up making it twice, thanks to a stupid mistake I made on the first one (apparently remembering what marks you made for what is important).  The second time, I made sure to buy a piece of fabric that was plenty large enough so that I didn't have to piece anything together.  I love how pretty it is!

I'm so glad those scorch marks and water stains are a thing of the past!