Prefontaine Shorts

the Prefontaine Short (pattern from here)! Only the cutest shorts ever! These were made specifically for lounging and for pajama wearing. I made them both out of heather Ross fabrics; one is from adult pj pants and the other (the strawberries) are from the Briar Rose line. Both fabrics are sooo soft and beautiful in person. Both are a SIZE 5 and I used store bought dbl fold bias tape.

I modified the waist band by folding it down 1/4" then again 1.75". I used 1.5" wide elastic and then sewed the elastic to the shorts over the folded down fabric (see a few photos down). It makes the rise shorter which is what I was going for. Kind of makes the pockets useless or super tiny but these are pj shorts anyway. As for the pattern instructions...um.....they could have been better. They lacked enough photos; I am a visual person. I am a very experienced sewer and these made me think too much. I had to draw pictures on the sides of the instructions just so the next time I made them I'd know exactly what to do (I also had never constructed anything the way these are constructed). I wish she had asked me to test them because I would have been very vocal about the lack of pictures to walk you through. Otherwise I LOVE these shorts and will be making more. I might make myself the adult ones!

*I used gold elastic from Joanns on Ava's (see below). This elastic is wider than Emily's so I probably turned the fabric over 2" rather than 1.75". I also (as you can see above) had trouble with my row spacing on both!).

Baby Slip Dress-Matryoshka

The Baby Slip Dress pattern from Venus at Suburbia Soup!! I love you Venus!!

I had wanted this dress as a pattern since the 1st Baby Slip Dress she posted (here she shows all of them and the FREE pattern!). 

I used a fabric I was hoarding (Heather Ross Matryoshkas). I love this color. LOVE it. It's like a coppery brown and so perfect on my girls since they have brown eyes. I love the neck the best. 

And here it is on Ava. Same dress/top. It's a size 6, the largest it goes. So Ava is wearing it as a dress and Emily as a top.  I think for Emily as a dress it would be to child-like and lengthening the skirt part would possibly look disproportionate so its perfect with shorts as a little tunic top. I really really love this pattern Venus!

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.

A girls best werewolf

The Bear Carrier from Oliver + S, Little Things To Sew book.  Which is holding Emily's Transforming Werewolf. This is the coolest doll! As you can see, he transforms from a lumberjack to a werewolf!! The girls love him...loooove him! He's not super easy for little hands to transform but they love him.

They just ask me to do it;)

As for the Bear Carrier, I used Heather Ross, Far Far Away 2 fabric and a pastel polka dot for the lining.

Picture of Bear carrier from the book and Transforming Werewolf from here.

More Hopscotch

That look (minus the new teeth thing she's doing) is Ava staring off into space which she does all the time. The crazy eyes usually happen when you call her name several times. She won't look at you but she'll start the crazy look and then laugh. Try and look away from the crazy face to the cute top!

So anyway, on to the shirts! More Hopscotch Tops from Oliver + S. This time I used the selvedge from the green polka dot knit for the contrasting neck binding. For some reason this knit comes with a wide white selvage. I really like the look although next time I would cut the neck piece bigger than the pattern piece if that makes sense. Because the neck pattern piece is supposed to run perpendicular to the selvage not parallel to it. Not enough stretch.

I took this Heather Ross Munki Munki tank set and turned it into.....

This top! It's another Hopscotch shirt. There wasn't enough of the shorts material to make this shirt but I have another idea for those. I LOVE this top!! It's sooo soft. My Aunt Karen sent the tank/shorts set. For those that don't  know about Heather Ross stuff, the set was bought so I could cut it up! Thanks Aunt Karen:)

And I cut the pattern pieces so I could take advantage of the lettuce edge already on the tank hem.

See her sleeve hem?

Adorable @ last!

Is this not the ugliest ironing board cover ever?? I got this at Real here on the economy. I love that it's super sized (and now that i have my own sewing room again I can actually use it!). It came with an iron rest and this thingy that holds the cord up and out of the way.

But it's ugly...so I changed it from this...

by doing this...

To this....

To this!!!!! Isn't it cute? Even if it's not your style, you have to admit it's better than @ symbols! It's a little rumpled and not as tight as I'd like it but it works just fine. I followed this tutorial and found it to be so super easy. I didn't even measure the amount I cut off around the old cover. I just eye-balled about 1.5-2" all the way around. It doesn't need to be neat becasue it's on the underside. I used a 1/2" seam allowance and gathered the top part of the green fabric to fit the old blue cover (see construction photos). I have been wanting to change this cover since I bought the thing back in 2004!



Fabric is much coveted Heather Ross Gnomes on a light weight twill.

And below:

I had to make a baby one too for my sleeve board! Isn't it cute?

The after photo not the before.

A pink dress

A dress for "the other Emilee". Made from Heather Ross Lightening Bug Wild Flowers fabric. Pattern is the smocked dress from the Heather Ross book Weekend Sewing. My Emily chose the fabric.

I didn't do a very good job on the lines. They are a little wonky and because I used a thread that was not a great match, you can see the lines getting wobbly.

My Emily wore the dress 1st then I took pictures of the other Emilee wearing it. This dress is so easy and fast. I started it while diner was cooking and finished after we ate. An hour or two at the most I think is all it took. It's very satisfying because it can be finished so fast.

Ava...

The *special* glasses.

Emily's new (used off eBay) bathing suit. Isn't it adorable??? It's a smocked top!! And it's all bathing suit material. I was thinking this would be somewhat easy to make. This one is from Ralph Lauren.