Apple shirt

H&M top on the left (lady bugs) and my version on the right (apples).

I've had this brown lady bug top for ever (Emily wore it and now Ava) and I even have a mushroom version and a white version with cats; all 3 from H&M. I LOVE this silhouette. It's soooo cute on little girls and if you pair it with the right jeans or shorts it's timeless. So I searched for a similar looking pattern and found this one. I think it's pretty close.

*cuckoo clock from Pottery Barn Kids about 5 years ago.

The pattern is McCalls 6388. I only had it starting in size 6 so that is what I made for Ava but it's too big in the neck area (which I have found to be very common from the big pattern companies). It was also WAY to big in the sleeves but I was able to redo those..after I had already sewed one on. I redid the back closer too. I didn't want 3 buttons to close it and an overlap.

*Green sweater is from H&M.

I added a lot of top stitching because it was very plain and looked homemade. It's weird how just little details can make something look store bought vs. homemade (but I guess that's also subjective).  The apple fabric is stuff I bought while in Japan last November.  I bought 3 or 4 meters of this I think. It feels like a voile but with a poly/cotton feel (not in a gross polyester way but I think I can just tell  there is polyester in it and It doesn't wrinkle.) When I worked at Yardage City, the owner would give me lessons on how to tell what's in a fabric by feel and by smell and by smell after you burn some of it. Or what color the flame is while it burns. Most of it went in one ear and out the other since there were SO many things to remember:)...anyway, the bodice part is lined in an off white batiste and no interfacing. I'm really into not interfacing garments lately..I think I abused it too much in the past ..

See how it gapes at the neck? She's wearing a tank top under.

I only had this one green button with a shank so that's what I used! 

Tschüss wooden sign

Tschüss: bye, cheers, ciao, adieu. Or "don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you". 

Romeo ist so süß!

For my sister's birthday I ordered her this sign from this Etsy seller (It was a custom order).

Here are the specs from the seller: 16" wide, cut out of 1/2" maple painted black. The seller was wonderful to work with and the turnaround was not too long. How awesome is this sign? 

*

This one below is from this etsy seller and was a birthday present for my sister's Fire Fighter husband, Steve. He's from New York. They are about 10.5" high and metal.

And I never blogged these shirts with matching books that my sister got the girls for Christmas! 

How awesome are these????  The Pride and Prejudice board book is the coolest. All the characters are felted and there is one word per page.

Twin Quilts

Quilts for twin girls in my family in Oklahoma. Lily and Lulu. Don't you LOVE those names??

The font is Blessed Day, the quilt pattern is Sunburst Picnic Blanket from here and free (I didn't make it into a fold up blanket though). The fabrics are Anna Griffin for Windham fabrics for Riley Blake. You can still find some if you google all that! This etsy seller had several of the prints when I checked. I only used one fabric not from the line and that's the white with blue polka dots that Lulu's name is on. I tried really hard to use my whole stash of these two colorways. I was able to do it by piecing the back. 

Lulu's quilt front above, back below.

Because of the design, it bagged and moved and gave me a hard time while quilting the lines along the rays. Not happy about that but I couldn't just scrap the quilts because of the imperfections. They had names on them and took a lot of work!

 Lily's quilt.  Front/back

Bed Rail Redo

Above is the after, below is the before. Ugly huh? This is my bed and I leave these bed rails on..for me. Well one side is for me the other is for whoever is sleeping on the other side:) I wake up often and find a child in my bed and Jon in the other room. I got used to the railing after having Emily in my bed when she was born. She rolled off the bed more than once and hit the floor so since then I have used the railings. Now I have to have them because I have to sleep with 3 pillows on my side or I will be SUPER grouchy and these pillows will fall off during the night when I turn. Not with the railings! Pillows saved. Jennifer sane. All is good. 

Ignore the red splotch from my throat spray. It's a pain to take off a dust ruffle...

Quilt is this Scrappy Quilt blogged here.

Snake nursing pillow is from this post.

I used a linen fabric for the bed rail.

again, ignore the red throat spray leak:)

This is what mine looks like when the adjustable rail is in the smaller position. It doesn't look good. That would be because I didn't make the new cover tight enough. I eyeballed the measurements too much. 

I used Velcro on the end pieces so I can get it on and off to wash.

Before and after. 

If you'd like to recover yours, I have made a little tutorial. You can find it up top, under my header. Click on the tutorial tab. I hope it works for you but just know I wasn't super accurate when making it.