Kids Clothing Week Challenge: My Secret Mission

KCWC

Last week was kids clothes week challenge!

I was excited, but tried not to be.  :)  Some weeks I'm super productive when it comes to sewing... but some weeks I'm lucky if I get a pattern traced and cut!  So I decided to follow KCWC in secret, just to see if I could do it.  The commitment?  One hour of kids related sewing a day for 7 days.  Seems pretty attainable... but things happen.  (Like no naps, babies pulling all nighters, spilled toddler potties, grocery store melt downs, Dora movie-thons... you get the picture!)

Somehow, though... I did it!  One hour a day, and I came away with 6 completed sewing projects, one nearly complete one, and a finished quilt that had nothing to do with kids clothes.  :)  I'm feeling pretty accomplished!  

One day I spent as much time battling with my sewing machine as I spent sewing.  

One day I fought with a seam ripper.  

One day I sewed while a handyman played under my kitchen sink.  

Many times I sewed while Lucca jumped to her heart's content in her jumperoo.

Many times I drank too much coffee and didn't sleep enough.  :)

EVERY time I was so thrilled when I was finished that it didn't matter!

Raina's Gigi Dress

The rainbow gown

treasure pocket pants

Snow White raglan

Lucca's Gigi Dress

strawberry shortcake popover sundress

(all except Lucca's Gigi dress have posts up about them... watch for the last one this week!)

It's been so much fun getting inspiration from the host blog and from the KCWC flickr pool.  I have a million and one more things I want to make now!  

...and now, in the wake of all this kids sewing, I've realized that while I do loads of sewing, I've never made anything for myself!  So my next project, out here for everyone to see and call me on if I stall... is to make something for ME!  I started a pinterest board with ideas... if you have any you think I need to add, please leave me a comment!  I've got some fabric stacked, some ideas in mind... now it's time to put my nose to the sewing machine and get going!

March Photo a Day Challenge complete!

I did it!  Not that I'm surprised I was able to take 31 pictures in one month.  I take an excessive amount of pictures of my kids, it's true.  But I stuck to the themes, and I collected them all nice and pretty!  I wasn't sure how I was going to do it:  check the theme and then purposely find that picture in my day... or just take my normal thousand pictures a day and find one that fit.  So I mixed it up and did both.  :)

Here, for your viewing pleasure:

1.  green lining on my cape

2.  Crying in the Cold

3.  3 princess dress up shoes

4.  my grandmother's meat tenderizer

5.  raina's colorful bathtub water

6.  lamp-posts and windows at the mall

7.  peanut butter cheerios

8.  the birthday girl, taking a breather at the park

9.  starting work on our st. patrick's day shirts!

10.  birthday celebration.  3 lucky years.

11.  LAUNDRY.  Always piles of laundry to fold.

12.  freezer paper shamrocks

13.  Madness!  How is my baby girl sitting up by herself already?!

14.  round is a shape!

15.  me and baby girl, taken by Raina :)

16.  a leprechaun did a rainbow jig on my floor!

17.  Lucky Lucca!

18.  D is for dragon

19.  Raina's new hobby: soccer!

20.  My naptime snack:  cookie dough, coffee, more coffee

21.  fishy pattern, on a dress that got worn one last time

22.  what I see by the night lights... tiny tired feet

23.  dora chutes and ladders

24.  Raina's book shelf

25.  pouring rice

26.  Raina's gadget... she can work the XBox all by herself already...

27.  this robin brought me a homemade gift!

28.  No milk is as good as whole milk in my coffee

29.  beautiful thoughtful 3 year old eyes

30.  corduroy sequin pillow,  extra close-up vision

31.  Walk the Dinosaur :)

My Covert Robin gift

Just like with the wreath, I had some stumbles here with this swap gift.  Making a gift/craft that was not meant to please a child/baby or said tiny human's parents was a huge challenge for me.  I made a few things - which I'll post about in upcoming weeks - but what I settled on sending is this bright ruffly pillow!

My first thought was that pillows are an easy way out.  But I NEVER make pillows!  And there are so many fun ruffly pillows that I would love to make... but that would be destroyed in my toddler and baby inhabited household!  So I settled on it. 

The front is made from a home dec weight fabric - the same one I used to make the baby snuggler for Miss Lucca last fall.  I love the bright floral but not too girly pattern.  The ruffles are made from the main pillow fabric, a strip of bright pink flannel with white polka dots, and a light pink ribbon with white polka dots. 

The trim is actually bias tape - and instead of rounding it at the corners, I folded it, to give it a little more interest.  The back is pink minky.  You might think minky is my favorite fabric, since it is always appearing in projects and as my backdrop.  I'm not sure I'd call it my favorite, but I make plenty of things from it, and I always have plenty of it on hand!!

Some day, when my couch is not a magnet for dirt, crumbs, spit up, and ketchup, I'll make a few more ruffle pillows to keep for my very own self!  :)

Wreath, complete.

 A few weeks ago, I told you about this "Pinspired" challenge I decided to take part in.  After a few false starts and lots of sticking my tongue out at a styrofoam wreath form, I finally finished!  There were a few times I almost gave up, but I'm so happy with the result and so glad I stuck it out!

(my post explaining the challenge)

I started with a simple styrofoam wreath form, and started wrapping it in light purple yarn....  one thing Pinterest doesn't tell you... wrapping a wreath form in yarn is a freaking LOT of work!  It took a lot longer than I expected, especially the first go around!  (Sorry there's no pictures of my steps... there were so many starts that I took apart to do over... it seemed silly to take pictures since I was never sure if I was going to keep the result!)  The yarn was really thin - it's probably faster if you use a thicker one!  At first I was cutting lengths of yarn a few yards long, wrapping, then tying on a new length.  After a while, though, it seemed that this wasn't any faster than just passing the entire skein of yarn through the wraeth every time, though... and that way there weould be no knots showing.  I secured the end with a straight pin.

The fabric ruffles are from polka dot fat quarters - mine are flannel, but I don't think the fabric matters much.  I cut strips running the long way, about 4 inches in width.  (These are actually the strips I usually cut to make brims for my bonnets, but I repurposed a few!).  I ruffled them, then wrapped them around tightly and secured them with straight pins.  At the base of the ruffle, to hide the raw edge, I glued some silk flowers.  You could make flowers to put here if you're so inclined, and I might have if I hadn't had a box of pretty flowers sitting around waiting for a project :).

Then came the butterflies!  These feather butterflies have lived a long and happy and varied life!  I bought them at Paper Source about 5 years ago, when I was living in CA.  First they lived on my bedroom windows in CA, then in my bedroom in Boston, then decorated Raina's nursery, some now live on a painting I made for Raina's room, and some are reserved for a special project I'm working on with Raina now.  Phew.  They are still for sale on their website, and depending on the season they are on the stores sometimes, too!  Their is a garland set and a magnet set - for this wreath I used the magnet set minus two, and a strand and a half of the garland.  

I didn't make too much of a fuss about the pattern, except for making sure there were none of the same color touching.  I'm not really sure why the two to the right of the ruffle at the bottom are flying the opposite direction.   I don't know if I love it or not, but by the time I really thought about it, the hot glue was dry and they weren't going anywhere!

I did end up snipping off all of the tiny antennae.  They looked a little messy when they were on... I think it looks much cleaner without them.

These feather butterflies are delicate.  If you pull on them too hard, the feathers will separate.  If you pull way too hard, the wing will pull right out of the body.  BUT, with that said... these butterflies have lasted through one cross country trip in a U-Haul, a cross city move, a move out of the city, and being hung in a baby's room.  So as long as you don't let your dog play with them, you should be good.  :)

This little guy has some funky eyes.  And an antenna that left a little stump.  It looks a little like a vampire butterfly.

For a project I was unsure of at best when I started, I couldn't be happier with the result.  Purple sparkly butterflies.  If you know me, then you know this IS me :).  (My senior year of high school, if something didn't fit that description, it was not in my wardrobe)  These pictures are taken on my front door to use the pretty natural light, but I'm thinking this is more of an indoor wreath.  Maybe if we had a storm door I'd feel differently.  Maybe on the outside of Raina's bedroom door?  (She already thinks it's for her anyway!)

"MUMMA!  Fairies live in there!!"


my pinspired/rewired inspiration board  
and the wreath that was the final inspiration!

March photo a day challenge

More group activities!  This month, I'm participating in the...

March "photo a day" challenge! 

It's hosted by a lovely blog, "Live a life of love."  Some other clever bloggers I follow did it last month... and since I take thousands (probably) of pictures every week, I thought it would be fun to try and capture a picture every day inspired by a word or phrase provided.

I know we're only 5 days in, but so far I've got a 100%!  :)  Check back at te end of the month to see all the pictures I've collected!

Pinspired & Rewired {pinterest challenge}

 I'm trying something new.  Something I hesitate to do in real life.  I'm participating in group activities!

The first one is this exciting challenge:

challenge intro post @ Gingersnap Crafts







Challenge One:  WREATHS.  Hm.  Last spring I bougt a foam wreath form, intending to make a beautiful ribbon wrapped, flower adorned door decoration.  I wrapped it in wide yellow ribbon, and promptly lost interest.  It's been sitting in that state in a closet ever since.  So this challenge is just that... a challenge!  I'm looking forward to dusting off my abandoned project and giving it some new life!

For inspiration, I made a board on Pinterest:  Wreath Challenge Inspiration

As you can see, I'm really feeling the butterflies.... but I guess that's no surprise!

If you've made any great wreaths, leave a comment!  I'd love some more inspiration!