Sewing

Watermelons = summer!

Posted in Leah, Molly, Sewing on June 20th, 2015 by jen – 1 Comment

Leah recently requested a watermelon dress. So, in true Mommy form, I delivered. A Blue Ribbon dress for the win!

Ready for summer

Once Leah’s request was made, Molly echoed it too. I had just enough fabric to oblige and make her a Too Cute Tank dress.

A second watermelon dress

There is a lot of sisterly love for watermelons because who doesn’t love watermelon, right?! Oh yeah, Daddy, that’s who. (The girls love to show him anything watermelon to get a reaction!)

Sisterly love for watermelons

You may have also noticed that the girls' hair is shorter. The house rule was that we'd go get hair cuts after Molly's ballet recital (her hair had to be long enough for a bun!), so Thursday was the day. :)

Posing pretty

These dresses are perfect for the start of our summer!

New shorts

Posted in Molly, Sewing on May 8th, 2015 by jen – Be the first to comment

With warmer weather arriving, Molly requested shorts with pockets. After almost a month sewing hiatus (due to my machine being in for service) I made sure to honor Molly’s request first thing!

I used Brownie-Goose Summer Sailors, which happens to only include faux pockets, but thanks to this tutorial I turned them into real pockets!

New shorts

Chad and Leah thought the short were a bit wild, but Molly and I love them!

Wild shorts

Easter sewing

Posted in Sewing on April 11th, 2015 by jen – Be the first to comment

Did I make the girls Easter dresses? Nope. But I made one for myself! You may have caught a sneak peak of it on yesterday's post, but here's it in full view.

Leah gave me the Washi Dress pattern for my birthday two years ago. I bought the fabric soon after, but never took the time to make the dress. Since the girls we wearing smocked dresses made by their grandmothers, I thought the Easter sewing could be for me.

Jen's Easter dress

On a side note, I'm twelve days in to a three week sewing hiatus. I brought my machine in for service over Spring Break, so I've been catching up on my reading and organizing around here. Hopefully, it'll be ready early as I keep adding to my project list for April!

New birthday dress

Posted in Molly, Sewing on April 3rd, 2015 by jen – Be the first to comment

The newly 8-year-old in her new birthday dress. It's the Evie dress by Izzy & Ivy Designs. Molly and I collaborated on the fabrics and we love the result.

Birthday dress

The sleeveless top to this dress shows off Molly’s muscles well. She’s pretty tough (well, no she isn’t, but she can fake it).

Muscle dress

Sewing with Knits

Posted in Sewing on March 5th, 2015 by jen – 2 Comments

In an effort to expand my sewing skills, I purchased an online course, Sewing with Knits, from Craftsy.com. The class explains different types of knit fabric, the basics of sewing with them, and walks you through five patterns to practice these new skills. I was excited to learn so I could broaden my skills and the types of garments I could make for myself and the girls.

I bought my fabrics and the necessary accouterments, and finished the first project: a hooded sweatshirt.

Photoshoot

Then life happened and I let the class sit for two years. Yes, I finished that first project in January 2013! And even though I've sewn several knit garments since then, one of my 2015 goals was to finish the course.

So, I'm happy to report that I did it! I took time over the last two weeks to complete the other four projects. A scoop neck t-shirt, v-neck t-shirt, Surplice dress, and yoga pants. (One of my other goals is to work through my stash of fabric. Good thing I had all this knit sitting around!)

Lots of Jen clothes

What? You didn't know I was a triplet? Just kidding. Chad had a bit of fun taking pictures of these items!

Sewing with Knits A scoop-neck too

There were some new techniques that I learned, and other techniques that I prefer my way of doing things. I can now confidently say that I'm no longer intimidated by knits, and am actually eager to sew with them more!

V-neck and yoga pants

Now, I'm off to finish another Craftsy.com course, Beginner Serging.

Self-care sewing

Posted in Sewing on February 22nd, 2015 by jen – Be the first to comment

Every now and then, I take a break from sewing for others and make something for myself. I used a recent snow day to make this knit Laurel dress. (You may have caught a sneak peak in this post!)

A little self-care sewing

I was also finally able to complete the request of two little girls and make a Hampton hoodie for me.

Hampton hoodie

I was able to eek out just enough fabric left over from the above knit dress to make my hoodie. I had considered making mine all out of the light blue color (that I used to make Chad's), but then he reminded me that the girls would want us to wear our new hoodies together. So, no Sadie Hawkins matching shirts for us!

Fabric magic

We can now all sport our new hoodies together!

Hooded portrait

You get a hoodie, and you get a hoodie…

Posted in Leah, Molly, Sewing on February 1st, 2015 by jen – 1 Comment

No surprise, after I made a Hangout Hoodie dress for Leah, Molly requested one too.

Big sister's hoodie dress

Hooded love

For Dad’s Day at preschool. Leah requested that Chad wear his new hoodie shirt to match her hoodie dress. Molly got in on the hoodie action and wore her new dress to school too.

All hoodies made by Mom

Now, I just need to make a Hampton Hoodie for me and we'll have a family of Mom-made hoodies!

A trio of dresses

Posted in Leah, Sewing on January 25th, 2015 by jen – 3 Comments

Hoodies are all the rage in our house right now. After I made Chad's new hoodie, Leah requested one too. Though for this "dresses and skirts only" girl, it couldn't be just a regular hoodie. So, I made her a Hangout Hoodie dress. Leah picked the fabric and was so excited to wear her new dress to school on Friday.

Hoodie dress

She was also kind enough to model a few Blue Ribbon dresses recently. The first dress was a birthday gift for Leah's friend, Matilda.

Modeling a new dress

It's a perfect dress for spinning!

Great for spinning

She had to show off the back.

Such a cutie

You can't have a photo shoot without at least one silly shot.

Silly

And maybe a scary one too!

Scary

A week later, I made the same style dress for Emmie's birthday. Leah was again willing to model.

Modeling dress #2

Making sure you see the back

She does love to spin

Photo bomb

Happy 6th birthday to you, Emmie and Matilda!

Dabbling into menswear

Posted in Sewing on January 19th, 2015 by jen – 2 Comments

I decided it was time to dabble into menswear and make Chad something. He recently bought a new hoodie to wear alongside Molly when she's wearing her favorite hooded t-shirts. So, I knew that the Greenstyle Hudson Hooded T-shirt was the perfect project.

Measurements were taken once, twice, and maybe even three times! The fit turned out great and he likes that it’s super soft.

New hoodie

The hood is a tad huge if he pulls it fully forward. But, it's perfect if you are going for the Arrow-style supehero look!

A bit overboard

Ok, that's better.

Ok, that's better

I see more of these hooded t-shirts in his future. :)

Halloween begins a few days early

Posted in Celebrations, Church, Leah, Molly, Sewing on October 30th, 2014 by c-had – 2 Comments

Ever since Halloween last year, we’ve had an ongoing conversation about costumes for this year. We all wanted to do a family costume and Jen was ready for a break from princesses after the last three years. Jen and I pushed for more creative costumes (e.g. a lunch box, sandwich, juice box, etc.) while the girls wanted something more common. In the end, they really wanted to be superheroes, so we decided to make up superheroes of our own. From left to right - the Caped Computer Crusader, Music Molly, Rainbow Girl, and the Super Seamstress. Together we are the Super Sellers.

The Super Sellers

Jen made all the capes, masks, and tutus and appliquéd the designs on their 3 shirts. She also cut the hole in my shirt and applied stabilizer in it. In that hole is an iPad running an app I wrote for this that types out computer code (complete with typing sounds). Also, Music Molly has an iPhone strapped to her leg playing music wherever she goes. Here are a few more pictures of us to enjoy:

Ready to fly

Capes

Silly one

Since Halloween day was going to be very busy and Aunt Caroline would not be home early enough to see the girls then, we decided to trick-or-treat at Grams’s house a few days early. We were already getting dressed up to go to Trunk-or-Treat at church, so Sunday made a good time to visit Grams as well.

Early trick-or-treating

We wanted to get a few pictures with the girls, but Leah decided to be stubborn and refused to take them. Eventually she came around.

Stubborn

The girls are superheroes, while Aunt Caroline and Grams maintain their secret identities.

Super family

Before arriving at the Trunk-or-Treat festivities at church, we already knew where the girls wanted to go first - the donut swing.

Donuts first

After some indoor fun, we headed outside to trunk-or-treat.

Trunk-or-Treat

This car was our favorite - a prison cell with a little door to reach through for candy.

Prison candy

The girls were very excited about the costume competition, and even more excited when we won for best family costume (the Minnie Mouse jar full of candy was the prize).

We won

All that, and Halloween was still 5 days away. Lots more fun to be had before then.