Basic top pattern

So I'm going to share with you my basic top pattern. I use this for almost all of my dresses, and it will be heavily used in my upcoming tutorials. I usually make it out of craft paper. I got a huge roll of Melissa and Doug craft paper, because it doesn't rip as easily as wrapping paper, but i've used that before too. I like the Melissa and Doug paper because it doesn't easily rip and i can fold it up and keep it nice a lot easier than wrapping paper. 

So what you'll need. 

Paper (wrapping paper, easel paper rolls, printer paper taped together, as long as it works for you, it doesn't really matter what you use, but I would probably not use toilet paper) =)

a shirt that fits your child

pen or pencil

scissors. 

1. Fold your shirt in half and lay on the paper

2. Trace around the shirt, follow the body of the shirt and the inside of the sleeves. This will just be the body not sleeves so flip them up and follow the curve of the arm hole. Follow the front neck line or you can do the back of the neck line and then draw the front in too, I do that for ones where I want the neck in the back higher and it saves on time if you don't have to make a new pattern. 

3. Cut it out. 

Thats it. Super easy. This will be the basis for a few tutorials I have coming up. So if you do this then you will be ahead of the game to start your dresses! 

Summer blog challenge 7/9

Some of your biggest pet peeves.
Oh man oh man. This may sound horrible but my biggest pet peeve is rude children. I bust my butt to try to make sure my children have manners, yes there are times when Tabitha seems to forget, and so I do cut kids some slack, but persistent rudeness drives me up the wall.
Some of my other pet peeves, People who turn their children around in their car seats too soon. I've know a few people who turned their children around at 10-11 months because they were 20 lbs, and a few who's children were way under the 20 lb minimum but were 1 year and the parent thought they would stop whining if they turned them around. The AAP recommends children rear face for at least 2 years or until they reach the limit for their seat. I also see a lot of this around Rexburg, children who should be in a car seat (Ie less than 5 years old) in the front seat of the car. Not ok. Car seats and booster seats belong in the back seat. a 5 year old is not supposed to be sitting in the front seat.
And finally parents who knowingly expose other children to their sick kids because they don't want to keep their kids home. Rexburg has had a rash of Hand Foot and Mouth disease and it seems many parents don't know that their child can still transmit the disease for up to three weeks after the sores go away. I was actually at a store here in town and a mom left her two children (less than 5 ) in the toy isle to play while she went to look at the kids clothes (she could probably still see them from the end of the clothes section) but I looked and both kids obviously had HFM! She was allowing them to spread their germs all over the toys. That is way not ok. ANd last but not least, people who don't have children spouting off about how they know everything about children, or making rude comments about how you raise yours. If I see one more person who doesn't have kids say something about how gross/inappropriate/disgusting breastfeeding is I'll explode. I actually was nursing Eva in the car up at BYUI in the parking lot a few months ago with a blanket over us so no one could see anything. A guy threw a snow ball at my window then yelled at me about how disgusting what I was doing was and how I needed to leave or he would make me leave. I grabbed my phone to call Morgen and the turd ran away, but How is nursing my child under a blanket in my car disgusting or inappropriate?
Also I hate skinny jeans on guys, but I also hate saggy jeans with their boxers hanging out. I also hate leggings as pants. Unless your under 10 leggings are meant to go under clothes. All too often I see girls with "leggings" although if they are so thin they are somewhat see through I think they are tights, with long shirts that just barely or not at all cover their backside. LEave something to the imagination.
If I keep going I may be here all night so I will stop now. =)

Summer Blog Challenge 26-31

So I'm pretty behind on my summer blog challenge posts, I've just been swamped lately so i'm gonna try to bang out all my over due ones in one post tonight! Ready?

Day 26  What does your significant other do that makes your heart melt? 
Before having kids, I probably would have said that it was how Morgen is always doing little things, like slipping a love note on my front seat or picking a flower on his way home. He still does those things and I still love those things, but whats more heart melt worthy is how amazing he is with the girls. When Tabitha wants to play tea party, or dress up he is right there doing what she wants, but he is also amazing at teaching our girls the right thing to do . I love when he come home at night and Tabitha yells "Daddy! Your back!" and runs and gives him a hug and the first thing he does is cover her in hugs and kisses. Melts my heart every time.

Day 27 What's the best gift you've ever received?
The best gift I ever received? My two beautiful girls! Without a doubt. We waited so long for them, and I couldn't have imagined any more amazing girls.

Tabitha and her HUGE cheeks!

Eva ever the cuddlier baby!

My two sweet girls

Day 28 How do you do your laundry?? Give your laundry tricks.

   We make our own laundry soap (Via Tipnut)

1 quart Water (boiling)
2 cups Bar soap (grated)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda

• Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until melted.
• Pour the soapy water mixture into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
• Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.
• Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel).

I use this for everyday laundry and wash on cold with an extra rinse then dry in the dryer. I also throw in a scoop of sun oxyclean.

For Cloth Diapers I use Rockin Green. I do a cold rinse with no detergent. A hot wash with two scoops of hard rock detergent and every 3 loads I do a scoop of calgon because we have really hard water. Then I do two rinse cycles, one hot and one cold. Then I line dry my diapers and throw the inserts and wipes in the dryer. 

Day 29 Write a "How To" post
I'm working on this one and will post it soon.

Day 30 Post a photo of an outfit that either is your style or you wish was your style.

These are the kinds of dresses I love, and I actually have a few this style but they are kind of hard to nurse in so I don't wear them often.

 

More often than not, I wear a skirt with a camisole and a cardigan. 

Day 31 Talk about something eco friendly that you already do.


Some of the Ecofriendly things we already do are:

• Cloth Diapering
• Recycling
• Buying used clothes and toys rather than new
• Walk as much as we can rather than drive
• repurpose whatever we can. Usually clothes.

Summer blog Challenge day 23-25

Summer blog challenge

Sorry I got behind again! So here are days 23-25

Day 23 favorite blog post you've written before this challenge. Probably my pretty in Pink Lace Dress tutorial. I love that dress and it was my first tutorial to be featured on Craft Gossip. 

Day 24 Favorite eco-friendl thing you do. We try to be pretty eco friendly. we have a brita filter and take reusable bottles with us, we recycle anything we can. I like to re use loathing items to turn them into something else, usually clothes for Tabitha, but I've also repurposed some of my own clothes for my self since i've lost weight. I turned a way too big top into a maternity shirt and turned my favorite jeans that got a hole in the thigh into a jean skirt. But the thing I do most often that is eco friendly is cloth diapering. I'm amazed at how much garbage we produced by using disposables on Tabitha and besides saving money, cloth diapers don't sit in landfills for 100's of years. And besides who can resist those cute fluffy butts! =)

Day 25 Ideal day of Me time

Ha whats that? Even on Saturday which is supposed to me my "me day" where I can get my sewing and blog stuff done that didn't get done during the week, i still have to have Eva with me (Morgen does take Tabitha, but she usually stands at the bottom of the stairs yelling at me most of the day until I give up and come down), and I usually end up getting half my list done if that because Eva is going through a very needy stage and I think about to cut a tooth. 

But if I could have a whole day to myself with out having to do cleaning or taking care of kids, I would turn on some silly trashy tv show like damsons creek or one tree hill (darn netflix doesn't have the last season and I want to finish it!) Or something cheesy and creepy like the original Dark Shadows (I watched that while nursing today and I'm hooked although netflix only has a small fraction of the series, they start when barnabis collins returns and then only have 160 of the 2000 something episodes.) I would watch my shows, and sew all day. Stoping to eat dryers all fruit bars, drink newmans own lemonaid. and snack on mike and ikes. 

Over a month!

Oh man i'm sorry, I know its been over a month since I posted anything. I've been so busy getting ready for Christmas and now getting ready for the baby that I lost track of time. I've been planning on doing a tutorial for Tabitha's christmas dress. I was going to do it today, but i can't find my camera bag anywhere! Morgen must know where it is since i saw him move it last, i just don't remember where I saw him with it. My camera is sitting here, but all my cords and the card reader are in the bag! gah! So hopefully I will find it and be able to post tonight after Tabitha goes to bed.
I based her dress off of a vintage one I saw on Pintrest. I love the dress.

This is the dress I based mine off of. I decided to do more of an inspired by dress than an exact copy and i'm really happy with the way it turned out. Unfortunately the only pictures I have at my disposal right now were taken with my iphone and are dark and hard to see the detail.
This was when she was trying it on the first time, she was so excited! haha. It was too long so i had to take it up at the waist which was surprisingly easy.

And here it is hanging up. Much cuter on her I think =)
So hopefully tonight I will have the time and energy for writing this tutorial!

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA the last week, I've been sick, and I've been trying to get things ready to go for my shop. As long as the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'll be adding a bunch of stuff to my Etsy shop tomorrow. I'll be adding a few hair bows, some shirts for boys and for girls, a 24 Month Wonderland Dress, The 12 month Good Morning GoodNight Dress and a few other goodies. If anyone is looking for something in particular or in a different size please let me know.

The beginning of the summer wardrobe!

So one of my goals this year was to make most of Tabitha's clothes, and while its been a little slow going I have a few pieces ready to show off!

The Pretty in Pink Dress 

Green flower tank with bow, I'm working on a cute skirt to go with this. 

Shirt and circle skirt. The Shirt was made using the same pattern as the top of the pretty in pink dress, then I added some sleeves. The Circle skirt was made using the Made Circle Skirt tutorial. 

I winged this one using the top for the pretty in pink dress and shortening it to add the belt. It didn't turn out exactly as I was hoping but I still like it

The Sweater dress because lets face it we live in Idaho so a sweater dress will last most of the year. 

I have a few more things I haven't taken pictures of and a few things that I'm still working on. I got a bunch of shirts at the DI so I'm working on turning them into dresses or jumpers. 

Hope you all have a productive week. Monday will be a time suck for me as I have to go the the DMV and get my car registered here. yay! Oh and I have to study for the drivers license exam here. I haven't taken a written since 2002 and that was in CA. Wish me luck!

can't sleep

i can't sleep. Morgen is snoreing, and I'm wide awake. I've been thinking about projects I want to start. But I need like 2 hours all to myself so that I can clean up my sewing area. Its a big ol mess after christmas. I really want to re organize my fabric and organize my thread and ribbon. Plus I need to put together my new dress form that my mom got me for christmas. (So freaking excited about that one!)
I used my Jo-ann's gift card to buy some fabric and a patern to actually make me a dress. I have like nothing to wear for church because i'm nursing and none of my dresses acomidate that. So I found a pattern that is a dress with a little jacket, the dress has thin straps so i'm going to edit the pattern and put snaps on the straps (wow say that 10 times fast) so that i can unhook when I need to nurse! I bought this really pretty dark purple fabric, Its just plain but I like it. I'm not a busy person. I'm looking for some nice understated trim i might put on the skirt. I also got the pattern ($2.99!), some maroon velvet for a dress for Tabitha (in the remnant bin for $2.99), and some cute I <3 mommy, I <3 daddy fabric on the clearance rack, it was $2 a yard plus I got a discount because it was the end of the bolt and I took the extra 6 inches. Not sure what I'll do with it, I'm thinking of binki clips and onesie apliques for the store. I also have this dress that I made a bunch of for Tabitha, and I made one for Susan and Seans soon to be little girl too, I think I might use some of this material on one of those dresses for my etsy store. I've been super slaking on that, and my goal is to get it up and functional by the end of the month. I have so many ideas of stuff I want to put in the store but I just never have the time to do it. So i'm going to try to make the time. We'll see how that goes.
I have tons of projects that I need to do for my store, I have the materials for at least 15 tutus that I haven't even started, plus I have been planing to make about 20 different hairbows that I have the ideas floating around my head but havent done them yet. I also have 20 binky clips that I need to finish, and I have 4 dresses I want to do. I also have 2 marble dyed shirts, and 3 marble dyed onesies all finished I just need to put them on the store. I think my goal for this week will be to get pictures taken of everything thats ready for the store and get them online by Sunday.
Ok, well I'm going to try to go to bed now since its almost 2 am and I have to be up at 8. yuck I hate this new schedual, I loved being able to sleep in till whenever Tabitha wanted to wake up (usually around 9:30 am) uggg

I did it

well i've been saying for a while that I'm going to put up an ETSY site and I finally did it! check it out. I even have a giveaway going on! you'll have to check out my store for all the details!