#5. Make Abby a Dress

I bought some fabric yesterday, which is one of my guilty pleasures lately.  I just couldn't pass this one up.

  

I love the colors.  I love the flowers.  I think it will make a stinking cute dress for Abby, which is one of my goals (so I'm justified in buying it, right?).

Abby's birthday falls on Easter this year, so I think it will make a great birthday/Easter dress.  I'm thinking this style will be cute since the fabric is retro inspired.

What do you think?

Also, I have had several people ask me to do a tutorial for my mini wallet.  I'm so flattered and plan to have one up next week.  Thanks for all of the compliments!  Have a wonderful weekend!

#6. Make Homemade Gifts for a Year

For this goal, I defined it by saying I will make a homemade gift for each member of our immediate family at least once during the year, either for birthdays or Christmas.  Yesterday was my cute sister-in-law's birthday.  I decided to make her this little coin purse/mini wallet.

 I had a lot of fun with this little project and will probably make more.  I especially liked picking coordinating fabrics and am in love with the ones I ended up picking.   

The finished product measured about 3.25 x 5 inches.  I put wallet sized photos of her adorable niece inside. 

I think it would also make a great gift card holder.  It's perfect for IDs, credit cards, coins, feminine products, etc.  It was such an fun and easy project and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

#8. Make Christmas Stockings

I haven't actually completed this item, but wanted to share with you that I have started it.  Now that I have a child, it is critical (in my mind) that I make homemade stockings for our whole family.  I'm not sure why I feel so strongly about it, but I do.  I want her stocking to be something special that she will have her entire childhood.  Therefore, I have to get it done.  I don't want to confess to her later in life that she didn't have her special stocking until her 2nd Christmas.  I just can't live with that guilt.

I am struggling, though.  I just can't decide what I want to do for her.  If you have any amazing suggestions, let me know. 

In the meantime, I'm working on Landon's.  He picked out the above fabrics.  And this is what we are going to do. 

Pretty, huh?  He wants the front of the stocking to be a patchwork.  He did most of the cutting, I just helped a little, and he came up with the design he wanted.  Now it is up to me to do the sewing.  I think he did a great job with the picking and arranging.  I am tempted to make a similar Christmas table-runner with the extra fabric since it is so pretty, but I can't get distracted with other projects until I finish my baby girl's stocking.    

attempting to quilt

I love the idea of quilting.  Picking out fabrics and arranging them into a beautiful design is such a satisfying activity to do.  Those are generally the parts of quilting I'm best at.  I love to look for fabric, cut them up, and arrange them on the floor... and then watch my mom sew it all together. 

Yep, that is how I quilt. 

Recently, I had the urge to start a quilt.  I have my favorite parts done and now it is on to the sewing and my mom is miles and miles away.  I am determined that this quilt will be the first that I sew together all by myself.  Wish me luck!
  

baby things

Naturally, much of my attention has been on baby things for the past year.  One thing I have really enjoyed doing is appliqueing on onsies.  It is fun to come up with a new design and pick out the fabrics to accomplish the look.  Here is one that I have made.

blue elephant

 

 

here is a closer look at the elephant and stitching

I think they turn out pretty cute and they make a great personalized shower gift.  I have made several and will continue to share them with you.  Have a great weekend! 

I'll sing my praise to Borah High!

I really enjoyed my high school experience. I participated in cross country, choir, honor society, and was a faithful Borah sports fan (aka: Rowdie). Because of these, I collected quite a few Borah shirts that would have been difficult to part with. Instead of throwing them away, I made a quilt out of them because you can always use more quilts.

Out of all the t-shirt squares, this one wins first prize.


This is the back of my cross country shirt from 2002 (my junior year). It was drawn by Steven Waggoner. It is the classic scene from Lion King, only the lion is wearing running shoes and all of our rival mascots are bowing in submission.
This was a very fun project that allows me to be sentimental without being a pack rat.

Place Mat Handbags

My mom introduced me to the idea of making cute and simple handbags/purses/scripture bags out of place mats. Genius! I have made several as gifts and one for myself that I use as my scripture bag. They end up being a perfect size to fit the normal size of scriptures in, plus a little room for your keys, chapstick, and the Relief Society manual. They are super easy to make, essentially 4 seams with a sewing machine and then you attach the handles (can be done in a variety of ways). Some of them turn out to be pretty dang cute, I must say. I like to find cute place mats at Cost Plus, Pier 1, and Target. I usually just buy one at a time, or I will get one of several varieties that do not match at all. I'm sure the store clerks think I am silly.

Here is one I made for my dear friend, Anna. It was one of the first ones I made, and I have learned of better techniques to attach the handles. Sorry, Anna! The handles on this one slide around pretty easily. But I still thought it turned out great. These photos show the front and back of the bag.



You can definitely get creative with these. Like I said before, I have come up with different ways to attach the handles. I also did one where I took a plain red place mat and sewed a black ribbon about 1 inch below the top edge of the purse and then stitched on a black bow. The possibilities are endless, people!

I will post more pictures in the future of other handbags I have made this way.