Week 6??? and on to week 9. Sigh.

I was showing my blog to my sister-in-law last week and I realized. . . I skipped Week 6!!!

 I went from Week 5 "Create for a Contest" to Week 7 "Test a Pattern". What did I have against Week 6?

So to back track a little, I am calling last week: 

Week 6 

Challenge: Sew without a Pattern, sort of.

Project: Little Lizard King Peek-A-Boo Skirt

This project came from the PDF pattern that I won from Little Lizard King. There isn't a true pattern to cut, but she gives the fabric measurements for you to cut for the skirt. 

There are a lot of PDF patterns out there that do it this way. 

I had never tried one so it was new to me.

And here is instant gratification (since I am so late in posting for last week):

Lily Bear in her new skirt. 

She even wore it to daycare today. 

On to Week 9!

(I think I am going to need to keep a calendar to make sure I keep all the weeks straight in my head!) 

Week #8 The Finished Trash Bag

Challenge: Sew Something for the Car

Project: Stylish Trash Bags

Following Tara's wonderful tutorial, making a few changes to suit my car, I made one spiffy car trash bag.
 Yea!

I bought the fabric at my new addiction: Mama Said Sew.

When comparing my van to Tara's, I realized that my van didn't have movable head rests and I thought the straps could be annoying to the person sitting in the front seat. 

Light Bulb!

I made two straps with Velcro on either side of the trash bag, that way it could hang from the arm rests in between the captain chairs .

(Nice sippy cup lid on the ground there, sigh.)

It was used before I could even finish taking pictures of it. 
Big and Bigger Sister have asked for one between the second row of seats.
I might make the next one a little bigger. 

When I brought the bag into work to show some of my co-workers, they loved the fabric and wanted to use the trash bag as a purse!
 Hmmm good idea for another week challenge maybe?

Help! I Think My Hobby is trying to Kill Me!!!

I have been a little MIA this week, sorry all. This is mainly because I was attacked three times separate times while sewing last week.

On the Princess P's Big Band Boogie Ball dress:

I sewed all the way through the pad on  my ring finger. 

On Angel Baby's Swing Jacket:

I cut through my hand with my beautiful new and might I add really, really sharp Gingher scissors.

And on last week's project (which I still have to post about):

I sewed through my middle finger all the way through the nail. 

That one hurt the most.

I put my blood, sweat and tears into my work!

(Yes those are Sponge Bob and Strawberry Shortcake Band-Aids)

I will be posting last week's finished project, this weeks project and Turn It Around Thursday today and tomorrow. Phew, that is a LOT of catch up. 

February Crafty Night

Every month my new FAVORITE store,

 Mama Said Sew, 

has a free craft night.

 If you are in Northern Colorado (Fort Collins), this is

 THE fabric store.

 It carries the top fabric designers and wonderful patterns, including local artists. 

I love that Angela works hard to promote our local sewing scene.

Can you see all the fabulous fabric behind Angela and Tara?

They have wine and food and a sewing craft. 

January was my first time there and that is where I met Tara from Tinkerfrog, my first Colorado sewing friend. Which is why I went in the first place; I didn't have any local friends who currently sew. The women I have met at the craft nights are awesome and inspiring.

This month we worked with felted wool to make coasters.

 Here is Robyn hard at work.

Don't we look like we are having fun?

 Some of our finished projects!

I love craft night!

This weekend Mama Said Sew is having their first ever sale. 

All their fabric is 25% off. . . and I am going to miss it.

 Boo hoo! 

We are traveling to see the in-laws this weekend. 

I had better get those trash bags finished soon. 

Week #7 The Finished Jacket

Challenge: Be a pattern tester

Project: Whimsy Couture Swing Jacket

As with I think everyone in Northern Colorado, we have had the crud come to our house.

Blah!

 Lily Bear started it and now we have all managed to get sick.

                                           

Despite our rampant illnesses I did manage to get the  pattern I was testing  for Whimsy Couture finished. Albeit a little later than I expected.

Yea me!

Angel Baby came out and we did a really quick photo shoot outside my office. We are going to add a sash to the waist at Angel's request, but I didn't want to make any modifications to the jacket until we took pictures for Whimsy Couture.

I used corduroy and brocade fabric for the jacket.

I used a decorative stitch that mimicked the brocade pattern

 And the jacket is reversible (the stitching was too).

 You do not want to know how many times I went back to the fabric store just for this project.

 Okay it was five times in two days.

It is a good thing I live less than 1/2 a mile from the local fabric store.

Now that I think about it, my bank account may not think it is such a good thing.  



Turn it Around Thursday

I am starting a new, and hopefully, weekly addition to my blog.

Turn it Around Thursday

I don't know about you but we have a LOT of stuff in our house and instead of buying more things to put in our already overflowing home, I want to re-use, re-purpose, or re-cycle the things we already have.

Every Thursday I am going to try to take what we already have and make it into something we want or need.

This week is the up-cycled Big Band Boogie Ball dress.

My daughter, The Princess P, is going to the Big Band Boogie Ball and needs a dress. Last year I picked up a beautiful but very simple dress at a thrift store for about $10. Oldest sister, Angel, wore it for a college event this fall, but P wanted it to be a little more jazzed up.

Here is what we started with:

 (P really doesn't like having her picture taken.)

Like I said, pretty but plain.

P wanted to add some red to the dress and make the ribbon at the waist "wider and less annoying", meaning that it kept coming untied.

Here is what we came up with:

The ribbon at the waist is sewn to the dress, so it is a permanent feature that cannot come untied.

Added tulle and ribbon trim to the hem.

Red flower accents to the waist and bottom of the dress.

 (Yes, she is going to wear converse to the dance, which pretty much sums up the Princess P. Comfort above everything)

An old dress with a new look!

Boogie the night away.

Week #8 Creating for the Car

Challenge: Sew Something for the Car

Project: Stylish Trash Bags

(Due to last minute changes to the pattern I was testing last week, I did not finish it in time to post today. I will be posting pictures of my finished project tomorrow.)

We are a one car (van) family.

 We do this by choice and we usually do it pretty well. We also try and use alternative transportation whenever we can.

My rocking bike:

Mine is actually gold. It is so pretty.

Until Lily Bear was born, we only had about one car scheduling conflict a month.

Since Lily Bear, well we tend to have a few more conflicts and have started to think about having a second car again.

For now, as we still all share the same car, it tends to get a little cluttered, especially because we don't have any kind of trash receptacle.

Well, that all is about to change this week.

I am going to be referring back to my wonderfully creative friend Tara over at Tinkerfrog. We chatted about this week's project and she kindly posted a tutorial on her blog for her car trash bag design.

 Oh, how I love not having to reinvent the wheel.
 Thank you Tara!

I picked out some fabric at my new favorite store, Mama Said Sew.

I will have a post about the store and the wonderful craft parties they throw later on this week.

Clean car. . . here we come!

Happy Valentine's Day (Project Overdose)

 We had family a Valentine's project day yesterday and boy did we over do it.

I read so many blogs with so many great ideas that I couldn't just choose one. So we didn't.

The Princess P made rosebuds out of kisses we saw at Sun Scholars.

Elle Bean went to JoAnn's valentine craft day. 

Then she came home and made Valentine's glass magnets.

Lily Bear tried to help make the roses.

Then we made the footprint cards we saw on

Marta Writes.

 All in all, it was a busy Valentine's craft day.

Now I just have to figure out what I am doing for my husband. Ack!

Happy Valentine's Day to you!

A break from our regularly scheduled programming

My challenge for the week is on hold as Denise from Whimsy Couture makes some adjustments to the pattern I am testing.

I was itching to sew something last night, so I did.

If you have been following the competition over at Project Run and Play, you will know that the second week's challenge was to sew a dress using the Liela and Ben Sweet Little Dress pattern.

The contestants made the most amazing dresses (and even a coat!) using this pattern as a base.

 Look here to see what they came up with. Crazy no?

Well, I am not that amazing (yet) so I made the dress with just a few (very) minor adjustments.

I will try and get some pictures posted tomorrow.

I made the dress for Lily Bear, and I made it a little big so she can wear it this spring/summer.

 It is a little too cold here in Colorado for this dress right now.

Speaking of cold and snow, after work we drove past the "sledding hill" in our town.

We are pretty flat out here in the plains and this is the only real hill.

We decided to do some impromptu sledding.

(Keep in mind that I was taking these pictures with the sun already down)

This is Elle Bean getting some speed.

 Lily Bear does not look amused

My favorite pictures of the evening.

My adventures in sledding:

Who talked me into this????

Week #7 Test a Pattern

Challenge: Test a Pattern

Project: Ladies Swing Jacket from Whimsy Couture

This weeks challenge is a little hard to play along with unless you happen to be a pattern tester right now. Denise from Whimsy Couture asked for some pattern testers for her new pattern: Ladies Swing Jacket, and she needed it to be done in one week. Well, all of my projects need to be finished in a week so this looked like a good challenge for week #7.

I got started this weekend and Denise and I have already had quite a bit of communication back and forth. I put the pattern together and already noticed some errors.

She went back, re-did the pattern piece and we are on try #2. She works at the speed of light I swear.

I am going to make the prototype for my oldest daughter: Angel Baby. She just turned 19 this weekend. Scary. We are going to do a photo shoot at the end of the week when it is finished so keep an eye out for an introduction to the Biggest Sister (since Lily Bear was born the girls go by the nicknames Big Sister, Bigger Sister and Biggest Sister).