My first paid sewing project…Baptismal Dress

A friend of mine asked me a couple of months ago if I would be able to make a dress for an 8 year old little girl similar to the Baby Gap dress she had for her 3 year old.

They had been looking all over and couldn’t seem to find a cute all white dress.  So I took a look at the dress and told her I could do it.  I found a pattern and made the alterations so I could include the cute lace trimming  throughout the dress and then added a little flower appliqué.

Here’s the full  dress.

Here are the two dresses together.  I had a lot of fun doing the flower appliqué and will probably be incorporating it into more of my projects!   

Facebook Fan page

I have a new Facebook Fan page.  It’s going under my Etsy Store’s name of Click and Stitch.  Head on over and become a fan.  I’m not real good at making a lot of posts there but you’ll be able to see when I have new items available in my shop!!!

A “Twist” on Zipper Rosettes

I got together with some of my friends today to make zipper rosettes.  They are so much fun and easy to do.  Then I started fiddling around and came up with this “TWIST” on the rosettes!!!

Materials:
Zipper
Hot Glue Gun
Felt
Instructions:
Undo your zipper completely cutting off the end so you can remove the zipper head.  So it looks like this:

Then fold the excess fabric at one end over and glue it in place.

Fold the end tightly over and glue it in place onto a square of felt.  The size of your felt with depend on how long your zipper is.  It’s better to have too much felt then not enough.

Now twist the loose end of your zipper.

Twist it pretty tight and then start gluing it down to the felt.

You’ll keep twisting and putting some glue down to hold it in place rotating all the way around several times.  When you get to the end just glue it down.  Once your glue is cooled off and dry trim the excess felt away and then add some more glue where the zipper lays a little loose still.

Now you can attach it to whatever you want, just like the other zipper rosettes.  I made two smaller ones and attached them to a headband. 
This was my attempt at taking a picture of me wearing the headband, but then I gave up and convince my daughter to put it on and let me take a picture!!!

Patriotic Star Door Decor

My door has been sitting empty of any decor since Christmas was taken down.  So I decided to put something together that wouldn’t take much time and that I could do while chilling with the kids outside.  I came up with this cute arrangement:

It’s styled after all those wreaths we saw around Christmas time with the scrap fabrics just tied around a wire.  For mine I used a wire coat hanger.  To make the even points I measured approximately how long my hanger was after undoing the twisty part at the top.  Then I divided that number by 10 because that is how many bends I was going to need to make to get my 5 points.  So say your wire measured at 42 inches.  That means you need to make a mark every 4 inches for a bend (the extra 2 inches will just be worked in at the end as an overlap to connect the two ends together).  You will want to alternate your bends back and forth in a zig-zag like method.  Since my hanger had a natural curve in a sort of circle I did one bend inwards and one bend outwards.  I really hope I’m making sense.  Once you reach the end twist the two ends together.  This is a little difficult and may require a pair of pliers and perhaps an extra set of hands.

Now just start forming your bends more distinctly so you have a more pronounced star look. 

Gather up your scrap fabrics you want to use.  I used 2 different red, 2 different white, and 1 blue.  I tore my fabric into about 1 inch strips and then cut them into 3-4 inches long sections. 

Once your strips are ready just start tying them in a knot around the star.  I chose to pattern mine as red, white,blue (and then just alternated between the two different reds and whites).

The closer together you squish the tied fabrics the fuller your star will appear.  After I had my star all done I took it out to display and decided that my star a little lonely and out of place. 

So I gave her three little stars friends to hang out with. 

To make the friends I sketched a star that was about 2-3 inches tall.  I cut two stars of each of the three fabrics I chose (6 total stars).  Then I just did a 1/4” stitch around the edges of two stars wrong sides together.  To make the fray look on the stars I brushed my fingers over the edges.

I attached the stars using white pipe cleaners/chenille stems and hot glue.  For the red and the white star I put a little bit of hot glue on the inner point and attached them to the middle pipe cleaner to help them lay how I wanted. 

That’s it.  It probably took me about 2 hours and most of that was spent sitting and tying all the little strips.

My door is happily decorated, for now…….

Re-Introduction to my Rock-A-Bye Duo and little plug for me….

I made these two little quilts about 6 months ago and attempted at selling them individually on Etsy.  I decided to give my Etsy a rest for a little while but now I’m back staring this Duo. 

Here’s a few pictures of my Rock-A-Bye Crib and Doll size Quilts:

I have decided to combine the two together so one little one can have a quilt and a matching quilt for their doll or to drag around as a comfort “blankie”.  Or even one for the baby and one for the nursery wall.

The Crib Size quilt is trimmed with my homemade chenille.  It was also machine quilted including cloud shapes in the blue for the sky!!!

The Doll size quilt is ragged around all the design to create a fun texture throughout the quilt.

I am also selling photography prints in my Etsy shop.  Like these ones:

 

So swing on over a take a look and then spread the word for me please!!!

Rainbows at Sunset

Just wanted to share these photos I took about 30 minutes ago!!!  So grateful God grants us with so much beauty all around us everyday!!! 

And the winner of the CSN Giveaway is….

edmontonjb, you are our winner!!!  I will be sending your information off to CSN and they should e-mail you your gift certificate within a few days!!!  Congratulations!

Thanks everyone for your support.  I foresee another giveaway when I reach 100 followers!!!

Baby Shower Sail Boats

A friend of mine had a baby shower about a month ago.  I had seen how people were presenting some simple gifts like receiving blankets as cute little flowers and wanted to do something like that except since she was having a boy I wanted it to be boyish.  So I came up with these cute little sail boats:

Materials:

Receiving Blanket

Burp Cloth

Wash Cloths or Cotton Balls

1/4” x 12” Dowel

Baby Toy (Optional)

Shredded Paper Strips

Gift Bag

Instructions:

I made my own receiving blanket and burp cloths.  The receiving blanket was 36” square and the burp cloths I think were 12” x 24” (I’m not 100% sure on the dimensions of the burp cloths).

Making the Boat:

1 & 2: Lay out your receiving blanket and then fold one corner of the receiving blanket to the opposite corner forming a triangle. 

3.  Grab another point and fold it over making a smaller triangle. 

4 &5.  Keep grabbing one point and folding it over. 

6.  Once you get it folded to the size you want your boat (I folded mine six times) then tape across the points that want to fold away from each other.

7.  Push the middle point up into the center of the last fold you did to create a flat bottom.   You may want to do a little taping along the side to keep it closed.

8.  Sit your boat up and stick your dowel through off to the side that doesn’t have the folded point in the way.  Now either use your wash cloths or some cotton balls to stuff inside the boat around the dowel to hold it in place. 

Making the Flag:

1. Lay your burp cloth out.

2.  Fold it in half

3.  Fold one corner over to form the triangle.

4.  Keep folding until you have the size you want for your flag (I made 4 folds including the folding in half in step 2).  Then tape the corner to hold it together.

Putting Boat and Flag Together:

Slide your dowel up through the middle along the folded side.  You will probably want to put a few strips of tape along both open sides especially on the bottom side, right next to where the dowel goes into the flag.

Plop a toy into the boat and now your ready for the packaging.

I made my own paper filling by taking two shades of blue construction paper and sending it through the CD slot on my paper shredder.  It made the perfect little strips.  After that I just scrunched the paper strips in my hands.

Now just get you a gift bag (I used one of my Scentsy delivery bags and it sure smelt good!!!).  Layer the paper shreds on the bottom and then insert a sailboat or two.  Tie the top with some ribbon and add a card and your ready to go!!!!